While Sony has made several blunders in the current gen console war one of the biggest was allowing Call of Duty 4 to go multi-platform. The game has become such a runaway success that it could have single-handedly changed the face of the war as we know it. Perhaps equally as big was allowing Grand Theft Auto 4 to go multi-platform. Although the game sold about 45/55%  on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, there are rumblings that the next installment in the GTA series may become a Playstation exclusive by default.

Wait, what the hell are you talking about?

As has been documented, Rockstar was notably unhappy with the limitations of the DVD-9 format on the Xbox 360 and how it affected GTA 4. As we’ve all seen though, both versions of the game are practically the same. The rumblings this time around though are seem to be much more boisterous. Early rumours have Rockstar threatening to not release GTA5 on the Xbox, but that begs the question: Why? Why sacrifice all the money you would undoubtedly make by only creating the game for one console?

Although one can never account for backroom dealings and shattered business relationships, there is really only one answer.

They want their game to be good.

Was GTA4 lacking on the Xbox 360? Of course not. It was Game of the Year. It recieved rave reviews across the board. But could it have been better? WOULD it have been better if it had only been released for a single console? Of course. This applies to any game released on any console exclusively though. What makes this time around special is that the GTA developers may in fact be willing to part with the extra revenue in order to better perfect their craft which seems absolutely ludicrous in our current economic standings. It is not to say that Rockstar would be the first group to sacrifice sales for art. It is however to say that doing so now could prove to be an earth shaking event that has an indelible effect on how Video Games are made.

In a world driven by profit, and in an industry not well renowned for being bohemian, this kind of move would be as surprising as it would be dramatic. A triple-A developer openly supporting both their own art and A specific console could sway other third party developers to do the same. It would also give other developers a comfortable “out” to abandon a platform they wouldn’t want to develop on for fear of not returning enough profit. After all, in such hard economic times, it’s surprising that more companies aren’t already doing this and attributing it towards a need for the betterment of the game as opposed to monetary restrictions. Keep in mind as well, if Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 have shown us anything, exclusive games can still sell ridiculously well regardless of being exclusive.

That being said, the whole “pursuing art” argument could simply be an excuse from Rockstar after the fact. Rockstar has a contractual obligation to produce 3 exclusive games for the PS3 as reported by the Hiphopgamer (through an interview with an industry insider) and other sources. We know one of these games is Agent, another one of these games may supposedly be the somewhat forgotten L.A. Noire, a sandbox game set in the 1930’s. GTA 5 would probably be not all that different than 4 regardless of development time and console exclusivity, and if L.A. Noire is factored in, that would mean all of the three promised exclusives would be off the table.

If one wanted to be even more pessimistic, this could be seen as also be seen as a moving away from Microsoft has the prime conduit for producing games. Take-Two openly denied Microsoft’s exclusivity bid for Bioshock 2 while EA is now releasing Dead Rising 2 on the PS3. Capcom has also recently confirmed a concurrent release of Lost Planet 2. Along with a slew of exclusives for the PS3, this could seem very dramatic, but there are still a lot of positives for the Xbox.

Don't worry cousin, beeg American teetee's will probably come to all platforms (minus Wii)

Even though EA has clearly made Dead Rising 2 multi-platform, the status of Mass Effect is still up in the air. Microsoft also has Epic, Bethesda and VALVe onboard as companies who are much more enamored with Microsoft than they are with Sony. And of course, staying with the pessimism, Microsoft has one very, very big asset. A seemingly inexhaustible amount of money. Everyone has their price, and a company as rich as Microsoft can probably name yours.

Microsoft made Rockstar rich. Rockstar took at least 30% of every sale from the GTA4 expansion pack, along with the millions of dollars they recieved from the exclusivity deal itself. Ultimately, beyond all of this industry wheeling and dealing as well as speculation, it just doesn’t seem like anyone can resist the siren song of the greenback. Perhaps that’s why I find it so interesting that the such a bohemian notion can be expressed by Rockstar. Even with evidence showing that it could be legitimate and genuine (undoubtedly in the exclusivity of Agent), I’m still not convinced that such dedication to art can even exist in our modern day industry. If it does come to pass though. it might just spur on the innovation and advancement in the industry that some believe is lacking. And if this kind of innovation can occur when times are tough, imagine how sweet it could be in times of plenty.

