Several weeks ago I ran across an article about a furor around and, attempted boycott of, the XBOX Live Arcade game Shadow Complex.  It's set in Orson Scott Card's (OSC) universe with a novel tie-in, and OSC is an active and virulent homophobe plus general right wing crazy.  The game was made by a relatively indie publisher (it's on XBLA, recall, not a boxed title).  A lot of people hate OSC and don't want to support him, but also don't want to discourage indie games (a stance I feel is odd - nothing forced the publisher to make a deal with OSC, so why the ambivalence?).  One question asked was whether the game carries Card's point of view politically.  Did it include an attack on homosexuality?  Despite being in the CHID department, which focuses on social issues surrounding race, gender, and sexual orientation, I've mostly steered clear of the whole rhetorical battle as much as possible.  However, since my studies have focused on how games package meaning and function as arguments, it struck me that I ought to put those studies to some use.  Tonight I set out to play Shadow Complex myself.

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[In a break from writing about digital games, I wrote the following review as a submission to Boardgamegeek.com.  Dominion is a 2-4 player card game released in 2008 that has recently captured my interest.]

Dominion appeals perfectly to the exploratory drive behind gaming. Playing Dominion is a process of experimenting in many different environments, a process that can be traced back to the methodology of science and natural philosophy. While Dominion is far from the first game to provide that experience, it is by far the most efficient. Unfortunately that superb focus also limits the game’s other appeals.

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[For a definition of "diegetic," see this post]

I'm impressed by Fallout 3's interface.  It's the most diegetic-focused RPG that I've ever played.  The three-dimensional real-time nature of the engine makes it very immersive, but what really gives the game an advantage over titles like the Elder Scrolls games is the pip-boy.  The wrist-mounted pipboy serves as your character sheet, inventory, map, quest list, and probably more.  Aside from time pausing when you bring it up (a necessary feature for control), interacting with it is diegetic.  It makes the game flow quite well.

The combat system also works well.  If Fallout 3 was a shooter, I'd hate it simply because of console controls.  But it's an RPG, and shows it with VATS, another semi-diegetic system that essentially lets you pause, queue up attacks, and then execute them.  It's almost turn based, and seems very true to the previous Fallout games.  No twitch here, thank goodness.  VATS' time-stopping nature does slightly damage flow and reduce immersion, but for a console game I wouldn't have it any other way.

A review should focus on only the most important elements of a game.  The problem with reviewing Prince of Persia (PoP) in this way is that every element is important.  It’s not readily apparent at first, but every major element of gameplay and representation has been carefully crafted to focus the play experience of PoP.  I could write an article four times the length without capturing the true key to the game: that it is supremely focused on conveying some fundamental values questions to the player.

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I haven't been posting much because life has been insane for weeks.  I just polished off an exam and essay this past week.  The week before that was the killer CSE midterm, and I was sick the week before that while I was trying to prepare for said midterm.  There are another three writing assignments (one with presentation element) to do this coming week too.  I feel like I'm slowly being turned into an automaton as modern economics requires.  Or maybe that's just a sense of discipline developing.  Who knows, and who cares?  All I know is that I need to write about something else for a change.

Last night I turned in my latest paper, went home to crash, and wound up playing some of the Left 4 Dead demo late in the evening.

For those of you who’ve been disconnected from the online gaming scene, Left 4 Dead is a cooperative shooter that takes place in a zombie apocalypse.  The intro movie actually describes the experience of the game quite well.  You’ve got a team of four characters trying to escape from the festering corpse of an infected city – enjoy.  The full game will add a versus mode where the zombie side is also player-controlled, but the main selling point of the game is cooperative play.

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Fantasy Wars, published in 2007, is an old-school strategy game in all the good ways.  It’s detailed and addictive, with a superb modern interface and graphical style.  The only downside is the cliché setting, but the game will keep the player too busy trying to survive to dwell on the story anyway.

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If you’ve been into Star Wars games or single-player RPGs then at some point you’ve probably heard of Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR).  This RPG was developed by Bioware and released in 2003.  Set thousands of years before the Star Wars movies, KotOR lets the player experience a Star Wars saga without having to cringe through the direct creations of George Lucas.  Bioware did a masterful job of storytelling without sacrificing gameplay.  Quite simply, this is the best RPG that I’ve yet played.

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I've played several games over the past several months that I've wanted to review, but haven't done so due to schoolwork.  Well, now I'm going to review them.

Released in 2002, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast puts you in the shoes of a would-be Jedi better than any game before or since.  An action game without a compelling story nor great shooter mechanics, Jedi Outcast still manages what even Knights of the Old Republic could not accomplish: show the player the full power of the force.

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Jade Empire is a single-player role-playing game based on Chinese mythology and martial arts movies.  The game features a solid story told primarily through tons of dialog, accompanied by more dialog in the form of puzzles, lots of side quests, and with a large dash of mediocre combat.  As a whole, I found Jade Empire to be a very enjoyable romp through an off-beat RPG setting.

After exhausting my library of games, either finishing or getting completely bored of my typical mechanical strategy titles, I’ve been searching for engrossing games.  As I mentioned in my Chrono Trigger review, few games manage to make me care about the characters.  In my search for story, I came across Beyond the Red Line.

I finished playing Chrono Trigger this week.  For those who haven't heard of it, Chrono Trigger (CT) was a JRPG for the Super Nintendo.  The game was released in the US in 1995.  It's often called one of the best games ever made in the genre.  I'd been wanting to play it for a while, and finally got around to it after an extremely long delay.

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I really loved Halo 1 when I finally played it on a PC, and I’ve wanted to try the sequels for a long time.  On Saturday I got the chance to play a couple hours of Halo 3 multiplayer.  I left unimpressed.

To paraphrase Yahtzee: remember back when games felt like fun, instead of being work?  There are many games that try to imbed deeper meaning in their story, games that are tense strategic challenges for the mind, and games that are tests of obsessive item collection and endurance.  Then there are games that are just plain fun.

I downloaded the demo of World in Conflict (WiC) a couple of days ago on the recommendation of tavelorn.  I got a chance to install and play it on the weekend.  Unlike Cod 4, I was expecting to like this game.  Unlike Cod 4, WiC completely failed to blow me away.

I got to play Call of Duty 4 (Cod 4, for short) for the first time on a console tonight.  I only played for an hour, but it was enough to get the feel of the game.  Despite the inevitable issues with console controls, Cod 4 absolutely blew me away.