March 2012
58 posts
February 2012's Best Games Writing
Hey all,
It’s the last day of the month, and in that time I’ve brought you something like 60 of the best pieces of games writing out there. These pieces range from reviews, to news, to opinion pieces, to yadda yadda yadda. Basically any and all games writing has proven its worth.
So, let’s honour the best sites and writers as featured on the site in the last month.
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February 2012
60 posts
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Susan Arendt on Women Gamers & Harassment →
There’s bound to be some controversy around this post, but I feel it’s essential to highlight it. Susan is a tough lady - a lot tougher than I would be if I were a woman - and she’s also one of the nicest people in the gaming industry. But sometimes, she argues, you need to be a bitch. Here’s some good universal advice for dealing with any kind of harassment:
Stand up....
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Submissions: Darkness II & Changing Beyond...
A couple of submissions I’ve been mulling over for the past few days here. Let’s talk about them, shall we?
In the first, Nolan Mcbride of Pixels or Death talks about a sense of intimacy in The Darkness II.
These New York streets are sometimes difficult to navigate. The game’s map features no waypoints or directions; the HUD provides no assistance either. Instead, players must rely...
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When Passions Flare, Lines Are Crossed →
Patrick Klepek is simply aces with his examination of a recent controversy with Capcom’s “reality” show Cross Assault and, what else, sexism. There’s some old school transcription, some editorializing, and great games writing all around. Essential reading and a great look at what is sadly part of gamer culture.
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It's what you do with freemium that counts →
Popcap’s franchise director of all things Bejeweled, Bruno Contestabile, wrote a fascinating op-ed for Edge on why the freemium model should be embraced by folks.
The freemium model has been dominant in Asia for a long time, but in the Western world has come to prominence with the emergence of social games, and in particular games playable on the Facebook platform, starting in 2007…
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Playing Resident Evil: Revelations like Halo is a... →
Here’s a fairly quick write up on one writer’s experiences with the latest Resident Evil. The twist is that he’s never played a proper zombie game before. This is such a short little article that I was left wanting more - more I say! - so maybe tweet Sam and tell him that.
The biggest adjustment I had to make was made clear after I used 10 bullets to kill my first zombie and...
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“Binary Domain’s plot never gets in the way of the action, and while it...”
– Sterling, Jim. “Review: Binary Domain” (Destructoid: February 27, 2012) <http://www.destructoid.com/review-binary-domain-222782.phtml>.
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Hironobu Sakaguchi: Fantasy Man →
Pack up your bags, folks, and head home because Simon Parkin is out to take all your jobs. Why do I say that? Because of introspective lines like this:
Sakaguchi resolved to try one last project in the emerging genre that first attracted him to the industry. He wrote the design document for Final Fantasy, labelling the project with a name that reflected the fact he expected this to be his final...
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The Next Starfighter: Seamless Entertainment's... →
This is a great example of how to turn an interview into a full fledged feature — Russ Pitts blends a history lesson on Seamless Entertainment with the history of “space shooters”. It’s an interesting look from insiders. Here’s just a taste:
The death of the space sim genre was not an overnight thing. It did not die in its sleep. Its death was long and agonizing,...
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On The Hunger Games
There’s a lot of hype around The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire, which is kind of weird, given it’s a movie tie-in. However, it starts to make sense when you read this piece by JC Fletcher talking with Adam Saltsman.
The limitation of making a “teaser game” for the first movie helped the team figure out where to go. “This placed some constraints on the game: it should...
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Sex, Lies, And Game Development →
Elizabeth Sampat, an indie RPG designer, responds to sexism in the games industry. She tells her own story (in short) and gives some great advice for aspiring developers:
Make Games.
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GGW Rewind: Faux Erudite Patina
The GGW Rewind is a chance to go back in time and look at classic writing I may have missed or simply not been able to cover (this didn’t exist until the beginning of Feb 2012, obvs). But mostly, we’re going back more than a month or two. Where will we wind up first? The AV Club.
Strict word limits on AV Club features mean its writing is some of the tightest in the business. Scott...
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Resident Evil: Revelations Raid Mode Tips →
Zachary Miller, on Nintendo World Report, has some tips for those looking to get into Resident Evil: Revelations’ Raid Mode and have some fun. I don’t fully agree with the all of the tips, but they’re a good base. Plus, more people should be playing this game: it’s a ton of fun.
Extra storage? Why bother?
Since you don’t need two of any weapon type in your inventory at...
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Run Roo Run review
Run Roo Run has been out for a month now and received several reviews. But I’ve found a couple of bits of tid of particular interest in Calvin Kemph’s review on Thunderbolt:
Run Roo Run’s all in the timing. After each failure, you’ll begin with the jumping marks, a helpful kind of guide for what not to do, decent feedback given in the right context. It’s when the courses run tighter...
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“I find it utterly bizarre that we’re not allowed to jump to any chapter of a...”
– Walker, John. “Escape! Escape! Embracing Skippable Combat” (Rock, Paper, Shotgun: February 22, 2012) <http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/23/escape-escape-embracing-skippable-combat/#more-95811>.