The new PSP better look like this fan-made prototype

Do you want hard facts about the PSP 4000? Too bad, you’re not going to get them. As it stands right now, about the only thing we know for certain is that the PSP 4000 will be receiving a complete aesthetic overhaul.

I have, however, taken it upon myself to throw in some delicious speculation as to the specs, look and future of the PSP. Crystal ball reading after the jump.

UMD: Will it have one?

Answer: Probably. Sony has gone on the record as saying that the UMD business is big business to them. Although the UMD eats battery life and creates unwanted heat and noise, the presence of an entirely digital device is probably unlikely in the upcoming future. Although the portable system has good wi-fi abilities, not everyone has the internet necessary to operate a completely digital device. Physical Media also helps to circumvent a bit of piracy, as some people are still honour bound to actually purchase their media.

What I think might happen (which I believe will be a stroke of genius) is that Sony will release 2 versions of the new PSP. One with UMD, one without. Taking a page out of the Xbox 360’s playbook and creating a 2-tiered pricing system for the same device could be the single biggest thing to happen to the PSP in 2009. Obviously the cheaper one would have no UMD and be solely digital which would turn off consumers such as myself. But I’m willing to wager that there is a large component of people who game on their Ipods and Iphones simply because of the lack of fussing with physical media. And you better believe that Sony wants those people playing and buying games on the PSP as opposed to the Iphone.

Sliding Screen: Will it have one?

Answer: Dear god I hope so. Have you seen that picture? That thing is about as nice as handheld ANYTHING comes. It also allows the console to be more streamlined and aesthetically pleasing. Most sources have confirmed some kind of sliding screen as a means to lower the profile of the device itself. You can pretty much guarantee this one.

See you on the PSP young man; Bring your tools.

Games: Will it have any?

Answer: Count on It. With the resurgence in sales and the new found ability to download off the internet, Developers will have much easier access to customers and profits. It’s also simple wii-conomics. If you have 50 million owners of your device, chances are you’re going to make a big chunk of sales. Even if your game only sells to 1/100th of the people who own the device, that is still 500,000 sales, which is remarkable. If Sony adopts the 2-tiered pricing system that I documented before, it could create a massive sales boost as more people buy the console and spend the extra money they saved on games. And once LBP portable, the new Motorstorm and Rockband start raking in the cash, reluctant developers will be quick to throw themselves into the sea of money before them.

Price: Will it be costly?

Answer: Yes, but not unreasonably. Sony has already felt the pinch from an “expensive” console. Although the ps3 is still a reasonable price, the PSP-4000 will be under heavy scrutiny. It’s perceived cost will be crucial to its selling. Fortunately, it has been practically confirmed that the chipset in it will be the same. From a strictly logistical standpoint, it would make no sense to make it less expensive than 3000 or 2000, but making it anywhere more expensive than the $249 price point is risky. Look for $279, $300 max. You might also see a price drop on the older models, but come on, have you seen this thing? If it looks anything like this fan made prototype, who would want an old one?

2009 is shaping up to be a great year for Sony in general. With company restructuring saving billions of dollars, the PS3 assuming more console dominance (especially after the inevitable price cut) and the economy eventually rebounding, the PSP 4000 could become an even bigger hit than it is already sure to be. As the DS has shown us, people are more than willing to “upgrade” to a system that functions exactly the same as their old one did. And with more money hopefully being in the consumer pocket by Christmas, Sony is hoping that millions of people will pick up the PSP for both the first and second time

Halo Killer. WoW killer. If you have a First Person Shooter, you want to be a Halo Killer. If you have an MMORPG, you want to be a World of Warcraft Killer. Overtaking these games becomes an end unto itself, but not for the reasons of simple sales. Of course, the games that usually must be “killed” are often not the objectively best games, but are often games that have defined themselves as the standard that all games must measure up to.

