The Paradigm-Shifting Blog

Au Revoir!

2012-02-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Well, the time has finally come for me to bid farewell to this blog. I humbly thank anyone who ever read my posts during the four years I maintained this blog, and especially through some of the dry spells. Writing The Paradigm-Shifting Blog was a tremendous learning experience for me and I am ever thankful I decided to launch it.

For the foreseeable future, I will continue to write about video games over at Nerds on the Rocks as I have for awhile now, so this isn't really the end. The real reason for shutting down PSB is to focus my attention on my brand-new personal website, http://www.jasonragatz.com/. In the coming months I will be launching a Design Blog on my website that will focus on some out-of-reach ideas I have for games or my general thoughts and comments about various aspects of game design and development.

This blog will remain active as a catalog of the past, but this is likely the last post I will ever make on it. Once again, I thank those who gave my writing an audience, and I hope you continue to follow my writing in the future as I continue through new outlets for it.

Review-- Battlefield 3 (console version)

2011-11-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

DICE and its Battlefield series of first-person shooters have been heralded by PC gamers for its deep, engaging multiplayer that tries to simulate all aspects of a true battlefield, complete with medics, various classes of vehicles, and a map that evolves based on the flow of battle. The Swedish studio dipped its toes into both single-player storytelling and console development with its Bad Company sub-series, but with Battlefield 3 DICE aims to provide a complete package that can take down the console FPS juggernaut that is Call of Duty—or at least put a significant chink in its armor.

[This review was originally posted at Nerds on the Rocks. To continue reading the full review, please click here]

Star Wars: A New Hope: Facebook Edition

2011-05-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a social network newsfeed became an epic saga....

Darth Vader invited Stormtrooper to the event “Capture Rebel Alliance Cruiser”

Stormtrooper wrote on the wall for the event “Capture Rebel Alliance Cruiser”: “The Death Star plans are not in the main computer”

^Darth Vader commented on Stormtrooper’s post: “Tear this ship apart until you find the passengers, I want them alive!”

R2-D2 wrote on C-3PO’s wall: “beep beep wooooot”

^C-3PO commented on R2-D2’s wall post: “Secret mission? What plans? What are you talking about?”

R2-D2 is on Tatooine with C-3PO

Darth Vader wrote on Princess Leia’s wall: “Don’t act so surprised, Your Highness. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.”

^Princess Leia commented on his post: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderan.”

^Darth Vader commented on his post: “You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take her away!”

Darth Vader she must’ve hidden the plans in the escape pod. There will be no one to stop us this time!

C-3PO I’ve got to rest before I fall apart, my joints are almost frozen!

Jawa posted C-3PO and R2-D2 in the Marketplace!

Luke Skywalker just got two new droids for the farm… Biggs is right, I’m never gonna get out of here!

C-3PO wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “I’m C-3PO, human-cyborg relations”

Luke Skywalker is now friends with C-3PO and R2-D2

R2-D2 posted a picture. “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope”

^Luke Skywalker commented: “What’s this?”

^C-3PO commented: “Oh, he says it’s nothing sir.”

^Luke Skywalker commented: “She’s beautiful”

^Luke Skywalker commented: “I wonder if he means Old Ben Kenobi?”

Luke Skywalker wrote on Ben Kenobi’s wall: “Do you know an Obi-Wan Kenobi?”

^Ben Kenobi commented: “Of course I know him! He’s me!”

Ben Kenobi changed his name to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi sent Luke Skywalker a gift: lightsaber

Obi-Wan Kenobi is at Mos Eisley Spaceport with Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2-D2

Stormtrooper wrote on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s wall: “We need to see your identification”

^Obi-Wan Kenobi commented: “You don’t need to see our identification”

^Stormtrooper commented: “We don’t need to see your identification”

^Obi-Wan Kenobi commented: “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”

^Stormtrooper commented: “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for”

^Luke Skywalker likes this.

Luke Skywalker is now friends with Han Solo and Chewbacca

Obi-Wan Kenobi I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if a million voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

Han Solo we’re caught in a tractor beam it’s pulling us in!

Han Solo is at The Death Star with Luke Skywalker and 4 others.

Darth Vader I sense something. A presence I’ve not felt in a long time…

Han Solo this sucks. Even if I could take off, I’d never get past the tractor beam

^Obi-Wan Kenobi commented: “leave that to me”

Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “May the Force be with you. Always.”

R2-D2 beep beep woot beep wooooooot!!

^Luke Skywalker commented: “What’d he say?”

^C-3PO commented: “The Princess is here! Detention block AA23.”

^Han Solo commented: “Forget it, I’ve gotten more than I bargained for already”

^Luke Skywalker commented: “She’s rich”

^Han Solo likes this

Han Solo wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “Luke, we’re gonna have company!”

Luke Skywalker is now friends with Princess Leia

Princess Leia wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “Aren’t you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?”

^Luke Skywalker commented: “I’m Luke Skywalker I’m here to rescue you! I’m with Ben Kenobi!”

Luke Skywalker wrote on C-3PO’s wall: “turn off all the garbage smashers on the detention level!”

Obi-Wan Kenobi just shut down the tractor beam. Come get me Darth

Princess Leia wrote on Han Solo’s wall: “Listen I don’t know who you are, but from now on do as I tell you.”

^Han Solo commented: “Listen, your worshipfulness, I take orders from only one person, me!”

^Princess Leia commented: “It’s a wonder you’re still alive”

^Han Solo commented: “No reward is worth this”

^Chewbacca likes this

Darth Vader wrote on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s wall: “I knew I felt your presence. Now the circuit is complete, now I am the mast.”

^Obi-Wan Kenobi commented: “if you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you

could ever imagine”

Princess Leia is on Yavin IV with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and 3 others

Princess Leia that was too easy…they must be tracking us…

^Darth Vader likes this

Darth Vader this will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi, and it will soon see the end of the Rebellion

Luke Skywalker Red 5 standing by

Luke Skywalker entering the trench. this’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home

Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “use the Force, Luke. Trust me”

Darth Vader the Force is strong with this one

Luke Skywalker turned off his targeting computer

Darth Vader wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “I have you now”

^Han Solo commented: “not so fast! YEEEHOOOOOO!!!”

^Luke Skywalker likes this

Han Solo wrote on Luke Skywalker’s wall: “You’re all clear kid let’s blow this thing and go home!”

^Princess Leia likes this

Princess Leia invited Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca to the event “Awards Ceremony”

Bite-Size Review-- Mass Effect 2: "The Arrival"

2011-03-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

With the Mass Effect trilogy's final chapter already on the horizon, BioWare has returned to last year's Game of the Year for one last mission in "The Arrival". While providing an interesting hook in the story that gives insight into the beginning of Mass Effect 3, one critical design error almost breaks the whole experience.

"The Arrival" starts off like the previous DLC, where someone contacts Commander Shepard on the Normandy, leading into a new mission for Shepard to deal with. In this case, the conditions of the mission require Shepard to go at it alone without the aide of his compatriots. While this decision to keep combat a solo affair enables a fun stealth segment, it later comes at the cost of almost ruining the fun and strategy of combat entirely. In all other Mass Effect 2 missions, the combination and balancing of you and your squads specialties and powers allowed for combat to be dynamic, fresh, and exhilirating. This new mission feels like a neutered version of the original game and it becomes frustrating as you cannot establish a flow to combat like you normally do. While there are a few cool settings for key fights, overall the removal of your squad makes the game much more monotonous.

Where "The Arrival" does succeed is its strong ending, which provides an epic encounter and a key lead up into the final chapter. Furthermore, there is a major decision that appears will have big consequences in ME3 as well. However, with these two notable exceptions, the rest of the story leaves much to be desired. Dialogue sections are uncharacteristically sparse, that the ones that are present are fairly dry and uninteresting. An attempted "twist" comes off as way too obvious and even borderlines on the unbelievable.

At the end of the day, "The Arrival" is only recommendable to those who absolutely cannot wait for Mass Effect 3 and need to feed that thirst with more Mass Effect 2. Otherwise, it falls well short of the towering standards set by its predecessors.

($7 / 560 Microsoft Points)

OVERALL GRADE: C+

How Interactivity Opens New Storytelling Possibilities

2011-03-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

I made this video for a class project, in which I had to analyze an aspect of new media. Obviously, I chose games, and equally unsurprisingly if you follow my true passion in the medium, I took a look at what the element of interaction means from a narrative perspective. While my original vision was actually grander in scope and content, time limitations forced me to cut a lot out of the video and summarize even more. Here's the description from my YouTube page and the embedded video itself.

"Advances in technology have been changing the we create and consume stories for over a hundred years. More recently, video games have achieved a level of detail that allows for entirely new ways to tell and experience stories. The medium's inherent interactive qualities have opened up new doors, and some skilled developers are already laying the foundation."

REVIEW-- Bulletstorm

2011-03-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

With Bulletstorm, developer People Can Fly, along with parent company Epic Games and publishing partner Electronic Arts, have brought us one of the freshest, funniest, and most flat-out entertaining first person shooters we have seen in a long, long time. The entire game is based on a simple concept: kill your enemies in as many different ways as you can come up with. The execution of that idea, however, is phenomenal. People Can Fly have packed this game full of unique, powerful weapons each complete with a creative secondary function, while also giving you a leash to pull enemies and items toward you, a kick move to knock them away, and a megaton of environmental hazards and goodies to mix in. Each firefight plays out like a sandbox of mayhem that dares you to find yet another way to put down one of the dangerous denizens of the planet Stygia. The unrelenting originality of this game is without a doubt its finest point and the biggest reason why any and all shooter and action game fans need to take it for a spin.

Aside from the all unadulterated fun to be had, Bulletstorm has plenty of other merits that it uses to set an early benchmark for 2011's Game of the Year (let me stress the words "early" and "benchmark"; not declaring any winners just yet). While the game is certainly filled with all kinds of foul talk, vulgar references, and other varieties of toilet humor, the jokes and pokes actually come out as genuinely funny, clever, and well-written. Some lines will make some players groan in embarrassment, but for the most part, what could've come across as the unimaginative humor of an adolescent male actually turns out to be thoroughly amusing. Even better, the game never takes itself too seriously and the characters themselves make references to the absurdity of their own banter. Much of this banter comes out as organic dialogue while running through levels rather than just in cutscenes, a technique that gives life to the downtime between gunfights and allows the developers to keep a tight pace that never leaves you feeling like the game is slow or overwhelming.

The introductory section of the game in particular does a fantastic job of establish the setting, the characters, and even the canonical viability of the game's combat system. While the pace is notably slower in this first hour or so, Bulletstorm does a good job of feeding you information and new abilities one by one, and despite some of the ridiculous stunts you'll be pulling later in the game, it always feels grounded in a certain tangible sense of reality. As the game progresses, new weapons unlock to give you new tricks, and new enemy types force you to shake up your approach to combat. The litany of environmental hazards ready to lethally assist you never feel like they are out of place, and People Can Fly throws a bone to old-school game design with the inclusion of a few well-designed and tightly-scripted boss battles.

A gorgeous setting and layered backstory give an added weight to the game's campaign, and for most of the game the characters are well-nuanced and cleverly-written, with real, believable motivations. However, the way the writers convey some of these motivations is very much clunky, and in particular Trishka--who's a sharp-tongued, bad-ass female soldier that is refreshingly not proportioned like a stripper--falls flat as a character later in the game with cliched daddy issues. The protagonist, Grayson Hunt, is also generally a dynamic character with a complex past and well-defined motives and attitudes, but in some crucial scenes it would have benefited him to show his frustration in a more subtle way rather than stating his opinions matter-of-factly in a goody-goody tone that clashes with the rest of his mannerisms. The main antagonist, General Sarrano, also comes across as a little too over the top; he would give Hitler a run for his money on the evil meter.

While the narrative and characters come off as hit and miss over the course of the adventure, on a technical level Bulletstorm absolutely shines. There was never a single frame drop, a single late environmental draw-in, a ridiculous lack of hit detection--nada. This is about as well-polished a game as it comes these days (a rare feat), which is especially impressed given the sheer amount of stuff going on at various points throughout the game, often on a large scale. The graphics and art design are flat-out gorgeous, all the guns feel and sound real, and the music compliments the frenetic action perfectly. The only notable detraction on a technical level isn't even the fault of Bulletstorm at all: Unreal Engine 3's age is starting to show a little bit when it comes to facial animation and hair, which is most notable in the game's sparing cutscenes.

