Link Out (22/5/08)

May 23rd, 2008

shanghai city skyline

It’s another month and I have another handful of recommended readings to share with you. I figured that I’d also take this opportunity to make a brief apology. I must confess that I have been driving myself into the ground lately with this juggling act called life and as such I have been a little late responding to your comments and emails as well as putting out new content every 2 days. By the time this goes live though I should be well and truly back on the saddle. Thanks for bearing with me.

Also while I am talking off topic I would just like to say that I have been accepted into studying in ShangHai, China this September through to January. I will be living and studying in ?? district which is popular for its electronics. I’m very excited and I hope that this experience will allow me to talk about some interesting issues regarding video games in one of Asia’s most gorgeous cities.

As always, I have been storing some of these links since the end of the last Link Out which was over a month ago. So be aware that some may not be on the bleeding edge of gaming news.

We’ve won: get over it – The Guardian

With the release of Grand Theft Auto 4, us bloggers have naturally increased our receptiveness to the media’s portrayal of video games just to observe how out of touch they are with the average player. I’m pleased to say though that admist the RockStar bashing and parent protests a handful of major media outlets have actually got it right. One of my favorite such articles is this one written by Richard Bartle of The Guardian.

China’s Forgotten Gamers – ESkyCity

As I just mentioned I will be heading off to ShangHai this August (leaving in August, study in September) and if possible I would like to keep this blog alive during that time. If this is possible then I will probably write a few articles shedding light on the state of play in China. As a prelude though I found this article to be perfect for warming you all into the idea.

Abdullah’s Blogging: A Generation 1.5 Student Enters the Blogosphere

This journal is one that I selected for one of my University classes. The journal is a case study of a Somalian student study ESL (English second language) in an American high school and how blogging had allowed him and his peers to make the transition from a strong spoken language into a better form of academic writing.

This article as well as many others can be found in the Language Learning and Technology archives where there is a fantastic selection of journals. A lot of good reads in there.

Resident Evil Series Time Line

In my recent critique of Resident Evil Remake I mentioned that the journal entries littered around the mansion were so very compelling because it provided context to the haunting environments. This got me thinking about the series’ complete story, I had a solid idea of what had happened over the course of the series but I wanted to fully understand everything. So after a little searching I found a time line of the series which includes all backstory and journals featured within all of the Resident Evil games. Yes sure, I am spoiling the game’s storyline but considering that I kinda already knew what happened and was just after the finer details I don’t see a problem with it.

In anycase what I found was extremely comprehensive, I would guess that there is enough history here to fill an 80 paged book. So take a look if you need some more context. With this I have decided to play through the rest of the series.

David Hayter Interview

The man behind the voice of Solid Snake shares his thoughts on the Metal Gear series and his current work load. There’s a couple of nuggets of insight into the voice work behind Metal Gear inside which makes this worth the read. Hayter did also seemed quite immature in some of his remarks.

Wii Fit Reviewed by Everyday New Yorkers and Tourists – MTV Multiplayer

Being someone who previously sold electronics I always love the idea of having customers return to the store to tell me what they thought of the product that I had recommended for them. This article is similar to that sort of customer feedback. We should all be paying more attention to the critique of new players to games.

Prince of Persia Speed Art

I must say that I am impressed with the number of new, refreshing games being announced left, right and centre. It appears as though some developers may not be willing to wait until E3 this year to put all of their eggs in the one basket. This is probably a good idea too because it allows for better exposure. In anycase Ubisoft have recently announced a new, cel shaded Prince of Persia game which looks absolutely gorgeous. The following link shows how some of the conceptual artwork was made.

When Game Review Criteria Hits the Floor Hard

April 27th, 2008

wii fit workout It wasn’t too long ago that I posted up my opinions about game reviews and my great frustrations with them. I want to talk more about this issue at a later date but for now though I would like to further substantiate the previous article with a final conclusion, courtesy of IGN.

Before I start I want to share a little bit of context. When it comes to standardize, routine video game news and reviews I am subscribed to two sites to provide me with such content. They are IGN and for a wider, more down to earth scope Video Games Blogger. I am aware of such issues with IGN and fortunately I can filter out there content worthy of my time from another paid DS review or hyped up preview. Despite this there is a certain authority about IGN that I am bound to which I ought to ditch sometime. So if any of you readers have any suggestions then fire away.

In anycase, since I have an Australian IP address, IGN sees fit to send me all of their Australian (brought to you by Cam Shea!) and UK based content which is fair enough. The following is a review of Wii Fit which I would like to briefly analyze.

I genuinely have no beef with IGN, they are fine and this is by no means an attack at the site or their reviews. What is presented here, is as I see it a good example of a common problem within the industry. With that in mind, lets dance:

My Previous Article

Wii Fit IGN UK Review

If you want to skim though then just focus on the intro and conclusion as that is where the meaty bits lie.

If you have read my previous article and then the review you should be able to very easily pick up on the connections. The reviewer, self admiringly has a hard time dealing with the fact that he is reviewing Wii Fit under the requirements of a video game review. He doesn’t even consider Wii Fit to be a video game! There is a great misunderstanding of audiences going on here which is why the reviewer is so dumbfounded. Instead of continuing on and deeply analyzing why this review is so problematic (which would just be a whole bunch of regurgitation anyways). I want to leave this with you readers and let you think about what this represents. Here are a few quotes which I find most interesting:

“Despite certain similarities, this isn’t a game and standard review criteria aren’t going to have much sway here.”“Admittedly, nothing here really pushes the Wii to its limit”

“But such is the hard life of your videogame reviewer. Still, for the sake of completion, let’s break the whole thing down into its component parts and slap a great big number on the end anyway. Actually, sod it, it’s going to get an 8.0. Anything else you want to know? Then read on.”

Posted in Analysis | Comments (5)
Tags: game reviews, ign, wii fit

May 23rd, 2008

Other Links

April 27th, 2008