The difference between games and non-games

Right around the time game of the year announcements started appearing, a small discussion took place about the validity of the awards. This isn’t anything new; debates about whether a game is worthy of the title game of the year happen every year, and most of it is subjective. But this time it wasn’t a debate about whether the titles should be called game of the year, it was whether they should be called a game.

In the eyes of the law, Mortal Kombat and the Divine Comedy are equal

Yesterday was a landmark day for the videogames industry. In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court struck down the 2005 California law that would make selling violent videogames to minors a criminal offense, effectively putting videogames on the same level as pornography.

Is Rush code for Grand Theft Auto V?

The Grand Theft Auto series used to be Take-Two’s top selling game. Last year’s BioShock 2 and game of the year contender Red Dead Redemption helped spread the publisher in new directions, but GTA still draws in the big bucks. It’s been almost three years since GTA4 and according to internet sleuth Superannuation, early work already started on Rockstar’s next installment in the series.

Back to the Future: Get Tannen Review

Back to the Future: Episode 2 – Get Tannen
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Platforms: PC, Mac, and PlayStation 3

One of the things that made the Back to the Future series so memorable was the setting. The first film took us back to the 1955, when hamburgers were a nickel and soda shops were the hang out spot. In the second film, we were transported to the future, a world where 3D holograms came alive and cars (and skateboards) flew. In the final film, we took a trip to the old west, where Indians and cowboys were a common sight, and duels at high noon were someone’s final stand. In each of these backdrops we saw different versions of the same characters, jokes, and charm. Marty would get called a chicken, a fight would break out, and Biff would get a face-full of manure.

The Walking Dead Island of Nublar

Dead Island


If you’ve never heard of Dead Island before, you’re not alone. The game was first announced in 2007 by developer Techland, who also created the Call of Juarez series with Ubisoft. Now with publisher Deep Silver, a new trailer was released last week as an IGN exclusive that’s blown away audiences. The trailer is accompanied by soft piano music as a family is overrun by a zombie invasion on an island vacation. Variations of the trailer have already appeared featuring music from the televisions series LOST and the somber rendition of "Mad World" by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules.

Today in Gaming

The Worst Game in the World

Fox News posted an article yesterday asking, “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?” They quoted several psychologists talking about the game’s violence and its effect on younger audiences, even though clinical studies have been inconclusive. One psychologist was even quoted as saying, “The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.” However, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people in 1980 to about 0.4 per 1000 people, a decline of about 85%. Beyond the fact that their statements are false, Rock, Paper, Shotgun reached out to the three psychologists for follow-up statements, but only heard back from one. Billy Pidgeon, a video game analyst with M2 Research, was quoted as saying, “Games without sufficient quality of gameplay -- games that include highly objectionable violent or sexual content -- often pump up the level of this kind of content to gain media attention. This tactic typically fails, as can be seen in the poor sales performance of titles such as BMX XXX and Postal,” but that’s only about a quarter of what was actually said, check out the rest here. Bulletstorm follows all of the ESRB’s guidelines for both gameplay and marketing and to be labeled as worst game in the world by Fox will only help in its promotion. Keep up the good work Electronic Arts, Epic Games, and People Can Fly. Bulletstorm will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 22.

Your Mom Medium Disapproves of Dead Space 2

Electronic Arts started a new ad campaign over the weekend for their upcoming release, Dead Space 2. The ads use the idea that “a mom’s disapproval has always been an accurate barometer of is cool.” Based on this notion, EA recruited over 200 moms for focus testing of Dead Space 2. Obviously EA knew that Dead Space 2 is not the type of game a mom would be interested in, or enjoy. Below is a behind-the-scenes view of what took place, and the results.

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Cue the John Williams music, Jurassic Park is making a comeback, but not in theaters. Last June, Telltale Games, developer of the Sam & Max and Tales of Monkey Island adventure games, inked a deal with NBC Universal for the rights to create two games based on the Back to the Future franchise and Jurassic Park franchise. The first episode of a five episode Back to the Future season was released last December, with the next episode coming in February.

New Spider-Mans Abound

The first photo showing the look of the new Spider-Man film coming 2012 was released today. It shows actor Andrew Garfield walking down a dark alley, looking very beat. There are a couple of things to point out about the suit. First, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the look of the spider on the chest. To me, the suit looks to be damage in a fight, and we can see bloodied scratches on his face to support this. We also know from reports that The Lizard will be a villain in the film, so these battle scars could be from an encounter with him. Also, if you very carefully, you’ll notice small bumps on his wrists, which could possibly suggest the presence of mechanized web shooters.

Some other Spider-Man news came today. Activision announced that Beenox, developer of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, will be in charge of the publisher's future Spider-Man titles. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions received fairly good reviews, so its my hope that Beenox will good as well, if not better, on future Spider-Man releases. Many might complain that no Spider-Man game will live up the open-world gameplay of Spider-Man 2. I personally have not played Spider-Man 2 or Shattered Dimensions yet, but from what information and footage I saw of Shattered Dimensions, it looks like they handled the idea of four different Spider-Mans pretty well, this coming from a long-time Spider-Man fan that still has his comics somewhere in storage.

