Features

In what might prove to be the most meta post ever, I'm going to talk about gaming journalism and how it's changed in recent years. Now, the mainstream media -- by which I refer to traditional magazines like Time and Life, and news outlets like the Wall Street Journal the New York Times -- have always worked diligently to maintain a high-quality standard for themselves. As a collective, they follow the rules set down in regulatory tomes such as the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Of course, every publication has its own house style to which its writers must adhere, but by and large there are many generally accepted guidelines concerning tone, editorial slant, and the like.

As video games grew as a phenomenon, it quickly became evident that the mainstream press wasn't going to give it the coverage its enthusiast audience demanded. Typically adopting an outsider's approach, traditional news outlets left their coverage at "Here's a new trend. It's kind of strange and we don't understand it, but the kids seem to like it." This journalistic void left the field wide open for a new generational voice to inhabit.

Discs are so 2003. Though existent to some degree before Steam premiered in November of 2004, Valve's juggernaut digital distribution platform relieved gamers of the stress entailed in searching frantically for lost disc keys (and discs), multi-disc installations, and finicky sales reps who refused to replace CDs and DVDs if they were scratched or otherwise unusable. It seems a new publisher or developer adds classics or new gems to Steam's growing flock of downloadable titles every week, and despite having more than its fair share of kinks to work out, digital distribution seems to have finally become more convenient than buggy.

Although I intended to honor my commitment vows to digital distribution, the honeymoon has ended. No longer able to satisfy my demanding hardcore gamer's needs, I've begun a steamy love affair with web-based games that offer an even greater convenience: digital distribution eliminated discs, but web games require no installation other than a plug-in or two. Casual fans have been swimming in the web pool for quite some time, both casual and core gamers are being treated to fast, frantic fun with developer DICE and publisher EA's Battlefield Heroes, a stylish shooter with its roots firmly planted in the classic Battlefield franchise.

Tim Allen wasn't precisely the same flavor of hardware guy that we are, but his Tool Time mantra, "More Power!" certainly resonates with a lot of computer enthusiasts. Not only do the games we play and the applications we use require more and more computational chutzpah to perform well, but the silicon bits themselves are not shy about sucking down the wattage to do it.

If you're considering an upgrade or a new build, you're going to need to feed that beast. Onward, to the supplies of power!

For some, playing Bionic Commando Rearmed is like walking down a street they grew up on after it goes through heavy renovation. Things seem both familiar and different at the same time. For others, it's like visiting a city for the first time after only hearing about it in conversions, TV/movies, and books/magazines. Everything gets measured against expectations without any sense of nostalgia. We fall into the latter group. But whether you're reliving the "good old days" or experiencing this platform shooter for the first time, Bionic Commando Rearmed delivers excellent and challenging retro platforming action.

Given the turn-based nature inherent in collectible card games, one might logically presume that a strategy game intent on incorporating CCG mechanics would fall into the turn-based subcategory of the genre. Surprisingly, EA Phenomic's Battleforge sprinkles CCG flavoring into real-time strategy batter, the result of which proved to be a tasty treat I sampled at the recent Electronic Arts Summer Showcase press event.

When it was released in 1988 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Bionic Commando continued the story of the arcade game released in the Spring of '87; which only shared the same name of the original outside of Japan. In the home version of Bionic Commando, players took on the role of Radd Spencer a soldier tasked with rescuing Super Joe - the protagonist from the Capcom title, Commando. What separated Radd from other heroes was his bionic arm that was used to navigate through the world by swinging in lieu of the ability to jump.

As years progressed Bionic Commando became a staple of quality in Capcom's back catalog alongside other classic franchises as Street Fighter and Mega Man. More than 20 years since its debut, Capcom has returned to the classic franchise with two titles, a big budget release on consoles and PC this fall and a complete overhaul of the NES classic as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. While all versions share a similar experience overall, each release offers bonus content that Big Versus felt required an explanation. Swing into action because this is Big Versus: Bionic Commando Rearmed.

NCSoft has been credited with creating some of the most addictive MMOs available, but on Wednesday, August 12, 2008, they earned quite a different accolade: they became the first developer to ever explain their game, Aion: Tower of Eternity, with an analogy that made me ravenously hungry for fruit.

Given the name similarity to Dungeon Siege, the fantasy role-playing game created and also developed by Gas Powered Games, one would reasonably led to believe that Space Siege is a sci-fi action RPG set in space. Those people would be wrong. Space Siege is actually a survival horror game that's more closely related to isometric shooters like Shadowgrounds than action RPG's like Diablo. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the approach, but those looking for the depth of Dungeon Siege in a sci-fi setting need to seriously adjust their expectations. There are some minor RPG-like elements to the game, like modifying some of the character's stats and a skill tree, but not much else beyond them. There are no side quests, there's minimal NPC interaction, and no loot/inventory system outside of the weapons selection. Simply put, the game is a straight-up shooter than happens to look a lot like an RPG.

