Putting a key developer's photo on the back of a box would be a HUGE step forward for the games industry- it's easier for the general public to think of games as art if we think of game-makers as artists. What's the difference between a film snob and a game snob, other than the choice of medium? A game snob rarely watches the credits.

ComputHer? I barely even know her.

Naw, my biggest pet peeve is cutscenes that are TOO easy to skip over. I never got a chance to see the cinema scene in Prince of Persia: sands of time where the whole story up until that point is (SPOILER) revealed to be flashback or whatever because I assumed after saving and quitting that it'd pick up right where I left off, i.e. the cutscene that followed entering that save point. But no, I turned the game on the next time and found myself dropped right into the final boss fight with farah alive and no idea why I was there or why I was dressed differently or anything. And I've never seen that cinematic, only piecing together the biggest twist of the game from the end credits. (watches on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlEfcKDsp5o&feature=related) okay, that makes things make much more sense. Wish I hadn't missed that at the time though. Other offenders: Guitar Hero III, Re5 (though the latter's scenes aren't as disappointing to miss...)

The angriest I've been in recent memory has got to be Wesker in RE5. Oh, a QTE is the only way to finish him off, you say? Shooting that big pulsating weakspot on his chest and back won't be enough? Even though he screams in pain every time you do it? Oh, so you can't unload a small army's worth of ammo into said weakspot until you are left with only a knife to finish the job? So you can't keep knifing him in the back as he hopelessly fails to do even an iota of damage to you or your partner?

NO. You can shoot him three times with an upgraded pistol and then press a bunch of button prompts to stab him in the chest with the same knife you were just stabbing him in the chest with. Fuck you and your rocket launcher. I spent two hours in an endless knife fight with Wesker only to let myself die, restart and take him down in one and a half minutes. And then I got to see the stupid-as-all-hell ending cutscene to top it off. I'm still not quite over that.

You know, I kind of got the feeling that when Valve was making the original L4D, it was just a way to blow off steam in between Half-life episodes, you know? Like, "well, we've got this huge, sweeping epic on our hands, but fuck it, let's just have a stupid good time killing some zombies too, because we can." Valve is clever-- they presented the original L4D as a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek jab at the zombie genre, heavy on action and light on everything else. And the original L4D is just that--stupid giddy fun, not to be taken as anything deeper than perhaps a loving homage to pulp fiction.

So... when they start treating L4D as a headlining franchise, releasing a me-too sequel before making the next Half-life episode, I get a weeeeee bit nervous. Surely a sequel for a series as well-known as Half-Life has got to be a reasonable financial bet, right? No need to play it safe with low-cost sequels just yet, right? Now, I know developers work on multiple games at a time, so if they're working on another Half Life episode and don't want to show it yet at E3, then I'm okay with that. I'm also okay with the idea that L4D2 is a way of making some easy money to put towards HL3. Okay, cool. I'm on board.

Valve's got a good track record for delivering the good stuff in time, so I think it's too early to be calling them names. Still, in light of the 2009 E3 philosophy of "moar big sequels plz," it's easy to understand why Valve fans like myself aren't totally ecstatic about L4D2.

COUNT ME THE HELL IN.

I was drifting off right when Eric typed he was, too. Not the most engrossing speech, mr. iwata. But as I type this, the times may be a-changin'... 3d mario?

Whahahahahaha!!! Absolutely amazing.

Nice video! I always had trouble imagining small little faith being able to smash through huge panes of glass in Mirror's edge. With her bare little arm! Makes me cringe a little to think of the cuts she must get...

conman, I think you nailed it. All I could think about during this trailer was how similar this all was to RE4. Now I'm beginning to wonder if the radio conversations between the Joker and Batman will have a similar feel. (I sent my right hand after you, Mr. Kennnedddyyy!)

nice syncing!

absolutely brilliant.