Games like Halo and World of Warcraft cannot be killed in a conventional sense. With both games around 10 million sales, the sheer logistics of trying to outsell them is laughable at best. The real power lies in their ability to extend past the realm of video games and branch out into mainstream culture. In essence, any game that kills Halo would take its place in all of the news media and high school lunchroom discussions.

Through this, it’s easy to realize that these games can only be “killed” if their place in the culture is either superseded or invalidated by another game. Age of Conan hoped to invalidate World of Warcraft’s spot with much beefier combat and graphics array. It’s goal was to highlight the fact that Warcraft’s point and click combat and cartoony graphics were not what gamers wanted. Perhaps they would have succeeded if their game was no so barren and buggy.

Killzone 2 is undoubtedly attempting to supersede Halo’s position by focusing more on class-based combat, better graphics and a less arcadey feel to combat. Rather than be confrontational like AoC, Killzone presents itself as an evolution in the genre, rather than what it should have been. Although Killzone 2 will have high sales, the chances of it being a Halo killer with Halo Wars coming around the corner is highly unlikely. When it comes to First Person Shooter’s as well, there should always be a market for both heavily realistic games as well as more arcade-oriented games.

One of the more frustrating things about games that need to be “killed” is the fact they are often the successful amalgamation of several things already established in the gaming industry. Practically none of Halo or World of Warcraft’s features are “new”, but the fact that they integrate them all so successfully helps make them rampantly popular, even to the point where people don’t even acknowledge the contributions made by the games they are borrowing from. This may lead some to wish the worst for the series as their favorite game was probably forgotten in the process, or they may feel that the game accentuates the wrong aspects of the games it is emulating.

A perfect example of this would be another Blizzard franchise: Starcraft. While I won’t name names or sling mud, it must be especially painful for fans of a certain game *COUGH* DAWN OF WAR *COUGH* to hear that their game is ripping off Starcraft when in fact the opposite is the case. This goes to show the power of a game that must be “killed”.

One must also keep in mind that the chance to “kill” a game is pretty rare seeing as killable games are so rare in and of themselves. Other than games like Halo, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, there aren’t many other games to kill. These games also tend to be within a few certain genres. After all, it’s not often one hears about a “Bejeweled” killer or a “Mechwarrior” killer. Only a few genres have the power to jump into the mainstream to such an incredible extent. This of course isn’t to say that Bejeweled or games like it aren’t popular, but the violent metaphor tends to lend itself more accurately to violent games.

Will we ever see a Halo or WoW killer? Highly likely. As times and events change, so to do tastes. That being said, it is clear that the creators of these games have been given the mandate to dictate the tastes of gamers for years to come. Ultimately, this forces both the original company and other companies to step their proverbial and literal games up in order to meet the challenge. Most games will fail, others will succeed in their own right, and maybe, just maybe, we will get a game that does finally make a killing blow. Suffice it to say, this game will probably kick ass and you should be glad the game that came before it existed in order to stimulate its arrival.

One thing I am beginning to get bent out of shape over is the kind of legacy I will leave. My entire childhood and most of what I would now call my adulthood has been spent with the vidya. For better or worse, my past is tied to the vidya. One of the big apprehensions I have about one day not playing video games is the fact that I will, in essence, be killing off what has been a large part of both my history and identity.

At the same time however, because our childhoods were electronic, they can be effectively captured in our various forms of modern media storage. With the advent of emulators, all of the games of your childhood, regardless of when you were born, become available. While this is very comforting, it is also very frightening. It seems scary to me that the exact experience can be immediately transferred to someone else. Perhaps this is why I have been putting more emphasis on the tactile aspect of my childhood.

