Editorials

More mailbag. Some of the highlights: "Is EA's Origin service a good thing?", "Which books are best for learning game design?", "How to get into game localization?" and "Should you pitch an idea to a game studio?"That last one is probably the easiest one for anyone to answer—it's always a resounding no.

The crew at Extra Credits are playing catch up to an extensive mailbag backlog. This episode runs the gamut from "How to be a Producer?" to "How to Form a Game Company" to—and this is something I have been wondering myself—"Why are even the digital-download games so expensive in Australia?"

I love that Daniel (the narrator guy) starts the video by saying that Extra Credits is a bit late on the whole SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & PIPA (Protect IP Act) debate because it saves me the trouble of having to say it myself. That said, a lot of us (myself included) still do not know the particulars of the bills and just how close we came to one of the largest legislative cluster-you-know-whats in U.S. history.

The only interesting thing about NeverDead is that it's not actually as bad as it seems after you've beaten it. I don't mean that NeverDead is secretly a good game. It truly stinks, mostly for boring reasons—awkward and mushy controls, inconsistent mechanics, stock characters, vapid story. However, NeverDead leaves an even worse impression than it deserves to, because its concluding bosses exhibit excruciatingly stupid design.

It's unclear if Grim Fandango creator Tim Schafer intended to change the way games are financed or not, but his latest venture could have long-lasting repercussions on the hobby we all know and love.

Nintendo will be looking to the 3DS remain strong in January. Expected residual interest in Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land can be cited as factors, and there's a certainly a chance that the 3DS can stay close to Xbox 360 numbers.

How will this week's releases fare? Kingdoms of Amalur headlines this week's slate of new releases, which is solid for a second consecutive week after a mostly dormant month of January. Early reviews have been quite positive for the game, which would be a boon to Electronic Arts. The Darkness II hits this week as well, although it seems to be flying under the radar a bit.

There have been some genuinely scary horror games over the years - everything from Silent Hill and Fatal Frame to PC titles like Clive Barker's Undying and so on. Each has worked diligently to merge the idea of the horror narrative with compelling gameplay in order to craft experiences that keep gamers playing even while they cower in fear behind their controllers. As great as some of those have been, few have been as perfect as Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

On the strength of Matt Kaplan's review, I decided to grab Resistance 3. Kaplan didn't steer me wrong. Alongside solid gameplay, Resistance 3 delivers a compelling story about a man's journey through an interesting post-apocalyptic landscape. Like many other recent games, however, Resistance 3 flubs the ending, betraying its own tightly-crafted atmosphere.

So, used versus new... It's a huge topic to begin with, and it's only gotten more complicated due to the various tricks made possible by online connections. Thanks to these "innovations", something that has never been black-and-white to start with is now more grey than it's ever been. That said, let me try to pick apart the various strands of the problem as I see them, one by one.