Tag Archives: Gears of War

What Does It Mean For Video Games to be Smart?

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In recent weeks the argument was put forth that most games are dumb. Writing for the Atlantic, gamer and author Taylor Clark provided an in-depth profile on indie video game creator Jonathan Blow. In so many words, both Clark and Blow agreed that too much of what is produced in the medium is intellectually lazy.

Clark’s claims might have been polemic, but they also got people talking about an interesting and important issue: can video games be smart? And what does that even mean in the first place?

Michael Abbott responded at the Brainy Gamer by accepting the challenge. Working with his readers, Abbott established a “Smart Game Catalogue” to prove Clark wrong. Darshana Jayemanne at Kill Screen responded by arguing for a broader, less constrained notion of art, and one that doesn’t judge videogames by inappropriate narrative conventions.

Weeks later, Clark responded to his critics in a post at Kotaku, eliciting another round of thoughtful rejoinders, including one from critic Cameron Kunzelman in which he argued that Clark confuses subjective preferences with objective criticism. I couldn’t have disagreed more, and so invited Kunzelman to debate the issue with me further here at Nightmare Mode. Directly below is my argument for what makes certain …

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Soundscapes – Why Mass Effect 3 might be the best sounding game of all time

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Mass Effect 3 might just be the best sounding game of all time. This is quite an achievement for Bioware when you consider how the series started out. The audio in Mass Effect 1 was barely passable and in some cases even worked to destroy the drama rather than enhance it. Given that nobody pays any attention to sound in games apart from the music, they didn’t actually “need” to improve the sound. Nonetheless, I’m glad they did: there needs to be a benchmark for audio in games. Without a frame of reference for excellence it wouldn’t be as easy to point out the mistakes everyone falls prey to.

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VANQUISH and the Best of All Possible Worlds

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VANQUISH is a videogame developed and published by Platinum Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 version was played for the purpose of this review. It was directed by SHINJI MIKAMI.

In Voltaire’s magnus opus, Candide, Lisbon’s harbor was hit by a storm, followed by an earthquake, a tsunami and a fire. Thousands died, including Jacques, an Anabaptist who was a friend of the protagonist, Candide. Not to worry though, counseled Candide’s tutor, Dr. Pangloss. After all, we live in the best of all possible worlds. If Jacques drowned, it certainly was for the greater good. In fact, reassured Pangloss, the bay outside Lisbon had been formed expressly for Jacques to drown in.

Dr. Pangloss is a parody of Leibniz’s theory of optimism, which states that, since we live in the best of all possible worlds, everything that happens naturally happens for the best. But Pangloss goes a step further in terms sheer absurdity. For example, it was not God that purposefully made people’s eyesight bad, but merely allowed glasses, i.e. the greater good, to exist: “It is demonstrable that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have …

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From Avatar Clothes to 1-UPs: Why Everything Should Be DLC

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Value.

Everything has value. Or rather, everything has the potential to hold value (or Utility, if you want the proper term) for someone.

Not every value can be easily translated into currency, however. Putting a monetary value on human life, for instance, is controversial. Luckily, we are not talking about these. We are talking about everything else, from physical goods, like the chair you are sitting on, to virtual ones.

For instance, how much would you pay for an Achievement?

Well, if you see that the value of a given Achievement was higher than its price and you had the means to buy it, you would. Of course, you would. It’s the logical decision. If you think a can of oil is worth $1000 (Perhaps you are visiting from a country where cans of oil are a hot commodity like the spices of old, who knows?), you would buy it until you drive the inflation rate up to the point a can of oil is priced at $1000.01 – and that extra cent would make the difference on making the purchase. That point in which you are indifferent between owning the good and having …

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The Cole Train isn’t a stereotype says Cliff Bleszinski

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It’s not uncommon to hear Gears referred to as a hodgepodge of racial stereotypes, especially when speaking of the boisterous Augustus “Cole Train” Cole. Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer behind Gears 3, takes exception to that thinking, though–Cole isn’t a stereotype at all, he says.

“And those of you citing Cole as some bad stereotype – guys, that’s just Lester being Lester. We introduced Jace as a more laid back character as a contrast to Cole’s enthusiasm (which, after playing his sequence, is his way of overcompensating for not being the centre of the universe and having to risk his neck for a can of beans now along with some aches and pains).”

