Greed is a demon, apparently

Over the weekend we ventured into the D.C. ruins within The Division 2! We shot things?? (mostly people), climbed over trash, and came to the conclusion that the Joker himself was responsible for all of this. As for the game itself, out of all the looter shooters I've playe??d so far, I think this one has me the most invested.

I've never played the original, but the Division's Dark Zone risk/reward concept of exploring in search of better loot at the ??risk of potentially running into hostile players is a solid idea. Combine this with an open world structured PVE experience that has you searc??hing high and low for better gear and completing various missions -- I can see how some folks can get hooked.

After watching plenty of previews and reviews from the original, though, it's not hard at all to see the glaring similarities in The Division 2. From the UI and HUD to the near identical gameplay loop, at first glance, The Division 2 just feels like t?hey've introduced a new setting? and not much else.

I'm hoping I'm proven wrong with the full release and future content plans, but I'm curious to hear from folks who played the original if they had straight up déjà vu vibes from the?? open beta. Also, shouts out to Justin for co-hosting this episode with me!

The post Today on Impulse, we give?? our first impressions from The Division 2 ?open beta! appeared first on Destructoid.

WHO has recognised 'Gaming Disorder' as a condition for the first time

A few days ago, in the wake of discussion about how recent hits such as Fortnite may be having an effect on children and young persons, talk turned to how the first gaming addiction treatment centres have sprung up in the UK. The World Health Organisation has also recognised "gaming addiction" as a separate disor??der for the first time, alongside other mor??e well-known addictions, such as to alcohol or drugs.

The World Health Organisation has not classified "gaming disorder" in terms o?f time spent with games, but rather in terms of the effect it has on the individual's ability to interact with society and keep up with their usual lifestyle. Here are the criteria that they use:

• Impaired control over gaming
• Increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities
• Continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences

To me, this seems so far, so good. These criteria do not seem far removed from how we would describe one of the more "traditional" addictions – inability to stop drinking after two glasses of wine, drin?king to the point that you can't take your children to school in the morning, and continuing to get intoxicated every single day until eventually, you lose your job. So, what is the issue?

The issue is the tendency of the non-games media and general discussion to talk about games addiction in terms of time played, in both directions. Standard news outlets gawp at 20 hours a week sat behind a controller or a keyboar??d, while people who play games may shrug off 30 hours at a computer as not a big deal.

Both perspectives are harmful because, as the WHO have emphasised, the issue of games addiction is not about the time spent with games. Of course, a sign of addiction is that games are taking over your life and you are saving no time for friends and family. But it has much more to do with how "your brain is on games", rather than the concrete number of hours.

Games as beneficial for both children and adults

In the discussion of gaming disorder, we mustn't forget that playing games as a hobby comes with a whole host of health and cognitive benefits, just like other less maligned hobbies (reading, taki?ng long walks, etc.). There are the obvious ones, such as gaming as a form of stress relief and as a distraction if you're having a bad day. It's no bad thing for people to be a little bit competitive and ambitious, and gaming actively encourages that, since most games' reason to be is to set the player targets to comple?te.

Enough of my layman assumptions: clever scientists have also found evidence that games can be a force for good (with the evidence collected in this article). They can improve concentration and ability to multi-task, improve visual processing capabilities and have even been shown to reduce crime rates and acts of violence. Games themselves have even been used to treat addictions, in a spectacular about-face for the discussion about the link between video games and compulsive behaviour. So, clearly, there i?s no need to castigate games or to remove all consoles from your household.

Games addiction as a touchy subject

The idea of games addiction has really struck a nerve with some of the community, and it's not hard to see why. Games do seem to bear the brunt of public criticism, when it comes to pastimes that don't involve putting chemicals into your body or setting out to harm other people. This criticism often comes from people who don't play games very often, so make assumptions without facts or experience at hand. Games have a history of being blamed for terrible crimes or for a perceived d??ecrease in morality.

I feel like there are two major reasons why some are very sensitive to the idea of gaming addiction: 1) this history of gam?es as the scapegoat; 2) misinformed ideas about addiction. It's all very well and good focusing on 1), but some time needs to be taken thinking about 2), too.

"Addiction", or its cousin "compulsive behaviour", conjure up extreme images of unkempt individuals who can't take care of themselves and hurt everyone around them. That might be the case sometimes, but addictive behaviour is not just restricted to the guy whose life is falling apart?? because he needs one more hit of his drug of choice. More people display addictive behaviours than they pr??obably care to admit.

Smoke ten a day and struggle to quit? You're probably addicted. Eat too much when you're feeling blue? You might be using food compulsively. Have a ritual that you have to do before you leave the house, or you ?have to go back? Check that it's not compulsive behaviour.

It's an issue I've had to face myself recently, as I realised I was using food, unhealthily, as a way to "treat" a mixture of depression, anxiety and OCD-like behaviour. I would tell myself it was fine because it made me feel better, and I didn't care about my appearance or my weight anyway, but I was still ignoring my underlying illness by shoving junk food down my throat until I wanted to be sick. I couldn't open a packet of anything without finishing the who??le thing. I would go into a sort of "trance" while eating and lose awarenes??s of my surroundings. It was not good. But I'm doing a bit better now.

So, at least from my experience, addiction is often an abnormal but understandable reaction to outside stress. Research shows that addiction can also be down to genes, and people might therefore be? at risk if a family member has engaged in addictive behaviour. But the panic and negativity we feel when we hear the word "addiction" is perhaps not all that helpful. Because addiction is disruptive and awful, but also painfully ordinary and common.

Addiction-hopping

There are many reasons why it seems a little unfair to focus too heavily on games as a source of addiction. The reason that stands out to me is that addiction is often not a static thing; if there's an underlying reason for the addiction, then an individual may hop from addiction to addiction. 

For me, my compulsive behaviour hasn't just been restricted to food. I remember drinking absolutely disgu??sting amounts of wine, sat on my own in my room during my final year of university, because the stress was too much and I literally wanted to knock myself out. For others, quitting smoking might lead a person eating more junk food, an obsessive need for romantic relationships might turn into a sex addiction...the list goes on.

What the recognition of a gaming addiction tells me is that it is not a condition in isolation. People who find themselves knee-deep in a game at 3 a.m., losing sleep because they just have to keep going, might be setting themselves up for a whole host of new unhealthy behaviours. And, in fact, people who use games well into the night might use substances or junk food to stay awake, which only incre??ases the danger of addiction hopping.

Instead of panicking about games addiction?? or making overwrought claims in either direction, the correct step is to look at the source of the behaviour and the thought patterns behind it, so that any affected person can healthily return to their normal patterns of behaviour. And bear in mind that the solution to not all addicti?ons is to cut out the crutch completely; for many, such as those with a food addiction, that's not even possible. 

Addiction as a global issue

Addiction is ultimately an issue that's more about a malfunction of the brain than the way it expresses itself. By focusing too much on the question of whether games addiction exists or does not exist, given that anything can be a? source of compulsive behaviour, we're at risk of ignoring the underlying question of why people become addicts. And if we ignore that question, then it is not just a games disorder that young people might be at risk of developing.

Looking at the issue from the glib perspective of pure numbers is also not helpful at all &nda?sh; in the end, if you play for one hour a week but could not tear yourself away in case of an emergency, there's probably still addiction at play. Some people can play for 40 hours but just walk away if they feel like it, so they aren't addict?ed. We should instead think of the issue in terms of how people's brains interact with the reward mechanics of games on a case-by-case basis, which is precisely what the World Health Organisation diagnosis criteria seem to support. The experts have it right: the media and discourse just needs to catch up.

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Because co-op is so important!

Color me surprised, but this latest trailer for Metal Gear Survive actually looks neat. Instead of just making a carbon copy of Phantom Pain and throwing zombies in, Survive leans more into its title and has you scavenging for food and weapons to prepare yourself for zombies. I won't deny that the enemy design looks lame as hell, but I could see Survive being a solid enough time.

As for single-player gameplay, there looks to be a strong influence from tower defense games going on. I'm a sucker for anything that lets me actually customize my base and Survive certainly has that. Hopefully all of the microtransaction nonsense from Phantom Pain isn't included, because it would be in poor taste to? limit stronger defenses to people with big wa?llets.

The post Single-p?layer in Metal Gear Survive actually l?ooks neat appeared first on Destructoid.

It affects every other aspect of your whole life

South Park has never been shy when it comes to comedy. While writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker will sometimes go for pure shock value, their satire tends to be very biting and very reflective of modern society. It looks like that final point is going straight into The Fractured But Whole, as a difficulty slider f??or the game will actually change your skin color.

There are options ranging from "Easy" to "Very Difficult," but as you opt to go for a harder selection, your skin color will get darker. The ever accepting Eric Cartman will even comment, "Don't worry, this doesn't affect comb?at. Just every other ??aspect of your whole life." Oooo boy, that is tough to swallow.

The only things that apparently get changed are how much money you'll receive and how other characters will approach you. It isn't meant as an actual difficulty selector, more just pointing out how modern society has a negative bias towards people of color. As clever as this satire might be, it also does reveal a pretty ugly spo?t that society still hasn't gotten over.

While I think this is quite funny, it does bring up points about mixing and matching "difficulty" and race. I know this is supposed to be a jab at racial tensions in America, but if a person of color actually wants to represent themselves in the game, why s??hould they have a harder time playing it than someone else? I guess that is the kind of balancing act Ubisof?t was willing to deal with and hopefully it pays off in the end.

South Park: The Fractured but Whole's difficulty slider changes the colour of your sk?in [Eurogamer]

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But without a number, how can I tell if I had fun!?

So last week we ran a crazy story. After eleven years straight, Ray “Stallone83” Cox let his prestigious “highest Gamerscore” world record slip through his fingers. His rival, Stephen “smrnov” Rowe was able to snatch the title from his grasp because Ray was too busy *ahem* consummating his marriage to his lovely?? new?? bride to keep up a champion’s pace.

The world is so strange sometimes. I just couldn&rsqu??o;t b??elieve what I was reading.

There are people out there who still care about their gamerscores?

Personally, I haven’t thought about my gamerscore, trophy collection, or?? Steam achievements in years. Yeah, sure, at the beginning of the Xbox? 360’s life span I was just as into achievement hunting as anyone else. And it was fun. For awhile.

Then it became work. Focusing on achievements became a way of taking the joyous exploration and malleabilit??y of games and turning them into a tedious task list. A burden to slog through rather than enjoy. As the console’s life wore on, I cared less and less about whatever games I “S-ranked” or 100%ed.

By the time the platform started to mature, I lost all interest in whatever number was attached next to my gamertag. Sure, I’d hunt the occasional bragging-right achievement, or novelty challenge that seemed interesting, but only if it seemed like a neat or stupid idea. I’d never go out of my way to bother inflating my score. Avatar: The Burning Earth held no sway over me, and I sure as shit didn’t bat an eye when Sony pulled 1000 Top Rated, “the easiest wa??y to earn a Platin??um trophy,” last week.

If I had to point to a final nail in the coffin for my achievement hunting days, it would have to be the jump from the Xbox 360 to the PS4. I spent a lot of time in Microsoft’s ecosystem and while I may have lost the taste for tracking down new cheevos after awhile, I did take some mea??sure of pride in the ones I had collected. But then Microsoft had to go ahead and shit the bed with the Xbox ?One’s wonky launch and force me to switch over to Sony and the PS4.

What, I’m supposed to start all over again from a blank slate? And besides, trophies? Rea??lly? What the hell is that all about? These are video games Sony, put a goddamn high-score board on them, it’s not hard.

So my question is, do any of you out there still care at all abou?t your gamerscore or trophies? Do you still try to grind out every Platinum, milk every point out of every title you pick up? Do you ever buy, rent, or borrow a game just because it has some gimmie achievements you can bang out in a night or two? Or are you like me and can’t remember the last time you bothered to look up the requirements for any achievement?

Or, are you one of the real freaky deakies out there obsessing over your Ubi Club badge collection? I’d love to me?et that person. It would be like shaking hands with a snow Yeti.

The post Does anyb??ody give a crap about their gamerscore anymor??e? appeared first on Destructoid.

Get jumped on, son

Forum threads complaining about game balance are a dime a dozen for any popular game, but it's always interesting when a developer or designer joins in. Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan did just that in the wake of Doomfist's release, sharing his perspective on the current meta, balance??, and his ideas about the per??ception of balance on the forums.

Kaplan's post was mostly a response to complaints about the current “dive meta” of the game. This is a playstyle that focuses on teams of highly-mobile heroes such as Tracer, Winston, and D.Va who are used to blow through the front-line of the enemy team, pick off support heroes, and overwhelm the competition. While there is nothing exactly wrong or unfair about this playstyle, some Overwatch players have grown bored with what is considered a mandatory team composition for winni?ng.

Well, bad news for those players, Kaplan and the Overwatch team don't plan on doing anyth??ing to arti??ficially shake up the meta any time soon. 

“I don’t mean to discount your fatigue with the “dive” meta but I also want us looking at from a realistic standpoint. Dive itself is an interesting comp. It’s fun to play and watch. It features super high skill heroes doing very OW things” Kaplan wrote. “I like when the meta changes on balance only when the game is not balanced and something was adjusted to make the game more balanced. Another way of putting this is, I do not agree with the philosophy that? we sh??ould just make balance changes solely to shift people off the meta.”

This may be disappointing to players who are tired of dealing with D.Va trampling ove?r their entire team to bully their supports, but I can see the logic in it. I know I'd personally rather see the meta evolve out of the playerbase than force fed from above.

Commenting on different ways to spur a meta shift, Kaplan said “A game can force a meta shift through mechanics. The MOBA genre has huge hero pools yet without pick and ban systems teams would inevitably play the same comps over and over. The game – through the mechanics of picking and banning – is forcing variety.” Restricting hero selection might solve the issue of teams abusing the same old formula again and again, but would also stifle player expression and personal style. “I am not a believer in these systems for OW (while I understand and respect why they use them in MOBA). I prefer to think that OW allows you to be creative which is different than forces you to be creative. I don’t want to watch the best Genji player in the world play Zarya – I want to see him/her play Genji.&rdq?uo;

Particularly interesting are his comments that “the perception of balance is more powerful than balance itself.” As with any game, a large portion of the play?erbase takes its cues from what is going on in the competitive scene, requesting balance changes based on what the pros are doing. However, those observations don't always translate to the broader experience of most public quick match games (the mode the majority of players play). According to after-match statistics, some heroes that are commonly considered overpowered or unbalanced are perfectly fine?, while real powerhouses are slipping under the radar of most forum warriors.

“Statistically, the things that are most unbalanced aren’t what you think they are. Symmetra and Torbjorn win rates are not balanced. They are too good. But this is why we don’t balance on statist?ics alone. I don’t sense a great community uproar over the fact that ??Torb and Symmetra are “overpowered” right now (at least, statistically).”

I've thought about this before. Back when I was playing Reaper during the dreaded “tank meta” I'd get the occasional sideways comment about picking a “gimped” character. But, in a public match environment, a pair of hellfire shotguns were just the thing for breaking down teams trying to imitate the Reinhardt/Roadhog/D.Va dream team of the pros. It wouldn't fly at a competitive level obviously, but in a regular old public game, stepping out of the box of “approved heroes” worked?? just fine.

