As the World Cup is nearing the end of its group stages and approaches the Round of 16, Rocket League has taken the opportunity to release the second round of their Nike FC Cup.

The Nike FC Cup kicked off on November 17th and will run all the way to December 14th. During this time, players can complete in-game challenges, purchase event-inspired items from the shop, participate in an international competition, and play in a new limited-time game mode. These opportunities will open and close at different times but do not fret, there is still plenty of time to join in on the fun.

In-game challenges available – November 17th to December 6th

How to Obtain a Country Banner: Complete the first challenge (top left) and look for the  Country Banners in your profile setting!

Each Challenge will unlock different decals! Make Sure to get yours before they are gone!

Round one of the purchasable items in the shop – November 17th to December 6th.

International competition, the Fan Clash: Nike FC Cup – November 17th to November 30th.

This part of the event is currently over! Finland came in first! Want to know the other countries did? Click here

Round two of purchasable items in the shop – November 30th to December 6th.

Limited time game mode, Nike FC Showdown – November 30th to December 14th.

Get ready for this new 4v4 mode which features a new Nike Ball and modified gameplay that makes the ball curve through the air.

Now that you’ve read through the entire event, it is time to grab some boost and hit the field to enjoy the rest of the Nike FC Cup!

The most divisive games of all-time typically share one thing: they blend the brilliant and the bad.

If the following games were just bad, they wouldn’t have a legion of defenders. If they were strictly brilliant, they wouldn’t inspire an army of detractors to rise up against them. Instead, a truly divisive game often blends its best and worst ideas in equal measure.

So yes, these are the most divisive games of all-time, but that also means they are among the most interesting.

Grand Theft Auto IV

There’s certainly a case to be made that Grand Theft Auto IV is the most divisive game of all-time.

Grand Theft Auto IV stripped away many of the series’ goofiest elements in favor of a more realistic, down-to-Earth crime story. Along with that tonal shift came more “realistic” driving controls that some people flat-out hated as well as fewer of the insane missions that made Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas a fan favorite. GTA IV also favored presenting a living, breathing, digital world over giving the player more activities to do in that world.

Interestingly, the slower approach of GTA IV would later divide those who played Red Dead Redemption 2.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Some people will tell you that Metal Gear Solid 2 is divisive because of the protagonist switch that happens midway through the game. However, that’s not the whole story.

Some gamers were upset that they had to play as Raiden instead of Solid Snake for much of the game, but that only scratches the surface of the MGS 2 controversy. The game’s long and sometimes rambling cutscenes were a major turn-off to some, as was the second half of the game’s sometimes repetitious gameplay (which, it turns out, is partially due to elements of the controversial plot).

The Metal Gear Solid series is no stranger to debate, but this is certainly its most divisive hour.

Diablo 3

Diablo 3‘s broken launch and controversial policies are certainly part of the game’s divisive history, but long after those problems were fixed, Diablo fans remain split on this all-time best selling game.

To simply summarize a complicated discussion, some Diablo fans feel that Diablo 3 watered down the Diablo experience too much in favor of appealing to a wider audience.

This isn’t the only time we’ll discuss that controversial decision on this list, but it’s hard to argue there are certainly noticeable design differences between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

As the Zelda game exclusive to Nintendo’s best-selling console ever, you’d think that Skyward Sword would be a beloved, oft-referenced classic. However, that’s not quite the case.

Skyward Sword isn’t necessarily controversial for any one thing (except, perhaps, its motion controls) but rather a series of design decisions which fans felt represented a step back from previous entries in the franchise. Detractors argue that its moments of epic brilliance are hindered by its repetitive gameplay, empty world, and an annoying sidekick.

Of course, Skyward Sword could be the worst Zelda game and it’d still be worth playing.

Halo 2

Halo 2‘s multiplayer is almost universally beloved and respected, but its single-player is another story.

Actually, much of the single-player’s controversy can be traced back to its story. After teasing an epic battle for the fate of Earth, Bungie delivered a game that barely allows players to fight for their home planet before sending them off on a bizarre adventure that includes another Halo, an intelligent Flood hivemind, and another controversial protagonist switch.

15 years later, Halo 2‘s single-player campaign remains a controversial topic among franchise fans.

BioShock Infinite

Depending on who you ask, BioShock Infinite is either one of the most brilliant games ever made or a complete disappointment. There’s really no middle-ground.

Most will tell you that BioShock Infinite‘s world and use of music are simply incredible, but the debate comes in when you start talking about its story and gameplay. Infinite utilizes a much more straightforward style of action than its predecessor, while its story often struggles to deliver on an incredible premise.

Of course, even those who hated the game would probably gladly welcome another BioShock.

Gone Home

Is Gone Home even a game?

That’s the source of the debate surrounding this atmospheric mystery title that helped kick off the “walking simulator” genre. Simply put, some people don’t feel that wandering around a small environment with few interaction options and little traditional gameplay doesn’t constitute a game.

Others say that Gone Home represents a milestone in the evolution of video game storytelling and world design. You be the judge.

Days Gone

The most recent controversial game on this list earned its divisive reputation due to the argument between most critics and most fans that erupted soon after its release.

Many reviews panned Days Gone for being a generic example of recent open-world design spiced with some awful storytelling and character development, but many more fans said that critics were being too hard on a game that was bountiful, interesting, and fun.

To be honest, we side with the critics on this one.

Fallout 4

Like Diablo III, the Fallout 4 controversy is mostly about whether or not the game is watered-down.

In the minds of hardcore fans, Fallout 4 took away the choices, role-playing elements, and wonderful writing featured in Fallout: New Vegas and other franchise installments in favor of better graphics, protagonist voice acting, and simplified action gameplay.

You could say that the perfect Fallout game lies somewhere between Fallout 4 and New Vegas‘ best ideas.

Batman: Arkham Knight

Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are generally considered to be two of the greatest superhero games of all-time. Arkham Knight‘s reputation is a little more complicated.

Terrible technical issues on PC aside, some fans felt that Arkham Knight spent too much time treading Arkham City‘s ground while only adding a Batmobile that the game forced you to utilize too often. Others were disappointed by the revelations related to the titular “Arkham Knight” and other plot points.

Arkham Knight proves that no franchise formula is solid enough to be immune from controversy.

We know what the rankings for the best selling games ever looks like. The numbers are set in stone. However, what happens when you stack the 15 best selling games ever next to each other and ask “Which of these is best?” That’s the question we’re going to try to answer.

So, on the basis of quality, here’s how we rank the 15 best-selling video games ever (and where they stand on the all-time sales rankings).

15. Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus (8th Best Selling Game Ever)

We’ve got fond memories of Wii Fit and the Wii, but this far removed from the glory days of motion controls, it’s easy to look at this glorified exercise app as the weakest “game” on this list and a product of its time.

14. PlayerUnkown’s Battleground  (5th Best Selling Game Ever)

PUBG helped kickstart an era of battle royale dominance, but the game’s technical problems and an influx of superior experiences into the genre make it difficult to defend what PUBG became.

13. Wii Sports Resort (10th Best Selling Game Ever)

We’re more than willing to give Wii Sports its due, but Resort was essentially just more of the same minus the thrill and memories of playing Wii Sports for the first time. It’s a solid experience but belongs somewhere around this spot.

12. Diablo III and Reaper of Souls (14th Best Selling Game Ever)

Tough call here. Diablo III eventually got better (largely thanks to the Reaper of Souls expansion), but it was a frustrating mess when it launched. Even today, some argue that Blizzard phoned this sequel in and failed to capitalize on the best aspects of the franchise.

11. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (12th Best Selling Game Ever)

Here’s another tough game to rank. There’s really nothing wrong with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but this is where the list starts to split off into some truly notable experiences. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was just a very good Mario game for Wii owners.

10. New Super Mario Bros. (11th Best Selling Game Ever)

The DS title that inspired its also incredibly successful Wii counterpart just edges out its console brother on this list. That’s mostly due to the fact it came first, but New Super Mario Bros. also just felt great on the DS.

19. Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal (15th Best Selling Game Ever)

As the GameBoy Advance follow-ups to the classic original Pokemon games, these games were almost destined for success. Yet, you have to believe their continued success can be traced back to some smart innovations introduced in these games that would shape the future of the franchise.

8. Wii Sports (4th Best Selling Game Ever)

If you owned a Wii (which many, many people did), you practically had to own Wii Sports. This was the game that sold millions on the idea of motion controls and created timeless memories even among many who didn’t consider themselves gamers.

7. Mario Kart Wii  (9th Best Selling Game Ever)

While Mario Kart Wii certainly had its problems, it also benefited greatly from the Wii’s motion controls, online play functionality, and technological advances that led to some more creative track design. This is the game that helped many people fall in love with Mario Kart (or fall in love again).

6. Grand Theft Auto V (3rd Best Selling Game Ever)

The list gets tough at this point. GTA V was (and remains) a stellar open-world experience worthy of the franchise name. It may just be the best GTA ever. If one thing holds this game back, it’s the way that aggressive microtransactions and a lack of single-player DLC may have bolstered its long-term success.

5. Tetris (2nd Best Seling Game Ever)

The longevity of Tetris is nothing short of astonishing. Time has done little to diminish the simple thrill of a game of Tetris no matter what form that game may take. Just about anyone can find themselves hopelessly addicted to this experience to this day.

4. Minecraft (Best Selling Game Ever)

Minecraft changed the way video games are shared, played, distributed, and talked about. Put aside those historical accolades, though, and you’re left with an experience that would have been a hit in any generation of gaming and will likely remain relevant for years (maybe decades) to come.

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (13th Best Selling Game Ever)

Skryim‘s increased production values and tweaks to the Elder Scrolls formula helped it steal hours from people who never ever considered themselves to be fans of the genre. Even without an army of mods that have kept Skyrim alive, the Elder Scrolls V would remain a timeless classic.

2. Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow (7th Best Selling Game Ever)

Pokemon actually became successful around the same time as the rise of the Harry Potter series. The two are also forever linked by the fact they became phenomenons largely due to the sheer quality of the experiences they offered. The first Pokemon games nearly perfected a formula that is still going strong today.

1. Super Mario Bros. (6th Best Selling Game Ever)

In terms of fun, impact, relevance, and success, this really does have to be the number one game. So many people wouldn’t be gamers today if it weren’t for Super Mario Bros. What’s amazing is that it remains a great game despite years of imitators, innovators, and incredible sequels.

If you happen to be one of those people who believe that tabletop and video gaming somehow exclude each other, I’m here to try and convince you otherwise.

First off, if you ask almost any indie game developer, most will tell you that if you are looking to break into the video games industry as a designer one of the best places to start is with tabletop games.  Board games, card games, miniatures, whatever your personal preference, sitting down and plotting out mechanics that create a fun, balanced, and repayable experience for 2-6+ players will give you a wealth of practical experience in designing a digital equivalent.

Now, maybe you are not interested in the professional side of video games.  Perhaps, you’ve already come to the realization that video games are simply here to enjoy playing.  Well, what do tabletop games have to offer you?

Have you ever been looking through that backlog of video games waiting to be played and simply wonder when you will have the time to open them up and dig in?  How often have you found yourself buying a newly released game that either cuts in line, or sits at the end of that backlog?

The point is, video games are generally a huge time investment.  Unless you are exclusively playing smaller scale indie games, each of those backlogged titles is going to eat up about 20 hours, which may only scratch the surface if the game features a multiplayer leveling system or new game plus modes.

Consider the fact then that most tabletop games can be learned and played in an hour or less.  Yes of course this generalization has exceptions, (I’m looking at you Arkham Horror) but you can get through roughly 20 different tabletop games in the time it takes to “finish” one standard video game.  This matters for gamers dealing with full time jobs, school responsibilities, or families.  Time, after all, is our most precious commodity.

Next, I want you to think back to the last time you played a video game with other people, and remember the experience vividly because of the people you were playing with.  For me it was during World of Warcraft:Burning Crusade, when 2vs2 arena matches were a big thing.  Going into battle teamed up with my healing druid buddy while throwing DOTS around on my affliction warlock were some of the most fun experiences I’ve had in gaming ever.

Even single player games were made better by enjoying them with my friends.  While I’ve truly enjoyed most of the God of War games for the experiences themselves, my most vivid memories of playing them was during a particular masochistic phase where I volunteered to help complete the first three games on their hardest difficulty for a friend.  He seemed particularly tickled after every gruesome death, especially when it was my fifth, sixth, or seventeenth attempt at a particular section.  I’m willing to bet that most of your favorite nostalgic video game moments had less to do with the game itself, and more to do with the people who were a part of that gaming experience, think about it.

That feeling is exactly what tabletop games are built around.  While the games themselves can be fun and interesting what truly makes the experience of a tabletop game is the people you are playing with.  I’ve seen lasting friendships born out of strangers simply sitting next to each other and playing a tabletop game.  That is the true power of games and it is something that I wish video games were able to capitalize on more frequently.  Party games like Johann Sebastian Joust or Tower Fall Ascension stand as prime examples of how successful and fun video games can be when they promote face-to-face social interaction.