Check your garage, or closets, or attics. This is usually the final resting place of your long forgotten game consoles. You might find a gem, but due to lack of maintenance and proper storage, most of them are probably so choked with dust that they are inoperable. All of mine were in a big box in the living room. Due to my new fears of losing my identity and past, I made a trip to Wal-Mart and purchased a sturdy Sterlite container. To my delight, my Super Nintendo, PSX and Game Gear all managed to fit along with the rest of my games (be they cartridge or CD) as well as the various controllers and cables required to operate them.

While my Atari and Nintendo have been long gone, it is nice to know that my SNES and PSX are still fully functional. I cannot begin to describe the glee I experienced when i not only found out that the PSX still worked, but that i managed to locate all 4 discs to final fantasy 8, as well as Breath of Fire 3. The fact that these games are burned actually helps me to find the memories that i was seeking to per—. Back in the day, we didn’t have a lot of money. The only way we could afford games was if they were rented and then burned. Of course, this now makes me realize why I put so much emphasis on purchasing games for full price.

My ps2 is sitting faithfully beside my ps3, and my Gameboy is tucked away in a box full of pokemon memorabilia. I sincerely doubt the Gameboy will ever join the box gang, while the ps2 is destined to be moved in there when the time comes to vacate the premises. All of this originated at 2:00am, unable to asleep, so afraid I would lose what i consider something integral to my identity. Now that everything is safe (or as safe as it can be) I am afforded a peace of mind that I’ve never known before. The chances of me actually breaking out the old consoles is pretty slim. It may happen, you never know. But the knowledge that they are there, operational, complete, gives me a physical link to a past predominantly ethereal.

I don’t ever want to not like video games. If that time comes, so be it. I’d say the main reason why so many people
accept their dislike of video games is because there are so few ways to objectively look back on them and acknowledge the happiness and joy they brought. You have a photo album, perhaps in the same attic, closet or garage, full of your smiling face no matter where you are. Mexico, your backyard, a soccer game, wherever. Surely you wouldn’t be smiling if you weren’t happy, right? The only way I can ever imagine my happiness being proven is in the save of Final Fantasy 7 with 99:99 time played, or the Pokemon Red with all 151 (including Mew, fuck yeah game genie) or the fact that mentioning a game like Final Fight garners a “hell yes that was a good game” from your mouth. Those are really the only hard testaments to a past full of fun that you can’t remember ever happening, because you were predominantly alone, enjoying those games as the days and months tick by in a childhood you can never experience again.

In what can only be construed as a final irony, i happened to walk by the pinball machine we have in the upstairs of my house. It was given to me as a gift on my first birthday by a father that I can assure you is no longer part of my life (unless you count my lifestyle as a dichotomy to his, in which i can assure you he is there in full force). Here is a relic, still working, that ties me to my past in a way that is both uncomfortable and familiar, like video gaming. When was the last time I played? I couldn’t say. However, wherever i head off to make permanent residence in the future, you can bet your life on the fact that it will be coming with me, along with my boxes full of games, console and memories. Things that I will one day hope to pass off to my own children. I can only imagine that like those smiling pictures, I am intending to pass these off to them so that they can experience the happiness that I once did, the happiness I hope never leaves.

1: DLC: DLC is not bad in and of itself. DLC is a good way to both add features, fix bugs and continue to provide several different kinds of support to your customer. Games like LittleBigPlanet offer things as big as new levels and new creation tools as well as things as small as costumes. Games like Burnout Paradise offer free cars, levels and modes and for free no less. Not every company is out to rip you off and take your money. HOWEVER, when companies abuse this system, that is complete bull and definitely worth complaining about. Case in point: EA’s “Time is Money” DLC. 5 Dollars to unlock all of the accessories in Skate 2. 5 dollars for a cheat code is unacceptable, don’t buy that or I will come and beat the game for you to save you the money. I could also say the same thing about Capcom, who saw fit to charge 20 dollars for extra costumes that are already included on the disk, but I want the beauty pack so I won’t =/

2: BROWN AND BLOOM SHOOTERS: Team Fortress 2, Resistance 2, The Darkness (ironic, isn’t it), Halo 3, the list goes on. Yes, there is a meta-trend towards more gritty and realistic shooters, no that isn’t a bad thing. If any thing, it is a reaction to all of the arcadey shooters we had before hand or all the uber-hero World War 2 games we had before. Face it, we have trends. Trends create anti-trends. Everyone gets a game they want, everyone wins.

