I heard about Podunk Studioz a few months ago whilst looking for some female gamer related news. For some reason a post of theirs was flagged to me, so I went and read it and I thought, I like what these guys are trying to do. Essentially 19 year old Dusty had decided to get into indie game programming with his friends and was giving a percentage of all sales to an MS charity, because his mom had succumbed to the disease some years ago. Podunk struck me as one of those old-skool bedroom programmers and I like that there is still this sort of grassroots movement in gaming, for without the likes of Jeff Minter, Jon Ritman and that ilk, we wouldn’t have the games we have today.

I decided to throw Podunk Studioz an interview op and they grabbed on with both hands. This is a bit of an insight into what it’s like to try and get your indie game studio off the ground and it has a nice ‘mom’ tie-in.

Podunk Studioz – ThumbBandits Interview

Q: Who are the Podunk team?
Podunk: The Podunk team is made up of 3 guys, Dusty (age 19) is our Game Director, Lead Programmer and Founder, Jake (age 21) is our Art Director and Co-Founder. Finally there’s Paul (age 19), he is our Music Director as well as our Community Manager.

Q: Where are you based?
Podunk: We are currently based out of two locations actually, Jake and Dusty are currently working out of Menomonie, Wisconsin, whilst Paul – who is still in high school – is currently still working out of Grantsburg, Wisconsin. The hope is to move Paul down with the rest of the team.

Q: If studying, is it game dev related?
Podunk: Dusty and Jake are currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Stout in the Game Design and Development program, while it is currently unknown where Paul intends to go to school, it is believed he will be going to school for music.

Q: How / Why did you get started?
Dusty: Well, the why is the easy part, I have known what I have wanted to do since I was ten. I always knew I wanted to make video games and Jake and I knew we always wanted to work for ourselves.

Now for when we got started. The reason behind that was my mom, she passed away five years ago from complications due to multiple sclerosis and when that happened something in me changed. I had always talked about starting a studio in like ten years or so after I had my degree and some industry experience, but after watching my mom struggle and fight her illness, I knew I couldn’t let anything hold me back. My mom was the first and only person who was really a champion of myself and Jake, saying that we could do anything, if we were willing to work for it, so I took the idea for starting the studio two years ago.

The how we got started is actually t-shirt related. When we had the idea that we wanted to start the studio, we knew that we needed some start up cash, then one day I said something to Jake along the lines of ‘that should be on a t-shirt’. Often as things do around here, that snowballed into something bigger and bigger until it got to the point where we realized we needed to make a website so people could see our shirts and buy them. We even had a whole different company planned out. We were going to be Shamrock Shirts and we had a whole business model worked out, and for about half a year that was what our plan was.

The actual game studio still didn’t have a name, it wasn’t until one night I got the idea for the name Podunk, and I told Jake I had come up with the name and then I thought about it and I realized that if we were going to have a website, why not sell our games right on that. I already had a game that I had been working on in my spare time, so we already had a product and we actually started the game studio sooner than we had even planned.

We launched the site on January 4, 2010, at the time we had like two videos. People needed to buy our game with a PayPal button and I would email them the full game file, it was not a well thought out business plan, the first year was kind of rough, but that’s how all first years are. We learned from our mistakes and started getting in contact with the right people re-launched the site, started producing our own original content in a seasonal format and then late this past summer we released our first game and it’s now just snowballing from there.

Q: What are your plans?
Podunk: We aren’t a big planning company, we are firm believers in the idea that ‘yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery’, the plan for the time being is to keep doing what we are doing. We enjoy what we do, we enjoy making our show “Gamer’s Classroom” and writing our 8-Bit Podunk Comics, as well as doing our Freewired podcast. We also really enjoy making games, we are a much more goal minded company instead of a planning one, our short term goals are to expand to our games beyond the PC. Right now we are targeting moving to the iPhone, but we are also looking into XBLA. We also would really like to see one of our games get reviewed by a gaming site, a longer term goal is within the next five years have one of our games win an award, then our biggest goal is one for our ‘Get something for Giving Something’ program which is the charity program we started in honor of the late Lynn Ryan to help raise money for Multiple sclerosis treatment and research. We do this by donating a portion of each sale of every one of our games to the National MS Society, our goal is – for over the lifetime of this program – to try and raise 10 million dollars for multiple sclerosis research and treatment,

Q: Do you intend for Podunk to be a career?
Podunk: Absolutely, it was always planned to be a career. In the past year it has gone from being a side project to being our main career.

Q: Any new projects on the cards?
Podunk: The Newest project we have announced is going to be a point and click adventure game based on characters from our 8-bit Podunk series. The game is going to be called “Jay and Dee: Gone in a Flash” and it is set to be around a 60-90 minute long game that we are going to be releasing as a flash game. While that is the only one we have formally announced, we are always working on smaller projects some of which may turn into much larger games.

Q: What are your views on gender equality in the game space?
Podunk: We firmly believe that anyone can do what anyone else can no matter their gender, race, creed or color. No matter what aspect of gaming – whether making or playing games – the only thing that can determine skill level is how much time a person spends playing a game or working on a game. Anyone can be successful and who they are shouldn’t matter.

Q: What is the Podunk team’s favorite games of all time (pick 3-5 each on ANY format, NOT a Podunk game

Dusty:
Ratchet & Clank 1
God of War 2
Assassins Creed 2
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Sly Cooper 1

“Ratchet & Clank” was actually the game that made me start thinking of game design as a career. The first game I ever actually designed was a game a lot like “Ratchet & Clank”, it may yet see life someday. “God of War 2″ is – to me – the perfect game, it is the perfect mix of great gameplay, story, puzzles and made the Director Cory Barlog my hero. The story of “Assassins Creed 2″ always gets me and it was such a vast improvement over the first game. I don’t know how many hours Jake and I spent playing “Battlefront 2″. Lastly “Sly Cooper” is on this list for a couple reasons, because it’s a great game and it was the first one I ever beat, also because it was a Christmas present from my mom.

