Some games are art in the same way that some movies are art. Roger Ebert disagrees. You’ve all heard the controversy, so I’ll skip that and go right to the rebuttal: The problem here is that Ebert has never played a game. You can’t watch a game and understand it like someone who has played it. It’s not the same experience. Who here has played mass effect 2 for 10+ hours? Did you form a connection with any of the characters? Who has watched a friend play it for 10+ hours? It’s not the same experience. Roger Ebert is more than capable of telling you whether a movie pushed artistic boundaries or not, but he’s not capable of telling you anything meaningful about a game from the perspective of a player because he, as far as I know, refuses to play one. Even then, playing a single game tells him only about that particular game (though I will grant that if the game involves shooting Nazis, he can make meaningful statements about more than half of modern first person shooters). I can criticize games because I play them. Bioshock 2 was unnecessary. Call of duty has been going downhill lately (we’ll see about black ops, COD, we’ll see…) Ebert comes off as an old codger who dislikes games simply because they are a new means of expression. So he’s backpedaled. They can’t be “high art” as he understands art. Come on Eberto, man up. You were wrong.
Left 4 Dead 2 Demo
This is a ~20 minute play-thru of the left for dead 2 demo. After playing thru the demo around 10 times last night with some friends, L4D2 proved why it was worth the money of another full game. I cannot wait for the full game to release (in 3 hours) so I can clean up the zombie infestation with a chainsaw.
This game is rated “M” for mature and has not been edited
It’s better watched in HD.
Part 2
Borderlands
This is about a 25 minute look at the start of Borderlands for the PC. The videos begin just after the opening cut-scene and go thru the first named NPC quest fight. I cut out some of the parts of going through menus and jumped from spot to spot a few times, I was going to put in transitions, but wanted to get the video up faster. After the boss battle, there is a short clip of using one of the new guns I picked up that shoots fire bullets! I suggest watching the videos in HD.
Game is rated M for Mature
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Left 4 Dead Free Trial Weekend
Steam News announces this Friday will be “Freaky Friday” for Left 4 Dead. The festivities kick off at 12:01 am GMT on Friday. Here’s word:
Beginning Friday at 12:01 am GMT, the PC version of Left 4 Dead will be available for a free 24-hour trial via Steam. The free trial will include access to the recently released Survival Pack DLC, which introduces a new multiplayer game mode and two additional Versus campaigns. Those who wish to give L4D and the Survival Pack a try may now pre-load everything needed to play with no obligation to purchase.
So anyone that has not played it can come join us this weekend.
LAN Party Information
After some very successful gaming nights. The question is should the full LAN parties come back?
- New Location
- Upgraded Equipment: New Dedicated Servers, New Fast Network, Internet
- Themed LANs such as a Retro LAN bringing back some of the classics. Quake, Unreal Tournament (Orginal), TFC you get where I am going.
- Probably some swag
- We will be doing pictures and video for each LAN
The biggest problem we have run into is a new location. I have looked a several different locations and they all either didn’t sufficient power, space, or location was just bad. We are open to suggestions on location.
For now however we will continue with the Left 4 Dead gaming nights. Ventrilo and gameserver information is available in the randomlan members section.
As always tell us what you think.