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“The best example I can think to compare Deadliest Warrior [Legends] to would...”
– Fettig, Eddy. “Deadliest Warrior: Legends Preview” (Game Revolution: February 21, 2012) <http://www.gamerevolution.com/preview/deadliest-warrior-legends>.
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“The touch-focused controls give [Escape Plan] the vibe of an iOS game blown up...”
– Navarro, Alex. “Escape Plan Review” (Giant Bomb: February 17, 2012) <http://www.giantbomb.com/escape-plan/61-36153/reviews/>.
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GGW Original: Breaking Even Isn't Breaking News
February’s the month of love, man, and it’s easy to see that love may be in the air at both Remedy and thechineseroom. After all, both Alan Wake (PC) and Dear Esther recouped costs in short order. Both teams deserve adulation, sure, as seeing a game through to going gold is no cheap matter.
But games writers would have you believe otherwise.
It’s not that...
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The Critical Path of Dan Amrich
Calling this “games writing” is a bit of a stretch. It’s far from being about games. However, it does promote a book about good games writing by one of the best good games writers in the industry. So there’s that. Plus, the article itself is masterfully written.
“I see how the press is seen from the other side,” Amrich said. “So it has given me a better...
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“So what?” you might be thinking. “This is the Vita, and all it needs...”
– Schreier, Jason. “Why I’m Not Okay With Sony Ditching PSP Discs” (Kotaku: February 20, 2012) <http://kotaku.com/5886536/why-im-not-okay-with-sony-ditching-psp-discs>.
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Broken Love
Brad Gallaway is an interesting fellow. So interesting, in fact, that when he put out the call for writers to defend their love of games others may deem “broken”, I didn’t hesitate to put my name forward. Others weren’t far behind, it seems, as Brad managed to put together a fascinating four-part piece.
Many defend a game’s deficiencies based on a great story. While...
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Transphobia and PTOM
The latest issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine contains within it transphobic comments aimed at the character “Poison”. Mattie Brice, a transgender woman and games writer, called PTOM on it.
This post salutes both Mattie for her actions and PTOM Editor Roger Burchill for his response:
[U]ltimately the blame lies with myself as I performed the final edit on that piece. I did...
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Forging Infinity Blade →
A fantastic interview; Christian Donlan presents it masterfully. An excerpt:
If you want to be reductive, Infinity Blade’s a clever combination of sequence-spotting rhythm action and hidden object mechanics, with a little RPG levelling thrown in. You work your way through a mysterious castle battling monsters and grabbing loot, then you buy yourself some new armour and weapons, take a sword in...
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Story Matters
A couple of interesting discussions on stories in games came to my attention so I figured I’d highlight them together.
In the first, Bitmob community writer Matt Perez discusses a connection between difficulty and story. He never fully realizes his argument, but he does touch on some sensitive points:
In this sense, video games are perfect for expressing an involving story. The player...
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Kirk Hamilton on "Flight to Freedom"
It’s a rarity to see a piece of writing about a game so aptly communicate the essence of that game, but Kirk Hamilton has done it here. Interestingly enough, the game isn’t a big budget release by Activision or Nintendo. Rather, it’s a free flash game about slavery. Any retelling of historical wrong-doing can seem trite if not pitched the right way to the audience; here, too,...
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“Ironically, despite the exclamatory energy behind the “Pick Some...”
– Hamilton, Kirk. “The PlayStation Vita Needs a ‘Dislike’ Button” (Kotaku: February 14, 2012) <http://kotaku.com/5885036/the-playstation-vita-needs-a-dislike-button>.
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App Store Bot-Farming
As of yet, I haven’t featured any ‘newsing’. Which is kind of odd given the stock we put into video game news, innit?
Pocket Gamer’s Mike Rose was put to work last week covering the breaking story that the top charts for free games on the App Store were controlled through nefarious companies doing nefarious deeds; namely, employing upwards of 200,000 real people (!) or...
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Saving Zelda →
I’m going to be honest: I’m not really a big Legend of Zelda fan. Sorry, it’s just not for me. I’ve played through most of the games. I even love a few. But, I’m far from being a fan. With that in mind, I post this without any judgment of what’s said. Instead, I appreciate it as an argument without an answer. I hope you enjoy it.
Yet belief in Zelda is not...
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“Guybrush would love to take all the plaudits, but it’s Elaine Marley-Threepwood...”
– Donnelly, Jamie. “Can Double Fine resurrect the adventure genre?” (BeefJack: February 13, 2012) <http://beefjack.com/news/can-double-fine-resurrect-the-adventure-genre/>.
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“Making your character look like the sort of bad-ass Joker or Batman is hatefully...”
– Pearson, Craig. “Wot I Think: Gotham City Impostors” (Rock Paper Shotgun: February 11, 2012) <http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/11/review-gotham-city-impostors/>.
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The Dating Secrets of Your Favorite Video Game... →
Really a fascinating look at a few characters we all know and love.