All of these experiences whether video games or tabletop games are great, and should be embraced more frequently, which is exactly why my argument here is not to urge gamers to put down their controllers all together.  Maybe though, instead of buying that new release you won’t play for another 6 months, pick up your phone, call over some pals, break out the snack foods, and crack open a game.

The days of saying, “it’s just a game,” are over, and in all honesty it’s probably been that way for a while.  Personally, I believe a large portion of credit for what games have become today go to the mobile and indie games that have continued to grow in the wake of Kickstarter, Humble Bundle, and app stores.  With many indies being less focused on mass market appeal, and telling stories or conveying experiences that were important to them, they opened the flood gates of self-expression through games.

Inevitably when a medium becomes self-expressive it becomes controversial.  Video games have had plenty of historical moments of controversy, mostly due to knee jerk public reactions after tragedies like school shootings, or other violent news given gross amounts of sensationalism by the media.  When local or federal government condemn violent depictions in video games it used to act as a rallying call.  After all, we all loved the games we were playing, violent, non-violent, it didn’t matter, video games were being attacked and we as the players tried to ride to their defense in whatever ways we could.

Today however it feels that game controversies have become more personal.  Recent conflicts like the #GamerGate fiasco or for some, the rise of “casual” or “linear” games, have splintered a community that once all stood together as “gamer,” into an easily enraged mob who feel that intimidation, threats, and abuse are noble traits worth holding onto.

Games exist for everyone.  While I love the fact that gaming, and the developers who create them, have evolved to the point where uniquely self-expressive stories or experiences can be created and successful, I regret that it has splintered a community that has always felt, at least to me, unified.

I am saddened that this rift has formed in my community that traditionally represented an escape from all the bickering, fear, and hate that seems so readily present in our news and politics.  Still, I hold onto the hope that this is simply a transitional period.  That the growing pains of what video games are becoming versus what they have been, will eventually fade and that those who have been fighting the transition tooth and nail will look around and see that change, isn’t always a bad thing.

Humble Bundle is back to indie games with their latest bundle, the just-announced Humble Indie Bundle 9. This bundle includes Trine 2: Complete Story, Mark of the Ninja, the Eets Munchies beta, and Brütal Legend, with FTL: Faster Than Light and Fez available to those who pay more than the average. The Trine 2, Trine 2: Goblin Menace, and Brütal Legend soundtracks are also yours with purchase, and those spending more than the average will pick up the FTL and Fez soundtracks as well.

All the games in this bundle are compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and those paying $1 or more will receive Steam keys for the games as well. Also, more games will be added next week, and anyone who paid more than the average (currently hovering around $4.50) will get immediate access to those as soon as they’re available.

I started playing Papers, Please around 7:00 on a Thursday night. Around 45 minutes into my session, I distinctly remember thinking to myself that I couldn’t see how the game, while fun, could keep being compelling for much longer. My wife then poked her head in the door to tell me she was going to bed. “Isn’t it a bit early for bedtime?” I asked her, looking at the clock on the wall to my left. It read 10:15. Not a mere 45 minutes, but a full three hours since I had started working the Grestin Border between Arstotzka and Kolechia, and I wasn’t even close to calling it a night yet. Papers, Please is a triumph of indie game development, and one of the best games I’ve had the pleasure of playing this year.

On the surface, Papers, Please is not a complicated game. You are an immigration officer working for the fictional Eastern Bloc nation of Arstotzka. Your job is to check the papers of people trying to enter the country, and grant or deny access based on whether those papers are all in order. The basic gameplay hook is easy to spot, too. You get paid by the person, and must process enough to keep your family warm and fed. Make mistakes, however, and you start to receive docked pay. The key is to go fast enough to pay all your bills, but slow enough to make sure you get everything right, and the game strikes this balance very well.

Of course, it’s not that simple. By the third week, all foreign visitors must have a passport, an entry ticket, an ID supplement, and a certificate of vaccination. All these forms must be legally issued, match each other, have valid information, and not be expired. Diplomats, asylum seekers, workers, and Arstotzkan residents have different papers. Entrants must look like their picture and be of matching height and weight, with fingerprint records available to check discrepancies. You may be ordered to refuse all entrants from a certain nation, or confiscate all passports issued from a certain district. Your pay per person doesn’t increase, but your rent might. Or you might need to buy medicine. Or a birthday present for your son. The increasingly complicated puzzles coupled with the fine balance between speed and accuracy makes for quite a compelling game all by itself. But Papers, Please is much more than a simple puzzle game, even one as well done as this.

Where Papers, Please really starts to stand out is in its attempts to get you to willingly make a mistake. Do you separate a husband and wife when one has legitimate paperwork and one doesn’t? Do you reunite a guard and friend of yours with a girl he met during the war, even if she has no papers? Remember your family, and that doing these things will get you penalized. Do you condemn people with false papers to your nation’s prison system, or simply send them away? What if a guard cuts you in on the bonus he gets for each detainment? Is it worth taking a 10 credit bribe to let someone with bad papers in? What if you know they’re smuggling a bomb and plan to kill people with it? What if you couldn’t afford food yesterday and your son is sick? Without getting too much into spoilers, there are many of these questionable decisions spread throughout the story’s 31 days, and they elevate Papers, Please high above shuffling papers and stamping passports.

Speaking of shuffling and stamping, Papers, Please does a great job of conveying a real-world feel in a virtual space. Moving everyone’s papers around by hand on the small desk makes everything feel very tangible, and it isn’t long before you figure out your own efficient way of checking names and dates and seals that works around the limited desk space. The color scheme, art style, and lack of music all accentuate the grim feel without making it oppressive, and the satisfying “ka-chunk” of the stamp wonderfully punctuates each inspection. Papers, Please just feels satisfying, which is important considering the otherwise quite depressing subject matter.

At its core though, Papers, Please is a game that defies solid explanation. Any attempts to explain it to friends and family have made even me feel like it can’t be that much fun. Words have a hard time explaining the pride of knowing an issuing city is wrong purely from memory, or the paranoia of knowing that no matter how careful you were, you probably forgot to check something. It’s difficult to convey the range of feelings you get when you spot a mistake early, get excited because it means that you might be able to process an extra person and maybe afford a birthday present for your son, then realize that you’re happy because of the random misfortune of another human being. All in all, Papers, Please is a game that everyone should know about, but also a game that must be played to truly understand. Luckily, it’s absolutely worth playing and comes at a bargain price, leaving most gamers without an excuse to not pick up this masterpiece of indie gaming.

Papers, Please was created by Lucas Pope, and can be purchased on Steam, GOG.com, and via Humble Store on its own site.

