Category: Videogames
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Going through the motions
In the universally-praised game Grand Theft Auto IV, you play as a swarthy immigrant recently arrived in a new country, beating up the locals and fighting gang leaders on a quest to pick up some coin and get a date. I liked this game better when it was called Super Mario 64! Man, that joke…
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Going through the motions
In the universally-praised game Grand Theft Auto IV, you play as a swarthy immigrant with a weird accent, recently arrived in a new country. The game’s much-acclaimed, complex storyline has you fighting the locals, occasionally stealing their vehicles, while you wander around an enormous game world, taking on the local gang leaders who are trying…
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From the people who made that game “Rabbit Dog and Bunnyman”
I’ve gotten back into the Homestar Runner site lately. It’s pretty cool; y’all should check it out. Especially the new toon they put up today. No, seriously, check it out. That’s about as cool as videogame promos get. This one is good too: As is the teaser, which was released on April Fool’s Day: In…
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There’s no second chance to make a first impression
Update 2/22/2021: Removed broken links and images Previously on Spectre Collie: about once a month I’ve been squeezing out a lengthy treatise intended to debunk some “myth” about storytelling in videogames. I’m still headed towards making a point with those, more or less, eventually. But they take a long time to write, and sometimes it’s…
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There is no places for writers in the games industry.
Last week there was a bit of fallout on the internets from an article titled “The Case Against Writers in the Games Industry”. It was by a game designer named Adam Maxwell, and it basically makes the claim that having a dedicated writer on a development team is a waste; it’s always better to have…
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People Living in Competition
In case there were any doubt that EA and Harmonix are trying to turn Rock Band into a whole platform instead of just a videogame franchise, the release of the Rock Band music store should put that to rest. They did such a good job with the design of this thing, it’s almost eerie. It’s…
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Search for all youtube videos tagged “Satan”
Today Telltale announced the finale of Sam & Max Season Two, titled What’s New, Beelzebub?. This is the one where everything goes completely off the rails, leaving everyone confused, horrified, and entertained. As evidenced by the last trailer: I’m really glad we didn’t do machinima shorts for this season, because it means that time &…
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World of Goo
I’m not going to even try to think up a clever title for this one, since the game in question is so purposefully wry that adding more here would be overkill. But it’s a good game, and it’s called World of Goo, and you can pre-order it to get a preview copy (for Windows) right…
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Touch-a touch-a touch-a touch me, I want to be Ghibli
Any game company would envy the amount of buzz around Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS. For months, it’s been getting breathless previews from writers who wanted it RIGHT NOW!!!, and since its release it’s gotten extremely positive reviews. It’s not hard to see why; it’s got stellar production values. You…
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Link’s Quiver Capacity
On his blog, Lore Sjöberg announced his new project: a weekly video podcast for his Alt Text column at Wired. The first episode rates Link’s weapons. According to his blog, more will be available on Wired’s YouTube page or via iTunes subscription. Seeing as how it’s a video with drawings, and more often than not…
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> use research on article
It’s kind of ironic that this review of the “Lost” videogame faults the game for its reliance on outdated and obsolete game mechanics, because the review itself relies on an outdated and obsolete assumption: that adventure games are no longer relevant. A game journalist in 2008 saying “adventure games are dead” is kind of like…
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The Old Man and the Realistically Rendered Water Volume
I’m just arrogant enough that I tend to automatically dismiss anything presented as a list of rules or guidelines about writing. There’s obviously a ton of craft involved in writing, independent of any concerns about talent or personal style. But attempts to codify it are always either too vague to be practically useful, or too…