Despite some narrative missteps down the stretch, Bulletstorm is without a doubt the most original game--and especially shooter--that we've seen in a good while. It's fun, fresh, funny, and provocative; it's a great roller coaster ride that never lets up, and from a design standpoint is incredibly well-executed. While ending is somewhat plagued by an unsavory blatant set up for a sequel, People Can Fly has nonetheless built an exciting new world that will be fun to come back to over and over again, and I can't wait to see where the studio goes from here.

OVERALL GRADE: A-

Is This What Next-Gen Games Will Look Like?

2011-03-03T00:55:00.000-08:00

At the 2011 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, Epic Games unveiled a tech demo for what they are saying is what next-generation console hardware should look like. As you can see, despite the hyper-realistic visuals already achievable by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Epic is determined to prove that console hardware has yet to reach a graphical peak. Epic's President, Mark Rein, stressed that the tech unveiled today is not Unreal Engine 4.0, which has been under development for years, but rather what he would call "Unreal 3.975"--despite his claim that this jump is greater than that from Unreal 2 to Unreal 3.

Though only images are currently available, all accounts claim that the in-motion footage looks even better and is comparable to a carefully-orchestrated CGI scene. According to VG247, the tech demo was running in real time on three Nvidia GeForce GTX 580s; if you aren't up to date on PC graphics cards, the GTX 580 is currently the top dog in Nvidia's lineup. In other words, it takes 3 of the most powerful graphics card currently available to power this thing. Next-gen indeed. Though this new tech is obviously designed with an eye toward the future, Rein claims that Epic has made it scalable to work on devices as "weak" as the iPhone 3GS, which is already currently capable of handling scaled-down version of the current Unreal Engine 3.

While its likely that it will still be several years before Microsoft and Sony are ready to bring out new high-end machines, Epic has shown us that there is indeed something to look forward to. With a new benchmark now set, its up to other developers to create some advanced middleware tools, otherwise all that power is only going to mean a lot more work (read: higher costs).

Check out the full gallery of images from the GDC presentation here.

The Next Console Generation? Don't Hold Your Beath

2011-02-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

Throughout the history of video games and video game consoles, one rule has held steadfast--every 5 or so years, the industry refreshes with what's referred to as a new "generation" of consoles, where each of the major console manufacturers trumpets out new, more powerful devices while slowly phasing out the old ones. 2011 marks the fifth year since the 2006 launch of the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3--and the sixth year since the Xbox 360's launch in 2005--yet not only have we yet to hear of any new machines, it does not appear likely that new systems will be entering the market until 2015. The reality is that nobody involved in the industry--from the manufacturers to the developers to the publishers to even the consumers--even want a new console generation anytime soon. And for good reason.

PS2: The First 10-year Console (and counting)

When Sony first launched the PlayStation 3, the Japanese tech giant defended the system's initially astronomical price tag by claiming that the PS3 was designed for a ten-year life cycle. While there were plenty of critics doubting Sony's lofty ambitions, in hindsight the goal was not so unrealistic given the ongoing success of the PlayStation 2. By the time the PS2 reached its 10th anniversary in 2010, sales had declined significantly from its heydey, but it was far from dead in the water (games continue to be published for the system to this day). In other words, a system planned to have a 10-year life cycle surely could achieve that goal with little trouble given the PS2's already-established lasting power (then again, the PS2 is the most successful console ever made).

However, the PS2 achieved this feat 4-5 years after the start of the current console generation, so it's not like it can really be regarded as the catalyst for the elongation of the life cycle. Instead, we must answer a fundamental question: why would Sony, Microsoft, or (to a lesser extent) Nintendo even want to release a new console right now? The PS3 and Xbox 360 are still growing and have yet to hit critical mass. Further, the cost of actually releasing a new console is tremendous, and the manufacturers often launch new consoles at a loss and make up the difference over time in game licensing fees, accessory sales, and (down the road) cheaper and/or more efficient components. There's no reason for these companies to go back into the red when the current generation is still in its prime and still growing. The economic turmoil that has tightened up budgets around the world--and that played a role in slowing growth in the generation's early years--has only reaffirmed this position.

The PS3 Slim makes the unit cheaper for Sony to
manufacture.

(Note: the Nintendo Wii may be an exemption to this logic and will be excluded for the rest of the article. The Wii experienced its first sales decline in 2010 and--while still strong and still the overall market leader--there is no doubt that the system will reach its demise first of the three, especially considering that it was a far weaker console to begin with. However, still don't expect a successor until at least next year; the Wii still retails for $200, meaning there's plenty of room for sales-invigorating price drops).

To further strengthen the console manufacturers' position, the developers and publishers are more than happy to keep the current consoles around for as long as possible. The installed bases (number of people who own the current consoles) are still growing. A new set of consoles would mean higher development costs and a need for developers to learn how to develop for entirely new computer architectures when they are only just now tapping the full potential of the PS3 and 360. The publishers would also not want to combine these higher costs with installed bases that would inherently be only a fraction of what's available right now, which would severely limit the sales potential of any next-generation game, no matter how good. The increasing installed bases of the current consoles also decreases the risk of developing middle-ranged niche titles that can sell to just a small segment of the market rather than needing to achieve AAA blockbuster success.

Because of Xbox Live's heavy integration to the 360 dashboard,
Microsoft was able to completely overhaul the dash to
accommodate changing times.

Any rational consumer doesn't want a new console either. With the developers finally getting a firm grasp on development for this generation, gamers are able to play increasingly higher-quality games. The aforementioned benefits of growing installed bases also means that developers and publishers will be willing to take more risks, which opens up the door to new, more radical gameplay ideas. Consumers also get the advantage of sequels and entire trilogies that can actually build off previous titles in the same generation; it would be almost impossible for BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy to maintain the sense of continuity from game-to-game if the generation were cut short as currently these games import previous games' save data directly off the hard drive (of course, a cloud-based memory solution like what Sony's launching with PlayStation Plus could alleviate this hurdle). Perhaps most importantly, these consoles still cost about $300, or the traditional launching price of a new console (though that has already been thrown out the window). Should sales start declining like what the Wii's beginning to see, there's plenty of room for price drops, which trigger a massive increase in sales. With the abundance of quality games still being released for the current consoles, the last thing a consumer wants to do is shell out hundreds of dollars to start over again.

Kinect and the Xbox 360 S: a recipe for longevity.

There are several other factors in this generation's elongation. For one, the primary driving force in the launch of previous generations was technological advancements that allowed for a significant increase in pure graphical power. Let's face it: no matter how much more realistic future consoles may get, any improvements would only be incremental to the strikingly realistic visuals already achieved by today's consoles. Another game-changer is the current consoles' integration with online connectivity. The PS3 and Xbox 360 as they exist today are far more advanced than the machines that launched, even with with the slimmer redesigns aside. Having the Internet so thoroughly integrated into the experience means that the consoles are able to evolve as time goes on--something that previously necessitated an entirely new hardware product. Already we've seen things like Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, MLB.tv, NHL GameCenter, Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, Zune, IPTV, and a whole bunch of other applications get added to the consoles' stable of features.

Finally, 2010 saw the launch of major peripherals for both the PS3 and 360 that provide a new method of interaction that could easily be associated with a new console, but instead are simply additions to the current hardware. Sony and Microsoft certainly hope that the PlayStation Move and Kinect Sensor for Xbox 360 can carry their respective hardware for the equivalent of a new generation, but as we've been over this whole time, even if they flop (which they aren't), these consoles are plenty capable of continuing growth on their own.

The Marketing Departments Have It All Wrong

2011-02-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

Successful marketing is an incredibly useful tool to get consumers to buy your product, and the world of entertainment media is no exception to that rule. There are countless examples across all forms of media of just how important marketing (or lack thereof) can be to a product's ultimate financial success. While video games have proven to be an incredible gold mine, often generating more income than Hollywood movies, the industry as it exists now is far from sustainable. Publishers need to pour tons of money into development for today's consoles, meaning that there is an extremely high risk if the product fails--which is why we see fewer original IPs and a market that is dominated by big-budget sequels. And therein lies the biggest problem of the games industry: the publishers don't understand how to market their product. "But I see Call of Duty and Halo ads all the time!" one might retort. It's true; publishers do a pretty good job of pushing their biggest brands and creating financial juggernauts. Unfortunately, that means a select few games are basically driving the entire industry, a situation that doesn't need an insightful analyst to realize that it's not exactly a formula for long-term survival, let alone growth. The problem is exacerbated when companies insist on pumping out new titles for these brands year in and year out, which not only burns out the developers and creativity, but dramatically accelerates what is known as "franchise fatigue" for the consumers. Just look at what happened to Guitar Hero and Rock Band: what were once the financial gems of the industry for their ability to not only move millions of units of games, but also high-return plastic instruments, are now a toxic asset that has become dead in the water just as fast as it rose to glory. (In case you're wondering, Activision published a whopping 25 Guitar Hero SKUs in 2009 alone--a year that also saw revenue in the overall genre drop 50% to $700 million from $1.4 billion the year before).

Once a breakout hit, Guitar Hero is now
only a shadow of its former glory

Now, one could easily argue that the music game genre's catastrophic collapse had more to do with Activision's greedy higher-ups than with a marketing department failing to successfully handle so many similar products. But this argument only circles back to the underlying trend that is the fault of the marketing departments: they are not marketing the right product. We've already gone over how publishers focus on select franchises and try to pump out as much money as they can from these names. The fact of the matter is, they are promoting the wrong names, period. Rather than promoting the game brand itself, the publishers should be promoting the "brand" that is the talent behind these games. A bit altruistic, you might say, but let's take a closer look by peeking over at the much-compared medium of movies. Certainly there are cases where movie studios are able to push a brand to sell a movie (Star Wars, James Bond, pretty much any movie based on a comic book come to mind). But if you think about the way most movies are promoted and hyped up, it's usually one of two things (or a combination): the director and the actors. These studios often bank on big-name talent to bring consumers to their product. People already know they are probably in for a good movie if Steven Spielberg is the director or if Russel Crowe is the lead actor. These kinds of "stars" do not exist in the games industry--which is entirely the fault of the people who promote the games. Of course, game development is inherently more team-oriented and less based on individual talent, but that is why the industry should start focusing on promoting its specific studios as its stars.

If you don't know Bungie, you certainly know
its most successful creation.

To some extent, this has already happened. Sort of. People who follow the industry closely know the name "Bungie" carries a whole lot more weight than "Saber Interactive" because they already know what Bungie's accomplished and know what they bring to the table. Bungie hasn't announced so much as a title or even genre for their next game, but gamers are already salivating for it. The real money, however, is not in the people that already know what games they are going to buy, but rather the mainstream market that pretty much bought their Xbox for Call of Duty, Halo, and Madden... because that's all they know. You're average Joe probably doesn't know the difference between an Infinity Ward Call of Duty game and a Treyarch Call of Duty game. The existing practice obviously devalues the developer, but that's not as important to the publisher's bottom line as the eventual sales, so they promote the game brand--which they have more control over--instead. However, incentives exist for publishers as well. If publishers start promoting their studios rather than just the game brands, they'll be able to create completely new IPs (and to them, potential new series/franchises) on the backs of those developer names alone (i.e., without the high financial risk usually associated with a new IP). They don't have to waste money explaining why Game X is the next big thing while not-so-subtley hinting that its sequel is already in the works and will be even bigger. Instead, they can simply say, "this is the newest game from Bungie." Boom, millions of copies sold, done deal (the studio has to actually make a good game of course, but a studio that is able to consistently feed its creativity is far more likely to be working as hard as it can).

