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Highly personal in tone and style, New Game Journalism is meant to shake up the way games are reported. Out is the traditional write up of a game's graphics and interface. In is an anecdote that somehow explains the software. The concept sounds slightly arty farty, but we're hip to the NGJ. Our own Brian Crecente described the movement as "Hemmingway on games." More »
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Jane Pinckard, the founder of Game Girl Advance, was recently hired on as 1Up's new News Editor. Great call! More »
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You would think being an important part of video game history would allow Ken Kutaragi a little eccentricity. More »
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Katamari fans, rejoice! Now that Katamari Damacy sequal We Love Katamari has landed (in Japan, of course), we are finally privy to some info about the game. More »
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The Dallas Morning News re-reviewed the Playstation Portable as a multimedia device in a baffling and incongruous article Monday. More »
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The RAM Raider, a new blog written by an anonymous game journalist (AKA a writer who doesn't have the pair to put a name to his opinion), is a bit bitchy for my taste. In the Raider's defense he or she did point out that the blog was not meant to be journalism, and on that point RR has succeeded. I mean, complaining that Rockstar used way too big a bag to ship him their latest game seems a bit idiotic to me, especially when there is so much more to complain about. I get next day FedEx boxes at least once a week with a single press release on a sheet of paper at least once a month, haven't game companies ever heard of the fax machine or email? More »
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The staff of the Gamer's Quarter sends word that their New Games Journalism-esque online magainze is up and about. I'll let them go on their long-winded, self-aggrandizing rant, to save me from having to do it: More »
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60 Minutes ran a segment on the possible link between video games and violence Sunday night. The piece starred lawyer Jack Thompson and ESA president Doug Lowenstein and was, by the Video Game Ombudsman's account, fairly even handed. I heard about this piece on Friday, but noticed it wasn't heavily publicized which is both a good thing and a bad one. More »
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I suppose if you re CBS it s funny when you run an absolutely crap article that is riddled with grade-school grammar errors, factual miststeps and just plain bad writing. William Vitka and Chad Chamberlain s GameCore, a column I had never heard of and likely will continue to ignore, apparently ran unedited last week. The article, which was supposed to be a story comparing the Nintendo DS to the Sony PSP, was so poorly written, it makes you wonder why a national news organization has a borderline illiterate writing for them. Here s a taste of the prosaic column as it appears in the stream of angry letters CBS News received: More »
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Jenkins, you ignorant slut. Apparently there is a lone soul out there who absolutely hates Katamari Damacy. Now, I realize that reviews are opinions, and that opinions can never be wrong. But let me propose one exception to that axiom: Opinions can be wrong if, and only if, your name is Jevon Jenkins, and you're talking about Katamari Damacy. More »
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The reason I like Wil Wheaton, yes that Wil Wheaton, is because he actually runs away from his Star Trek fame and instead tries to make a living like the rest of us instead of surviving off of past glories. Case in point: He totally comes off like a giddy 12-year-old girl when he posts about landing his sweet new job writing a column for The Onion s A.V. Club. And the thing is, I d sound like a 12-year-old girl too. Who wouldn t? More »
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The Onion is officially interested in video games. Instead of throwing their coverage in the mix with the sharp satire of their news section, The Onion is including it with their serious A.V. Club stuff. The coverage will include game reviews, the occasional feature story and a gaming column by Will Wheaton. What the For a guy toting around two Hollywood albatross, child actor and former Star Trek star, Wheaton has managed to really stick it out. I ve only occasionally read his stuff, but he seems to be a true gamer and a heck of a nice guy. I hope his Games of Our Lives column survives. More »
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It s been a long time since I ve read as empty a story as The Boston Globe s piece on the video game rating system. To summarize: Video games receive ratings. Seriously, why do people write this crap? The story didn t even go into any of the studies that talk about impact of the rating systems or whether or not parents follow them. If you can t be bothered to give us some perspective, Hiawatha Bray, then don t bother. More »
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Not sure why this is just hitting the Internet now, but it s still a great read and an eye-opening look at how game developers view game magazines. Way back in 2001, Trip Hawkins, once president of now defunct 3DO, purportedly sent a very angry letter to GamePro magazine after the dared to give the crap fest that was Portal Runner a two out of five score. Hawkins calls the review a slam-job, promises to cut back on advertising and tries to tell the editors how to do their jobs. There are just so many fun quotes from the story I can t pull them all, but here s a taste: More »
