I'm pleased to see Rebellion putting so much work into the story mode for Aliens vs. Predator. While I love the multiplayer concept of three diverse factions fighting against each other, I wouldn't want to miss the thrill of being a lone space marine caught in the crossfire between two vicious alien species. The fact that Lance Henriksen's fatherly serial killer voice will be accompanying me on the journey is the blood-spattered icing on the cake.

His voice makes me want to curl up with a hot cup of cocoa and then choke on it.

Warning, this discussion will contain spoilers of "The Ballad of Gay Tony," released Oct. 29.

"Club life is the central focus of The Ballad of Gay Tony, which brings us back to the sex act as a central concern of this version of GTA," Williams writes. "Gay" Tony Prince, not the player protagonist but certainly the game's "most crucial character," is the proprietor of two clubs, one gay and one straight, but it's the straight venue where the story is largely told.

But despite the game's title, and the dating/booty call mechanic of Luis' encounters with women in the club, where the story ends up is not about sex, homosexual or heterosexual, promiscuous or monogamous. It's in an "Oedipal drama" about two men coming to be a father and son, both men lacking the other family role model in their lives.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is the Straightest Grand Theft Auto Ever [PopMatters, Nov. 11.]

[...] Luis's promiscuity is complicated by his own background, which is as a son whose own father abandoned him. Curiously, this complication also connects him more closely to Tony. At several points over the course of the story, Luis suggests that Tony has been like a father to him, having been the one to get Luis employed and on the straight and narrow (or at least out of prison) after running afoul of the police in his younger days. Tony, too, mentions that Luis is like a son to him. Thus, the game is less than retrograde in presenting a rather daring and progressive version of a father-son story, one in which the "father" is a homosexual.

The Oedipal drama that would normally ensue in such stories is inverted, though, perhaps as a result of Tony's homosexuality. Luis is not especially threatened by his "father's" power as neither one compete with one another over a mother or any woman for that matter. Freud would suggest that such competition is a necessary part of the psychology of becoming an adult. The symbolic act of killing the father becomes foundational for becoming a mature adult capable of taking on the authority of being a father himself. However, when faced with the dilemma of having to literally kill Tony near the climax of the game (which is a result of some mobsters needing the head of one of the two men because a diamond heist has put the two into bed with and in the cross-hairs of several criminal organizations), Luis chooses to save the man (as Tony did the younger Luis) rather than to destroy him and take his place (as the mobsters offer Luis the opportunity to do). Indeed, throughout The Ballad of Gay Tony, Luis spends much of his time caring for this adopted "father" whose addiction is leading to some really bad decision making on the part of the elder of the two men. This curious re-structuring of the Oedipal conflict with a homosexual and a heterosexual father and son removes conflict from their relationship altogether and offers instead a co-operative version of the relationship in which one man brings up and nurtures the other and then the other likewise returns the favor.

Thus, despite Rockstar's frequent employment of stereotyping ethnic and sexual identity for the sake of parody, The Ballad of Gay Tony actually becomes a rather different kind of discourse on the development of human beings and their relationships to one another because of (not in spite of) their differences. Social deviance becomes a means of uniting very different people rather than in dividing them from society. Instead, Tony and Luis manage to form the most fundamental of social units out of deviance, a family.

- G. Christopher Williams

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

Here's a quick synopsis: watch the video. There's plenty of screaming and fighting and world shattering, so it'll be just like watching the evening news, only prettier.

Ooo, convenient. Running parallel to the events in the Dead Space comic book series and the animated feature, Dead Space Extraction takes a storytelling route as different as its on-rails shooter gameplay is from the original release. The game follows a group of individuals rather than just one man, telling the story of the events that led up to Dead Space proper through their eyes. It seems like the team is crafting a game that is a must-have for multi-platform owning fans who want the full Dead Space story.

I bet you anything the ending isn't happy.

But still, I don't play this game because I care about the inner turmoil that haunts its fighters. That's what College Humor is for.

The first of the two stories, "Misplaced Affection", is the story of an organ replacement tech who falls for a female officer. The second, "13", features the story of a sleeper agent faced with tough decisions. It's all terrible atmospheric, doing an excellent job of heightening my excitement for the game. Head over to NoKnownSurvivors.com right now to check it out.

For me this stressed the importance of a strong background story to the immersion of a video game. Having read many game-related novels over the past few years I can say that with few exceptions, I always enjoy the game more once I know details on the back story and the characters that lived through the game's events.

