Gamernode: Eddie Inzauto's Columns

An adolescent industry

The videogame industry is in it's adolescence, struggling to form an identity, to fit in, and to be accepted. I'm sure you've read something along those lines before, but it seems that the number of people who preach in favor of, and really work towards its growth are in the minority.

This is a difficult environment for us, the writers to operate in. We are always at risk of becoming disjointed and out of touch with our audience, because as we grow, our tastes mature. We become more mature, and in some cases, "jaded." Our experience shows itself, sometimes manipulating our words to cater only to those who are in the same late-stage fan-dom as ourselves. Are our tastes 'cultured'? Do we want more from our industry? Are we more ready for the next stage of development than others?

Yo...

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Top 10 most anticipated games (non-sequels) of 200...

The year 2007 was an incredible year for the videogame industry. I'd even be willing to go out on a limb and say that it was one of the best ever. Our year-end awards here at GamerNode weren't decided over tea and crumb cakes - it was more like acid-edged blades and baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire. There were even horses, and a man on fire. Kyle killed a guy (but let's just keep that between us).

Needless to say, 2007 had many great games, but 2008 may very well be set to top it. As a matter of fact, this article started as a list of just about 30 titles. I can't begin to tell you how much difficulty I faced trying to narrow it down to only a third of that, but I probably would never have completed the task without setting some requirements.

1) Unless the game has been distinctly...

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Tell me how...

This is an open letter to all videogame publishers. You see, I need your help. I've been having trouble lately formulating opinions and analyses of your products, and my reviews are suffering from a terrible case of truth and original thought.

Unfortunately, the other videogame websites I used to "borrow" my review scores and ideas from are apparently being frequented and subsequntly regurgitated by a plethora of other online publications. Rather than following the trend, and becoming a needle in a stack of needles, I have decided to seek an alternative method of producing my reviews.

I'm going straight to the source.

Publishers, please tell me how to review your games. Tell me not only what features, gameplay modes, options and the like are included (because I have trouble locating all ...

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That game is what?

I was having a bit of fun the other day looking up terms on Urbandictionary.com, and I decided it would make for an interesting column if I started looking up videogame terms to pass on to you, the GN faithful. Eventually, it just turned into "name a game and pick the most disparaging/humorous definition of said game" - which isn't really so bad.*

Here's what I found during my quest (entries left unedited for extra entertainment value - beware of extreme profanity):

Video games: 1 - The only thing that's fun to do anymore.

PS3:1 - sony playstation 3, it was released @ E3 2005, looks like a fridge door with dildos as controllers2 - An over priced George Foreman grill, enough heat and space to cook food for a 3rd world country plus it costs as much as a 3rd world country...

Wii:1 - Wii (pron...

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Helping games

You hear a lot about the horrors that our beloved interactive virtual experiences visit upon society – school shootings, curbside beatings, subway assaults, theft, breaking-and-entering, drug use, child abuse, domestic violence, teenage promiscuity, truancy...homosexuality (“god” says that's a no-no)...suicide...

Yup, videogames cause all of those, just in case you haven't noticed.

If you really haven't noticed, then you haven't been paying attention, because that's just about all the mainstream, american dream press the videogame industry gets nowadays. Games are described as “violent shooters” instead of “sci-fi action” or “violent gore-fests” rather than “survival horror.” The negativity seems nearly insuperable, but ...

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Semi-virtual relationships

I've been doing a bit of thinking lately, and one thing my mind has come to dwell on is the comparison between interpersonal relationships and the relationships that people develop with their videogames. Of course there are very very obvious differences between the two, but let's suppress our urges to discard the thought for just a moment.

Gamers love their games, and they love them for a variety of reasons. I won't go around making blanket statements about that, claiming one motivation over another, but what I will say is that some gamers find some degree of companionship with select synergistic experiences.

One way this can happen is through the characters in the story. Just like in any good book, the audience is meant to form a type of bond with the personalities they are presented...

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The Portal concept

Although the present gaming era is one of huge budgets and epic productions, there has been a sizable insurgency of simple yet fun gameplay-oriented titles.

These games are most readiily available via digital distribution avenues such as Xbox Live Arcade or the good old internet, and are most often created by small, independent developers.

Games such as these, which are rarely technical marvels, usually thrive on the strength of one or two key gameplay concepts, which are either completely fresh ideas or are purposefully pushed to their limits, squeezing as much raw gaming utopia out of them as possible.

A recently released retail "box" included a gaming experience much like these simple flash titles or thumbdrive-sized downloads, but also happened to be created by a big-name development st...

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Renaming the industry

"Videogames" are a form of art/entertainment that are still only in the equivalent of their toddler years. As such, the gaming industry has been met with varying degrees of neophobic reactionism not at all dissimilar to the earlier responses to television, rock n' roll, comics, heavy metal, certain genres of books, etc.

This, of course, is old news. I imagine that if you have been at all interested in "videogames" and have had access to the internet over the past decade, you've probably read this very sentiment hundreds of times before. Why? Why after so much attention has the issue not gone away?

I feel the mainstream perception of "videogames" has very much to do with the industry's origins as a child-focused endeaver, and even though the scope of the business has broadened widely since th...

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Is silence golden?