I’ve Been Saying This All Along

THQ revealed their new company logo today. Brian Farrell, THQ President and CEO, said the new logo, “epitomizes the change, innovation and creative growth that are the cornerstones of the new THQ.” This might be considered marketing talk by some, however, it’s true. THQ is setting themselves to go up against the big boys in the industry and they are going about in the right way: building strong brands with great games.

DC Universe Online Launch

It’s been more than five years since I played a game by Sony Online Entertainment. My last encounter with SOE was Star Wars Galaxies and their introduction of the New Game Enhancements. I’m not going to get into why, but suffice to say it was less then stellar. So why am I interested in an SOE game now?

The Silver Screen is a Little Less Silvery

This post was supposed to come a few days after Christmas, after I had saw Tron: Legacy and re-watched the original Tron. Between family and the holidays, things got pushed back. But I’m finally able to get some time to tell you my thoughts. This isn’t so much of a review as it is just an observation and what I’ve come to know.

Back to the Future: It’s About Time Review

Back to the Future: Episode 1 - It’s About Time
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Platforms: PC, iPad and PlayStation 3 (TBD)

In my last post, I said would be posting a review of the first episode in the five episode series of Back to the Future by Telltale Games. I posted this thinking that games almost always are released on the Tuesday of the week. Half-way through the day, I realized that Back to the Future wouldn’t be released until Wednesday, December 22 (the next day). So that afternoon, I went and saw Tron: Legacy with my brother. I will be posting a review of the film sometime during the weekend after the Christmas festivities, but I’ll also be using that time to watch the first Tron, a film I haven’t seen in over 10 years.

It’s a Christmas Miracle

The Holiday Steam Sale just went live today, and I don’t think its hyperbole to say that every single game is on sale. The sale runs until January 2nd, but you can find new daily deals each day. Here is a list of today’s featured games:

Sometimes I wish I was a Console Gamer

I love being a PC gamer. The number of reasons why PC gaming is superb is more than just a handful, as opposed to what console gamers might suggest. Mouse and keyboard support is the most precise control on any system. The ability to switch DPI on the fly for sniping is invaluable. An analog stick on a controller just doesn’t match. High resolutions and true HD gaming are a standard for the PC. While consoles of this generation are just now approaching 1080p, resolutions of 1280x1024 and higher have been a staple of PC gaming since the early 2000s. The fact that resolutions range as high as 2560x1440 nowadays shows how far ahead PC gaming is in terms of computing power and graphics. The modding community is a strong sub-culture in PC gaming. Fans of many games have taken their existing architecture and used them to create new maps, weapons, items, or entire new games. Counter-Strike originally started as a mod for Half-Life, and it grew into a full fledge title. The number of mods that can be found for Unreal, Quake, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, StarCraft, Fallout, and many more games show that while the shelf-life of a title is finite, the modding community can extend it’s prevalence to near infinite.

The Best Parts

So after pouring over the 72-page transcript of yesterday’s Supreme Court case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA, a couple of things surprised me. As much as I’ve feared what could be a worst-possible-situation, the Justices seemed to hover on the side of reason and common sense rather than protectionism. The Justices also seemed to be much more familiar with the games industry and the games within than the California lawyers were. Over the course of the hour proceedings, it showed that some of the briefs filed by organizations, such as the ECA, did have a favorable effect for the case. I wanted to highlight a couple of quotes that I think standout and sum up the oral arguments. These are direct quotes taken from the case transcript which can be found here.

Oh no, Politics

Hello fall, oh what’s that? You brought your sister summer with you? Oh goodie.

Let me first get a couple of updates out of the way. The NO News has shut down. So instead of an external site, I’ll be posting and updating on New Sanctuary. What you can expect is daily posts through-out the week, including new articles, editorials, and short interest pieces. You’ll see an expansion of what is currently being posted and I hope you enjoy it .

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

I’ve been on a mission the last couple months to play some of the great games that I’ve missed. Either by reason of just not bothering or not having time, these were games that received great scores and reviews. Some were even Game of the Year. Sadly, I’m reminded why I skipped several of these games; they are all too short.
I created a list a while back of great games I had missed that I wanted to catch up and play. Some of these included games I talked about last time (Mass Effect 1 & 2, Fallout 3) but some were critically acclaimed games. The rest included Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction. I also have not played Assassin’s Creed 1 or 2, but I haven’t felt inclined to play an open world collect-stuff game.

Small Update

This is going to be a shorter update than normal. I originally started this blog so I had a way to share things that were interesting to me, share my thoughts about topics, and help improve my writing skills. Since then, I am now a writer for The No News (www.thenonews.com) and am a staff writer for The Coyote Chronicle (www.coyotechronicle.com). I also in the process of a third venture, but I can't share anything about that now. My point being that there may be some times where I may not update for up to two weeks at a time here. However, the major features that I do for these other sites will be linked here, so you will still be able to stay informed.