Author's Note: I usually try to avoid these kinds of situations, since from what I can see they come and go on the forums and rarely result in anything being resolved, but this time I felt it important that I have my say, even if no one cares to read it. 
 

Anyone looking to get into journalism of any kind should spend a year on the internet. Why? Because the internet is one of the most savage trial-by-fire lessons in journalistic ethics and integrity that an aspiring writer can put themselves through. Whether you write about world events, video games or your cat's most recent bowel movement, make no mistake that should you benefit from any kind of readership at all, there is someone out there fact-checking your every syllable. I still hover over the “post” button for just a second longer than I should when posting a blog, and I’d like to think that I’ve become fairly ingrained here since my first post one year, one month ago. 

 
Even in my short time here there have been dramatic and sweeping changes, as should be expected from a young website I suppose. Users have come and gone, (some departures more public than others) the site has been formatted and reformatted, features endlessly removed or replaced and of course the staff has continued to provide its community with stellar multimedia content all along. But it hasn’t all been easy. 
 

 Recently there has been some turmoil around the forums because every few months some brave, foolhardy soul decides to plumb the depths of our forum’s deepest, darkest criticism by expressing displeasure at the current format/features of the forum. Swiftly and inevitably ride the shining knights of Giant Bomb to bash and stomp the thread into oblivion, of one mind and purpose. Threat dealt with, evil exposed, they return to Mt. Complacent, confident that the forums are safe once more.

 
And that’s fucked.

 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to tell you that your pride in what Giant Bomb’s staff and community have accomplished is misplaced, because its not. However, it is misguided. Let me explain by example of recent events. 
 

Now, he won’t like me mentioning this, but we all know British people can’t read anyway, so I’m going to come right out and say it: Sweep, a (dare I say beloved?) blogger on Giant Bomb whose work has been nigh-universally praised by the community since launch and whom I have immense personal respect for recently wrote a few blogs that ended up becoming a healthy critique on the current state of Giant Bomb. The posts were fleshed out, detailed and reasonable. I couldn’t read anything that seemed like a deliberate and/or serious attack on GB’s staff or community throughout, and I challenge anyone to bring something forward in the comments. 

 
Unfortunately, despite Sweep’s diplomacy, the response that he was met with was often all but “reasonable” and anything but productive. Worse, the community then began to fold in on itself as those who could see the post for what it was leapt to Sweep's defense, an honorable if futile act. The debate then raged on, everyone so busy arguing Sweep’s character that ultimately sight was lost of the true intent of his blogs, which is where this all comes to a head: 
 

Community members that thoughtfully critique features or trends on the site and offer solutions to the problems that naturally arise with those things are to be commended, because those are the people taking the time out of their day to try to think of ways to improve the average user’s experience: that is to say, your experience and my experience and his experience and her experience.

 
So, unless we have further input on how to make this little ship we’re all floatin’ on run a little tighter, we should probably shut our goddamn mouths about it. Maybe then those who do can be heard.

 
Thanks for reading,
End_Boss.

Dante’s Inferno is "not being offered" to Middle Eastern consumers by publisher/developer EA.
 
Surprised? No? Neither was After all, the game has you marching against the legions of a decidedly Christian Hell as an undeniably Christian Crusader, and presumably climaxes in a fight to the death with Beelzebub himself (sorry if I just spoiled it for you). In an area so steeped in tradition, Dante’s Inferno would be a lightning rod for public outcry.
 
What is interesting however, is the way that the industry has responded to political and social criticism as it rapidly becomes the highest-grossing entertainment medium in the world. For example, extreme violence has been present and largely accepted (but for a small, if vocal minority) in games for years, but romantic relationships have only been touched on superficially and by a handful of developers.

 
The industry isn’t entirely devoid of those willing to cross the line, however. The announcement of developer Atomic’s “Six Days in Fallujah,” a fictionalized retelling of violence in Iraq, was met with harsh criticism from both the press and the public; the game promised a "survival-horror experience" staged in modern-day Fallujah, a city with an extraordinarily violent past in Iraq. Not long after its announcement, the game was canceled after Konami pulled the publishing plug due to the PR disaster and Atomic suffered crippling layoffs, with whatever remains of Six Days probably gathering dust in some guy’s desk.
 
