↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (Start) News Report 09.23.06
Posted by Shawn Struck on 09.23.2006
Games as Art, No Pants For Security, and the Super Columbine RPG, plus the GREAT TITLE DEBATE CONTINUES.
Every week, 411 Mania Games delivers you piping-hot, fresh news tidbits, along with tantalizing previews to whet your appetite for up and coming games, a never-ending main course of reviews, with a heaping helping of video game columns for dessert. However, during your rush to devour all the gaming goodness that we here at 411, there are just as many morsels that may sit on the table, unnoticed, given short shrift, or just look exotic and interesting.
This column is your sommelier, if you will, or perhaps a gaming gourmand.
And this column, dear readers, is what's known as really pushing the food analogy way too far↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (Start).
Game Documentary Hits MOMA in NYC (via 8bitmovie.com)
Justin Strawhand's new documentary, 8 Bit: A Documentary about Art and Videogames, will be premiering in a few weeks at The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.
The documentary includes lots of interviews with an impressive list of video-game based artists who express themselves with everything from visual art to Gameboy music (8-bit Shifter have been one of my nerdy musical idols for years). The documentary also includes a history of the game art movement from the early days of the demo scene to chiptunes, machinima (animated shorts done with in-game computer game engines and footage) to artistic expression in modern video games. This sounds extremely fascinating, and if I were still in the tri-state area, I would so be on a train bound for the City on Oct. 7th. If one of you faithful readers manages to make it to the MOMA then, go attend a showing for me, okay? And tell them "Shawn Struck sent me," too. This won't really get you anything extra (except perhaps a look of confusion); I just like getting my name out there any possible way I can,
Indie developer Persuasive Games, recently inked a deal with Shockwave.com and Addicting Games to create a series of what they have dubbed "newsgames": simple video games that try to provide some level of analysis of current news through the medium of quickly-but-slickly produced games. Some of them will be under the "Arcade Wire" banner.
The first game in The Arcade Wire series is Airport Security, a "critique of the absurdist changing practices in airport security. Try to keep up with knee-jerk policy changes and enjoy perverse prohibitions like toothpaste, pants, and pressurized cheese." Those security goons can take my ice cream sundae when they pry it from my cold, sugar-coma induced hands!
The Last Express Gets New Life Via GameTap (via GameSetWatch)
Holy crap, you guys! Apologies found sounding like a great big video fatty, but this is seriously cooler than exploding vampire pirate ninjas jumping over a pit of spike on fire surrounded by snakes on a plane. Why is The Last Express so cool?
It's a video game presented in a unique way, and in some ways, did stuff Oblivion does now, way before Oblivion did it. The Last Express was a rotoscope/trace-animated murder mystery set on a passenger train sometime around the 1930s. The game and story plays out completely in real-time. What you find out and solve of the mystery is determined by being on or in the right place at the right time... BUT... you won't miss out on everything if you miss plot events. Somehow, the game seemed to take lots of
twists and turns depending on where you were, and yet yo'd never really feel lost.
It was, sadly, a seemingly obscure game; I remember looking for a copy for ages at game shops and not finding it anywhere. But no more trekking through mom and pop stores, bargain bins, and back alleys for me! The perfectly cromulent blog Game Set Watch reports that online games and content provider GameTap has secured the rights to distribute The Last Express via their broadband service. So, for you thrifty gamers out there, you can sign up for GameTap's free
trial and play the game for free for two weeks. That's definitely a nice price for me!
Columbine RPG Creator Talks About Dawson Shooting (via Kotaku)
Danny LeDone released an RPG Maker game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG. For such a small homebrew game, it generated a lot of controversy and just as much discussion. Until he granted an interview, there was rampant speculation on just why he made it. In light of last week's shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, Kaotaku's Brian Crecente conducted a follow-up interview this week:
Q. What was your initial reaction?
A. My very first reaction, frankly, was to head to my toilet bowl and throw up. I knew what was in the works and I knew the next week would be spent keeping my head above water while the press tried to bury me with guilt-laden questions and implications of complicity in murder. I also knew that this was no time to fold or get weak-kneed. I made a game. I believed in it. Now it was time to defend it. No one would do that except me.
I sifted through old emails and posts on the SCMRPG forum, looking for anyone that might've come my way from Kimveer. I thought, "did I know this guy?" "Could I have stopped any of this?" "Was there a fan who left warning signs that I ignored amidst my daily routine?" Thankfully, the answer was "no;" Kimveer had never contacted me at all. Period.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (Start) Vs. "The Code". ROUND TWO.
I have a dozen for and a dozen against. C'mon, people, one week left to break that tie AND have a chance to win a free copy of the PS2 game "Dirge of Cerberus"! Just send me an email via the feedback link... and speaking of feedback, I'll also have my first reader feedback segment slotted to appear next week, so get those typing hands a-limbered up.
From typing hands, to helping hands, here's some things that help make 411 Games awesome:
Joshua Richey reviews Flatout 2... and I am getting the subtext that I think maybe he might not be a racing game fan... but does he like THIS game? Read and find out!
Adieu/to you/and you/and you (but not YOU). Before I go, say it with me: Wii Remote. Nunchuk. No more of this "Wiimote" and "Nunchuku" nonsense. Once you've got that down, take a break by reading my stuff.
Keep an eye out this week for an exclusive 411 interview from me, too!
Justin Strawhand's new documentary, 8 Bit: A Documentary about Art and Videogames, will be premiering in a few weeks at The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.
Holy crap, you guys! Apologies found sounding like a great big video fatty, but this is seriously cooler than exploding vampire pirate ninjas jumping over a pit of spike on fire surrounded by snakes on a plane. Why is The Last Express so cool?