This is a bold proclamation that might seem like a too big of a step for the industry's tepid publishers. Luckily, there is already an example of this practice achieving mainstream success. For years, Rockstar was known for one game franchise and one game franchise only: Grand Theft Auto. Anybody who's reading this knows that those games don't need any introduction. It's a game brand that practically prints money. Or is it? Last year, Rockstar unleashed their latest project, and it wasn't a game about urban crime. Rather, it was a brand-new game set in the Old West. It was called Red Dead Redemption and went on to sell millions upon millions of copies and is heralded as one of the best games of last year. While the game is technically a sequel, it shares no ties to its under-the-radar predecessor, which wasn't even originally developed by Rockstar (the former Capcom game was dumped and Rockstar swooped up the rights, pushed it out, then geared up for the project it really wanted to do). How could what is essentially a new IP make such a splash right out of the gate? Because Rockstar was able to promote the Rockstar brand instead of the game's brand. Very clearly above the title, and before every trailer and commercial, reads a line that says, "Rockstar Games Presents." As in, "Rockstar Games Presents Red Dead Redemption." At the very least, pushing their name on the front of the box puts their name out for the future, so even if you didn't know they made GTA, you'll know they made RDR when they ship their next game (which, by the way, is L.A. Noire, which will also carry the "Rockstar Games Presents" tag on its box).

By doing this, Rockstar has taken steps to promote the Rockstar brand. Suddenly, the company has two mega-blockbusters, yet its next two games (L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3) are not from either of those franchises. They have been able to succesfully promote the Rockstar name, which allows them to explore game ideas in all sorts of stories and settings, rather than endlessly iterating on GTA until consumers finally get sick of it. Not only that, but when Grand Theft Auto V eventually does drop, it will come to additional applause and fanfare for returning from a long absence, which generates all sorts of hype on its own. And in the meantime, Rockstar is still making a pretty penny on other, brand new titles, because people know that it's not just that GTA is a good game, it's that Rockstar is good at making good games. Being able to say "from the studio behind Grand Theft Auto" is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, and one that is scarcely used in the game industry--somewhat baffling considering how often you hear similar phrases in movie trailers. Promoting the talent will allow developers to create all sorts of new games, which will stave off franchise fatigue, foster creativity (which is good for the entire industry), and reduce the dependence on big-budget sequels. This process means more creative freedom for developers, a wider portfolio for the publishers, and a whole wealth of different experiences for the consumers. It's a win, win, win. Us "hardcore gamers" already know the great studios. It's time the rest of the world finds out as well.

Copying vs. Learning

2011-02-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

Learn from the best. It's a simple concept and one that has pervaded throughout all varieties of industries in any capitalistic society. Apple's iPhone was the first smartphone for the masses, not just the businessmen, and three years later we have all varities of smartphones, many taking important cues from Apple (like multi-touch displays) or trying to improve their design. Kobe Bryant frequently states how he studies and learns from the NBA's most legendary players to improve his own game. In debating new bills, lawmakers frequently make references to how the core elements have already played out in certain states or foreign nations. Citizen Kane is often credited as being the greatest film of all time, not because it was so jaw-droppingly entertaining, but because of the myriad technical and cinematic tricks that it first introduced and are now standard in any Hollywood production. It is an important part of any competitive practice to study the best that's been done, emulate it as best you can, and then build on those key traits in an original way. When it comes to game design, however, many developers shy away from borrowing ideas laid out in other games, and for those that do, many are derided for being copycats.

Darksiders' protagonist, War (center).

In January 2010, an upstart studio called Virgil Games partnered with publisher THQ to release an original game called Darksiders. The game was an original take on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with a comic book-inspired art design and a semi-open world with linear objectives. When Darksiders hit shelves, it arrived to mixed reviews. The game was heralded as being fun and well-designed, but took several knocks for being a copycat of God of War or The Legend of Zelda. These criticisms weren't directed at specific shortcomings, but merely by the fact that Virgil Games didn't reinvent the wheel with entirely new mechanics from the top down. Nevermind that there has never been a game to bear any sort of resemblance to the critically-acclaimed Zelda series before this. Nevermind that the elements Virgil borrowed were just that--elements, not entire gameplay ideas or concepts. From the game's announcement, Virgil had stated that they were attempting to make a game in the Zelda mold, with an emphasis in combat that would bring it close to God of War, yet featuring an entirely new, well thought out, and imaginative universe. But to some reviewers, that meant little; Darksiders was just a copycat of Zelda or God of War that was simply not as good.

Trucks and Skulls: look familiar?

My question for these "critics," to which I cannot fathom an answer, is why? Surely there are more egregious copycats out there that are deliberately trying to steal someone else's idea and make a quick buck off it. Just head to the App Store and look at Trucks and Skulls, a total facsimile of the breakout hit Angry Birds, albeit with a thin layer of fresh paint. But Darksiders was no Trucks and Skulls. It borrowed gameplay elements, sure, but not only did they do it from multiple, entirely different games, but they meshed them in new ways in an entirely new and compelling presentation. Virgil Games was pretty upfront that Zelda and God of War were serving as inspirations for their game--and there is nothing wrong with that. At all. Especially when you consider that these are two of the most heralded franchises in all of gaming. Virgil--a new studio headed by a guy named Joe Madureira who was completely new to the medium--was simply learning tricks from the best in the business and applying them to an entirely original concept and idea. To criticize Virgil for this is completely missing the point.

That is not to say there aren't "real" copycats out there. Dante's Inferno and the recent Medal of Honor reboot bear some pretty uncanny resemblances to God of War and Call of Duty, respectively, and it's pretty likely that these games were cases of trying to get in on the cash cow. But even in these examples, its unfair to write these games off as simple copycats. While the gameplay in Dante's Inferno feels like it was literally pulled straight out of the God of War games, it does bring a unique element to the table in that its story and level design are actually interpretations of a famous literary work (Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy). So, in that sense, Dante's Inferno is only a half copycat. But in this case, given the incredible similarities in the gameplay alone (really, you need to play both and you'll see its almost exactly the same combat mechanics, buttons, moves, etc), it would be fair to criticize DI's gameplay as been a less glorious rip-off of GoW's. In the case of Medal of Honor, the similarities to Call of Duty's Modern Warfare sub-series are even more egregious--and fair for criticism--but the development team at Danger Close did try their own spin on the formula by using a real conflict in Afghanistan as a setting rather than an entirely fictional one. So, while examples of "copying" do exist, Darksiders is nowhere near what these two games did, and should not be criticized in the same way.

Heavy Rain's innovative control scheme allows for more cinematic
experiences--and needs to be applied by other developers.

In fact, it's almost as if game developers doesn't do enough copying. Sure, there are the examples listed above, and there have been other attempts at straight-up copying an idea. But few developers try to do what Virgil Games actually did, which is to set out to to copy or one-up, but rather to study, learn, and apply in a new and interesting way. There are some pretty well-established gameplay models that would absolutely flourish in other settings, other stories, etc. We saw a glimpse of this potential last year when Rockstar took its own award-winning Grand Theft Auto mechanics and applied them to a Wild West setting in Red Dead Redemption. They obviously tweaked various aspects to fit the setting, timeline, and story, but the hallmarks of GTA were clearly evident. In many ways this is similar to what Virgil was doing with Darksiders, and, frankly, is a practice that more developers should be looking into. After all, how many gamers heralded the innovative gameplay of last year's Heavy Rain, but hated its core story? That game's developer, Quantic Dream, have already stated they are moving on to the next innovative idea and technology, so in their place, who wouldn't want to see a new game take Heavy Rain's mechanics and apply them in wholly original ways? Or, why not take elements from those mechanics and use them to enhance certain parts of other games? The industry holds a wealth of great gameplay mechanics, great ideas, great interactive elements and ways of engaging the player... developers just need to do a better job of learning from each other. And the so-called "critics" need to back off on their jaded criticism and allow new minds to tackle old ideas.

The Importance of Semantics

2011-01-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

"Semantics" is commonly derided in our daily jargon as being nit-picky and annoying, but today I will make the case of its importance...especially in the case of the adolescent game industry. Semantics--or more simply, word choice--can have very subtle ways of affecting the reader without them even noticing (but, as a Communications major, these are effects I pick out quite regularly). Before we dive in, we should go over just why word choice can be so important at all. When discussing "video games," word choice is everything. The medium itself is very young by the standards of media overall (just look how long books, movies, TVs, etc. have been around). More significantly, its roots are not so much that of a new communication medium but rather a new genre of toys. The Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System were not heralded as a coming of a new way to tell and experience stories, but rather as a new way to kill time and have fun--especially for kids. This is why many assume (sometimes incorrectly) that the adolescent male is by far the dominant demographic of game consumer; though historically this may have been true, it's not today, and the change is happening fast than most people realize. In fact, many gamers don't even want video games to be looked at as a storytelling tool; they are quite happy with their delightful hobby and just want to play games as games--for fun.

Zaeed doesn't like it when Cmdr. Shepard forgets to italicize Mass Effect.

As I discussed last week, the growing split in game design (and consumption) does not mean that either side is "right" and the other needs to go away. They can both very easily co-exist, but as a whole, it's time for the general public to start paying more respect to the game medium as a true storytelling medium. But for everyone else to respect games, gamers themselves must respect games. And that's where semantics come in. First and foremost, when writing about games, the title must be placed in italics. You'll notice that The Paradigm-Shifting Blog has adopted this practice long ago, and for good reason: in the English language, you are supposed to italicize the titles of full bodies of work. Like a book (duh). Also, a movie. A newspaper. A music album. A television series. A video game. As you likely noticed, a "full body of work" does not necessarily mean "a piece of media with a long story." Game titles need to be capitalized. Period. If we gamers cannot respect our craft with such a simply concept as recognizing them as someone's (or some group's) complete body of work, then why should anyone else? No more Mass Effect, Uncharted, or even Super Meat Boy. It's Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Super Meat Boy.

There was a time when the only objective was to "go right
and you win," but not anymore.

Okay, so maybe italicization is not so much "semantics" as it is a lesson in proper grammar, but the idea is the same. It's part of an overall concept of separating video games from toys. Even if the medium originated that way, it has grown into a full-fledged entertainment outlet. In the old days, the entire point of playing a game was to provide an artificial challenge for the player to overcome. There was no story progression or character development. That was it. "Beat" the game. Except we still use that word. My roommate ran down to my room last week to tell me that he "beat" Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. What he really meant to say was that he finished it. What did he beat? What challenging algorithm did he have to outsmart? What patterns did he need to recognize and execute to perfection? Of course, some gamers still play "story" games--including Assassin's Creed--for that same sense of overcoming an explicitly designed challenge. This is why most games still provide varying levels of a "hard mode", where the point is for you to be better than the computer. You bested them. So in that sense, yes, you can still "beat" a hard mode, or if you are playing a game solely for the challenge, you can "beat" it by doing everything you've been tasked to do. But, if you are playing the game not only for the fun factor, but also to experience this incredible story (which is the reason most people have for playing games like Assassin's Creed) then you're not "beating" anything; you're finishing the story. This idea is very small and may seem unimportant, but it is part of the overall idea of separating video games from toys and grouping them in their proper place as an informational medium.

Another example of poor word choice is the prevalent use of the term "franchise." Now, publishers often use the term "franchise" quite accurately with their hopes and wishes for their game brand. Halo, for example, is very much a franchise, having games developed by different developers, a toy line, an anime series, a long-gestating film project...you get the picture. "Franchise" refers to the big-picture money-maker of the overall brand. But lets take a different angle on this. Obviously, Star Wars can easily be considered its own franchise. But within that gargantuan franchise lies the core of it all: the "series" of Star Wars movies. They exist in the same medium and tell (for all intents and purposes) the same story. They are direct sequels/prequels of each other. They have self-contained story arcs and ones that play out over whole trilogies (or two!). I bring this up because many game developers, writers, and analysts often refer to their series as a franchise when the two terms are not interchangeable. As with Halo, it definitely applies in some cases--and perhaps many of these developers truly wish for their baby to actually become a true franchise. But when referring to a specific series of games, it really devalues them from an artistic perspective tolabel them a "franchise"; doing this is like saying that this game is being made for the sole purpose of making money. Like a toy. And, frankly, like how some games in this business are made (Call of Duty says hi). Obviously, all developers hope to make money off their work. But referring to the Uncharted series as a "franchise" severely devalues the work of developer Naughty Dog in pushing the limits of game design, narratively and otherwise.

