Games are for children. Games are art. Games are for man-children. Games are for all. Depending on who one talks to there is a variety of audiences who gaming is "meant" for. This variety of audiences is one of the reasons the ESRB rating system is in place. But there is a more fundamental question that the ESRB ratings system cannot address: it is a question not only of who games are meant for, but who has access to games.

I don't speak of accessibility to gaming in the sociocultural sense: this isn't a blog about whether or not games are appropriate forms of expression or what games are appropriate for different audiences. What I speak of is gaming accessibility in its most simple meaning: are there barriers in gaming which prevent some people from playing games? Are games "meant" for these individuals or groups?

In this regard there is an element of socioeconomics, I suppose: the revolt of gamers against the XBOX One had everything to do with questions of accessibility for millions of gamers who may not live in the often disconnected reality that is the East and West Coasts, of which most domestic games companies call home including Microsoft, who wondered why anyone would want to live anywhere else to which many gamers replied by telling Microsoft regardless of where they dwell it will be somewhere which does not have a XBOX One.

There is of course the question of the cost of gaming systems and the games themselves. With the economies in many countries preventing gamers from being able to afford new consoles, as hardware and software becoming increasingly more costly to manufacture it appears that a large part of the burden on recouping that cost is in the first-world markets. This is another reason why it is imperative to game developers and publishers to sell as many copies as possible during the launch window and why, as said in a previous blog, game developers and publishers seek to control the access of gamers to information about their products, through things like review embargoes (where a gaming news outlet cannot release a review of a game until launch day or afterwards), limiting access to "friendly" outlets, limiting what is shown to reporters and artificially creating scarcity (the "exclusive" reveals, covers, etc.).

So games are Prozac for the proletariat; a mechanical messiah for the middling 'Mericans who otherwise would be lost, of which their American Dream dreams of electric shepherds. Very well. Games then are tools of a power structure. They are forms of propaganda.

Or at least that is what some have already alleged about Gone Home and most gaming reporters....

"Are the people even worthy of games?" appears to be the existentialist query raised by gaming journalists, up there with the other great questions such as how many mushrooms could Mario munch if Mario munched on mushrooms, and how many angels could fit on a pin or more likely, how many more games can Lightning star in, in a series called Final Fantasy?

There is certainly an element of socioeconomics here and while I said this blog wouldn't delve into sociocultural matters the two become indistinguishable here: but it is the gaming reporters who create this environment themselves.

The gaming media itself is in the same position, and adheres to many of the same values, as certain Microsoft employees: the way that the gaming media has sought to redeem Adam Orth, of "just #dealwithit" infamy, could perhaps be because they saw what occurred with him and saw a glimpse of the world outside their San Fransisco and New York bubbles, and realized the damn rabble was after one of their own. For the gaming media Adam Orth is not even to be recognized as an idiot, but as a martyr: games are too good for gamers, and we are too good for these forum-dwelling cave trolls.

Who are games made for? is a question that the gaming industry is asking itself and what it decides is where gaming shall go: as gamers we should be active participants in that dialogue because at the very least I think that those who have a platform to ask the questions gamers want ask don't even bother to do that before dictating to gamers what they should buy and what they should be allowed to buy and what games and what types of gamers are not allowed.

So who are games not "meant" to be made for? :

---Anyone who enjoys JRPGs.

----Anyone who enjoys FPSes.

----Anyone who enjoys ladies in gaming (so much hostility to women in gaming and they then have the audacity to wonder why so few women play.....)

-----Anyone who dares question why games should involve gameplay.

----Anyone who.........

So just consider this, gamers: according to these ideas about who games are "meant" for it may all seem fine and good that you don't find yourself on any of these criteria but know that if anyone and everyone can be excluded from gaming.......

That means one day games can be "meant" for anyone but you, too.

When I was a kid, I used to have this red, yellow, and blue padded case for my Nintendo Entertainment System. It flew across the country with me for extended visits to my grandparents’ house, but the one thing I could never take with me was a decent television.

GAEMS has been working to solve that problem, and you may be familiar with its suitcase-like entertainment systems. The Sentry and the Vanguard are hard-shell cases that include a display and speaker set-up as well as protection for a console in transit.

At RTX (Rooster Teeth's annual convention in Austin), GAEMS unveiled two products currently in development. The M155 Scout is a 15.5-inch HD display that’s extremely light and portable. At E3, I had a chance to see (and hold) one in person and was stunned at how little it weighed (about as much as my third generation iPad).

GAEMS co-founder John Smith plugged in his Android phone to show me the display, and I was impressed by how bright it was. The display is USB-powered, and GAEMS recently tweeted a picture of the Scout on top of an Xbox One with the console’s power supply handling both devices.

The Scout doesn’t offer the protection of GAEMS’ earlier products or speakers, but for those who have other methods of protection (and wish to get audio from the controller port), it’s a lightweight solution. The other product is also portable, though not quite the way the Scout is.

The M240 Hybrid Ops is a 24-inch display designed more for dorm room or apartment living. It has four speakers built in for simulated surround. The devices can also be daisy-chained (via the two HDMI input / one HDMI output setup) with no perceptible latency even three or four displays down the chain, according to GAEMS.

The device does have a screen protector and a rotating handle should you need to move it, though. It also will have a wheel attachment (coming later), so users don’t have to carry the Hybrid Ops (it’s portable, but not easy for everyone to carry). Alternatively, GAEMS will offer a mounting plate to connect to VESA mounts.

Both devices are available at RTX, July 4 through 6 for demos. They’ll be released later this year.

Our Take
I had the opportunity to see the Scout in action, and was extremely surprised at how light it is (and the image quality). I have a Gaems unit that I use when traveling on family vacations, and it's come in very handy (especially when there isn't a television available), but it might not be for everyone. The Scout strikes me as a much more convenient option. Depending on pricing, the Hybrid Ops could be a good alternative to a traditional television setup for dorm rooms. Once we know more about how much these will cost, it will be easier to weigh in more definitively.   

As many of us will be celebrating Independence Day tomorrow, and potentially throughout the weekend, you'd think video games would be on our collective backburners – but you'd be wrong. Like the nerds we are, not even a national holiday can stop us from partaking in our favorite hobby. This weekend has us playing quite the variety of games, too. From the classics, to new releases, to the middle backlog, the long weekend will surely be a busy one. What plans do you all have going on?

Andy McNamara: Besides getting my stars and stripes on, now that The Wolf Among Us has announced the final episode I can finally play through the game (that's just how I roll, I hate waiting for episodes... I like to binge). Plus I hope to continue struggling with Watch Dogs as everyone tells me this eventually gets good. I'll believe it when I see it.

Tim Turi: This weekend I'll be heading out to one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes (I've never counted, so don't hold me to that) for some grilling and relaxing in the sun. That said, I'll need something to play on the car ride up and for other quiet opportunities. I've been tinkering with Wayward Souls on iOS and finally got around to starting Cave Story on my 3DS (the classic version). I also have Another World on my 3DS, so I may have to give that a shot, too.

Jeff Marchiafava: Most of my extended weekend will likely be spent barbecuing and hanging out with loved ones, but I'm hopeful I can get a little game time in, too. Last weekend, I tried starting Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes late one night but fell asleep during the lengthy opening cinematic. I'd like to give it a second shot this weekend. Thanks to this month's Instant Game Collection picks, I've also got Strider and Towerfall Ascension to check out on my oft-neglected PS4 – if I can wrangle some people to play the latter, at least.

Ben Hanson: This weekend I'm taking the long trek out to my lake lot in rural Minnesota. I'm sure I'll play some Perfect Dark, Mario Kart, and Super Smash Bros. 64 out there. What I'm most excited about, however, is I'm introducing a MAME cabinet into the mix over the 4th. I will be very disappointed with myself if I haven't played an unhealthy amount of Sunset Riders and Mystic Warriors by the end of the break. Enjoy your long weekend!

Daniel Tack: Divinity: Original Sin ALL WEEKEND. Celebrating freedom with FREE CHOICE IN RPGs!

Kyle Hilliard: I've been enjoying my time with Shovel Knight so far, so I will likely keep making my through that. I've also still got Wolfenstein: The New Order to make my way through

Harry Mackin: Since we managed to hit 90 last week, my WoW group and I will be hitting up the Timeless Isle this weekend to try to start getting geared up. I'll also be doing a lot of travelling this weekend, so if I can find my 3DS charger I'll be playing Fire Emblem and Shovel Knight. Lately I've been feeling the ol' Final Fantasy Tactics urges again, however, so there's a good chance that'll be all I do this weekend if I can't resist.

Wayne Stainrook: This weekend might call for Shovel Knight New Game Plus, but we'll see. I picked up System Shock 2 during the Steam sale, a game I missed the first time around, so perhaps I'll dive into that, maybe? So many video games, so little time!

Dimitri Gedevanishvili: This long weekend may finally give me the opportunity to play Watch Dogs. I doubt I'll be doing anything fancy for the 4th so it may finally be time to dust off my PlayStation 4.

Sometimes I think many Transformer fans' ill will towards the Bay movies sours their opinion unfairly on any thing that has to do with them. For example, many fans will say that the movie toys uniformly "suck" despite many of them having amazing engineering and accuracy. I
feel many of the negative opinions towards this "cash-in" are also unjustified.

The core gameplay is borrowed almost wholly from the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron series, and keeps those two game's solid gaming and gunplay. The bulk of the campaign is played in that universe as well, and though the graphics are a step down from WfC/FoC,
they still aren't bad (unless you're waiting the first few seconds for all the textures to load, as this verison of the Unreal Engine is wont to do). There are a few nifty new additions such as "hacks", which make the game harder in some respects but easier in others-- though these
can be ignored if you're not going after all the trophies. There's also "grab bag" bonuses you get every time you complete an in-game challenge (and there are a TON of them, giving you ample incentive to play through the campaign multiple times). Although the items in the
grab bag are randomly generated, duplicates will automatically convert into useful items-- although as GI's review states, you do have to "sit through" all of the items that the grab bag gives you, this is hardly a time-consuming event.

As far as multiplayer, Escalation returns, re-using some maps from FoC while putting in a few of their own. Escalation mostly runs the same as in FoC, but now the whole level is open to you from the start, and you use your money acquired to upgrade defenses throughout
the level to help you deal damage to the increasingly numerous waves of enemies. It's not a positive or a negative change overall, but it is a change, and it's nice that Edge of Reality tried something a bit new here to stave off simply "more FoC Escalation". Yes, PvP
multiplayer has been eliminated, but given the time constraints for a movie game I understand it-- better to get the core stuff right than waste resources on what, in my opinion, was the least enjoyable mode of the previous High Moon TF games.