So what do you guys think? Has a novel ever convinced you to purchase a game you otherwise weren't too keen on? How important is story outside the frame of the game itself?

we tend to end up with stereotypes when what we're looking for is archetypes. If you look at almost all of the most memorable videogame characters...they are all archetypical. The problem is that the line between an archetype and a stereotype is very subtle and, as established above, conveying that subtlety in the limited context of a videogame is often too much to ask.

But Portnow might be giving the industry a bit too much credit, as many games are clearly the result of developers with Hollywood hard-ons who are packing too much in...generally in the form of cliché (Gears of War, though a ton of fun, is totally guilty of this).

I also think subtlety is another word for restraint, and it's often the silent types who transcend to archetypes: think Mario or the Clint Eastwood cowboy. Videogame characters often play silently and then wisecrack it up during cut scenes.

But can anyone give a concrete reason why Marcus Fenix is not an archetype (and I'd argue never will be) while Snake (from Metal Gear fame) is?

Then again, look at the Team Fortress 2 videos. They are full of stereotypes, yet they are fun and fresh because they are poking fun at said stereotypes (or drinking the Koolaid with such ferocity that it's all new again). They make us laugh at silly debates like this.

There's no conclusion here, but hopefully the beginning of another discussion.

GAME DESIGN: Character Archetype vs. Stereotype [nextgen]

Rolston is referring to all of his writing philosophies —a lifetime's worth of genius or folly—being pumped into our open and willing/possibly-still-intoxicated-from-last-night ear drums.

He presents us with his BIG WRONG IDEAS, a deconstructionist approach that makes bold claims like theme is more important than character and paper is better than plastic to clarify point and purpose.

It was outright insanity I tell you.

He explains that linear forms like film and novels are better at telling stories than games—something that's looking to be flat-out true at the moment—and concluded that inference (such as the ruins in Morrowin) is the best way for gamers to experience compelling narrative which can, at peak, invoke an intangible melancholy.

In the Renaissance, melancholy was a sign of genius. We don't think he was necessarily referring to that interpretation.

Whether or not you enjoy Rolston's opus RPGs, he is certainly trying to accomplish new feats...other than that 50-person mouth spray. That's totally been done before (just check out the German primetime).

Some of the first enemies James confronts resemble piecemeal jointed mannequins, naked, shiny and flesh-toned, jerking as they move. But while they may be composed of human parts, they're not even complete mannequins—instead, they appear to be two hips fastened end-to-end, thighs splayed...the immediate onslaught of these telltale monsters is like a sudden break with reality—and for James, one could theorize that might be exactly what's happening, thrusting him into a white-edged limbo state deep inside the self, wherein he has the opportunity to confront the truth about...his deeds.

Sure, paranormal walking hip mutants aren't exactly the epitome of subtle symbolic themes, but they can be a lot more effective at reinforcing narrative than yet another cut scene or instruction manual filled with unread backstory.

The Aberrant Gamer - 'Sundering the Mind' [gamesetwatch]

Julian "Rabbit" Murdoch over at Gamers With Jobs took the trek to Irrational Games' studios in Quincy, MS and had a chat with ken Levine about BioShock. Of course, in and of itself, this is nothing new. Levine has been interviewed up one side and down the other about his creepy underwater brainchild, but what sets this article apart is it's attention to the details of the story and not just the gameplay. There's a great breakdown of the game's plot as well as a showing the comparisons between it and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. If you are a BioShock fan and looking to learn more than just surface details, this is a great piece of weekend reading. Flynn De Marco

BioShock [Gamers with Jobs]

Within an hour of the announcement I was already receiving reports of stores like GameStop and Wal-Mart pulling copies of the game.

Here's the full statement from the IEMA:

The ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) notified us late this afternoon Eastern Time that they have revoked the "Mature" rating previously issued Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas following an extensive investigation.

Our members intend to immediately cease all sales of the game until existing inventory can either be re-stickered with an AO (Adults Only) rating, or exchanged for new versions of the game that has the hidden content removed and the original M (Mature 17+) rating intact.

Though not a policy, IEMA members generally do not carry AO-rated games any differently than we do not carry X-rated videos or DVDs, thus it is likely that our members will be removing all copies of the current version and re-stocking with the updated version.

We understand that several non-IEMA retail companies intend to continue selling the current version, so we would refer all media inquiries to those respective corporations.