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Look it’s that time again. Episode 5 has come around sooner than expected and the world is a marginally better place for it (quite possibly). We’re joined again by my trusty companions Mike Dunbar and Seb Wuepper and our special guest is Eric Swain from The Game Critique to discuss the value of games today. From piles of shame to the $10 policy to Steam we take a slightly tangential journey through the veritable minefield which is “What’s a game worth?”.
Chr15 6r33n (Follow me on Twitter at chrisgreen87 and for Chronoludic updates click here)
“Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages!”
Being a player of games, I am often examining the works of fiction I enjoy in other mediums and wondering how they would fare in my beloved medium of the videogame. Rarely do I get the chance to see it happen, and when it does it is often disappointing. Adaptation decay, they call it – the spark that made the tv show, film, or book so engrossing or thought provoking is lost when the game designer burdens it with clunky game mechanics that don’t fit. The last such encounter I had was Deadly Premonition, a fairly unsubtle re-imagining of Twin Peaks that destroyed the pacing and atmosphere of its inspiration by throwing the player into drawn out combat-heavy “nightmare” sections whereupon you fought wave after wave of zombies who had probably never set foot in the Double R.
The 143 word Challenge
In yesturday’s “one a day” blog by Mr Sinan “shoinan” Kubba, he chanellenges himself (and the rest of the game writing community) the task of producing a review for a game which is 143 words or less. Writing anything about a game within that word count is a task indeed, but observing all the conventions and requirements for a review is a real challenge. Sinan notes a Metro review of Two worlds 2, where, in 143 words the reviewer describes the gaming experience without actually telling the audience anything of use about the game. As I said, it’s not a easy task; Sinan isn’t targeting that reviewer or waging a war against him, rather he’s seizing the opportunity to see if the task is possible. Read More »