3: Exorbitant Waiting/Development Times: The HD era has increased development times. I won’t deny this. However, there are several mitigating facts not the least of which are tons of sweet games on the PSN or XBLA. Then of course you have the Wii which provides you with an ample amount of ROM’s to pay for, as well as the fact that there are many more quality developers and publishers out there cranking out more games than ever before. You may have to wait a long time for Final Fantasy XIII, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other good games to play.

4: Too Many Sandbox Games: Sandboxes are another meta-trend in the gaming industry. Sandboxes suck right? Wrong. If anything, they have gotten better. Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Oblivion provided the player colossal worlds with absolutely nothing worth doing in them. Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3 reduced the size of the world (while still keeping it adequately large) and proceeded to actually populate the land with people and things with which you could interact in meaningful ways. An unfortunate bi-product of the sandbox craze is that some games which would probably be better in a linear setting get developed according to a trend rather than its strengths. However, if these developers screw up their games and end up failing? Oh well, move on with life. Yes a good game might be lost in the process, no I don’t give a damn, plenty of other good games out there.

5: THIS GENERATION DOESN’T HAVE GOOD GAMES: Stop being ignorant. If you want to be blind to the fact that there are hundreds of good games out there, be my guest. There may not be the sheer quantity of games, but that also has to do with the fact that this generation has only just started. If this generation sucks that bad, go back to playing SNES, I won’t miss your complaining. Old console games have a lot fewer moving parts in them, which makes a game that capitalizes on them seemingly perfect. Games like Megaman 2 which do everything correctly achieve godlike status, but to compare them to modern day games and say the old ones are fun is simply ridiculous. If anything, modern day games should have more of a penchant for fun. If a game with more moving parts manages to execute them all properly, shouldn’t it be better than old games? Hell, XBLA and the PSN provide us with these sort of games all the time! Good ol’ nostalgia.

I had an Atari. Most of the people playing video games don’t know what that is. I’m not saying my opinion is right because I was there, I’m saying my opinion is right because I don’t have the flaccid penis of nostalgia in my mouth. The last generation gave birth to games that I will never forget. So did the one before that, the one before that and the one before that. This one will be no different. How about instead of all this rage you just go and play the vidya, wouldn’t that be super?

For those of you who weren’t around back in the day, I can assure you that there were console wars back in the day of SNES and Sega. In some ways they are similar, in regards to the blatant smearing and misinformation that corporations like to engage in, on the micro-level however, the war wasn’t nearly as bad.

The internet has been around for a long time, but back in the day, even if you had the internet, you probably didn’t use it to look up video gaming websites. Chances are however, that if you had the internet, it was as slow as the morning after your 18th birthday. The internet was slow, intolerable, and most people didn’t even have it. Simply put, the rapid improvement of the internet has now only allowed a higher rate of transmission for fanboy antics, but also allowed more people to become embroiled in the war in the first place.

With no internet, there was only one way you could figure out if a console or a game was actually good: By actually playing it. Print video game magazines were much more viable in the 90’s then they are today, but most kid’s didn’t have enough money or enough care to go out and buy them on a regular basis. I was addicted to video games, and I only had 4 or 5 of them. That being said, one of these magazines recommended Final Fantasy 3, which was good advice at the time (and is to this date as a matter of fact). If you actually took the time to play your friend’s Genesis or N64, you’d quickly realise that the console was just as good as the next, because it had good GAMES.