Besides the gameplay, this game's biggest plus is its huge roster-- nearly every character you've played as in WfC and FoC is available here (including those only available in DLC in those previous games), as well as 6 movie characters (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee,
Grimlock, Drift, and Lockdown). Most of these are only available in Escalation, but you still play through several on them in the main campaign, including such "new" characters as FoC Sharpshot. I certainly wish there were more movie characters, but given the time
constraints for most movie games I thought it was a great idea to bring in so many of the WfC/FoC assets and set up a mini-crossover story.

That said, the story is very straightforward and rather weak, with most of it being a game of "hot potato" of the Dark Spark passing hands between the Autobots and Decepticons. However, the WfC/FoC universe is completely separate from the Movie universe, and the
"clashing of two worlds" here is not simply the present and past-- so for those of you who are WfC/FoC fans, no, those characters do not eventually become the movieverse characters here. There are also few really awe-inspiring setpiece moments (a few bits in Jetfire's level
being the rare exception), something that WfC and FoC definitely had more of. There are a few positive bits in the story, though, such as a bit more backstory on Shockwave and the Insecticons' relationship in FoC, and the very end of the game should leave a smile on any
G1 fan's face. The whole campaign is also surprisingly long for a shooter-based movie game, clocking in at around 10 hours total for my first playthrough, and that was on easy-- if you want a harder challenge, obviously it will take you longer than that.

The glitches also cannot be denied, though they're mostly limited to an enemy every now and then refusing to move-- only once have I encountered a game-breaking bug, and I've played for about 12+ hours so far. I honestly have no idea why GI's review talks about odd
sound bugs or bad AI-- I experienced no such sound bugs in my game (on the PS3), and the AI seems the same here as in the previous highly-praised WfC and FoC games.

Thus, overall the glitches and overly vanilla story can drag it down a bit-- and I'm not sure why the visuals received a bit of a downgrade-- but if you're a fan of the WfC/FoC gameplay, this should be a pick-up, particularly if you like the movieverse or are just a general
Transformers fan. It's flawed here and there, yes, but it's still definitely a fun, enjoyable game.

2077 A.D. has no doubt been an interesting year for video games so far. We've seen developers like Media Molecule and Quantic Dream continue to improve upon hologram gaming experiences with titles such as Parts of One and Crimson Skies, and have had the pleasure of enjoying any video game title lost throughout the annals of time via Google's Interactube digital gaming streaming service. The second half of the year appears just as promising with lots of exciting games to be released (who isn't ready for Light Knights V?). As I was contemplating on how speedily the landscape of the video game industry has changed in the last few months, that suddenly turned into contemplating on how much the landscape of the industry has changed in the last sixty-plus years. Say you looked back at the condition of video games in the year 2014 compared to now - the differences are verily vast. This thought then flipped into the query: what are the greatest events or shifts in the video game industry's past that has sculpted it into where it is today?

Sifting through the medium's history from the last sixty years or so, I came up with fascinating findings.

2015 A.D. - Mobile/Social Gaming Draws the Masses

Possibly the most notable shift in the video game industry can be traced all the way back to sixty-two years ago in the year of 2015 A.D. At this time, various phone companies (not only Apple and Microsoft) distributed a great deal of what was known as "smartphones", the predecessor to today's solar-powered SAT-phones. Mobile as well as social gaming on websites like Facebook had been catching fire for the past few years, leaving some gamers to speculate if this sect of video games would somehow eventually threaten mainstream console and, more understandably, handheld gaming. The summer of 2015 proved these concerned gamers right.

As I mentioned above, mobile and social gaming was becoming a substantial part of general - not just gaming - culture around this time. Folks who had thought they were too old to play video games anymore or who had never purchased one video game for themselves their entire life were now all of a sudden realizing why video games were always on their children's birthday and Christmas lists. Kids all around the world were also experiencing the satisfaction of what it meant to complete a quest or "level up" faster and younger than ever before. Almost every person on the globe owned one of these"smartphones" and had internet service, thus ease of access was not a problem. Apparently more convenient acquiring a portable device that acts as a phone, web browser, camera, music player, and game machine than spending hundreds of dollars on a gaming console with games costing $60 a piece (games used to be that cheap believe it or not) was the thought of the day as 2015 came upon the horizon. Classic mobile/social games in their infancy such as Angry Birds, Farmville, Candy Crush, and many others were selling faster than light; a couple quickly hitting the million dollar mark without shame to give you an idea on the potential impact this new style of gaming could have on the norm.

Everything appeared going as planned as both Sony's Playstation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One turned one-year old late in November of 2014 with Nintendo's systems keeping up, but in the summer of 2015 is when the immovable started to give ground to the mobile/social gaming dark horse. Social media learned to flawlessly co-exist with mobile platforms, inviting and enticing gamers and non-gamers alike to take advantage of this socially interactive cohesive experience. Social "apps" inter-connected with gaming apps to offer players gratifying playtime on-the-go whenever. Well-known video game developers, including Bethesda, Criterion, and Telltale Games, even dipped their feet in this market, finding considerable success through surprising endeavors. This led to loss in revenues for Sony and Microsoft, hitting Nintendo the hardest. Nintendo's DS handheld sales were persistently faltering, while the Playstation Vita sales remained somewhat steady (due to the cross-play feature between Sony's consoles). Assumptions were made thinking Nintendo would license their first-party games to mobiles and tablets, though those assumptions were in vain. Nintendo would never go down without a fight as the industry forefather tried to sway consumers back to their unique DS system, producing what are considered to be some of the best handheld titles ever created, but by the end of 2016, it was too late. The mobile/social gaming obsession had inadvertently snuffed out the 3DS and 2DS, discontinuing Nintendo's adored handhelds. And despite the horrific abuse of micro-transactions on the part of developers, the mobile/social gaming space gained momentum.

Of course, we know things changed when Nintendo unveiled the Wii Phone shortly thereafter.

2018 A.D. - Virtual Reality Isn't a Gimmick

Unlike now, virtual headsets in the home were a rarity. The beginning years of the 21st century were years of rapid experimental technological innovations. Advancements to existing technologies were witnessed each year; 3D, touch, motion, and voice controls becoming accepted more and more as fine commodities. In 2018, virtual reality gaming was added to that list.

It's an observable fact that businesses which venture to push risky video game peripherals do not automatically receive generous support for that venture. The "Kinect" motion sensor engineered by Microsoft for the Xbox brand was mutually labeled to be a waste of time and effort before finally accurately understanding and detecting gestures by gamers in its renaissance year of 2050, and Sony's Playstation Move motion gaming peripheral, as it was called, lost steam before ever given a chance. Movies and games in 3D were truly seen as publicity stunts as well. No conglomerate could quite master the skeptical technologies as efficiently as Nintendo it would seem. Many critics and stock analysts assumed virtual reality gaming would fade, resembling previous efforts, but the employees at Oculus had an unwavering vision for their Oculus Rift VR headset.

When the Oculus Rift fell into the lap of the average gamer in 2016, it was welcomed with hesitation. Would this be another short-lived fad like many before it? Was the world ready for virtual reality? While the Oculus Rift VR headsets were received cautiously, their astounding immersive potency overthrew doubts. Gamers (not to mention sci-fi day-dreamers) possessed a much desired marvel now. Digital worlds felt as real as walking down your local downtown street - escapism at its epitome. Sony's Playstation Visor VR headset (dubbed Project Morpheus when announced in 2014) debuted the same year, with Valve releasing its VR headset, the Retina Helm,  the following month. There were worries that virtual reality would induce a type of "motion sickness", although these problems were caught in tests conducted by VR entrepreneurs who consulted health experts. Additionally, parents/guardians were frightened of virtual reality's possible harmful effect on children and teenagers since violence and other questionable topics were starting to be implemented in a few VR-capable video games as virtual gaming branched out further. Games with VR gaming in mind, EVE: Valkyrie for example, is what ultimately made virtual reality gaming to be taken seriously by 2018. This became a highly-competitive part of games as you might imagine. Thanks to virtual reality, the next hurdle that was hologram gaming may have been all but left as a futile impossibility.

2020 A.D. - The Indie Revolution

During the Playstation 3's and Xbox 360's life-cycle there was a period of revelation. A new form of game development, called "indie" (short for independent), was edging its creative gravitas into the limelight. The indie gaming phenomenon Minecraft cut loose in this era, as well as games like Limbo, No Man's Sky, Journey,Super Meat Boy, and a number of quality indie titles. Small development teams, or in some cases a one-man developer, would, by whatever means, attempt to craft a video game unbound by the restrictive confines of expected triple-A smash hits issued out by big-name publishers. It was a place in the industry where the imagination flood waters rose against the usual money-making hallmarks, and 2020 saw the dam walls collapse.

The turning point came from the gamers. A lot were tired, worn out of recycled formulas present in many games. Every "big" game was using guns as tools and weapons, showing petty innovations, and felt all too familiar. Sequels to famous franchises weren't stopping to increase these parallel relatable stumbles. The indie game scene offered a more flavorful taste to sate gamers' appetites. Indie developers concurred, and saw this reoccurring state of mind from gamers to be a positive catalyst to take advantage of. Tons of creative energy was poured into games that you wouldn't find publishers and developers earning top-dollar take a risk on. More indie titles were releasing in a year than thought probable. These indie games tethered to unconditional gameplay, thought provoking stories - tackling empathetic and philosophical ideas - and diverse art styles and atmosphere (partly due to indie developers' brilliant use of VR tech). This isn't to imply all non-indie publishers or developers refused to build games exploring deeper themes and more complex game templates (developer Naughty Dog's games being a prime testament to this), however; a lot just didn't feel compelled to try different things. Executive heads and employees actually abandoned strict publishers to indie game development to return to why they wanted to make games in the first place. One of the recognizable names of the day, Ken Levine (best known as the creator/writer of the Bioshock series), was one of these creators that chose to go this route and was quoted in 2020 stating, "Video games have lost their path. They are falling short of what they are supposed to achieve because of greedy businessmen choking the creative minds of creators who want to leave their mark on this art form. Indie gaming's rise obviously shows the tolerance for this behavior is unacceptable."

Companies took gamers' actions to heart, performing their best to listen to what fans wanted. To this day the indie movement's enlightenment towards the video game industry in 2020 can still be felt. It had successfully, in effect, made publishers and developers dwell more on "What can we do?" rather than "What can't we do?"