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Even with the help of the words spy, destroy and assassinate in the first sentence, the International Herald Tribune was still unable to sex up the corporate shenanigans involving Electronic Arts and UbiSoft. The story kicks off nicely, pointing to the idiosyncrasy that lead to a French company creating the quintessential American spy game with Splinter Cell. But it isn t long until writer Eric Pfanner is forced to get to the point and traipse into the eyelid-lowering stuff of stock trades, hostile takeovers and tax breaks. I d rather he explore how a company based in a country once blacklisted by the president of the United States for not backing our military, was able to land the license to port the U.S. Army s first-person shooter, America s Army now that s the stuff of dreamy irony. More »
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Let s face it: Nowadays most console games, no matter how good or bad, are going to get some coverage. Sure, it might not be Halo 2 coverage, but you hardly hear of sleeper Xbox, PS2 or GameCube games anymore. Wired News took a stab at trying to root out a list of 2004 games you should have played, but didn t. It s a good list of games that should have done better than they did, but it still misses the mark when it comes to listing true sleeper hits. What are your thoughts? Any games out there that you think are totally unheard of and should have done better? I loved Tournament Poker No Limits Texas Hold Em, a PC and Mac game by Eagle Games. It s an excellent trainer for learning how to fleece your friends on poker night and even has some options to help your own serious real world games. More »
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Just when I start loving Salon and their take on game journalism they spring a rancid piece of crap like their Year in Games wrap-up on me. I understand that everyone s really busy with the holidays, but if you can t do a story right don t do it at all. More »
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Who says freedom is a good thing? Sometimes I like my gaming storylines spoonfed to me in little linear steps. The problem with games like Grand Theft Auto is that they are lousy with freedom—you can spend days roaming around doing absolutely nothing, or wasting your time on a part of the game that truly sucks. Adam Jacobson points out in his review on the new gaming site Game-Brains that, despite its linear ways, Half-Life 2 still creates the illusion of freedom—and delivers up a fun playing experience to boot. I think he s got a good point: There are times when I don t want to work for my fun, when what I really want is pre-chewed entertainment. More »
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I just unearthed a gem of a game review. Shelley Jackson, a San Francisco writer and artist best known for her post-feminist reworking of Frankenstein, titled Patchwork Girl, wrote up an essay on The Sims 2. Her take on the game is equal parts startling and poetic. Here s a taste: More »
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Kyle Orland, the self-professed video game ombudsman, plans to live-blog the Spike TV Video Game Awards show tonight. Hop on over to his site about 9 p.m. EST if you want to revel in his disdain for the show or email him your thoughts for inclusion. I ll be interested to see how this works. It might be a better system to have use some sort of instant chat system, so you can really be live. But if his grammar and spelling is anything like mine, delay is a good thing. Heck, if things go well I might steal the idea down the line for other events like, say, E3. More »
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Put a bullet in 2004, it s done. Time for the best games of 2005. The editors at the Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and PSM have already compiled their forward looking list. Here s the run-down: More »
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Reuters has a surprisingly hip story about the need for a Museum of Ancient and Underappreciated Computer Games. Gene Emery writes about the games that most of us have forgotten, or never heard of. Games like the RPG Under a Killing Moon, or the twist on Myst called Obsidian. Emery makes a good point without really making it—just because graphics and artificial intelligence have come light years since the $2,000, 4MB systems of the '90s doesn t mean the games have. Today s games may look prettier, but a lot of them don t have much to offer beyond that. Think of them as homecoming queens, but what we really want are more of those sexy science chicks who hid their beauty behind a set of horn-rims. More »
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We can all chant the top ten games by rote, but what about the worst games of the year? Evil Avatar has a little discussion going on the topic, what with the dearth of real news to link to. Some of the ones that made the list, and really shouldn t be there, include: Star Wars Battlefront, which I personally love; Fable, and even Halo 2. I d have to say Fear Factor: Unleashed, with its virtual vomiting, is my pick. More »
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There s an almost-interesting, ultimately empty story on DS wireless play over at Wired. Reading through it, you keep thinking that the other shoe is going to drop, but it never does. The DS lets you play wirelessly. Right. There are games out that use that capability and that number is growing. Right. One day DS games will play over the Internet. Right. Hackers are already working to do this. Right. Hey, where s the rest of the story? Like, when are we going to see the first online DS game, or what will it be? Pokemon, it's gotta be a friggin Pokemon game. More »