Console’s aren’t about games though nowadays. They are about Blu-ray, Netflix, friendcodes and a million other things. This is not to say we have lost our way, but as technology progressed, so did consoles. Sure the SNES had a better sound card and the Genesis had BLAST PROCESSING, but both consoles produced practically identical graphics (much the same way they do now). Of course, with more console adaptability comes more scrutiny from the people outside of the normal gaming world. Press, movie companies, soccer moms, what have you. Outside pressures such these tend to manifest themselves in the gaming world as the ESRB, Shitty movie-to-games and ignorant press members who do not know what trouble their words can start. The Hip-Hop Gamer said it best when addressing allegations that he was a PS3 fanboy:

“The reason I defend the PS3 more than the Xbox is because of the amount of misinformation about it. Some people don’t know any better.”

With consoles expanding to newer markets, they inevitably must appeal to people that simply don’t know much about them. This creates another fanboy mentality. They need to say why their console is better. They need to prove to the people around the world that they made the right decision. This however is the point that I believe best encapsulates the rise of the fanboy and why he is around to stay.

If you’re Canadian, chances are you hate people from the U.S. And vice versa. Canadians are lumberjacks, Americans are warmongers, the list goes on and on. If you are smart enough to realise that this kind of mentality is incredibly moronic, congratulations, chances are you’re smart enough to ignore this fanboy war. If not, you are falling into the same ideological trap that nationalists do. The reason why Canadians hate Americans, the English hate the French and Croatians hate Serbians is the same reason why Xbox 360 owners hate PS3 owners and vice versa: BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAME.

As consoles steadily become more and more like computers, they steadily begin to have the same features. Online gameplay, online stores, wireless headsets, multiplatform games, internal hard drives, USB memory sticks, etc etc. The easiest way to validate your own identity is to invalidate the identity of the person closest to you. By saying Canadians love peace, you indirectly define yourself against Americans who supposedly encourage war. By talking about the PS3 being too expensive, you indirectly state that the Xbox is at a more appropriate price.

As I say I will say in a forthcoming article, gaming has become a part of my identity. Although I am smart enough not to need to validate my purchase or invalidate the purchase of others, I sometimes feel the need to fight back. Undoubtedly, this is because my identity is being challenged as an offshoot of choice of console.

While I may be cognizant of these facts, most aren’t. This problem is confounded as a new generation of adolescent gamers enter into the market; Combining their identity formation through puberty with their identity through gaming will only lead to an increase in fanboy behavior. What is the solution? Unfortunately, much like piracy, there is no solution that can prevent the problem from continuing to spread. Even if the entire gaming industry comes together to try to cutoff the head of fanboy behavior, it probably still won’t be enough.

Fanboy’s are here to stay, I hope you have comfortable ear plugs.

You cannot, under any circumstance imaginable, run and fire at the same time and hope to be accurate.
It does not work. Period. You arms move, your legs move, your head moves, your body moves. It does not work.

HOWEVER, Resident Evil’s tank controls also do not work. Slowly turning 180 degrees around is not how one operates in real life. If you so desired, you could slightly turn your body, turn your head and reverse your arm. POOF, you can now fire behind you while standing still. The problem with RE’s tank controls is that they create tension due not to the game, but to the crappy controls. The fear comes from knowing the limitations of the controls and knowing that you are at a severe risk of getting cut in half with a chainsaw if you don’t turn fast enough. Hell, even if you do discover the 180 turn function, it’s still not good enough. This is not good gameplay design.

Solution? It’s simple really: Meet me half way.
If a guy is coming at me with a chainsaw, i’m not going to turn around, run, then turn back again, hoping he isn’t right behind me. What RE 5 needs is a limited mobility system. What is that? The ability to WALK and fire. You should be able to strafe (left to right) as well as backpeddle while firing. This gives you the ability to put a bit of distance between you and your enemies while still having a decent ability to fire. Keep in mind, I never said you can’t walk and fire, just run. Of course, this must come with a slight penalty in aiming, something I am sure most people would take the risk with, especially when being chased by a chainsaw zombie.