2024 A.D. - The Year of No Call of Duty

It definitely would've been hard to find anyone who didn't play the first-person shooter Call of Duty from 2007-2023. This behemoth redefined online multiplayer back in the day, and games that include multiplayer even now owe plenty to the excellent video game series. The series' owner, Activision, made the absolute most out ofCall of Duty's grip on the infatuated gamer and christened it as a yearly franchise to be shared between three developers each consecutive year. Call of Duty had never been as popular, never been so much of a household name. That's why when it suffered its first interval in over fifteen years, it was a year to remember. 2024 is officially known by gamers everywhere as "The Year of No Call of Duty".

Signs of stagnation became apparent after Infinity Ward concluded their storyline in 2019 with Call of Duty: Atomic Armageddon that began in Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013). Sledgehammer Games' Advanced Warfare III (2020) was met with modest reviews but the gamer population was burnt out on the yearly franchise by this time. It was considered that the real last good Call of Duty game was Treyarch's one last tribute to World War II with Call of Duty: The Soldier's War released in 2015. In contrast to EA and DICE's super-successful military shooter series and Call of Duty stark rival, Battlefield, the once proud blockbuster was succumbing to grave franchise fatigue.

Call of Duty's fight for relevance was inescapably hindered when Respawn Entertainment (developer of the acclaimed Titanfall games), whose own general manager, Vince Zampella, who had helped bring the impeccable Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) to life and who also had ties with the Medal of Honor franchise, carried EA's dormant reboot of the Medal of Honor games to new heights in 2022 (Medal of Honor: The End of War). EA's two military shooters were garnering much attention (as was Guerilla Games' successful Killzone  games) and flourishing while Activision's boy-scout was stumbling behind because of the lack of originality, stain of predictability, and overall lack of appeal (some blamed Activision and the uprising of indie game development for this). In 2023 Activision reluctantly reported to put all Call of Duty projects on hiatus for the time being, an incredible blow to earnings for the publisher. The result of this announcement meant there would be no Call of Duty installment hitting retailers in 2024 or the foreseeable future until Activision saw fit. The publisher made clear that when the first-person shooter series would return, it would no longer be releasing a Call of Duty game every year (Treyarch would be the only developer on the brand effective immediately while Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games would suffer job layoffs and move on to other undetermined assignments). Though it wouldn't be too long of a wait until gamers could play the shooter again (2027's Call of Duty: Nation of Guns), many agreed without "The Year of No Call of Duty", the franchise most certainly would've bled out indefinitely.

2030 A.D. - The Star Wars vs. Marvel vs. DC Fighting Game

In 2030, the unthinkable happened. Comic book fans all over were still coming off their superhero-high from Netherrealm's Marvel vs. DC fighting game three years earlier, and the reveal at 2028's San Diego Comic-Con that an entire new fighting game featuring characters from the top two comic book companies as well as from, to speechless amazement, the galaxy far, far away resulted in attendees literally passing out at the convention (I'll admit, I was one of them). A brief time-sensitive partnership between Warner Bros. (owner of DC Comics)and Disney (owner of both Star Wars and Marvel) allowed for the record-breaking, best-selling video game that was Marvel vs. DC so when the Star Wars license got thrown into the mix, money wasn't the only thing going to be made - history was.

These three cherished universes had never officially collided together before in any other entertainment model and the idea that such a thing could be ever possible only came from enthusiastic day-dreamers and the like. Star Wars vs. Marvel vs. DC featured over 75 playable characters (including characters from Star Wars: Episode's VII-IX), over 20 iconic stage locales, changeable costumes, and really everything it needed for it to work. The game's story, while a bit generic "clash of the universes" premise, revolved around a sophisticated, exceptional plot line involving the Force, the six Infinity Gems (which form the Infinity Gauntlet in Marvel comics lore), and the emotional spectrum relating to the Green Lantern Corps and the other surrounding corps'. The game reeled in over $400 million at launch (over 5 million units sold) and has yet to be surpassed as the top-selling video game of all-time. Many believe it never will be.

2036 A.D. - Mature Video Games, the Government, and the Verdict

The relationship between video games and the government has not always been a smooth one. Several battles involving banning or censoring mature video games in some states in the U.S. have been recorded over the years but almost none of them concluded in disfavor towards the video game industry. However, as video game technology evolved into virtual reality and further into the opening stages of hologram gaming, these debatable issues weren't as black and white as they used to be. In the year 2036 a bill was ratified in the state of California that desired to publicly censor, and if need be, ban overly-violent and sexual video games. The pin had dropped and was heard throughout the entire video game community in the United States of America.

Without becoming too technical, bogging down the verdict of this case, Porter v. Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA/Entertainment Software Association in conjunction) went through various courts, appeals, and so forth, turning into a rigorous four year mess. Since developers were continuing to harness the capabilities virtual reality gaming possessed, proponents of stern laws on M-rated video games came together and wrote up a bill which pleaded for the California state government to enact. This bill would censor or ban video games in California that didn't meet their moral criteria. There was apparently some evidence provided by psychologists that suggested mature video games, specifically mature video games compatible with virtual reality headsets, might lead to violence or other immoral acts. In spite of the EMA and ESA's arguments representing the ESRB's role (who rate video games by content), the first amendment, rights of the parent or guardian to decide what their kids can or cannot play, and promise to do whatever is necessary to provide costumers about violent or sexual content in video games, pressure from actual parents, plus the argument  that video games were distinct from movies or music since it is an interactive medium, convinced state legislature to pass the bill as law (what was ironic about this whole dilemma was the fact that a previous bill similar to this same one was brought forth in California about 20 years earlier but with the opposite outcome).

Soon other states across America were passing bills identical to that of California's; they were also afraid of the effects mature video games might have on kids under the age of seventeen. Because of this, all virtual reality and hologram games from then on didn't depict questionable material. Military shooters weren't quite considered out-of-line as long as they weren't virtual reality-capable, but titles like Rockstar's famous Grand Theft Auto franchise, Saint's Row, or any game that was thought consisting of unnecessary levels of violence, sexual content, drugs, or language were censored and yes, even banned, in some states. A ban in more than a couple states led to the eventual demise of the praised Grand Theft Auto franchise as well as others which then led to riots and loads of heated discussions on video game websites. The video game industry learned to adapt to these censorings, but not without some bruises along the way.

2064 A.D. - Microtendo

Eleven years ago, the video game industry completely changed forever. Two of the most massive - in appearance and influence - video game companies, who had been rivals since before I can remember, merged into one. The consequences, the benefits, what this meant to the entire entertainment and video game scene were staggering. It was an impossible surprise. No one saw what was coming and rumors hinting even an iota of information were non-existent. Nintendo and Microsoft were now one and from then on would be known as Microtendo.

In the 2050's and early 2060's, Nintendo wasn't doing so hot financially or in the eye of the public after one-too-many experimental endeavors in the realm of hardware and software releases. They were unfortunately sluggish to keep up with the movements of the industry which hurt their image. The grievous loss of Nintendo visionary Shigeru Miyamoto and absence of long-standing top executives affected the company heavily, although paving the way for the next generation of young minds to guide the legendary publisher. This, however, didn't do much to move Nintendo forward in any meaningful fashion. Microsoft, on the other hand, was booming; its Kinect peripheral adopted by fitness establishments to spawn work-out inspired video games into thriving fitness centers and business chains all over the U.S.

Realizing they couldn't survive on their own, Nintendo resorted to one last available option other than dreaded bankruptcy - to sell the company. Talks were tightly held under wraps so when the news hit the ears of everyone on August 1^st, at 10:00 A.M. CT in 2063, the mindset of gamers everywhere was challenged. Faithful Nintendo and Microsoft fans boycotted their adored gaming companies out of protest, some finding Sony and the Playstation as a suitable replacement. When asked about the decision process behind partnering up with Microsoft, Nintendo President and CEO Tekadai Leewu answered, "[We initially, of course, didn't want to sell Nintendo to anyone - we thought it might be a better choice to choose different routes, if any, but there were none. We saw Microsoft's worldwide appeal and authority in the gaming community and thought 'Nintendo, after all of its history, it cannot wear out, it cannot be forgotten, and Microsoft was and is in the position to maintain Nintendo for possibly forever.' Microsoft responded well to our proposal and the deal closed through a natural process.]"

This momentous merging earned tons of press for months and went down as the largest shake-up in the video game industry.

Older gamers (including me) would remember more of the earlier entries, but most familiar with video games in general couldn't forget the events listed here. You can tell the industry isn't currently where it's at nowadays by accident. Much has happened since the good ol' days of HDTV's and used video game stores, to say the least. It makes you wonder how experienced gamers sixty or seventy years earlier would react to these set-in-stone occurrences if they knew about them in hindsight. Would they believe them? Would they embrace them? Try their best to make sure they never see the light of day? Being one of those gamers myself, also bearing witness first-hand to these occurrences in the video game industry over the past several decades, my opinion on these matters couldn't be contained in what mere words could appropriately express.

                                                                               WS-N, 63 years later and still a gamer for the gamers

P.S.  By the way, wasn't Half-Life3 awesome!? Totally worth the wait.

I came into this blog desiring to execute two things. First, I desired to examine possible roads current staples in the video game industry might walk on in the future. Second, I wanted to, if I may, write a story to justify these possibilities with plausible, rich back-stories and atmosphere. I'm not predicting in the next fifty years that all this will happen; that wasn't my goal or intention. I absolutely could see all of the aforementioned events take place in the next fifty years, but I simply wanted to create an alternate reality where they did happen, how they happened, when they happened, and why. The "What if?" was just too irresistible.

What do you think? Is Mobile/Social gaming going to make Nintendo's handheld obsolete anytime soon? Will there ever be a year with no Call of Duty installment? Is it feasible the government will censor mature video games if virtual reality gaming takes off? Share any and all comments you might have about my blog in the comments section below! I would love to hear what you have to say.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Certain games are practically guaranteed to be fun when they come out on conventional consoles, but dominating that realm isn’t always enough. Some publishers want to make a major splash in the mobile market with their biggest properties, not content to churn out silly companion apps. For instance, we recently saw the release of Civilization Revolution 2. However, these efforts are rarely up to the standards of each series – usually landing in the “awful” to “okay” range – but they give hardcore fans another way to participate in the worlds they love. This list looks at 10 of these mobile offshoots from franchises that are near and dear to gamers’ hearts.

Hitman Go (review)

Translating the concepts of stealth and assassination into a turn-based board game, Hitman Go at least tries for something unique. In this case, experimentation is better than attempting (and failing) to capture the third-person action of its namesake.

Mass Effect: Infiltrator (review)

It may look like Mass Effect, but Infiltrator is focused on combat instead of character interaction. However, it does have an interesting progression system – assuming you don’t mind paying real money for in-game currency.