Founded in 2011, Yacht Club Games is comprised of six talented individuals formerly of WayForward whose range of experience spans the AAA gamut from Thor: God of Thunder to the sleeper hit A Boy and His Blob. Deeply devoted to the idea of creating games that create a hybrid between modern and retro themes, the indie community has given considerable buzz to their upcoming platformer which is due for release in September of this year .

Anything else you want to know? Head on over to Reddit and ask away!

Overview

Well, Black Ops is back with vengeance in its sequel, Black Ops II, and it would seem that Treyarch actually had some new tricks up their sleeves. Black Ops II, to my knowledge anyway, is the first in the series to bring choice and alternate story routes to your gameplay experience. It would seem the company is trying to make a break from its usual one track story and actually putting some serious effort into diversity this time around.
If you haven’t played one of the other seventeen Call of Duty games and this was a first for you, then you actually managed to step in on one of the good ones. Call of Duty, your fairly typical first person shooter is a game mashed FULL of guns and gadgets. As of the first Black Ops in the franchise there are three modes that allow you a fairly wide range of entertainment: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombie Mode. In each mode your goal is fairly straight forward, shoot the enemy (preferably in the head!), with a couple of variations in multiplayer mode such as “confirm you shot them by picking up their dog tags”, or “shoot them so that you can blow something else up down the road”. Almost any way you play it, there’s shooting of some kind unless you’re of the rare “knifing” persuasion. In Call of Duty, FPS also stands for “First Person Stabber”, which multiplayer actually allows some variety in for Black Ops II. Ever wanted to stab someone with a golden knife and NOT be at the top of an ancient sacrificial Aztec pyramid? Perfect, because Black Ops II has you covered! Either way, the game is great for any gun fanatic out there, old or new, and even those that want to use some future weapons that spew over nine thousand bullets a second.

Campaign
Our story begins with a short music video montage of the backstory for a character named Raul Menendez who is our villain for this short action packed hell-ride (sooooo much fire!). At a young age it would seem Menendez tried to rescue his sister from a burning building and somewhat succeeded, though his sister is in pretty bad shape. Before I go any further, here would be a good place to mention that you should be extremely careful with the “graphic content” option given to the player by Treyarch. You don’t really get a choice with introduction, but if that churns anything in your stomach, I seriously recommend turning graphic content off, because it was a rather disturbing ride in the beginning and the end of the story with it on. Anyway, getting back on track, it turns out that the warehouse Menendez and his sister were trying to escape from was actually burned down intentionally by an American for the insurance money and thus an evil mastermind is born with hatred against rich people. Hooray! No racism this game! Mostly anyway…It would seem that you do spend an inordinate amount of time killing Cubans, in the future or the past. Personally, I would never have guessed that the best equipped elite mercenary of the future would hail from Cuba, but you learn something new every day.

The story is split across three characters with missions in the near future of 2025 and the past ranging from Vietnam through the 1980s. While you’re busy dredging up backstory in the 1900s, you switch back and forth between Alex Mason, the brainwashed CIA operative from the first Black Ops, and Frank Woods, his partner; however, the majority of time is spent in the year 2025 as David Mason, son of Alex Mason hunting down the monster, Raul Menendez who always seems to be one step ahead of you. This is, of course, when you get to play with all the fun new gadgets.

Gadgets are a bit of a plot item in the newest Black Ops: winged gliders, harriers, drone support of multiple kinds, and even smaller stuff like mountainside traversal grapple partner swings (what?). I’m not even mentioning guns here or their attachments, like the introduction of the Storm PSR sniper rifle which fires through solid objects the longer you hold down the power button, and that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Another innovation this time around would be the introduction of Strike Force mode, which allows the player to take the position of a Commander on the field with a limited number of troops and a specific objective and time limit. Now, I always play the campaigns of Call of Duty on Veteran for my own amusement, but I don’t know what I was doing wrong with Strike Force. The instant my guys got on the field and somewhere near an objective they got absolutely destroyed and I lost every Strike Force mission I went in on. Maybe it was because of Veteran mode, or maybe because I’m just terrible at it, but either way it was different, difficult, and even a bit clunky for Treyarch’s release standards. You can’t just keep trying at them either. The number of troops you have is limited to the number of missions you’ve done, but the Strike Force content also disappears after a specified number of missions are completed. So, if you don’t know what you’re doing the first time around (like me!) and you lose all your troops, which just keep coming in to get mowed down unless you quit the mission early or win, then you have little to no chance of completing any of them, which really disappointed me.

Zombies
Zombie mode has evolved once again and I must say I’m a fan! Masochistic survival mode is still there, and shinier than ever, but is it really getting a story that’s more comprehensive than a three page comic book? Yes! In a loose homage to Scooby Doo and the gang, grab some machine guns and jump aboard a bus to look for clues as to why the zombie apocalypse is really happening! This new system allows some players to stay in one area while others ride a rusty bus to a totally different mini-area for alternate supplies and different “parts”. These “parts” are a piece of the new crafting aspect and allows the player(s) to MacGyver defenses and access-ways of many kinds all over the maps. Of course, the whole thing still works off of points, so make you shoot every last zombie you find to make bank! I would even say the level designers have figured out a way to make the maps more claustrophobic and scary with the addition on the brown mist that surrounds each area. Stepping into the fog gets the player an intimate experience with a creature reminiscent of the head-crabs from Half-Life and isn’t recommended unless you’re in the bus. Environments are also mutable, and even change without player intervention at times. Too many rides on the bus gets the roof torn open, staying in the initial starting zone gets the floor cracked open and spewing Hell-fire, that sort of stuff.

Multiplayer
The general format of Call of Duty multiplayer hasn’t changed too drastically, and there are plenty of new guns, new maps, new weapon attachments, and all of the other shiny bits and baubles. They’ve now included a mini Adobe Photoshop to edit your emblem to perfection, the ability to camouflage your tactical knife (always important!) and, of course, the ability to leave a calling card on your enemy. Gone are the days of Halo’s tea bags I guess. Even taunting has gotten a face lift as of 2025.
Call of Duty has, once again, flip flopped on the subject of dedicated servers, and, while this isn’t a super exciting bit about multiplayer intended to amp you up and get you ready to go with Black Ops II’s new multiplayer, it’s important to mention. Dedicated, or mod, servers allow players themselves to administer a server and to modify it as they see fit. Treyarch has decided that this breeches the integrity and security of the ranking system, which, to the rest of us means: you have to play and level up our way or it’s not fair to everyone else. I see the argument, but I personally found the most joy and innovation in the client modified servers I played on in older games in the franchise, which I will miss dearly. Furthermore, the server files are being locked away too which prevent people from renting or buying their own servers to host Black Ops II. This has been most unpopular with PC gamers looking to control a clan server. I have heard from several people who feel that Treyarch has alienated them and their preferred play style. These people are players who would have otherwise been looking forward to the newest game in the Call of Duty franchise, but now boycott it.

