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Ask me about video games.

Phoenix

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I have an Atari VCS, the six switch wood panel model (pre 2600 branding), in a licensed platform storage case with smoke colored cover.

Hehehe .... Noice! This was my first ever experience with video games :D

screenshot.jpg


I think we've also kept our original Atari locked up somewhere. It even had the gun and the wheel controllers :) Dunno which version it was though. I think it was one of the first ever [My dad bought it in the late 70's].

He is a tech nut [ESTJ - who can blame him xD]
 

Cellmold

Wake, See, Sing, Dance
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I love video games, they are interactive imagination...outside of a little lucid dreaming of course.

I used to have a love for sandbox games and to an extent I still do, but these days I find myself hankering after a good story; more than anything I love a good narrative. Games have this bizarre way of taking tried and tested cliches and tropes and then fashioning them into something palatable and sometimes brilliant.

I wonder when they will start being taken seriously as a medium for story telling? Well actually I suspect they already are, im sure I read something along those lines a while back...maybe some awards were given, I cant remember.

Meh my questions are always so....average and have usually been considered into the dust.

Oh yeah, music is another one, I love sound in general. A well composed theme or bit of music has the power to change the entire mood, setting and meaning of a narrative structure.
 
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The Iron Giant

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I wonder when they will start being taken seriously as a medium for story telling? Well actually I suspect they already are, im sure I read something along those lines a while back...maybe some awards were given, I cant remember.

Many video game publications come up with their own set of awards every year. I don't think video games have managed to tell a compelling story yet. Part of the problem, I think, is a conflict between the concepts of storytelling and interactive play. If playing the game doesn't change the story, it kind of defeats the purpose of it being a game, and if it does, it dilutes the story, because decisions have to be made on where the story goes. I find the most memorable stories in video games to be pretty simplistic, with minimal dialogue (if at all), because it entices us to fill in the blanks with our imaginations. Look at Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. Cross definitely had the more complex story, and even the better localization... but really, which is the better, more memorable game?

Video games have to grow up a bit. Women in gaming have to pass the Bechdel test much more than they do now, for example. We also need to see less screenshots in games like this.

mass-effect-miranda-lawson-ass.jpg


This comes from Mass Effect 2, a game that is considered one of the finest storytelling achievements in gaming.

:coffee:
 

Poindexter Arachnid

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Video games have to grow up a bit. Women in gaming have to pass the Bechdel test much more than they do now, for example.

Agreed. Batman: Arkham City is a prime example of this. And it pisses me off because I rarely see women as hot as Catwoman walking around in real life.

Then again, that game was unapologetically misogynistic in nature.
It sure was is fun to play, though.
 

Words of Ivory

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This generation of consoles is swiftly coming to an end, and the next generation of consoles are quickly approaching. Nintendo is priming up for the release of the Wii U, and many believe that next year will be the year that we will see new consoles from both Microsoft and Sony.

What's your opinion of this generation? Taking the Big Three individually, what do you think their biggest achievements and biggest mistakes were, and what do you want to see out of them in the forthcoming generation?
 
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The Iron Giant

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What's your opinion of this generation? Taking the Big Three individual, what do you think they're biggest achievement and biggest mistakes were, and what do you want to see out of them in the forthcoming generation of hardware?

Nintendo did a great job of taking the lead this generation by lowballing the tech and going high concept. Fans and haters alike lamented the lack of any kind of comparative horsepower to the other systems while Nintendo made buckets of cash by selling 2001 tech for many times its value more than a decade later. Some of my favorite games this generation came only to Wii, and I'll probably always be a Nintendo fan, but I always wished they looked as good as the games I was playing on PS3. But I can't imagine a serious gamer having just a Wii. So many great games came to PS3 and 360 but completely bypassed Wii. I think that will happen again next generation, because now the Wii U is like a PS3, but the other two consoles will probably be leaps and bounds beyond that.

Microsoft held the line pretty well through a combination of shitty craftsmanship (a console that self-destructed in a year often got replaced by the consumer who either didn't know they could get it fixed or didn't care to wait) and giving away consoles by the thousands all over the place. There is not a single 360 exclusive this generation that I think is worth the purchase of the console. Kinect is a disaster. If you're an avid online gamer, it was really your only option for most of this generation, provided you were willing to pay for it. I think Microsoft will integrate Kinect into their next console but not make it the default controller. Aside from that, all they will do is bump up the power of the console.

