Welcome back!  In this EXCITING update for Let’s Play Mass Effect Trilogy, I head out to recruit Mordin.  Mordin is just an absolutely fantastic character (maybe my favorite squadmate), and his recruitment mission is certainly not a pushover on Insanity.  The room right before the clinic takes a very long time, and the final room with the fans is like a ten minute long combat section.  If you die you have to start it over from the top!  I did mention this run would be mostly deathless though…  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this EXCITING update for Let’s Play Mass Effect Trilogy, we have begun MAss Effect 2 on Insanity.  I personally enjoy Mass Effect 2 the most out of the trilogy and plan for this run to be as completionist as possible with very few deaths.  I’ll be going through all of the available dialogue, discussing all the choices and their effects on Mass Effect 3, if there are any, and showing the best mission order for Insanity (for upgrades and whatnot).  I’ve got a Limbo permadeath run I’ll be uploading soon that went fantastic, so expect that as well.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this EXCITING update for Let’s Play Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect 1 is complete!  Finally, no more absurd inventory management and driving the Mako up steep hills.  The famous Virmire choices are all set with Wrex and Ashley safe and sound… while Kaidan died in a nuclear explosion.  Mass Effect 2 is different in several ways, though the storytelling remains intact!  The Insanity difficulty is very fun, and I’m going to really focus on a low-death run.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this THRILLING update for Let’s Play Mass Effect Trilogy, I have now finished up Bring Down the Sky and most of the sidequests available prior!  The rest of Virmire is being uploaded now and released soon so stay tuned for some of the biggest choices in the game that have extremely far reaching consequences.   So far, I’ve completed Artemis Tau, Noveria, Pinnacle Station, Feros, and Bring Down the Sky.  Very much looking forward to Mass Effect 2 on Insanity, probably starting late next week!  Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG developed by Bioware that heavily incorporates player choice.  Expect to see this series last for quite awhile as I’m doing the entire trilogy!  Above is just a taste of what’s already released, but here’s the playlist to far.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this THRILLING update for Let’s Play Mass Effect Trilogy, I have finished up Feros and most of the sidequests available prior!  I’m moving right along in Mass Effect 1 and am honestly VERY excited to start Mass Effect 2 and 3 on Insanity.  So far, I’ve completed Artemis Tau, Noveria, Pinnacle Station, and Feros.  Coming soon is Virmire, which brings some serious, lasting consequences with it throughout the rest of the series.  Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG developed by Bioware that heavily incorporates player choice.  Expect to see this series last for quite awhile as I’m doing the entire trilogy!  Above is just a taste of what’s already released, but here’s the playlist to far.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Please be aware that this review specifically pertains to the single-player campaign of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and is spoiler-free.  If I were to include multiplayer, the game as a whole would come in at a higher, more solid score, except the multiplayer was updated from the Wings of Liberty version and not designed from the ground up like the new campaign.  I would rather use this opportunity to look more critically at the brand new content of the campaign and give a better idea to players looking at the game for a separate single-player experience.  That experience for me was, in a word, disappointing. Join me on a more in-depth journey…

In terms of gameplay, I feel the overall mission structuring shares many of the pros and cons that Wings of Liberty had as well.  The missions are too focused on an individual unit mechanic which opposes the sandbox play required to tinker around with the very well thought out upgrade systems.  Too many missions had to be completed in a set amount of time and the seven Evolution missions (that counted towards the 27 total missions, mind you) were only six or seven minutes each at best.  While these were fun because they allowed me to test out different upgrade choices, they really weren’t missions at all and I rarely got to utilize them due to the overly-rushed story missions.  Let me emphasize again that there were way too many beat-the-clock missions!  Wings of Liberty had several, and Heart of the Swarm has more.

Several missions also felt very similar to Diablo 3, which can be a positive or negative thing depending on your outlook.  Blizzard attempted to mix an RPG, involving a decent amount of Kerrigan micromanagement, with a real time strategy, involving the player’s race known for little to no micromanagement.  Separately, they did a fantastic job with each, but simply did not have an extensive enough campaign to combine them properly.  Instead of getting the best of one or the other, we got a semi-jumble of both, which reflects negatively when compared to the RTS-focused Wings of Liberty.  The campaign also felt very short next to Wings of Liberty; some very basic ‘Destroy the enemy base’ missions of increased difficulty would have gone a long way towards extending the game’s length, emphasizing the upgrade system’s usefulness, and balancing out the RPG elements.