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New Games Journalism is an excellent thought piece on the state of video-game reviews. I found it so enthralling, in part, because, despite being a bit rambling, it does an excellent job of explaining my personal feelings on what a game review should do. It shouldn t be about scores and hardware, or whether you have lag or jaggies. A review should tell a story, and when you re done with it, you should know something about the game where that story was set. Think of it as Hemingway on games. More »
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In the New York Times style of writing called egotistical, you must add tangential references to high-brow art and write in forced prosaic first-person. Game Theory s latest bit is presented as a piece on non-traditional controllers, but it s really a short, empty review of Antigrav for the EyeToy and Feel the Magic for the DS check it and join me in pointing and laughing. More »
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Do lesser-known games get shorter reviews? Despite appearances, GameSpot says it ain t so. Executive Editor Greg Kasavin says they have no word count or page limit on their reviews; reviewers are just asked to cover all the bases. While this sounds like a good policy, it appears unique to GameSpot. Just check out some of the reviews of Halo 2, one of which ran a whopping 8 pages. Yeah, it s a great game, but it isn t 8-pages great. There comes a point when a review shifts from meticulous to just plain rambling. More »
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The Associated Press examines the world of online gaming with their typically all-thumbs, a-decade-behind-the-times approach. Apparently, young people play games for the same reason old people watch TV and movies escapism and to avoid reading rehashed crap from the AP. When will the media realize that we all get it and stop pointing out things most of the world know about and have come to accept as the norm? More »
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Admit it, the only reason you read the New York Times movie reviews is to feel good about yourself. Either you want to watch them savage a movie you know sucks, or reaffirm your excellent judgment. One of the writers at RedAssedBaboon rails against this idea. (Full disclosure: I helped found RAB before coming over to Kotaku.) He came up with his very own set of consumer-centric questions for writing game reviews that matter. At the heart of the issue is whether we should be writing critical reviews of games or be giving consumer advice. More »
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I thought I found a juicy editorial for you to absorb when I happened upon the piece titled The Decline of the Video Game Mascot in Access Gamer. Turns out the five-page diatribe does a better job of illustrating the decline of the video game editorial. Get to the point man, the point! And try to make it not be the opposite of your headline. More »
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C-SPAN went topless yesterday, showing off some major boobage and hardcore video game sex scenes. Ironically, the porn comes free of charge from those violence-hating prudes over at the National Institute on Media and the Family. Their ninth annual video game report card is much sexier than the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility s list of worst games, which was released earlier in the week. Check out the lovies on display about 15 minutes and 5 seconds into the briefing. Or should that be debriefing? More »
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Those wacky religious zealots, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, announced their top ten most violent games list this week. More »
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Leave it to the New York Times to take a week-old story about EA servitude and turn it into a Dickensian tale of gas lamps and soot. In his Sunday piece, Silicon Valley historian Randall Stross bemoans the crappy labor conditions at EA and the industry in general. The Washington Post pointed out today that the timing of this issue couldn t be better, what with the holiday season in full-swing. Still, all the Dickens references may be a bit overboard. I don t recall Pip ever getting free meals and laundry service. More »
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Just in time to ruin Christmas for kids everywhere, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility plans to warn parents about the ten most violent video games. The group of do-gooders is going to ask stores to stop selling games like the latest Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2 on November 23. The group will caution adults that if the stores don t listen, the parents may be forced to actually do some parenting. More »
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When is a game review not a game review? When it runs in Slate. The always cool newsite had a bit of fun with their look at Halo 2. The article infers that the sci-fi shooter, incidentally owned by parent company Microsoft, is a study in military psychology and politics. While a bit of a stretch, the article makes a good point about the fact that you play as both the good guy and the bad guy. By taking on the roles of both sides, the issues surrounding the war become less black and white and more the greys of reality. More »
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Wow, when the New York Times sucks, it really sucks. I just finished reading their I can t even think of a word bad enough to describe it. Let's just say their craptastic story on game sequels. Apparently, when someone makes a sequel of a really good game, it s usually good and often a lot like the first game. The story is filled with gems of wisdom from Charles Herold like: The secret to a successful sequel is to have a hugely popular game to follow. He s figured out how to make good games — quick, buy him a publishing company. More »
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