I'd be interested to hear what other Overwatch fans thought. What are you seeing ??in your matches? Is? the dive meta too stale to be fun anymore? Do you think any other comp might displace the current meta anytime soon?

OW update/balancing cycle is excruciatingly slow: Part 2 [Overwatch Forums]

The post Jeff Kaplan weighs in on Overwatch’s balance and the dive meta appeared first on Destructoid.

Flight of Icarus

I was a bit dismissive with my last post about Ace Combat 7. The trailer released for E3 was pretty bad, in my defense, but I jumped to some conclusions based on having only played a small selection of the previous titles (6 and Assault Horizon). From the looks of this trailer (and what I was told by fans of the series), the games have a richly detailed back story mixed with some rea??listic gameplay mechanics that ??blend together to create a surreal universe.

At least this trailer ditches the melodrama for a more focused look at what Ace Combat 7 will be doing to differentiate itself from the more polarizing entries in the series (ironically the two games I've played). I love the touch of you having to retract your landing gear, but I also dig the developers talking about design decisions and their hopes for the title. Hopefully the game doesn't go full-on stupid like Assault Horizon did.

Ace Combat 7 Gets Campaign Mode Footage With Comments From?? The Direc??tor [Siliconera]

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Dear Diary

Dear Esther may not be that great of a game, but it did launch a fascination with an entire sub-genre. Dubbed the "Walking Simulator," these games weave a dramatic tale all while providing audiovisual feedback in lieu of traditional gameplay. Some are more successful than others, but Dear Esther gets a lot of hate for being boring.

While the Landmark Edition that launched on PS4 and Xbox One didn't seem to fix many issues with the game, it did at least improve the visuals and provide developer commentary. PC owners of the original relea?se will be happy to know that, starting tomorrow, they'll receive this updated version of the game for free.

Along with the announcement of this updated port, developer The Chinese Room has stated it will be sharing some big news tomorrow when the game releases. This may be related to a sequel for the game, but I'm guessing it is just news of its next title. I did actually enjoy Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, so I wouldn't mind getting some??thing more?? like that.

Dear Esther: Landmark Edition hits PC and MAC tomorrow at 6pm GMT! [The Chinese Room]

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A look inside how one of the last gen's best games was made

The upcoming BioShock Collection which features all three of the series' games will also offer developer commentary by BioShock creative director Ken Levine and lead a?nimator Shaw?n Robertson. In a post on the U.S. PlayStation blog, Sony showed off one of the unlockable commentaries about how the first BioShock's intro was not w??ell rec??eived during an early round of focus testing.

The video shows that these developer commentaries will be unlocked when a player finds new hidden collectables scattered through the games. It looks like this commentary won't be done in-game, so presumably the interview videos will be unlocked somewhere in the game's menu system??. (And on YouTube within a week.)

Developer commentaries can be fascinating when done well, and give people who've mastered a game a reason to return. The first time I remember seeing the technique was in Half-Life 2 over a decade ago, but it's been used to good effect in remasters of Grim Fandango and Monkey Island as well. BioShock Infinite in particular had a long, somewhat?? troubled development cycle, so it'll be interesting to see if the commentary goes into detail about the backstory behind that game.

BioShock: The Collection will be available September 13 on???? PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Walk, don't run, in the hallway

The granddad of all walking simulators, Dear Easther, is finally stepping onto consoles. Titled Dear Esther: Landmark Edition, this new por??t will?? feature "updated" graphics and gameplay along with a brand new commentary mode.

This new port will be landing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on September 20 for $9.99. That is basic??ally the same as the PC version was upon its release, but you're now getting even more content! Who could say no?

Going all out on the festivities, developer The Chinese Room will be hosting a live commentary event in London on September 30. Two of the main creators, Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Cury, will be chatting about how Dear Esther went from an ambitious Half-Life 2 mod into becoming an indie hit.

I grabbed it in a Humble Bundle a few years ago and I can't say I see anything special about it. The idea is pretty neat, but the game is so limited in interactivity, execution, and even sto??ry that there doesn't seem to be much reason to experience it. 

If anything, Esther made me wonder about the possibilities of VR for the future of gami?ng. Nothing goes on, but it would be a pretty wild experience to walk around and interact with this beautifully rendered world in a more tactile way. I think a game like this would also be pretty mind blowing for someone who is a paraplegic.

Should you feel the urge to book a trip to England, you can reserve tickets to the live event from The Guardian's website. The event price is fairly cheap,?????????????????????????? so that is nice.

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Watch the trailer, then hear Riot talk about it

Here's your chance to watch your favorite champions from League of Legends battle it out in a high-??quality cinematic trailer. It's over four minutes lon?g, and it's really well done. The main character here is Twisted Fate, but other champions like Annie and Ryze are involved.

Riot also?? released a behind the scenes look at the creation of the trailer. They expressed that doing a CG trailer "allows us to bring our champions to life. It allows us to get up close and personal with our champions in a completely unconstrained way."

The quality is really good, so I would love to see them make more stuff like ?this.

The post League of Legends ‘A Twist of Fate’ cinematic is amazing appeared first on Destructoid.

SO BRITISH

I said DAMN! Nintendo 64-era Rare is on a roll lately! I may be tempted? to go buy an N64 off eBay right now and have a week-long Rare session.

Three big shots from Conker's Bad Fur Day's dev staff have decided to knock back a few rounds, play some Conker, and reminisce about the good ol' days. We've got Chris Seavor, director and voice of the titular squirrel himself; Chris Marlow, programmer and voice of The Great Mighty Poo; and Shawn Pile, programmer and f*ck-a?ll else. Together, the trio spew a constant stream of obscenities and nonsensical ramblings, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Makes me excited for whatever Seavor's new studio, Gory Detail, has in store for the Wii U. Please, please, please, fill that g?ame with even more?? irreverent British potty humor!

CONKER'S BFD : DIRECTORS COMMENTARY [YouTube]

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You've watched the Nintendo press conference. You've seen all the latest news from Nintendo all day long. You've learned our opinions of the press conferences. You'??ve heard how adorable?? the new rock Pikmin are. But have you heard someone talk over Reggie and co.?

Jo?in us as Jonathan Holmes speaks with his Nintendo-hating friend John Pungitore about all the announcements Nintendo presented today -- about the entire press briefing! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll rage about John's tastes in gaming. At least, that's what the YouTube comments have shown so far. See the rest of the epic nine-part video below!

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I like the Assassin's Creed games, I do, but how many clusters of brainless g??uards does Ezio have to dispatch before his target, generally a high-ranking Templar, realizes that these thugs and soldiers won't win. Seriously, watch this trailer. HE CASUALLY REACHES BACK AND STABS A GUY IN THE SKULL.

As a matter of fact, Ezio's target in this video puts it quite well: "Could it be that you are every bit as deadly as the legends say, or am I in charge of an army of drunks swinging sticks?" At this point, I'm leaning towards the latter. Regardless, this new commentated walkthrough shows off a bit of Revelations' new tech and gameplay. It looks like Assassin's Creed.

The post Ass C??ree?d Revelations gets more commentated walkthrough appeared first on Destructoid.

BioWare was kind enough to provide us with a preview video that showcases the entire Esseles flashpoint mission from Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Those I've discussed this game with have been praising this mission for its depth, telling me it occurs as early as level 10 or so.  Now you can see the entire thing for yourself without being in the beta.  If you're curious about The Old Republic you need to wa??tch this walkthrou??gh.  It's far more informative than the average game trailer.

Dallas Dickinson (Director of Production) pr??ovides commentary as the video showcases the mission's story, morality choices, and gamepla?y from 4 different character classes. ; Coming from someone who does not really enjoy MMOs:  This video is impressive.

Really, out of everything here I'm most impressed by how much story they've injected into an MMO.  You know what kind of narrative I usually expect from an early mission in an MMO?  Epic tales involving berry picking and elk hunting.  I heard that people with reservations get early access.  Who's gonna hop on that?

The post Enjoy a full mis??sion of The Old Republic with?? commentary appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[Community member Stevil tells us why Cass from Fallout: New Vegas is so important to the overall game experience. Want your own work on the front page? Write something awesome in the community blogs. --Kauza]}

If Red Dead Redemption is a love letter to Unforgiven and The Proposition, then Fallout: New Vegas must be an ode to 50’s epics like The Searchers, by way of barmy cult classics Battle Beyond The Stars and Ice Pirates. 

Fallout is fantastical with its post-apocalyptic setting, to say the least. Radioactive reptiles, malfunctioning robots,The Road Warrior gangs and the restarting of modern day politics in a medieval world make it more ‘Weird’ than ‘Wild’ out West. Yet, if you replaced the science-fiction with the aesthetics of the late 1800’s, New Vegas i??s not that far removed from ??any Western regularly screened on daytime television. 

To make such a concept work, you need believable characters to sell the core principles. New Vegas does so admirably with Rose of Sharon Cassidy and Raul Tejada. Both ??characters are more concerned with old world values than overgrown killer ants; Raul is particularly haunted by his gunslinger past, while Cass struggles to keep her family business afloat. 

So, it’s unsu?r??prising that Cass is probably the first potential companion you meet, dressed like a cowgirl, shotgun holstered on her back and drowning her sorrows in a trading outpost’s watering hole. 

While Raul is?? entertaining enough, a legend now reduced to being your Tonto, t??he fascination with Cass revolves around her ambiguous femininity. 

Videogames tend to have women in two camps – th??e damsel in distress or the battle hardened vixen. These are archetypes created through the medium’s objectives. The more masculine the male protagonist becomes, the more women have to match the levels of testosterone. Very few female companions break the mould with the more interesti??ng undertone archetypes, like Ashley Williams (Mass Effect) or Chie Satonaka (Persona 4). 

With Cass, her masculinity has increased not because of the player/protagonist bond, but because ??of the Mojave Wasteland. In this regard, there’s? a similarity to RDR’s Bonnie MacFarlane. Both women are surrounded by male figureheads, and to survive the land, they’ve had to toughen up. Where Bonnie succeeds because of her world-weary father however, Cass is the modern day Calamity Jane, due to her taking on her missing pa??triarch’s role. 

Simply put, Cass is a functioning alcoholic?. 

Addiction is still?? somewhat a taboo in videogames. Rarely is there any weighty discussion for it, and when it’s done, as with Alan Wake’s substance abuse, it’s through hidden meaning?? or interpretive dialogue. 

Here, you have a companion who follows you every??where and mentions needing a drink on a regular basis. Yet, in a narrative where you’re obligated to be as amoral as The Man with No Name, it’s near impossible to be judgemental about her predicament. 

It’s never entirely clear how she’s become this way, other than the references to?? the pressures of family business, but it’s clear enough that Cass is full of short-term goals. Her quest for revenge mirrors your own chase after the man who left you for dead, one that can’t end well for her personally, despite a potential peaceful resolution. 

Eventually, Cass decides to tag along and helps to regain control over H??oover Dam, thus shaping the future of New Vegas. Considering that this story, for everyone’s New Vegas journey is different, featured a bearded (though, smartly dressed with a penchant for hats),? amoral Courier – named Steve - who played every faction like chumps in T??he Long Game, aided by a flying radio and cowgirl with a drinking problem, you’d be right in thinking these protagonists hardly sound like the catalysts for independence. 

Ultimately, Cass&rsquo??; various endings are just as short-term as her ideals. We only learn of the Dam, with her as witness to New Vegas’ future or the fact she sleeps with a soldier out of her re-affirmation of life’s little moments. Nothing is resolved beyond Cass' initial reasons for joining, much like The Courier's tale of reven?ge turning into something greater and uncertain. 

Though, truly, that&rsqu??o;s not the point of her char??acter. 

For Cass and the player, her constant mumbles and grumbles make the nomadic journey all the more bearable, revealing bittersweet things about her and the world around t??hem?. 

There’s a melancholy and? lament that betrays her uncaring, barfly observations. Primm might be a “shithole” to her, but it’s mo?re about the decay of something beautiful rather than the town itself. 

It’s hard to fathom?? why a co?mpanion such as Veronica Santaneglo is more popular than Cass; usually championed? by writers who should know better. Maybe it’s because Veronica is that popular gaming archetype – technologically savvy, dry ??but pretty and vulnerable too - much like Mass Effect’s Liara. There’s nothing wrong with that, but other than her being a maverick in a strict ‘family’ that’s easier to love than Cass, there’s not much one?? hasn’t been seen before. 

Maybe it doesn’t help that voice actress Felicia Day sounds like she’s turned up ?several years too late for that Buffy the Vampire Slayer audition. 

New Vegas ended up as one my favourite titles of all time. It was a long journey through the wasteland, hedging my bets under the neon lights, changing lives for personal gain and bucking the odds with the big iron on my hip. Though, none of it would have been half as fun without a certai??n woman, who owned a powerful, yet dilapidated, shotgun which summed ?her up more than these words ever could.

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Let’s say you’re out for a leisurely cruise along the coast of an island, just off the mainland. The sun is bright and warm, the sea breeze is crisp, and everything seems perfect in the world. Then, you notice a strange mirage over the shore and maneuver your boat over to investigate. As you approach it, the distortion grows worse and worse, until it seems that the very fabric of reality itself has been ripped asunder, and the particles of the universe are laid bare in a tangled, congealed mass that defies all comprehension. Your mind canno??t even think of a way to name such a horror, let along comprehend its true form. Terrified, you turn and flee, leaving the void on the coast, and vow never to return.

But what if you didn’t run? What if you decided that such a creature could bring you limitless wealth and fame? So you capture the abomination, and keep it secluded in a container as you bring it back to the mainland. But as you carry the container around, you slowly begin to perceive that something is not right with the world. Your records and documents online become a garbled mess of bits and dissonant noise, pe??ople begin to behave strangely, and the world seems to shift and change into nonsensical forms around you. Slowly, your perceptions of reali??ty break down from the constant presence of the creature you caught and you eventually go insane; your mind permanently damaged by witnessing the laws of the universe itself break down in front of you. 

After reading this, you might think that I had just typed out the synopsis to an obscure HP Lovecraft short story. However, this is actually one of the more common interpretations of how the various infamous glitches in the original Pokèmon titles would behave in-universe. I’m using the Pokèmon series as an example of this because it involves so many different glitches, many of which have permanent and unpredictable effects on your game. Merely encountering Missing??No. will scramble your Hall of Fame data for good. Others can generate encounters with glitched trainers or Pokèmon cobbled together from random data sets, distort and garble the background music, transform your oth?er normal pokèmon in PC boxes into clones of itself, and even transport you the infamous Glitch City.

