Video Game Movie Director Explains Why Video Game Movies Suck

Friday, August 12, 2011 at 4:00 pm
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She's hot, yes. But the movies suck.
​As we all know, video game movie adaptations are generally not very good. Writer/director Paul WS Anderson thinks he knows why. After all, he's the guy behind the Resident Evil movies, the most successful video game movie series ever (financially, anyway).

Too bad the Resident Evil movies are fucking awful.

Oh sure, the first one is okay. And in the article with MCV, Anderson never claims that the movies are high art. But he does say that he gets it, while other game movie directors don't. 

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Battlefield 3 Is Going To Be Scary

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 9:00 am
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Armored death rolls across the desert in Battlefield 3
E3 Day Zero is over. Microsoft doesn't sound like they impressed with their Kinect-heavy lineup, though the new television functionality coming to the Xbox 360 is interesting from a tech perspective. Sony threw an extravaganza which, in terms of making me actually want to play video games, accomplished its goal with flying colors. Ubisoft had a lighthearted press conference which offered, among other things, a trio of gun games I'll be checking out at their booth on Thursday.

Electronic Arts offered a cavalcade of solid titles at their event, in keeping with their status as one of the largest publishers of mainstream, AAA-titles. Their show's biggest impact on me, however, was misgivings regarding Battlefield 3. Modern Warfare 3 still looks fake and fantastical. Battlefield 3 does not. And it scares me.

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Watch A Portal 2 Writer Give An Hour Long Lecture

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 3:00 pm
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As far as video games narratives go, Portal 2 serves us with a delicate, deceptively complex story. And Valve's willingness to put an emphasis on narration shows that the proof is in the pudding. Very few devs can boast the strength in story that they do. So, being able to watch one of those developers talk about the process of game development and the decisions they made in creating the game is absolutely fascinating.

Erik Wolpaw is one of the remarkable folks that wrote Portal 2. He has gone to NYC's Game Center to lecture about the game, and shows some cool behind-the-scenes bits that really flesh out the developing of a video game. And for someone who loves the process and craft of writing, or game creation, this is a definite must-see.

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Video Games May Have Killed Daytime Soap Operas

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm
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Video games have been accused of a lot of things over the years. Everything from making kids fat, to inspiring mass murders, to shitty driving, bad eyesight, and the sharp rise of virginism in the post-adolescent male world. Without a doubt, video games have taken the brunt of a great many things, justified or not. Which is an excellent segue.

Daytime soap operas are dying quickly. All My Children and One Life to Live have been cancelled after well over 40 years of air time each. Guiding Light, which is older than World War II, was cancelled in 2009. And there are others soon to follow. Adweek has hazarded a guess toward the cancer that has crippled the once-thriving daytime soap opera industry. And I'll give you one hint (just don't look at the header): the culprit is an industry we hold very dear. Have you guessed it? Read on to find out. 

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Medal of Honor Upsets Military Families

Monday, August 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm
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Should you be able to play as the Taliban in Medal of Honor?
​The fact that you can play as the Taliban in the upcoming Medal of Honor isn't sitting well with some military families.

Over the weekend, Fox and Friends aired a segment about that game with Gold Star mother Karen Meridith, who lost her son in the war. Obviously, she's less than thrilled with the war being used as entertainment.

Obviously, this is territory that's been covered before, such as when Atomic Games' Six Days in Fallujah made headlines for the very same reason. 

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The Five Elements of Every Fighting Game

Friday, August 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm
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The fireball that started it all.
​Fighting games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were everywhere in the 1990s. After their release, many other fighting games came out in order to capitalize on the hot genre. Most of these games are insignificant and unmemorable due to miscellaneous reasons (usually involving overall quality and failure to differentiate themselves from the fighting game pack). Others achieved their status in the annals of gaming history like Samurai Shodown and Killer Instinct (because one had swords and the other was crazy). Despite the variations in quality, almost every one of these games contained the following core elements. 

These are the five elements in every fighting game.
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PS3 Netflix Streaming Going Disc-Free by October

Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm
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The PS3 Netflix discs are soon to be a thing of the past.
"Before our next call in October, we expect to be launching a major new version of our Sony PS3 user interface which doesn't require a disc, and is dynamically updated continuously with the latest Netflix UI improvements."

That's the word from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, delivering the news that watching Netflix on your PS3 will get simpler and better in the next few months. Sure, the fact that Netflix currently requires a streaming disc on the PS3 (and Wii) isn't a huge deal, but we Americans hate minor inconveniences, so I'm sure no one will be sad to see the PS3 streaming discs go.

That's really all there is to this story, but we don't want this post to be a waste of your time, so we've embedded a video of a pug singing the 1960s Batman TV show theme song below. Enjoy!
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Pretension +1 Overlords and Astronauts

Friday, April 30, 2010 at 9:00 am
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I don't see eye-to-eye with my buddy Mike when it comes to videogames. Sure, we like a lot of the same games, but we take different things from them. Mike is a gameplay guy. He admits to skipping story bits when he can. He loves to get wrapped up in the mechanics of games, especially RPGs, and really tinker with the way they work.

I'm fine with those kind activities, but story is what keeps me involved. I turn up the volume when its time for characters to speak -- even when their lines are hackneyed and poorly acted. I get off on exploring new worlds, meeting new people, slipping into a different skin.

And because games can deliver two, seemingly disparate experiences, I'm coming to believe that gamers, too, usually identify with one of two camps. 

If you're into games, you're either an overlord or an astronaut.
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Pretension +1 No Control

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 1:36 pm
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Not long ago I found myself stranded with family -- hanging out with my cousin's kids in Phoenix. I was reminded that day that kids love games. They don't care what kind of game. They're not snobs about developers or genres. They'll play anything because even a boring game is better than homework, getting chewed out by your parents or eating vegetables. Games are, in many cases, better than real life.

I sat down with the kids, twins (a boy and a girl aged 13), put my computer in front of them and let them guide the conversation and show me why.More >>
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Believing In The Matrix

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 9:33 pm
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When Joystick Divisioner Gus Mastrapa talks about gamers who believe they can "see the Matrix" - i.e., see past all the shiny graphics and 5.1 surround sound, all the cutscenes and contrivances to behold only pure gameplay in its naked form - I know he's talking about me. Maybe not me specifically, or even with me in mind; only that I'd count myself among that type of gamer. I was first conscious of it a few years ago, first articulated it more recently, and today it's a deliberate critical approach I take with games (especially ones I'm reviewing): trying to not just look past all the non-gameplay bullshit that's swirling around, but tune it out. It's like going on a first date and - while she's ordering dinner or talking about her job or fidgeting with her napkin - trying to see her without the makeup, the hair products, the Wonderbra and the mood lighting.  

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