November Video Game News Highlights
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Nechrol
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Now that we’re truly out of the gaming woods until late January we finally have the time to catch up on all the games that we’ve doled out our precious money on. Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Uncharted 3 and of course Skyrim, were perhaps the biggest hitters, racking up huge opening day sales that would turn Hollywood green with envy.
So before Christmas rears its bright lights and you have a psychotic episode after over exposure to yuletide anthems while trying to find the perfect gift, let’s take a quick recap of November.
Fus-Ro-Da
It is, of course the (already) much parodied line for Bethesda’s Skyrim, many aspects from the game memetically mutating into gamers’ consciousness after a relatively short time. The game is a serious GOTY contender and the consensus seems to agree, most notably, Japanese heavyweight publication Famitsu bestowing it a perfect 40/40, a feat rarely seen.
What trumps other releases of this November is that Skyrim has the ability to create a unique experience with each of its players. Around the interwebs you’ll find countless tales of people’s experiences, highlighting the level of detail and minutia that’s crammed into the land.
Let us not forget the bugs that have popped up as well, one interesting experience I endured involved my horse Shadowmere surmounting a giant mountain with no regard to the laws of physics. Somehow, Skyrim’s internal Deus-ex-machina kicked in, and the gods, angered at my blasphemy, stuck my horse’s body in the side of said mountain with my avatar still very much in the saddle. Then, after a few awkward seconds, catapulted Shadowmere, and myself over the verdant landscape to crash into the side of another mountain. I was not sure whether to throw my controller at the screen or bow down to whichever daedric god performed the act.
Grand Theft Auto V
Rockstar made a somewhat surprise announcement with their trailer for the new GTA and within a few days of the candid video speculation ignited like a pyromaniac on a drunken rampage in a match factory. And to their credit, Rockstar packed the trailer with their mix of satire and hidden details that had people scouring the frames like overzealous stalkers.
The game returns to Los Santos, the PS2’s ultimate incarnation, which is still held in regard as the best entrant in the series. There’s been speculation of numerous protagonists in GTA V which sets its sights on the recent economic instabilities. Hopefully, this means that the various bowling alleys featured in the last game have shut down and burned to the ground, quashing any notions that the protagonist’s friends would want to ruin your day by knocking some pins down.
Online games hope to find aids cure
After a bunch of gamers deciphered the molecular structure of an enzyme that is responsible for the spread of AIDS in rhesus monkeys, The University of Washington introduced a collaborative game to create a human “supercomputer” that could uncover these protein structures more quickly.
The technique is essentially the same as asking someone else’s perspective on a problem, the solution often blocked out of minds by being unable to see the “forest for the trees.”
In the spirit of including gamers as unconventional methods of problem solving, I propose we also open various other facets of our society.
• Recruiting elite Risk/Command and Conquer players to help in various overseas wars.
• Hiring a farm of Sim City/The Sims players to solve our global debt and economic crises.
• Pokemon/Animal crossing players to help protect our dwindling wildlife population.
• Taking the 12 year olds that verbally assault me when playing MW3 and putting them into government to make party political broadcasts more entertaining.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
While the rest of us are quite starved now for our next gen J-RPG fix, this new FF trailer should hopefully act as the beacon glimmering on the horizon.
I’m not the only gamer who felt let down by the last game, which appeared to awkwardly shape itself into something Square-Enix thought we wanted. The story itself wasn’t too bad, and I feel a strange indifference toward the androgynous leads present in FF games, but the worse part of it had to be the games linearity. It was as if the whole experience was condensed and the game continually prodded me in the back for several hours down gunmetal corridors. Then when the hint of an open world environment appeared, it was designed in such a way as if the developers had caved to a small child’s demands. They didn’t allow him to have the largest sandbox, just one big enough so that he could take at least two steps forward before falling out.
I am optimistic for XII-2, it really needs to be an improvement and sustain me like some woodland creature until SE finally decides to release VS-XIII. There’s only so long I can stare at White Knight Chronicles 2’s case before slotting it in my PS3 like a junkie and obtaining my fix for a couple of hours before feeling like I’ve soiled myself.
In reflection, the past month has been one of the busiest and most interesting of the past gaming year. Many companies have released their franchise swansong and left us wondering if the new IPs they’re developing will be able to contend and improve on their past offerings.
Personally, I think it’s a good thing, the largest argument for the release of the trilogy games this year is that despite their obvious quality, we’re not witnessing a great leap forward in game mechanics and innovative ideas. There is only so long you can trick out your metaphorical motor vehicle before it eventually becomes so weighed down it drives like a sloth on muscle relaxants and handles like a drunk manically piloting a shopping cart through a Black Friday sale.
But not to worry, the holidays are coming, and we’ll be too comatose from the amount of carbs we’ve shuffled into our mouths to worry about new releases and the impending end of the world.