As many gamers likely are, I’m a great game designer… in my own mind. While listening to a podcast recently, I heard someone mention how the protagonist in Red Dead Redemption helps Bonnie the rancher round up cows, and then immediately goes and murders twenty people at the behest of a snake oil salesman. Not […]

Read the rest of Gamecraft: Idea for an Alignment Mechanic

Roger Ebert’s recent article claiming that games can never be art has spawned conversation and argument all over the interwebs of late. While listening to a recent episode of Gameshark‘s Jumping the Shark podcast recently, something Brandon said caught my attention. If you want to hear it, download episode 14 and skip ahead to 58:00. I’ll paraphrase […]

Read the rest of An Emotional Moment

Although video game achievement systems have only cropped up in the past few years, the notion goes back to arcade games that displayed high score lists. Then, you’d enter three initials that would remain on the screen until someone else played the same cabinet game and got a higher score, or until someone unplugged the […]

Read the rest of Achievements

I have a special love/hate relationship with game demos. I love the fact that they exist. I tend to think of it as good omen for a game if the publisher releases a demo as opposed to forcing you to make your purchasing decision strictly off screenshots and online reviews. Kinda like how bad movies […]

Read the rest of That’s how you do it! God of War III Demo

Yes, it’s another article about stylized graphics. Perhaps I could just say “Stylized graphics age better than graphics that attempt to be photorealistic” and end this article here. Naah. I think I’ll show you some comparative screenshots to prove a point that likely doesn’t need a strong argument anyway. Firstly, let’s start with games from […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Stylized Graphics

I’ve been playing a lot of Darksiders the past couple of weeks taking a whirlwind tour through post-apocalyptic Earth as War, one of the four Horsemen.  Along the way I’ve killed many the demon, rode many the mile and amassed a collection of armaments and weapon enhancements to make Kratos proud.  I found the game […]

Read the rest of Darksiders and the Lure of Easy Criticism

Most game settings are just fluff. Even some of the games I really like have dreadfully generic settings. When you read about Borderlands, the description of Pandora sounds really interesting. In the game, it’s beautiful to look at, but doesn’t have much character. The world in Dungeon Siege is huge, but kind of boring. Even […]

Read the rest of My Favorite Game Settings

Just a quick thought on something I’ve noticed in Dragon Age: Origins. Downloadable content is nothing new, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen extra downloadable content marketed from within the base game before. In Dragon Age, there’s a guy in your campsite offering you a quest. But the quest he’s asking you to do […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on DLC Integration

As I continue to play through Borderlands, after having completed the main quest, I notice more and more the external influences that must have affected the game’s design. For example, the pillar of light that appears when you activate quick travel looks very much like the pillar of light coming from City 17’s Citadel in […]

Read the rest of Is Borderlands the New Fallout?

Since I first played Adventure Construction Set on the Commodore 64, I’ve been a big fan of games that let you create your own worlds. The more detailed, the better. After the fourteen-year-old me played through Rivers of Light and dissected it with the editor, I created many an adventure. I assembled fantasy worlds where […]

Read the rest of Variations on a Theme, Part VII: Construction