Cerrax

My car. It's got an excellent Infinity Surround system. I can turn it up as loud as I want and I've got the equalizer set exactly the way I like it. I just wish i drove more often

I've never been a fan of the Jimquisition, but I need to give props for that video. He really nailed it. Jim's video may have a strong effect, but that's because he's a fairly outspoken person with a very solid background in video game journalism and generally well known sensibilities as far as what he considers a good game. I think Anita is fairly unknown and "unproven" as a gamer and game critic, so her stance on video games is more easily dismissed. Jim's video is very compact and incendiary, which depends on the audience appreciating his sense of humor and delivery and the audience having a strong knowledge of the subject. As it was mentioned before, Anita's video series is more academic in nature, and certainly requires a lot less knowledge about video games to convey her message, which may reduce its effectiveness if you already see most of these problems.

I gave up on DMC after the second one. The first one had a good character, decent story, excellent music, and unique visual style. Every game after just followed a classic Hollywood sequel mentality. The soundtrack was a unique blend of gothic and industrial? Let's add guitars and screaming and remove all semblance of melody! The character made a few wisecracks and one liners? Let's make all of his dialogue like that! Crazy acrobatics and fighting combos? Let's make all the really cool moves happen in cutscenes that make no sense whatsoever! The original Devil May Cry was supposed to be Resident Evil 4, so some of the more ridiculous aspects were toned down and actually gave the game some credibility. Every game after that just injected everything with adrenaline for absolutely no reason. Devil May Cry literally changed my life. I would not be the same person without it. As far as I'm concerned, there was only one Devil May Cry, and it was made in 2001.

I don't understand how people are saying that criticizing something means you don't like it. That's just stupid. I love machismo action movies with big, burly bad-asses destroying everything in sight, but I'm not going to sit here and claim that they are perfect, because they're not. Actually most of the time, they lack any substance whatsoever. I'm not saying get rid of the macho action movie, but I can certainly say that the world would be a very sad place if that's the only kinds of movies everybody makes. That's what Anita is doing with this video series. She loves Mario, she loves Zelda, she loves all of these games, but from an intellectual and emotional standpoint, these games define a females in an extremely narrow and degrading way. She doesn't want to change them or get rid of them. She just wants to point out that what they do is not the ONLY way to display femininity in a video game, because as far as some devs and publishers are concerned, that's how its always been, so why change it?

I like that Wreck-It Ralph had two really solid, prominent female characters (Vanellope and Calhoun). I would love to see a game with a female lead like one of those two. I've already got a pre-order for Remember Me. Besides the unconventional lead character, the whole combo building system and memory distortion stuff looks freakin awesome.

What are people's opinions on a DiD saved by a female protagonist? In Mirror's Edge, Faith's sister Kate is (wrongly) arrested by the police and Faith spends over half of the game trying to save her, eventually saving her from falling off of a skyscraper after destroying a helicopter that the villain was flying. Does this scenario offend on the same level? Kate is obviously the DiD, but now it is her sister who is saving her. How do people feel about this? I personally found Mirror's Edge to be a very refreshing experience on many fronts. A non-combat oriented action game with a powerful, Asian, female protagonist who is not over-sexualized. Bright, clean, colorful design, simple controls, unique soundtrack, great premise. Can you tell that I'm on the edge of my seat for Mirror's Edge 2?

We see death portrayed so many different ways in video games. Many feature death as an instructional/motivational mechanic (make this jump or die, learn this new skill or die, etc.) Many video game plots use death in a more traditional sense to shock the audience or twist the plot. Some games even use death as a transition to a new level (scripted death of the player character that sends them to Heaven/Hell/hospital/whatever) or from one game mode to another (dying in a zombie-themed multiplayer sometimes turns you into a zombie to hunt and kill other players). What ways do video games effectively use death, both as a subject and/or as a gameplay mechanic?

Yeah, when I first got a 360, I thought the Gamerscore could be used to get stuff, but its all just decorative. The only use for a Gamerscore is to display your skill/lack of social life.

