1 Hour Review: Earth Defense Force 2017

So far, my favorite thing about this game is that I've been given access to a new weapon created in 2008. The current year is 2017. You see where the humor lay.

This game is the most pitiful game I've ever seen. It truly belongs on an Xbox or PS2. Or GameCube. Or a web browser. But for some reason, some really strange reason, getting access to big guns that never run out of ammo and shooting ants the size of tour buses is amusing in a Space Invaders meets 4th of July fireworks kind of way.

I look and saw that the game has 6 achievements: 1 for each difficulty level and one for collecting all the weapons. I've been playing for almost an hour and I'm halfway through the normal difficulty. It's a short, unimaginitive (all the levels are in the same city setting) and poorly programmed. But hell if it's not playable, loud, and mindless.

And that IS why we play games, right?

So I'm going to enjoy this $13 purchase for the time being.

Intrinsic Values: Zen Moments

Playing video games is sometimes relaxing. It's a de-stresser. Takes your mind off your worldly, corporeal drama. But with some games you can achieve a higher state of gaming.

I was playing Forza Motorsports 2 last night and was just having a heck of a time tuning a car to suit a set of races. It was constant starting a race, losing control of the car, quitting and retuning. It took about a half hour of work to figure out what was wrong with the car to get it running right. A pretty taxing task.

Then I went in for one more race. Surprisingly, the car was hitting the corners just right. I caught up to 1st place and passed him in a few turns. Then it was me, out in front, the competition eating my dust. I had 8 laps to go around the winding course.

After the first few laps, I realized I wasn't tense anymore. At first I was fighting the turns, learning the break points and acceleration points, but now they were programmed into my fingers. The visual check points for breaking and accelerating were almost automatically transposed by my fingers. I was on auto pilot, increasing my lead, soothed by the sounds of the car's engine and the wheels on the pavement. I barely had to think to stop from over accelerating or breaking to stop the squealing tires. It was a pure zen moment.

Not many games can do this. I would maybe imagine a baseball game, where you knew all your players movements and could hit any ball the pitcher threw. Or maybe a puzzle game, where you could see 5 moves ahead of your computer player. I know I've done that in Hexic many times.

Games can be violent and exciting. They can cause you to throw a controller across the room. But they can also relax you so much you could hear your own heartbeat.

More on Black Zombies

Last week I posted about Kym Platt and what she thought about a game with black zombies and a white protagonist (the yet-to-be-released game, Resident Evil 5).

It seems the gamer community has struck back. And she didn't take it well.

As it turns out, Kym isn't even calling ownership on the original article, but a response to another, white author's article on the matter. There is no mention of any other article by this other author in her original post.

What the point is though, is that Kym thinks people will see the game as racist. Is racism still living in the country? Sure. Are some gamers racist? Quite possibly. Is bringing up the issue helpful? Who knows.

Are gamer tired of people stepping in a criticizing their hobby of choice? Most definetly.

Personally, I wish for the days when Sears published video games and my mom left me alone in the living room to find another Fire Flower.

White Man vs Black Zombies = Racism?

An article on Kotaku brings up a piece written on Black Looks, a blog catering to black women.

Resident Evil 5 is set in Africa. One of the RE universe's characters is there for some reason and runs into a horde of zombies, who are correctly black skinned. Kym Platt, the blogger, says...

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

Let's see here...

• Why is "Black" capitalized and not "white"?
• Where does the game say black people are inhuman savages. This isn't Resident African. It's Resident Evil. A game about zombies.
• All 13 games in the series have been white zombies killed by white men and women. If anything, you should be pissed you weren't included a long time ago.
  
• The game is rated M (for mature). No kids are playing this game unless you buy it for them. Oh that's right, you don't have any.
• You don't consider yourself "Black"
  
• Your damn right. I better be afraid and hate and want to destroy black zombies. Just as much as yellow zombies and brown zombies. Zombies suck. Really.
  
• If I lived in a world where zombies existed, we would preach this game to children. I would personally show my son or daughter how to pop a zombies head off with shotgun.
• If Chris Redfield was a black Chris Redfield, would you have written your blog?

I guess I enjoy opinions as much as she does. But if we go around making games about non-descript people in non-descript areas of the world, what does that mean?

Also try to remember, white people didn't make this game, Japanese people did.

13-Year-Old Gamer Stabs Brother to Death

This happened a few days ago, but news has surfaced that the boys were playing a sports game.

Another sad story. Could parents have stopped them? How did they get the knife? Is their dad in the NKCA?

The only good thing about this is that this is another case of gamer violence that can't be stereotyped by the violence that's in the games we play.

Of course, now the question is were the two brothers playing Madden football or Top Spin tennis.

Oh..right...there was that Monica Seles thing...

Games and Violence and Parenting

I have a hard time dealing with people who say video games turn people in to killers. This six part series deals with everything from the consistency of ESRB rating system to Columbine HS.

It's actually very informational and thankfully everyone in the video has common sense to realize that all media can influence violent behavior but are usually the least of the psychological problems in a violent person.

The best point that they make is that children try to emulate everything they hear, see, and read. Addiction was the subject they seemed most worried about, but they continue by saying that addiction to anything is bad.

Unfairly pointing out video games as an enabler is ludicrous. And creating legislation that breaks the First Amendment is even worse.

And I love the mother in the videos. Too bad all parents aren't like her. She's brilliant.

Here's the last video in the series.