My own experience went something like this: upon entering my first multiplayer bout on Xbox Live, I was greeted by the whiney prepubescent complaining I am always met with when I’m on the chat system. Of course I had joined a match half way through, so going through now and muting people would simply be wasting my team’s time. Telling myself that I just have to get through this, I finished one round and then started to do my tradition of muting everyone except for my party, and, as I tried, an option popped up that made me ecstatic. “Do you want to mute all players except party members?” Dropping my jaw in amazement I quickly hit yes and was rewarded to see a bunch of tiny mute symbols next to nearly everyone’s name! It’s probably a sad reflection on me that this is the first thing I got really excited about in the game, however it’s something I know a lot of the more mature Xbox Live players hate dealing with. The rest of the games I played were pretty routine.
1. Start Round
2. Run with team around first corner
3. Get face blown off by rifle of some kind
4. Respawn
5. Run around corner
6. Repeat steps 3, 4, & 5 until death in step 3 is no longer caused by rifle, but by air strike and promptly remove step 5 from rotation until end of game.
I can tell you though, from looking at the stats of three of the twenty some odd people on the map, that it IS possible to have fun and do well. How much time and effort you want to put in to getting that good and having fun is up to you though.  Plus, this stuff’s getting easier with the addition of my favorite attachment, the “target finder” that puts a giant red diamond around your enemy when you look down your scope.

“Hey…Hey, guess what?  You’ve been DISHONORED!”.  A line you just can’t help but say as you start up Dishonored for the first time, and I guarantee it won’t be the last time you say it either.

I’ve been looking for a good original game lately and it’s difficult to find one of “triple A” quality with all of these sequels coming out; however, I think I finally found one. One of the shortest games I’ve played, but probably one of the best in the year for me at least was Dishonored. I do have a soft spot for stealth based games and I think this one did small game linearity very well. Being from Bethesda, the game initially felt very similar to Fallout 3, however the different developer, Arkane Studios, quickly distinguished itself.
In this steam punk based world running on whale oil, you play Corvo Attano, a recently “dishonored” bodyguard for the Queen and her daughter. After some really bad luck, you find yourself being accused of a murder you didn’t commit and before you know it you’re fleeing for your life and trying to get back at the people who framed you. Grab a dagger and your least squeaky boots because it’s time to start taking down the entire military branch of a government single handedly in any way you see fit.

I started to see this type of game mechanic with the latest Deus Ex: Human Revolution, however this takes it up a few levels. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you could take down enemies lethally or non-lethally, choose to traverse the level through air vents, or even knock out/kill every person in the room. All of this is available to the player in Dishonored, but on a far grander scale. Each level is large and the objective can be approached from any angle of the map, which was difficult to get used to, though extremely enjoyable once I got used to it. On your way you can take down the guards however you want, lethally, non-lethally, sneakily, or gun blazing. Of course, that’d be your limit if you hadn’t been visited by a mysterious demi-god figure known as The Outsider. With his help your options are expanded significantly: teleport yourself to the roofs, distract the guards with a rat infestation, knock them all out of the way with a gust of hurricane force wind, or even possess a small animal and scurry through a crack in the wall. Just be careful not to get stepped on. Once you’re inside and past the front gates, the main objective isn’t even a one way street. Poison your target, knock him out, humiliate him in public, brand him for life with a hot iron, or just kill him. By JUST kill him I mean you could shoot him, stab him, stick him with a crossbow bolt, blow him out a window, knock him out and drown him in a toilet, whatever.

There are so many options and that’s just one level, and because of that, you can play the game over and over again getting a different experience every time.
The fact that the whole world revolves around whale oil is as clever as it is morbid. The journals you pick up throughout gameplay get fairly graphic about taking the blubber from the whales while they’re still alive. Other journals lie around and allude to hidden treats for the player if they go out of the way to find them such as Granny Rags voiced by Susan Sarandon who is the source of several side missions and one of your few chances to actually interact with someone else who has the abilities of The Outsider.
While the steam punk art style is fantastic, the textures and lighting together created a slightly washed out appearance to the whole game that probably could have been avoided. Many times I looked at the old rusty metal and turned away from it because if I thought about it too much it would pull me from my immersion, which, besides the textures, was excellent. The game was a breath of fresh air for me and I can’t wait to keep playing it for all of its replay value.

Alright, two things before I go into my review of CAPCOM’s latest game.  One, I read somewhere that the 6 on the cover of the game looked like a giraffe enjoying some quality time with a manatee and now I can never unsee it.  For two, this is my first Resident Evil game so I have no fan bias one way or another about the game except for maybe the fact that I normally enjoy a good shooting game where brainless zombies try to eat my face.  That being said, the term “zombies” was rarely used in the game, and they certainly weren’t brainless if you play any other campaign other than the Leon-Helena one. In fact, this game’s got arguably better/clever enemies than Battlefield’s or Call of Duty’s AI depending on which campaign you play. The game consists of three initial paths and a hidden fourth one if you beat the others. Now, the game doesn’t qualify it this way, but each of the campaigns has a distinctly different feel to it as well as slightly different play styles.