Jake:
Super Mario Bros
Mortal Kombat 2
Doom 2
Dragon Age Origins
Sports Games

“Super Mario Bros.” because it was the first game I ever got, “MK 2″ because me, Dusty and all our cousins would spend every family get together crammed into this tiny room and play it for hours and hours and everytime, someone would get a ‘finish him’, they would throw the controller to one of our older cousins because they could do the fatality moves. “Doom 2″ because it was the game that got me into first person shooters and I blame it for my obsession with “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield”. “Dragon Age Origins” was the first RPG I could stand playing for more than a few minutes because it allowed me to feel like I was in control and not at the mercy of some angry programmer. Lastly ‘Sports Games’ because I go insane when I can’t play them physically because it gets too cold up here they give me an outlet to play them when they are not in season.

Paul
Fallout 3
Elder Scrolls IV
Borderlands
Sunset riders
Street fighter 2

“Fallout”, “Elder Scrolls” and “Borderlands” because I love being able to make my character a bad ass and then just dominating. I also love the look and feel of these games and the fantastic worlds they create. “Sunset Riders” and “Street fighter 2″ are games I grew up with and love.

Q: What advice would you give to other people wanting to start their own indie game studio?
Podunk: Our advice is you have to be fearless and be unafraid to try things, whether it is a game idea or trying to get in contact with gaming sites or publishers. The worst thing you are going to hear is “no” and while no stinks, it has never killed anyone. If you’re going to start a studio, have an idea for a product and go for it, there is a good chance some people won’t like your idea, but there will be people who do like it and will support it. Every game has an audience, your job is to find your game’s audience. Also get in contact with and bring in the right people, let them take care of the headaches you don’t want to, you don’t have to do everything yourself.

One final piece of advice if you are an indie studio or starting one, it is a great idea to get in contact with the people at GameStreamers they are one of the best online distributors and they are some of the nicest people to work with. They will walk you step by step through the process of getting you on their network and they really care about the indie developers on their network. Also get in contact with other studios, they can help you out, we invite anyone starting a studio to get in contact with us and we will do our best to help you out.

Q: What titles have you made and where are they available?

Podunk: Our titles include “Rainbow Ball” a fun strategic twist on the brick breaking genre and it is available through any GameStreamer online store for the PC.

Thumb Bandits would like to thank Podunk Studioz for their time. Good luck guys, keep up the good work.

Podunk Studios “Rainbow Ball” game is available HERE. Or via their website.
You can also connect with the guys on Twitter (Dusty and Jake, though Jake doesn’t appear to use Twitter much) and the Podunk Facebook page.

EB Expo 2011 – Rundown / Report
With the first EB Games EXPO done and dusted we thought we’d give you a rundown of how it went, when it will return and what we saw whilst there. First up we should cover what happened before we even made it there. We’d registered for press passes and were turned down. No reason was given for this, other than a curt email stating all had been allocated. A friend who runs a much smaller gaming blog than the two we run told me he’d been given a pass no problem and laughed proclaiming “wow my readership is shit compared to yours, must be because you’re a girl”. Though this was said in jest, it stung and I emailed EB PR back to ask why we had not received the pass. The response came hours later in the form of an explanation that they’d ‘looked at the wrong website’ and miraculously found us two press passes. Well lucky my friend had said what he’d said, or I just wouldn’t have bothered even asking. Despite this hiccup we donned iPad, iPhones and headed to the expo.

EB EXPO 2011 – First Impressions

Wow… disorganised much? That was the first impression. Given this is Australia’s first big video games EXPO there were bound to be a few hiccups. Firstly, no queuing system for picking up tickets and passes. Press passes were being given out by a woman in the same ticket book as regular passes, but it wasn’t signed in any way. We had to ask 4 EB staffers before finding someone that knew where we were to go to collect them. We then had to wait in the same ‘queue’ (well thousands of people jostling to get to the front of a mosh pit) as regular ticket pick-ups. Passes in hand time to get scanned in as we were told by the woman handing them out “over there somewhere” she stated. We eventually found the two guys doing the press pass scanning, they were talking to each other behind a barrier, backs to us and no right of way to suggest they were the press scanning guys.

EB EXPO 2011 – Game highlights

Finally we made it into the arena, which at this stage only had a few hundred people milling because everyone had made their way into the main arena to watch the motocross event. Screw that, we’re here to see video games dammit, we made a beeline for the EA booth, but the guy wasn’t letting anyone in, well other than his friends it seemed, since there were a few guys in there who were not from EA and he was laughing with them when he’d shooed us away. Onto theUncharted 3 booth, got straight in and played (they had about 8 set up on different screens, single player campaign). This was fantastic, no other word for it, if it isn’t on your purchase list for next month, add it.

Back to the EB EXPO 2001 floor and a brief wander and peek at Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved then brought us to Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Tracy was desperate to play this, so we hopped in the queue and that’s when it all went wrong for the 4 Ubisoft guys running things. Because they had set up a multiplayer game, rather than multiple machines playing single player, they had to set up each person in the game and it kept skipping out, what should have been a 5 minute wait, saw us in the queue for over 20 minutes. Though we didn’t mind waiting, the problem was the main queue had then expanded to hundreds of people.. you do the math. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer played well, though the play area was fairly confined.

Why are there no images of the games we had planned to bring you? Well most of the big games we wanted to report on had stickers on the monitors stating strictly no photography. I realise this was not down to the EB EXPO 2011, but more likely the publishers wishes. This was a bit of a fail really because a picture speaks a thousand words as they say.

EB EXPO 2011 – Who was there?

All the big names were at the EB EXPO 2011, including: EB (obviously), they had a store right in the centre of the arena, Nintendo, EA, Turtlebeach, 2K, Activision, Bethesda, Konami, Plantronics, Playstation, PopCap, Capcom, Bluemouth, Disney Interactive, Logitech, AR Drone, Warner Bros, THQ, Square Enix, Xbox 360, SEGA and then some.

EB EXPO 2011 – What could be better

The next EB Expo is apparently moving down to Sydney next year. As this was the first EB EXPO there were bound to be teething issues. From a visitor standpoint, here are a few things that should be sorted before the next one:

Organization / Correct signage / A better queuing system
And separating off the press pass pick-up from the regular ticket pickup. Also with thousands of people queuing, might be a better idea than to have just 3 ticketing officers and another 6 or 8 EB people milling around chatting to one another.

Allow photos to be taken
Seriously, people are going to take them ANYWAY (well we didn’t, but you can bet quite a few other people did). Readers like to see photos rather than long drawn out explanations. The images will end up online anyway, so rather than crippling the press with the no photos / video on almost EVERY game, sort that out.

