Textbook of Gaming

2011 was a stellar year for gaming, especially if you like action games. Batman: Arkham City received 10/10 ratings from numerous outlets; Skyrim released for the first time; Uncharted 3 , Gears 3 , Dead Space 2 , the list of critically acclaimed releases goes on and on. But there is one game that is missing from that previous paragraph, and I feel its exclusion is unjust, ironically. It’s a game that was praised for its ground breaking animation work, for bringing together such a wide range of game genres in such a stylish, atmospheric, and cohesive manner , and for its attention to detail. That game was L.A. Noire – a third person action adventure game set in the titular Californian city in the 1940s. The game comes from Team Bondi and Rockstar games, and like many of Rockstar’s other games, L.A. Noire is an open world affair. But instead of causing mayhem, the player is tasked with undoing it. They step into the shoes of Cole Phelps, an LAPD officer and former Marine, an...

In May 2013, a studio owned by a publisher received a rebranding. There’s nothing unusual about that, apart from maybe the renamed studio, which had just moved onto name number 4. You see, this studio had been making games since the 1990s, and was originally started by none other than the legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. It made some bold moves early on in its life, creating a franchise that had as much of an influence and impact on the first person shooter genre as Doom and Wolfenstein . It cemented World War II as the staple setting of shooters for a decade. In 2008 this franchise was recorded by Guinness as the world’s best-selling FPS series, but then it simply faded away into nothing. “So are you going to tell us what the hell you’re blathering on about?” I hear you asking, despite my love of being cryptic. Well, I’ll tell you now: ladies and gentlemen, this is the story of Medal of Honor . The History Part Medal of Honor started its life in 1998, in the hand...

I’ve bagged on Ubisoft’s inability to deal with the politics within its own games for, well, some time now. Swinging casually from utter ignorance to dangerous complicity, Ubisoft’s unique brand of open world adventures sell well but ultimately try to stay far away from making any point that might drive customers away. Apart from one of their newest and smallest franchises. So let’s talk about Watch_Dogs . Watch_Dogs was a wonderfully unique pitch back when it was first revealed in 2012; the incredible graphics, contextual heads up display, and the gameplay were like nothing gamers had seen before. Drawing influence from the emergent online hacker culture, DarkWeb sleaziness, and the way that people’s metadata was being collected and traded, Watch_Dogs promised to be a truly unique experience about a 21 st Century vigilante. Players step into the shoes and “iconic” hat of Aiden Pearce, a criminal hacker whose involvement in a hotel robbery not only gets his niece killed,...