Nathan Drake's adventures are about a lot more than just filling the bank.

So, I task you with being aware of these important distinctions when you are reading, writing, or talking about games. These are far from the only examples and if I truly wanted to write about every last one of them, I could probably fill a book. But you don't need to read a book to get to the central idea behind this article. Games are not toys anymore. In many ways, video games are a lot more than the traditional definition of a "game"--perhaps the most striking semantical violation of all. I've long considered "video game" to be a somewhat antiquated term when referring to this interactive medium that I've come to love and respect so much. Right now "video game" is really the only term we've got... but it's about as relevant as describing a movie/film as a "motion picture" (after all, movies are a lot more than simply a moving image nowadays). With that thought, I'll leave you, the reader, to engage in a collective brainstorming over what we should really call the interactive medium long referred to as "video games." What's the best you've got? Post your ideas in the comments.

The Growing Dichotomy of Game Design

2011-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

There is something happening in the industry of video games. It has been a fissure that has been growing steadily wider the past decade or so and will only continue to widen further in the future. The change it brings has ramifications for fundamental design, for the way games will be sold and marketed, and even for the way they are played. It boils down to the central philosophy driving the game's creation. And, in layman's terms, this dichotomy can be boiled down to two things: is the game focused on story or play mechanics?

The heights of realistic graphical and audio quality that today's consoles are capable of has enabled story and narrative to take a more central role in many of today's games. However, certain game genres--for example, puzzle, fighting, and racing games--are built entirely around the "fun" of their mechanics and any story is usually superfluous and unimportant (or even nonexistent). On the other side of the coin, you have games that are starting to rival Hollywood movies in story quality, production value, and creative talent like Mass Effect, Heavy Rain, and Uncharted. While these games take varying lengths of steps toward being "more movie-like", they all retain the common denominator that the medium's intrinsic interactive qualities are integral to the way the story is experienced. That is to say, the fact that you, the player, are directly impacting the story is a key differentiator between movies and games and is still a defining aspect of these "story-focused" games; the difference is, it's not the only defining aspect.

Heavy Rain's revolutionary control scheme brings a new dimension to interacting with the game's story.

In fact, play mechanics are just as important to "story" games as "mechanic" games. As Epic Game's lead designer Cliff Bleszinski just so happened to say today on Twitter,

"If you have a great game with a bad story you still have a great game. If you have a bad game with a great story you still have a bad game. [But] if you have a great game with a great story then you have a classic."

To understand this, you must recognize that the emergence of story as a central element in many modern games is a relatively new phenomenon since in the old days story was very much an afterthought and what always came first were the mechanics. Furthermore, the thing that makes a game a game is the fact that interactivity is central to the experience...and interactivity is achieved via play mechanics. That being said, the few developers that have dipped their toes in the vast ocean of great narratives have opened whole new doors of possibilities.

The added dimension of interactivity means games are capable of stories that no other medium is, and by combining great game design on a mechanics level with the high quality narrative, characterization, and production values of movies, the door is open for fantastic new experiences to emerge. Games like BioShock have already played with the notion of interactivity as a central element to the game's story. Games like Mass Effect give your individual decisions a ripple effect that shows ramifications through the entire game's world--or multiple games' worlds--and affects your path through the story and the way other characters react to you. Games like Uncharted are more exciting than any summer blockbuster at the movie theaters because of the fact you are participating in the action, while witty writing and strong voice acting bring the story to a more personal level.

The way you've acted as Commander Shepard decides whether or not Wrex lives in Mass Effect.

But not all games strive for these goals--and not all need to. There is room in the market for games that merely want to do what games were originally designed to do without all this fancy schmancy new age story business. Fighting games in particular excel at using the idiosyncratic fighting mechanics to drive competitiveness in the players. Racing games center themselves around two simple things: driving cars really fast and being the first one to the finish line. These games don't need canonical explanations; they simply need to be fun. And that's just fine. Even some games that do have stories, like the Call of Duty series, are not necessarily trying to push the envelope of interactive storytelling, and are arguably designed with a gameplay-is-the-only-important-thing philosophy--not that you can blame them given the fact that the multiplayer (arguably a separate "mechanics" game) is so important to their sales.

SoulCalibur IV doesn't need a story to be really fun.

This is the divergence we are seeing in game design today. Some games are simply going to try to push the fun factor of what games can do. Some games are going to push the artistic envelope of what ways they can use interactivity to tell an engaging story. Similarly, when gamers want to play a certain game, they'll often do it because a) they love its mechanics or b) they love its story. It's not a matter of one design philosophy "winning" over another, it's about the way they coexist and feed off each other. Mass Effect 2 is a great example, learning from the cover-based gunplay of Gears of War to make playing through its story more fun whilst still retaining its focus on story and character development. The emergence of truly great game narrative and a push to take artistic advantage of games' interaction does not mean that "fun" games will go away. What it does mean is that games don't necessarily have to be fun, whimsical distractions, and can instead provide an artistic canvas for exploring higher level questions, such as the illusion of free will (BioShock) or the ethics of cloning (Mass Effect).

Mass Effect 2 combines its great narrative with Gears of War's fun cover system.

What do you think of this growing dichotomy of game design? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Spotlight: Mass Effect 2 Wins IGN GotY in Style

2011-01-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Normally I'd rather be promoting my own Game of the Year Awards than someone else's, but IGN outdid themselves this year in announcing their winner for 2010 Overall Game of the Year. Of course, they nailed it on the head by picking the year's true standout in Mass Effect 2, but merely telling you who won the award was not enough for the imaginative folks in the IGN offices. Check out the award video they put together below, it's worth a few laughs:

11 Games to Watch in 2011

2011-01-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

We may already be 2 weeks into the new year, but the new year of games is only just beginning. You've read about the best games from last year, now take a look at what--at least right now--look like the best games going into this year. Of course, a LOT can change with any of these games, including slipping out of 2011 altogether. Also, there is at least one new platform launching this year in Nintendo's 3DS... but we will probably see the PSP's successor sometime this year as well. Furthermore, games for Apple's iOS (and often their Android ports) typically don't get announced until a week or two before they hit the App Store. Even on the console front, many of the big publishers will reveal new 2011 titles between now and E3 in June. With all that being said, however, here are 11 games that you need to keep an eye on in 2011.

11. XCOM developed by 2K Marin // published by 2K Games
Xbox 360, PC~~~Release TBA 2011

XCOM is one of the most beloved franchises in game design, composed of turned-based tactical action on the PC in the 1990s. 2K Marin's reboot is nothing like those games, but features similar themes while re-imagining the game as a first-person shooter in the BioShock mold. 2K Marin's first game was the surprisingly good BioShock 2, with which the studio proved it could handle an established franchise and add to it. The game was shown off at E3 2010 but has remained mostly dormant since; however, from what we have seen, it looks like 2K Marin is looking to evoke a similar sense of conspiracy and eeriness as what made BioShock so memorable.

E3 2010 Trailer

10. PORTAL 2 developed by Valve // published by Valve & EA Partners
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac~~~Releases April 21, 2011

Valve's breakout puzzler from the 2007 The Orange Box compilation is getting upgraded to a full-fledged retail title for its sequel. Don't think that Valve is selling you short though; the mind-bending puzzler with witty writing is going all out this time, both back inside the Aperture Science facilities and outside in a jungle-looking environment. GlaDoS is back as the antagonist as well, meaning laughs are sure to follow around every turn. On top of the lengthy new single-player adventure, Valve has also developed an entirely separate (but just as meaty) co-op tale starring two Aperture Science test robots. If you don't know what all the fuss is about, go check out the original Portal for cheap on Steam or Xbox Live right now. Few games can claim such an entertaining combination of charm and humor while also making you think.

IGN Video Preview

9. STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC developed by BioWare // published by Electronic Arts
PC~~~~Release TBA 2011

Look familiar? That's because this game also appeared on last year's list... before it slipped into a 2011 release. The game looks on track to hit sometime in the middle of the year though, and all the things we said last year only ring even more true now. First and foremost, this is a BioWare game, which guarantees a certain level of quality. It's also Star Wars, and in the Knights of the Old Republic part of the timeline (some 1000 years before the movies when Sith and Jedi are both still prevalent). Each class looks diversified enough and interesting enough to stand on its own, and most importantly, BioWare is attempting to infuse an important sense of story progression into the highly-personalized (per class) missions that bring a level of detail usually associated with single-player campaigns, not MMOs. This might be the strongest contender yet to World of Warcraft's MMO crown.

The Old Republic Action Trailer

8. GEARS OF WAR 3 developed by Epic Games // published by Microsoft Game Studios
Xbox 360~~~Releases Fall 2011

Originally set for an April release date, Microsoft instead pushed it back to anchor its pivotal holiday lineup. The extra 6 months of development is on top of what was already 6 extra months compared to the development time on Gears of War 2. A talented studio like Epic will not let all that extra time go to waste, and considering how good the first two entries in the franchise were, one can only imagine what Epic will be bringing to the third. For the story, the humans are even more desperate than last time now that their last city has been sunk, and they are scattered in small pockets with even women and children bearing arms. Meanwhile, a third "army" called the Lambent (mutated Locust) is now in the fold, promising some thrilling 3-way firefights. On top of that, Epic is looking to beef up an already wildly-popular multiplayer suite.

Interview with Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski

7. BULLETSTORM developed by People Can Fly & Epic Games // published by Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Releases February 22, 2011

Epic's other game coming out this year is a brand new IP from their recent acquisition People Can Fly. The game is billed as a "shooter with style" and takes place on some alien planet. Unlike Gears, it is shooter in the first-person perspective, but your arsenal is made up of all sorts of ridiculous concoctions like quadruple-barreled shotguns. On top of that you get a lasso-esque whip and the ability to kick enemies backward, both of which are encouraged to be used in combination with various weapons to create some memorable results. You get extra points for style and from what we've seen it looks like you'll be getting some good laughs along the ride. At the very least its a very interesting take on the genre, and we'll find out just how good it is in February.

IGN Video Preview

6. DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION developed by Eidos Montreal // published by Square Enix
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Release Q2 2011

Human Revolution is a prequel to the original groundbreaking Deus Ex, which was one of the first shooters to incorporate aspects of other genres. Puzzle solving and RPG character building are just as important to Deus Ex as the shooting, and Human Revolution adds in other augmented abilities (you play as a cyborg) that spice up the action even further. Visually, the game resembles a kind of mash-up between Blade Runner and Perfect Dark as it oozes heavy themes amid its dark, in-the-future-but-not-too-distant sci-fi setting. Putting it all together is a story of mystery and conspiracy that promises to keep the player enthralled throughout. We'll see if Eidos Montreal delivers on this promise later this year.

IGN Video Preview

5. THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM developed and published by Bethesda
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Releases November 11, 2011

After a fantastic trip to the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3, Bethesda is going back to their signature franchise in The Elder Scrolls. Skyrim follows up 2006's Oblivion and takes place in the northern region of the continent Tamriel, called--you guessed it--Skyrim. Little is known about the game so far, but given Bethesda's track record (especially under director Todd Howard) there is little reason to doubt the draw of this game. What is known is that the events of Oblivion have caused the return of a legendary dragon that has ravaged the mountainous, snow-covered land of Skyrim, which is populated by a people called the Norse. Furthermore, according to the dragons' lore, they fear a human who in their language is called "Dragonborn"... who just so happens to be your character.

Debut Teaser

4. UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE'S DECEPTION developed by Naughty Dog // published by Sony CEA
PlayStation 3~~~Releases November 1, 2011

Naughty Dog made their name with the Jak and Daxter series on PS2 before making their current generation debut with the fun-but-flawed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Then, in 2009, the studio released a follow up in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which wowed anyone who got to play it. More of the same is expected in this third installment, which takes Indiana Jones/Lara Croft-like protagonist Nathan Drake to the Arabian Desert in search of the mythical Atlantis of the Sands. Among Thieves was one of the best examples of how to combine a great narrative with engaging gameplay and wrap it in a polished cinematic presentation. Here's hoping Drake's Deception ups the ante even further.

