I’m not even going to play this game, but I understand that Starcraft 2‘s release today is a big deal for lots of folks. We were talking about the trailer in the chat the other day, and how it looks way more interesting and exciting than some movies’ trailers (Avatar, cough cough).
I don’t work for Valve, honest. But they are having yet another awesome sale, which includes a lot of great cheap horror games. Recently Steam has been made available on the Mac, should any gamers actually own one.
Sale currently includes Left 4 Dead 2 at £6.80 (about $10), and Killing Floor at £7.49 ($11), both for PC (always looking for humans to play these with). Deals are changing each day so check out the latest at http://store.steampowered.com/ . Sale goes on until 4th July
Not horror related in the slightest, but I thought I would share a fantastic deal for PC gamers. The Humble Indie Bundle is 5 PC games (good ones too! World of Goo and Gish are excellent), and you can pay as much or as little as you like. Profits are donated to charity. There are 7 days left to take advantage.
Via Joystiq. Kind of interesting to think about, as far as completely unimportant topics go.
In the “Games as art” debate that seems to never end, the number one opponent of our industry’s medium of choice being considered art (at least “high art“) has been renowned film critic Roger Ebert. Since he made his initial declaratory statements about video games many years ago, folks have pipedup on both sides of the argument. Ebert’s latest volley in the long-running discussion is a piece published on the Chicago Sun-Times website in response to thatgamecompany prez Kellee Santiago’s TED talk at USC last summer.
While he allows Santiago many pleasantries and compliments throughout the piece, he argues that, regardless of her various points, games “can never be art.” At the very least, he says, “No video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form.” He contests that games consist of “rules, points, objectives, and an outcome,” which stands in contrast to his somewhat ambiguous definition of what, exactly, art is. In a moment of seeming clarity at the end of his piece, he asks: “Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art? Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form.” And while we might not agree with all of Mr. Ebert’s points, we can certainly find common ground with his wondering why the debate over games as art is still such a topic of concern among gamers (ourselves included).
I love Fist of the North Star so I hope this game gets released outside of Japan (it comes out there this month). I did a quick search but couldn’t find a confirmation of any American release.
It reminds me of seeing a cool trailer for a PS2 Berserk game a few years ago. Berserk is another of my favorite anime/manga properties and, sadly, I don’t believe the PS2 game has ever been localized for us gaijin. I suppose I could import a Japanese copy and fight through the foreign menus and text but that doesn’t sound very appealing.