The tutorial/prelude has you play Leon. So, naturally, I picked his story as my first experience. What I think CAPCOM was going for here was the “traditional” zombie experience with a couple of disgusting mutations to satisfy the level of gross that I presume the fanbase has come to expect. Before I continue, I want to mention that playing this campaign made me want to put the game down and never play it again, let alone try the other storylines, though I discovered later they were worth it. Leon and Helena share some of the most wooden dialogue together and, after a few chapters, I finally understood that the two of them together form one intelligent human being. People will be in the process of becoming a zombie buffet and Leon will announce to Helena that they need to go save them, which just makes no sense because he just watched them get their limbs torn off. Helena, thankfully plays Captain Obvious for a moment and reigns him back in to the task at hand. A few zombie attacks later and Helena spends an entire boss fight refusing to shoot an actively mutating monstrosity because she’s too busy crying. It takes like ten active trigger events with Leon yelling the entire time for Helena to get over herself and shoot to reel her back in. Speaking of active triggers, this is also the button mash campaign.
Sadly, this is also the most predictable horror game I’ve played. Ever. It’s almost completely the fault of the game mechanics too. The game will decide to just take over certain aspects of your character at any given time which gives away too much and allows the player to ready themselves for a possible scary encounter. They might’ve thought that this would build suspense, but the level of irritation I got when I am randomly unable to run or move in any other way other than a slow walk with my gun down by my waist completely breaks the illusion of immersion. It goes as far as to even disallow the firing of the character’s gun for sections of story at a time. The game tries SO hard to forcibly immerse you in the plot that it physically hurts you in the process. Irritation and frustration build instead of suspense and adrenaline and before you know it you just want to throw the controller.
The game does have some very satisfactory melee takedowns and finishing moves that actually do distract from the awful gameplay mechanics for some time. This lasts until you realize that the death animations for the zombie you just roundhouse kicked in the teeth has the head free floating in place as the body falls to the floor with a giant pulled texture of skin still linking the two. This is particularly frustrating when the body just jumped up off the floor and your only choice was to kick it in the face leaving this giant flap of skin obscuring your vision allowing for even more zombies to get the drop on you.
When you get tired of being jumped constantly, you may decide you want to try playing with a little precaution. What do you do if you see a body lying on its side or sitting in a chair with blood all over it? Shoot it, right? Nope. You can’t shoot bodies preemptively in Resident Evil 6. Not allowed. So, whether you see it coming or not, you have no choice but to trigger the zombie’s predictable lunge at your knees. Eventually you’ll get tired and, out of shear boredom, you’ll end up holding the B button ( Xbox360 controller), or you’ll be lucky enough to have a tip show up on a loading screen that informs you that you can actually interact with Helena. By “interact” I mean you can “Praise” her, “Thank” her, tell her to follow (which she does anyway), tell her to stay (good dog!), or tell her to move up. This doesn’t really work though because any time you tell your partner to move up or take the lead they give you the professional F— you. Helena will say, “Not right now”, because “right now” is just not the time to listen to orders in the apocalypse. My favorite is, “Can’t it wait?“, because you clearly didn’t tell her that for any reason. You’re just wasting her time, right? I’m really not even sure why it was made into a button because the only function it serves is to distract you while a zombie eats your brains.
On that line of thought though, let’s talk about buttons that should exist. In the zombie apocalypse, one might think it an intelligent idea to be able to jump. But wait! The game didn’t say it was ok to jump over THAT table, only the one next to it. You also cannot jump over dead bodies lying on the floor. You CAN trip over them, however. Yes, CAPCOM has seen fit to include a trip animation, and not a jump button. The end of the world is also clearly not the time to open a door any other way than gently caressing the door with one hand and leaning face first into the dark unexplored room. Never mind locking the door behind you or barricading it to prevent attacks from behind.

You have no choice but to experience EXACTLY what the game wants you to, and if you had other plans, too bad because this train is going nowhere but where the railway track tells it to at exactly the predetermined speed coded in. The level design in Leon and Helena’s campaign is utterly unimaginative, linear, predictable, boring, and lazy. There’s even a part where you’re looking down at a foggy road and they just flat out left the road black thinking that some heavy fog would cover it up.

The first time I died in this game was via an ambulance crashing through a pile of cars and splatters you against the side of a gas station while you’re paralyzed by a zombie whose sole job is to scream loudly in your face. I’m sorry CAPCOM for standing where your linearly designed map tells me to go to as you freeze me in position just so that an ambulance can run me over. It’s not even a scripted injury. It’s an actual death that counts against you in your final score after the Chapter is over. Oh, yeah, by the way the game’s been scoring you this whole time, which nobody decided to tell the player. What exactly are you getting scored on? Accuracy, deaths, kills, etc. Hopefully you didn’t decide to test fire any new guns you picked up along the way, because it will prevent you from picking up anything useful when it comes time to buy some skills. Yes, the game has been dropping random chess pieces all over the place with “point” values assigned to them, so I don’t really know how I possibly could have misunderstood. Clearly the currency of the survivors of the apocalypse is…gem encrusted chess pieces? I really have no idea where that came from. Perhaps it was something from a previous game I didn’t play and it was explained there, but I felt pretty dumb cramming studded pawns and knights in my pockets while I ran from hordes of screaming zombies.

Once I was finished nursing my wrist from all the hardcore hand holding going on in the Leon-Helena campaign, I ventured a trial run of the other two campaigns and found very different experiences. The Jake-Sherry campaign was heavy on the maze and environmental mechanics (explosive barrels, etc.), while the Chris-Piers combo focused on what added up to be super-human modern warfare against bio-weapons. What confused me with this campaign was that you get an entirely new graphic user interface. Both of the other storylines had basic GUI, but now that you’ve joined the BSAA you get perks.

You are also thrown into open combat with seriously intelligent “BOWs” as they’re called. I never quite heard what the acronym stands for. Anyway, these Infected are creative, intelligent, and utilize better team tactics than Veteran mode Call of Duty AI. I really can’t even call them zombies anymore. These guys use machine guns, snipers, camouflage, group tactics, and more. The time I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore was when someone in my squad said, “They’re rolling up a tiger tank”, and, as a hint, my reaction involved a LOT of profanity. If you ignore the mutations, the game is honestly a fun modern warfare experience, but that’s hard when the enemies turn into human-scorpion hybrids which carry uninfected civilians on their backs as cover. Finally I could give the game some credit for innovation. Playing through the entire Leon-Helena campaign, I’d come to think that the only innovation CAPCOM was going to come up with was the trip animation and the fact that you can click down your joystick to choose whether or not you want to make your character left or right handed. The game still wasn’t scary by any means, but at least the Chris-Piers campaign wasn’t anywhere as linear as the Leon-Helena one. Jake and Sherry even had some clever and funny dialogue going back and forth for a while. For the first time in thirty hours I actually enjoyed the gameplay and even dared to immerse myself in the story. Yeah, the same texture pulling glitches were there, there still wasn’t a jump button, and my steroid pumping main character still looked like a damn fool tripping over bodies left and right, but it was enjoyable. I really just think CAPCOM tried too hard to add too much content and it backfired on them. If they had just stuck with one storyline, really ironed out the glitches in the art department, and spiced up the Design aspects of the game, I think everyone would have been a lot happier, but they didn’t and I’m forced to say that this game is really just not worth the play.

The game itself worked so well as a break from reality because the game never took itself too seriously. Jack, your nemesis in Borderlands 2, is “the most perfect ass” to quote a friend. He’s constantly jabbing you with the most immature insults and you tell yourself that it won’t get under your skin, but damn, you can’t ignore it. Before long you’ll find your eye twitching and your knuckles going white as you listen to Jack insult you in the most imaginative ways –

Jack – “I’m wracking my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was going to call it ‘piss-for-brains’ in honor of you, but that just feels immature. Hey, maybe ‘Butt Stallion?’”

Just the same though, the game doesn’t pull any punches, and anybody buying the game should be prepared to have the game rip out your heart and sauté it in your own tears especially if you played the first Borderlands. Gearbox certainly didn’t pull any punches in making this game a memorable experience whether you play alone or with a friend or three.