Bowser has actually eschewed most traditional dating sites in the past; when his friends come over to smoke weed and play his Wii and give him some good-natured crap about his vague, evasive attitude as regards internet dating he generally presents the excuse that his distinctly dinosauric features are probably unlikely to ‘play...
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Paul Ryckert Playing Games - Year 2 →
It’s the greatest thing ever…a second year in a row. At this point, GameInformer should just pay him to do a weekly feature.
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Good Games...Tweeting: Peter Skerritt
Rather than just being a curator of content for your eyes, I want to add value to your day. Why wouldn’t I? You’re a great bunch of people.
Other great people tend to reside on Twitter - the social network for games related talk. So, what’s my value added? Recognizing the great twitterers (or is it tweeters?), of course!
Up first…@PeterSkerritt.
Peter’s a great...
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Who Killed Rare?
I’m really not sure how there’s belief that game journalists are incompetent…well, you know. Simon Parkin continues to elevate the bar in terms of what game writing can accomplish. Here’s but a small sample:
“Rare was always looking East at Japanese and Nintendo’s games in particular, with their open-hearted childlike vibrancy and playfulness,” explains...
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The 12 essential video game soundtracks now... →
Here’s comment on Bionic Commando: Rearmed:
Halfway between the exhilarating abrasiveness of 8 and 16-bit chiptunes and the layered finesse of modern electronica, the soundtrack to Capcom’s pitch-perfect NES remake is as fun and imaginative as it is pulse-poundingly exciting. One of the most vital game soundtracks around right now, in both senses of the word. It’s that simple.
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On Chocobos
Man, Susan Arendt is killing it lately. And that’s ignoring her actual job of editing The Escapist…these gems keep showing up on her blog. Take this, for example:
As you ride your majestic fowl through the streets, people will gawk with admiration, saying things like “Beautiful plumage!” and “It’s huge!” This is a moment you are clearly meant to savor. Your mount is regal, and you...
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Hero Academy Tips
I’ve been playing a lot of Hero Academy (iOS, free) lately and, as such, it’s been the focus of a lot of my thought. Lots of strategy guides are popping up but this is one of the better ones I’ve read, focusing on the Council. Check it out if you feel you’re in need of help!
Here’s a tip I agree with above all others:
Don’t waste the Runemetal upgrade (swords) on...
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“That’s the fundamental issue with shoehorning a big, console-style game...”
– Shoemaker, Brad. “Resident Evil: Revelations Review” (Giant Bomb: February 6th, 2012) <http://www.giantbomb.com/resident-evil-revelations/61-31737/reviews/>.
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“When done the wrong way, cloning lets one company divert revenue and attention...”
– Fletcher, JC. “Rhythm Thief and the art of appropriation.” (Joystiq: February 6th, 2012) <http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/06/rhythm-thief-and-the-art-of-appropriation/>.
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Skyrim vs. Amalur
I think I should change the name of this blog to “Skyrim Writing”. Here’s Jason Wilson - extraordinaire - on the things Amalur does better than Skyrim.
[T]he loot is so good that you can find great items without having to visit vendors or spend time crafting (remember, not everyone thinks that it’s fun to make your own swag). And while you do have an item limit inAmalur, it’s...
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More on Skyrim: Sea of Ghosts
Skyrim is responsible for some fantastic games writing* - testament to just how engrossing it is to those that love it. What impresses me most is that, finally!, we are getting a several tastes of Gillen’s semi-antiquated not-manifesto of New Game Journalism. Travel writing is so very unique and so very fitting for video games. Here’s but one example:
[I]t seems particularly wasteful...
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“In spite of ridiculous costumes, clumsily pantomimed dramatic scenes, and an...”
– Mastrapa, Gus. “Final Fantasy XIII-2” (The AV Club: February 6th, 2012) <http://www.avclub.com/articles/final-fantasy-xiii2,68692/>
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When An Inch is a Mile: Gaming With Disabilities →
I really can’t summarize this piece any other way than to stamp it with the words “ESSENTIAL READING”. So if you’ve missed out on this great piece for some odd reason (like not digging IGN) then you really need to get reading. Go.
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Profound Metaphor for Game Journalism?
I’m aware ChatChat’s an actual game - my username is eerily similar to Mr Orland’s - but this one, bite-sized paragraph pretty much sums up freelance writing:
I try to simulate the experience of being a napping cat by simply staring at the screen and going into a fugue state, but I find I’m much too wired to simulate real napping. I’m constantly switching to...
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Characters & Analogue: A Hate Story
The $15 price-tag on Analogue: A Hate Story may come off as steep for an interactive novel cum game but I can’t help but find it a fair value. The issue is that Christine Love’s other interesting content is free. So why start charging now? Well, why not? This post isn’t on that - I might yet write it - but maybe it’ll give you some insights as to why it’s worth the...
Help me help you
In the short time this blog has been open it has generated tremendous support. Thanks for that! I felt - and largely still feel - that people were happy with the discourse as it is. My take on that is changing thanks to the support you’re showing.
In my daily adventures I read all sorts of great content. Whether it’s on major sites like IGN or independently run sites like Honest...