YES. I f***ing love that game! Back in the day, I couldn't believe they could pull off a game like that on a Super Nintendo. If Starfox showed me what the SuperFX chip did, Vortex and Stunt Race FX showed me how awesome it could be.

This. There is no way to make performance judgments about a console without running real software on real hardware. Each console will have a specific way that it runs, and that will affect performance. Especially since the tech specs are so similar between PS4 and Xbox 720, a couple of GB of RAM or a slightly faster GPU may not matter depending on the way the system uses those assets. Consider that an average PC uses 1 - 1.5 GB of RAM just for the OS. That's obscenely high compared to a console OS, which does a hell of a lot less and uses a hell of a lot less resources. Consoles are very strict about what hardware and software they can use. This makes them somewhat limited, but very efficient. This is why your Xbox 360 with 512 MB of RAM can run a game that may require 1 or 2 GB of RAM on a normal computer.

Yeah. On PS3 you get the Platinum Trophy if you complete all of the achievements. Xbox doesn't give you anything for it except it stores the achievements in a special section of your profile so people can see which games you've completed all achievements on.

Xbox Live already does this. It's called Party. I love talking to my friends while I play a game. Sometimes we play the same game, sometimes we're playing different games. It's an easy and fun way for us to communicate because they live far enough away that I can't go and see them that often.

FEZ is the only game I have 100% completion on. But I'm very close on a few others: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Everything but some of the Predator/Combat challenges) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Just don't have the time to complete it on Hard) Borderlands (I technically have all the original achievements, but the DLC added a few more that I don't have) Split/Second (I can't get 1st on some of the Detonator tracks and some of the special ones are REALLY hard) Shadow Complex (Again, I refuse to play through the entire game again on Hard just for gamer points)

Consoles will always have one huge advantage over mobile games. A giant F'ing screen. I love mobile games, but I could never imagine enjoying a game like Halo on any kind of portable gaming device. I want my 40+ inch screen with my giant surround sound. I think the game has to fit the tech. I much prefer puzzle games on a mobile device because they're slower paced and it feels more intimate curling up with my iPad and solving some puzzles then with an Xbox controller staring at a giant screen. But for a game like Mario Kart or Marvel vs Capcom, I want that big freakin screen, and the big pumping sound system, and a solid controller in my hands, because that's how that game is meant to feel. Skyrim, yeah it would be cool to be mobile, but I want to experience that world on my big screen, not on a tiny little tablet. I have a bunch of games on both consoles and mobile and I find that certain genres and types of games just feel better on one device or the other. They're not better by any real technological or even gameplay measure, but the experience is totally different.

FEZ I'm always weary of indie games because a lot of them rely way too much on the retro/folk aethstetic and nostalgia or wildly abstract concepts and play. FEZ is just a super-powered puzzle game that doesn't just use pixel graphics as a style, it's essential to the core of the game. After ten minutes with it at my buddy's house I knew I had to get this game. About a month later, I had all the achievements and a folder filled with all kinds of bizarre scribbles and mad scientist notes trying to unlock the secrets of the game. I still have it Forza Motorsport I bought Forza 3 because I knew about the wide selection of cars it had (and in all honesty I just wanted to get my hands on the free DeLorian downloadable car that came with the Ultimate Edition) so I picked it up. I enjoyed it for a while, but the realistic physics turned me off. I was so used to arcade racers like Mario Kart and Excite Truck. Then about a year or so later, Forza 4 came out, and as I was in a particularly serious games drought, I gave it shot. And somehow I got totally hooked. Maybe the realistic physics finally clicked for me, or maybe I was just so desperate to find a new game, but I love it now. It's gotten to the point where it's reached a spot in the "Constantly Played" section of my games collection. Every once and a while I'll bust it out and complete a few races, buy a couple cars, tweak some tuneups and maybe do a paint job. Actually, it's kind of funny how many games in my "Constantly Played" section are games that I initially cast aside as trivial distractions. X-Men Origins: Wolverine I downloaded the demo expecting a terribly made action game with Hugh Jackman's face pasted on the main character. But DAYMN this game is so much fun. Gorey, violent, and completely ridiculous, but somehow I just couldn't put it down. I think it's one of the few games I actually got almost every achievement on. Batman: Arkham Asylum This game I actually thought I would like, but after an hour or so, I got tired of it. It was a standard linear story with some nice open stages and lots of stealth (which I am not a big fan of). But then I found the Riddler's puzzles and the game became "Let's find all the clues and solve the Riddler's puzzle". Finishing the game was a side effect of unlocking all the necessary items and areas to find all the Riddler's clues. The whole main plot barely registered with me, but I know everything about the Riddler's plot from that game.