Lester Speight, for those of you that don’t know, is the voice actor and inspiration behind the Cole Train. Speight used to be a football player for Morgan State University, who is especially famed for his hilarious Terry Tate commercials for Reebok.

Personally, I’m not particularly concerned over whether Cole is a stereotype inasmuch as I am concerned about his mental health, if the Thrashball section of Gears 3 is anything to go by.

Via CVG

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Live Together or Die Alone

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Any fan of LOST will remember the climactic speech given by Dr. Jack Shepherd as he attempted to unite a diverse group of castaways on a strange and hostile island.

“Every man for himself is not gonna work. It’s time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we’re gonna survive here. Now I found water… fresh water up in the valley. I’ll take a group in at first light. If you don’t wanna come, then find another way to contribute! Last week most of us were strangers. But we’re all here now, and God knows how long we’re gonna be here. But if we can’t, live together… we’re gonna die alone.”

For most of us, we’ll never be put in an extraordinary situation where every decision could mean life or death. However, if you’re like me (and let’s face it, you probably are, because you’re on this website), then you realize that the majority of video games constantly place us in dangerous scenarios. Many of us have been pinned into a corner by a Spartan Laser with only a few needles left in our spiky pink gun, or tried to jump over endless Hadoukens only to get an uppercut if …

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Gears of War 3 Opening Cinematic

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For those itching to sink their chainsaw machine guns into some alien flesh, the Gears of War 3 opening cinematic is now available for your viewing pleasure.

The video was released this past Friday and the overall response from fans has been positive.  We won’t discuss the details of the video here, as there are always those who do not want to see these sorts of spoilers until release day, but suffice it to say that the level of awesomeness is pretty high for this one.

If you would like to check out the cinematic, you can do so by heading over to the GoW Series YouTube Channel.

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Growing Up in Color

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Growing up everyone had their favorite color. As a child it almost defined your life. It was somehow yours and yours alone. Your favorite color was one of the first things you innocently answered when someone asked you to describe yourself. As ridiculous as it sounds, even as adults some define themselves in their social media profiles by saying, “My favorite color is pink.” Color not only defines our lives but the games we play and are essential to the experience.

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CliffyB Says: E3 2011 Edition (On Gear’s Story, Mobile Development and Hackers)

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Our favorite dudebro of the industry had some interesting things to say during the conference in LA this week.

First, in regards to the Gears 3 storyline: speaking to Jim Sterling of Destructoid, Cliff revealed that he was puzzled that people dismiss the narrative in the Gears of War franchise.

“People say, ‘yeah, I tried the campaign, but whatever.’ Gears of War 3‘s campaign is very important to us, and we’re going to have the longest damn campaign of the series in Gears 3. With these Pulp Fiction elements we’re adding, you get a better perspective of characters like Cole and Baird.

“But yeah, I dont get why people write it off either. (Laughs) The amount of work we put into it …”

As some of you might recall, Epic Games called upon the expertise of novelist Karen Traviss for Gears of War 3, and before that, author Joshua Ortega was brought in to add a touch of ‘personal drama’ to the story. Interestingly, the counter-argument to my questioning whether or not Anya is being changed to fit gender stereotypes is that player feedback must have taken the narrative into consideration, and didn’t find beta Anya to accurately reflect ‘real’ Anya. But, …

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The Potential of Movement

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If there was a theme of this year’s E3, it was pure potential. Developers one and all offered us lots of what ifs and hypotheticals, a shining glimpse of what the future could be that they then greedily snatched back, declaring that these mysteries were best saved for the future.

This has worked better for some than others. Sony, for instance, unleashed the awesome raw potential of the Playstation Vita, which, despite its cringeworthy name, was presented as something we can understand with clear examples of its functionality. This was less true for Nintendo, whose presentation of the Wii U left most confused and unable to comprehend quite what the system could offer. While the Wii offered a clear picture of the games that could exist on it, the Wii U left us with confusion as to what its games could look like, besides being in HD.

But even then, nothing could compare to the quickly evaporating potential of Microsoft’s Kinect. In an E3 where it’s pretty easy to make a case that everyone lost, the most damning statement is that no one is claiming Microsoft won.

The Kinect, as a piece of hardware, oozes potential. This …

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