Remember Me?

I’m no authority on gaming culture, but I know enough to know that to write on the history of video games without mentioning Myst (Miller 1993) is to write on the history of cinema without mentioning The Maltese Falcon (Huston 1941). It’s not a question of taste, although I love them both – it’s that both of them fundamentally changed the mentality behind both production and consumption of their respective media. And I’m no essentialist either: The Maltese Falcon was not strictly the first film noir, nor was Myst the first ‘thinking man’s game’. But they were the first to take the distinct elements of the genres they came to embody, and base themselves around those elements with ferocious conviction. Read the rest of this entry »

Now why can’t we have all this in video games?

You may have gathered from my review of Mass Effect that I’m one of those irritating people who thinks that there may be more to Video Games than just mindless entertainment. You may also remember that I mentioned in that review that one of my favorite games was Fallout. Set for release later this year is the much anticipated Fallout 3. It has just been revealed that in Fallout 3 there will be consequences for using drugs, not all of which would be negative, and the Australian censorship board promptly banned it.

This is not the first time that this has happened and the end result is that the game was censored so that it could receive an MA15+ rating in Australia. Now, I don’t know what’s worse, a game being banned or a bastardised version being handed to me instead of the genuine product. Would you prefer them to ban Apocalypse Now or just cut out all the parts with war in them? You know, the ones that could potentially offend someone? Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been a long time fan of Computer RPGs. I’ve played many an epic pixel-fest in my time. Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Planescape Torment, Knights of the Old Republic and the Elder Scrolls series have all graced my various computer screens over the years. I am, in particular a fan of the old-school, isometric computer rpgs. There was a generation of computer rpgs that embraced plot and character above all else. This was their main source of praise and damnation, depending on who you were talking to. Fans loved the depth of story and detractors complained that they were ugly and boring. I fell into the fan camp. Fallout and Planescape Torment are two excellent examples of this era of gaming. You had the opportunity to create a unique character, with a realistic personality and an expansive, open-ended world in which your actions had serious consequences (and occasionally rewards). This is not to say that every game of this ilk was any good (Icewind Dale was a dull slog of combat and snow) but, for a while there, we had a run of computer roleplaying games that actually allowed you to roleplay. Read the rest of this entry »