Google
 

Friday, August 20, 2010

Mass Appeal in Video-games

With my thirtyish birthday nearing, I came to the realization of having consumed video-games more than any other entertainment medium. Regardless, video-games struggle for mass appeal has lead to a damaged reputation. Video games has lost it's art form.

Art, not in the Ebert sense of the word, but as a distinctive artistic form. My main issue with video-games, as developers push for a universal medium, games lose their distinctiveness. How so?

Walk into any video-game store, can you name the difference between two off the shelf shooters? How many titles feature bald space marines as the main protagonist?

Limbo is a video game that should influence other developers look at their respective genre. Playdead Studios took staple video game mechanics, some a given in their respective format and choose to be unique vis-à-vis another Super Mario rehash or clone.

With the early buzz on Tomb Raider Guardian of Light; there is hope that developers are starting to think outside of their comfort zone of established franchises.

The medium craves it.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Friday, August 13, 2010

Irrational's Ken Levine on Bioshock Infinite


With the announcement of Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Studios head hit-man, Ken Levine sat down with the press to be peppered with mundane questions. But he also released a statement on Irrational's Website to the rest of us. With his State of Union address, gamers are clamoring for more information, but here is an editorial that the rest of the gaming media is igrnoing. Bioshock Infinite is changing how we think big-budget sequels are made.
Is Bioshock Infinite a prequel? Star Wars like prequel? Or is it only loosely based in the Bioshock-verse?

Levine is clear, there are no sacred cows in Bioshock Infinite (the sky is the limit). Viewing the trailer there is a sense of American expansionism (a la Red Dead Redemption), a Manifest Destiny of sky, before the invetible space-race. A floating sky city by the famed American ingenuity, a city that could of been built if a Rockefellar had of thought of it first. Columbia, as the sky city is named after one of the famous explorer known, is a departure of Rapture. As Levine points out, "that's the easy path for us... we took a harder path for ourselves."

Levine paints BI as a departure from their highly rated 2007 splicer-thriller Bioshock. The only core values that these titles share are the obvious; a fantastical world created by the same Irrational team. And there is no confusion on the Levine's view of American 1900 Historcity, nationalism and internationalism are key themes in the game. These ideas are not ones would link to a sequel or a prequel to milti-million sold series.

Levine is adamant on Infinite is more of a "re-imagining" of the original Bioshock, building on ideas of their precedent game and exploring the world artistically and questioning the bigger, badder and better philosophy other game series fall into. With that in mind, Bioshock Infinite swoops in our space with breath of fresh air.

Source http://irrationalgames.com/insider/announcement-from-ken-levine/

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Chivas on the cusp of Futbol History

Hours away on what is expected to be a dramatic showdown between two futbol giants of North and South America. Chivas de Guadalajara hosts, in their French designed Omnilife Stadium, 2006s Copa Libertadores Champion Internacional of Brasil. Both teams come from grueling matches, with Chivas scoring two away goals again U de Chile. Inter faced a strong Sao Paolo side, but again, the away goal scored by Inter sealed their fate into the final.

Not at stake for tonight's match is the World Club Cup birth held in the UAE in December. Inter will go as the South American representative regardless of the outcome. Tune in to Fox Sports Espanol, match starts at 8:00 PM EST.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.1

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I'm Back

The one and only Latino-Gamer is back. If you want the end all coverage of sports and video games, go elsewhere. Latino Gamer will cover interesting trends in football/ soccer and a bit of video games.

Since this blog is the whim of thoughts of the writer, topics may be daily or weekly.

Tomorrow we have coverage of the friendly, Mexico vs Spain and the first leg of Chivas de Guadalajara vs Internacional.

Cheers!

Latino-Gamer
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.1

Follow me On Twitter