Borderlands Legends

This isometric strategy/shooter has players returning to Pandora as the characters from the first Borderlands. It may not have the same level of humor and personality, but it does have a lot of different weapons, so 2K got something right here.

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room (review)

Professor Layton is known for solving puzzles, but his son Alfendi solves crimes. This entry is more of a visual novel than a puzzle game; it puts characters in the spotlight, and doesn’t make players work quite as hard for success.

Final Fantasy: Dimensions (review)

Some RPG fans long for a return to the days when 2D sprites ruled the genre. Final Fantasy Dimensions tries to give them what they want with a story full of heroes, airships, and crystals. It’s expensive ($17), but a decent effort from Square Enix.

Heroes of Dragon Age

Less of an RPG and more of a strategy CCG, Heroes of Dragon Age has players building battle squads by collecting characters and creatures from Dragon Age universe. You battle the computer and other players to prove your might.

Rayman: Jungle Run

It’s a runner, but with Rayman! The series’ quirky characters and distinctive art style put a fun twist on this classic formula. That should be enough to sell it, but in case it isn’t, Jungle Run also won Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year in 2012.

Assassin’s Creed: Pirates

Being a pirate, upgrading your ship, and engaging in naval battles aren’t only the key parts of AC IV: Black Flag – they’re also what you do in this mobile title. Just don’t expect all of the climbing, exploration, and assassination of a true AC entry.

Call of Duty: Strike Team (review)

The intensity and spectacle of Call of Duty is difficult to harness on a mobile device. To compensate, Strike Team lets you swap between first-person and top-down views, and the snap-to targeting means you don’t need to be a sharpshooter to win.

Trials Frontier (review)

There’s no reason that the crazy bike-crashing action of Trials needs to be tied to a console. Touch controls get the job done in this mobile incarnation, but the free-to-play structure might turn off players who don’t like grinding tracks over and over.

Have you played any mobile games that splintered off from big-name franchises? Share your experiences in the comments below!

[Update] Reports are saying that, after not having been paid full wages, the staff at Crytek UK has filed grievance letters and left work.

Kotaku, citing multiple sources, is reporting that over 100 Crytek UK employees have left and are not reporting, after repeated problems with not receiving paychecks or receiving partial paychecks. According to the report, Deep Silver, which was slated to publish Crytek UK's Homefront: The Revolution, is trying to rectify the situation.

[Original Story]

Reports have surfaced recently of late paychecks issued to employees, as well as the exodus of managerial staff for Crytek's UK branch.

Crytek UK, which is currently working on building Homefront: The Revolution, has reportedly been experiencing financial problems that call into question the future of the branch, as well as the release of the new Homefront.

Eurogamer, Kotaku, as well as German magazine Gamestar are all reporting similar stories regarding the financial stability of the developer. Tips from employees say that many on the staff have not received their regular paychecks without explanation or compensation for the delay, leading the employees to only speculate on what could be happening.

According to Eurogamer, more than 30 employees have left recently as a result of the issues and Crytek UK managing director Karl Hilton has changed his role within the company, telling Kotaku, "With new titles such as Warface and Arena of Fate, Crytek is moving in to self publishing and new business models. After 5 years as [managing director] for Crytek UK I am also looking to develop my role and responsibilities in line with these new opportunities at Crytek and I am currently looking at this with the company."

Crytek UK also offered the following statement to Eurogamer, calling out the reports as purely rumor:

Regardless of what some media are reporting, mostly based on a recent article published by GameStar, the information in those reports and in the GameStar article itself are rumors which Crytek deny. We continue to focus on the development and publishing of our upcoming titles Homefront: The Revolution, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface, as well as providing ongoing support for our CryEngine and its licensees. We have received a lot of positive feedback during and after E3 from both gaming press and gamers, and would like to thank our loyal employees, fans and business partners for their continuous support.

Crytek acquired the Homefront intellectual property from THQ for $500,000 during the latter's bankruptcy proceedings. For more on Homefront: Revolution, head here. We've reached out to representatives from Deep Silver, the publisher for Homefront: The Revolution, for comment and will make sure to update our story when we learn more details.

[Source: Eurogamer, Kotaku, Gamestar]

Our Take
The rumors and reports seem fairly substantiated regarding the difficulties at Crytek UK, which is disappointing considering the general excitement related to a new Homefront title. Crytek recently announced its subscription service for developers to take advantage of its engine, which also excited many considering its highly reasonable price-point. If the rumors are true, I hope Crytek is able to correct course for its UK branch, and Homefront: The Revolution is unaffected, but that may not be in the developer's future, unfortunately.

Title:Contact

Genre:RPG

Developer(s):Grasshopper Manufacture

Publisher(s):JP Marvelous Entertainment
            :NA Atlus
            :PAL Rising Star Games

Platform(s):Nintendo DS

Release date(s):JP March 30,2006
               :NA October 19,2006
               :AUS January 252007
               :EU February 6,2007


Contact is one of the most interesting and refreshing RPGs I've played in a while.Although it was released back in 2006 it feels more original than many other more recent RPGs I've played in the last few years.

The story for the game begins with a scientist in a spaceship referred to as 'Professor' whom you introduce yourself to(your tell the professor your name and choose from dialogues that describe things about you)and shortly after the spaceship is attacked by a group known as 'CosmoNOTS'.The spaceship crash lands on a strange planet and has lost the cells that power his ship.Afterwards Professor starts using a strange,young boy named Terry to try to find the cells.Strangely you will be in control of Terry and he will obey your commands.An army known as the 'Klaxon Army' are searching for the group and the story focuses a lot on mysteries as to why the professor acts so strange and why are people chasing him and why is Terry so obedient and the planet you've crash landed on is full of mysteries.Some clever and interesting plot twists and surprising revelations come into the story and although it's not the deepest story(especially since the game is only around the 15 hour mark)the story is presented very well and it's an interesting and engaging story.

As you'd expect you'll explore areas searching for the cells and you'll encounter creatures and people on the planet(most of which don't attack you unless you attack them first)and there's some people whom you can interact with and many of them have their own personal problems which will create opportunities for sidequests and they have their own sidestories and it makes the planet feel more alive.Some of the dilemmas the NPCs are having are quite funny and it makes the sidequests feel more fun to do.There is even a bit of date sim elements in the game if you do certain sidequests very well and not only can you make a girl become your girlfriend but she will live with you on the spaceship.

You can attack the NPCs and steal items from some of them and the game has a karma system and if you're often violent to NPCs the NPCs in the world will hate you and will attack you on sight but some dating sim elements require you to have a lot of negative karma for some of the potential girlfriends who like bad boys.Some sidequests require you to have positive karma and high courage stats,so you need to put a bit of thought in what kind of rewards and experiences you want before you do things.

The planet has quite a lot of secrets to reveal and ends up being a more interesting place than what you originally thought it would be and same goes for the story.It's worth noting even though the story has a bit of a serious side to it quite often the story and characters and NPCs act in a way that's a bit goofy but it's charming.The game even makes jokes about things that relate to our world such as Microsoft's products being unreliable and sexual jokes.

The battle system is real-time and most battles are optional and most of the time you can run past potential enemies.The battle system involves you controlling Terry and he and the enemies will exchange attacks.It's possible to dodge enemy attacks by moving around environments.Instead of continuously pressing a button,Terry will keep attacking with whatever weapon is equipped.On paper this battle system sounds great but it does feel dull after a while but some of the boss battles are exciting because you need to move around a lot to dodge their powerful attacks and it keeps you on your toes.

Interestingly,what makes the leveling system different and encourages you to use variety in how you battle enemies is your stats increase when you perform actions that relate to that stat.For example,when you punch your punching stats increase,when you strike an enemy with a club your striking stat increases,when you chop an enemy with a cleaver your chopping skill increases and when you take damage your max HP and defense increases and when you move around your agility stat increases(meaning enemy strikes will sometimes miss you even when you're not missing)but taking hits from enemies is obviously risky too.Certain enemies are more/less vulnerable to certain weapons and types of attacks so you'll want to increase the power of various weapons.

Weapons are useful not only for defeating enemies but are used as tools for cooking and cooking is useful because you can use food for healing or combine food and items to make more potent items(better healing items).Cooking can also increase stats and certain foods can damage enemies.What makes cooking more fun is the variety of meals you can cook.You can create Thai curry,a variety of BBQ dishes,Sushi,Hamburger etc.

You can also use what are called decals for one-time things such as turning enemies into animals or for healing or teleportation.They're quite helpful at times and even though you get some decals from doing the story you can get some extra decals doing sidequests.There is gameplay elements that require you to blow into your mic and although some of it is gimmicky,sometimes it's used in a clever way such as having to be in a certain place and at a certain time and blowing into your DS at a certain time to make certain things happen which can be a pleasant surprise.

When you're fishing you can try to catch fish that are harder to catch and need to be caught at a certain time,so the game feels like it has a bit of Animal Crossing to it.

So besides doing story quests,sidequests,NPC interaction,date sim elemets and being a thug,you can search the world for costumes which give Terry new abilities such as fishing or thief skils.Fishing obviously will allow you to catch fish for cooking.

Sometimes it was hard to find where I needed to go next for the quests though.

The visuals have a nice mixture of realism and 8-Bit style visuals that look like they're influenced by Mother on the NES.In fact,the goofy charm of this game and the way it often doesn't take itself too seriously reminds me of Mother/Earthbound although the developers and development teams for Contact and those 2 other games are completely different.I like how when you're in the spaceship and in certain other areas it feels like you're playing a classic NES RPG but when you're in other areas there's quite a good amount of realistic detail in the visuals for DS standards.

At first you'll move through nice tropical atmospheres but there's forests and desert oasis's and Sci Fi environments(not just inside spaceship)and of course there's dungeons and towns and environments influenced by a variety of themes such as Sci Fi,medieval,modern world and various cultures such as Eygptian and Asian.

I like it how for much of your quest you'll see the professor on the top screen being active as if he's working inside the ship and at other times on the top screen you'll see rockbands playing or you'll see glimpses of space and very Sci Fi stuff during certain battles.

The music gives a nice amount of atmosphere and is fitting or emotional moments or the story segments that are happening and I like the retro-style music fo rthe 8-Bit style visuals.

Overall,this game is definitely fairly unique and different to most other RPGs I've played and I enjoyed the story's mystery elements and humor and different ways to interact with the world but this game is by no means a masterpiece.

I give this game a score of 8.0 out of 10.(I score games according to how good I think they were for their time).

[photo by Riccardo Cellere, all rights reserved]

At the most recent Game Developers Conference, BioWare Montreal’s Manveer Heir delivered an impassioned keynote about inclusivity and the lack of representation in games. We spoke to Heir about his opinions on diversity in games and how he would advocate for change in the industry.