First Gameplay Footage

3. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY developed by Rocksteady Studios // published by Warner Bros. Interactive
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Releases Fall 2011

The sequel to the game that beat out Uncharted 2 for the 2009 PSB Game of the Year is developer Rocksteady's follow up. Something's happened on Arkham Island and new mayor Warren Sharp (the Arkham warden in the last game) has relocated the inmates to a closed off section of Gotham. Confirmed Bat-cameos include the Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, and Catwoman, but the villainous headliner is none other than Dr. Hugo Strange, who in the comics deduces Batman's alter ego and threatens to sell the identity to the highest bidder. It'll be interesting to see how all these personalities are juggled, and if Rocksteady can maintain the outstanding pacing in a game that is reportedly four times the size of its predecessor. Arkham Asylum was great, but this fall we'll find out if Rocksteady is truly an elite studio or merely a one-hit wonder.

VGA Reveal Trailer

2. L.A. NOIRE developed by Team Bondi // published by Rockstar Games
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Releases Q2 2011

L.A. Noire is a landmark on many fronts. It's the latest game from acclaimed company Rockstar, best known for Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Unlike those games, L.A. Noire puts you on the law's side in a recreation of 1940s Los Angeles. Shady killings, gangsters, and police corruption are prevalent, so the detective aspect of the game actually takes the forefront from any gunplay you'll be doing. Team Bondi has also utilized some state-of-the-art face-scanning technology and put it to use with real Hollywood actors...a feature that not only gives the game a striking sense of realism, but is actually incorporated into the gameplay as you'll have to pick up on physical cues and decide if a suspect is lying. The premise is incredibly intriguing, now all that remains to be seen is whether Team Bondi and Rockstar can succesfully balance the difficulty of this player-based detective work (after all, there's a reason most players aren't actually homicide detectives).

2010 "Debut" Trailer

1. MASS EFFECT 3 developed by BioWare // published by Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC~~~Releases Fall 2011

Given the series' pedigree, it should come as no surprise that the final installment in BioWare's carefully orchestrated and pre-planned trilogy lands at #1 on this list. Everything you've done so far in the first two games comes down to this. The Reapers have somehow found their way to Earth and are assaulting humanity's homeworld (how the hell did these guys do this after I already foiled their plan twice??). Now its up to the galaxy's greatest hero, Commander Shepard, to rally the divided civilizations together for their defining moment. We saw how well BioWare was able to refine the original Mass Effect into Mass Effect 2, and only our future selves know what tweaks will be in store for the finale. BioWare and EA have promised that the franchise will likely continue past this installment, but as far as the main, three-part story arc of Commander Shepard...well, this is it. That's all there really is to say since--either than our own guesswork--all we have to go on at this point is the trailer below:

2010 PSB Game of the Year Awards

2010-12-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

Another year gone by and another pile of great additions to the shelf of all-time classics. As this generation of consoles reaches its 5th year on the market, the combatants still show remarkable momentum and no signs of slowing down, especially with plenty of room for price drops and two big new peripherals--Kinect for Xbox 360 and Move for PlayStation 3--entering the fold. Before we peek into the exciting year ahead of us, let's reflect back on what was a great year of gaming from start to finish.

GAME OF THE YEAR
MASS EFFECT 2 // BioWare
Despite being one of the first games to be released in 2010, BioWare's space epic's dark second act stood tall against stiff competition throughout the year--and now stands as arguably the best game of all time (so far). There are countless reasons why Mass Effect 2 deserves such an honor, so many that it'd be near impossible to name them all here. The game simply must be played. Better yet, the game simply must be played with a character who you as a player has personally taken through the events of Mass Effect 1. That's because Mass Effect 2 is the first true direct sequel to a video game; it is the first to take actions and choices that you personally made and applies them to change the game you're playing now--and saves some for yet another that you'll be playing in the future. You take one Commander Shepard--your Commander Shepard--from one chapter of the saga straight into the next without missing a beat. Delivering on this promise is probably the greatest of Mass Effect 2's lasting legacies, and it's a concept that's already spreading (Fable III accounted for some world changes based on Fable II saves). On the other end of that, it is actually possible for your Shepard to die--permanently--at the end of Mass Effect 2. The basic mechanics of the first game are back, but refined in every way. Combat is more fluid and simply more fun, feeling a lot closer to a Gears of War. The cumbersome inventory system was replaced completely by streamlined customization and loadouts. The leveling mechanic was simplified to emphasize the different abilities of each squad member. The graphics have been improved to a silky smooth rate and are heavily detailed to a point that they are used for all of the cutscenes. And at the center of those cutscenes, which are heavy in character interaction, is the same innovative conversation wheel, but now certain moments allow you to interrupt the talking with a Paragon or Renegade action--provided you've gone far enough in either of those directions. The conversations themselves are also improved, taking a lot of cinematography techniques from Hollywood and applying them so that conversations seem less static and mechanical and instead more natural.

And I'm just getting started. Mass Effect 2 features some of the best voice acting in the business, and, as you've read below, has one of the best video game soundtracks ever. The theme of choice is prevalent in everything you do, including choosing what order to tackle missions or whether to do them at all--except at pivotal moments when you are forced to confront the Collectors. The fact that you must do these whether or not you want to adds to the sense of urgency and tension of the missions. The choices you've brought over from Mass Effect 1 are everywhere, big and small, and the world truly feels like something you've affected. The narrative and the overall fleshed-out universe behind it is incredibly detailed and intelligent, having scientific reasoning supporting it and possessing references to various sociological problems we have today--but all the while, it never calls these out by itself, and instead just lets it be there in a natural state where the player can interpret the meaning for themselves (or ignore them altogether). The other characters that populate your squad and the rest of the world are also astoundingly fleshed out with incredible personal stories. It is obvious that so much passionate work has poured into this story and this universe. Mass Effect 2 is the greatest example from top to bottom of the game industry's potential to tell a compelling narrative while using the medium's unique interactive qualities to enhance it. By the time you get through its heart-pounding conclusion--which itself has its own qualities to be praised of--you're left salivating for the final act in Mass Effect 3 and excited to see how two games' worth of choices ultimately coincide for a thrilling finale. Because Mass Effect 2 does all this--and so much more--it is the 2010 Game of the Year.

honorable mentions: Red Dead Redemption, Heavy Rain, Alan Wake, Limbo

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
BIOWARE
2010 was a banner year for the studio run by the AIAS Hall-of-Fame "Doctors". They started off the year with a bang, launching Mass Effect 2 in January...a game that would turn out to be the yardstick by which all Game of the Year contenders were measured from there on out. They continued support of their 2009 hit Dragon Age: Origins with a steady stream of downloadable content... and simultaneously kept players engaged in the Mass Effect story with its own stream of DLC on top of in-game daily "news" updates. They revived their heralded Knights of the Old Republic series by showing off Star Wars: The Old Republic, their first MMO and the first such game to bring a level of detailed storytelling usually reserved for tightly-orchestrated single player adventures--something that, with the Star Wars license, has some critics saying this game has a legitimate shot of going after World of Warcraft. They even developed a Dragon Age sequel that will be dropping in early 2011, before The Old Republic takes PCs by storm in the middle of the year and Mass Effect 3 closes the epic trilogy in the fall. Most of all, through everything listed above on top of their critically-acclaimed pedigree and all they've been able to accomplish and everything they have going for them in 2011, BioWare has cemented itself as one of the premier studios in the industry--and, arguably, the best of them all.

honorable mentions: Quantic Dream, Remedy, Rockstar San Diego

BEST EXPANSION/ADD-ON
"LAIR OF THE SHADOW BROKER" (Mass Effect 2)
Downloadable Content has become a staple of this generation of games--and so has empty promises to provide it. The original Mass Effect was one such empty promise, and many had doubts whether BioWare would come through on recent promises to bridge the second and third installments on the trilogy via DLC. Well, let's just say nobody doubts them now. After a solid first effort with "Stolen Memory" and an excellent, thought-provoking follow-up in "Overlord", BioWare came back with its best downloadable effort yet. "Shadow Broker" is the first DLC to take place after the main storyline of Mass Effect 2. It reunites Commander Shepard with a major party member from the original game, continues a love story with said character (provided your a love story exists for your Shepard), solves a major mystery in the story's universe in the identity of the Shadow Broker, provides some new twists to gameplay, and refines what's already there, most notably the interruptable cutscenes. Hell, there's even an awesome car chase sequence that's as cool as the scene in Attack of the Clones should have been. "Shadow Broker" is a meaty, fast-paced tale that executes on all fronts and is one of the best examples of how to create compelling DLC for a successful game. Even better for the Mass Effect lovers out there, it continues in the series mold by introducing choices that will have major ramifications in the final act.

honorable mentions: "Minerva's Den" (BioShock 2), "Undead Nightmare" (Red Dead Redemption), "Overlord" (Mass Effect 2)

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
LIMBO
This indie-darling-turned-Xbox-Live-Arcade-centerpiece was one of the great games of 2010--period. Despite being a $10 download, Limbo is one of the best examples of interactive media as an art form ever created. At first glance, the game seems deceptively simple: it's 2D, there's no color, no music, and the controls are comprised of two buttons and a joystick. That's it. But it is exactly that simplicity that makes Limbo so special. There is such a low barrier of entry that the game allows the player to fully become engulfed by the experience of it. At its heart, Limbo is a 2D puzzle-platformer. But the way it delivers that mold and the way it encourages you into trying anything you can think of makes for a truly mesmerizing game. The trial-and-error design is normally a recipe for headaches, but developer PlayDead designed the game in a way that checkpoints are frequent and automatic, and you never get frustrated by having to do something complicated all over again. It's hard--impossibly, really--to describe Limbo in a short paragraph; it simply needs to be experienced.

honorable mentions: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Shank, RISK: Factions

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
MASS EFFECT 2
There is something special to be said about a truly great musical score. A good score infuses such an elevated sense of emotion--sometimes subtly--into what our eyes are already seeing that it takes those special moments to a whole different level. Jack Wall's for Mass Effect 2 was exactly that despite not only the inherent challenge of creating musical company for a player that dictates what happens, but also for the sheer variety of settings in BioWare's game. Wall evokes Shepard's heart-throbbing excitement at the new Normandy, the hypnotizing futurism aboard the ship, the raucus techno inside one of the galaxy's biggest dance clubs, the romantic tension of two lovers staring at their doom, and most importantly, the pure desperation of Shepard & Co. as they try to solve the secrets of the seemingly indomitable Collectors. Wall ties it all together with a couple staple tracks that are appropriately epic for a sci-fi tale of this magnitude.

honorable mentions: Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2

BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE
ROB WEITHOFF as JOHN MARSTON (Red Dead Redemption)
2010 was one of the best years to date when it comes to digital acting performances in games, and no doubt the quality of these performances will only continue to rise. Among the great crop this year, Rob Weithoff's John Marston stood out as a shining figurehead. Weithoff took an excellently-written character and brought him to full life in Rockstar's epic Western, absolutely nailing the accent and idiosyncratic behaviors that define the renegade-turned-family man we all grew to love. No matter how you play Red Dead, Weithoff provides an anchor for the kind of man that John Marston is, and he keeps you deeply invested in this man's story to the very end.

honorable mentions: Martin Sheen as The Illusive Man (Mass Effect 2), Matthew Porretta as Alan Wake (Alan Wake), Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson (Mass Effect 2)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION GAME
MASS EFFECT 2
Developers love to set their games in the future, but few can capture the full magic of the genre in a way that rivals cinematic greats like Star Wars--something that BioWare has absolutely done so far with its Mass Effect trilogy. The distant-future tale has you commanding a ship and a ground team as you run all over the galaxy recruiting the best of the best to take out a mysterious threat. Like any great sci-fi story, Mass Effect uses its distant setting to provide subtle commentary on issues we deal with today, through its character-focused mini-serials to its overarching racial tension and social structure that is much-criticized by more minor characters. The weapons suit does not disappoint either, and of course the Force-like biotic powers add another element of futurism. Perhaps the most impressive thing is how meticulously and rationally BioWare's writers have accounted for everything in the universe, and it's this grounded and explained realism that truly adds a unique weight to the setting. Even the DLC expansions likewise do an excellent job of tackling whole new science-fiction issues within the Mass Effect context.