_{You can check out anytime you like, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE.}

This especially disturbed me as a child playing through the games. I recall spending one summer sitting in our secret fort with my brother and my next-door neighbors (who were the epitome of "cool" in the neighborhood because they had all the Pokèmon captured or hacked into their possession, and a party of level 100 Legendaries), trying to find MissingNo. It felt like we were performing a secret ritual of forbidden magic, trying to summon an ancient demon into the game even though we knew full well the consequences of encountering such an abomination. We were quite willing to destroy the little virtual world that we had built up in order to earn the bragging rights of seeing it, and offered up the bits of information in a Red version cartridge as a sacrifice. This Pokèmon was never mean??t to exist, and yet we called it forth into Kanto, and faced the consequences of contradicting reality and pl?aying God.

A big part of Lovecraftian-style horror involves the fact that humans perceive the world in a certain way, with certain assumptions based on what we can empirically observe and judge. However, this brand of fear postulates there are immortal beings in existence that contradict these assumptions on such a fundamental level that they cause our perceived reality to break down, and drive humans crazy upon seeing how insignificant we are in the universe. Glitches in games can be seen like this, where something goes wrong with how our universe is supposed to function, and we can temporarily glimpse the unfathomabl??e void beyond?? the programming.

_{IA IA MISSINGNO FTAGN. BENEATH CINNIBAR ISLAND HE LIES.}

Remember Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem? Some of the best scares from that title came from breaking the fourth wall. The controller would mysteriously disconnect as your defenseless in-game avatar was slaughtered by a group of enemies, your head would blow up when trying to cast a spell, and sometimes the Blue Screen of Death would appear (despite the fact that you were playing on a GameCube). These events all occurred when the character’s sanity was at its lowest, and simulated that character’s perceptions of reality ripping apart at the seams due to the influence o??f powers beyond all mortal ken.

Despite this example, many “horror” videogames still only utilize methods that can be replicated by movies or TV. Dead Space is a pants-wettingly terrifying game, but it doesn’t use any methods of cinematography or framing that are different from, say, Alien. And even then, the scary images, sounds, and threats to personal well-being only really affect the main character, not the player itself. Even if you’re caught up the atmospheric tension of an area, or are taken aback by an enemy jumping at the screen, you can still turn off the system and walk away, knowing that the monsters can’t reach you in the “real” world. It’s the same way we’ve grown accustomed to glitches in a game. They may be annoying at times, but the occasional encounter with faulty collision detection, graphical hiccups, or freezes are never really scary in other games because we know why they occur, and are secure in our ??knowledge that such breakdowns in programming can’t affect “reality”.

What I want to see is a game where that comfort zone is forcibly taken away, where the horror elements aren’t just one-shot jump scares that are quickly forgotten.?? I want to see a character react as the game world around them slowly becomes more and more degraded due to some unknown fo?rce. I want the player to be able to question whether they’re really playing a game, or actually having some influence on an unknown universe separated from our own.

And I want the player holding the controller to fear -- even for?? just a second?? -- that if they take one wrong step, talk to the wrong person or be in the wrong place at the right time that the same will happen to them.

Sweet dreams.

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Last summer I received some news unlike any I had ever experienced before. A friend of mine -- a fellow student, scientist, gamer -- took his own life. The long delay between attending his memorial service and writing this piece today isn't for lack of thought about it. He still s?hows up in my dreams, at which point the rational part of my brain says, "This isn't real. He's gone." But when I wake up, I wish I could turn that part off for a bit just to enjoy a little more time spent with him, if only in my dreams. No, I certainly haven't forgotten about him; it's just taken this long to start to come to terms with it all.

We weren't even the best of friends. I taught a laboratory course with him, I played soccer with him, and I had him over to my apartment a couple of times to play Rock Band, but we certainly could have spent more time together. I often wonder if I would have been able to pick up on any of his personal issues, or if I could have done something to? prevent his decision to end his own existence, were we closer friends. But of course, this line of thinking isn't helpful for anything. 

All I can do now is hope to hang onto the good memories I have of him. I lent him my copy of The Orange Box, since he wanted to try out Portal, but didn't particularly care about any of the rest of it. He kept telling me he'd pay me back by lending me his copy of Mass Effect someday. Another time, I invited several of my fellow graduate students over to my place for drinks and games. He showed up with his laptop, and he proceeded to use my Wi-Fi to play World of Warcraft. Everybody else eventually coerced him into singing "Still Alive," which is the worst/??funniest rendition ??I've heard of the song to this day.

The more I thought about the fun memories of him that I have, the more I thought, "we sure do live in some strange times." Should my memory ever fail, there are persistent records of all occurrences, accessible to everybody on the Internet. If I need to be reminded what he looked like, there are photos on Facebook. If I can't remember what he sounded like, there are videos on YouTube. If I want to read about the research he did, I can search his name on SciFinder. And if I have an inexplicable urge to analyze his gaming habits, I can always check his Gamercard.

Clearly, he was more of a PC gamer than a console gamer, logging only nine unique 360 games over the course of about two years. Mass Effect, the game he repeatedly tried to get me to play, he hadn't touched since December of 2007. Scrolling up a bit, he has The Orange Box,?? last played in May of 2008. As far as I know, it's the only existing record that I had made any measurable mark on his life.

At the top of the list, there is Dead or Alive 4. Last played on Friday, July 10th, 2009. It will always be the last game he ever played on his 360. Indeed, the entire page will remain frozen in this state for who-knows-how-long, until Microsoft decides an appropriate amo?unt of time has passed to consider his account defunct. It fascinates me and makes me sick to my stomach at the same time.

It's a tired cliché ?that gamers don??'t understand the reality of life and death. "In life, there is no reset button," or "in this game, you only get one life." That's all bullcrap. I will never fully understand my late friend's motives, but I do know that he knew what he was doing. He knew that it's a decision that, once effected, cannot be undone. And he must have considered the anguish he'd cause his friends afterward. For that, I can never forgive him.

But along with the pain he left me with, he led me to some in??trospection. If I were to die tonight, would I be content with the mark I've left on the world? Have I accomplished what I wanted to at my age? Have I eaten enough food,? have I made enough love, have I played enough games, have I touched enough people? Would my persistent digital footprint suffice? And if not, what can I do to make it so?

What will be the last game I ever put on my Gamercard? Will it be great, mediocre, or terrible? Will I even finish it? I can't know the answer to most of these questions, but you may notice that I have finally begun playing Mass Effect. Thou??gh I will never get a ?chance to discuss it with him like he wanted, it is the one final thing I feel I must do to pay my respects. So long.

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Somewhere around April a few years ago, my wife and I drove to a local Toys R Us to pick up a then elusive Wii, with no luck. A serendipitous call to Target yielded a lead and a quick 15 minute drive, ending in a dramatic rolling dropoff with my daring wife at the wheel, resulted in the acquisition of 1 Wii, a copy of Wii Play, SSX Blur and the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Fast forward to present day, and Nintendo's relatively low-tech wonder sits attached to the low-tech li??ving room TV. Its the winter months and, in typical game cyc??le fashion, there's plenty of interesting things to play. Most of them on the PS3 and 360. 

As it happens, I don't play on my Wii on a very regular basis at the moment. Without getting too personal, I'm actually using my HD systems more for their media capabilities this week in particular. Sometimes, gaming just isnt in me, and catching up on some good movies and TV shows is a nice way to unwind. The Wii, where it is now, takes a particular and determined effort to log time on. I've got to divorce myself from my computer entirely, do the extra few button presses to engage the video on my VCR, through which the console is running. Consider also that my wife enjoys her evening shows on that same TV, and it turns out that for me to play on my ??Wii is probably the most inconvenient gaming experience that I have currently setup for use.

But once I'm there, its pretty much the bes??t thing ever.

A good Wii session usually involves a real-for-real disc based game. Lately, its Wii Sports Resort and A Boy and his Blob. While the cool thing to say is that I'm all about choppin' fools with the excellent Motion+ swordplay games, I'm a sucker for table tennis. I tend to get in about 5 matches, with the AI and my skill now at a pretty good m??ix. I've traded a good number of wins in single player and the playis pretty effortless from a control-to-output perspective.

A Boy and his Blob is a rental, which is a good percentage of the new Wii games I play lately. Opting for more traditional controls, this game really takes the platform and simply makes a good time of it. Rare even in the hallowed decks of XBLA, the hand drawn and fluid artstyle is especially gorgeous. Maybe, being on a 10-15 year old TV helps me not realiz??e that this console can't pump out the intense shaders and thick resolutions of my other consoles. This and many other games on the platform are decidedly not about pushing shaders, but rather about the craft of making a unique and special game experience.

Once I've had my fill of a full game for the night, I've usually backed out back to the Wii Menu. By no means as efficient or practical for the organization of large amounts of data, the interface is clean, and pretty much evocative to the prospect of actually playing games. My main page of channels hold some of my favorite games that I'm happy to have ready to play in moments of turning my console on. River City Ransom, Super (FREAKING) Dodgeball, and every Mega Man game they'll let me download. I can jump right into a frozen state Mega Man III, chip away however unsuccess?fully at ?Shadowman's evolved stage, and jump right back out to some other quick game session.

And there's probably t??he best thing going for my Wii. Right there on a little SDcard are about 2 dozen other games that I've downloaded for the system. After tolerating some extra loading times I'm primed for some really satisfying gaming: WiiWare dow??nloads.

I've got more of these titles than I have business to, many of which I haven't even finished. But they're there for the chipping. Before calling it a night completely, I'll jump into a Bit.Trip game and try to get that one more level that I failed at before. At the risk of being lulled to sleep, there's Lost Winds and its sequel, which I really need to dedicate some waking attention to. Swords and Soldiers competently handles my fleeting RTS needs and the idea of digging into My Life as a King again gets ever more attractive the longer I have to wait for a true SimCity sequel.

But I've digressed. By the end of a night with my Wii, I'm a satisfied customer. People say they can't find anything to play, but I don't understand that: I've got more than enough. I've heard that there's a??n abundance of shovelware, but that hasn't affected my actual Wii gaming. There's trepidation and general motion control displeasure, but I've had some pretty righteous motion control integrated good times.

Its been said somewhere, I think, (Johnathan Holmes?) that if you really love games, you have a Wii. As divisive a statement that may be, it feels that, i??f I didn't have a Wii, I'd have really missed out on some real pure core gaming this generation. Certainly, I'd have been a bit mopey ab??out being a Wii only owner, but as a "core' gamer, I'd probably feel that way about any given system this generation.

That's my Wii Experience, and I'd say most times, its exactly what I need?? it to be.

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So the year of 2009 is almost over, and for a brief moment I thought about writing a “My Game of the Year” or “Top Games of 2009” editorial. I soon realized that everyone was sick of these damn lists and since I procrastinated so long to even write anything at all, it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to regurgitate what’s already been said. I mean I can’t even do something crazy and say Demon’s Souls is my game of the year, so I was out of luck.

However thinking about those editorials made me realize how distraught I was over which game I would even pick for the number one spot. The two games I was torn between were Uncharted 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. Now before anyone says “those games are terrible” or “dragon age? Wtf?” the point ??of this editorial isn’t really? about the game themselves, but how I came down to my ultimate decision, and made me realize something very important about the videogame industry.

So the conflict arose when I made a list of?? why I like each game. To give you an example, ?I’ll write out a few bullets from one of the lists and you can try to tell me which game it is:

• Great characters, very believable, very likable
• Steady plot progression, kept me wanting to know what happens next
• Fantasy voice acting, and presentation as a whole is very well done
• Extremely memorable moments and set-pieces
• Awesome ending
• A lot of variety and content in the entire package 

Alright, guess. No idea? Maybe it’s because I liked each game for the same exact reasons (despite being totally different genres). So really all I had to do was flip a coin. But then I did the horrible act that human beings are known to repeat: I thought about things. I thought about the stories of Dragon Age, and the expertly paced narrative in Uncharted 2, but most imp??ortantly I remembered that they were ??both games.

And then I committed sin number two. I started reading, and researching. Many of you have probably realized that the latest buzzword for games these days is “cinematic.” Games like Mass Effect, Uncharted, and inFamous have been hyped up as “cinematic” experiences. To a lesser extent, I’m sure a lot of people remember previews for games like Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry about how they had “action scenes like in the movies” and how the combat system was designed to be that way. Which doesn’t sound too bad, who wouldn’t want that?

Buzzwords are nothing new to the industry. Before “cinematic” it was “immersive” with games like Half-Life or God of War touting their ability to keep a constant experience without fading to black. Then there’s the obvious examples of Oblivion and Fable where they were constantly hyped up as “immersive worlds,” especially Fable where Peter Molyneux was saying things like “you can plant a seed, come back years later and a tree would be where ??the seed was.” Most of these claims were a load of crap so they eventually abandoned the selling point due to ever-growing high expectations.

The problem with cinematic is that developers are accomplishing what people are expecting. This is where I have a problem with the new trend in game development. Just look at the word itself and you can see why I find this new vision a little uncomfortable. Cinematic. The root word being “cine” which refers to “cinema” or the movie industry. This might be a little obnoxious but have you ever heard Trent Reznor talk about how the new Nine Inch Nails album is “cinematic” or an abstract artist hype up their new sculpture as being “like a good alb??um.” Probably not. So I don’t really see why video games think it’s a good idea to describe themselves as something they’re not. It gives off a negative stigma of a medium "trying to be" and not "establishing what it is."

Each medium has their own strengths that they work with. You view art, you listen to music, you watch movies, and you interact with games. Cinematic refers to an extremely linear story, one you have no control over. So to me, if you’re no longer interacting and instead following instructions it’s not really a game anymore and has no business in attempting to be one. Luckily a lot of cinematic games are also a lot of fun to play so they usually don’t get too much criticism. However when one of these cinematic games are described as feeling “like I was tole??rating the gameplay so I ??could savor the rich atmosphere” you may want to consider a career change.

Then you have the criticisms of the industry as a whole. There are the obvious examples, and then the lesser-known more personal ones. For instance I was once defending Shadow of the Colossus as a game, on a forum I frequent. At the time I was claiming that it was a perfect game to show people the benefits of being a game over any other type of medium. Replying to this, one member (who I’ve unfortunately forgotten the name of) brought up the constructive criticism that everything I enjoyed about Shadow of the Colossus (the subjectivity of the plot, grim atmosphere, epic scale etc.) was reliant on things that did not relate to it being a game. The user asked me what in Shadow of the Colossus could not have been done just as well in another medium, and if the reasons I liked the game were reliant o?n interacting with it??.

And I couldn’t think of an answer.

Maybe I didn’t analyze Shadow of the Colossus enough, or maybe I couldn’t be bothered to think too hard on the subject, but I still can’t make a convincing argument on why Shadow of the Colossus couldn’t just as well be a book or movie. Regardless of why I couldn’t think of a way to defend one example, it opened my eyes to how frequently the interactivity of games is ignored in favor of easier more familiar ways of presentin??g a point or conflict through a cutscene. Which also made me notice how many of our highly acclaimed games are pretty close to already established classics, but that?’s for another article ??another day.

This doesn’t necessarily mean I think every game should come down to some choice or affect I have on the events being told, interactivity comes in many forms. And in reality personal interpretation is enough of “interaction” in many cases. It just so happens with games you can exemplify how you interpret events by how you play the games. I’m sure many people are familiar with The Red Wheelbarrow, a very short poem that’s designed to inspire nostalgic memories and personal histories from the reader. This poem means one thing to one reader, and something entirely different to another. This is accomplishable in games as well, but nobody really seems to be playing with those emotions. We seem to be relying on straight forward plot lines that don’t require any thought. ADD-IN: I'm not saying I don't like the games I'm linking, but that there's no "bigger idea" in the narrative.

I’ve been playing Persona 4 lately; that has a lot of High School conflicts, making friends, getting a girlfriend, something I’m pretty sure everyone can relate to. This is possible in other mediums as well, but it’s really done best when you’re living the experience yourself. For me, there’s a scene where you can go on a semi-date with a cha??racter and she makes food for you. Unfortunately little miss Yukiko is terrible at cooking, but she stares at me with those worried eyes and asks me “What do you think?” Despite the food tasting terrible I softened my response for obvious reasons. That scene means a lot to me due to personal exper??iences, but I’m sure many people don’t even recall it happening in the game.

I’m sure everyone has had a Morrigan in their life. It might not have been a girl, or a romantic encounter, but there’s always that person you have difficulty figuring out but continue to be intrigued by for one reason or another. Or maybe you ran into a King Moron that you always dreamed of defying but were worried of the consequences. There’s also the chance you had to choose between supporting your best friend, or supporting what’s best for everyone, a similar scenario is presented near the end of Dragon Age.

And of course there’s the obvious mentioning (that might induce some moaning) of Prince of Persia 2008. The ending is often debated for many reasons, but I find the most interesting discussions stemming from people who strongly agreed with The Prince’s actions and those who strongly disagreed with his actions. It sort of reflects something Spike Lee created in Do the Right Thing, where an event occurs in the story that many people are split upon and the point is to talk about it.

I think I’ve gone on rambling and I’m not really talking about the point anymore. But I hope everyone can see where I was going at the beginning of this. I think it’s important for people to take games seriously, and that’s harder to do when they’re being treated as “movies for story and game for keeping you interest.” Sure, games like Uncharted 2 are still a bo?atload of fun, I won’t lie I played through the game three times within two weeks because I enjoyed it so much, but for the support of the industry I think it’s important we appreciate these types of games, b??ut not award them anything.

Then again, opinions mean nothing without disagreement. I’m sure if I made an editorial about how the moon was made of cheese and no one defied the viewpoint I’d go on thinking something that’s false. Just like how if that user on the forum didn’t criticize my views on Shadow of the Colossus I would’ve never made this. I’ve heard the response that I’m “complaining that the rollercoaster has tracks” and maybe there’s some wei?ght to that argument. I’??d be glad to hear everyone’s opinions on the matter.

P.S. I hate to self-promote since it seems shameless and I don’t even know if it’s allowed here. But I did in fact have a GOTY Podcast where I discussed this very issue. I think ??I said a few things in there that I neglected here so if you have any interest feel free to give it a listen, and the section you’re looking for is around the 1:50:30 time stamp. It’s about a five minute explanation so if you skimmed this article you could save yourself some time. Anyways, hope you enjoy.

Referenced Works:
(or not referenced but inspired me writing this)

Naughty Dog's Evan Wells Interview
Jonathan Blow Interview
GiantBomb's Brutal Legend Review
William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheel Barrow
Dest?ructoid's Blood Sugar Sex Magik: Examining Dragon Age's Morrigan
Prince of Persia's Ending is Broken

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With the announcement of Mega Man 10, the Internet is once again awash in a haze of blue-tinted euphoria. Soon there will be the articles and marathon play sessions, and the debate over which is the best game in the series will begin anew. We'll see the usual suspects, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3. Mega Man 9 will probably crash the gate. Hey, Mega Man 8 might even make a subdued appearance!

Of course, the correct answer is Mega Man 6.

Hu-what? All the NES games past the third were stupid, weren't they? Well, that's because you are stupid. Mega Man 6 has been undeservedly vilified for far too long, probably because you didn't play it and are making up disgusting lies to cover your ass. Y??ou need some education and I am here to ?provide it.

Hold it, you say. Even if I agree the game is good, how could it possibly top 2 and 3? Those games are legendary! I would have to concede that yes, it doesn't seem plausible, not at first, anyway. Using my patented brand of infallible logic, I will prove beyond a cloud of uncertainty why Mega Man 6 is the best of the Mega Mans! 

1. MEGA MAN 6 WAS RETRO BEFORE RETRO WAS COOL.

Two decades after the heyday of the NES, retro throwbacks have become quite fashionable. The burning desire to see our favorite franchises revived in all their classic glory has reached such monolithic heights that we embrace the archaic trappings that gaming has spe??nt years of technological progress evolving out of.

However, there were no nostalgia goggles back in 1994 when Mega Man 6 was released. The market was split between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis; any??one who was still making NES games was laughed at. Kids don't want to play that old-and-busted shit anymore! Check out the Blast Processing and Mode 7 scali?ng up in this piece!

Mega Man 6 should have been released for the SNES, but it wasn't. Capcom felt confident that it could pull off one last amazing maneuver, one that would rid fans of the bad taste 4 and 5 left in our mouths. It would be the culmination of everythin??g learned since 1987.

Here in the States, it wa?s almost not meant to be. Capcom USA was too chickenshit to p??ublish the game, afraid that children wouldn't buy it because it wasn't fancy-pants enough. Instead, Nintendo had to step in and pick up publishing duties.

Here was a chance to turn against the cogs of com??mercialism that insi?st consumers should only buy the "latest and greatest," yet Capcom almost botched it up. Smooth move, chief!

2. MEGA MAN 6 IS UNAPOLOGETICALLY RACIST.

Mega Man 6 kicks off with a tournament that gathers the most powerful robots on the planet to prove their strength and capabilities. Not surprisingly, the tournament is an elaborate scheme by Dr. Wily (oh, sorry, I mean "Mr. X") to reprogram the eight finalists and dispatch them in his bid for global conquest. Since thes??e robots hail from all over the world, each one is a representative of his country of origin. Boy, do they rock some stereotypes.

If you've ever watched G Gundam, you know what's up. From Japan, we have Yamato Man, a noble samurai warrior who guards an imperial palace. From the US, we have Tomahawk Man, an Indian chieftain who lives on a reserve, wears a ridiculous headdress, and wields an instrument for scalping. From Greece, we have a fucking centaur. But the BEST, the absolute best, is Derka Man over here:

This is Flame Man. He wears a turban. He has pointy Aladdin? shoes. Would anyone lik??e to hazard a guess where this clown is from?

What really seals the deal is his choice of domain -- an oil field in the middle of the desert. Jesus Christ, you guys. Are we spreading political propaganda in Mega Man games now? Gotta let children know from an early age who the real bad guys are! There should have been a second set of instructions packed with this game that read, "Those brown Saudi bastards are hording our liquid gold! Let's give them a taste of our foreign policy!"

This is what makes the game so amazing. It's racial??ly insensitive and doesn't give a fuck. I respect that.

If Capcom USA had published this, you can bet it would have made some sweeping edits. Just look what happened with Mega Man Powered Up for the PSP. One of the two new Robot Masters, Oil Man, is a blackface caricature. When the game was localized, Capcom gave him a Jynx-like makeover to avoid sparking any parental outrage.

Pussies.

3. MEGA MAN 6 IS AN AURAL MASTERPIECE.

It's cute that you think Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 have the best compositions in the series??. Oh, they are so memorable! So timeless! The ultimate in game music excellence! I could listen to those tracks over an??d over again!

How many times has the Wily castle theme from 2 been remixed, huh? Aren't you sick of that yet?

To be fair, those early tunes are some of the best on the NES. However, the only reason the tunes from Mega Man 6 are not as well regarded is because you guys gave the game as a whole the middle finger. These ??are some quality, complex compositions. It's a??mazing to hear the progression from the harsh beeps of the 1987 original right up to the rich instrumentation of the sixth entry, especially considering that this was all done on the same hardware.

Here are a couple of early Mega Man pieces:
Mega Man - Fire Man Stage
Mega Man 2 - Flash Man Stage

??S'alright. Kinda bland, no? Compare those to my favorite Mega?? Man track of all time:

The improvements are obvious. Listen to that and tell me it doesn't kick ass! The Native American, Old West cues really come through. Wanna have your mind blown? Listen closely to the drum track. Those are horse hooves clopping on the ground. BOOM! I just rocked your fucking world!

I'm gonna? chuck a few more up here and let the music speak for itself:

4. MEGA MAN 6 KNOWS HOW TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION.

In each game, you are treated to a short character introduction upon selecting a boss from the ?stage select screen. The boss will appear on a fairly unadorned banner that is laid atop a colorful and/or scrolling background, he will strike a pose, and his name will appear underneath him, all while a jazzy little ditty plays. The aim is to get you psyched? for the battle ahead, but the routine gets stale after a while.

Take a look at some boss introductions from the other games:
Mega Man 4 - Toad Man Introduction
Mega Man 7 - Burst Man Introduction

I guess it was cool and all the first couple of times, but it starts to eat at you after a while. All you wanna do is jump right into battle without the extra bullshit. So how does Mega Man 6 spike the punch?

With fucking style! A ring of light illuminates the silhouette of your opponent-to-be as an electroni?c scoreboard pops up to give you stats and shit. You can see ??his energy source, the name of his domain, and even power and defense ratings! You can sense that this guy is not some after-school pushover but a titan of steel whose mere existence is a pestilence!

So you tackle the level and make it the boss chamber. What happens next? Usually, the boss drops from the ceiling and performs his signature taunt as his energy fills up. It goes like this:
Mega Man 5 - Gravity Man Entrance
Mega Man 9 - Tornado Man Entrance

BORING. Mega Man 6, how do you respond?

God damn. The lights dim as the chamber doors close behind Mega ?Man. All of a sudden, lighting cracks and the walls shake from the thunderous pulsations as your unmaker descends from the heavens like Odin. With an entrance like that, even a weak-sauce pansy like Plant Man looks like a badass!

Mega Man 6 is all about style and panache. It's like attending a K-1 match only with killer robots!

5. MEGA MAN 6 FEATURES THE BALLSIEST ROBOT MASTER EVER.

From the racial stereotypes, we already know that Mega Man 6 is pretty ballsy. However, there is one particular Robot Master whose balls are so massive that he has to sling 'em o??ver his shoulder just so his feet can touch the ground.

This is Yamato Man. I believe I mentioned him already. Allow me to describe his attack pattern. He removes the tip of his spear, throws it at you, and then... runs after to pick it up! And then... throws it again! He only has t??he one thing! He?? is the most ill-equipped Robot Master ever conceived!

Slight correction. He has another attack where he jumps and launches three spear tips while suspended in the air. These he doesn't retrieve. That leads me to believe that the tip he throws while grounded is a good luck charm or mystical artifact, the Blade-That-Ended-a-Thousand-Lives or some? cold-blooded shit like?? that. Why else would he choose to reuse it rather than pull from his ample supply?

Despite his seemingly inefficient battle tactics, he is still ranked as one of the most powerful robots on Earth. Against all logic, his methods have brought him great success. Anyone who fights with a self-imposed handicap like that ha??s got to have an ego the s?ize of Jupiter.

Seriously, big brass balls.

6. MEGA MAN 6 IS AN AMERICAN ALL-STAR.

Capcom used to hold yearly contests in which fans would submit Robot Master designs to be used in the upcoming sequel. Implications that Capcom was being fucking lazy by letting children do its work for free aside, those were some prett?y cool promotions. One problem -- they were restricted to Japan, and that's bullshit.

Nintendo Power wasn't gonna stand for this and held its own Robot Master design contest. Capcom agreed to include the winners of the contest in Mega Man 6, adding a splash of American invention to an otherwise Japanese-exclusive lineup. And so it came t??o pass that Wind Man and Knight Man joined Dr. Wily's motley crew of mechanical miscreants.

Wind Man, the Chinese agricultural bot, was designed ?by Michael Leader. Knight Man, the British medieval bot, was designed by Daniel Vallée. As these are the only two American-designed bosses in the entire franchise and since t??he United States is the greatest nation on the planet, they are automatically the best Robot Masters in the series.

Technically, Mr. Vallée is Canadian, but Canada is a part of the North American continent and American representation in the series was zero before this point. I think it's fair to make him an honorary US citizen, don't you? Besides, you gotta feel pity for a guy who doesn't live in a real country.

In addition to that, compare Vallée's kick-ass Knight Man to Leader's Wind M??an. I know I said Wind Man is one of the best Robot Masters ever, but that's a distinction awarded solely on principle and not on the merits of design. Look how fat he is! He probably ate one too many crab wontons and then placed the empty bowl on his head like it was a clever fashion statement. As a product of Chinese engineering, he was probably constructed in a sweat shop and coated in lead-based paint.

So it's settled. Knight Man is an all-American. Along with the anti-Arabian propaganda, you've got yourself one hell of a patriotic video game! USA! USA!

7. MEGA MAN 6 IS RUSH'S CROWNING GLORY.

Rush has been an invaluable ally ever since his introduction in Mega Man 3. That said, why can't he learn a new tric??k from time to time? ??Do we have to use Rush Coil and Rush Jet again? Thank God Dr. Light had the good sense to scrap that redundant Rush Marine mode.

Can Mega Man 6 give Rush the makeov??er he deserves? You bet your ass it can!

All the old transformations have been? tossed out the fucking window. In their place are two full-body suits that are not only useful b?ut pretty damn stylish as well.

The Rush Jet Adaptor slaps a jet pack onto your back, granting you limited physics-based fligh?t. Combining the functionality of the Rush Coil and Rush Jet, the Jet Adaptor can be used to? cross any gap or to reach any elevated ledge. Just hold down the jump button and you will fly as long as you have charge in your meter.

I say "physics-based flight" because Jet M?ega Man is at the mercy of momentum. If you are in a free-fall, activating the thrusters will gradually slow your rate of descent befor?e reversing your direction. So no, the jet pack isn't an instant bailout whenever your dumb ass falls into a Punji pit. It takes finesse to handle the awesome power of flight.

The Rush Power Adaptor grants you Tyson hands with which to pummel ?your opponents back to the Stone Age. As Power Mega Man, you trade in lon?g-range capability for close-range Herculean strength. When you charge up an attack, shit really starts to fly. Enemies taunting you from behind an impenetrable shield? Fuck 'em up right through their barrier! Enemies gliding towards you across the floor? Wind up a haymaker and send them careening back whence they came!

And do you know what the best part of these adaptors is? Neither requires weapon energy! Once you obtain these items, you just swap between the two for the rest of the game. You are the Messiah. You are the Alpha and the Omega. Nobody fucks with you anymore.

Beats the hell out of a "dig up useless shit" function.

8. MEGA MAN 6 TAKES THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.

Though Mega Man games give you the option of battling bosses in any order you so choose, the levels themselves are strictly A-to-B affairs. In Mega Man 4, I was pleasantly surprised when I came acro?ss a branching path in the fourth Dr. Cossack level. It's a welcome treat to be able to replay a level and face a whole new set of challenges.

What can Mega Man 6 do to build upon this concept, I wonder?

In contrast with 4's piddling one level, 6 features no less than eight levels with branching paths! Some of these levels even have two separate forks for a total of four possible means of stage completion! That's a lot of value on top of the already fantastic and inventive level design. The game provides 120% of your daily requirement of vitamin AWESOME, bitches!

You would think that's enough, but no! Four of main stages feature two separate exits, one guarded by a false boss and the other by a true boss. Their abilities are identical, but don??'t be fooled! Should you vanquish a false boss, you obtain his weapon and continue with the game none the wiser. Should you defeat the true boss, you will receive a special token. Only after collecting all four tokens are you allowed to summon Beat, Mega Man's avian companion.

Not that Beat's services are required, but are you just gonna settle for a gang of imposters when the real villains are out there, acting all hig??h and mighty, confident that they've succ?essfully pulled the wool over your eyes? Don't give those bastards the satisfaction of knowing they got the better of you!

9. MEGA MAN 6: THIS IS THE FINAL BATTLE.

The post Why Mega Man 6 is the best of the Mega Mans appeared first on Destructoid.

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Caution: Minor Dragon?? Age: Origins spoilers ahead for one of the many endings!

I've so rarely been enraged by a videogame as I was near the end of Dragon Age: Origins. I was a good girl! I didn't sleep with anyone else but Alistair (though Zev and Lelani were temptations). Hey, my boyfriend is probably going to be king so why blow ?it -- I could be Queen!

I went the safe route and stayed faithful. I was sooo nice to him. I managed to get him made King, and then?? he gives this little speech about how he has to break up with me now that he's going to be King. WHAT?! You bastard! 

It's funny. I can be betrayed and shot in the face in Modern Warfare 2. I can be killed, s??tabbed and flame toasted in games but being dumped is what really gets me all work?ed up, emotional and angry! My game ending sucked ... it sucked big ... it sucked royally!

But therein lies the difference between a videogame and a book. With a book, you get a crappy ending and that's it, it's all over. With a game, my first thought is check the Internet, then r??eload an earlier game save and try for a "happy" ending. I'm playing as a human female noble so according to the Internet (which never lies) my happy ending is there somewhere. Dammit, there must be some way I can be Queen, or at least get to keep my studly boyfriend. If he loved me he could at least offer to keep me on as a mistress!

I was so pissed off afte?r I finished the entire game (and he didn't change his mind about dumping me), that I've already gone back, betrayed him, had him killed, got Anora crowned Queen and replaced him with Loghain. Yes, it felt good! It's ironic but I probably spent about 35 or 40 hours with my virtual man much longer than I've spent with some boyfriends in the past (if you add up all the actual hours) so I guess I can't be surprised that after all the work I put in the relationship, I got mad when he dumped me.

This rarely happens in any other medium like books or movies. You rarely spend 35 or 40 hours on either, and it's removed from you because you aren't the one making choices. This is actually the true brillianc??e of Bioware -- that they do make you care what happens to yourself and your party members because you (the gamer) are the one making the choices. While there is still a finite number of endings, I'm still surprised by the vast number of variables that Bioware has created. Your choices right from the beginning in terms of picking your gender and race -- all the way through to your choices with your party members and plot events -- will create quite a number of very different game endings.

Meh ... maybe I'll just play the whole game again as a guy and sleep with everything, and do evil deeds and maybe try to become King! Oh... and Ali??stair gets to play the whole game in his undies and look silly! Yeah, gam?ing is so totally different from movies and books -- thank goodness!!

Revenge is sooo sweet!

The post He dumped me! That bastard! appeared first on Destructoid.

[_{Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.}]

One thing I’m grateful for in my life is growing up with a background in classical music appreciation. I remember my parents had a record of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf at home, and I would listen to it al?l the time. The depth of the music was fascinating to my little brain, especially compared to the childish Disney songs and bubblegum-pop hits of the 90’s that I’d otherwise hear on the radio. But the reason why this work helped me with understanding music was that it was specifically aimed at kids in order to teach them how to pick out leitmotifs, or unique, repeated phrases in the songs. Leitmotifs are often?? used in classical works to tell a story, and certain instruments or melodies can represent people, emotions, events, and other parts of the story. Many soundtracks still continue to use this device in their songs, and can provide interesting clues (or spoilers!) for those listening close enough. Videogames are no exception, and paying attention to details in the background music can often help come to a deeper understanding of what’s really going on behind the scenes.

One videogame that uses leitmotifs to great effect is Final Fantasy VI. Every single character has their own theme, some of which are used elsewhere in the game to signify a connection between the two. For example, Celes’ theme is quite obviously a variation on “Aria de Mezzo Carattere”, the song she performs during the famous opera sequence. It’s not just a coincidence; it represents her growth from an icy Empire general to embracing her love for Locke in the second half of the game, giving her the strength to continue living her life -- just like the character of Maria did in the opera scene. However, one song in the game stands above all the rest in terms of using and manipulating leitmotifs to tell a story, that song is Dancing Mad.

Dancing Mad is, to put it bluntly, the best fucking final boss theme in existence. (Yes, even better than One-Winged Angel!) And while I appreciated the technical mastery of the song and its use of classical styles, I didn’t fully grasp its true complexity and scope until recently. I found a good piano transcription of it earlier this year, and started learning how to play it. It wasn’t until I sat down and started picking the song apart that I recognized how it all fit together, in a perfect character study of the villain it represents. I was always bugged by the fact that Kefka seemed to be the only villain in Final Fantasy history that did not have a memorable final speech to make after the heroes defeated him. He just fades away and the tower collapses around him. Then I realized, that I was looking at his fight in the wrong way. His entire boss theme is his last speech, outlining his rise to power, and lamenting his eventual defeat. In or??der to break it down and illustrate what I mean, I’ll separate the piece into its four distinct movements.

For Reference:

"Dancing Mad" Part 1

Dancing Mad Part 2

First Movement – Intro (0:00 – 4:29)

The very beginning of this song should be familiar to those who have played through FFVI, as it’s virtually identical to another song: “Catastrophe” that played during the&helli?p;well, catastrophe on the Floating Continent where Kefka obtains ultimate magical power and effectively becomes a God. However the actual player most likely was expecting a very different payout. Everything leading up to the Floating Continent feels like the finale ?of the game. The story has already faked you out once (“Sure, suckers, we’ll stop the war and broker a peace with the Returners … NOT!”), so how many of you thought you were actually going to finally fight Emperor Gestahl for real? Only Kefka stabs him in the back and then destroys the world on his own terms.

Wait, what?

The song “Catastrophe” represents that same disappointment, by building up with powerful chords at first and then pulling back right before the climax should hit. The first movement of Dancing Mad hits that climax properly, saying “No more delays! This is really the final boss! We swear!” It downright boasts about it, with a church organ, tympanis, and pseudo-chorale vocals in the background. And, relating this to the boss itself, it represents Kefka boasting about his power as well. He’s become the source of all magic in the world and has spent the last half of the game sniping civilians with his almighty Light of Judgment from his tower, like a bored child frying ants with a magnifying glass, and now you have the audacity to c??hallenge his might? Kefka’s whole motivation for betraying Gestahl?? was gaining more power, and now he revels in his victory before your hapless band of misfits called a “party”.

Second Movement – Scherzo (4:30 – 8:12)

Power always comes at a price though, and for many villains, that price is often sanity. Okay, so Kefka was batshit to begin with, but in the first half of the game it was funny to watch him prance around in his mismatched motley circus costume … until he poisoned Doma. But then justice was served and he was put in jail, and it was funny to watch him pissed off, making empty threats at revenge … until he was released and massacred all those espers for their magicite at Thamasa and holy shit did he just kill General Leo?!

In short, Kefka seemed harmless at first, because for all his insane anger and curses, you thought that he was just another lackey of the Empire, and would either be defeated for good by your own hand, or the hand of his master if he got out of control. However, as the game continues, instead of making him less intimidating, his nuttiness makes him even scarier as his behavior becomes even more erratic and malevolent. This is all compounded in the World of Ruin where he spends his time using his ultimate power to pick off the lonely survivors for no other reason than he likes killing them. Some people argue that the best villains are ones that have sympathetic backstories, tragic heroes that made a mistake and fell from grace. Kefka is not sympathetic. He is not a tragic hero. He doesn’t care for any notion of honor, loyalty, or goodness. He&rs??quo;s a villain because it’s fun, and this movement takes a sharp turn into a sinister, disjointedly dissonant tune to signify the further descent into madness that ultimate power has brought him.

Third Movement – Toccata and Fugue (8:13 – 12:33)

This is really the most complex movement of the whole piece. It really may not seem like it, since it only involves one instrument and is probably the shortest out of the four sections. Despite this, it’s still an evocative virtuoso performance that hides several layers of meaning. First of all, it shifts from the “madness” of the second movement to a more uplifting, almost hopeful mood, reminiscent of a religious service. And if some of it sounds familiar, it’s because much of the melody has been shamelessly lifted from Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, probably the most famous organ piece of all music history. All of this serves to set up Kefka as having achieved divinity, a point that even his appearance during this part of the fight beats you over the head with. For reference, the above picture is the third tier of Kefka’s boss battle. And here is Michelangelo’s Pieta.

But instead of playing this straight, all the religious symbolism is a mockery.

In Kefka’s mind, there is nothing worthwhile in the world. No faith, no hope, no love, and certainly no gods. After all, look how easily he stole the three goddesses’ powers at the Floating Continent. He’s displaying himself as this enlightened being to try and hammer home the fact that everything that the heroes are fighting for, everything they hold dear is worthless if he is the most powerful being in the world. The savior that is represented in the Pieta is supposed to be the paragon of humanity, a physical manifestation of light and truth. By putting himself in that position,? with the glorious hymn of praise in the background, he’s d??enying the existence of that light, and saying that the only thing present in human hearts is despair and destruction.

It can be easy to overlook this layer of sacrilege and simply assume that Kefka is just another villain with a god complex. However, leitmotifs come to the rescue again! As you listen to the music, pay attention to the countermelody beginning at 8:28. It’s Kefka’s theme transposed into a different? key. Despite all the posturing, Kefka is still the same deranged clown, only dressed in a different costume out of? spite.

Fourth Movement – al Fine (12:34 – 18:38)

I’ll be honest. This part of the song always bugged me. The beginning of it opens up with a reprise of the opening theme from the very start of the game. Unlike “Catastrophe”, this song is replicated exactly, driving home the fact that you are now at the very end; the story has come full circle. Kefka’s ultimate form descends from the heaven in a blaze of glory to end it all. The rest of the song has been absurdly epic, and the player or listener assumes that the final final movement will be the coup de grace, and eagerly awaits the conclusion of this auditory masterpiece as Kefk??a delivers his final words…

And then the percussion kicks in. No more orchestration, no more pseudo-latin chanting, and the once-proud church organ has been replaced by a smaller, dinky reed organ. It was such a huge departure from the rest of the song that it was very disappointing to me at first. Then I stopped looking at it as a piece on its own, but the finale for Kefka’s character. So he’s gained ultimate power, raged against the heavens, and spat in the face of all the hopes and dreams the heroes carried with them to the final boss showdown. But despite his taunts, they’ve already beaten his twisted tower, and he’s now forced to fight all the heroes face-to-face rather than simply smiting them from above. The façade hinted at in the third movement is now apparent and rapidly crumbling away. He’s losing, and now begins to realize that ?all his power may not be enough to defeat the heroes. Why not?

If you notice the music, it’s a remix of Kefka’s theme and ”Battle to the Death”, the song that plays during the fights against Atma weapon and the three goddess statues. His final theme, the leitmotif that is supposed to represent what he stands for, stands for nothing more ??than destructive power and his own ego. All his HATE against the “chapters from a self-help booklet” cannot save him now.

And he knows it. After throwing the biggest temper tantrum of his life, the song abruptly shifts again. But instead of anger, hatred, or even fear of his impending doom, the music becomes sad. I said earlier that Kefka was not sympathetic. I retract that statement in light of this final coda. He’s spent the entire game “building a monument to nonexistence”, but now that he’s facing it himself … he has no rage left. Only acceptance. He says nothing as he ?fades away in death, as there is nothing left?? to say. His whole purpose in life was to create destruction and chaos, so being utterly destroyed himself seems a fitting end.

In conclusion, Dancing Mad is the most well-constructed, complex, and thought-provoking boss theme in videogame history. Not based on the song as a whole, but on the details and progression of the piece through the battle. It perfectly represents the villain you fight, as well as the journey through the ga?me to come to that point. Other epically-orchestrated themes may have the advantage of better sound quality as technology progressed, but the strength of this song reli?es not on the clarity of sound, but how that sound is manipulated and constructed to build a piece that stands on its own as a work of art.

Bonus Features

Live ?Orchestrated version – PLAY concert at the Sydney opera house??.
Black Mages ver. Part 1 and Part 2

The post Final Fantasy VI’s ‘Dancing Mad’, a critical analysis appeared first on Destructoid.

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

There’s this kid I used to know. Pretty decent guy all arou?nd, to be honest with you. But looking back on him, his flaws become more apparent, and perhaps none are so noticeable than those related to his gaming.

See, many of his choices were spotty at best. He spent two years on World of Warcraft, enjoying his time immensely but ignoring nearly every other game that came out during that period. He would choose a game like NFL Street over Beyond Good and Evil. Worst of all, he w?ould take lengthy breaks from gaming altogether, playing little to nothing at all besides random games already in his collection -- some old, many bad.

Worst of all, he missed out on the great offerings on entire consoles. It’s hard to say exactly why: perhaps out of financ?ial necessity, perhaps out ??of a misplaced and nonsensical sense of loyalty, and perhaps some combination of these. But the reason is unimportant, as the sad fact is that he deprived himself of great things.

Let this kid serve as a warning to you all, for this misled youth was m??e, and ??I’m still paying the price today for his past transgressions. 

There are plenty of reasons that people have? dreamed of going back in time, but I bet few of you would do so in order to change your gaming habits. Yet, thinking of the differences between the player that you are today and he or she who inhabited your growing body many years ago, how many glaring and sometimes disappointing disparities can you see? For me, there are many -- some that I alluded to above, and others that I might not even be able to identify.

For instance, I never finished Final Fantasy VII. In fact, I purchased it on release date or very near it, and played only about five hours before moving on to something else. I never played Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy IX. I got to the final boss of Final Fantasy X and never completed the game. And don’t even get me started on previous Final Fantasy games.

The even younger version of me played seemingly only the worst games of the SNES/Genesis era. Earthbound meant nothing to me until about four years ago. Super Metroid was a game that I knew about, but had no interest in. Super Mario RPG was not even a thought in my mind. Even Chrono Trigger is a game that, ?t?o this day, I have not played a single moment of.

My problems extended into the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 eras. I give them that designation because, to me, that’s what they were. I never wanted a Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Saturn, Xbox, or any other console that you could dream up. I played Sony consoles exclusively. ?Early on, I don’t know what the justification for this was, but over time, I fell into the same traps that so many people suffer. There are no good games on other consoles. Sony does it better than everyone else. I don't care about anything else.

Yet even on those console, my history is filled with failure. I purchased fantastic games only to never finish them. I ignored great games in favor of poor ones. I went years without purchasing anything new at all, finding myself consumed by World of Warcraft. What I missed out on during this time is staggeri??ng to think o?f.

It’s very possible that at least one of the admissions above has made you cringe in disgust and pity. But why? It’s because many of these games are those that you have to play. It’s a sense of obligation, and one that I ?most definitely feel.

That’s where the me of the p?resent comes in.

Obligation is a terrible feeling for the working man. A 40-hour workweek coupled with various real-life obligations leave, even for someone like me, less time than I’d like for gaming. Yet, as someone who wants to feel like he has played the best that the world of videogames has to offer, I feel a deep sense of obligation toward those games that I missed out on. I have to play The Wind Waker. Ignoring it is not an option; if greatness exists, then I must?? experience it.

But it goes deeper than obligation??. I know I’ll enjoy the hell out of these games. It’s not a matter of biting into a chocolate-covered grasshopper just to say that I did, as if it’ll enter me into some esteemed society of the hardcore. The obligation I feel is to myself, to end my self-inflicted depravation.

There is, of course, a problem: all of those pesky new games that kee??p coming out. Yes, with three pretty good consoles going right now, as well as a couple of handheld consoles that I try in vain to keep up with, time is a precious commodity even for those without a backlog. Yet mine grows daily, rolling ever on like a katamari of awesome, becoming larger and larger until it threatens to consume everything around me. Yet I must ignore this all simply to keep up with the greatness of today.

And it can all be blamed on that little bastard from my past: he who was ignorant to all that is awesome, ??he who lacked the fortitude to finish what he started, he who placed me in the impossible situation that I face today.

But this is not a post to lament the size of my backlog. Not exactly. See, a backlog is something that we all experience at some point. It’s impossible to avoid. My current situation, however, is very different. I am paying for the idiocy of my past self,?? and no matter what I do, I’ll never be able to truly repair the damage that he ??caused. Unless I find myself suddenly afflicted with the “lottery winner” status, I fear that I’ll never have the time to experience all that I know I should have experienced.

It’s deflating, quite frankly. And in the face of tine’s continu?al movement forward, I’?m helpless to do anything about it.

And so we reach the warning -- the true aim of this post. It’s wi??th an overabundance of sentiment that I deliver this warning to you, and though I struggle to find the words that will express the true gravity of my feelings, I hope they ring true.

Do not, dear friends, let yourselves become like me. Don’t lead yourselves into a pit that you cannot escape. You may not think you're doing any damage now, but you will live to regret your acti??ons or lack thereof. You will wish that you could go back and do it all again.

Yes, sometimes, experiencing all that is great is impossible. Financially??, I can’t play everything that I want to, nor do I have the time to do so. It’s extremely likely that you’re in a similar situation. Colleg??e was a busy time, and it’s no surprise that I didn’t play so many games. I do not blame my former self for this, and nor should you blame your current or former selves for circumstances out of your control.

But as I wrote above, many of the games that I missed were needlessly avoided for one reason or another. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough to finish a game, instead moving on to the new flavor of the week despite that fact that it was a piece of trash. Perhaps I was blinded by a pointless devotion to a certain console, and told myself that The Wind Waker must n??ot b??e any good if it’s only being released on the inferior Gamecube.

Even if you don’t have the me?ans to afford every? console, don’t let yourself fall into a cycle of insulting other exclusives and bolstering those on your own console. We cannot help what consoles we can afford, but we can help what we do with that fact—whether we wield it as a sharp, angry sword or keep it in its place above the mantel. The same goes for games: don’t deprive yourself of something great simply because you have some strange loyalty to a competing game.

Simply put, don’t find ways to avoid playing something great. You will regret it when your self-made barriers disappear and you’re left wondering why you didn&?rsquo;t make the most of your time while you still had enough of it.

The post A warning: Regrets from a former l??ife and e??xperiences yet unlived appeared first on Destructoid.

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Ah, Thanksgiving. A time of turkey and family for many. A few days off for those in s??chool, perhaps a full week for those in college, and at least one day for those in the working world. There’s seemingly very little about this inoffensive holiday to dislike.

Yet where there is a will, there is a way, and some among us stand?? at the gates of Thanksgiving with torches and pitchforks in hand, ready to burn that mother down in a fit of righteous anger. Perhaps they were sexually assaulted by a turkey as a young lad, or perhaps that one time that they burned down the neighborhood while cooking stuffing is burned into their memory. Whatever the case is, it is not up to me to judge. If Thanksgiving isn’t your thing, who I am to be insensitive toward your feelings?

What is left to play for a person with such a strong aversion t??o this upcoming holiday? Believe it or not, you can have a completely neutral or even anti-Thanksgiving gaming experience on your?? favorite home console or PC. Read on to see my top ten picks to get you through this difficult time. 

Medieval II: Total War

It’s unfortunate that Thanksgiving has no direct connection to war -- but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be some delicious mass bloodshed on this day of gratitude. Indeed, you can show your gratitude to the Turks by invading their lands and slaughtering all of their armies. Not only do you get to express your great love and thankfulness of war, but you also get to exact your revenge on Turkey for their part in th??is terrible, terrible holiday. Association by nomenclature, bitches.

And whi?le you’re at it, you can ask them just why Istanbul was Constantinople.

Dragon Age: Origins

Fuck birds. Seriously. Whether they fly, gobble, waddle, or cluck, one thing is shared by all of them, and I’m not talking about feathers. I’m talking about shitting. Indeed, wha?t type of animal produces more shit than a bird? What other animal has shit on you more times than a bi??rd? Scat film actors, please refrain from answering this question.

So why not spend your Thanksgiving away from your family and instead with Shale, whose hardened veins run thick with the blood of avian hatred. Share in his plight as he explores yet a deeper facet of his hatred of birds. If only the game had a turkey-punting minigame, there would only be one game on this list.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Who the hell doesn’t want to be a millionaire? It’s a stupid fucking question. A better q??uestion would be, “Hey man, do you want a shit ton of cash?”

Unfortunately, we’re not likely to be asked either of these questions in an official setting. Instead, we’re still going to work our shitty 9-5s for less-than?-optimal pay, and being a millionaire will remain out of reach for the vast majority of us.

And this holiday expec??ts us to be thankful? Please.

Instead, why not forget the holiday and win some fake millions instead? Get o?ut of that chair at the dinner table and get into the hot seat. Just remember: a turkey is not bigger than the moon.

Tobal 2

For years, the Final Fantasy series has been trying to pass off the chocobo as some sort of golden god of human transportation. But haters of Thanksgiving know the truth?? and see beyond the pee-colored façade: the chocobo is a god damn turkey.

Why not exact your vengeance upon the chocobo by beating the living shit out of it? Unfortunately, the only game in which you’ll have the opportunity to do that is Tobal 2. Show that you’re not fooled by its large size and general divergence from t??he appearance of turkeys! I don&rs??quo;t know if chocobo have balls, but if so, that is where you must kick them.

Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals (The Unauthorized PETA Edition)

You know what there’s far too little of in holidays? Overblown, self-righteous douchebaggery. I mean??, honestly, how do they expect people to celebrate without a soapbox and a misguided lif??e goal?

Well, thanks be to God for PETA, because now, we don’t have to go through Thanksgiving with any fun or happiness at all! Instead, we can kill?? a cartoon turkey that apparently has been punched repeatedly in the eyes and then proceed to pluck out its feathers, pull its organs out through its ass, stuff it with some sort of unidentifiable hairy, green goop (through its still bloody asshole, of course), saw its head off, and even cook it in the oven! When all is said and done, you’ll have a true-to-life virtual turkey, with its arteries exposed through its neck and blood still pooling at its base. Yep, just like every Thanksgiving ever. Why even bother with the real one?

MLB 09: The Show

Imagine your typical Thanksgiving Day: you sit down with your family for a dinner that is far too early to be ri?ghtfully called a dinner, and then what? You toss your asses in front of the TV for some NFL football?.

Racist. What of those people out there who don’t enjoy football? Are they just left out ??in the cold? Well, not with videogames, they aren&??rsquo;t. Now, you can wallow in your hatred of American Football by instead playing a videogame of a sport that has already ended for the season! A perfect Thanksgiving? Well, without the awkward crotch hugs from your uncle Jim, yeah, pretty much.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Americans have a great burde??n to live with that was passed on by our ancestors: the troubling ??history of the start of America. Wednesday Addams said it best in her stunning metaperformance when she declared, as Pocahontas,

"Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims. And especially do not trust Sarah Miller. For all these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground."

By why focus on that when you can instead play as a couple of Old West Americans and kill a bunch of Indians for no real good reason? Yeah, that sounds much better, doesn’t it? Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood lets you do this and more on your quest for an old Aztec treasure. Best of all, you can do all of this as a lecherous old man as he turns into a lecherous old man who carries a bible around. This, friends, is what Thanksgiving is all about.

Custer’s Revenge

Nevermind. I'm not tou?ching this one with a four-inch pole. Get?? it? Four-inch pole? SICK BURN.

World of Warcraft

Screw real Thanksgivings. The smell of the roasting turkey is perhaps even worse than the pine smell that fills the house at Christmas, and all of that real conversation is so dreadfully dull. Why not have a greatly reduced experience in a virtual land? World of Warcraft will offer it to you.

The best part is that you act??ually get some benefit out of the holiday this way. Simply sit your virtual ass down in a chair, eat some virtual food, and get your character a 10% reputation gain buff, which probably does something really important maybe. Either way, it’s way, way better than actually eating real food and having to interact with those family members that you don’t see more than one a year, right?

You can also get a weapon that covers the target with turkey feathers. PETA will be thril??led to know where all of those feathers came from.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Perhaps the worst part of Thanksgiving for a gamer is being face-to-face?? with people that you don’t like. Over the Internet, you’re free?? to say whatever you want about people, despite the fact that you’re actually completely unsure of what their sexual orientation and race happens to be.

But at Thanksgiving, your anonymity is taken away, as is your phony sense of confidence. You lack the balls to laugh at your father as he burns the turkey and drops the stuffing on the floor. You’re too chicke??n to teabag the cranberry sauce. You’re loath to call your 4-year-old cousin a variety of racial slurs because she’s not so good with the knife. And you’re not about to start throwing a hissy fit when your parents reveal their plans to go camping.

So why bother? Instead, stay in your comfort zone in your anonymous world of idiocy, and wish ?all of those fags a ver?y Happy Thanksgiving.

So, all of you anti-turkey activists out there, this list will? hopefully give you a good idea of what to do on your most hated holiday. Tell your family just where they can stuff the stuffi?ng and get on to enjoying the day. These ten games should last you for quite a while…at least until Christmas rolls around and Santa comes down the chimney to club you with a soap bar in a sock. Again.

The post Top ten games for people who hate Thanksgiving appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]}

This post may contain spoilers of spoilers and nautical navigation.

Gamers are like horseflies. They’re drawn to sh*t. Just as the horsefly seeks out the stinkiest, most putrid piles of crap in which to lay their eggs, gamers seek out the most ridiculous, embarrassing topics to roll around in like a proverbial pile of mind feces, diving in headfirst as if they’re Scrooge? McDuck going for an afternoon swim in his money bin.

This is nothing new to the sane gamers here, but there’s still one thing that has the power to get nearly all of us riled. It’s not dedicated servers or any other recent debate, sane or not. It’s something far more Keyser Soze, if you?’ll allow me the indulgence of using a proper noun as an adjec??tive.

It’s the plague of the spoilers, which seem to be coming like a swarm of locusts lately, filling your favorite social network with angry posts and warnings not to watch videos or use any of those Internets. But are spoilers really that bad, and why do they seem like a far more troubling problem in games than any other storytelling medium? It’s because we’re too damn neurotic. If you want to sail the seas, but you don’t want to get wet, you’d better learn the fine art of staying below the poop deck. 

Think back to the last major film spoiler that you experienced. If you’re anything like me, you can’t actually remember one. Sure, CNN spoiled an episode of House for basically the entire country, but aside from that, nothing much comes to my mind. And no one liked Kutner? anyway. He’s got the expressiveness of Nicolas Cage and the likability of a radroach.

The last gaming spoiler, however, is probably much fresher in your memory. Perhaps it was even just this week. A particular level in the new Modern Warfare? Something related to Dragon Age? True story: while writing this paragra?ph, someone “spoiled” something for me in Gchat. They seem to be an unavoidable no matter what you do. When faced with a sea of spoilers, what do we do to remain among the ignorant for as long as we want to?

The reality is that people like ???us can’t do much. We are part of a site that discusses videogames. A presence here mixed with an expectation of avoiding all spoilers is truly like suggesting a nice dip in the Atlantic Ocean without the expectation of getting wet. There’s no way.

Unless, of course, there is. The ancient world realized that walking took too damn much effort, and swimming was even worse, so why not build a boat? It does all of the floating and moving for you, and you stay dry up until the poi?nt that you vomit down the front of yourself.

Avoiding spoilers in gaming is much the same, only with less regurgitation. “Building a ?boat,” in this insanely stretched metaphor, has to do with ?learning to navigate and staying afloat.

The stars serve as guides for navigators even today, allowing a sea ca??ptain to know the direction that he’s heading even if no other clues are present. Similarly, gamers need to be aware of the navigational clues that will allow them to avoid spoilers if they choose to do so. Much of this is not a matter of expecting others to do the work for you. People are probably going to discuss the story in the official thread of this year’s biggest game, and if you aren’t expecting this to happen, you’re kind of a lame duck. No matter what, someone’s going to say something that you haven’t learned yet, and they may or may not realize that this could be a spoiler for? you.

So, if spoilers are that atrociously damaging to your enjoyment of a game, consider how you navigate the Internet. Even sailors must dea?l with the occasionally wave that crashes against the hull, sending a fine mist of seawater onto the deck. You’re going to have minor things spoiled for you, and if you’re not prepared to have that happen, then maybe clicking on that gameplay video or reading that latest preview isn’t the greatest idea.

Staying afloat is simply a matter of your attitude, not letting the occasional spoiler fill your lungs and deprive you of oxygen. It’s a matter of attitude here; not every spoiler needs to be fuel for your nerd rage. I recently made a satirical Twitter post about how upset I was about learning the massive “spoiler” contained in this whole Modern Warfare 2 terrorist debate. And you know what? People thought I was ??100% serious.

It speaks to just how overboard people go when it comes to spoilers. Unlike films, we consider settings, weapons, character appearances, and the most minor of game design elements to be spoilers. We wouldn’t get angry at a trailer for Iron Man II because it shows Iron Man in a public restroom, would we? Then why get pissed when a game reveals a new level in a game? I acknowledge that there’s a sense of wanting the game to be totally fresh, but there’s an even larger disconnect here in that games involve interactivity, whereas movie?s do not. Even if we see a gameplay video of a new level, we don’t have the experience of playing it yet. We have no idea what that’s going to be like unless we sit through the whole thing, which would just be stupid.

For instance, did anyone get pissed at Uncharted 2 for revealing the falling train section so early? If you ask me, it’s the most thrilling part of the game (which the developers seemed to realize since they make you play the damn thing twice), yet it&rs?quo;s also present everywhere in the coverage of th??e game—even on magazine covers. Oh, spoilers, by the way.

The benefit we gamers have is that we get to experience something in a way that’s deeper than just the look of a film or the plot contained in a book. We may learn that Drake dies at the end of Uncharted 2 (he doesn’t, it’s just a spoiler-free example of a spoiler, which is totally anti-meta), and, yes, this would suck a bit. But we also have an entire game to play through before this event -- plenty more to learn, and many reasons to become attached to this character that we’ve inhabited for however many hours. How much, then, is the impact of this changed by the fact that we know it’s coming? Somewhat, I concede, but it’s not the enjoyment-ruining work of the devil h?imself that some make it out to be.

So, should we start throwing spoilers around like water chestnuts in a cheap Chinese restaurant’s poor excuse for moo goo gai pan*? Absolutely not. The desire to avoid spoilers is a good thing, as anything that could potentially increase a person’s enjoyment of a game is a worthy pursuit indeed. But I think a paradigm shift in the way that we react to those inevitable spoilers would do us a lot of good. It may not be easy, and we may still want to rage a little, but over time, we might be able to learn to accept spoilers when they do happen, and simply avoid th?em whenever possible.

*this is the most ridiculous com?parison I ??have ever made.

The post Stayin?g dry in a sea of spoiler??s is a matter of building a boat appeared first on Destructoid.

[Editor's note: craineum is at it again with his Halloween costumes. Last year, he made his kids Mega Man and Kid Icarus outfits. This year, his kids are dressing up as Yoshi and Mario. Sweet! -- CTZ]

I really like doing themed costumes for my family. Last year we went as members of the? Captain N: The Game Master television show. While that was fun and very successful, I wanted to let my oldest pick who he wanted to be this ??year.

He started off saying that he wanted to dress up as Mega Man again. I talked with him about how much fun we had build?ing the Mega Man costume, trying it on and seeing it become this really cool suit. Then I explained to him we could build something new so we get to have all that fun over again. He was sold.

We did some research trying to work in the themed idea. We got it down to two options: Yoshi or Astroboy. It really wasn't much of a c??ompetition, Yoshi was his choice. I was hoping that he would choose Astroboy since it would be pretty similar to the Mega Man costume, but in hindsight I am glad he didn't.

With Yoshi we were going to make his little brother be Baby Mario. Actually, my oldest wanted his little brother to ??be Luigi (I am guessing because the little one has a Luigi plushie while he has a Mario), but the little one really liked the idea of being Mario.

I wanted to dress up as something, but didn't think I woul?d have the time to do Bowser, which seemed the obvious choice. I also didn't ??want to take away from the kids. So this year I will go without.

With the costumes decided I went to work on design. Baby Mario would be pretty easy, so my main concern was Yoshi. I wanted to build Yoshi to scale?, ie Yoshi's head is about the same size as?? his body. My 4-year-old is the perfect size and strength to be able to pull this off. I hadn't seen a costume like this out there, and thought it would be really fun to do.

From there I started working. I failed hard with the first attempted Yoshi head. But my sons words of wisdom kept me focused. ??We finished up everything just in time and you can check out how both costumes were made after the break. 

Baby Mario
Build Time:

5 hrs
Cost: $20

The Hat
How to Build

I gave the idea o?f using the hat as a base and adding some ??filler.

The Shirt & Overalls
How to Build

Just a ?simple long sleeve shirt made of red cotton fabric. Its amazing how much stuff we have around the house. I kid you not, we did not have to purchase those big yellow buttons for this build. The rest is made with blue cotton fabric. Could have used regular blue jean overalls, but this looks more toony.

Super Mushroom Basket
How to Build

I wish I would have made it a little mo?re interesting of a shape, but still love how it came out. Love how easy and fun this part of the project was.

Yoshi:
Build Time: 18 hrs
Cost: $100

The cost and build time do not include the first failed attempt, or all the t??hings I did that were part of the learning experience.

The Head
How to Build

This took the long??est and was the most complicated for both me and my mother-in-law who did all the fabric patterns and sewing. My ti??me was about 5 hours of carving, gluing, and hollowing out. Also making the mounting and chin strap.

The Suit
How to Build

This was all my mother-in-law with a little dir??ection from me.

The Shoes
How to Build

I spent? probably less than an hour carving these shoes.

Yoshi Egg Basket
How to Build

Again, these ?things were the easiest/cheapest part of the costumes, and so very very effective.

Pictures of them being worn:

More in the gallery, and more in the directions on how to ??build.

The post ??BabaGeek:?? Halloween 2009 Custom Yoshi Mascot and Baby Mario Costumes Finished appeared first on Destructoid.

[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]  

[Y0j1mb0's note: I wrote this a year ago but thought it appropriate to share with you once again due to megaStryke's latest blog. This isn't so much a response blog as it is what immersion in videogames ultimately means to me. ]

What is immersion

the act of immersing or the state of being immersed: as a : baptism by complete submersion of the person in water b : absorbing involvement

What is a game?

A 'game' is a structured or semi-structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes also used as an educational tool.

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interactivity. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both.

Known to have been played as far back as the 30th century BC, games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.

-- via Wikipedia

So what is a great game? Find out after the jump.

This is more subjective and one where Wikipedia may have a harder time detailing to the masses. I'l?l attempt to tackle that query as well as what ultimately makes a game or specifically a videogame be an experience that I keep coming back to repeatedly due to immersion and what that encompasses to?? me personally.

A great game to me has always been about an indescribable hook that immediately catches your interest. Be it the story, the look, the very nature or feel of the game in question. The best games have all of those wrapped up with sublime control and music from the Gods. Some don't have all those prerequisites but only few of them and those are still considered great because what they get right, blankets what they get wrong. It doesn't matter that the game is short or if it doesn't have multiplayer. Quite the contrary, I tend to think the best games are single-player affairs. Th??ey are more intimate and there are no com?petitive component in them to make you stressed or feel inadequate.

Right about now some of you are wondering what the heck does this have to do with immersion and videogames. Simple, if the game can accomplish what I just described, not only has it just entered the status of a? g?reat game, it has also crossed over to the exclusive club of games that are exquisitely immersive, because while you may shelve it after completing, it will beckon you back into its world again.

"Oompa!" or the process of Immersion.

I have used games as recreational disposable trysts to genuine escapes from reality when times ??got rough. But ever since I picked up a controller a long time ago, I felt the wonder of controlling something in front of my TV and that ?magic I felt as a kid still thrives in abundance within me to this day. That wonder I feel as a gamer is synonymous with immersion. While one would think immersion is an action solely based on you and the amount of commitment personally rationed, it still needs coaxing. The games with the most absorbing qualities have this in abundance. Earlier I said a great game to me has always been about an indescribable hook that immediately catches your interest, yet the more I think about it, it's akin to a key that unlocks that special door to the game world, making it all the more easier to step through into a game designer's vision.

Truly gifted game designers place those keys squarely in the palm of your hand to make it easier for you to immerse yourself in their world. Once that synergy is accomplished, that umbilical cord tethering you to the game doesn't fall off. It's still there, even after you finish the game. You may move on to something else but eventually it will pull you back to exp??erience it again and ag?ain. Maybe once every three months or once a year but its seductive call will lure you back to enter its world once more.

New Worlds.

Being an older gamer I don't take for granted how much the game industry and games in general have grown throughout the years. From Pac Man, Super Mario World, Castlevania, to Deus Ex, System Shock and Half Life. Technology is forever growing making new games something that as a kid I never would of imagined controlling but game developers need to really think what about what makes games have good replay value because I'll be honest, it isn't downloadable content or even oodles of unlockables be it CG? movies, a different outfit for your character, or achievemen?ts/trophies, though they do play a small part.

It's creating something new, something fresh, something that grabs you by your balls and wanks. I'm not saying ever??ything has to be?? original, I'm saying that what you do create put a new spin on it, give it a new look, drench us in an atmosphere that slaps us in the face as soon as we begin playing. You know, games that even the menu evoke a small amount of appreciation on our part because they took the time to make it fit to the game at hand.

Examples: Half Life 2's menu is a simple snapshot of a scene in the game, but it's made more effective for it's simplicity and gelling with everything throughout. Down to the haunting sounds and minimal music if you just let it sit idle. Better still, depending on where you save, the menu image changes. That's care poured in by the developers. Same with Dead Rising and it's menu. The walking dead shuffling about outside the mall with a slight fog caressing their feet. A drea??mlike image that hooks you. And that's just the damn game menu of the games folks!

As I stated before, it doesn't have to be a graphically gorgeous game but what it does offer should be engaging. I've played Castlevania Symphony of the Night quite a few times. Guess what? I'll play it again too. I make it a point to play Ico at least twice a year to remind myself what gaming is all about again because I sometimes forget. I love the next interactive piece of gray colored violence like the next man, but I think in our rush to satisfy our blood lust we lose perspective in what drew us to gaming in the first place ... and no it wasn't Halo, Gears of War or GTA with their disposable mythologies in tow.

It's games that immersed you completely in their worlds. From entering Ico's dreamlike world, to flying in Dragoon Orta's beautiful vistas, attempting to slay epic giants in Shadows of Colossus, to being a plumber trying to save a pr??incess named Peach, the absorbing value in those games for me are immeasurable. My community colleague megaStryke sta??tes in his latest piece:

Just like vision, "immersion" is just another wall for console warriors to hide behind when what they really mean is that a game should come to their machine and not to yours.

Respectfully, I beg to differ. It has nothing to do with whatever console a game is played, nor is the terminology a nonsense buzzword. Truth be told, immersion and graphics don't always necessarily go hand in hand. Graphics, while a part of immersion, are merely just another tool of many in a developer's repertoire to get the job done. Just because you may find some using the perceived buzzword to just??ify whatever fanboyish agenda doesn't mean that word is now devalued. Like good books read, enjoyed and then read again finding an even richer experience the next go around, to me great videogames all boil down to these nine words in a form of a question:

What new worlds can you immerse me in today?

The post ‘Immersion’, videogame worlds and you. appeared first on Destructoid.

[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.] 

Warning! This post contains heavy spoilers for Mother 1 and Earthbound/Mother 2. Proceed at your own risk!

Note: Within in this post Giygas is called by two names; Gieuge (as he is called during the events of Mother 1/Earthbound 0) and Giygas (as he is called during the events of Earthbound/Mother 2.) These both refer to the same character, and are merely two different romanizations of his name, each being used in the translation of their respective game. While like Porky and Pokey, either work, it makes for an easy way to distinguish between the two very diffrent froms of Giygas, and serves as a nice way to highlight the horrific change he undergoes. Hope that clears up any confusion!

Preface: First off, thanks to the countless people I harassed into proofreading this for me, and the awesome Joel for photoshopping my fabulous header. I love you all! My greatest challenge in writing this was to balance the concrete with the theoretical, and the factual with the dramatization, and to make sure it didn't end up sounding like bad fanfiction XP Hopefully I succeeded on all of these fronts and you'll at least get some enjoyment out of the wall of text that is to follow!

In the pantheon of great videogame villains, there are quite a few truly sick bastards. Characters like Kefka, The Doctor, Sander Cohen and Lavos are wholly and unrepentantly evil. But above all these fine specimens of virtual nefarity stands, or rather swirls, one inhuman monster: Giygas, the Universal Cosmic Destroyer, and main villain of Earthbound. You see, Gigyas is evil, not in the sense that he's a dastardly character, but in that he is the literal embodiment of evil itself. Dwelling on a plane of existence we can't even co?mprehend, Giygas lacks not only a body but a mind. He is a senseless "living" force of despair, wrecking apocalyptic havoc throughout out the cosmos.

But the fact is, he wasn't always a incomprehensible entity of sin. In fact, Giygas started out as something not too different from you and I, with feelings, a conscience, and even someone he loved. Join me, as I embark on a journey through the darkest and most tragic depths of the Mother series, and into the mind of its most terrible horror. We'll paint the psychological portrait of evil itself, because tonight we'll delve into Giygas, the most tragic villain I've ever encountered.

Part 1: (Mother 1)

In the majority of psych??iatric cases, the roots of evil can be traced back to the early, formative years, and Giygas (or Giegue as he was called then) is no exception. Born to a mysterious alien race, the root of all Giegue's future turmoil comes from his unusual parenting. He wasn't beaten, abuse??d or neglected, instead, little Giegue was shown love.

His "mother" was a woman named, Maria, who along wit?h her husband George, were abducted from Earth by Giegue's race. For whatever reason, they were given the task of raising the soon-to-be prodigy. Whether this was a standard practice for the unnamed race or not can only be guessed at, but judging from the cold indifference of the Starmen army, and Giegue's later actions, one can plainly see that Maria and his relationship was anything but routine. The former truly loved her extraterrestrial charge, and gladly went above and beyond the call of duty, nurturing, teaching and even singing lullabies to her adopted "son." An act which seemed to move Gieuge emotionally even at a young age; as Maria later recounts "He was always wagging his tail, just like a pup … except for when I tried to sing him lullabi??es … " and the two fast formed a bond that can only exist between a mother and her child.

You can probably see where this is going.

While not performing his paternal duties, George kept himself occupied by studying his alien captors' fantastic power: PSI. Once he figured out the secrets behind it (a seemingly herculean feat, but bear in mind, George was quite the clever fellow, as evidenced by his final masterpiece, and the player's savior: EVE) George flew the coop, escaping back to Earth, bringing his new found abilities with him, but leaving Maria behind. Before you get all up in arms though, no further information of his departure is given besides that, and knowing her relationship with the young alien, it's entirely possible that?? she stayed out of choice, instead of being abandoned. All? is speculation though.

As you might guess, George's Promethus-like actions had grave consequences. Three generations later, the unknown race launched their offensive. Giegue had been tasked with exterminating humanity and halting the spread of PSI from Earth, and pulled out all the stops to accomplish his goal. Legions of Starmen, robots and psychically enraged hippies swarmed over the Earth with a mission to enslave and destroy. Humanity may very well have been wiped out, had it not been for a rag-tag group of heroes led by a small 12-year-old boy. Great-grandson of George and Maria, Ninten, used his considerable PSI power to lead his friends to victory against the massive alien army, only to find himself having to face its awe-ins?piring leader: Gieuge himself.

Bonus information time! Be honest now, when you first saw Gieuge, your mind first went to Mewtwo of Pokemon fame. It's more then just a coincidence, several members of the Mother staff worked on Pokemon Red and Blue, and brought their Gieuge design with them. The more you know! Back to your regularly scheduled post:

Try as they might, the brave little warriors were unable to put a dent in their final foe, and with Gieuge's unending barrage of incomprehensible attacks, Earth's defeat seemed secured. But before we delve into the next portion of the fight, we need to take the time to examine just how Gieuge was able to not only bring himself to wage war on the home world of his beloved mother, but to be ready to kill her very own great-grand relative, his own nephew; because what he c??hose to do, will not only ensure? his loss against Ninten, but the loss of his body and mind, and his eventual defeat by the prayers of a child.

Gieuge was torn, he loved Maria and even George, and knows that a large part of him is unwilling to hurt them, and by extension humanity. There's no place for compassion in the Starmen army though, and so Gieuge took on a cold outlook, repressing his emotions, and detaching himself from his mother, rendering him able to wage total war on Earth. Memories can ?only be suppressed though; never destroyed. And as he watched his adopted nephew falter under the weight of a final assault, pity seems to have welled up inside Gieuge, and his cold facade cracked th??e tiniest smidge. In a truly pitiable moment, Gieuge made his adopted kin a last minute proposition: "Ninten! You alone, I may save you. Just you alone. Board our Mother Ship with me." And with that, Gieuge's deepest desire was revealed; beyond all the war and invasion, he just wanted a friend; his family back, and was willing to put aside his mission to get such. But Ninten heroically refused, and Gieuge redoubled his attack, never again to be fazed by the trite emotion called "love".

Until Ninten starts singing:

Throughout the course of their adventure, Ninten and friends visited the enigmatic dream world known as Magicant, wherein dwelled the mysterious Queen Mary. An amnesiac, she requested that the heroes sing her favorite melody to help her to re?store her memories. Upon tracking down the full song and performing it for her, the queen at last remembered her identity as Gieuge's Maria. And in her final musing on how she at last rest in peace, Maria tells the party a key story about how she used to sing that song to young Gieuge as a lullaby.

This little ditty turned out to be the party's greatest weapon, and as they began to sing, Gieuge grew rapidly agitated as his facade of cold indifference was smashed apart, and the memories, and emotions, and love he fought oh so hard to suppress came rushing back, bringing the great alien leader to his figurative knees as he pleads with the heroes to stop. It's too late though, and Gieuge was forced ?to face the unbreakable bond he shares with Maria (and you thought Sephiroth was a mama's boy) and realizes he could never escape it, or hurt the species that had raised him. Unable to continue his assault, Gieuge retreated from Earth, but not before vowing revenge on his accursed great-nephew, and Earth as a whole.

Part 1.5: (Transition)

Next to nothing is known about what exactly transpired between Mothers 1 and 2. The only thing we can be sure of is the results. Gieuge turned from a tragic figure, torn between his desire to wage a war of vengeance against humanity, and his loving memories which keep him from being able to do so, to Giygas, a mindless, formless monstrosity, wrecking uncontrollable and undiscerning havoc, and eventually destroying not just Earth but the universe itself. (That is until Ness and co. traveled?? back in time to defeat him and change the future, but I'm not even gonna try to delve into the time paradoxes of these events)

How exactly this transition occurred is left masterfully ambiguous (as is much of the Mother series) and all were given is that he somehow amassed enough evil power to enter his hellish state (which is likely as good an explanation as we could get, as like much of Giygas,?? the exact processes are probably impossible for the human mind to even comprehend).

We can only guess as to why Gieuge would do this to himself, but based on his past actions, and his deep (although not quite deep enough, or he'd have been capable of it) desire to sever his bond and love for Maria, and thus be able to openly wage war on humanity; I think it's fair to presume that Gieuge underwent his terrible transmogrification in the hopes of destroying and surpassing his emotions, so that at last he could have his revenge (in fact, Earthbound's Japanese subtitle roughly translates to Gieuge Strikes Back.) And while he succeeded, Gieuge's triumph came at a price. He was now Giygas: no longer sentient, or even a physical entity. He had become a living (in the most foreign and strange s??ense of the word) concept, evil given an incomprehensible form. No longer even conscious of his actions (or even of his very existence), without the confines of the Devil's Machine, he would annihilate the entire universe with his uncontrollable might. Through his imprisonment, Giygas' powers were sealed and channeled; able to command his vast robotic Starmen army and a soon to be amassed Earthly army either through eerie conduits like his Mani Mani Statue or with good old fashion possession.

And although his precise motives at this juncture of time can never?? be empirically determined, I think it's safe to say that this is not what Gieuge had in mi??nd when he sought out to rid himself of Maria. His ties to humanity are so fundamental to his existence, that Gieuge had to destroy himself to get rid of them. Whether he wanted it or not though, Gieuge was now Giygas, The Universal Cosmic Destroyer, and he would soon live up to his name.

Part 2: (Earthbound/Mother 2)

10 years after Earthbound (but before the events of it occurred, lol pime taradox) Gieuge unleashed his power upon the universe, bringing all into devastation. From this charred reality came Buzz Buzz, a clever alien who traveled to the past to seek out a certain young boy with the potential to defeat Giygas, preventing this terrible fate. To unleash his power, Ness traveled across the globe; recruiting friends (Jeff, Paula and Poo) and channeling the Earth's power so as to stop the greatest evil ever known. While the story of that adventure is amazing, and well worth hearing, Giygas is notably absent from it. Until they met him face to "face", our heroes (and the player) had no clue what to expect (or a false one if they've played Mother 1.) All they've seen is his reach, the possessed people, beasts, taxi cabs and multitudes of robots and Starmen that cover the Eart?h, but nothing of the puppet master behind it al?l. It is with that mentality that the player is sent to the past, where Giygas' center of command is based, to stamp out the ultimate evil. Stripped of their very humanity, the four lost heroes traversed through a barren pre-historic cave, and into the lair of the beast, only to be faced with the ominous mystery of the Devil's Machine, and the cold laugh of an all too familiar foe. The puppet master is revealed, but it's the obnoxious Pokey Minch (a villain worthy of a psychoanalysis of his own ... hint hint) holding the reins.

In his vulnerable state, Giygas had been reduced to a mere weapon, albeit it one with the power to destroy the universe. Not exactly the best thing to hand to a budding maniac. And with one last taunt Porky attacked. The battle that ensued is nothing short of amazing, and one I've written about extensively (shameless plug is shameless), ?but what's key to this topic is how it ende??d:

Frustrated by the resilience of his old rivals, Porky demonstrated the full extent of his lunacy, turning off the Devil's Machine and releasing Hell itself. Giygas was almost totally undefeatable in his physical form; and doubly so in his ethereal one. Even whilst imbued with the full power of the earth itself, the four chosen heroes could put nary a dent in the monstrosity. While he bombarded them with incomprehensible attacks (which were probably on a level of thinking even higher then Gieuge's, unable to be fathomed by any sentient life) the four attacked in vain, unable to combat the sheer power of the living notion of evil. And as one by one they began to waver, Paula let out one last prayer for help "...Please give us strength, if it is possible... Please... Somebody...... help us??."

And from that prayer came a miracle.

We all know the story from here on, and how the heroes win end up persevering over the greatest of foes, but what's crucial is to dissect why. Paula's telepathic prayer set off a chain reaction, suddenly across the globe friends of the chosen four remembered them and their heroic struggle, and in turn prayed for the heroes as well. And at last Giygas falters, a crack in his impenetrable armor. Paula prayed again, and again, each time more and more friends were struck with thoughts of the Ness, Jeff, Paula and Poo, and wished for their safety and successes, and each time Giygas was struck with another terrible blow, as countless people (and even the player them self) sent their prayers, encouragement and most importantly their love. Bats, rockets and PSI couldn't fell this Lovecraftian horror, but the quintessential human emotion, and Giygas; eternal thorn in his side would finally bring about his end (That's right, this shit just got all Harry Potter.)

Like his first defeat so many years ago, Giygas simply couldn't handle this pure, earnest and powerful display of the most noble of feelings, because even in his destroyed, hideous, unconscious state. Giygas still was who he always was; Gieuge, an alien cursed by Maria with the capacity to love. Throughout the fight, the surreal dialog he transmits only?? serves to underline this truth. "Ness ... Ness ... " "I'm h...a...p...p...y". While the first is easily explained, through the Apple of Enlightenment, Giygas became so obsessed with destroying Ness, the precipitator of his downfall, that even in his shattered state, he can "think" (can thoughts the thinker doesn't even know he's thinking truly be considered thoughts?) about him. The latter is more ambiguous though, but it would seem that Giygas is unconsciously reaching out to Ness, like he did to Ninten, simply trying to make a friend he can love. Which fits, because deep down at his very core, Giygas just wanted to love and be loved, and in his monstrous form all but his very core is stripped away, and even that is clouded by his pure unbridled and unconscious insanity.

To further this, is the oodles of infantile symbology. The Devil's Machine looks a hell of a lot like a cervix, and as this infamous image above shows: the spaces between Giygas' final form make out the distinct shape of a fetus, which again makes an astounding amount of sense. Despite being largely uncontrollable senseless evil, here is some of Gieuge left deep inside Giygas, but it is his most pure and regressed self. His basic instincts and fundamental needs, a base state compounded upon by Giegue's infantile psyche even when he's at his sanest. Above all his other issues and grievances, in his heart of hearts, Gieuge really just wants his mommy ba?ck, or at the very least someone to fill that void. Fate is cruel indeed, and while Gieuge was lucky to have been able to experience the joys of of love, there was no place for it in?? his alien society, and without Maria no way to fufill it. Try as he might to suppress it, the need to again feel that joyous emotion forever remained with Gieuge, even when he didn't remain with himself, giving him his one Achilles' Heel.

As Franky, Dr. Andonuts, Ness' parents, the Mr. Saturns, Tony and you the player?? prayed for the heroes, Giygas too felt the love sent to the four bravest, and once again, his true "Gieuge" self stirred, shattering the facade of Giygas and, with nothing else left, finally disintegrated to rest in peace.

I once described this moment as the abortion of a cosmic fetus (as explained, Giygas is a sick combination of pure evil and the core infantile emotions and needs of Gieuge, a being totally unaccountable for its actions) and while I still stand by that, I now realize it's a process of galactic euthanasia as well. Unable to express his true self and feelings, Gieuge was doomed to failure from his birth, and through his attempts to combat his unwanted feelings of love, he sunk himself into an abominable hellish nightmare. By the time of Earthbound it was much too late, he had destroyed himself so thoroughly that completing the process could be his only release. One can only hope that the whatever afterlife the Mother universe has extends to him as well, so that at le?ast reunite with Maria and George, and be the Gieuge he so deeply longed to be.

And that is the life and times of Giygas. Like the venerable Aaron Linde, each time I delve into the world of Earthbound, I come out of it with a deeper and more profound understanding of the themes it tries to convey. I won't deny, I wrote this post without any real plan at first, other than some loosely correlated thoughts, and so the notion of Gieuge as a tragic hero is as new to you as it is to me. I hope you enjoyed this psychological journey, and would LOVE to hear whatever thoughts you have on the matter! I hope you'll join me again next time, when I explore the mind of the other Mother a??rchvillain. A certain piggy misanthrope who we all love to hate .??.. See you soon!

The post Giygas: A psychoanalysis of evil Itself appeared first on Destructoid.

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Everything comes at a price. It's just one of those concepts that seems to elude many people. Wander around?? gaming sites for long enough and you will start to hear a grating, high-pitched noise. Draw closer and it will be joined by another. Then another. Before long, the air will be filled with a twisted cacophany of self-entitlement and uninformed judgement. It is nothing less th?an an army of squeaky wheels.

What do they want? Well, that depends on when you ask that particular question. If you ask relatively early in the development process, the answer is almost exclusively "better graphics". Check out the comments to game previews on most sites, or spend some quality time with Jonathan Ross' excellent Fanboy Friday series and you will invariably see some pe??rmutations of the? following:

"DO NOT WANT. This game looks like shit."

"Whatevs this looks leik a PStwo game lazy bastards."

"Lolz @ kiddie graphics art stylez -- this is Diablo 3 not f*&^^ing fraggle rok 3"

Now ask that question a second time? once the game has been released and you'll get a very different answer. The same outspoken Internet armchair qua??rterbacks always return, but this time they're squeaking about something else.

What do they want now? Everything else, of course! Having clamored for better visuals and gotten the??m, it's now time to stare across the fence and engage in some serious green vs. greener comparisons. Find these same commenters after the reviews have been posted and listen to the change in tune:

"pretty game, too bad it handles like a tractor, LOL!"

"you gave this a 9.0????!?!?! if it weren't forthe graphix this game would be a 5 at best, moneyhat much?"

"I already have games that are only good for looking at. They're called movies."

When you wish upon a paw. . .

You simply cannot have it both ways

Now, I could go on for another 20-30 paragraphs about how this kind of vitriolic two-faced behavior makes me feel. Double that length if I included my plans fo??r what I fantasize doing to them with a used car battery, a sack of Susan B. Anthony dollar coins, a starving possum, the opportunity, and a lack of any social consequences for my actions.

Suffice to say for now, I feel that this type of conduct is self-evidently idiotic. While it might be emotionally fulfilling to switch on RAGE! ?mode and fire an incendiary salvo right into the heart of Squeaky HQ, that t??ype of response doesn't produce any meaningful results other than stirring the hornets' nest.

Now, I'm not a game developer either, so I won't claim to be a subject matter expert. However, I have picked up a few life skills in the process of walking my path over the years. One of the most useful to me has been the a?pplication of logic and reason to my emo??tional responses prior to expressing myself. This ensures that when I make a request, it is realistic and shows due consideration for what the other party is being asked to accomplish.

We're all ne?rds here, right? Good. Then let me make my point with a familiar topic as ?an analogy.

Pictured : My industry credentials.

Rudimentary physics as game development

The law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in a closed system remains constant. How is this pertinent to our squeaky friends? Simple. The game d??evelopment cycle is a variety of closed system where the resources are fini??te. The time-frame, people power, and budget are usually well-defined before the work ever begins.

Yes, there are plenty of tim??es where a game is delayed or additional?? resources are added to the mix. However, even in those cases a developer will still avoid dedicating more resources to a project than they can reasonably expect to recoup in sales and revenues. So at some point there is still a hard-line limit to what a dev team can reasonably expect to accomplish with any given game.

A corollary of the law of conservation of energy is that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only change form. So with a finite amount of resources, if you increase the level of resources devoted to any single?? facet of game development, then another area must necessarily lose resources.

This is true in th??e hardware -- once you've learned to push a console or PC to its limits, you have to begin compromising. Graphics has to share space in the queue with AI, animation, physics, sounds, etc. When you level up the graphics you also level down one of these other facets.

In the development cycle, the time and human resources placed into one area limits the amount you can place into another. Creating art assets, ani??mating, level desi??gn, sound design, game engine creation, play testing, balancing, debugging and more all factor into the picture and compete for time and energy.

Disappointed theoretical physicist is disappointed.

In conclusion

When a mechanical system is inefficient, some potential energy is lost into the trans??fer to kinetic energy. This lost energy usually changes form into heat energy. When an intellectual system is inefficent, people getting steamed and overheated is also a natu?ral byproduct. Cool down, squeaky wheels. Let's have a drink and rationally discuss our differences -- it IS said that alcohol is a social lubricant.

So, to the squeaky among you -- stop making absolute statements and then harshly judging the ??fruits of an allocation process that you had a hand in creating. It doesn't matter if your priorities or preferences are different from mine or anyone else's. But please, give me some context to understand your position from. Tell me which slider you'd pull back on to make room for your demands.

The post A plea to the squeaky wheel, with science! appeared first on Destructoid.