Further, the storytelling was weak and lacked engagement.  The pacing was very forced on several occasions and it seemed as if there was major content missing to fill in the gaps.  Two memorable characters from Brood War make a return and are barely elaborated on over three short missions.  In fact, Kerrigan does not even acknowledge that she worked closely with one, rather acting as if they never met.  I had hoped for some charged dialogue between the two regarding their past and instead got an emotionally empty battle cinematic that had the potential to be so much more had it any real depth.  Ultimately, the story is an interesting one that could have been great, but the execution fell flat.

Kerrigan’s new motivation that drives her through this game is an understandable one that establishes a human connection to the player; yet she occasionally also delivers incredibly fake lines that take her overly out of character.  Why couldn’t we have gotten an anti-hero Kerrigan that doesn’t have to look up at the sky and say something campily wishful every so often?  It felt antithetical to then have her take incredibly destructive, goal-oriented actions devoid of humanity.  These two traits can mix, but the script held them too far apart to be believably engaging, particularly because of some cheesy dialogue.

The voice acting for about half of the interactive Zerg on the Leviathan (the Heart of the Swarm equivalent of the Hyperion) was incredibly tacky as well, which did not help with the plot immersion.  Trica Helfer, the voice of Sarah Kerrigan, has demonstrated her talent across several franchises, such as Mass Effect, and I believe she was given poor material to work with this time around.  Her character couldn’t decide what it needed to be.

I have been very critical of the Heart of the Swarm campaign, but I believe Starcraft’s appeal is, and should be, in the multiplayer. It’s important that you are aware of what the single player has to offer if you think you want to play Starcraft just for the campaigns.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both the RTS and RPG missions, the upgrade system, and the way the story exists in my head without the dialogue, but there just wasn’t enough game to encompass what each separate element needed it to be.

Final Breakdown

[+Unique level design] [+Fun and interesting unit upgrading] [-Too many beat the clock missions] [-Poor script writing] [-Poor supporting voice acting] [-Poorly driven plot] [-Not enough pure RTS vs RPG] [-Poor Brood War character reintroduction] [-Short length of campaign] [-Inconsistent Kerrigan]

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The final Citadel DLC installment for Mass Effect 3 has finally provided closure to my treasured Mass Effect experience.  The base game’s ending is understably polarizing, though Citadel focuses on the one thing that brought every Mass Effect player together: squad camaraderie.  There are not many games that have built such strong connections between players and fictional characters, and Citadel fully embraced this in a way the base game’s ending did not… finally!

The reception of this final DLC entry will be varied depending on each player’s expectation.  If you understand what it contains, I guarantee you will thoroughly enjoy it as it is almost entirely the characters you love from the entire trilogy.  The “Conspiracy” subplot, which contains all of the combat, is really only a small fraction of content and partly exists to introduce the new areas.  The rest is Shepard preparing for a party for all of his/her surviving squadmates.  It’s filled with humor, inside jokes, and witty banter; I haven’t laughed this hard playing any video game ever.  Upon completion, I realized that this was the ending I always wanted, even though it is advertised as “Pre” ending.

I believe the price point for this DLC is spot on given the amount of content added on. Large areas are added to the Citadel for you to visit that contain entertaining arcade and gambling minigames.  Further, BioWare has added a realistic, replayable way to play with your old Mass Effect 2 squadmates: Armax Arena, which functions basically like the multiplayer for single player where you can bring any combination of surviving squadmates, past and present (Yep, that means Wrex and Grunt together people).

Most importantly, all of the squad meetups before, during, and after the party were able to give real closure to many characters arcs.  Being able to stand around with different combinations of chatting squadmates from all three games gave such a strong sense of friendship that I was almost embarrassed to feel so attached to fake characters.  Campy, yes, yet the community was desperate for it!

I will leave real spoilers out of it, but let me recommend that you start everything after Rannoch at the earliest so that you will have Tali, and thereby a full squad, as they are all involved.  Don’t send your party invitations until you’re about to hit the mission of no return at the Cerberus base, though.  This way, you will have met up with all of your surviving Mass Effect 2 squad members as well.  You will get e-mails from them saying to meet them out and about the new Citadel areas, which will then allow you to invite them to the party.