Have more than two tills in the EB store. This makes sense from a queuing perspective and a sales perspective. The queue to get into the EB EXPO EB store was insanely long and once in there it was testosterone hell and two tills and only one of them manned? That’s just crazy talk. Smaller queues and more money for EB with a bigger store, more tills and staff who are actually doing something, other than once more talking to EACH OTHER would be good.

EB EXPO 2011 – What was done right

You know, a lot of things were wrong with the EB EXPO 2011, but despite all of that EB has to be commended for bringing something like this to Australian shores. Overall the space was great (though it could have been bigger obviously), there were loads of publishers / companies there and some really helpful staff. I know there are naysayers saying the EB EXPO 2011 was merely a marketing exercise for EB, but be that true or false, the fact is Aussie’s just don’t get to see video games prior to release often, certainly not in a hands-on manner. Sure some of the organisation sucked, but this was a huge event and the first one of its kind, taking that into consideration, the EB EXPO 2011 worked well and one can only assume, the next one will be even better. Well done EB Games on bringing something that Australia was crying out for, our own games expo.

Thanks to our sister-site Lesbian Gamers we’ve got a look at one female gamers thoughts on the winner of the FemShep (Female Commander Shepard) competition that BioWare recently ran. The winner has caused quite a polarizing response with a lot of (mostly male) gamers loving the choice because she’s “sexy”, “blonds have more fun” and “my penis voted”, other gamers (male and female) seem to have had a severely adverse response to the winning FemShep. I have to say I’m with the latter bunch, I don’t like her. I think this is a massive FAIL on BioWare’s behalf and it seems completely at odds with what we’ve come to expect from the developer. All the choices were lackluster and seemingly a lot younger than the standardized Female Commander Shepard (FemShep) we’ve come to see and love.

Why BioWare didn’t just use the standard FemShep in the videos and boxart is beyond fathoming. Anyway, let’s get on with that article shall we, thanks to The LG.

The New FemShep – Female Commander Shepard FAIL

Let me preface this piece by saying I love BioWare, they are one of my favorite developers and I support them by buying their games and even their merchandise and have done so for many years. I’m upset with the FemShep debacle however. Firstly it being touted as a ‘beauty contest’ (by some) demeans what the female Commander Shepard (FemShep) is all about, it belittles her as nothing but an object of beauty, a woman to be judged on her appearance rather than action and that angers me. Somehow this “vote for your preferred FemShep” thing went from “cool they’re finally using FemShep on some marketing” to “oh shit FemShep was voted on and now she’s a blond bimbo”. I don’t understand why BioWare put it to the vote. I don’t understand why BioWare didn’t take control and make a decision to make the marketing material feature the base model FemShep, with her bobbed hair and non-pouty lips.

FemShep too young to command

Turning FemShep into this young looking blond Samus Aran type just irks and it irks a lot. This isn’t a ‘lesbian thing’, though I’m sure there will be those closed minded fools who assume as a lesbian of course I would prefer the short-haired ‘more-masculine’ Shep. To them I say give me a break, I just prefer the female Shepard who looks like you’d listen to her if the galaxy were in peril and frankly if some jumped up 18 year old blond pouting kid needed me on the front lines, I’d be questioning things big time.

Standard female Commander Shepard looks better

The standard female Shepard looks like she can tote a gun, she looks like she’s a leader and most importantly she looks severe and old enough to have lived through battle. The new FemShep we’re now stuck with for marketing and merchandise just doesn’t cut it. I was so excited to purchase a “Mass Effect” game with female Shepard I’ve ranted it to all my gamer friends, now I’ll be buying the male version because frankly I just can’t take blonde kiddy Shep seriously.

FemShep Beauty Contest poor form

I realize the result of this ‘beauty contest’ was never going to please everyone, after all, we all have our own FemShep versions and the chance of seeing your exact version on packaging or as an action-figure was never going to happen, but COME ON BIOWARE SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Shepard number 5 is bland, bland, bland, bland and worse than bland, she panders to an audience that don’t and possibly never will ‘get’ what FemShep is all about. Thanks for that Bioware, thanks for placing the decision of iconic female battle icon in the realm of what statistics suggest is the mostly male voting audience. To those male gamers who voted for a different FemShep, thank you, clearly all our votes just didn’t amount to enough, but then that’s hardly surprising with the “Gentlemen prefer blonds” doing the rounds on the various male run gaming sites presently. It just makes me want to shed a tear because it feels like gaming has once more taken one step forward, two steps back.

Oh and for the record, none of the choices were that great.

Music and a Zelda trailer, what better way to kick things off eh? The trailer recaps the Zelda franchise (well mostly). Skyward Sword clips follow and the logo for the 25th Anniversary edition of the Zelda game appears. Shigeru Miyamoto takes to the stage along with his translator. He talks about how important music is, referring to the orchestra and the orchestra join him in making his point, clever.

New Zelda games are coming for each system with “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” going live in the eShop today. Next weekend “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” will also launch in revamped fashion. “The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords” will release in September as a free DSiWare download. “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” will release this holiday season on Wii. There will also be a limited gold Wii remote on launch. Finally a series of Nintendo concerts around the world will also be held in honor of the anniversary.

Satoru Iwata takes to the stage after a brief shout out to the Zelda developers who join Miyamoto on stage. Iwata talks changes in the gaming landscape since the launch of the DS and Wii. He’s trying to reach out to the ‘hardcore’ camera, saying Nintendo’s goal is to satisfy ALL players with its new system. More details to come he says. He leaves and a montage trailer begins.

The huge screens show various gameplay, was that a final flash of what appears to be Luigi’s Mansion, ohh I hope so!

Reggie Fils-Aime takes to the stage and talks in that staggered way that he does. Imagine dinner party conversation with this guy, it would take ALL night. He talks making ‘something for everyone’ and moves onto the Nintendo 3DS. What matters to gamers: Headline titles for 3DS. On the show floor in full 3D, Mario Kart “a tricked out version you haven’t driven before”, trailer ensues and it looks very nice, with some great new additions. Release ‘holiday 2011′.

Next up, “Starfox”, yes Fox McCloud is back baby! You can use the regular control system, or the tilt on the 3DS. The 3DS camera records you in play, so in multiplayer you can see your fellow players reactions. Out in stores in the US in September.

Mario is also coming to Nintendo 3DS. “The first 3D Mario adventure created from scratch”. A trailer follows and again looks very nice. It strikes me at this juncture that no one makes games like Nintendo, so far, no gunfire, no real explosions.