If you normally play games alone though, I might stress that the game is easily one hundred times better with a friend because you actually have someone there to exclaim and laugh with as the ridiculous antics of Jack get progressively more homicidal. It’s simply a better experience when shared with someone else, and I think that can be said about a lot of games. Gearbox certainly did a remarkable job when it came to gauging their players’ moods, emotions, and adrenaline. The game never once ended an emotional peak incorrectly and it was a fantastically smooth ride throughout the game.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the play style, let me explain a little bit. You end up on a planet, which, for all intents and purposes, is lawless and is inhabited by bandits, hick colonists, and a whole lot of bad asses with more guns than you can imagine. Every living thing on the planet, and even most inanimate things, has a gun you can rip from its obliterated remains. As long as you have a weapon you can get a better one and that mechanic combined with a nearly infinite number of guns gives you a constantly evolving style of gameplay, which Gearbox deserves to be extremely proud of.

I’ve found in my experiences that cooperative gameplay is a nesting ground for glitches, the most memorable and entertaining of which would probably be from Fable 3 if any of you have played it. Borderlands certainly didn’t have anything on that level of ridiculous, but they did have some. My partner and I did occasionally have issue reviving one another even when we were practically standing on top of each other, which often resulted in the death of one or both of us. This wouldn’t be such a problem if it didn’t happen most often in the Circles of Slaughter half way through one of the last waves of enemies. It definitely caused a lot of frustrated groans and ice cream breaks were completely necessary after those happened.

The UI had its frustrations too, of course.  I found that having the “dismount from vehicle” button and the “travel” button on the same key caused a lot of unintentional dismounts and often ended in my partner and me running on foot looking for a new Catch-A-Ride Station when we got to a new zone.
This game was also the first game ever to actually keep me entertained and interested in every side quest. For once they weren’t just another way of grinding out levels and instead actually brought more depth to the game’s phenomenally designed NPCs. My favorite side quest involved a string of tortured souls leaving messages behind referencing a gun with an unimaginably terrible curse that I won’t spoil for you so that you can discover on your own. Just know that it’s totally worth the side quest, and you’ll probably end up throwing the gun off the highest cliff you can find.

If you know what quest I’m talking about, you’ll understand why I’m going to mention the sound of the game next, which was extremely satisfying from headshots to gun fire effects. Most of all the character voice was spot on and unique for every major and minor NPC. I was also a huge fan of the smooth gradient transition from normal voice to radio voice when you walk away from an NPC who’s talking. That way you don’t have to just sit there absently while the character gives you the mission and its backstory. I’ve never enjoyed, in real life or games, when someone wastes my time and I really appreciate it when the game company takes that into consideration.
I’ve got some questions though. The New-U stations are Hyperion owned and Jack is owner of Hyperion, yes? He spends the entire game trying to kill you off and any time you do actually die, you use a Hyperion New-U Station to resurrect. That just seems counter-productive to me. A lot of games play off the dying thing by having you play from a save point as if you never died, but Borderlands turned it into a mechanic that they flaunt. Personally I think that they should have just slapped a different company name on the New-U station and called it done, but they kept Hyperion on it and it confuses me.

The tech trees were also stuffed with great new innovative mechanics to have fun with, but a few were less effective than others. Clearly the game is about guns, guns, and more guns, but when you have a tech tree that builds melee skills from level five and upwards I expect melee to be a viable option and a play style I can enjoy from the first point I put into the tree. Instead, melee generally becomes useful around level twenty to twenty five. Of course, it’s not really an issue in the end because you can re-spec your talents for a more than reasonable price so you can level up with guns primarily and switch over in your thirties to the melee-centric tree to at least try it out.
The level design of the game was well laid out. With that said, my co-op partner and I continued to run into small collision volumes that just had no business being where they were. Suddenly when driving the Light Scout we’d just find ourselves doing random one hundred and eighty degrees spins accompanied by a crashing sound when nothing was in the road at all. We also ran into a bit of an issue with some forgotten UDK material and texture applications as you can see in the picture below.

This glitch, if it really was a glitch, really seemed almost more like an easter egg homage to UDK so I’m really not that bothered by it.
Overall, Borderlands 2 is the perfect response to any emotional situation you might be having. It’s a perfect way to let out aggression when you’re mad. It will make you laugh when you’re feeling down and, once you’re feeling better, you’ll continue to have a good time for as long as you want to play the game. Best of all, Borderlands 2 has tons of content and I assume the DLC will be worth waiting for. It certainly doesn’t get stale and is a perfect game if you want to invite some friends over with their laptops for a good old fashion LAN party.

Parents have been wary of allowing their children to play games because of their infamous reputation. Especially the characteristic of developing aggression. However, what they don’t understand is that, spending an hour or two on these games helps dissipate stress and can actually release tension. This is also useful for teenagers and adults alike. Jeffrey Snodgrass, gamer and associate professor of anthropology at Colorado State did research on the popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft. He interviewed a colleague of his, Richard, who is around the age of 40 and working in sales for a technology company and asked how the game is a stress reliever for him. He responded:

The game can definitely be a very therapeutic thing. Believe it or not, when I’m out there killing mobs [game entities controlled by artificial intelligence] and it’s the same stuff over and over and over, my mind will wander. I’m relaxing. The game for some people is a retreat. It’s a place where I can run and hide from real life, and I use it to that extent. I can go run and hide from real life. (qtd. in Snodgrass et al. 26).

Snodgrass conducted another interview with a 22 year-old college student asking the same question. He said, “Sometimes I just log on late at night and go out by myself and listen to the soothing music in the Barrens [a desolate area in World of Warcraft] as I run past some gazelle . . . Maybe it’s the music or the colors. It’s just something out there I like and enjoy.” (qtd. in Snodgrass et al. 26). There are other mechanisms of World of Warcraft, such as raids and dungeons. These require a large amount of team-effort and quite a bit of time to complete. Another interviewee explained to Snodgrass that he found it to be a stress reliever through completing difficult tasks such as raids and dungeons because it can create a great sense of accomplishment. Although it is a fictional achievement it boosts self-esteem and thus can lower stress in some individuals (Snodgrass et al. 29).