Overall, the new combat and Citadel areas are interesting, colorful, and full of life.  The new casino strip is full of conversations to overhear, most making fun of noteworthy multiplayer aspects.  Though the combat sections are certainly not the point of it all, I feel that Bioware has created the most dynamically fun boss battle yet.  Unfortunately, I cannot give the Citadel DLC a perfect score in good faith because they were backed into a corner by the existing base game ending and had to have it exist chronologically before that.  A short, sweet, but interesting plot, the Armax Arena, and of course the squad closure means Bioware gets an “A” for effort in my book.

FINAL BREAKDOWN

[+Awesome boss battle] [+Vibrant new combat and Citadel areas] [+Very replayable Armax Arena] [+Focus on squad camaraderie][+Redeems the ending] [-Should have been post ending DLC, but couldn't be]

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Welcome back!  In the first weekly Let’s Play post for Mass Effect Trilogy, I’ve linked a seemingly random episode in the middle of the already-released start of the series!  No Time to Explain was released at the same time, which was posted first.  Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG developed by Bioware that heavily incorporates player choice.  Expect to see this series last for quite awhile as I’m doing the entire trilogy!  Above is just a taste of what’s already released, but here’s the playlist to far.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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I have done it!  No Time to Explain on Steam has been Let’s Played fully, and it was a pretty short one.  The game starts and seems great, but becomes riddled with frame rate issues and faux humor.  Ultimately, I enjoyed the game, but am not sure if my opinion would be different if the game was a lot longer.  You can check out Tyler’s review of the game here, here’s the playlist and you can head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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I challenge anyone to provide a good example of a realistic romantic relationship in a video game (extra points if it’s from a big name publisher)!  The focus has always been on more realistic textures, more realistic physics, more realistic gore, yet there is a notable lack of realistic emotion in many games these days.  The portrayal of most human interaction is so overly polished that it lacks everything that makes it human at all, rather relying on a fantastic musical score and environment to set the mood.  Something like The Walking Dead is a fantastic exception to the rule, where human interaction and emotion finally shine through more prevalent than sheer violence in a game.  The closest thing to a romantic relationship in that game always ends terribly out of your control no matter what choice path you take, which is the most realistic example I have yet to find.

Now, it must sound like I’m some jaded ex-lover, which is not the case.  I am in a very happy relationship right now, which is a direct result of the amount of effort my fiancé and I put into it.  Realistically though, the average person will be in more failed relationships than successful ones; this is scientifically and intuitively founded. Relationships are gritty, difficult, and never perfect; they take real work.  The effort to truly convey such emotion would require the best team of writers and a plot direction that lacks any real objective other than to make it to the finish without feeling significantly worse than you did at the start.  Truly, there’s not much more to say about this, which is why I think there’s something more important on this topic to ask.  Should video game romances even try to portray something so personal, visceral, and real?

The more real a character feels, the deeper the emotional connection we can make with them, increasing the game’s desirability.  On the other hand, if a game’s goal is to provide an escapist reality, then the idea is to provide ideal outcomes for situations that tend to turn sour in real life – a place where one can rectify wrongdoings and build relationships through strong actions, not vulnerable words and a lot of time.  Overall, this Catch-22 could be considered a problem with a lot of our media: the intended use is to escape the stress of real life decision making, yet that same media unconsciously sets up a series of incredibly unrealistic expectations, especially in children. I can imagine many people getting defensive by this thought (just like a real argument, we’re on the way to breaking up baby!), claiming they played games as kids and turned out fine.

In a perfect world, most kids would have an upbringing that overrides this unintentional brainwashing from playing through some idealized game romance.  Yet, we all still encounter adults every day naively thinking they are living in some fairy tale world, vainly doing “nice”, superficial things for their crush, or maybe just thinking they will be swept off their feet after waiting long enough for their dream partner to find them. They think they simply deserve affection in return for saving the princess or being saved by the prince, respectively.  A sense of narcissistic entitlement (and shitty gender roles) pervades this thought process: we should be able to “have” anyone should we decide we want them regardless of life’s all-too-frequent bad fortune and other human beings’ personal tastes. This is not romantic, does not build trust, and certainly is not love.

I suppose my bottom line is that I am okay with the state of most game romances only because I know real life works nothing like them.  Many people claim to “know” this only to have their actions prove differently.  Therefore I also recognize the negative externalities of these perfect game romances and I admit that I don’t have the answer, so what do you think? I am willing to listen, and that is how you avoid a breakup.