Next up it’s “Kid Icarus: Uprising” and another trailer begins. After the trailer a clip of AR cards, sweet. Features 3on3 gaming and uses the Augmented Reality cards, out later this year.

“The first brother of videogames is back and he’s got his vacuum” YES!!! it’s “Luigi’s Mansion 2″ people! Man it looks nice. Can’t wait for this one. It’s “an entirely new game” – “featuring not just one but several new mansions”.

Now onto the third part developers for the Nintendo 3DS. Another trailer. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Mario and Sonic Olympics, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, Driver Renegade, Pac-Man and Galaga, Tekken 3D, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D.

Reggie talks the internet browser and e-shop. That system update goes live this week. 3D game videos available this week, downloadable game demos later this year. Gameboy and Gameboy Color games and other older games will also be available. A free 3D version of Excitebike (27 years old) will be made available. Pokemon is another big announcement, Enhanced Pokedex is coming, essentially a collecting game for Pokemon fans. Superimpose the Pokemon with real life backdrops. “Pokedex 3D’ is available through the eShop, it’s complimentary with the system update.

Nintendo 3DS means social, connection, interaction. All delivered in a full 3D display.

Wow not messing around, straight onto the introduction of the new console. He’s talking about the “Wii” name and the name of the new console, wait for it…. “WiiU”… meh. It’s all to do with “we” and “you” enjoying the system together.

A video follows and shows the game being played on the TV, only to move to the controller when the channel is changed. It works as a drawing tablet, has touch controls and tilt controls. All in all it’s very clever and works with other Wii accessories, like Wii Fit and the nunchuck and WiiMote. You can make video calls with the controller, share the controller to the TV. “Coming to your living room 2012″.

The new controller looks sweet, check out the full video below.

Time for to take to the stage for talk about the new controller. Backward compatible, with present peripherals.

Wii U controller Specs:

Not designed to be a portable videogame machine. So you can’t take it outside basically. It all works via streaming. The actual WiiU console isn’t really shown, other than on one of the slides for the quick of eye, it looks like a streamlined Wii.

A video of Shigeru Miyamoto starts, he’s talking up the uses of the WiiU. New styles of play and all the possibilities the new controller entails.

Smash Brothers for 3DS and WiiU gets some good applause. Iwata calls Reggie back and he returns to the stage to talk about new WiiU games. There’s 8 on show in the showfloor, not games “just interactive demonstrations”. Another video ensues that seems to have little to do with anything other than showing off the graphics of the WiiU console, which is obviously the point.

Reggie is now talking “how the new controller can change things”. Your Mii can appear in game (Super Mario Bros is the game used as an example). He shows some other games using the WiiU controller. He says he’s just described prototypes, not actual games. A real game is “LEGO City Stories”, people seem underwhelmed. Seriously LEGO? “LEGO City Stories” is coming out on WiiU and Nintendo 3DS.

Video now of developers talking up the WiiU controller. They’re all talking it up like it’s the most amazing thing in the world. Most of the big names are there. A few of the games get a cheer, most notably “Batman: Arkham Asylum”.

This video leads straight into another showing “Darksiders II”, “Dirt”, Aliens: Colonial Marines” (okay that’s cool), “Ghost Recon Online”, “Metro Last Light”, “Tekken”, “Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge” (gets a cheer).

Iwata and Reggie both on stage together. Both talking up the WiiU. EA is invited on stage and John Riccitiello enters to do his spiel. Says he’s never appeared with Nintendo and talks up how the new ‘console’ will be great for EA content. It’s all about EA games. “Changing games from a thing that you buy, to a place that you go”. Blah blah blah blah. “We can’t wait to see EA games on this new system”.

Reggie returns to close.
“Consider 4 platforms, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and WiiU. He’s talking up the innovation of each device. He’s talking about how WiiU will change gaming. Zelda 25th Anniversary finally gets a mention, though it’s only in passing.

That’s all folks.

After putting on 3D specs and watching a brief intro video displaying the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Move, PlayStation Vita (minus the Vita) and a multitude of games, things finally get underway. Jack Tretton takes to the stage and comments on how busy it is and thanks everyone for joining them. Talks about the PlayStation Network outage and makes a joke, but seems fairly humbled by the event overall and thanks the third party partners and retailers. Consumers “are the lifeblood of the company” and he apologizes for any anxiety it caused. Wow.. hold up.. Sony are owning something.. this must be a first surely? He talks up the PSN and how they’re adding CinemaNow later in the year.

Beauty, perfection and the power of the PlayStation… it’s time for some “Uncharted”. Co-presidents of Naughty Dog Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra. take to the stage to show us “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception”. Rather than me talking you through it, check it out below. It seems both Nathan and Lara find themselves in similar circumstance at one point (again).

Wow, pretty neat right? Those set pieces, can’t beat them. June 28 multiplayer beta begins. Then a full 3D trailer is shown (below in none 3D for you). Yes people that was Chloe and Elena wasn’t it. YES!!! The date: 11.1.11 that’s November 1st 2011 for non US folk who didn’t already know that. Can’t wait.

Insomniac Games is next up with Marcus Smith, talking “Resistance 3″. Things are grim in game, given the chimera have essentially won. The game is in 3D and the demo ensues. It “takes advantage of PlayStation Move” and there’s a “Resistance 3″ pack for the Move.

Tretton announces “God of War: Origins Collection”, it will be remastered in 3D HD. Also “ICO” which is amazing. Both launch September and will both be playable in 3D.

Hardware:
A PlayStation branded 3D display. Allows two players to see two different screens, without the use of Splitscreen! It will be available this holiday season along with a pair of PlayStation 3D glasses ($69.99 each), a 6′ HDMI cable, and a copy of “Resistance 3″ all for $499.99.

PlayStation Move time, talking about what a success it’s been. Mine is gathering dust, so I’ll not go into that. 2K Sports hit the stage to talk NBA. NBA2K12 will support PlayStation Move ‘NBA on the Move’. Seems pointless to me, but hey, you might like it. Time for a celebrity endorsement, Kobe Bryant takes to the stage. I love how he refers to the PlayStation Move as “the remote” classic. NBA2K12 releases October 4.

