Take This Job

I once had a friend who would frequently question the purpose of critics. I think most of us just accept that it's a viable role without giving it any thought, but try defending the need for professional reviews. It's harder than you'd expect.

Newsmakers: Is It Better to Make Games or Write About Them?

That friend thought critics were useless, and I understand and respect the perspective. Ultimately, though, I support the people who write about games. Obviously. A good critic can be as insightful as the work's creator, and I've certainly read reviews that were more entertaining than the game, itself.

In my ongoing job hunt, I've applied for positions making games, writing about games, and doing completely unrelated to the field, and I've found reasons to get excited about all three. There are developer jobs that are way better than video game site editor jobs, and vice versa. I don't see either as the clear winner.

Sunday Free Game - Be Good

Here's a video game you can play for free. It was made by some idiot.

Play Be Good

And while we're on the subject of that Jake Spencer dork, here's an interview/podcast/ramble-thon I did recently:

The Breaking Point Episode #16 - Never Been Better (ft.Jake Spencer)

In other news, I'm 24 now. Please update your records.

Saturday Supplemental - Subsistence

Anna Anthropy turns a personal struggle into a heartfelt game
Hey, weren't we just talking about that lady?

Kojima gets yelled at for pushing boundaries, but enjoys it
I may not care much for Metal Gear (Metal Gear!?), but I absolutely respect Hideo Kojima being a crazy person. Rock on, you movie-loving madman!


Videogames Politely Invade Smithsonian Art Museum
Some people say video games aren't art. (Wrong.) Some people say video games don't need recognition from the establishment. (Right, but maybe missing the point.) Now, here's Chris Kohler with the correct perspective.


Sticking the Landing
What? A discussion about Lost and Mass Effect 3, and I'm interested? It's not April Fool's Day yet, is it?


How Grand Theft Auto Jacked the House of Lords
One of several excerpts from a new book about Grand Theft Auto published on Wired this week.


Jimquisition: Konami
Konami was in my top five publishers for ages. What happened? I don't think I've played a good Konami game since Elebits (which was incredible, to be fair).


NightSky dev on Japanese game critics, ditching the term 'indie'
More Konami bashing! With two paragraphs dedicated to Kojima! I first read this article on Wednesday, and I honestly about that part until skimming it again just now. It's thematically fitting, though.


Australian capital receives R18+ classification for video games
What a grown-up move from the Australian government! Australia deserves two smiley stickers for this. (And a third if it can use the big-boy potty all by itself.)


Ubisoft - Don't buy companies for brands
Smart!


Games 'would've died as a fad' if it weren't for 80s crash
If history is any guide, I'd say we're due for another mini-crash fairly soon. A few years, tops.


The '90s Revisited
Finally, in a week of downer links, here's a feel-good feature. The awesome dudes and dudettes at 1UP have produced twelve articles and charticles about video games of the 90s. Even if characters like Radical Rex and Socket the Duck make you wanna blow chunks, this retrospective is da bomb. But don't take my word for it!

Snake? Snaaaaaaaaaake!

...These Are the Days of OnLive

And so, as quickly as it arrived, OnLive Week is coming to a close, but I expect that some day there will be more OnLive coverage here on Hot Lavy. One week wasn't nearly enough to discuss everything, and more games are being added all the time.

One Sentence Reviews of OnLive Demos

If I could pick just one game to add to the OnLive catalogue, it would probably be Oni or something, because, dude, I friggin' love Oni, but if I were to pick one game that would help OnLive as a business, I think it would be Madden.

Personally, there's nothing that bores me like football, and football video games aren't much better, but this isn't about me. There are thousands, maybe millions of people who buy video game consoles solely so they can play the latest Madden each year. Combine that audience with the theoretical future version of OnLive I envisioned yesterday, and you have the biggest thing to happen to video games since a little green pig gave a bird the finger.

A console-perfect version of Madden that you can post on your friend's Facebook Wall, or pull up on the company computer in your cubicle during your lunch break? That changes everything. Just like on TV, they could put in commercial breaks after every few plays and make it free-to-play. Roster tweaks and other upgrades could be integrated without players having to download anything. You could save and send replays (complete with interactive camera controls) that could be played on anything with an Internet connection and a screen.

This... this needs to happen.

(And then they should add Oni.)

Like Sand Through the Hourglass...

I have opinions about OnLive!

OnLive Support

I'll keep today's blog entry short - there are more than enough words in the full essay - but I ask you to please come with me on a journey... of the mind.

Dig, if you will, a future where games can be streamed across the Internet as easily as videos. No installation or lengthy loading times. Just hit play, maybe watch a short commercial, and then you're playing. I could embed a perfect version of Madden or a Sega Genesis game in this blog just as easily as I can embed a Genesis music video.

This future is coming, and it's closer than you might think!

Your Driving is Suicide. I Hope You Have Thick Skin.

Here's a delightful little wonder from your friends at Synetic: The Funfactory that I never would have found if not for OnLive:

Alarm for Cobra 11: Nitro - The Taxpayer Says Thank You

Intrigued, as I so often am, by the opening video's proliferation of explosions, guitar solos, and shades-wearing actors I've never seen before, I asked my bestie if she'd ever heard of the show Alarm für Cobra 11. She spent the vast majority of her life living in Deutschland, and it turns out that she did watch it on occasion. She tells me it's "well made" and "pretty tense," which surprised me. These are not phrases I would use to describe Alarm for Cobra 11: Nitro.

That is not a complaint.

Skip It

I hate reviews that end with, "Fans of the genre should check it out, but everyone else blah, blah, blah." And yet, here we are, as OnLive week continues:

Bridge It - Sail on By

For the sake of focus, I tried to limit how many comparisons I made to other games in my critique, but Bridge It's "build something, test it, adjust" approach is not inherently bad, It's actually quite similar to one of my favourite series ever, The Incredible Machine. I think I would need to play more Bridge It to fully articulate why it does and doesn't work, but the biggest problem I found in my time was one of abstraction. The pieces offered in The Incredible Machine are so exaggerated that anyone can predict their functionality at a glance. The differences - visually, functionally - between a tennis ball and a bowling ball are profoundly apparent.

Maybe there's an Incredible Machine/World of Goo hybrid hiding within Bridge It for those who spend more than a few minutes playing, but I'm not impressed enough with what I've seen so far to look for it.