Rants

Posted by:
Mike Eaton
May 1, 2013
2

Gearbox and Marketing Honesty – Do You Believe In Life After Lies?

By now it has hit all the major gaming news outlets that SEGA and Gearbox are being sued in a class-action lawsuit over alleged misrepresentation of quality and false advertising of their early contender for worst game of 2013; Aliens: Colonial Marines. I won’t go into too much detail here but you can get the full backstory via our friends at Polygon. This isn’t the first time video game publishers and developers have been under fire for delivering a product [...]

The Graying of Gaming

Picture from Old Super Mario by Daiki Sugimoto These past few month have been filled with interviews about high profile creators discussing retirement. It really put a perspective on what I see as a hobby, when the people whose works I grew up with are finally getting to the point that they realistically aren’t going to be doing what I love seeing them do anymore. As somebody that grew up with these media figures, this transition is going to be [...]

Posted by:
Mike Eaton
April 10, 2013
22

Forget EA, Fight the Real Enemy – Reddit!

So, it’s been about a day since this whole “EA is the worst company in America” thing happened. I was thinking of writing something about it directly because seeing a bunch of entitled video game fans with no concept of how the real world works making a statement that a video game publisher is worse than, say, a bank that forecloses on the homes of soldiers or an oil company that poisons the earth, is simply offensive. I love video [...]

Posted by:
Muaz Zekeria
March 30, 2013
5

Why I Love The Marvel Ultimate Alliance Games (And What I Want In A Sequel)

Unfortunately, most superhero games fall between horrible and meh. There’s something about capturing the diverse powersets and abilities of heroes and villains that development teams can’t quite get right. The earliest game I can recall that bucked this trend was Raven Software’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance. While the sequel trended more towards the meh end of the scale, it still had its charms. With the recent success of the Marvel Studios films and the Marvel NOW! initiative, now is definitely the time for a new entry in the series.

Posted by:
Tyler Humphrey
March 11, 2013
13

[Rant] “Depression Quest Isn’t a Game”: A Shocking Tale of People Being Angry on the Internet

How much blood, sweat, and tears does it take to make a game? This is a question that can’t be answered; the only true answer being that it differs from team to team. But the follow-up question I ask has a definitive, simple answer. How much effort does it take to belittle or otherwise threaten the creators? Practically none. Yet for every two hard-fought steps forward this continually more complex and confusing industry takes, we take one step backwards and, [...]

Posted by:
Muaz Zekeria
February 27, 2013
6

[Rant] The State of Minorities in Gaming

Since Black History Month is wrapping up I wanted to touch upon an issue that is relevant to it and me: the general state of minorities in gaming. Now before I get started, I want to clarify what I mean by the term “minorities.” Since the standard use of the word refers to all people of non-Caucasian origins, that will be the definition I’ll be referring to. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a list counting down my top minority characters [...]

Posted by:
Christopher Hadlock
February 27, 2013
0

[Rant] DC Kills Again

[Please Note: the above header image was randomly chosen out of a folder on my computer] I’m not going to try and spoil this. I usually don’t write spoiler warnings, but the issue hit stands today. The New York Post ran an article on Monday and DC has a giant splash image pop up on their website, so they can spoil this for you. If you are happening to run in to a comics store though, one of the DC [...]

Posted by:
Matthew Stevens
February 5, 2013
2

[Rant] Let’s Save the Industry: Violence Edition

Having been in this industry in one way or another for nearly 10 years now, while being an enjoyer of this industry for 26 years, I have seen it grow so much. I’ve seen it take attacks in stride, both create and lose jobs, and turn from a child’s toy into a truly expressive art form. I view the videogame industry like its my child and I want to protect it like its my child. I have a feeling that the [...]

Posted by:
Mike Eaton
January 15, 2013
15

[Rant] We Get the Games Industry We Deserve

There’s a great line in Chris Rock’s standup comedy movie Never Scared. In it, he was talking about current rap music and he says, “I love rap music, but I can’t defend it”. That’s kind of how I feel about video games lately.

Posted by:
Andres Ruiz
December 31, 2012
12

[Rant] Yes, We Know You Want Versus XIII

It would be a challenge to find a gamer who legitimately hates Final Fantasy VII, however, ask nearly any fan what their opinion of the newest installments is and you’ll probably get a reaction of utter disdain. Now I have not played every single entry, but I have played most of them between IV and XIII-2, and I see people completely brush off the newest games with barely batting an eyelash because of something someone else said. Defending FFXIII is [...]