Next up time for something new: “Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest”, a new PlayStation Move title. A fantasy-action game that has “a very unique set of moves”. Another 3D title. The bow and arrow works with one controller, which seems odd. Graphics look a little like “Death Jr.” or “Grabbed by the Ghoulies”. Check it out below if you can cope with the dev saying “Jeremy” over and over again. It releases in the fall.

Jack Tretton is back again reeling off loads of games in the catalogue. Trailer for “inFAMOUS 2″ plays. Check it below. A couple of female characters which is cool. It launches tomorrow in the US. In the fall new PlayStation Move additions will become available.

Tretton talks “Little Big Planet 2″ and PlayStation Move update. They’re really plugging the Move at this E3, can’t say I’ve used mine since I purchased it. Next up it’s a trailer for “Starhawk”. This is a sort of space western, which is interesting… but overall I thought meh.

Tretton talks up “Sly Cooper”, then it’s time for a rather stylish trailer. “Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time” coming 2012.

CEO of CCP Hilmar Petursson takes to the stage to talk up “Dust 514″, I just love listening to him because he’s from Iceland. “Dust 514″ will feature Move support and it will link into the “EVE Online” universe. Trailer plays. Closed beta for “Dust 514″ will be at the end of the year.

More Tretton, the dude is on fire today. Now it’s time for “BioShock: Infinite” featuring what seems to be a damsel in distress situation, ho hum and I was looking forward to this game almost more than anything else.

Ken Levine from Irrational Games is on stage after the “BioShock Infinite” trailer. He talks some “uncharitable” things he may have said about the PlayStation Move. Of course he came around to the idea of how the Move would work with “BioShock: Infinite” and there will be Move support. A pet project of Irrational Games is a PlayStation Portable game, handheld “BioShock” sweet.

Tratton is back to talk about the PlayStation Move. The PS3 version of “BioShock Infinite” will have the original “BioShock” on the same blu-ray disc. “Saints Row 3″ will feature Move support. A new “Star Trek” game will feature PlayStation Move support and there will be a peripheral device based on the Star Trek phaser, gotta love that. Trailer below.

Tretton again, 3 exclusive titles with extras for PS3 owners only (I hate this exclusive add-on crap!). First there’s “SSX” featuring an exclusive level on mount Fuji, next up “Need for Speed: The Run” will feature seven additional cars for the game. Bit lame for non PS3 owners. “Battlefield 3″ will also come with “Battlefield 1943″ bundled on the disc.

President and group CEO Kaz Hirai takes to the stage as charismatic as ever. He talks Sony’s 10 year business plan. He talks about consumer loyalty after the PSN issues, saying they’ve been humbled and overwhelmed by the support of their customers. He talks up the network experience and how important it is for the mobile platform.

PlayStation Suite will bring PlayStation content to Android smartphones and tablets. More info on PlayStation Suite in the near future. Now it’s time for some NGP goodness, The official title – as rumored – is the PlayStation Vita (vita meaning life). Dual thumbtacks, two cameras OLED screen and I quote an “augmented reality experience”. He talks it up a bit too much, come on Kaz, we’ve seen most of this before in some form, he talks it up like they invented it all. There will be wifi and 3G wifi models. They’re partnering with AT&T as the exclusive carrier (US) and the crowd don’t seem to take too well to that announcement.

PlayStation Vita “Party” can see users voice-chat live with the built in mic or headset. Social connection tool “near” is a friends list essentially. More specifics unveiled “in the near future”.

Time for Scott Rohde to take to the stage. He talks it up like it’s the god of all handheld gaming devices. A brief demo of “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” is introduced by two of the devs. “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” on the PlayStation Vita looks amazing. I had zero interest in the PlayStation Vita prior to seeing this trailer, but then I am a HUGE fan of the “Uncharted” franchise, so placing it on the PlayStation Vita was a smart move by Sony. The multi-control system is great, with touchscreen or regular controls available to the player is a sweet addition.

More chat about the PlayStation Vita follows and it’s onto a game called “Ruin”. An action-based role-playing game. The most amusing part of this section is just how out of breath the dev is whilst talking about the game… poor thing, I guess he rushed to the stage. “Ruin” links seamlessly to the PS3 also, which makes it slightly more interesting using ‘cloud’.

Next up it’s Mod Nation Racers on PlayStation Vita. A quick demo of how the track editor works is impressive.

Scott Rohde from Sony is back on stage to talk up the PlayStation Vita. Time for some “Little Big Planet” on the PlayStation Vita. This is some more good stuff right here. Needless to say, given the PlayStation Vita’s rear and front touch and controls, there’s loads of ways to play.

Capcom are doing “Street Fighter” and “Tekken”, yeah you read it right people. “Street Fighter X Tekken”, we heard about this a little while ago, but this is some updated stuff about the PlayStation Vita version of “Streetfighter X Tekken”. The character Cole from “inFAMOUS” will also feature in the game. A ‘realtime’ demo follows.

Rohde returns saying there are more than 80 titles in development for the PlayStation Vita and a video is shown of upcoming content.

Now an announcement from Kaz Hirai (who doesn’t love this guy). The Sony PlayStation Vita is out this holiday season at a cost of 29,980 Yen (including tax), $299, and euro 299 for the 3G version. A cheaper Wi-Fi-only edition will cost 24,980 Yen (including tax), $249, and euro 249.

Jack Tretton SCEA does his spiel to cap things off, followed by a closing movie of what to expect from PlayStation, all set to drummers with giant drums.. err.. drumming and a DJ playing some ‘music’, That’s all folks.

Welcome to your Thumb Bandits EA E3 2011 Press Conference coverage, I’ll try and leave out all the crap and get to the goods: A trailer starts with what looks like “Cloverfield”, this turns out to be “Mass Effect: 3″, one of the most highly anticipated games of the year (now come on, I know I’m not alone here). Casey Hudson takes to the stage. March 6, 2012 is the date for your diary. Time for a demo. Looks amazing as expected and a gameplay trailer “Fall of Earth” is shown.

Time to look at a few new games, after a plug for Origin.com, EA’s new hub of the universe, then it’s “Need for Speed: The Run” from Blackbox. A race from San Francisco to New York. The big news here is the on-foot sections, yes, you get out of the car. The character is male, so it will be interesting to see if they include a female option in the end game.

Next up the long awaited “Star Wars” game “Star Wars: The Old Republic”. Again you get to “choose your side” and it looks amazing and includes some kick ass female characters. There’s not much else to say KOTOR is always a hit, check out the trailer shown below.