Throughout the years, I've become familiar with all manner of games, presented in a myriad of ways and told from many different perspectives. One particular method of delivering a gaming experience to the audience has always captured my attention, and that is through the use of the silent protagonist. At times, I feel this technique works perfectly, but on other occasions, it just doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

The silent protagonist was not always an intentional device. Back when gaming was young, and technology was...low, putting voices in videogames was barely an option to be considered. It wasn't until CD-based software that speech could be included on a grand scale. Now, the capacity of game media has grown so much that character voice-overs are a somewhat ubiquitous featu...

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If they were Halo

The massive anticipation is over. Halo 3 launch day has come and gone with great fanfare - big events, long lines, eager fans, master chief, etc. In the first 24-hour period alone, the game grossed over $170 million. To put that in terms of copies sold, it's roughly equivalent to more than 2.8 million. Of those, 1.7 million copies were pre-sold.

With Halo 3 riding high on the extreme marketing push made by Microsoft and Bungie, one has to wonder if it would have experienced such success without it. Moreso, it is interesting to ponder what games might have done just as well as Halo 3 had they received the same tender loving care from their respective marketing departments.

I have gone through a slew of recent releases, and come up with a pair of games that may very well have been this year's...

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Halo hype

It's funny when you think an alarm is set...but it's really not (really not set...and really not funny). Whatever, here's what I have to say this week...

I think this column will be the first of a two-part series (can I call it a "series" if there are only two parts?), but I won't be certain until I reach the midpoint, so read on...

Anyway, Halo 3 is almost upon us ("us" meaning those not named Brendon), and the anticipation for the title is at fever pitch. This game's fan following is built not only on the merits and successes of past Halo games, but also upon marketing and the highly influential, ever-present "hype engine."

The internet is actually an instrumental tool used to keep this machine well-oiled. In the past 10 days alone, GamerNode has run about seven or eight stories abou...

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Where Wii goin'?

I believe in the Wii. I have faith in the console, its technology, and the styles of play that are possible with the tools available to the gamer. There is so much potential in that little white box that has yet to be tapped into.

Just prior to launch, my vision for what the Wii had to offer the gaming world was as follows:

Total immersion. It's sort of a vague idea, but when I think of the Wii and it's input method, I am always seduced by the idea of the player's hands existing as permanent fixtures within the game world. One might think, "but doesn't that happen already in FPS on Wii?" Well, yes and no. The hands are always there, but their function is strictly limited. My idea is that the actions of the gamer are represented in a one-to-one fashion on-screen. Consider the following as an...

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Casual or Hardcore?

My apologies for the late update, but here it is:

The definition of the word "gamer" is pretty straightforward. It means, "one who plays games," usually referring to those of the audio/visual variety. Until recently, being a gamer meant that you were knee-deep in the industry, knew what games were coming, and had a good sense of what made a quality game. You probably owned two or more gaming systems and had a sizable collection of games. You were a gamer.

Nowadays, the term "gamer" is somewhat antiquated. Nowadays, a lot more people play videogames, but a lower and lower percentage of them fit the above description. Today's videogame market is divided into the "hardcore," who are essentially the "gamers" of yore, and the "casual." The casual gamer is an interesting type. They may sit online...

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Control freak

When you begin a new PC game, what is the first thing that you do? If your name is Eddie Inzauto, you immediately hit the options screen and configure your keyboard and mouse. You change the default "WASD" over to "ESDF" to allow your pinky finger access to more commands; you make sure jumping and crouching oppose each other - one on keyboard, one on mouse; you basically set thing up so that they are comfortable for YOUR style of play.

A major flaw in the design of console games has persisted for ages, and for the most part has been completely overlooked, as if it was not a flaw at all. If a gamer picks up a copy of Timesplitters 2 and goes through the usual motions of controller configuration, he will realize that the issue is actually glaring, but us gamers mostly wear darkly tinted glass...

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Tell me a story...

...but don't tell me you're telling it.

Videogames, more often than not, tell us stories. These range from the simplistic "rescue the princess" sort of narrative to much more convoluted plots, chock-full of twists and surprises. Not every game strives to tell an epic tale, and some obviously do a better job than others at keeping gamers interested.

Almost as important as what a story entails, though, is how exactly the game goes about presenting it. Is it really enough to have an incredibly storyline if the mechanism by which it is delivered to the player is inherently flawed or unexciting? Would you want to play a game where the main character sits and listens as his local librarian reads a novel out loud? I wouldn't.

Participation is key. Sitting idly by as the storyline is narrated is u...

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Why I love towns

I've been playing video games for a long time. I've played all sorts of games, from Super Mario Bros to Bejeweled to next week's mega-release, Bioshock. I even rocked a little bit of the mildly creepy Astro Grover for the NES (what is it about that game that always bugged me out as a child?). I've been around the proverbial block, as games go, and I guess one could say that I know the ins and outs of most of the genres out there. By now, I've even managed to formulate a pretty solid set of understandings and opinions about each one.

One type of game, however, has vexed me throughout the years. I've hated it, loved it, been indifferent to it, etc., and this cycle will probably continue for at least another decade. The genre in question? Role-playing games.

When I first picked up Dragon Warr...

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