honorable mentions: Halo: Reach, StarCraft II, Fallout: New Vegas

BEST HISTORICAL FICTION GAME
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
Rockstar San Diego did something truly magical this summer: they successfully captured the spirit of the Old West in a video game. Redemption had just about everything you could ask for, from train robberies to Mexican shootouts and everything in between--and then some. The open world formula that Rockstar perfected with its Grand Theft Auto series shines like never before in this wide-open adventure that will have you galloping up and down the wild countryside between scattered towns and outposts. The lawlessness of the West also comes through well, and although you play a character with good intentions at heart, you can be as sly and dirty as you want to be, be it by cheating at poker or ending a dispute with a bullet. And then there's the incredible cast of lively characters, headlined by the cowboy protagonist John Marsten, all of whom have been written wonderfully with unique personalities and motivations. An excellent (albeit somewhat dragged-on at parts) plot that fully captures its Western themes brings Redemption home as one of the great history-based stories.

honorable mentions: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops

BEST FANTASY GAME
DARKSIDERS
Vigil Games' debut effort is a spin on the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse that evokes equal parts God of War, The Legend of Zelda, and a sort of gothic-comic art design. The game deserves praise for both its fresh approach to setting while channeling two of the best franchises in the history of games, which combined create an engaging (albeit slightly flawed) experience that will no doubt improve in the upcoming sequel. The real star of the game was the stylistic art and character design, which is not surprising considering the game was headed by comic book artist Joe Madureira. A couple tweaks on combat design could have made Darksiders one of the true gems of the year, but it still stands out as this year's Best Fantasy Game.

honorable mentions: Bayonetta, Fable III, Final Fantasy XIII

BEST HORROR GAME
ALAN WAKE
Pickings were somewhat slim for horror fans this year as most "horror" games to come out in 2010 were not really scary, but more tongue-in-cheek efforts like Dead Rising 2 and Red Dead Redemption's "Undead Nightmare" expansion. That being said, Alan Wake stood out as one of the best--and freshest--horror games of the whole console generation. The game invokes a constant sense of dread at night as the "darkness" envelopes and takes control of everything around you, twisting it into some demented possessed being. The folks at Remedy successfully designed an action-based horror title by heavily involving the use of light and guns into the combat without artificial limitations like scarce ammo. The narrative particularly stands out as a multi-layered mystery that keeps you on edge and guessing while you eerily find clues of what's to come--and what has passed. This game is a unique experience from the top-down and delivers for horror and action fans alike.

honorable mention: Limbo

BEST PLATFORMER
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2
Nintendo brought back their go-to man for a second tour of duty around planetary platform puzzling, and the results were nothing short of what you'd expect from a main-line Mario game. The second Galaxy improves upon the first (already phenomenal) game while bringing a whole ton of new flavor, most notably everybody's favorite dinosaur sidekick, Yoshi. The brilliance of Nintendo and head honcho Miyamoto-san are well-documented and Galaxy 2 is no exception, having become of the best-reviewed games of all time. The magic of Mario is still there, and better than ever, and if I have to tell you anymore than that then you need to go pick up this game right now.

honorable mentions: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Mickey, Mirror's Edge (iOS)

BEST DRIVING GAME
NEED FOR SPEED: HOT PURSUIT
Developer Criterion Games--best known for their acclaimed Burnout series--did something truly spectacular this year: they made Need for Speed relevant again. Perhaps that's not entirely fair given last year's successful Shift, but at least in terms of the arcade line of Need for Speeds, Criterion's debut completely revitalized the series by bringing back the fan-favorite Hot Pursuit sub-series and modernizing it for the new generation while adding a lot of elements that made Burnout so fun. The game is flat-out gorgeous and channels the high-speed intensity of Burnout Paradise, but with the added layer of a well-integrated cop chase element. Criterion took full advantage of their first opportunity to use license cars with a bevy of high-speed gems and even licensed cars for the mundane civilian traffic. Finally, the Autolog--a kind of social network meets constantly updating leaderboards--pulls the whole package together to drive that competitive spirit in every gamer, even while playing alone. In a year of many arcade racers, Hot Pursuit stood out.

honorable mentions: Blur, ModNation Racers, Split/Second

BEST ORIGINAL GAME
ALAN WAKE
Remedy's long-gestating "Psychological Action Thriller"--which had first been announced at E3 2005--finally made its way to the market this year...and then it hit a wall coming out the same day as mass-market friendly Red Dead Redemption. Don't let lower than could-have-been sales figures fool you; this is one of the best games to come out in 2010 (as is its same-day release brother). Alan Wake is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, melding together in perfect harmony action-based gameplay and a tightly-written and engaging story, the combination of which keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The game scares you not with artificial limitations like scarce ammo, but rather with an enthralling atmosphere and a pervading sense that you are surrounded by the unknown. Remedy does a fantastic job of tapping into that childhood fear of darkness, and a couple added gameplay elements--most notably the fantastic use of light as both a weapon and puzzle tool--combine for a game that truly shines as an example of what can be done when the interactivity of story and gameplay merge so gracefully.

honorable mentions: Heavy Rain, Limbo, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

BEST ADAPTATION
TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON
First off, let me clarify that this award is for a video game adapted from a medium other than video games. Often times movie-based games are derided for rushed and lackluster quality (often rightly so) but movies are not the sole source material for game adaptations. Case in point: War for Cybertron is based on the revered cartoon and comic series, rather than the recent Michael Bay popcorn flicks that have inspired the recent poor Transformers games. San Diego-based High Moon Studios brought to life a world set amidst a conflict before these giant robots came to Earth, and the result is by far the best Transformers game ever made, a thing of many of our childhood dreams. From an appropriately action-packed summer-blockbuster-style campaign to a suprisingly deep and engaging multiplayer suite, High Moon executed with much praise and cheers from the fanbase, creating a new benchmark for future entries in the beloved series.

honorable mentions: Risk: Factions, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

BEST COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER
STARCRAFT II: WINGS OF LIBERTY
There's a reason Blizzard's original StarCraft was an RTS revered by its fans so much that even more than a decade after its released, it spawned a UC Berkeley class, 2 (two!) dedicated Korean TV channels, a canceled stealth-action spin-off, and the advent of e-sports terms like APM (actions per minute): the multiplayer was so thoroughly competitively balanced that it provided one of the truest yardsticks by which to measure the aptitude of a competitive RTS gamer. The long-awaited sequel arrived fulfilling all its astronomical expectations, and while its campaign/story is nothing to sneeze at, it's still the game's uber-balanced multiplayer suite that has captured the hearts--and free time--of countless gamers. Blizzard's gem has reinvigorated the PC platform unlike anything in recent memory and simultaneously provided a launchpad for the studios revamped Battle.net 2.0.

honorable mentions: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

BEST CO-OPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER
LARA CROFT AND THE GUARDIAN OF LIGHT
Developer Crystal Dynamics completely retooled their iconic Tomb Raider heroine for her downloadable debut, including a new perspective (isometric), new gameplay mechanics (twin stick controls), and even a new name (notice the explicit absence of the words "tomb" and "raider" in the game's title). All these changes proved to combine into a thoroughly enjoyable game, but there was one more ace the studio had up its sleeve that truly made Guardian of Light great: a human-controlled co-operative pal named Totec, armed with different abilities than Lara. While the game was entirely playable in single player, CD was wise to tweak the gameplay for the two modes. The addition of Totec in co-op provides some incredible puzzle and combat scenarios that require the two players to think creatively and work together, all the while keeping the action-packed essence of the source material.

honorable mentions: Splinter Cell: Conviction, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach

BEST CHARACTER
MORDIN SOLIS (Mass Effect 2)
Of all the colorful characters BioWare has created for Mass Effect 2's dynamic cast, the "scientist Salarian" Mordin Solis stands out even above his peers. He is equal parts intelligent and hilarious, and his character has a myriad of underlying wrinkles, from a dark past, a distinct-though-unique moral compass, and even some hidden singing talents--the latter of which forever cemented his place in the heart of gamers everywhere. He also proved to be a valuable member from a combat perspective, where he continues to charm gamers with his one-off quips on the battlefield. Finally, he single-handedly allows for in-game upgrades to various other characters, weapons, and the ship itself; what more can you really ask for out of such a wonderful character?

honorable mentions: John Marston (Red Dead Redemption), The Illusive Man (Mass Effect 2), Alan Wake (Alan Wake)

MOST VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE
GOD OF WAR III
Turns out, David Jaffe wasn't exaggerating when he said that Santa Monica Studio's latest entry in the blockbuster God of War saga was one of the best games he has ever seen. The game is simply stunning as is the true pinnacle of graphical design thusfar in the short history of video games. But it's not just the sheer beauty that impresses; it's the way it's all presented. The opening scene of the game in particular is one of the most mesmerizing bits of any piece of entertainment, particularly since you are in control of it the entire time. At the same time, the scene is expertly choreographed in a way that truly makes your jaw drop as you try to fully comprehend the details of everything happening on screen. There are so many moving pieces, yet you never feel lost or pushed to the background. All the while, the game maintains its sexiness throughout.

honorable mentions: Limbo, Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Reach

MOST ADDICTIVE GAME
GAME DEV STORY
Developer Kairosoft brought a wonderful idea to the iOS App Store this year: a simulation game about running your very own game development studio. The premise is simple, but the execution is outstanding. You begin with a low-budget start-up and grow your studio into an industry powerhouse while along the way managing talent, game direction, employees, finances, etc. The whole thing is wrapped into a charming package that includes humorous nods to real-world game development, such as console manufacturers named Intendro and Sonny, employees named Gilly Bates, and even a trade show called Gamedex that you can hire booth babes for, a la E3. Once you get a game or two under your belt you won't be able to put this game down, especially if you are a big fan of games to begin with.

honorable mentions: Cut the Rope, StarCraft II, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

BEST THROWBACK DESIGN
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY RETURNS
Austin, Texas-based Retro Studios already wowed the world in 2002 when they revived another key Nintendo franchise with Metroid Prime. This year Nintendo tasked them to bring back the revered Donkey Kong Country from its SNES glory days (and also to help people forget about the existence of Donkey Kong 64). The final product is akin to what Nintendo itself accomplished a year ago with New Super Mario Bros. Wii--an old-school 2D platformer that channels the spirit of its predecessors while providing all-new graphics and gameplay hooks. If you are a Wii owner, this is not a game you want to miss.

honorable mentions: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Shank, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Ep. 1

MOST INNOVATIVE GAME

HEAVY RAIN

Quantic Dreams' PS3-exclusive title is, in a word, peerless. It is simply a unique approach in today's market, a type of game that sits much closer to cinematic Hollywood films than early mechanic-heavy games like Super Mario Bros. Despite what from a glance may seem like a distancing from "traditional" game design, the variations in the games story based on each of your actions actually takes better advantage of the interactivity of the medium than most games could ever hope to manage. The revolutionary control scheme immerses you in the story and the protagonists' actions, forcing you to make split-second decisions in intuitive ways; failure to react can have adverse affects on the characters themselves as well as the overall plot. Simply put, Heavy Rain is a blueprint that will no doubt be mimicked in some capacity in many games to come.

honorable mentions: Dance Central, Infinity Blade, Rock Band 3

BEST TRAILER OR ADVERTISEMENT

"FIGHT FOR THE LOST" (Mass Effect 2)

This was BioWare and EA's final trailer before the release of Mass Effect 2 in January 2010. The GotY-candidate-to-be got a jump start of excitement with this absolutely phenomenal trailer that is on par with the best that come out of Hollywood. The way the images and dialogue are cut together, coupled with the fantastic track in the backgroud, set the stage for Commander Shepard's heart-pumping suicide mission. It's rare that a game trailer takes the cinematic angle, but even almost a year later, this "Fight for the Lost" still sends chills down my spine. Best of all, this is 100% in-game footage. (Actual trailer posted below, links provided for runners-up).

honorable mentions: "Deliver Hope" (Halo: Reach); "MJ's Greatest Moments" (NBA 2K11); "There's a Soldier in All of Us" (Call of Duty: Black Ops); "Go to Hell" (Dante's Inferno)

Check out this hilarious Mario/GTA mash-up

2010-12-15T04:14:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this to me this morning. It's essentially a trailer for a would-be mature-themed, realistically-approached Mario game (or movie) made by YouTube user TheGameStation using what appears to be a mod of the Grand Theft Auto IV engine. Even if you think a gun-laden Mario is somewhat sacrilege, just check out the video (posted below). It's very well-made and put together and the creators do a good job of incorporating a lot of characters from the Mario universe in hilarious ways. I never thought I'd see Mario and Luigi as gangsters, but hey, everyone has their dark secrets.