Next up it’s time for some snowboarding in the form of “SSX” which releases January 2012. Again, not much to say, other than I’m really looking forward to this one, in the hopes it recaptures some of that “SSX: Tricky” gameplay I’ve missed.

Lots of spiel about “FIFA” before a look at “FIFA 12″ and a promo video featuring lots of actual footballers, who apparently learn more about the actual game through playing the “FIFA” videogame… doubtful. FIFA Football Club connects to all the FIFA games you might be playing (on whatever format) and brings them all together in FIFA Football Club, nice idea. There’s also some real world game updates week by week, nice.

From “FIFA 12″ to the NFL, it’s time for some “Madden NFL 12″ and some real life NFL heroes, so much for not rolling out the celebrities. EA Sports do bring it with these franchises, so there’s really not much else to say other than “Madden 12″ releases August 30 and it’s on my purchase list (as it has been every year since the dawn of time).

Next up “The Sims Social”, a social Facebook game you play with your friends…. literally. Pretty cool idea and a nice one for Sims addicts. Prior to this trailer there was a dig at “Farmville”, seriously, the gaming bitchery just never ends does it, concentrate on making good games people, rather than worrying about what other people are doing.

Curt Schilling takes to the stage to talk “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning”, a trailer follows and it looks very nice indeed.

Time for some Insomniac as Ted Price takes to the stage. Their new multi-platform franchise means they’re coming to Xbox with “Overstrike”.The awesome thing about this is 2 of the four characters are female in the Overstrke 9 team. Naya Deveraux who is a little like Kate Archer, which is awesome and there’s Isabelle St Clair, who bares more than a little resemblance to Claudia from “Warehouse 13″. This looks like a great game and bravo for breaking the one in four female character rule Insomniac. This has been duly added to my must buy list, love Insomniac and this looks sweet.

Time for a “Battlefield 3″ trailer followed by some more spiel. Powered by “Frostbyte 2″ it does indeed look amazing. The Multi-platform beta kicks off in September. The tank gameplay footage goes on for way too long and kind of brings the EA conference to a close in boring fashion which is a shame. Release date is October 25.

The Xbox conference for E3 2011 starts with a fairly lengthy ingame gameplay footage for “Call of Duty: MW3″ which looks awesome, check it out below. There’s the usual man chat to follow the trailer which ends with “we can’t wait for November 8″. The “reconnect the controller” bit…. yeah staged much. Still it’s a nice look at the game.

Don Mattrick takes to the stage to thank everyone for supporting Xbox, next up it’s Crystal Dynamics to talk the new “Tomb Raider” game. Lara is 20 in the game. A stunning level follows and a release window of Fall 2012. Can’t wait.

Peter Moore takes to the stage to talk EA Sports. Then it’s time for some Mass Effect 3 love. A “brand new adventure” where “earth has been taken”. “Mass Effect 3″ will support Kinect voice recognition… oh dear. You choose what dialogue is used by saying it essentially and can also deliver strategic commands to your team, like “move up”.

Next up is Tom Clancys “Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” which as expected looks amazing. Yves Guillemot takes to the stage for a short introduction. The new “Gunsmith” system let’s you do weapon optimization, with gesture or voice using Kinect. Guillemot carries on talking about how “Gunsmith will pave the way on Kinect” and that all future Tom Clancy games will use Kinect. Whether this is good or bad news remains to be seen.

Marc Whitten from Xbox Live next. He talks about making the technology invisible. Introducing voice recognition for Xbox, this time on the new Xbox experience. The big news though is YouTube partnering with Xbox Live. Then there’s Bing on Xbox which searches netflix and other content providers to find what you’re looking for. Needless to say it works well in the demo, saying “Bing X-Men” brings up all X-Men content including the games and movies in one place.

As was rumored, Xbox Live TV is coming to Xbox. The new experience launches in the Fall. They’re REALLY pushing the voice recognition which is slightly concerning given how dodgy it can be for those of us sans US accent. I used mine for all of an hour before wanting to put my foot through the screen and my Aussie accent isn’t even that strong.

Ultimate Fighting Championship president takes to the stage to talk about UFC on Xbox. Phil Spencer from MS Studios takes the stage to further talk UFC on Xbox and how Xbox is also about games and everything covered is an exclusive.

A “Gears of War 3″ trailer follows. Cliffy B takes to the stage to talk “Gears of War 3″, he intros Ice-T to the stage to play some. The most interesting thing here for the female gamer is of course the inclusion finally of a female COG. Booyah!

Next up Crytech and “Ryse” where “you are the controller” in ancient Rome, looks lovely, but “you are the controller”. For a second there I was very excited this was going to be a sort of Rome set “Assassin’s Creed”…. oh well.

Next Halo, which is essentially a rehash so they could include some additional “Halo” loving. This is a remastered campaign etc. “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary” will no doubt keep fans of “Halo” happy and keep the cash flowing into Microsoft. November 15 is the date for your diaries.

“Fable: The Journey” looks great as usual, even borrowing from “Lost” with regards to the smoke monster. The use of Kinect seemed to work well, though these things usually do when demoed. The release window given is 2012.

“Minecraft” is coming to Xbox Live this winter. Yeah, I said “Minecraft” is coming to Xbox.

Time for more Kinect spiel, they’re really pushing it again this year.
“Kinect: Disneyland Adventures” essentially sees you visiting the Disney theme park. This is one for the kids and it’s kids who demo it onstage. So cheesy it was painful. More cheesy kids saying more cheesy lines as they play and lots of fake laughing “this is soooo cool”, really? No. For those interested it’s available this holiday season.

“Kinect: Star Wars” and the crowd seem a bit more excited. The footage shown doesn’t instill the greatest of confidence, even in a die-hard “Star Wars” fan such as I. The live demo too kind of makes it look a little rubbish… shame.

Tim Schaffer from Double Fine takes to the stage and I love this guy, but sadly not this particular game. “Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster” is another Kinect title for kids. The demo shows “father and son” playing together, it’s a sweet idea, though again, full of cheese.