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Last week, I participated in an interesting discussion about gaming addiction (the audio gets better) hosted by Truthloader and was accompanied by well-known industry names like YouTuber Jessie Cox and former Xbox Live editor Dan Maher, now the co-founder of Explosive Alan.  Also in the discussion was Emily Collins, a researcher at University College London.  I reached out to Emily after the discussion to ask about any  video gaming research she was conducting that involves addiction as I had a personal interest in the topic.  While not running any studies on compulsion/addiction at the time, she did point me towards her current project studying whether video games can be used to help people recover from work and to stop work stresses from affecting their home-life, as well as the effects of online versus offline social support.  It takes about 15-20 minutes and you’ll get feedback on all your scores at the end, plus you’ll be entered into a prize draw for Amazon vouchers!  Having actual gamers participate in studies like this is how gamers can have a real influence on the way the rest of the world sees our community considering there hasn’t been a huge scientific focus on gaming research yet.  Don’t let the crazies dictate how we are perceived; this is an incredibly easy was to help make the difference.   …And maybe win an Amazon giftcard.

Here is the link to participate!

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Success! I have completed both Revenge of the Titans and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine! Below you may witness both my triumph and despair, my edge of victory and edge of darkness. You’ll notice is above is my intro for my next big Let’s Play: Mass Effect Trilogy! What I’m also really looking for are some suggestions for another game to go along with Mass Effect as it’s going to be a very long series. In the meantime, I’ve started another short series for No Time to Explain (they’ll be in next week’s roundup, which will be short episodes and offset the long, early Citadel episodes of Mass Effect 1. Hope you enjoy the finales; I know I will miss these games! Hit the jump for the rest of last week’s videos and head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this EXTRA SPECIAL edition of the Revenge of the Titans series, we hit more of the same garbage Titan levels.  By garbage, I mean dfficult; I’ve lost any aversion I had to spending money and pretty much spend everything I have every level.  On the flip side, I get almost all of it back or more by mining, recycling, and pickups.  I stubbornly continue to protect and mine mineral nodes that every normal player would and should avoid.  Final level and boss was released this week and will be included in the next roundup!  Hit the jump for the rest of last week’s videos and head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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In classic Blizzard fashion, a pre-rendered, incredible opening cinematic has been released to stir up excitement for their upcoming game and this one certainly does the trick.  Watch the Heart of the Swarm intro cinematic above to understand just how awesome it can be!  We are treated with a full-on invasion of Korhal including Zerglings, Ultralisks, and many other creepy Zerg units we’ve wanted to see in realistic action for a long time now.  Of course, Kerrigan (voiced by Tricia Helfer) makes her own debut into this chapter of the Starcraft universe in real style after her cliffhanger ending in the previous installment.  Heart of the Swarm is an expansion pack to the critically acclaimed real-time strategy Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which focused primarily on the human (Terran) campaign and Jim Raynor.  The long-anticipated Heart of the Swarm is due out on March 12 of this year!

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Welcome back!  This week, I’m really RAMPING UP the frequency of uploads: expect to see one every weekday moving forward.  We’re closing in on the finale of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine with the last episode coming next week!  The Chaos invasion is hitting in full force and we decide to finally bust out Titan Invictus to our advantage.  Major downside – we cannot actually pilot the war titan.  The Ork Warboss makes his (possibly final) appearance at the end of chapter 12 after we fight through a three-way war between Orks, Chaos daemons, and Imperial Guard.  We end on chapter 16 with the final confrontation right in our sights, which may or may not go horribly!  Head over to our YouTube channel to subscribe and leave your thoughts on my videos!

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I was as bad as they come, neglecting schoolwork, my social life, personal hygiene, and pretty much every other obligation imaginable.  For me, the game was World of Warcraft and I knew I had a problem, but I was just too dependent on it.  Here are the steps I took four years ago to shake off video game addiction and become a different, less obsessed gamer.

1) Become aware that a problem exists
Cliché.  Similar to every other addiction, generally those affected are incredibly defensive of their lifestyle.  If you already know you need to cut back, but have mental roadblocks, then you’re already past this step.  I’m not here to be the judge, so I can’t help you with this part.  Having a hobby does not mean you have a video game addiction and there is no set amount of time played that makes you addicted, rather it’s when you realize that this one thing is monopolizing too much of your time, but you simply can’t resist.

2) Narrow down the game, genre, or mechanic that hooks you
Unlike other addictions, there may be one type of game that your brain goes crazy with, though you’d be relatively safe with others.  I fell victim to World of Warcraft’s abusive, digital reward scheme and had over 100 days played over an amount of time I would rather not disclose.  I’d say the majority of gaming addicts fall into the MMORPG category, though score attack arcade style mechanics, and others, could also have this effect.