It's almost as if in the guard in the first picture caught Faith's punch, causing her to open her eyes in terror. And turn her on too, I guess.

I was a big fan of both Aika and Fina from Skies of Arcadia--I remembered reading in the Official Dreamcast magazine's preview for the game that there was going to be some serious love-triangle action there. Didn't pan out, I guess.
No, but that wasn't my FIRST gaming crush. That honor is bestowed on Captain Syrup from the first Wario Land game on the original Gameboy. You fight your way through the castle of traps to find her supine on a bed waiting for you, all come-hither-like. But before you have time to utter a witty come-on line, she jumps off the bed, rubs a magic lamp, and summons an evil genie to kick your ass. That genie is a F****** cockblocker, man. Though I suppose it's for the best: would we really want to see Miss Syrup get it on... With Wario?! Guess not.

Ahh, or there's my favorite from Beyond Good and Evil: all your items are "digitized" by Jade's satchel-thing so she can use whatever device she wants whenever she wants and not get bogged down. Watching a pearl the size of one's head get disintegrated Matrix-style is one thing, but if you can send objects over the internet, why need a boat? (Not to mention, how much power would you have if you were a Hylian hacker?!)

You know, I think my favorite soundtrack of all time (second maybe to JGR/JSRF) is actually the soundtrack to Sonic Advance on the GBA. The track for 2-1 is just fantastic for a handheld, and the piano solo in stage 1 of the casino world was one of the first solos I ever transcribed. I've always had a soft spot for the music of sonic games; even the overly synthy, cheesy stuff they put in the 3-d sonics. I did a tribute to Sonic Team's ridiculously synth-heavy music here, by the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grubX3aOiTg
Apart from that, I liked GX's soundtrack a lot, as well as (of course) the mega man II soundtrack. I'll occasionally put on the soundtrack to Bust-a-groove II if I think nobody's around to hear it-- couldn't help but like Kelly's and Bi-O's tunes, weird as they are. Also, the soundtrack for Donkey Kong Country 2 was waaaay better than the (admittedly pretty good) stuff in DKC. Bramble forest? Classic.

Killer 7's spoiler was off, but whatever. It's understandable messing that one up, as confusing as the game is. But still- when I got to the actual ending of that game (the first one, not the second or third ones) my mind was blown. I won't spoil it here, though. I'm not EEEVVIILL.

Didn't Eternal Darkness have an invisibility spell? And I seem to remember some sneaking about in Chrono Trigger (the prison) and certainly there are stealth elements in Mirror's Edge. Heck, Mario 64 even had stealth to some degree: he could sneak up on sleeping piranha plants or turn invisible to evade enemies with the vanish cap. So..... there!

Wow, really? I'm suprised to hear no mention of the protagonist from Bioshock. That guy hits the sauce hard, you know? And he shakes off two bottles of bourbon in seconds. What a stud. Would you kindly include him next time? :)

Great article, made me think. Here's what I came up with:

The thing is, to compensate for all their lack of traditional scares, games have one ace in the hole that other forms of media don't: you can, and will, lose. You can't watch a movie and have your actions cause the death of a character- there's a far different feeling you get when watching a movie when you know someone is about to be killed than when you're in a game and you directly control the "life" or death of your character based on your decisions and your decisions alone.

Playing good games causes many people far more anxiety than watching a movie, because there's no guarantee that death isn't going to come at a completely random time, without any prep or dramatic build. Which is far scarier, if you think about it, because it better resembles reality. You could die at any time, any place, not just when it was the "right" time. No dramatic final scream, no blade lifting, just you, the chainsaw, a horrific animation of your lifeless head bouncing on the ground, a shower of gore, and a big fat "YOU ARE DEAD" to look at. And it's nobody's fault but yours. Pretty unsettling, isn't it? RE4's deaths were horrible enough for me to want to avoid them, and it was freakin' scary when I failed and had no one to blame but my shitty aim. That scared me good. Pause or no pause.