Kudo Tsunoda (Kinect creative director) talks Kinect, doesn’t mention the sheer lack of new Kinect games we’ve seen since it launched of course. He announces “Kinect Fun Labs” a permanent dash edition. There’s a demo of Kinect making an avatar of a person, I’m dubious, but it’s a nice idea. Kinect finger tracking is up next, yes “Kinect Fun Labs” will also do finger tracking and again the demo is cool, but whether it will work as well in reality is anyone’s guess (gees can you tell how cynical I am, sorry about that). Next ‘innovation’ is Kinect object capture, another demo, “scanning in ‘the things you love”, essentially makes a digital version of real life ‘stuff’. There’s barely applause for this section and that may be because it all seems a little shallow and ‘tech demo’ at its heart. “Kinect Fun Labs” is live NOW.

“Kinect Sports Season Two” featuring 6 new sports: skiing, golf, baseball, darts, tennis and football (NFL). A demo of golf ensues and it looks nice, but again it’s hard to tell how well it plays since this is essentially a set piece. “Kinect Sports Season Two” also features more voice recognition. The demo is yet another rehearsed mess and the football is painful to watch.

Harmonix Kasson Crooker takes to the stage (last year he danced remember) he’s to talk “Dance Central 2″ and is no doubt thrilled he isn’t one of the dancers. There’s voice control and multiplayer dancing in “Dance Central 2″. A demo featuring dancers follows, more of the same really, but with two onscreen at once.

Don Mattrick enters looking as smug as ever (doesn’t he always though?), he’s talking more Kinect and Bing and how it will ‘change things forever’.

That’s it other than a first look at the “dawn of a new trilogy” …. it’s Halo… “Halo 4″ holiday 2012 and what a way to end things.

That’s it folks your E3 2011 Xbox press conference live blog.
Hope you enjoyed it.

Before leaping into the next lot of games that are no doubt going to have moments of sucking the breath right out of you, let’s take a little look back at the most breathtaking moments in video games over the last year (at least in one gamers opinion).

Flower (PS3/PSN)
If you read my review of Flower you’ll already know I thought it was something pretty special. The subtle movements, the orchestration and a game where you’re essentially just moving petals on the breeze was truly something of a spectacle. The lesson here is that sometimes less is more and we don’t always need AK-47′s and Frag Grenades to have a good gaming experience.

Modern WarFare 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Single player campaign here was superlative (spoiler ahead), but the air was sucked out of the room when the villain I was trying to buddy up with shot me in the face because he knew all along I was CIA. Yowzers. That’s what I get for not shooting any civvies (actually it would have played out that way in any case and I felt better for my conscientious objector stance in the airport).

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
It’s difficult to pinpoint just one breathtaking moment in Uncharted 2, because quite frankly, the game is littered with OMFG moments. One that stands out to me however is the ‘tutorial’ level, dangling off a train that is also dangling off a snowy precipice. Freakin awesome! On a female gamer note, seeing Elena Fisher again for the first time was also another great gaming moment of 2010, her and Chloe shaking hands was one of the best in game interactions in history.

Batman Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
The Scarecrow leaning in to peek around the corner in the freaky dream sequence was terrifying. Perhaps not as breathtaking as other moments in gaming, but coupled with seeing dead parents telling you to save them, definitely up there. Batman telling Oracle he’d “had a little run in with Scarecrow” definitely an understatement. There’s other stuff too, but I’ll leave that for you to see for yourself.

Assassin’s Creed II (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
This game had so many OMFG moments, but here’s a few that stood out to me. The carnival fireworks in Venice were stunning, but getting a hold of a carnival mask and hunting prey through the party-goers just superb. The first time you go up a lookout in any of the cities and take a look around, only to leap off into a pile of hay, good times. Hanging little kids.. not cool.. but definitely OMFG.

Beatles Rockband (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
Psychedelic madness and the head bob, that’s all you need to know. Perhaps not “breathtaking” in the sucking the air out of the room kind of way, as say, hanging off a dangling train, but The Beatles Rockband was still a huge surprise to me because … I don’t really like The Beatles (now tell me that didn’t suck the air out of the room!). That said this was thoroughly enjoyable and made only better by Paul and Ringo frakking up at E3 by saying things like “Who would ever thought we’d end up as androids”. Clearly no clue.

Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC)
The Witch walks around. Those are the only words you need to hear to suck the air out of a room. The Witch Walks Around!!! Sure Left 4 Dead 2 might be more of the same, with some sweet additions, but it still had some breathtaking moments, like first seeing the trailer with all the survivors going toe to toe with the infected masses. Not to mention Nick telling the Coach the helicopter might be made of chocolate… classy.

Microsoft announcing Project Natal
Sony were left holding their kinda pathetic wands with glowing knobs in their hands when Microsoft came out with Natal at E3. The onstage elephant demo and of course the now famous Milo demo made mincemeat out of Sony’s little glowing knob. Whether Natal works anywhere near as well as suggested by the partly pre-recorded / staged demo reels is anyones guess, but we’ll know around late 2010 when Natal releases. Sony’s magic wand / glowing knob of amazement was meant to launch mid year, but – surprise surprise – has been pushed back to later in 2010.

I’ve probably missed some, but those are the things that spring to mind. How about you, what were your OMFG moments in gaming 2009?

Written Jan 22 2010
Article by Angela

A lot of us gamers have iPhones, heck, a lot of non gamers have iPhones, but with a gazillion apps in the app store, we don’t have time to go through them all, so here for you my gaming chums is a little rundown of some of the apps you should have on your phone.

For the Tweeters
There are loads of Twitter Apps on the iPhone, but we’ve narrowed down your choices somewhat right here.

Tweetie 2
Tweetie 2 has seen some changes and it’s now rated by many as one of the best Twitter Apps available. Tweetie 2 handles multiple accounts, allegedly translates foreign Tweets and links your contacts with Twitter (if you want that). It’s $3.99 (AUD)

Twitterlator Pro
Twitterlator Pro isn’t cheap at $5.99 (AUD) but it’s got everything the regular Twitter user is going to need, including video / audio tweeting, friends lists, locational tweeting, multiple accounts and more.

For the Fitness Freaks
Yes there are a ton of fitness Apps in the AppStore and here are a couple of the best.

RunKeeper
Fitness freaks this one’s for you. RunKeeper tracks your jogging using the GPS. Not only does it keep track of your running distance, it will also calculate calories burned and various other fitness guff. There’s a free version and the pro version is $12.99 (AUD).

For the Geeks
I’m one and chances are if you hang out on a gaming site you’re one too. Geeks Unite! Here are some of the best geek Apps on the AppStore.

