Op-Ed

When Kaminsky says, "What we've realized over time is that making a great game is important, but not enough," one cannot help but wonder if Activision decided that, since great games aren't enough, maybe great games aren't necessary at all. Activision's mind-boggling bottom line ... indicates the company is certainly doing something right, but it's not necessarily indicative of a commitment to great videogames.

The gulf between the developers of independent titles and of big-name titles is not as great as it seems, and with the budgets on AAA titles soaring, being able to pull from a talent base that has experience with actually selling games improves the stock. It is a curious symbiosis that this generation is defined by high costs and high prices, but it's also defined as the tool of revolution for the independent movement.

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."

This week's gadget issue got Team Humidor's robot parts all a-twitter, and after a heated debate (which was liquid-cooled, thank you very much!) our cybernetic hive mind is happy to introduce to you six of our best loved and/or most coveted gadgets going into the new year.

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."

They were even bold enough to declare their vision and intent to the world. "We're an association of electronic artists who share a common goal," they said. "We want to fulfill the potential of personal computer." It's not at all an exaggeration to say that when I read those words, I felt a surge of pride at having some kind of ephemeral connection to this new revolution.

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.

You see, six years ago I met this guy. He was a “gamer geek,” and he ended up bringing out the best in me. He helped free my repressed desires as a gamer girl. Since then we've been questing, killing, grinding, puzzle solving, pointing and clicking, and fighting side-by-side.

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?

Were they the best games of the year? Maybe not. I'm not even sure they were my favorites, but in the end they met or exceeded my expectations completely. And yet I've no doubt that in the dark corners of the internet there are forum threads where frustrated gamers roundly vilify these same titles for their perceived flaws. Yes, you may be certain that somewhere, somehow, there are people that actually hated Portal.

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.

This is my equipment: a faulty Xbox 360 that will not sync wireless controllers and a new guitar controller with exactly the same problem as the one I had sent back. It leaves me wondering whether Microsoft and EA are simply opening returns, plugging them in to see if the light comes on and then pushing them right back out the door as repaired.

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.