Voidoid

I don't like dual-wielding, of guns or melee-weapons. I have a hard time articulating why though. It just seems like a fighting style that would not be very practical or effective in reality I guess. I especially dislike D&D type rules were if you have a weapon in each hand you can attack twice as often, which just seems like such childish schoolyard logic to me.

Imagine a world where mainstream shooters were allowed to have cool box art like that top down one with the czech hedgehogs. No doubt the final box art will be a G.I. walking away from an explosion with a tommygun but it's fun to dream.

@saddlebrown: That's probably a good choice since the DS ones don't emulate that well. I'm not sure if any of the technical skills you can learn from Pokémon can really translate to Abzu or any non-RPG. However, if she develops a fluency with a simple game like that I suppose it will give her confidence in her ability to be competent at a game, which when I think about it is probably the first thing you need. Just don't forget to teach her how to save the game!

I'm not sure starting her off with retro games like the old mario stuff is the right call. The way I see it there are two possible reasons a person might enjoy such (technologically) antiquated games: 1) They played them when they first came out and were state of the art or 2) they are familiar with modern games and can thus appreciate the historical significance of early influential games.

If the endgame is, as you imply, giving her the requisite skills to play modern input-heavy games like COD and access to consoles and platforms were not an issue I would recommend starting with 3D platformers. Sidescrolling platformers are a different skillset that won't help that much in getting into contemporary 3D games. Furthermore I would avoid the earliest ones like Mario 64, which are actually pretty challenging, in favour of later kid-friendly western ones like Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie.

If on the other hand the idea is to give her a historical overview of gaming, as implied by the phrase Video Games 101, I'm all for starting with Super Mario Bros.

Depends on what you mean by support. Making a 2D game using preexisting assets and code would take negligible resources in terms of capital and man-hours for a major business, so it wouldn't meaningfully divert effort away from its larger game development. I'm assuming we are talking a very limited run of manufacturing here. Even despite this there's no way it would be profitable, especially taking opportunity cost into account, so this would effectively be a marketing stunt in support of the company's current gen offerings, and as hearts and minds campaigns go I suppose this is one that would make me pay attention.

If your question is whether I would be more interested in a game that said Super Metroid 2 and Nintendo on the box than a non-copyright-infringing indie spiritual sequel a la Axiom Verge then I would have to say no. I am a fan of games and not IP. It's an interesting discussion though.

I often feel there's a lack of understanding of the differences between the PC and console experience that leads to a lot of miscommunication. 720p still looks fine on a 720p TV, but on a computer monitor with a higher native resolution it looks muddy and bad, and I think anyone who saw it would agree. Controlling a 30fps game with a mouse is a struggle at best and disorienting or nauseating at worst. Using a control stick your aim or camera control will be less precise regardless, so 30fps doesn't hold you back as much. Bad framerate and resolution becomes even worse when you sit at a desk with your face right up on the screen as most PC players do.

In short, a comfortable PC experience demands better performance than a comfortable console experience. Thus PC gamers who avoid low performance games are not necessarily elitist and console gamers don't necessarily have lower standards. Let's all love each other.

I've always wondered if people are simply misremembering the Black Ops campaign as being good because the multiplayer was so cool. To me it was one of the weakest campaigns of the series; even Modern Warfare 3 for all its creative bankruptcy had smarter level design and more varied objectives. The sixties spy theme could have been so cool but the team showed no interest in capturing the esthetics and technology of the era or the dynamics of its historical conflicts. The whole thing felt utterly loveless. Blops II did the historical thing way better.

At the start of the demo Kratos said something like "She taught you to hunt, right?" suggesting the kid's mother raised him alone up until that point. This woman will almost certainly die in some spectacular setpiece early in the game, prompting Kratos to suddenly take responsibility because the story calls for it, and move to viking-land to teach the boy so he can get vengeance on Loki or whatever big bad killed his mom.

Jeff is the Gary Busey of the Zulus.

Alright, no locations and nothing immediately video game- or CBS-focused, though I don't know if using categories is legal.

1. Blank-Fest
2. Misfits (band)
3. Alternative rock
4. The White Stripes
5. Category:American musical duos
6. Buckner & Garcia
7. Giant Bomb