Op-Ed

Just in time for March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown, here's an update on The Escapist's game industry power rankings!

I don't know precisely why the move to a rural environment propelled us back into the digital Dark Ages, nor why I was never quite able to replace my computer or console systems, but between the ages of 13 and 18 the most advanced technology available to me was a piece of equipment that fed silage to our cows. ... My life for those five years became very different, and as I look back, very rich.

There was a time when reflecting on months of cumulative grinding and dungeon crawling wouldn't have phased me. Now, a 15-hour play-through of Mass Effect feels overindulgent.

I'd never have believed it a year ago, but I've become the very creature I once subconsciously scorned and mercilessly slaughtered in Alterac Valley: the casual gamer.

It seems that every cycle the industry forgets how much it costs to launch a next-gen console. ... It takes a few years to have a big enough install base in any generation to give developers and publishers the kind of safety net with which they are familiar. The good news is that a few years of growing install bases are increasing sales as the cost of development drops.

Among the pile of dirty secrets that I keep locked away ... is the fact that I love sequels. Occasionally they disappoint me, just as any game holds the potential to disappoint, but by and large they constitute some of my most anticipated and loved games. Being able to slip into a familiar environment with instantly recognizable rules and mores is like relaxing into a warm bath.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.