Hiatus Almost Over!

2010-12-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks!

As you probably noticed, The Paradigm-Shifting Blog has been pretty much entirely dormant the last four months (has it really been that long already?). Well, that's because our staff of 1 has been overseas doing some foreign studies in Madrid, Spain. But fear not, for the blog is alive and well! In fact, I have many big plans coming for the blog in 2011.

In the meantime, you can satisfy your game fix over at our friends at NerdsOnTheRocks.com, which I am set to become a correspondent on in the new year. If reading is not your thing, catch me banter about gaming on the site's Dual Wielding podcast, starting with Part I of the 2010 Game of the Year podcast (you can also subscribe via iTunes).

As 2011 approaches you can look forward to the return of an increasingly unique way of looking at and dissecting the great interactive medium of video games, starting, of course, with the upcoming PSB 2010 Game of the Year Awards. If you just can't wait, follow my random blurbs, game-related and otherwise, on Twitter @Darth_Raggy.

Happy Holidays!

-Jason

Spotlight: Superstars of the Gaming Industry

2010-08-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know me on a personal basis, my ultimate career goal is to be a game designer that helps to push the industry forward with his products, both from the inside with innovative gaming ideas as well as the outside with fresh approaches to the business. Particularly in regards to the way games are pitched, approved, developed, and marketed, the industry has clung on to some seriously archaic practices--but that is a topic deserving its own in-depth article. Let's just say that one aspect of my strategy is changing the way games are promoted, and it starts with promoting the creators themselves. Many consumers don't understand the difference between a publisher and a developer, let alone the creative talent that serves as the driving force for our favorite games. Below I am presenting who I think are the biggest, most influential, and most successful creative minds our industry has today, names that gamers from casual moms and dads to hardcore enthusiasts should all know. These are obviously some of my biggest idols in the industry and increasing mass-market awareness of creative talent starts and ends with these people.

VINCE ZAMPELLA & JASON WEST-- let's start with two names you might have just heard because they've been in the news a lot this year. They are undoubtedly best known for founding and directing Infinity Ward, creators of the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare series, and following an ugly dispute with parent company Activision-Blizzard, have left to form an independent studio named Respawn Entertainment. Before Infinity Ward, they created the Medal of Honor franchise for Electronic Arts (who Respawn is again partnered with). They have attracted the eye of Hollywood agents and must be regarded as the mastermind architects of the first-person shooter action blockbuster.

CLIFF BLESZINSKI-- Probably one of the most recognizable names on this list simply because Microsoft has leveraged him as the face of Epic Games in press coverage of their Gears of War series. A long time employee of Epic and high-level designer for Unreal, he got his biggest break as lead designer of Gears of War, the first real "killer app" for the Xbox 360. Since then he has been involved in overseeing and promoting Epic's projects big and small, from the Gears and Unreal sequels to new projects like Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm.

SHIGERU MIYAMOTO-- widely-regarded as the grandfather of modern video games, he hit the scene creating the arcade hit Donkey Kong for Nintendo in the 80s, but his true claim to fame has been constructing just about all of Nintendo's massive stable of franchises, including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin, Kirby, Wii Fit and many others; needless to say, it's quite obvious why you should know who he is. His understudy, EIJI AONUMA, is another important Nintendo designer, having taken point on every Zelda game since Majora's Mask on the Nintendo 64.

HIDEO KOJIMA-- Much like Miyamoto at Nintendo, Kojima-san has risen to deity-like status at Konami, where his brainchildren are the multiple PlayStation-selling games that make up the Metal Gear Solid series. Despite repeated Brett Favre-esque retirement claims, Kojima-san has maintained tight oversight and creative control over Metal Gear and his internal team at Kojima Productions. Konami values him so much that they put him in charge of their effort to revive Castlevania on consoles with this fall's Lords of Shadow.

WARREN SPECTOR-- another old name in the industry, Spector has long been at the forefront of pushing engaging, interactive storytelling. His resume includes a plethora of critically-acclaimed darlings, such as Ultima, System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex. He is currently working on Epic Mickey, Disney Interactive's Wii-exclusive title coming this fall, and recently tweeted his desire to design a game based on Duck Tales.

PETER MOLYNEUX-- Molyneux made his name creating PC "god games" Populous and Black & White as creative head of Microsoft-owned, UK-based Lionhead Studios. He's also served as creative director of all the Fable titles, claiming during the development of the original that he wanted to create "the best RPG ever made." He's consistently been a great designer to interview as his passion for the medium always seems like it can hardly be contained--and making his PR handlers pretty nervous. Last year, Molyneux was promoted to the creative boss of all of Microsoft Game Studios' European branch, though he is still actively involved in the development of Lionhead's games, including this fall's Fable III.

MARTY O'DONNELL-- He's the only person on this list that's not directly involved with the big picture design of his games, but that doesn't mean he isn't equally important. He's known for his work on Bungie's Halo games as sound director and composer and his work is easily on the level of Hollywood legends like Hans Zimmer and maybe even John Williams. He is without a doubt the best in the business when it comes to audio production, and mark my words we've yet to see his best work, especially now that Bungie is moving on into uncharted territory after Halo: Reach.

Dr. RAY MUZYKA & Dr. GREG ZESCHUK-- "The Doctors", as they are often referred to, are founders of arguably the most talented game developer on the planet: BioWare. They went through med school together but after completing their degree decided they wanted to give a shot at exercising their creative muscles, so they founded BioWare with another of their med school buddies. Since then, they have cemented BioWare's reputation as the pre-eminent RPG house with Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. Their mission with their games has been to consistently push the medium forward and truly take advantage of the player interaction element inherent to the game medium. Their studio has fostered other talent, including CASEY HUDSON, who has served as creative director for the Mass Effect series.

SHINJI MIKAMI-- Mikami-san is probably the most under-appreciated of top tier Japanese game designers. While his exposure has increased as of late at his new studio, Platinum Games, he had formerly created a slew of masterpieces at Capcom and its now-closed subsidiary Clover. His more notable games include Resident Evils 0-4, Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, Steel Battalion, Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, Bayonetta, and the upcoming Vanquish. He is currently the head of aforementioned Platinum, a studio of former Clover developers that is one of the preeminent studios in Japan.

KEN LEVINE--the creative boss at Boston-based Irrational Games, Levine comes from the Warren Spector school of game design, having worked with him on Thief: The Dark Project. He has gone on to develop critical darlings such as Tribes, System Shock 2, Freedom Force, and most recently BioShock. Just last week, 3 years after BioShock's release, he unvieled Irrational's next project: the equally stunning and original BioShock Infinite.

TODD HOWARD-- he is the creative head of Bethesda Game Studios, known best for The Elder Scrolls series and most recently Fallout 3. His next title is shrouded in mystery, but much like Levine and Irrational before the Infinite announcement, that doesn't mean it isn't highly anticipated. Howard and his team at Bethesda have solidified themselves as cream of the crop when it comes to the open-world RPG as there let-you-do-anything-and-I-mean-anything approach has captured the imagination (and free time) of countless gamers.

AMY HENNIG-- she's the creative director at Naughty Dog and the only female on this list. At Naughty Dog, she's overseen the creation of PlayStation 2's standout series Jak and Daxter, while in the HD era she has lead development on PS3 blockbusters Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves...the latter regarded as one of the best games of this console generation when it comes to both story and gameplay, as well as the intertwining of the two.

DAVID CAGE-- Cage is the leader--creatively and otherwise--of French development studio Quantic Dream. If you've played any of their games (most notably Indigo Prophecy or Heavy Rain) then you know that their products represent an entirely different approach to game design, one that is rooted closer to cinema (with an interactive filter) than "traditional" games. In fact, it's hard to describe one of their games without actually playing it, but suffice to say that David Cage holds an increasingly ambitious vision for the future of the medium that comes through in his envelope-pushing creations.

Well there you have it: the biggest and brightest stars of today's development landscape. That's not to say that this is a comprehensive list, especially when it comes to gaming's history; the reality is that there are many, many people who have influenced the medium. If the above heavyweights have piqued your interest, perhaps you might be interested in looking up some of the biggest names of gaming's past, many of whom still have upcoming projects in the pipeline: Tim Schafer (Brutal Legend, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Psychonauts); Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Parasite Eve, Lost Odyssey); Tomonobu Itagaki (Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden); Yuji Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS); Michel Ancel (Beyond Good & Evil, Rayman, King Kong); David Jaffe (Twisted Metal, God of War, Calling All Cars); Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia); Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims, Spore); Sid Meier (Civilization).

Irrational Games unveils BioShock Infinite

2010-08-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

This month marks the third year since we first entered the city of Rapture in BioShock, the last game we've seen from Ken Levine and his staff at Boston-based Irrational Games. Today they officially pulled the lid off "Project Icarus", a title that has managed to stay completely shrouded in mystery at the studio...and now we see a hybrid of BioShock's core mechanics and a completely separate setting and story in BioShock Infinite. Unlike 2K Marin's BioShock 2, Infinite leave's the underwater dystopia of Rapture behind for the floating city of Columbia.

The debut trailer (posted below) shows off what appear to the equivalent of Big Daddies and plasmid-like powers, as well as a city that is a character of its own, but beyond that we are left with the same sense of awe and mystery that we had when we first stepped foot in Rapture. It's a very interesting direction to take the franchise as it seemingly combines the franchise power of a sequel with the freshness of a new IP--a route I'd definitely like to see more developers taking. Unfortunately, the game's said to on track for a 2012 release, so it may be yet some time before we actually get to play the BioShock Infinite for ourselves

Bite-Size Review: Alan Wake

2010-08-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

After five long years in development (Alan Wake was originally announced at E3 2005), Remedy has brought us their first game since Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. The hard work that comes out of a half decade of development shines very brightly throughout Alan Wake as the world is fully realized, imagined, and detailed, complete with a gorgeous graphical engine to present it all.

The cover of the game is emblazoned with the words "Psychological Action Thriller" and that title fits Alan Wake perfectly. At the core of the story is a Christopher Nolan-esque element of mystery and psychological toying, all surrounding a thrilling horror story experienced through an action-packed interactive adventure. Alan Wake is a truly unique experience, especially in the medium of video games, where it takes a lot of concepts from other media and weaves them into both the presentation and the story.

The town of Bright Falls and its surrounding forested mountains provide a unique and visually interesting setting for the game. The tug of war between light and dark mixes up the thickly-layered plot as it transitions from a confusing web of theories into a wholly cohesive and, clearly, a thoroughly constructed narrative. When you progress through the Alan Wake experience, the well-executed episodic presentation, complex engaging story, rewarding action mechanics, deep character development, daunting art style, and incredible soundtrack all strike you and you start to understand why it took five years to craft such a fantastic experience. It also much be mentioned that the game is covered from start to finish by fantastic pacing, an accomplishment that few games can claim. In fact, really the single complaint I have is the nutcracker-like lip syncing in some of the cutscenes. Obviously that is pretty minor in an otherwise great looker of a game, which just further attests to how well-executed Remedy's latest product is.

By the time you reach the game's thrilling conclusion (which wraps up the main threads while allowing Alan's story to continue) you really feel like you've played something special. You might think you've played a game with light/dark mechanics before, but Remedy truly does a great job at creating unique, creative situations with them from both a gameplay and narrative perspective. Without a doubt I can tell you that Alan Wake will be on the short list of the Game of the Year contenders and will be looked back on as an example of great game design for years to come.

