Monday, August 11, 2014

Gaming Round-Up: August 11, 2014

For God and Country - BioShock Infinite concept art by Jorge Lacera, who has spent the last six years at Irrational Games

"For God and Country" by Irrational Games' Jorge Lacera
BioShock Infinite concept art

Event: Online education site edX has announced the upcoming Introduction To Game Design, a practical introduction to game design and game design concepts.  The course launches October 22nd.

Interview: Twitch CEO Emmett Shear recently did a Reddit AMA.  He admitted in the session that games getting muted for in-game music has been a bug and a mistake, and that they are working on it.

Interview: VideoGameTourism talks in-game photography with Casey T. Brooks

News: According to a new study by Flurry, Women are Spending More Time and Money on Mobile Games.

News: Capcom is launching a new remake of the original Resident Evil for PC, Xbox 360/One, and PS3/4. The remake reportedly controls a new, optimized control scheme that will introduce an element of modernity to the gaming classic.  I can't wait to see if this game is as scary as I remember.

Review: The Last of Us Remastered is an amazing PS4 game for gamers who’ve never experienced its beautiful apocalypse, but it sounds like those of us who played the PS3 version won’t miss too much by holding onto our last-gen copies.

Blizzard Entertainment, of World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo (among others) fame, recently released this recruiting video to bring in new hires for their many projects. Whether you like their games or not, I can’t imagine any gamer watching this and not getting all gushy about wanting to be part of the industry.

Eurogamer tells the story of the 26 years it took Brian Fargo to bring Wasteland 2 into existence. In the same thread of business-side stories, Polygon breaks down the costs of operating an indie studio in both financial and emotional terms.

At First Person Scholar, Steve Wilcox has written an excellent article on Videogames and Empathy, arguing that "Games are inherently about developing empathy towards one another. This begins by thinking of games in the same way that others have thought about art in general: as a means of training the imagination to create new contexts in which to discover new knowledge."  In a prime example of Wilcox's argument,  Asi Burbak discusses how developing Peacemaker forever changed how he thought about the Isreal-Palestine conflict.

Justin Keverne of Sneaky Bastards has written an in-depth analysis of Thief so incredibly detailed that it takes nearly as long to read as it does to finish the game.

Pop Matters discusses propaganda in Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag.

So good it was promoted by the game's director, this trailer for The Last of Us Remastered was made in photo mode by Grant Voegtle. (Spoilers)

Tami Sigmund examines the belief among casual players that once you pay for a game it ceases to be a game.

Tom Francis explains How I Would Have Ended BioShock

Unwinnable's Solon Scott holds up Zoya Street’s Delay: Paying Attention to Energy Mechanics as an example of how marathoning games like Civilization demand players pay a physical and psychological cost to keep pace while casual games like Candy Crush and Farmville are specifically designed to encourage players to take breaks from the game.

"When I saw Snowpiercer, I thought, they’re working. I’ve never seen a movie be more like a video game and work. Everyone I knew called it "BioShock on a train", which is good shorthand, because it means you know you can expect an apocalyptic dystopia, with class struggles drawn grotesque, confined to a failing industrial space. Boom! Video games' language is useful!"


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