Gaming Round-Up: August 25, 2014

Legend of Zelda Speed-Painting by StressCavity

Via: Imgur via Reddit via Kotaku

News: California city repeals longstanding ban on ... playing pinball?

News: Women Now Make Up Almost Half of Gamers, according to ESA research.

7 games that left an impact on video games forever

Charlie Brooker writes about keeping his child occupied by stuffing Trials into his hands, and the  consequences that follow. Funny as always.  "I caved in immediately and, illustrating everything that’s wrong with human progress, found myself spending real money on non-existent petrol for a non-existent motorbike in a desperate bid to appease an infant. Spending money to shut him up felt transgressive and undignified – but worse still, I was literally fuelling his addiction."

To compare how zombies have changed, take a look at Reid McCarter’s analysis of The Last of Us as a conflict between “the Apollonian virtues [of Joel] (logic, individuality, denial) and Ellie the Dionysian (chaos, universality, acceptance).”  This is my favorite article of the week.

At Forbes, Erik Kain protests in irritation that Game Makers Should Quit Spoiling Video Games Before They're Released.  Specifically, he complains about the full hour of Evil Within gameplay footage recently released by Betheda.

In honor of FXX's massive marathon, Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard offers us a list of Every Simpsons Video Game Ever. Personally, I have very fond memories of The Simpsons Arcade Game, the single best cartoon-themed arcade cabinet ever, but Cinema Blend think The Simpsons Deserves Another Great Video Game.

Killing The Games Industry, a talk by Ste Curran delivered at the Nordic Game festival.  It's about an hour of the speaker reading his notes.  TL;DR: Nothing is killing the games industry. The attitude that something must be killing it is just one of the many things that might have been killing it, but really didn't.

Kotaku summarizes some recent studies in a compilation on What Psychologists Are Saying About Video Games.  The tangle makes me grateful that I'm not a parent yet.

Paste counts down the 8 Greatest World of Warcraft Dungeons and Raids

At Paste, Maddy Myers reflects on the pre-9/11 anxieties represented in the original Reisdent Evil along with what would now be considered its genre-defying message of cooperation, “Most strikingly, however, the original Resident Evil differs from post-90s-era zombie videogames because it does not have a libertarian message.”

At Screen Robot, Ewan Moore wonders Why can’t Link be a girl? A female protagonist in The Legend of Zelda would be a great idea, and a much needed step forward for the industry.

Technology Tell laments that Video Games have lost their charm: "For all of the advancements in technology, there’s one thing that many current games seem to be missing. It can be hard to place what that is because gaming, much like other forms of entertainment, is completely subjective."

At Wired, Laura Hudson waxes nostalgic over Sierra adventure games of the eighties, explaining how they changed her life, beginning with the classic King's Quest.

Writing for the New York Times, Chris Suellentrop salutes the underappreciated women videogame pioneers, and discusses the need for exhibitions which celebrate their work.