3) Let your friends know you’re quitting the game
This was by far the most gut-wrenching step I went through to quit my World of Warcraft addiction.  I told my guildmates (and real-life friends who knew I played a lot) that I would not be logging back on.  This started the process by publicly committing myself to it, making it a lot harder to back out.  The guilt I felt from leaving them behind was my brain fighting itself; you have to ignore this because it’s not legitimate.  They’ll get over it and you can keep in contact with the ones who are really your friends.

4) Make it difficult for yourself to relapse
This goes hand-in-hand with step 3 and you need to do it while you’re still in that euphoric I’m-Doin’-It mode.  Uninstall the games (PC Master Race), or trade in the discs (console dregs) of your problem games.  In my case, I actually sold my WoW account, which really helped every time I considered playing again and I would recommend it to any MMORPGers wanting to quit.  You could also change the password then transfer the account to a supportive friends e-mail address.

5) Find new hobbies AND play different video games
Other games are still alright, but pick games with definitive endings and little to no achievement emphasis.  Avoid multiplayer that utilizes a leveling system.  Focus more on finding something new to do like getting in shape, joining a book club, or even blogging about gaming (just like I’m doing right now).

Now I can healthily game with no lack of fulfillment and fun and can even play most “danger” games like Fallout 3, Starcraft 2, and Skyrim.  I’m writing this mostly because my old WoW account is available to me again by complete chance.  I’ve considered going back, but don’t even want to anymore.

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Welcome back!  In this SUPER COOL edition of my Revenge of the Titans series, we establish a firm foothold on Titan!  It’s becoming a real struggle to continue mining from every node and I’m using a great deal more of money each mission.  The alternative way to play this would be to have much less money and fly by the seat of my pants, but I say NAY and take the full frontal (not boobies) approach and building a metric asston right from the beginning.  Lastly, some of the Titans have blasters now and can damage my stuff, but Nanohardening is a big helper here.    Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content.

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Welcome back and sorry for the wait!  Still getting caught up from the holidays.  In this SUPER SIZED PORTION of my Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine series, we may or may not inadvertently unleash hordes of hell demons onto a populace already ravaged by bloodthirsty green monsters.  And by inadvertently, I mean, almost purposefully due to our heroes’ complete lack of critical thinking.  Drogan shows his hand as a complete lunatic now rather than nagging dickmouth which is just fine with me because, one way or another, he’s gone forever.  We’re on track to finish up this Let’s Play in about two weeks and I sure am excited to start my next ones.  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this WET N WILD addition to my Revenge of the Titans series, flying Titans appear!  …Or they don’t.  We are warned of flying Titans, but they remain mysteriously absent.  I prepare for them, but maybe I’ve confused the auto-difficulty with my mad skillz (?) into not spawning them.   In Part 20, I face down the awful flying Saturn boss, who is equipped with it’s own laser.  It gets pretty dicey, check it out.  Ultimately, we end up on Titan for some awesome visuals and music, see you there!  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content.

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Alright, here we go!  I am willingly diving into one of the most controversial topics in the gaming community because many average gamers, men and women, are tired of being pulled into, and polarized on, this touchy issue.  Sexism in gaming, here we go…  LEZ DO THIS DANCE!

To be clear, I’m coming into this with no agenda other than to look at both sides equally, but that is exactly the core point: there should not be a pointed agenda when discussing sexism in gaming.  The readers can see right through it once one gender or the other is stereotyped by the end of the first paragraph, completely changing the tone they are reading you in and also nullifying your chance to spur critical thinking.  The key is presenting your ideas, but also countering them with empathy for those you know are naturally inclined to getting defensive; maybe they’d give a chance to someone who attempts to at least understand them.  Alright, enough about the rhetoric breakdown!

Why do popular games like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV all have male protagonists?  I believe average gamers of either gender might respond with: It doesn’t matter, these are very fun, unrealistic games and as long as the game mechanics are great, I’m having fun.  Allow me to explain why it may or may not actually matter, but don’t expect to find a “correct” answer.  Let me give a metaphoric example from my own life involving my upcoming wedding.  My fiance asked if I expected her to change her last name, to which I responded much like I would for a character’s gender: I genuinely do not care, do what you want.  But see, when it comes to family names, especially if there are kids, it really is just more convenient if you pick one or the other for consistency’s sake.  We acknowledged this, but there really is not a better reason to use her last name or mine, we just have to pick.