When you think about it, it’s kind of unfortunate that video games were denied this opportunity out-of-hand. The Iraq war is still a touchy subject for many to say the least, but books and films have touched on it in the past to great acclaim, even as recently as Voltage Pictures’ “The Hurt Locker.” Many would blame video games’ exclusion from the proverbial party on account of their interactivity: it just isn’t the same when you have to pull the trigger yourself. Still, it would have been interesting to see if Atomic could have handled the subject material responsibly, and if they did, whether or not the public could admit it if it was any good, especially since games that feature approximations of combat in Iraq without having the stones to come out and admit what they’re going for remain hugely successful. And that’s today’s market for you.
 
I’m not sure if Six Days was the right way for video games to breach more somber and delicate material, but I do think the medium has earned the privilege to try and demonstrate that it has the intelligence and grace to be respectful of the subject matter while still providing a top-tier entertainment experience.
 
It seems that the industry’s growth is being stunted by standards established decades ago when the mentality was that games were just for kids, that they didn’t have the potential to offer anything but a quick bit of fun; and when operating under that mentality, I can see why there was such a negative reaction to Six Days. Unfortunately that state of mind isn’t valid anymore, but I don’t have to tell anyone here that. Luckily, Atomic wasn’t our only hope; Quantic Dream’s upcoming “Heavy Rain” may provide Joe Consumer a softer transition to more serious material later this year. Hopefully it does.
 
… Hopefully something does.
 
Thanks for reading,
End_Boss.

Well, that's it. Video games are officially serious business.

Last year, the film industry made approximately $10,800,428,340 dollars in box office revenue. The interactive entertainment industry made fifty-seven billion. At the same time, economies are struggling or outright collapsing worldwide. I firmly believe that we are all experiencing a unique moment in the industry’s history, one of those turning points that will be looked back upon if not fondly, then at least reverently in the future.

Individual genres within the medium have stopped standing head-and-shoulders above their predecessors’ accomplishments, and current hardware has ceased to shame any and all comers before it. A time is near when (and this may have already come to pass for many) the average gaming enthusiast won’t give a damn how many processors you can shove into a box.
 
So where do you go when you can’t go up?
 

We play games in a time when they’re refining themselves, when they’ve stopped searching for the “next big thing” and have started exploring previously established concepts, breaking them down to their base components, examining and reevaluating them.
 

An excellent example of this is the recently released Darksiders, a game that, while doing nothing terribly exciting with its narrative or characters, handily incorporates key elements from two extremely marriageable genres: puzzle platformers and combo-based hack-and-slash.
 

The two titles that are often mentioned in conjunction with Vigil Games’ latest are The Legend of Zelda series and the God of War series, and with good reason. Still, I feel like anything that can be said about the correlations between those games has been said already and probably by someone who said it better than I could, so I’ll just let that dog lie. My point in all of this is that, while it does very little to incorporate anything new into games, Darksiders still contributes to the medium via its experimentation with game play archetypes.

 
On the other end of the innovation spectrum we have Mass Effect 2. I don’t think I have to argue that the main draw to ME2 is the narrative: whether it lived up to expectations or not, it is undeniable that there was an almost hysterical sensitivity to spoilers around the forums during the weeks leading up to its release. It wasn’t just on Giant Bomb, either (though we certainly had our share); Kotaku and Demonoid both saw a strange mix of giddily excited threads and threads who’s only purpose was to rage incoherently about the number of spoilers the thread starter had been inadvertently “exposed to."
 

 
In the same way that Darksiders chooses the interactive side of the medium to focus on and excel at, Mass Effect 2 pursues the cinematic route. While the character development, story progression and pacing are all pretty spot-on and Bioware continues to expand upon their dialogue systems with the new interrupt feature, when talking about Mass Effect 2 in purely mechanical terms, it does little if anything that hasn’t been seen or done better in another game previously.
 
And that’s okay.
 

See, games have gotten to the point where I feel that the pressure to be “bigger, better and more badass” isn’t really present anymore, or at least not in the same way. Flavor and personality seem to be attaching themselves more and more to a title’s success both critically and commercially, as seen with the recently launched Star Trek Online. Jeff Gerstmann himself said that the game isn’t technically impressive and that it doesn’t do anything that he hasn’t seen in the MMO genre before, but that he’s willing to continue playing just so that it will continue to replicate the lights, sounds and feel of the Star Trek universe.
 

It’s no longer about being the best, most mechanically sound game, but the most interesting. No longer about originating ideas, but implementing them in a polished, sleek way. No longer about being the best third-person shooter out there, but about having that mechanic serve as a girder to support the stronger aspects of your game. No longer about doing what every MMO has done before you and more, but about the presentation of those familiar concepts and the context that they’re placed in.
 