Unfortunately, the official word is that there is no movement whatsoever. There is strafing, but no firing while strafing. For me, this was a deal breaker. Perhaps Metal Gear Solid 4 spoiled me, or perhaps RE 5 just has terrible controls. I understand that Capcom has a need to appeal to the people who bought Resident Evil 4. Using the same bosses and enemy animations is a good start, but the clunky controls are simply unacceptable, even to someone receptive to new things such as myself. Either way, if you plan on getting it, I sure hope you enjoy it. Don’t expect to do any co-op with me anytime soon though.

Admit it, you’ve noticed the plethora of space marines tromping around in your favorite vidya. They are white, bald, gritty and probably don’t wear helmets so as to improve their peripheral vision, lower their wind resistance and generally improve their bad-assery rating. Every once and a while you may get one who is vaguely ethnic, or has some hair, but for the most part, they are all the same. And for a good reason.

Simply put, space marines kick ass.

What’s that you’re saying? You like to play a character with some personality? Too bad. Space Marines are too buff and manly for personalities. If anything, games like Gears of War 2 would be infinitely better if the namby-pamby feelings were ignored. On the flipside of course, if space marines are too bad ass (ala Haze) their dialogue becomes stunted and painful to listen to.

The best space marine games will either have no dialogue or dialogue that borders on satire. The new Matt Hazard game exemplifies this with the hilarious Will Arnett channeling his inner action hero to berate the game that he himself is in. In the silent protagonist category, we have people like Nathan Hale from Resistance 2 or Master Chief from the Halo series. In both cases, the soldiers are subjected to the horrible realities of war and are being attacked on all sides by an unstoppable enemy. Nathan Hale also suffers from a disease that will render him dead before he can even save the planet. Do you hear either of them bitching about it though? No fucking way. Why? They are too busy being badass.

A popular contention is that the silent protagonist allows the player to transport themselves into the game, using the hero as their own avatar. Whether or not we have hero fantasies, we usually have asskicking fantasies. In a society where fighting is largely discouraged, it feels good and masculine to be able to be competitive and make other people feel bad about themselves. Single player campaigns allow us to save the world while an increasing emphasis on multiplayer with indepth scoreboards and stat-tracking systems allow us to display our prowess to any who would look.

Our societies as well tend to value intellect over pure brawn. There was once a time when those with the most physical strength ruled, but those times are long past. Of course, an emphasis on one thing always breeds another, which is undoubtedly what gave rise to the popularity of the UFC, and similarily, sports themed video games. And, lest we forget, you can find plenty of muscly bald white guys in the UFC, WWE, NFL or any other sporting association you can name.

Will we one day be able to get a good story in a First Person Shooter? That depends. Some would contend that Half-life has already achieved this. That being said, that seems forgiving seeing as they use the same cutscenes and set pieces that any other FPS uses. The story in these games comes at a cost. If you use a cut-scene, you put a halt to the action, which is anathema to those who want to rock. It may also force you to develop the character, which you may have no intention to do. Presenting story elements during gameplay makes little logistical sense as you should be focused on asskicking, not the history of some ancient race. One must also imagine being in the shoes of a space marine. What would you want to hear in battle, orders or the cause of the recent malhovian uprising? Needless to say, if someone was yapping my ear off, i would shoot myself in the head (so as to disable the headset, not to kill myself. My health regenerates anyways, no biggy).

Perhaps the only problem with the Space Marine is the continuity across story lines. All space marines have rifles, regenerating shields, com-systems, etc. This effectively serves to make the genre stagnant but paradoxically reliable. Space Marines in this sense are the new World War 2 allies. You fight the same nazi’s with the same garands and the same medics. Is this bad? Perhaps. Will it change? I sure hope so. The time will soon come when being a badass space marine will lose its charm. Until then, keep on buying the same game, and enjoying it.

Christ Air is Left Right Circle

The next installment of The Input arrives with a simple question: Is gaming a fad?

Let me prefice this article with a story. Around the time when I was in grade 8, a game was released that took the world by storm. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Finally we had an accessible and fun skateboarding game. You know what came after? Skateboarding merchandise, visits to the Board Kennel (my local skateshop), constant practicing and even more iterations of the game .The reason I make these comparisons is because they seem to reflect the current state of the gaming world.