The parallel to assigning character gender exists here because a game designer may have the same attitude of not caring, but they have to pick regardless.  The problem is that, by making a male protagonist, they are “giving in” to the established, skewed stereotype that the strong man saves the damsel in distress.  Alternatively, if they purposefully switch the characters’ genders specifically to break this cycle, then their motivations really aren’t any less sexist since they started from a position of it not mattering.  So you see, because it doesn’t actually matter, the only outcome is it being judged for being unequal (Damsel in Distress, or purposeful reversal).  If they just flip a coin, it’s still getting labelled as one or the other.  Just like if my fiance takes my last name solely for consistency’s sake and not some ingrained tradition, we can’t help but feel that we are “giving in”.  Me taking hers just to deny that is no better because from the beginning we haven’t cared; it’s a cyclical Catch 22.  The point is that assigning character genders will always be subject to gendered criticism regardless of whether gender bias does or does not actually exist.  The problem is that previous generations held these stereotypes without really thinking about them, and there is an already skewed proportion of male-to-female lead characters, which affects how we view the decisions made today.

Samus in her Varia Suit (Chozo Armor)

Ask yourself, if Link was female, and Zelda was male, would the games be any different?  I would contend not because neither character is designed to be stereotypically male/female with enormous muscles or enormous breasts that have a devoted physics engine. Once a character is defined more physically than by their actions and emotions, then I share the concerns other critics do.  The line becomes less defined for something like Metroid, which is sometimes praised for having Samus be a female, but also tends to focus on her in a skintight outfit (the Zero Suit, see below) at the end of the games.  My line of thought usually involves me deciding it’s pretty cool Samus is a badass woman in a weaponized suit of armor, but when they have the slow pan up her lithe body in the Zero Suit if you’ve gotten 100% in the game, my thoughts change to “Well that was unnecessary”, and I’m a little embarrassed for the game itself.  Some, not all, Metroid games will end with that shot of her as if to say “Fuck yeah, look at this shit.”  There really is not a non-sexual argument for why these scenes exist in the way they do.  Why not just have her take the suit off, have her wear the Zero Suit underneath, but also have her actually do something, literally anything, other than pose for the camera?

Zero Suit Samus

Never start a sentence with a preposition, but I still love Metroid and it is one of my favorite series.  To be fair, Metroid: Zero Mission does exactly what I suggested by having her take off the Chozo Suit because you thought it was the end, but instead gets abducted by Space Pirates.  You have to fight through them without the Chozo Armor, which adds a new, pretty cool game mechanic.  Note, there is a big distinction here, which is also my next point.  Sexualizing characters does not immediately mean sexism. The Zero Suit is tight fitting, but frankly, it would have to be in order to fit in the Chozo Armor.  Meanwhile, the game is completely challenging in new ways.  Samus is wearing the Zero Suit, which inherently sexualizes her, but I would argue that it is not for the purpose of sexualizing her as it does in some of the other Metroid endings.  A different example: Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5 has enormous, almost unrealistic, arms and shoulders.  It’s important to note that he needs to be modeled as a very built character in order to punch zombies in the face, blasting them away airborne several yards (lol), but they went overboard with the size.  The responsibility of the creator is to make these characters believable given their abilities and situation, but avoid crossing the line to fluff them up.

What some may call unabashed sexualization, I would call practicality up to a point.  I really don’t see a problem with sexualized characters, again, as long as it has a basis in reality and is not overtly superfluous.  Women do in fact have breasts, but most aren’t absolutely enormous.

Chris Redfield in RE5

They also wear some outfits that might show part of said breasts, but not in combat.  On the swing side of things, being upset with a game creator for purposefully making over-sexualized characters is placing too much blame on the wrong party.  Why is it that I think “Meh, not necessary.” when I see the slow pan up Samus’s Zero Suit body in Metroid Prime 2?  It’s because my ideas on the subject are already set and Metroid Prime 2 isn’t really affecting them.  If kids are getting their ideas about gender roles from video games then they probably already have some related emotional issues to begin with, which is where the real problem originates.  I guarantee a man somewhere has jacked it to Alyx Vance from Half Life even though she is widely considered the best developed, “real” woman in video games.  Do we blame Valve for creating a character that tempts this man so?  I absolutely don’t want to downplay real life circumstances, but this is a very watered down version of victim blaming Alyx and her creators…  as if we better not put media out there because men might get the wrong impression and not be able to control ourselves.  I am pretty confident that average gamers, both men and women, find that pretty offensive.  To be clear, jacking off to Alyx Vance really isn’t the issue, but we should be holding the specific person to blame if s/he also happens to be sexist, not the games they played.