It may not be 1998, but 2010 promises to be an interesting year for video games as they explore more and more of their potential. I for one am happy to be here to see it.
 
Thanks for reading,

End_Boss.

This blog was cooked and prepared with 100% spoiler-free ingredients.

 
This year, when Mass Effect 2 finally hit shelves, my reaction was much less subdued. Finally, the second chapter of the story was here. Finally, all of my hand-wringing and breath-holding had paid off. During the weeks leading up to ME2’s launch, I promised myself over and over again that I would go to the store and re-rent Mass Effect, just so that I would have a save file to carry over to the new game. Unfortunately I didn’t get off my ass to go and get it until the very day that Mass Effect 2 came out, and it was so hard to go back to the original with the sequel staring me in the face from across the room that I never did end up playing through the entire game. Thus I began my first play through of ME2 on a fresh save file.
 
It is now forty-some hours later and I must say, Mass Effect 2 does very little to disappoint. While there are certainly some minor nitpicks here and there and that signature Bioware jerkiness still rears its ugly head often enough that you never quite forget about it, the game does so much by way of improving upon its predecessor that these small things seem microscopic by comparison. The game is endlessly more fluid, with most of the jarring frame rate issues and texture pop-ins of yesteryear either absent entirely or masked by clever cinematography.

It’s not only the aesthetics of Shepard’s world that have received a makeover, however. Combat is now much more functional, though I feel that there’s still considerable room for improvement, particularly when sliding into and out of cover. There were too many times when my character would amble up to a chest-high wall (for they are always chest-high) whilst under withering enemy fire and proceed to fuck about, popping into and out of cover seemingly at random. Additionally, there are some severe faults in Mass Effect 2’s geometry design, as not once but twice (and in two separate locations) I fell through the floor into a game-breaking grey abyss below.
 
The only other real problem I have is something that I didn’t run into until I’d finished the game, mostly because I was too wrapped up in the main storyline and character backgrounds before that to notice: planet-scanning. It’s almost as if Bioware benevolently removed all of the boring, tedious Mako nonsense of the first game only to replace it with this monotonous exercise in index-finger strength. Essentially, when you “scan” a planet, you search it from orbit for valuable resources and/or anomalies via a reticule that you can pan around the surface, a kind of metal-detector-in-space. When your metal detector detects something, your controller will vibrate. The closer you get to locating your target, the stronger the vibration. If your controller’s vibration motors are broken and/or you like pretty lights, you could use the seismic graph they provide for you to stare at whilst scanning, but you’d probably be better off by just waiting for the rumble. Anyway, what the whole things boils down to is me cursing under my breath as I explore every star system that isn’t at 100% exploration just so I can find a star and one planet for me to hover over for five tedious minutes while I draw precious water from the stone by holding down the left trigger forever.
 
“Why the fuck haven’t you just stopped scanning?” I hear you ask. 
 
You’re right. It’s not an essential part of the game; I could go without doing it. But every so often, after I’ve been staring at the same planet for what seems like most of my natural life, I receive an additional ping on my scanner: these are invariably side quests that you can only discover by visiting a planet and scanning its surface. I understand the desire to have players explore your universe thoroughly, and the mini-bios provided on the planet you’re currently hovering over are a nice touch, but learning about the mineral content of every speck of dust in the galaxy is not something that Commander Shepard has time for.
 
As it was in the first game, Mass Effect 2’s real strength lies in the complexity of its characters and the even pacing of its narrative, both of which are in top form throughout. The crew of the Normandy is larger and more diverse than ever before, and the channels through which Shepard operates allow for more varied and checkered pasts. Though I’m pretty sure I’ll replay Mass Effect 2 several times in the future, having just checked the forums I know I’ll have to play it again at least once, if only to pick up a crew member that I missed the first time around. When put in the context of a 40-hour adventure and considering that it’s a rare game that I’ll ever finish, write about and replay, that says a lot about Bioware’s character design.
 
Well, another intergalactic threat has been dealt with; the human race is safe once more, and Bioware can rest easy knowing that they’ve provided yet another premium role playing experience, as well as an early candidate for 2010’s Game of the Year.
 
... But for how long?
 
Thanks for reading,
End_Boss.