[This interview originally appeared in issue 255 of Game Informer]

Your talk at GDC about representations of race, gender, and sexual orientation in games made a big impact. What feedback have you received since then?

Overwhelmingly, I’ve gotten positive feedback on the content of the talk, the delivery, the timing, the research I put into it, and things like that. When you go on Twitter, there’s this world of anonymous people who can snipe back. I’ve only received a handful, which is actually kind of surprising.

You didn’t talk about the larger culture surrounding games in your speech, but it seems like it’s hard to separate the issues of representation in games from the larger culture of games.

Absolutely not. These are all interrelated. We have a workforce problem. We have a workforce that’s predominantly white males. I think you see some of the output of that workforce as a result. I’m a firm believer that more diverse workforces would lead to more diverse game stories, characters, and interesting things you haven’t played yet that’s 
not a guy saving the world or saving a girl from -a -monster.

Data suggests games that feature white male characters tend to sell better. If you look at some of the huge franchises, that seems to be true. Do you agree with that observation?

It’s not proven. Anytime something is not proven, it becomes more risky. What we have is an industry that is used to making something. They have data points on how to make those things and how to make the big blockbuster shooter, the big masculine, testosterone-driven game. It works for the most part, in terms of sales, which is the ultimate goal of a company or business. But my argument is that, one, there are some diminishing returns there. I’d love to see more people trying interesting things.

For whatever reasons, people tend to like stories about war and violent crime. You could say, that, if you’re talking about who’s committing violent crimes, it’s men. That’s realistic in a way.

But why do we get attracted to stories of war and violent crimes? Is it because we’ve been conditioned since the day we were born to watch stories of war and violent crime? I would argue that’s what’s happening. I also think – from a video game perspective – we understand how to model violence systemically. Shooting a gun – we understand how that works. It’s a lot harder for love. How do I systemically create a relationship on-screen? Frankly, most of us can’t explain how love works in the real world, let alone how to simulate it in a game. Games don’t have to just be about war and love – those are extremes. There are violent contexts that we’re not actually pursuing. No one is making a game that effectively makes you make hard, difficult choices during a time of war. We need to find better ways of telling interesting [stories].

For you personally, as a non-white person, have you ever felt alienated by the game industry as a professional or a player?

Absolutely. More regularly than I’d like to. When you walk into a room and you’re the only non-white person in that room, you notice – even if no one is saying or doing anything racist. I grew up in an area of Maryland where I got picked on because of my race at a young age. Therefore, I am trained to think about it. At one job I had in the past, I got called the other Indian guy’s name many times by accident. When there are two Indian guys at work and we don’t look alike, and you confuse our names when we’ve both worked with you for three or four years...when the director of product development does that, you take offense. You can blow up or make a joke out of it to diffuse it and not get angry, but you feel weird. 

Then, in our games, especially games that don’t have strong characters, [why]I don’t have a choice to have someone who even resembles me? Half the time I’ll just settle for a black character, because as a brown man, I don’t see me. The U.S. thinks black and white in terms of race. Women, a lot of the time, don’t have that choice to choose a female character. So when people say, “I just want to enjoy games and not politicize games,” my point is I’m just trying to enjoy games too, but I can’t enjoy the games the way you can enjoy games, because literally the entire culture has taught me to think about these things. You can even look at the Nintendo game Tomodachi Life, that’s a great example. They don’t think they are doing anything wrong by [not having same-sex relationships], but what they’re doing is telling a group of people that they aren’t represented here.

I think the response to that is to say, “We’re in the business of making money and our job is to deliver what the largest audience wants and make the most money for our company.” Do they have a responsibility to try to push more inclusivity?

Responsibility aside, why do we think that we can’t make more money by appealing to what is a growing number of people who could be buying games but aren’t buying games? Why did Dora The Explorer blow up on TV? Part of that is due to the fact that a large group of Latinos in American saw, for the first time, a character who looked like them and gave them something to grasp onto. Then – 
surprise! – it turns out that lots of people who are not part of that race love the show.

When it comes to responsibility, I do think we have a responsibility to the culture. Not everyone is going to agree with that statement. People will say, “They’re just games; they’re just for fun.” But I think that, at the end of the day, they affect the culture and who we are as people. If we’re not trying to improve who we are as people, then what are we doing here on this Earth?

How do you bring some of your beliefs into your own work and your development philosophy?

You have conversations at work and find like-minded people. You build a sense of language of discussion that’s civil and open, and you push each other’s ideas. Then, you start challenging your preconceived notions – does it need to be that way? Am I designing this character this way because the character needs to be that way or because I just fell back on a default of what I think a character should be? Is there something easy and not that expensive that I could be doing that would broaden the scope? You can see games doing this in simple ways like character creators. If you have a character creator you can customize things like skin color and hair and choose what your character looks like.

What are some of the base-level things you would like to see happening in the industry to start changing these issues of representation?

I would like to see more diverse casts in games and in primary roles. Let’s just take the U.S. census statistics – half of our game characters should be women. And women shouldn’t just be side characters that are annoying and shrewish, they should be main characters. I’m just using that as a guideline – I’m not saying the population of African Americans in the U.S. needs to be exactly represented exactly in games. But that’s a good start, because then people would start seeing themselves. I would love to see that as a start.

Do you think these are issues that the people in the positions of decision-making in the industry care about?

I think this is stuff that a lot of developers care about. But they are meeting resistance at the top. So I don’t think we’ve convinced everyone along the way. If you have a team that has an idea for a game that has a woman protagonist and they go to the top and the executives or marketing say, “No, you can’t do that” – which is something that has happened and I’ve heard of – then, there is a major problem. It’s about convincing those people that this is good, not only for the business, but for the game and the outcome. It’s about standing up for yourself and the people around you. You have to do that with numbers.

Attendees at id Software's annual QuakeCon will get an exclusive first-look at the company's upcoming Doom game.

Parent company Bethesda Softworks just published a schedule of special events for QuakeCon 2014, and the highlight appears to be a look at Doom 4 (or whatever the game ends up being called). Bethesda has said that the reveal will be exclusive to QuakeCon and not shown at other video game events.

The Doom reveal will take place on the Ventrilo main stage at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. It will occur on the first night of QuakeCon, Thursday, July 17 at 6 p.m. Central Standard Time.

If you're in the area, you'll have an opportunity to catch a special panel moderated by Game Informer executive editor Andrew Reiner. He'll be hosting the "Designing a Perfect Game" session with Chris Kluwe (former NFL punter, author), Rick Malambri (Step Up 3D, Twitch streamer), and Matt Grandstaff (global community lead at Bethesda). Together, this group collaborate on a design concept for a game that will be judged by Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth).

After the panel, attendees will have their chance to critique the game design and even offer reviews. If you'd like to attend, be sure to get there early, as the first 1,500 attendees will receive a Bethesda t-shirt. The panel takes place at 5:00 p.m. Central on Saturday, July 19. Can't be there in person? Be sure to check out the Twitch stream of this (and the other panels) at twitch.tv/Bethesda.

Other special events at QuakeCon include a special "portfolio review" with id Software art director Hugo Martin, Elder Scrolls Online tournaments, an episode of Bonus Round with Geoff Keighley, and a Magic the Gathering tournament. Tournaments will be streamed at twitch.tv/QuakeCon

It will be interesting to see if these supposedly leaked images from Doom 4 were real or not. Here's the full schedule of the event:

Thursday, July 17th
The Elder Scrolls Online PvP Tournament
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Streaming Live from the Bethesda Booth via Twitch.tv/Bethesda

Hugo Martin’s Portfolio Reviews
12:00pm – 2:00pm | id Software Booth
Hugo Martin, Art Director | id Software

The Elder Scrolls Online Trials Tournament
1:30pm – 2:30pm | Bethesda Booth

Annual QuakeCon Welcome & Attendee Exclusive DOOM Reveal
6:00pm | QuakeCon Attendee Exclusive | Ventrilo Main Stage

Friday, July 18th
The Elder Scrolls Online PvP Tournament

12:00pm – 1:00pm | Streaming Live from the Bethesda Booth via Twitch.tv/Bethesda

Hugo Martin’s Portfolio Reviews
12:00pm – 2:00pm | id Software Booth
Hugo Martin, Art Director | id Software

The Bonus Round with Geoff Keighley
1:30pm – 2:30pm | Streaming Live from the Ventrilo Main Stage via Twitch.tv/Bethesda

The Elder Scrolls Online Trials Tournament
1:30pm – 2:30pm | Bethesda Booth

The Future of The Elder Scrolls Online
5:00pm – 7:00pm | Streaming Live from the Ventrilo Main Stage via Twitch.tv/Bethesda
ZeniMax Online Studios panelists include: Matt Firor, Game Director | Paul Sage, Creative Director | Jared Carr, Art Director | Rich Lambert, Lead Designer | Brian Wheeler, Lead PvP Designer | Nick Konkle, Lead Gameplay Designer | Jesse McIntyre, Lead Programmer
Moderated by Jessica Folsom, Community Manager

Friday Night Magic Tournament and 2015 Magic the Gathering Core Set Release Party
7:00pm – 11.30pm | Table Top Village

Master Pancake
9:000pm – 11:30pm | Ventrilo Main Stage

Saturday, July 19th
PC Perspective Hardware Workshop

12:00pm – 2:00pm | Ventrilo Main Stage

The Elder Scrolls Online PvP Tournament
12:00pm – 1:00pm | Streaming Live from the Bethesda Booth via Twitch.tv/Bethesda

Hugo Martin’s Portfolio Reviews
12:00pm – 2:00pm | id Software Booth
Hugo Martin, Art Director | id Software

The Elder Scrolls Online Trials Championship
1:30pm – 2:30pm | Bethesda Booth

Ticket to Ride Tournament
2:00pm | Table Top Village

Designing the Perfect Game
5:00pm – 6:00pm | Streaming Live from the Ventrilo Main Stage
Panelists include: Feargus Urquhart, CEO at Obsidian Entertainment | Chris Kluwe, former NFL punter, co-author of Genesis: Prime, Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies | Rick Malambri, actor Step Up 3D, Twitch.TV streamer | Matt Grandstaff, Global Community Lead at Bethesda
Moderated by Andrew Reiner, executive editor at Game Informer Magazine, co-author of Genesis: Prime

Tournament Finals Party!
8:30pm | Ventrilo Main Stage

A new series I will be starting with all the wants and additions I think would be absolutely epic in an upcoming video game.

Spoiler Alert: If you have not played any of the previous Arkham games, which would be pretty ludicrous at this point. Continue to read at your own risk. This article will contain information on Easter Eggs and other elements of past Arkham series titles.