1: The Wii, not unlike the board kennel, has a license to print money. Their product is now crucial to accesing the “new” culutral group. That being said, the same thing is happening then as it is now: People access the object, and don’t use it. Legendary are the stories of unopened Wii’s, mirroring the pristine skateboards of my friends.

2: Mainstream Media outlets begin to incessantly cover the fad, proclaiming it to be a paradigm shift. Years later, it barely gets any recognition. The skatepark was packed with kids a month after Tony Hawk’s was released. In 2009, the regulars are still around with a smattering of youngsters to boot.

3: Professional leagues or organisations arise to govern the fad, only to fade into obscurity (much the same way MLG is doing right now.)

One also has to wonder about the future. What is going to happen to gaming in the future? The heavy popularity of extreme supports has helped to keep the X-Games alive years after the fad has passed, but does it do more harm than good? Is the Wii’s appeal to the casual gamer analogous to Skateboarding? or will it have a much more severe affect? If video gaming is a fad, will it finally become the paradigm shift people expect fads to be due to a longer than normal exposure to the fad as a result of the terrible market conditions we face today?

Let us know what you think!

Billy: It’s no fair, Portal got a 90 on Metacritic while The Last Remnant only got a 65! It’s just a fucking tech demo! Why are reviewers such sheeple?

Dad: Watch your fucking mouth you little bastard. Just because Portal is a tech demo doesn’t mean it automatically deserves a lower score. And besides, you liked Portal, didn’t you?

Billy: It was ok, I guess. Definitely not as good as The Last Remnant, but worth playing.

Dad: Exactly, the likelihood of a tech demo being not worth playing are highly slim. Even if the story is lacking, the entire game is based around the tech being demo’d. As such, the sheer using of it is fun. You remember Assassin’s creed right?

Billy: Of course I do, stabbing people is so fun in that game, and the free climbing mechanic was the bomb.

Dad: Jesus Christ, what kind of games does your mother let you play? I need to hit her more often. Anyways, Assassin’s creed had a shitty story. So did Portal, so did Mirror’s Edge, so did Psy-ops: The MindGate Conspiracy. But all of their games had cool mechanics worth dicking around with.

Billy: Well, all of those games are based around one thing. That’s so shallow. I’m glad I take money out of mom’s purse, otherwise they wouldn’t be worth buying.

Dad: Well, how else are they supposed to develop the mechanic? It starts simple and becomes more intricate as time goes on. Wait, you take money from your mom’s purse? You ungrateful little prick.

Billy: Just wait dad, before you strangle me, I just have to say, some mechanics would be pretty cool in other games.

Dad: Of course they would be! They don’t make tech demos for fun and let them rot you abortion. You want to see the portal gun in the new Half Life? Or the Mirror’s Edge free climbing mechanics in a Battlefield series? It’s more likely than you think. Especially if they don’t fuck it up. You could turn a good game into a fantastic game!

Billy: Yeah, we might get a Star Wars game where using the force is intuitive and useful as well!

Dad: Did you get into my weed stash? Stop dreaming boy.

Billy: Fine, Fine. I know that will never happen. But what about the price? EA was crying because Mirror’s Edge didn’t sell well.

Dad: Well, the games could stand to be a bit cheaper. All I ever hear is how people WOULD have bought it if it was 20 bucks cheaper. I guess it’s up to the developers to find the sweet spot between production values and gameplay when making these games so as to finally arrive at a price wherein the consumers will eagerly buy the game despite its deficiencies and be able to make a profit. That being said, seeing as you stole mother from your mother, I’m guessing you bought it for full price, Am I correct?

Billy: *gulp* Y-yea, I did haha. Did you want to come play it with me?

Dad: Yes of course, Just let me go find my belt first.

Fin

And the moral of the story is: Don’t buy tech demos until they are cheap. Also, don’t forget to write the company a letter about how great their game is, even though you haven’t bought it yet. They will appreciate the sentiment.