Hey folks, just figured I'd post a blog to let anybody who might be following these know that I'm going to be out of commission for up to a month starting today. There are a lot of things I want to write about (alright I'll be honest, I just want to write about ME2 as the last two days have been an intense Mass Effect fever dream), but unfortunately I have to send my laptop off for some repairs/upgrades. Anyway, when I come back, look forward to a lengthy blog about Bioware's latest epic and some more coverage of STO's first days live. See you on the other side.
 
-End_Boss.
 
P.S. Maybe some stuff on Darksider's? We'll see.

This generation of consoles seems to emulate one another in some way or other more than any before, and Microsoft is looking to continue that tradition with a Home-like add-on to XBOX Live that allows subscribers to play old-school arcade games against friends in an avatar-supporting virtual arcade. I'm immediately skeptical of this because of my own brief experience with the soulless void that is Home, and the screenshots and videos don't necessarily do it any favors, but to Microsoft's credit, they seem to be taking some sort of real stab at this.
 
Keeping everything games-oriented instead of trying to create a virtual social scene might help give players a sense of purpose instead of the aimless wandering that Home inspired. Still, my inhibitions remain, especially when I see the haunting, eery eyes of the XBOX avatars.
 
Source.
 

WELCOME TO MY GOTY EXTRAVAGANZA. WE ARE OUT OF TEA.

MODERN WARFARE 2

To be honest, I only rented Modern Warfare 2. However, that did give me enough time to complete the rollicking campaign (which I was thoroughly impressed with, in a “summer blockbuster” kinda’ way) and become completely addicted to Infinity Ward’s carrot-on-a-stick multiplayer system. I will no doubt pick this game up eventually and enjoy it throughout 2010.

LEFT 4 DEAD 2

I really, really like zombies. I like games about zombies, movies about zombies, books about zombies... Hell, just about anything zombie-related. They fascinate me in a way that other horror archetypes just can’t. They can be terrifying, saddening or humorous, and are often all three at once. That said, I’ve played a lot of Left 4 Dead 2, and although I’m still playing it daily, I just can’t consider it game of the year material. I won’t say it’s unfortunate (because they’re both great games), but Left 4 Dead 2 is characterized in my mind the same way that Modern Warfare 2 is, in that they’re both obviously sequels. They’ve made enough tweaks, changes and improvements over their predecessors to be great games, but not enough for me to be as blown away by them as I’d need to be to give them a GOTY nod.

While these are my two definite runner-ups, I’d like to give Dragon Age an honorable mention. There were a few things that held Bioware’s latest offering back from this list, but I have to admit that the fine doctors put together a tasty piece of RPG (and a ballsy one at that, considering its old-school difficulty and playstyle). If you’ve stuck with me this far, my sincerest thanks. Finally, my game of the year is:
 

BORDERLANDS

 
Thanks for reading,
End_Boss.

The internet has been bubbling with rumors about the hinted-at PSN premium service. This article on Destructoid reveals some possible features of said service, including:
 

• One-hour game trials.
• Exclusive in-game content.
• Unrestricted access to the PSOne Classics and Minis store.
• Cross-game party chat a possibility.

Just read this article on Destructoid that tells of a strange virus that's spreading amongst the XBOX 360 Modern Warfare 2 community. The virus, which started as a mod for the PC version of MW2, constitutes of the player obtaining infinite grenades and ammunition (alongside weapons that never require reloading) and appears to infect its victims via "carrier" players who have caught it from another player (which has earned it some delightful comparisons to STDs).
 
As of now there is no cure for the bug, but Microsoft and Infinity Ward have both released assurances of their speedy progress on a solution as well as threatening those spreading the virus with permanent XBOX Live bans. Destructoid alludes to this being some kind of uprising by disgruntled MW2 PC players due to the decision by IW to axe dedicated servers, but I think this is simply a case of people on the internet being assholes. Again.

While the symptoms of this glitch may initially seem appealing to some, try to remember that a game isn't fun if it has no rules, especially if that game revolves around competition on a level playing field. With that in mind, you might want to steer clear of MW2's competitive online offering for the next few days while the issue is resolved. Hell, there's always Spec Ops with friends, right? 
 
Thanks for reading,
End Boss.

 I jumped back into Borderlands recently after a brief hiatus (after three full play-throughs the scenery can get a little stale) and started doing some quests in the Arid Badlands. Well, one of those quests ("Is T.K. OK?") asks you to check up on the blind hillbilly just outside of Fyrestone, T.K. Baha. The rest of this post will contain spoilers pertinent to said (minor) mission.