Dynamic Dice
Tabletop RPG fans looking for a nicely animated dice roller can try Dynamic Dice (1.19 AUD). Other choices for dice rollers lay in D20 Dice and Dice Bag. Though there really is nothing like actually rolling real dice.

SCI FI Wire
Okay so this is really just a flashy RSS feed, but heck if you want to keep up with your scifi news when you’re out and about, this is pretty darn cool and updated all week. FREE

Word Games
There are loads of word games on the iPhone, but some of the first to appear are still the best. Be sure and check these out.

Chicktionary
It’s chickens, with letters on their eggs and you rearrange them into words to fill in blanks spaces. This is cute and a lot of fun, if you haven’t tried it, grab the lite version. It’s $2.49 (AUD) if you want the full version.

Wurdle
Drago your finger across letters randomley generated on a grid to make words. The more words you make the more points you get. The bigger the words, the more points you get. $2.49 (AUD)

How’s the Weather
Okay so there are loads of serious weather Apps in the App Store, there are also some fun weather Apps, sure weather can be fun.

Zombie Weatherman
At $2.49 this is a bit steep for a weather App given the iPhone comes with one installed, but hey it’s got zombies in it! Your zombie weatherman groans and bleeds when you poke him, as well as showing the weather.

BOMRadar
For Aussie iPhone users the BOMRadar is a great little app that shows you incoming storms and other information. It’s fairly cheap at $1.19 (AUD).

Games Games Games
They’re what we’re here for, but rather than listing them separately I’ll just splurge them all out one after the other because there are so many.

Papertoss – Flick the paper ball into the bin
Skee-Ball – Throw the ball, score points, retrotastic
Jet Car Stunts – It’s a stunt car app what more do you need to know
FlightControl – Planes planes planes
Harbor Master – Boats Boats Boats
Peggle – Addictive and great music
StoneLoops! – PuzzLoop essentially
AirportMania – Don’t crash them!
MiniGore – Mmmm fuzzy monsters
ZombieVille – Mmmmm Brains
DoodleJump – Simple accelerometer title, but addictive as heck
RockBand – That RockBand, only with a lot less songs.
Sally’s Spa – One for the time management nuts
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor – Because it’s so darn clever
Orbital – There’s a lite version, go get it!
Ranch Rush – Another one for the time management, this time on a farm

Handy Apps
Shazam – It’s like magic, hold your phone to the song you’re hearing and it will tell you what it is. Handy for those “who the heck sings this?” moments.

Wikipanion – It’s Wikipedia in your pocket, easier than going via Safari to get there.

PandoraBox – Tells you what Apps are on sale or going for free

I hope you’ve enjoyed a look at some of the best Apps available in the App Store as of the start of 2010. I’m sure we’ll do another article as an update a little later in the year with even more great Apps, particularly given the rumored iSlate is said to release at the end of this month.

Difficult Questions About Videogames is a new book by James Newman (Author), Iain Simons (Author) published November 2004 (yes a week or so ago) and we’ve given it the once over – As far as academic texts go most of them are so convoluted and elitist in the way they’re written that the ‘regular joe’ would have little to no hope of understanding what the text is trying to say; but that’s the point isn’t it, to keep the ‘academic elite’.. well, elite. So, why on earth even bother to review a book that essentially is an academic book about videogames, given not many will understand a bloody word of it? Well this book is different, yes it is an academic text, but it differs in one major way, it is for the most part fun to read (yes I’m serious) and it doesn’t often patronize the reader. Oh if only all academic texts were written with such fervor, why I’d have had my dissertation written in no time instead of pondering over 10 paragraphs of drivel that really could have been covered succinctly in one.

Read the foreword entitled ‘Two Words’ and smile with delight as you’re taken on a discourse of academic language that, at first seems to fall into the usual depths of ‘up their own backsides language’ that the majority of these texts do, but then, almost magically you realize that the writers know of the annoyance of ‘academic speak’ and although there are moments of what I fondly refer to as ‘Dictionary Reach’ it is all packaged in such a way that is both amusing and for the most part explanatory, although it should be pointed out that a few of the respondents most definitely got on their academic high chairs to spit out all manner of undecipherable and turgid waffle. Predominantly though you’ll know what the majority are on about and it really does get the brain ticking. Oh wonder of ergodic wonder!

So what’s the book about?
Essentially the book is a culmination of gamers¹ thoughts and ideas on the state of contemporary thinking regarding the cultural phenomenon of videogames. What makes this different is that the academics, journalists, developers etc within the book all answer a set of the same questions which leads to some extremely informed and deeply thought out answers which can then be examined by comparing and contrasting the views expressed. There are names you’ll recognize and names you wont but it is the body of what each has to say that will keep you reading.

In essence the people behind the book sent out emails to various people within the games industry (or branches thereof) asking if they’d be interested in participating by answering set questions. Positive replies led to a second email which contained the questions. They also had a website where the questions were so participants could utilise this as a way of filling in responses. Although the art of CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) is at some higher levels of academia seen as methodologically inferior, this book shows that such approaches not only work, but they work well. Peoples responses too are written verbatim other than typographic errors, there’s no academic fluffing here, it’s all peoples thoughts and they’ve been kind enough to let the reader make connections between individual responses rather than telling the reader what they should be thinking.

The Questions…
In another interesting turn the questions themselves seem extremely straight forward, however as can be seen by the responses we all have diverse definitions for the most basic of concepts. This is superb because it really gets the reader thinking also about what they believe the concept is about. An example of this is the very first question posed: ‘What is a videogame?’ Sounds simple enough, but REALLY give it some thought and then try to explain it, are you going to come from the standpoint of a gamer, developer, child, adult, and the list goes on. Of course some of the respondents give similar answers based around the actual component parts, it’s interactive, its video based, goal oriented etc but for the most part individuals have all given differing responses. It is at this point that we should mention once more that some of the respondents have very much taken to the academic bicycle when answering, which is a shame as it therefore removes the text from the readership of the regular joe, to the readership of the educated and this of course seemed to be what the entire book was trying to avoid. Some of the respondents appear to have taken weeks to craft a reply rather than simply giving it thought and replying in a manner that the layman will understand. This is the downfall of academic text as it is exactly this kind of elitist bettering that will ruin a succinct and lucid response and turn it into something obscure and pretentious… at least that’s what this reviewer feels. Had I edited the book I honestly believe I’d have released two versions, one being the ