Just in time for March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown, here's an update on The Escapist's game industry power rankings!
Op-Ed
In Burnout: Paradise you have access to a vast network of intertwined roadways from the moment your engine sputters to life. There are no invisible walls or locked gates. There are no loading screens ... It's a fantastic place to explore.
Why? Violent and pornographic movies are fine because they're intended for adults. Videogames with violent or sexual content, on the other hand - and we're not even approaching the level of either that can be found in everyday movie releases - apparently are not; the obvious implication being that even after all these years, videogames are still "for kids."
Tonsillectomies, chemotherapy, spinal fusions, eating disorders, you name it; kids at Emanuel are going through it. Small things like toys and games make a big difference in their hospital experiences. "Kids get better quicker if they're doing thing that kids should be doing, like playing," says Usinger. "They get better quicker and get out of the hospital quicker. It's not this big scary place, where it was boring and they had tons of pokes and everything hurt."
There's a lot I could blame it on: wrapping up my Bachelor's degree; living with new, foreign roommates who didn't understand/frowned upon the six-plus hour gaming sessions; solar winds; not drinking enough milk to counterbalance the massive amounts of snacking I do, resulting in Oreo-overdose brain damage. But the truth is it's always been a problem.
According to Hsu, Midway, Sony and Ubisoft have all sent him notices of late asking him, would he kindly not be so hard on their games. The companies in question suggested EGM would be "banned" from reporting on their games in the future. Hsu reportedly responded by saying "Nuts!"
Hammond, until very recently, worked for Maxim, a magazine that appears to have tolerated his tomtoolery gladly, even allowing him to alter the text of his reviews to placate movie executives. Sounding more familiar?
Playing them felt like coming home to the smell of hot apple pie and the sight of a beautiful woman wearing an apron and a smile, with a drink in one hand and the other free to … take my coat. The exception was Kane & Lynch.
It may not be surprising that a federally-funded videogame promoting the Army life is looked at somewhat askance, but the fact is that it's a long way from a concerted effort to turn children into the dead-eyed, remorseless killing machines of the future.
Much as we'd prefer not to care what anyone on the planet thinks of us, positive or otherwise, the rules of the game have changed over the last decade.
Unfortunately, however, it will not disprove the theory that videogame makers are dysfunctional, juvenile, pre-adolescent ingrates with severe testosterone imbalances. In typical Spike TV style (I mean, come one, it's on Spike TV, FFS), the event was full of rock 'n' roll, celebrity worship and the glorification of excess. As one colleague put it, it's hard to be critical of an event willing to fly you to Las Vegas, put you up at the Wynn and roll out the red carpet. Fortunately I wasn't there, so I can be as critical as I want.
The burning questions are: 1) Did Gamespot's deal with Eidos include an expectation of editorial coverage, or of a certain kind of editorial coverage, and 2) Was Gerstmann fired specifically for his negative review. If the answer to either of these questions is "yes," we're all screwed. We kind of already are screwed merely because even if the deal didn't go down this way, it's so plausible that it did.
"Ownership" is not a dirty word, and we shouldn't be restricted from using our products in reasonable manners. The fact technology changes and opens up new opportunities for consumers should not, by default, mean every company threatened by that new technology has the right to confine and restrict their customers. It's the corporations' job to adapt to a changing marketplace.
Now a shortage of Wiis isn't news - they've been hard to find since they came out - nor, unfortunately, is a parent-induced holiday shopping panic. Breeders have been suffering anxiety attacks over the latest hot, new toy since Sears & Roebuck started selling Tinkertoys 100 years ago. Why should this year be any different?
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