Sony spent most of this generation starving because they made the console too expensive to build. Then they fragmented the userbase every few months with different models. My launch model PS3 is fully backwards compatible, and I spent $450 to buy it refurbished in the summer of 2007 when it was discontinued. Modern PS3s can't play PS2 games natively at all. They took away other features over time, like Linux support, incurring the wrath of hacking teams that gave consumers the means to play pirated games on their console. Still, I love my PS3. I play tons of games on it, I watch Blu-Ray movies on it, and sometimes I even play online games for free. PS Plus is a great deal, but should have been there years ago. I think Sony will put all these features into PS4, bump up the power of the system, and I'd bet right now they're working on shoehorning a screen into their DualShock 4.
 

Words of Ivory

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Pretty much my thoughts word for word.

Have you had the pleasure of playing Xenoblade Chronicles yet?
 

Phoenix

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Video games have to grow up a bit. Women in gaming have to pass the Bechdel test much more than they do now, for example. We also need to see less screenshots in games like this.

:coffee:

I think there's shades of grey here. There's games/characters that do cater to all kinds of markets. Case in point:

Lara Croft's evolution over the years has seen less sexualization:

laracroft2258488.jpg


I think we've seen a shift towards better characterization and less sexualization in some games - but yeah, there's worse stuff out there than ME.

Games like GTA, Duke Nukem come to mind as probably the worst when it comes to portrayal of women.

On the flip, we also have games like Alice McGee with no sexualization of the female protagonist:

alice-mcgee-depression-13728786-576-579.jpg


I used to love the original Phantasmagoria for some reason. Yeah, it had a sex scene in it, but it was part of a decently portrayed plot line without over-sexualization of the character itself. Oh .. and then there's The Sims which is as close to a gender neutral game as one is ever going to get.

Overall, I think many developers do go into creation of games with the intent of sexualizing female characters as opposed to giving them fleshed out characters [no pun intended] --- but there are still games that do focus on characters. There have been some very positively portrayed female characters in games: That female character from "The Longest Journey" -- I think April Ryan was her name or something comes to mind.

In fact, I think some developers actually focus more on positive feminine portrayal when they really set their mind to it --- whereas, I cannot remember a single game where the male protagonist showed any sign of anything other than brute strength force or wanting to wreak massive havoc to get the job done. Barring of course the point and click adventure games of the past - which just aren't popular any more. Oh -- and yeah, Alan Wake was a pretty decent male protagonist as well.

That said, I would say there are greater chances of women getting better portrayals in video games in the future as opposed to men who will probably always suffer from being shown as macho men on roids.
 

khys

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Infamous I & II!

Sing its praise. Go.
 
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The Iron Giant

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Dear Stephen,

What do you think about this cutscene from God of War 3?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pt7MdLDd2A

Also, Hercules is voiced by Kevin Sorbo (which maximizes the lolz, in my opinion).

I think it's pretty typical of the franchise. I was impressed with the kills in the first God of War, but the more they do it, the less shocking or surprising it is. Though, when it started, I went, "oh no not Hercules tooooooo" :D
 
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The Iron Giant

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Infamous I & II!

Sing its praise. Go.

Infamous sure is... average. :p

I've only played a few hours though, I got it free through PS Plus. I haven't played the second. My older brother is a big fan though.
 

Poindexter Arachnid

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I think it's pretty typical of the franchise. I was impressed with the kills in the first God of War, but the more they do it, the less shocking or surprising it is. Though, when it started, I went, "oh no not Hercules tooooooo" :D

Did you know that Hercules was voiced by Kevin Sorbo?
I laughed my ass off once I found that out.

I also enjoy the over-the-top violence, same as with the GTA series.
The two franchises merge EVERYTHING that is wrong with contemporary American culture.
The video game business, too. And they're the only two ongoing series that actually "get it".
 
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The Iron Giant

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Did you know that Hercules was voiced by Kevin Sorbo?
I laughed my ass off once I found that out.

I also enjoy the over-the-top violence, same as with the GTA series.
The two franchises merge EVERYTHING that is wrong with contemporary American culture.
The video game business, too. And they're the only two ongoing series that actually "get it".

I didn't know it was until you said so, but that is pretty hilarious. Have you played MadWorld?
 

Poindexter Arachnid

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I was interested at the time (God knows the Wii didn't have library when it was released).
Never played it, though.

What's it about? Blood and guts in black and white?
 

Words of Ivory

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MadWorld is fun to look at, but a bit pants to play. It's just a mindless gore-fest.

And this is coming from someone who religiously covets Platinum Games' work. They are probably *the* best japanese games developer in the industry right now.
 
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The Iron Giant

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I was interested at the time (God knows the Wii didn't have library when it was released).
Never played it, though.

What's it about? Blood and guts in black and white?

It's like playing a super-violent graphic novel where the only inks they used are black and red. Lots of absurd melee and environmental kills with really funny play by play voice overs by John Dimaggio and Greg Proops.

 
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