The Plot

Set one year after Joker's death crime has hit an all-time low in Gotham City. Some of Batman's most notorious nemeses decide to team up to take on the Bat once and for all, including Two-Face, Penguin and Harley Quinn. This all happens during Halloween night, in which Scarecrow decides to give the citizens of Gotham fair warning that he will soon be flooding the streets with his fear toxin (how noble of him). Only criminals now remain with the city and it is up to Batman & the GPD to stop the menacing threat that plagues Gotham.

Why I Love It: It's purely unpredictable.  Who's the main antagonist? Scarecrow? The Trio of Gang Leaders? This fresh-faced rival in the series, the Arkham Knight? Batman had 3 major things he needs to combat in this game as far as we know rather than leading up to one major villain. This either means all of them are major plot points in a branched fashion in which the player will have to decide who to take on first, or two of them are subplots that lead up to the greater threat which is unknown at this point in time.

Also the setting is perfect, Halloween Night. Perfect for Scarecrow. Too bad it won't release on its traditional October release date which would have been even better for this title. But it isn't even a bother because I know this game will be phenomenal when it does release.

It makes sense:  This game takes place in Gotham City (which looks absolutely stunning I might add). And because of the Scarecrow plot I won't question why I don't see Joe Schmo or Sally Dogooder. In Arkham Origins I questioned consistently where all the citizens were. I get it was late at night but the literally the only people roaming about were criminals, where I'm sure the citizens of Gotham are all too accustomed to. It boggled me because there has to be somebody out and about who didn't have rap sheet. It made sense in Arkham City because it was a closed off section for criminals only, but in Origins it made me question.

Underlying Message? :In one plot summary on the web you can find the tone setting quote that says "Batman is struggling to come to with the absence of his nemesis (Joker) and the uncomfortable feeling that the pair shared a bond deeper than either could admit." Now is it just me...or does this set the feeling of New 52's Death of the Family Story Arc? Haha I know that far from happening in this franchise but wow would it be something.

Now for the meat and bones of this article.

Arkham Asylum: Scarecrow (Left), Arkham City: Scarecrow Cameo (Middle), Arkham Knight: Scarecrow (Right)

Scarecrow's Hatred: Batman > Killer Croc: I can't think of anything Batman has done to Dr. Crane worse than what Killer Croc did. He may have beaten him to a pulp on multiple occasions, but he hasn't tried to kill him, or eat him for that matter. I honestly want to know what Crane's vendetta against the Dark Knight is that elevates him to the top of his priority list. Scarecrow narrowly escaped death in Arkham Asylum and you can see the after effects of said encounter apparent in Arkham Knight. So why does he still take Batman in priority over the Croc? Maybe it's something we will learn in Arkham Knight. Or because Scarecrow isn't scared of the Croc. Scarecrow is the Master of Fear, and the deliverer of bad dreams. I mean he huffs his own gas all the time, so obviously maybe he doesn't know fear and so he has nothing to be frightened about with the Croc, after all, he was gutsy enough to have a boat stationed in the middle of the water in Arkham City.

Unlockable Costumes:  Every Arkham title so far, with the exclusion of Asylum, has had numerous Batsuits for the player to change out of. This is a great option because players love choice and being able to change the look of Batman. Although all of the costumes were unlocked through other means outside of the actual game whether through DLC, or a linked mobile game, or promotional code event. The only characters time when costumes could be unlocked in-game were during Origins multiplayer and even then those costumes could be acquired in DLC packs, and the only costume ever to be purely obtained only through actual gameplay, the infamous Worst Nightmare suit, was removed for unknown issues. What I would love is to be able to be able to unlock costumes throughout the actual Campaign by simply discovering it, meeting certain criteria, doing side mission, etc. As well as the ability to change Batman's suit during the Campaign without having to wait to finish the game first, and doing it through New Game+. Although I know this most likely won't be done because of the wear-and-tear mechanic of seeing Batman's costume deteriorate throughout the Story as he struggles with the villains throughout the night.

Also what costumes would you like to see in this game? New one or returns, doesn't matter. It's almost hard to imagine what costumes they haven't added just yet by looking at the list. One costume I would definitely like to see is the return of the Worst Nightmare suit that everyone wanted so badly, as well as a revamped version of the Beyond (Batman Beyond suit is pure epicness). Here is a list of Batman Suits that have appeared spread through the Arkham franchise:

Adam West 1960's

Animated Series

Azrael Knightfall

Beyond

Blackest Night

Brightest Day

Dark Knight Movie

Dark Knight of the Round Table

Dark Knight Returns

Earth One

Earth Two

Earth Two Dark Knight

Extreme Environments "XE" Suit

First Appearance, 1940

Gotham by Gaslight

Incorporated

Injustice

Long Halloween

New 52 Graphics

New 52 Metallic

1970's

Noel

One Million

Red Son

Sinestro Corps

Thrillkiller

Worst Nightmare-Cancelled

Year One

If believe this is all of them, if I missed any my apologize. I guess one they haven't added is the cave Batman...

The Family:  In Arkham City Rocksteady threw Catwoman into the screen. They allowed you to play Catwoman who had an intertwining story with Batman himself. Even after beating the Campaign you were still able to switch between playing as Batman or Catwoman, which was without a doubt awesome. They then announced a DLC expansion which allowed you to play as Tim Drake's Robin in a separate arc as he attempted to thwart Harley's plans. They've even allowed you to play as alternate characters within Challenge Missions such as: The Joker, Nightwing, and Deathstroke. Rocksteady even announced that they would be continuing this trend by allowing those who Pre-Order the game would be allowed to play as Harley Quinn in 4 new Challenge Missions, and even more recently upgrading this to allow players to explore Gotham in her own Story!! Now as to whether this intertwines and can be switched with Batman similar to Cabwoman's or if it's a completely separate arc similar to Robin remains to be seen (my guess is the latter). What would be awesome is the inclusion of being able to play more of the Bat Family in the game, even if only for Challenge Missions. I would love to beat up baddies in a Combat Arena as Jason Todd/Red Hood or the Huntress/Catwoman. Any additional characters would be an awesome perk.

Easter Egg-HARLEY'S PREGNANT?! : This is possibly one of the biggest Easter Eggs of Arkham City. To add to it, after beating the game in New Game+ you can hear Harley singing "Hush Little Baby". Now upon further exploration in the game in the Robin DLC you also find 3 more tests that also read negative. Also if you read the box inside the crib it said there is a chance for a false positive.

Too bad this is far from coming to pass however as one of the founders of Rocksteady, Sefton Hill, confirmed Harley wasn't pregnant and it was indeed a false positive...but what if they decide to bring this back??

Reoccurring Villains:

Bane: He has been in all of the Arkham games so far, I wouldn't mind seeing him return in Knight.

Victor Zsasz: The first villain you face in Asylum and an interesting side mission mini-boss in City.

Killer Croc: He too has appeared in all of the Arkham games so far, as he was an interesting encounter in Asylum who is the reason why Scarecrow looks the way he does now. He had a visual cameo in City which was a one-chance only deal, and was the first boss in Origins. Seeing him again in Knight would be interesting and it would probably tie-in with Scarecrows own story.

Returns:

Azrael: He featured in a small puzzle based side-mission in City in which you had to find clues he left behind and find where he was lurking in Arkham City. Upon his discover he told Batman a prophecy, "I bring a message: dark days are coming, Batman. The Prophecy is coming true, you are the warrior who will close the gates of Hell, you are the one who will save this day, and in doing so, events will occur that you cannot stop, from the ashes of Arkham the fires will rage and Gotham will burn, and you, you will burn too." I can only imagine the event he was talking about coming to pass was when 3 of the strongest factions of villains in Batman's Rogue Gallery would team up against him. Still, doesn't mean seeing Azrael again wouldn't be awesome.

Hush:  In another side-mission in which Batman had to search for dead bodies he was lead to the secret surgical hideout of Hush. Hush trapped Batman in his hideout so that he could give him his little gloating speech and reveal his new face before exiting and leaving Batman flabbergasted. It's highly likely that Batman put an end to Hush's plan right after he was done in Arkham City, but I would still like to see a reappearance by the Bruce Wayne doppelganger.

Black Mask: Like most villains in the Arkham franchise he had a minor cameo in some collectibles scattered around both Asylum and City. He was even a Boss in an interesting 2.5D Challenge Mission in City and a secondary antagonist to Joker in Origins. With these 3 big guns teaming up to take on the Bat he must feel somewhat left out as he seems to have sort of an inferiority complex. So it wouldn't be a surprise if he decided to flex his muscle and get his own like side-quest against the Dark Knight.

Talia Al Ghul & the League of Assassins: Talia and her league were an interested nod in the City title, as well as this being fodder for the possible appearance of their son. It is also interesting to note that after Ra's apparent death, when going back to the location you see that Ra is no longer there but his sword is still firmly planted in the ground. Resurrection anyone?

New Villains:

Prometheus: The anti-batman!! I'm not talking about an alternate reality version, but a villain in the Rogue Gallery who is Batman's polar opposite all the way down to his back stories. I NEED to see him in at least one Arkham game.

Scarface & Arnold Wesker: Who's the real dummy in this duo? Haha Scarface has had a cameo in both Asylum and City, and I don't know if this series ties in with the actual universe but if it doesn't I would love to see and square off against these two.

Ratcatcher: Another interesting villain to include in the title and I could quite easily see how the side-mission to track him and the actual Boss battle would go down.

The Creeper aka Jack Ryder: Jack had a cameo in Asylum as well as being a rescue target from Deadshot in City. Who knows what could have happened to him in the past year.

Phew. Well that does it for all the things I can say for my wants in Arkham Knight. Don't know if Rocksteady is listening but it would be a true gem if they found this. Hopefully some of the stuff is already implemented, who knows. What are your wants from Arkham Knight? Thanks for reading ^__^

SPOILER:

Note: I also want to add, I dont know the validity of this information, but this article states that it found the credits list for voice actors in the new Arkham Knight title which says that Azrael will indeed be returning as well as appearances by Damian Wayne, Nightwing, and Superman!!

http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/27494/20140703/batman-arkham-knight-damian-wayne-nightwing-superman-azrael.htm

If any of this is at all true, some of my wishlist has already been granted.

A new Onion video lampoons the complex character creator of The Elder Scrolls Online.

The video (which is actually sponsored by Bethesda, which apparently has a good sense of humor about its games), takes a few shots at the game industry's obsession with increasingly detailed character creation modes - in this case, players have to design their avatars starting on the cellular level, leading to some grotesque mistakes. 