OVERALL GRADE: A

BONUS! Review of the first add-on, "The Signal"

The first add-on episodic expansion for Alan Wake--free with the code in the box of a new copy, or $7--further twists the mythos of the game's world. "The Signal" takes place immediately succeeding the main game's conclusion, as he (without any spoilers) fights through his own mind and chases a mysterious signal. From a narrative perspective "The Signal" doesn't really progress the plot much further, but it does give you a better understanding of what happened to Alan at the end of the game. Gameplay-wise, though, Remedy did a fantastic job of bringing in yet more new mechanics and changing up the way you fight enemies. Most of the fights in "The Signal" are fresh and differ from the way you'd approach any of the fights in the main game. If you really enjoyed Alan Wake, "The Signal" is an interesting extra that keeps the experience going.

Add-On Overall Grade: B

Bite-Size Review-- Transformers: War for Cybertron

2010-07-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Let's just get this out of the way: War for Cybertron--from Darkwatch and Bourne Conspiracy developer High Moon Studios--is far and away the best Transformers game on the market. If you are or were an avid fan of giant shape-shifting robots, you should not hesitate to at least give this game for a spin, and in fact, I'm betting you already have. For everyone else bred on the Modern Warfares and Halos of the world, is War for Cybertron worth taking a break for?

The answer is yes, but there are a couple of catches. For one, the single player campaign leaves much to be desired. It's "solid" and has its high points, but for the most part both campaigns (there are separate Decepticon and Autobot storylines) are generic and repetitive. The enemies are the same bland models over and over, save for a couple of interesting boss fights where you actually get to fight recognizable foes. You can select one robot from a choice of three before any mission, but the choice does little to mix things up. Worse, while High Moon has brought Cybertron to life with a myriad of moving parts in each level, they are naught but decorative and the levels themselves are totally bland corridors that all look the same and are filled with the same aforementioned bland enemies. I did not get a chance to try out the 3-player co-op mode which no doubt would've made it more fun, but the core experience is just...well, boring. To cap it off, the narrative is slow and shallow, hardly fulfilling the promise that we'd be seeing the full-fledged Cybertronian War.

The core gameplay, however, is very good--a fact that resonates in the game's fantastic multiplayer offering. High Moon has included a wealth of the standard game modes, including a Horde/Firefight-like endurance mode called Escalation, and there are customization options throughout. You can tweak the design of your very own Transformers based on the character models in the game, plus a few unlockable bonuses. Furthermore, you can customize loadouts, abilities and perks, and you can unlock extra configuration slots in each of the game's four classes. You earn experience by class, steadily unlock more of the options listed above, and each class can be leveled up to 25. Max out all 4 classes and you can start all over again in the Prestige-esque "Prime mode". Most importantly, the match-to-match gun play versus other human beings is extraordinarily fun. Essentially, WFC injects a bit of Bad Company 2's class system into Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer suite, and then tweaks everything to fit into the Transformers mold. The only complaint with the multiplayer is that it was hard to stay in the same room with people as I consistently would get disconnected after 1 or 2 matches, but the game is so fun that this is a minor, albeit irritating, complaint.

To wrap up, if you're looking for an entertaining interactive story to fill in the doldrums of your summer, then look elsewhere. However, if you are bored of the military shooters that have inundated the market, or would just like to try out something new that incorporates the best parts of your favorite multiplayer shooters, then look no further than Transformers: War for Cybertron.

OVERALL GRADE: B

BioWare and EA summoning Dragon Age 2 in March 2011

2010-07-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

Arguably the best developer in the business, BioWare, has given us our first peak at their next major project: the heavily-hinted Dragon Age 2, set to be released in Q1 of next year, the same period that the studio released Mass Effect 2 this year. That's not the only thing Dragon Age will be borrowing from its sci-fi sister franchise; the story of the game is ditching the web of origin tales featured in the original Dragon Age: Origins, instead shooting for a more "cinematic" story following a single hero--a human with the last name Hawke (first name, gender, and appearance to be chosen by player).

The game's story will take place over the course of a decade and feature "dynamic new combat mechanics" and an updated new graphics style. Basically that means the engine has gotten a much-needed graphical overhaul and a more action-oriented combat system. Coupled with a more focused story and wrapped around an already-established lore, Dragon Age 2 means BioWare's looking like it'll have another top tier original franchise under its wing.

Review: Red Dead Redemption

2010-07-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

Describing Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption as "Grant Theft Auto: Wild West" is both completely accurate and completely off the mark. Redemption definitely borrows some basic features from its modern-era sister franchise, yet it also completely embraces its Wild West setting and carves out a niche of its own, becoming arguably a more complete and higher quality experience than Grand Theft Auto IV. There is a reason we haven't seen a GTA V yet: Rockstar is determined to branch out beyond its ubiquitous franchise, and Red Dead Redemption represents not only the most successful step in that direction but also the best game the company has put out to date.

Redemption brings over from GTA the skeletal features of the interface, including the mini-map, mission structure, save system, and most of the controls (in other words, all the basic "gaming" tools). However, the world is obviously much more wide open and spread out, with bustling streets of cars replaced by a wide variety of lifelike horses and carriages, and burroughs of a single city replaced by distinct Western towns in 3 counties, 2 countries, and a whole lot of variety among them. Redemption fully embraces its setting and lassos together just about everything you could possibly want in a Western game. Shootouts? Check. Train robberies? Check. Early cars, Mexican revolutionaries, and disheartened Native Americans? Check, check, and check. Enough cannot be said about the variety of settings you experience in this game, from ranches to pueblos to the frontier to a fully-developed town to even snow-covered mountains teaming with grizzly bears.

The production values of the game are absolutely through the roof. The voice actors are simply phenomenal and nail all their accents and dialects with ease, complimented by swaths of witty one-liners. Redemption follows the classic storytelling model of interactive gameplay interspersed by triggered cutscenes, but Rockstar's writers also inject flavor into the sometimes repetitive horseriding sequences by introducing pre-mission dialogue amongst the riders that are present; better yet, these dialogue sequences are fully up to snuff with those found in the cutscenes, and in fact are just as integral to the overall plot as anything you sit through watching.

The world is also filled with a myriad of very distinct and amusing characters (a Rockstar staple) that each change the tone of the game and add their own element. The story itself goes through some predictable ups and downs, but it really comes together once you reach the game's climax, which does not come at the end. That's right, you get about 2 hours of resolution in the final act, although technically it does build up to yet another, very fulfilling high point. The end of the game is handled incredibly well--something very rare in any form of entertainment, but especially games. There is even an epilogue of sorts to close out the story even more fully, and you can always continue on to finish all the little sidequests when you've finished the story.

Redemption is not flawless, however, as no game really is. Getting around the world can be a real pain in the ass at times as you usually have to rely on horseback; fast-travel points are too spread out to be relied on about half the time, and there were multiple occasions where the game glitched and the fast-travel carriages were absent altogether. Some segments of the story also drag on way too long, and the game is already so long that there really is no reason for this inflation of game time to exist. The protagonist John Marston is a fully-realized and believable character, but quite frankly, it's sometimes hard to buy that this hard-nosed cowboy doesn't just punch some people in the face for their ignorance, taunting, or just plain screwing him over.

But these are all minor drops in an ocean of wonderful experiences, and at the end of the day Redemption is well-designed, well-written, and totally fresh in the canvas of games that is currently dominated by iterative first-person shooters. Furthermore it represents a practice that I would like to see more of, which is applying aspects of succesful games (GTA) to whole new settings (the Old West) to create entirely new experiences. Redemption is so complete in its execution of an Old West videogame that it's hard to imagine how Rockstar could do a follow-up, other than maybe a parallel story or (more likely) one that goes back further in time. But in honesty, Rockstar probably isn't even thinking about a sequel and instead is looking for a transition similar to the one between GTA and RDR, an idea that marks a great and innovative studio, as well as a great trend that the games industry needs to take note of.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Bite-Size Review-- Mass Effect 2: Overlord

2010-06-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

BioWare has done it again. The latest expansion to the greatest game ever made, dubbed "Overlord", centers around a Virtual Intelligence (VI) that has gone rogue and threatens to cripple the cybernetic network of the galaxy. Sounds like pretty straightforward classical science fiction, an anti-AI theme that even resembles the first Mass Effect game. Even when you first boot it up, "Overlord" feels like a set piece for the action sequences held within. But then, as they do best, BioWare flips the whole thing on its head and proves once again why videogames are, in fact, decisively a form of art.

Without going into spoilers, all I'll say is that "Overlord" intelligently tackles ethical debates in a matter that rivals the commentary on racism prevalent in the main story of Mass Effect 2. If that sounds like the type of liberal propoganda that you want no part of in your interactive experience, do not fear--BioWare does not beat you over the head with this information, but merely presents it in an organic fashion and lets you interpret it in any way you choose (including ignoring the ethics altogether). The roughly hour-long story arc once again affirms the potential of an interactive medium in regards to artistic and literary expression. To top it all off, its a damn fun ride that features more than one memorable battles. "Overlord" even mixes up the tone, drifting from epic action into eerie Dead Space-esque corridor trotting that exudes equal amounts of Terminator vibes, to finally commencing in a very much dark and serious conclusion. You even get to take out the amazingly-fun Hammerhead hovertank out for multiple rides, and at one point they even channel some Mario (yes, "Overlord" has vehicular platforming elements).

"Overlord" is an example of exactly what an expansion should be, especially an expansion to such a great game. It nails its agenda on every front, from story (including subtext) to action, and beyond. You might have skipped over the interesting-but-light "Kasumi: Stolen Memory", but "Overlord" is definitely an experience every Mass Effect fan should try out.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Reader Request: Q&A 1

2010-06-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Nightfire264

Q: What's up with Red Dead Redemption?

A: I've only had limited playtime with it myself (about an hour), but so far, my impressions are pretty solid. I don't want to give it any sort of score yet since I am still so early, but Rockstar San Diego has done a great job nailing the Western feeling and melding it with their highly successful Grand Theft Auto gameplay formula. Descriptions of the game as "GTA in the Old West" are pretty spot on. Reviews on the game from other publications have been astronomical. If you are still curious, check out this video review from GameTrailers.com.

Q: What about Alan Wake?

A: I will shortly be playing through this game and will post a review at an appropriate time. In the meantime, I again direct you to GameTrailer's video review. The game has been billed as a "psychological action thriller" and centers around a writer named Alan Wake (the main character) who is suffering a case of writer's block and tries to clear his mind by retreating to the Northwestern town of Bright Falls with his girlfriend. Once there, however, his girlfriend disappears, and he starts finding manuscripts for a horror novel that he doesn't remember writing. Furthermore, the pages of the manuscript begin coming true. The game is definitely of the horror genre but with a slight emphasis on action an a play on light and dark themes. Look out for my full review in a few weeks.

Q: What is this Fallout: New Vegas?

A: Fallout: New Vegas is a spin-off of Fallout 3, taking the same basic game mechanics, graphics, engine, etc., and applying it to a whole new setting and story: the titular "New Vegas". If you liked Fallout 3, this is essentially an extension and evolution of that game; however, if Fallout 3 wasn't your cup of tea, don't expect New Vegas to change your mind. Obsidian Entertainment (Alpha Protocol, Knights of the Old Republic II) takes over development duties from Bethesda. If you want more info, check out this Developer Walkthrough from last week's E3 convention, and watch out for the game to drop on October 19.

Q: Any new info on Call of Duty: Black Ops?

A: It's the latest entry in Activision's juggernaut shooter franchise, this time being developed by Call of Duty 3 and World at War developer Treyarch. The studio seems to have been taking notes on Infinity Ward's offerings as Black Ops indeed looks very sharp with obviously very high production values. The jump in quality between Treyarch's last two calls to duty was enormous, and this game looks so far to provide a similar jump above the very good World at War. As with other Call of Duty titles, subsequent map packs and DLC will be available on Xbox 360 about a month ahead of its PS3 and PC counterparts. For more info, check out the wealth of videos GameTrailers has on Black Ops from E3.

What's a reader request?