Alyx Vance from Half Life 2

By blindly, and inarticulately, blaming the game, we are also inherently accusing anyone who has ever played it of sexism and I cannot stress this enough.  Communication is important and this is exactly why you come away from a gender-focused game article either completely disagreeing or circle-jerking; there is no critical thought involved and your mind is made up before you read even half of it.  Rather, we should be holding sexist individuals accountable, while making it clear to everyone else, men and women, that we know they’re intelligent enough to think “Meh, whatever, it’s not really making or breaking the game for me.”  I think too many people are doing the accusation part, but completely disregarding the empathy.  This, meanwhile, puts many (mostly) male gamers on the defensive, rather than ganging up on these pieces of shit individuals who harass women online.  It is the responsibility of both sides to communicate more effectively and also not get so damn defensive in response.  An intelligent way to phrase it would be to say that certain games validate already established sexist tendencies and those of us who are not sexist need to stand up and hold those players accountable.  Why are we so scared to do this?  It’s the BYSTANDER EFFECT!    There are always going to be asshole gamers who just absolutely insist on boobies in games, but I must step forward for the silent majority and say it just is not important to my gaming experience.  I’m not at all saying the problem does not exist, instead I’m being open about why bringing it up generally has not helped.  So yes, let’s get some more realistic female representation in games, the rest of us simply do not care!

If you make an engaging game, even if I’m playing as an anthropomorphized birdhouse, I really would not give a shit about what my playable character is (dependent on the game’s background obviously).  Boobs are boobs and dicks are dicks, they’re really not a big deal to look at anymore.  They’re abundant, and having them in your game does not increase its marketability like they might have in the 90’s.  As some behind-the-curve developers open their eyes to a more diverse gaming population, and the gaming world as a whole makes it clear we want normal, practical boobs and biceps in our games, I am confident we will see a natural shift to a much more realistic in-game gender diaspora; I would say it has already begun.  The indie gaming scene particularly is more willing to take the risks necessary to break out of the old-style market groups, but it’s also happening in the mainstream more and more.  Take from this what you will; I tried to avoid polarizing and accusing by touching on how men, women, and game developers each need to look at this more objectively and empathetically, but now it’s time to wait and see if my article about avoiding a gender flame war by bringing up sexism in gaming ends up starting a flame war!  Let me firmly end this by saying that if you troll online based on your victims gender, or any specific stereotype for that matter, you are trash and it’s time the rest of us realize that we can, and should, treat you like it.

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Welcome back!  In this SUPER SWELL PART of my Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine series, we have another very long chapter that I’ve chosen to split.  Never fear, both parts are right here for you viewing pleasure with zero down payment, zero interest for 90 days!  We start out flying in one of Mira’s Valkyries so we can ‘take the fight to the Orks’.  Yeah, let me know how that works out…  Then we crash and get constantly boned by Ork rocket troops, who definitely take the award for most annoying enemy of the game in my book.  And what’s new, Drogan loses his shit and I wish we could dump him over a cliff yet again.   Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In this CRAZY CONTRAPTION that is part of my Revenge of the Titans series, I finally am able to upgrade my building armor and find a clever way to trick those stupid bomb Titans.  Yet again, I over-wall and force tons of the attackers to completely circumvent my defenses and pissing me off.  Also, I get a really nice upgrade that helps a lot with those stupid ghosts.  Leviathan miniboss is not scary at all, but the levels as a whole are starting to be.  Complaining about moving makes a cameo; I hope it meets all of your expectations and more.

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Recently, the TSFT had an extra special guest: Edmund McMillen!  We had him on for over 90 minutes and got to hear all sorts of great new info on The Binding of Isaac Rebirth as well as answers to several other miscellaneous questions we posed.  I’ll go ahead and list the specific details about Rebirth that he revealed first.  Big thank you to Reddit user ZAKagan for helping compile an early version of this, allowing for much easier fact checking between the very long podcast and the specific tidbits scattered throughout.

• Edmund has 100% creative control, which is detailed his contract with Nicalis.  Nicalis is using a new not-in-Flash engine that will have no framerate issues and will run well even on older computers.

• Nicalis is remaking the original game as well as Wrath of the Lamb then Ed will come in and give them the design for another WotL-sized expansion.