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Final Thoughts 27

Portal

Note: This is not a review, but merely my musings after having recently completed a game as part of my Rogue's Adventures playthrough of my backlog. Follow @RoguesAdventure to keep up with my playthroughs and check out my live streams at twitch.tv/gorbash722.

Developer: Valve Corporation

Publisher: Valve Corporation

Release Date: October 7, 2007

Although Portal isn't quite the shortest game I've played (I oncelive streamed all of Gone Home in a single evening) it's certainly the quickest turnaround I've had for one of my backlogged games on Rogue's Adventures. It also made it easy to live stream the entire game, which is fun for a puzzle game that everyone and their grandmother has already played, but I hadn't!

Click here for the full eight part playlist of my Portal live stream.

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Portal and it's many fun story telling elements have become so ubiquitous with gaming culture that it's difficult to come at it with a neutral frame of mind. The cake is a lie, Still Alive, GLaDOS, and the portal gun are familiar with nearly every gamer whether they've actually played the game or not, and I'd argue for that reason that it's become one of the most famous games in gaming because of its impact on the culture.

Of course, it's also a pretty great game in its own right. At its heart it's a first person puzzle adventure. Though it uses the same engine and many of the same assets of Half-Life 2, the only gun you get shoots two different colored portals that allow you to manipulate the environment in some really mind-blowing ways (at the time). The first time you step halfway into a portal and can see yourself stepping through is crazy cool, and mastering the laws of portal inertia (speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out) is incredibly satisfying.

Where Portal really succeeds is knowing what matters most in its genre - the story. Taking a cue from classic Lucasarts and Sierra 2D adventure games of the 90s, Portal really digs into the story telling questions that you immediately have - Where are you, Why is this happening and How do you get out? Portal (and many first person-oriented games like BioShock) built upon the story telling methods of Half-Life 2 - unfolding events around the player while leaving them as the central playing piece.

In Portal the story is primarily revealed through the omnipresent, famously computerized voice of GLaDOS, a seemingly helpful AI that runs your testing facility and who's psychological tactics draw genuine laughs.

Things grow more sinister around the halfway point when the facility is done with you and you're forced to escape through its dangerous bowels (recalling scenes of Galaxy Quest where ridiculously dangerous obstacle courses are scattered throughout). GLaDOS is unfortunately side-lined for much of the remainder, but there are several cool secret areas (another tactic from HL2) that belie a sinister undercurrent to the whole facility.

Despite the fact that I've played several games that use the portal teleporting mechanic (Darksiders stands out) and go far beyond the relatively simple puzzles that Portal employs (and asks you to repeat over and over again), the game still holds up really well.

The Source engine is one of the most graceful aging early 3D engines and other than jarring loading moments that appear to completely lock up your computer for several seconds (not fun when you're live streaming!) everything runs smoothly and looks decent.

Many gaming classics remain barriers for most folks due to length - after all it's far easier to convince someone to watch a classic two hour film than try to tackle a 50+hr RPG (cough BG2 cough). Portal's four hour length and easily accessible puzzle mechanics means there's no excuse for everyone to discover its magic for themselves; if there were such a thing as gaming academia , Portal would be required on the syllabus.

If I have one complaint about the game it's the final boss fight. It's fun to finally see and interact with GLaDOS but the final battle is like something out of a Batman game with its timed nature and the puzzles, while using the portals, are nothing new and you're simply asked to repeat them several times to win.

Boss battles are kind of a weird holdover from the early days of gaming, and I'm a staunch believer that not all games require them as a climax or ending sequence. It's not bad, just a bit disappointing in its execution.

That one minor quibble aside, I had a fantastic time with Portal. While the portal mechanics and puzzles were fun, it was the amazing atmosphere and storytelling that really won me over, and the reason I enjoy a game like Portal far more than Antichamber. I do plan on playing Portal 2 at some point in the future, and can't wait to see how Valve built upon its success.

I don't know what it is about Ninja Warrior, but I'm a huge fan of the series. I was watching it back when the contestants didn't speak English and it wasn't called American Ninja Warrior. And as much as I like the show, I much preferred the older version than the newer, although I do like a number of the newer obstacles. They are ridiculous!

I'd like to see a Ninja Warrior video game...

No, not like this one...

This is kind of cheesy.

I'd like to see a full-fledged video game. And not only that, I'd like for the contestants to be video game characters. Of course we would never see characters from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo competing head to head, but it's late and I just finished watching an episode. I'm probably not in my right mind for thinking this (or blogging about it), but that certainly wouldn't be the first time.

So, I considered a popular character from each company and wondered how they would perform on the obstacles we're seeing from this year's season of American Ninja Warrior. And the contestants are, Mario, Marcus Fenix from the Gears of War series, and Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

Quintuple Steps

Competitors have to jump across four platforms that were angled 45° degrees toward the center of a water pit, and then have to jump to the platform at the end. The platforms were positioned right, left, right, left across the length of the pit. This obstacle requires both speed and balance.

Mario: Mario would breeze through this as he has trained for years for this type of obstacle. He'd probably even set the time to beat, and be like those contestants you see who run gracefully through the obstacle springing off each angled platform.

Marcus Fenix: Marcus is a bigger guy...not as graceful as Mario. He'd manage to make it through the obstacle...barely. It wouldn't be graceful, that's for sure.

Nathan Drake: Nathan wouldn't be as graceful as Mario, but he wouldn't be as clumsy as Marcus. He'd post a respectable time.

Cat Grab

Competitors have to clear three six-foot walls by jumping ten feet out and landing on them much like a cat would. Competitors grab the top of the wall, pull themselves up, and jump to the next wall.

Mario: Once again, the years of training and jumping on flag poles have prepared Mario for an event like this. Mario easily clears the gap between each of the walls and ends up safely on the other side in record time.

Marcus Fenix: Marcus uses a slow and steady approach with this obstacle, tackling each wall with precision. He has remarkable upper body strength and can easily pull himself up each wall until he makes it to the other side.

Nathan Drake: Nathan's overconfidence in this obstacle is almost his undoing. He clears the first two walls with no trouble but a bad jump on the last wall leaves him hanging by his fingertips. Mustering up all the strength he can, he finally manages to pull himself up but no dbout exerted a lot of energy he'll need later in the course.

Spinning Log

The competitor must cross a horizontal log that freely rotates around a central axis parallel to the course. The log is about 3 meters long and 20 cm in diameter.

Mario: Could Mario steal the whole show? He's run on (and across) his fair share of unstable platforms, so the spinning log was a breeze. Right now he is pacing Marcus and Nathan who are struggling to keep up with his time.

Marcus Fenix: Noooo. Marcus's body mass finally gets the best of this oversized soldier. He lost his footing which resulted in the log starting to spin, and at the point he couldn't recover. He took a hard hit too, and he's out of the competition. Maybe it was his selection of footwear...those boots look massive.

Nathan Drake: Having traversed the world over including a lot of time spent in the jungle, ole Nathan Drake has run across a number of spinning logs and this one was one of the easier ones to cross.

Spikes into Cargo

A number of spikes hanging from ropes ending with a cargo net. Competitiors must grab a hold of the spike and swing to the next. This even requires superior hand and upper body strength.

Mario: Mario might be quick on his feet, but he has practically no upper body strength. He jumps to the first spike, spins wildly out of control before plummeting to the water below...and ending his run to the ultimate ninja warrior.

Nathan Drake: Nathan has climbed vertical surfaces including rock formation...and who can't forget that train hanging off the side of a cliff. He manages to swing from spike to spike before reaching the cargo net on the other side and climbing down to the platform.

Devil Steps

This obstacle is a set of ascending and descending stairs where the competitor must climb under the steps to reach the next obstacle. The competitor must climb upwards first, then reach behind them to reach the steps leading down.

Nathan Drake: The Devil Steps are ridiculously challenging and Nathan started out strong, but once he reached the top step, he started struggling on the transition to the other side of the obstacle. He managed to hang there for a few seconds before plummeting to the water below.

Doesn't look like anybody will reach the top of Mount Midoriyama this year. Maybe next...

What the heck did I just write? I need to go to bed.

Hope y'all have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July.

Cheers.

Hello curious and regular readers alike! I am taking a 2 week break from the gaming community to enjoy the great outdoors! With wonderful animal friends like snakes, bears, mountain lions, and of course the rare wolf, I Alex Excelsior, will be spending time with them! Also, I leave tomorrow and o hope you'll be patient enough to wait for the next AGV so in the time till then I will redirect you to these three curios looking links:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=qke2U-GdMcTaoAT134KYBg&url=http://www.youtube.com/user/MarioTV17&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNH0u6Gsiw_xBCr8wTux0Kssv_ywCQ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=1Ee2U8Megd2gBJeygrgF&url=http://www.youtube.com/user/barelypolitical&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNE0gO8-eT3hHzvq8qssKO2RMq7_Mw

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=BUi2U9_ZGNC9oQSt4ID4DA&url=http://www.youtube.com/user/beatdownboogie&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNGOexXt_TxVfXJHShv0lwNVd264YQ

Enjoy! See ya in Two weeks! :D

A Toast To All Gamers,

 -Alex Excelsior!

Update: EA has emailed us about the UFC and FIFA demo pricing errors. As suspected, these were unintentional glitches.[eXcerpt]

“The price associated with the FIFA 14 and EA SPORTS UFC demos was due to a technical error," a representative told us via email. "Both demos have now been fixed in the Microsoft store.” We checked to confirm, and both demos are once again listed as "Free."

Original Story:

If you were hoping to spend part of your Independence Day trying out EA Sports UFC on Xbox One, you might want to hold off a bit. It seems there is a pricing error on the Xbox Games Store that has the sample gameplay tagged with a $4.99 price.

The demo was released on June 3, and has had no associated cost until today. Reports also suggest that the error was present for the FIFA 14 demo, but in our investigation, we found that it has since been corrected. We’ve reached out to EA for confirmation that this is an error and will update should we receive a reply.

[Source: Xbox Games Store via NeoGAF]

Our Take
Consider this more a PSA than anything. There’s nothing nefarious going on here, except for maybe a mischievous glitch in the system. 

Mighty No. 9, from Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, had a hugely successful Kickstarter run, but it is looking to raise more money to make the game even larger.

The game's Kickstarter raised nearly $4 million dollars, easily blowing past its $900,000 goal last year. The new fundraising campaign is being held outside of Kickstarter and is being used to add even more features to the game. Director Inafune assures in a video (which you can see below) that the funds initially raised will take the game to completion as originally promised, but this new Paypal powered fundraising will add even more features, and give those who missed the Kickstarter a chance to pre-order the game. The first goal, set at $100,000, will add full English voice-over to the game. For more on the new fundraising efforts, head here.