Just like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, yesterday's calendar marked a Thursday, which brought about a new episode of American McGee's Grimm, hosted exclusively by GameTap. This week's episode follows Grimm's exploits through episode three: The Fisherman and His Wife, a fairy tale about greed, power -- and Grimm's tentative approval of both.

The last Big Ideas focused on the idea of identity, and what it means to see yourself truly represented in a video game. In this installment, we take a look at gender portrayals for both men and women and try to shine a light on some invisible assumptions.

To begin with, it used to be a commonly-held -- and trumpeted -- belief that "girls don't play video games". Certainly, the Boys Clubs that most video arcades became in the 1980's managed to make video games unattractive by sheer atmosphere. Dimly-lit, smoky, and raucously loud, is it any wonder that gaming might not have been a draw to females until it entered the home? Peering over the shoulder of a big brother as he played Combat on his Atari 2600 might have sparked some interest in a dormant gamer if she weren't brusquely told to go away.

Similarly, the rise of media coverage of the pastime perpetuated the stereotype of video games as a male-only pursuit, bolstered in the main by the focus of its advertising. Typically featuring sexy female models clad in ridiculously fetishized fantasy costumes, these ads titillated pubescent males into buying games based solely on the perceived value of the model. Sadly, content in the games themselves followed suit.

"Hey," my brother-in-law, Tony, whispered to my brother, Daniel, and myself as we sat, bored, at the "kids" card table during Thanksgiving 2003. "You guys wanna watch some Homestar?"

"Yeah," Daniel whispered back.

"What's Homestar?" I asked.

"Something awesome," Daniel replied, as Tony nodded and said, "Come with me."

After looking around to make sure the rest of our apparently more adult relatives sitting at the "adult table" were too busy refilling their plates or groaning and holding their bellies, we snuck out of the kitchen-dining room and into the adjacent computer room. Tony sat in the office chair and punched in a web address as Daniel and I gathered behind him.

"So what is this?" I asked again as a pasty cartoon character wearing a red shirt and blue propeller-topped hat appeared on the monitor.

"Trust us," Daniel said as Tony navigated to a screen where a squat character wearing boxing gloves and apro wrestling lucha libre mask sat in front of a computer monitor of his own. "You'll love this."

For many PC gamers, QuakeCon is bigger than Christmas. The joy of meeting up with friends, guzzling pure caffeine, gorging on junk food and fragging until the wee hours of the morning is a thing of beauty -- especially considering event attendance is free!

Unfortunately, the trek to Texas is too long and arduous for many, resulting in lost opportunities for fun times galore. Don't worry; Big Download's got your back. We were in attendance this year to pick our way through sleep-deprived gamers cuddled up with their keyboards (minus the drool, it was actually quite touching) and discarded pizza boxes to sample some of the gaming products on display.

Compiled here are our announcements from the show, including new bits from John Carmack's annual keynote address, as well as hands-on and impressions articles.

Read on for all the goods!

It started in 2004 simply as a way for fans of the popular web based comic strip Penny Arcade to get together, talk about and play games and have fun. In 2008, the Penny Arcade Expo has grown by leaps and bounds and is now the largest single gathering of people for a video/PC gaming event in the US. Organizers have predicted that 45,000 people will attend PAX 2008 in downtown Seattle from August 29-31 and considering that pre-registrations for the event have already exceeded the total attendance of 37,000 for PAX 2007 that 45,000 figure might turn out to be conservative.

So why has Penny Arcade Expo grown so much in both attendance and importance in so short of time? Big Download got a chance to chat with Penny Arcade's business head Robert Khoo to find out more and get a little more info on the just announced plans to host an east coast PAX event in 2010.

Since indie competitions are such a large part of the independent community, ignoring them would be very foolish. There's lots of undiscovered talent out there as well as established masters, and indie competitions are the best way to bring them out of the woodwork. They are held everywhere from TIGSource to poppenkast, and always bring together lots of great talent. Indiedaze takes the best entries from a recently finished indie competition and showcases what we think are the best of the best. Sometimes they coincide with what the original competition's top three were, sometimes they are completely different. In any case, they are always the games we liked most, and worth all the attention you can give them.

TOJam, otherwise known as The Toronto Independent Game Development Jam, is a three day annual marathon of game-making, intended to make developers create a reasonably polished and executed game. They must create the concept, graphics, and code entirely during the three day period. Needless to say, it's like an endurance trial for game developers. The third annual TOJam occurred two months ago, and the games were released for general consumption just last month. After savoring all of the delights of the competition (and trust us, there is a lot of great content), we have decided on our favorites!

Many people in the game industry know of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that organizes E3 and also fights in court against restrictive game selling laws. However, there is another organization that is centered not around the publishers but around game consumers. The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a non-profit organization that not only goes after restrictive state laws but also is an advocate for gamers and their rights.

Big Download got a chance to chat with ECA president Hal Halpin to find out more about the group, his opinions on various PC game industry issues and more.