PC

So via Critical Distance I found this feminist critique of BioShock, written by Richard Terrell (who, you may have noticed, is a man). But it is really not sitting right with me. His thesis is that BioShock depicts women as weak and men as strong. So I thought the rest of the article would try to show how BioShock upholds patriarchal values.

When in doubt, there is always a vent

HIGH The Scarecrow encounters.

LOW The omnipresent hint system that can't be turned off.

WTF Poison Ivy over Mr. Freeze? Seriously?

Or: Why I am dreading Alpha Protocol.

...some video games allow the player character to have sex with NPCs; even more allow the player to have romantic relationships with NPCs. What the vast majority of these games inevitably do is present relationship mechanics that distill the commodity model down to its essence—you talk to the NPC enough, and give them enough presents, and then they have sex with/marry you. This design approach is extremely simplistic and perpetuates the commodity model of sex—the player wants sex, they go through certain motions, and they are "rewarded" with what they wanted (like a vending machine).

Something's fishy in Spinner Cay

HIGH The main characters are as strong as before—perhaps moreso.

LOW The secondary characters? Not so much.

WTF Swashbuckly ending! Wait—WHAT?!

So, out of my ten-year career reviewing games professionally, I've only awarded two perfect "10" scores. I'm no math whiz, but if you average that out, I'm pretty sure that's one for every five years. My gist? I don't hand them out lightly.

One of the games to which I gave top marks was BioWare's Mass Effect. Encapsulating basically everything I love about videogames, action, and sci-fi all in one complete package, I blew through the game and devoured every last tasty morsel. Couldn't get enough. Although it's true all good things come to an end, thanks to the implementation of DLC, good things can keep going for a little longer. More Mass Effect? Yes, please.

Dystopic... but not in a fun way.

 

HIGH I finally got to see what one of those T-600s with the rubber faces looks like.

LOW It's two hours long. And most of that is spent ducking behind cars waiting for AI to do its job.

WTF This is a Terminator future-war game. Where are the lasers?

Another teaser trailer—this time for a game instead of a movie.

This brand new clip for Electronic Arts' forthcoming "re-imagining" of Dante's Inferno debuted at Gamescom this week. I know most people only seem marginally excited for this game (which looks like a God of War clone and not nearly as spectacular as God of War III), but I'm still holding out hope. Maybe this new glimpse into what the game has in store for you will change some opinions.

Prepare to "go to Hell" on February 10th of next year.

Team Fortress 2's "classless" update dropped recently, adding the new King of the Hill game mode, several new maps and some pretty significant class changes (despite being classless), the most prominent of which are the return of the Scout's double jump while using the Sandman (at the expense of 30 health) and allowing the Engineer to repair one end of a teleporter (including removing Spy sappers) by repairing the other.