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Alongside the new fundraising comes the announcement of an animated Mighty No. 9 TV show. You can see the first teaser for it below from production company Digital Frontier. Game developer Comcept is involved in the show's creation, but the animated show is a completely separate entity from the development of the game. More details are promised to be revealed for the show soon.

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For more on Mighty No. 9, head here.

[Source: Mighty No. 9, via Joystiq]

A new video from Did You Know Gaming looks at Final Fight, and how it began its life as a Street Fighter sequel.

The video also covers the ambiguous nature of Final Fight and recently Street Fighter character Poison's gender, and how the team basically ignored request to make a sequel to Final Fight and made Street Fighter II instead. You can check out the video below.

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You can check out other videos from the Did You Know Gaming channel covering Doom, Dragon Ball Z, Super Smash Bros., Team Fortress 2, Harvest Moon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the history of the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation, and two covering the Game Boy by hitting the links.

[Source: Did You Know Gaming]

I've never been one for sports, at least not mainstream ones. After playing every sport under the sun as a kid I migrated towards individual sports like swimming in high school and fencing in college. I'm not much of a sports "watcher" either. I watch the occasional football game, go to a basketball game every once in awhile and have been watching the World Cup off and on like many, but keeping up with the sports world has never been a priority.

You can imagine then that modern sport video games don't do much for me. I love more arcadey titles like NBA Jam or Mario Tennis, but games like Madden or Fifa have never appealed to me. They lack the physical aspect of actually playing sports, and combine it with the visuals and audio of watching a sports broadcast. I just find it...boring.

It's amazing then that a sports video game has quickly become one of my favorite arcade titles. When I went to my local arcade a few weeks back with a friend, I found a strange new cabinet that wasn't around during my previous visit. It looked like a table with a screen in the middle. Two stools sat on the ends, right in front of a trackball and two buttons, alongside some scribbling I didn't immediately understand. Older readers may know the game I'm talking about, but I was completely unaware.

Curious, me and my friend took a seat on each side of the table and started to play. It is football, plain and simple. Players are identified with Xs and Os, and each player gets four offensive and four defensive plays to choose from. Though it took a little figuring out, the game is basically glorified rock, paper, scissors. You try to get first downs and score touchdowns. Like I said, it's football.

Atari Football to be exact, and there isn't anything fancy or flashy about it, especially in 2014. There isn't any color. No character models. Yet what I found was that this game from 1978 more perfectly captured the physicality and excitement of a real sport far better than Madden ever has.

It all boils down to great, simple gameplay. If you are on offense and your opponent can correctly guess your play, they can easily counter it by picking the corresponding defensive play. It all becomes mind games, trying to think like your opponent in order to succeed. While this could be fun by itself, it would be nothing with Atari Football's main attraction -- the trackball.

Thanks to the trackball, playing this game is physically exhausting. You always control the player with the ball, and rather than using a joystick you use the trackball to run and juke your way to the end zone. That means using your palm to rotate the ball as fast as you can to make your character run, rolling it rapidly to the left to sidestep, then rolling it back to the right and then forward as you make a mad dash for the touchdown. Your opponent is doing the same on defense, making their ball spin as fast as it can as they try to chase you down and tackle you. After just a few minutes of playing your arm is aching and your palms are sore, but it is so much fun you don't want to quit. You know a game has done something right when I am in physical pain but want to keep playing.

That physicality is really the secret ingredient to why I think Atari Football is so great. Actually "running", so to speak, gives the game a rush of excitement that modern sport titles really lack. The smaller number of plays and the simplicity of it all boils football down to its essence and allows for even non-football fans like me to really enjoy what the sport is all about. Maybe that is part of the reason Wii Sports found so much success -- there is just something about actually being active in a sports game that makes it more enjoyable.

Whatever the reason, for 20 minutes me and my friend were cheering and yelling as we furiously spun that trackball as fast as we could. In the end our hands couldn't take any more. Me and my friend stepped away from the table and returned to our old favorites like Gauntlet, Smash TV, and Galaga, exhausted but happily surprised that a game so old, and a sports game no less, could capture and hold our attention like few games can. It's for that reason that Atari Football, a 36-year-old video game from a long gone era, is my new favorite sports game. Unless Madden 2016 comes with a trackball, I expect it will stay that way. 

7. Republic Commando 

It’s not often that Star Wars games get a gritty, visceral feel. With Republic Commando, they were able to give you that experience in spades. A first-person shooter that gamers would call a “Corridor Shooter,” this game was fast, action-packed, and extremely fun. While playing through this game, it calls Halo to mind with its gameplay. You went from encounter to encounter as you worked your way to the objective. It differs from Halo in one big aspect though: your squad mates. It was a lot of fun playing a clone commander who could direct the squad through different engagements all through the game. There were many different ways to tactically work your way through a droid-infested situation.

Sometimes, being squad leader means you have to get your hands dirty. Some of the best action sequences in the game involved wading through waves of those annoying bugs on Geonosis with your gauntlet spike – punching your way through and splattering bug guts on your visor. Don’t worry, though, your visor actually a wiper of sorts. Melee in this game has a very satisfying feeling that calls to mind the Lancer from Gears of War.

This game puts you in the shoes of this elite clone trooper squad and gives you a different view of the clone wars. Now you’re doing special missions and helping the greater clone army as a tactical squad. It was gritty and fun, and sometimes being a regular trooper in the Star Wars Universe is even cooler than being able to wield the Force.

For a similar gaming experience: Look at Dark Forces, which is the first game in the Jedi Knight series. While the game is old, it still put you in the shoes of a trooper wading through waves of enemies and getting work done without the benefit of the Force.

6. Shadows of the Empire

One of the best titles to come out of the N64, this was an incredible Star Wars game. Similar to Republic Commando in that you had no control over the Force, your mission is no less important. Based on a novel of the same name, the game takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Your mission is to rescue Has Solo from the bounty hunter. Despite your best efforts to remain neutral, you find yourself being drawn into the Galactic War as more than just a mercenary.

Playing the scoundrel Dash Rendar, you feel like you’re Han Solo going around blasting Imperial Troops and running up against bounty hunters like IG-88 and even Boba Fett himself. This game even featured a racing sequence where you take down a swoop gang on Tatooine. Shadows of the Empire has a ton of different gameplay elements rolled into one game, but still manages to keep the Star Wars feel. However, there’s much more to the story than what you see on the surface. Playing this game exposes players to much of the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars Universe. It’s an excellent choice for Star Wars games, because it gives us a variety of Star Wars experiences but feels different enough to be new and exciting.

One of the most memorable things about this game is a giant space battle at the end. While you fly around taking out pirates and imperials alike, the rebels are there to help you get the job done. Your goal is to take out a flying fortress, but the entire time you’ve got CD quality music playing during your battle that was composed for the story. Written by Joel McNeely, the music is easily as iconic as that produced by John Williams.

For a similar gaming experience: Look at Bounty Hunter on the game cube, a third-person action game where you take the reigns as Jango Fett. This game shows how Jango gets involved with the clone army, and how he makes friends with Zam Wessel, the changeling.

5. Battlefront II

When you combine the Battlefield series with Star Wars, you get Star Wars: Battlefront. A multiplayer battleground first-person shooter game set in the Star Wars universe is just what the doctor ordered for many of us. This game featured online capability before anything like Xbox Live or Playstation Network existed. Featuring large ground battles taking place all over the Star Wars Universe, it helped us to experience these large-scale battles for which Star Wars is known. There’s something extremely satisfying about running across the ice fields of Hoth as a snow trooper and blasting all the rebels in their trenches as you escort a hulking AT-AT to its final objective.

For many of us, a Star Wars experience is all about the huge battles in exotic locations. If that battle is in space or on the ground, it doesn’t matter to us – we just want to be there. Unlike many of the other games on this list, Battlefront gave us something extra, it’s not about Jedi vs Sith, it’s about soldiers fighting soldiers. There’s something beautiful about being a normal soldier without the benefit of Force Powers and still managing to perform feats of heroism on the battlefield… especially against enemies that have those powers.

If being a common soldier isn’t your style, the game also let you play as Republic and Separatists heroes and later Rebellion and Imperial heroes for extra fun. Adding in elements like awards, medals, and other game modes, Lucasarts did a fantastic job making the game addicting enough for repeated playthroughs. There was even a reward system based on the number of kills you made in each battle. Battlefront II did a wonderful job bringing the huge, grandiose battles to gamers and letting us slog through the trenches. It’s just like many of us were kids playing with our Nerf guns, pretending we were Stormtroopers assaulting the Rebels at the beginning of Episode IV, only this time, we don’t have to pick up the darts.

For a similar gaming experience: Play Battlefront I– a game that many people argue was even better than the sequel. While this game doesn’t feature the benefit of playing as Jedi or Sith, some people argue that this game has better gameplay and level design. Try both, they’re pretty cheap on Steam.

4. Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight

For the experience of a first-person shooter with Jedi powers, this game is the one that started it all. Released in 1997, it tells you something about how good this game was when you see that there’s still an active modding community. Featuring live-action cut scenes, a CD quality Star Wars soundtrack, and an original story, it’s easy to see why this game was so popular and played by so many.

Highly praised for the use of force powers, lightsaber combat, and puzzles in the game – some have even said that it was the best single player first-person shooter since Doom. This game makes the list for two reasons: story and lightsaber combat. The story is about the mercenary, Kyle Katarn, first seen in Dark Forces (See the end of #7 on the list). He’s a normal guy who learns he has a gift for the Force and learns that his family has a sordid history with the Jedi. His quest begins when he gets his first lightsaber, and from there he has to battle several dark Jedi in order to save the galaxy… but will he fall to the dark side? Gameplay will change depending on which path you choose, and there’s no going back once you start down the path. There are consequences for choosing a light or dark path, and it does change the gameplay as well as the ending of the game.

Jedi Knight introduced us to Kyle Katarn, a character who persisted in the Expanded Universe. His quest reminds us of what we love about Star Wars – good vs. evil, sacrifice, and magic… it’s a space opera video game. This game puts players at the helm of a Hero or Villain, and the story was so good that elements of it appeared in later Star Wars games, and even other sci-fi games. For any gamer interested in a retro experience, this is an important game and had a big impact on later sci-fi games.

For a similar gaming experience: Look at Jedi Academy– this game’s sequel. While the story wasn’t as good, or was largely derivative of this game, the gameplay was improved and the lightsaber combat was phenomenal. A very satisfying gaming experience is going head to head with a dark Jedi, only to fling him off a platform using the Force, and watching him tumble to his death.

-Jack