• The 16-bit art style that won out on his Formspring poll is his current pick and he was pleased that it received a better reaction than he expected.  The old art style will not be featured.

• Isaac’s face will be bigger than it is in the original game because pixel art limits the amount of detail they can add with items.

• Arcades will be retooled so they aren’t as boring, but he hasn’t quite decided how yet  He did say that the probability of machines blowing up will be higher than it currently is.

• He hinted at a new mechanic that forced players through floors at a faster pace.  In the past he’s discussed having an invincible monster (Mom?) begin chasing you after a certain time period.  His goal is that the average run time in the remake will be the same as it is now, or even a little shorter.

• Ed hints that there will be some extra floor equivalent to the Chest after Sheol and that the choice between them will be more interesting, admitting that there’s no point to Sheol if you can go to the Chest.

• There will be plenty of new challenge runs, although custom runs “definitely will not happen”. Ed says that cheat engine runs are essentially about hacking the game to start with items.

• There will be some other feature that somehow incorporates custom challenge runs, but is “much cooler”.  “People who want custom runs will be very happy with this feature, but in a lot of ways it can be a challenge.”  There was some detail in a different interview where he talked about giving two or three random items to the player at the start, which may be the initial thought process of what he’s referring to here.

• Very adamant about not including an in-game wiki. Ed mentions that he doesn’t like the wiki because it takes away the satisfaction of figuring everything out for yourself.

• There will be a new ending, but he hasn’t decided on it yet.

• There will be secrets buried so deep that people won’t find them for a long time

• The stats screen is up in the air. Ed says he hasn’t thought about it, but in general he wants it to stay vague.  Apparently, soul hearts going off the screen was originally a bug. You were supposed to only be allowed the visible number of hearts, but they ended up keeping it.  Hearts off the screen will remain for Rebirth.

• There will be a Skatole-like item for spiders (spiders won’t attack you).

• OP/UP items will be staying, but rebalanced.  We at least got one example with Lemon Mishap that will be getting a buff. The creep will stay on the screen longer and it will recharge a bit faster.  It’s current shittiness was due to Flash limitations not allowing it to be what he wanted in the first place.

• Too many flying items were added with WotL so Ed says he may balance this by not adding any beyond what already exists.

• Edmund admits that he never really had a clear vision of the story (what actually is going on in Isaac) and that it evolved over time, but did confirm that he believed my article was correct about the theme.

• His ultimate goal is to have Rebirth be a complete replacement of the original game.

We were also able to ask more laid back questions that Edmund was nice enough to answer.  He talked about games he played as a young adult, his experience at community college, his thoughts on the AAA gaming industry, and complaining fans.  It was also interesting to hear what he had to say about the Humble Indie Bundles as he had participated in the original, and others since.  Overall, it was an absolute blast; I’ll add the full interview from YouTube below.  As he reveals more and more breadcrumbs about Binding of Isaac Rebirth, the more excited I get!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post [Featurama] Our Conversation With Edmund McMillen: The Binding of Isaac Rebirth Details and More! appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Welcome back!  In this INCREDIBLE EXPEDITION within my Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine series, I’ve split Chapter 8 because it was way too long.  Guess what?  Drogan is still annoying as dick, but he’s not around the entire time thankfully.  The latter half contains the incredible jump pack/Thunder Hammer combo, which is overpowered in the best way.  So, I’m a little late this week with this update, but that’s because we interviewed Edmund McMillen Sunday night and I was anxiously shaking for several hours a day.  Check out Podcast #47 for the goods.  Anyways, I have this whole series recorded so it’s just a matter of time before it’s all done!  We’re about halfway there…  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!

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Welcome back!  In these ELABORATE ACCESSORIES to the RoTT series, I take revenge on the titans (THAT IS LIKE THE TITLE AAHHHHHHHH) after they decided to be jerks last time upon me setting foot on the first garbage moon of garbage Saturn.  After asserting my dominance on the first two levels, they decided they’d had enough and really gave me some trouble.  Was I able to pull through?  Watch and find out!  …But seriously, please watch.  This used to be a hobby I did in my free time, but now Yami and Keith keep me chained in a decrepit basement saying stuff like “Listen Justin… this is about the HITS.  Maybe once you get that through your stupid head we’ll let you out, or at least feed you some soup or something.”  Head over to YouTube to comment, subscribe, and check out our other content!  I would really like some soup; all they’ve given me so far is a banana peel, still-frozen Hot Pockets, and an unmarked envelope of hair.

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