Most HDTV's have their own refresh rates (most high-end TVs now run at 120 or 240 Hz) so they do all the necessary conversion of a device's output before it reaches the screen. But SDTV's suffer from the old NTSC / PAL division and it sucks.

There are two kinds of QTE's, good ones and bad ones. Good ones are the ones like in Darksiders or God of War. Basically they are extensions of an already comprehensive battle system. They are placed at moments of high adreniline, when it acts as a great release to mercilessly smash the attack button to kill your enemy. It's kind of like when John McClane beats the bad guy, and then roughs him up a a bit after cuffing him. Its that little satisfaction you get out of dominating someone else. Most importantly THEY MAKE SENSE. The buttons you have to hit to complete combat QTE's are ATTACK BUTTONS, while the buttons used in other QTE's like opening a heavy door, use the INTERACT BUTTON which is normally used for opening doors. Bad QTE's are placed at moments that don't require or even feel right within the game, and they usually don't make sense. If you want to see the absolute WORST example of this, play a little game called Ninja Blade. It is loaded to the teeth with poorly placed, absolutely obnoxious and completely nonsensical QTE's. So many games do this to one degree or another and it makes me want to throw my controller across the room.

I WANT MAXIMO 3! Ghosts to Glory and Army of Zin were excellent translations of classic platforming to 3-D. Maximo 3 would be a great boost for Capcom. I haven't bought a Capcom game in a long time, but Maximo 3 would be an automatic yes for me. The best parts of modern and classic gaming combined.

So I've been trying to compile a playlist of music that helps me concentrate and stay focused while I am working. I find stuff like soundtracks from Inception, TRON: Legacy, and Doctor Who very helpful in this regard, as well as the soundtrack from games like FEZ, Bastion, and Elder Scrolls. Because I listen to it while I am working, none of the these songs have lyrics, because they would distract me. Basically, what I'm asking for is suggestions for instrumental music that is similar to these: "Town 1" - Jeremy Soule - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The Killzone series has amazing music, especially the third (and most recent) installment. Where most games go for moody, heightened tension a la Inception or other recent blockbuster movies, Killzone is just balls-to-the-wall brass and timpani like a super-evil Star Wars score.

This. I didn't even plan to have a costume until last night i was invited to a costume party. I already have a sonic screwdriver, so I'll just throw on a suit and some sneakers and go as the Tenth Doctor.

No one should be worried about TV resolution yet. Very, very few console games as of now run in 1080p. Most display either entirely in 720p with anti-aliasing, or run 720p and below on polygons and 1080p on billboard such as HUDs. It will be a while before consoles will bump their graphics beyond 1080p, between the cost of the hardware and that fact that no TV displays over 1080p. Final Fantasy XIII runs in 720p on PS3 and runs in 576p on Xbox 360 with the HUD displayed at 720p. Both use anti-aliasing and unless you have a really (42+ inch) big TV, you can't really tell the difference.

Bastion's mix of country/western twang and electronic beats is a masterpiece. Every song drips with futuristic cowboy imagery. And while it's not terribly innovative or memorable, I never tire of the FEZ soundtrack. Downsampled/bitcrushed pads and synths with excellent melodies evokes a nice mix of retro game music and modern atmospheric soundtracks simultaneously. I'll also throw in a vote for any of the LittleBig Planet games. Even though less than half of the songs are original compositions, the soundtracks always have great variety and song choice.

The voices are just a little too uncanny valley for me. Freaky...