Jeffrey Snodgrass thus concluded in his research that “the idea is that if you lose yourself, you escape… it’s deeply relaxing, what some gamers describe as akin to meditation ,or at other times positively challenging and stimulating” (qtd. in Sorensen). This proves that the game World of Warcraft is a stress reliever, but what of other games or other genres? A genre largely accused of causing aggression are shoot-’em-ups such as Halo or Call of Duty. Though they are entirely different genres, these two have two stress relievers in common: mindless killing and the feeling of accomplishment. It’s refreshing to a player to start up story mode (or campaign) on easy difficulty and finish off some brain-dead enemies and let their mind wander. For a challenge, a player could indulge themselves in a harder difficulty and when they finish, they are empowered by that same feeling of accomplishment explained by Snodgrass. As long as games continue to allow the player to do something thoughtlessly, have an environment that players can marvel at, or have difficult tasks that players are willing to accomplish; they can be considered an established stress reliever.

Apart from being a stress reliever, games deliver in the educational department as well. Dr. Mark Griffiths, wrote about the different skills that can be developed through video games. Language skills are demonstrated through problem-solving, such as “discussing and sharing, following directions (understanding prepositions etc.), giving directions, [and] answering questions,” while math skills are taught through score counters and handling money within games, and reading/vocabulary skills are developed through reading dialogue and menus (Griffiths). However, video games go much farther than teaching just Math and English, they can bring about and enhance skills that can be used in the future. For instance, Video games can assist children in setting goals” and “equip children with state-of-the art technology” (Griffiths). It is apparent that these educational benefits are aimed towards children, however, there are hidden abilities that adults can gain from video games as well.

Ray Perez, a program officer at the ONR’s, the Office of Naval Research, warfighter performance department, said, “[The ONR] have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players.” (qtd. in Freeman). He also added that “video games can increase. . . short-term memory. . . [and] they allow the player to focus longer and [expand] the player’s field of vision compared to people who don’t play video games.” (qtd. in Freeman). Both sets of abilities could help aging individuals whose perceptual, cognitive, and memorization abilities are known to deteriorate as time progresses. Expanding a person’s field of view can be beneficial to anyone as it helps to keep people aware of their surroundings, whether they are driving, watching their children, or on a stroll. Management is a skill that has also become quite common in video games. Sending troops into battle or giving orders to other players is sometimes crucial to succeeding.

Again, World of Warcraft has exemplified the responsibilities that a manager must fulfill. In the article, “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!” John Brown and Douglas Thomas wrote about Stephen Gillet, who was accepted for a job at Yahoo! as a senior manager in engineering for his “decisive edge.” Brown is director emeritus of Xerox PARC and Douglas Thomas teaches at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and edits Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media. Gillet had an impressive resume, however his decision making and managerial experience came from being one of the top guild masters in World of Warcraft. To run a large [guild], a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Guilds routinely splinter over petty squabbles and other basic failures of management; the master must resolve them without losing valuable members, who can easily quit and join a rival guild. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace (Brown and Thomas). Providing education for children, abilities, and real life lessons through video games is hardly something that should be overlooked as it has shown to be a reliable source.

Video games, can also be a source of bonding and socializing between friends and family. Jane McGonigal, the director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future, writes, “Studies show that we like and trust someone better after we play a game with them . . . and we’re more likely to help someone in real life after we’ve helped them in an online game. . . They’re a fast and reliable way to strengthen our connection with people we care about” (McGonigal). When a parent and child play a game together it can shorten the age gap that wouldn’t allow them to see eye-to-eye and thus bring the two together. I have had experience with this. Video games are a large part of my immediate family. My father has played video games with me and my sister ever since we were about six years old. As of today, I am eighteen and she is ten and we continue to play them together.

Through video games, we always have something to talk about: new technology my dad has discovered, my future dream career to be a game designer, and my sister’s accomplishments in a recent game. Not only that, but because of video games, we spend a lot of time with each other and it has brought us closer. I believe that we are a very caring and loving family because of it. One of our favorites for a while was the Rock Band series. In these games, you would begin by making a band, either with friends, family, or both. I’ve played this game with my friends who wouldn’t dare pick up a controller and it’s a great way to introduce people to each other at parties and get-togethers. In the article Parent-Child Bonding, G. Christopher Williams shares his experiences with his children and videogames. He says that “games where you form a band are inherently co-operative, it seems a [that it is] a genre well suited for at least creating bonds with folks standing right next to you” (Williams). There are other games, that I have found that worked well to bring us together too. Almost any team or puzzle game would get us interacting with each other. “Chattering about strategy . . . seems to me to be one of the central tenets of a series that is seemingly very much oriented towards allowing some good co-op fun between Gen X and GenY relations” (Williams). Puzzle games that are very difficult could bring people together. If one person doesn’t know what to do, perhaps the other would.

Although a single player game, Portal is a great example of this. Portal is a puzzle game that requires the player to place portals to reach the exit. I played this game in front of my sister and she really enjoyed watching me play and giving me advice. It wasn’t always the correct advice, but she felt like she was contributing. “You may be surprised at what simple things like sharing strategy, failure, and accomplishment in a silly little video game can do. It is better than mere play; it is gaming, and it’s the sort of thing that parents and kids should do” (Williams). These attributes don’t only work within the family and can actually attract more gamer friends. As Mark Griffiths wrote, “Videogames attract participation by individuals across many demographic boundaries. . . they [provide] an interest that [is] popular with other children [that] makes talking and playing together so much easier. At school there are always other children who share a passion for video game play.” I believe videogames have enriched my social life, in fact relationships between my family members and friends have strengthened because of the communication that has passed through all of us because of video games, whether it be words of rage, encouragement, praise, or thanks.

It is unfortunate that all the research, facts, and examples of how video games have benefited lives have been buried by the press. However, the negativeness of video games could be true if video games are not taken into moderation, as anything should be. But when used correctly, they can be a powerful tool that can reduce miraculous amounts of stress, teach skills and abilities through entertainment, and bring together family and friends. I believe that video games are much more beneficial than they are harmful and should be introduced to non-gamers out there.

Works Cited

Snodgrass, Jeffrey, et al. “Magical Flight and Monstrous Stress: Technologies of Absorption and Mental Wellness in Azeroth.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 35.1 (2011): 26-62. Print.

Williams, G. Christopher. “Parent-Child Bonding: Video Games that Bridge the Generation Gap.”PopMatters webpage. PopMatters. 6 November 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

Griffiths, Mark. “The Educational Benefits of Videogames.” Education and Health 20.3 (2002): 47-50. Print.

Freeman, Bob. “Researchers Examine Video Gaming’s Benefits.” U.S. Department of Defense webpage. U.S. Department of Defense. 25 January 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

McGonigal, Jane. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated, 2011. Print.

Brown, John and Douglas Thomas. “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!.” Wired. Wired Magazine. April 2006. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

Sorenson, Kimberly. “Colorado State University Study Examines Potential Positive Effects of Video Games.” Colorado State University webpage. Colorado State University. 4 April 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.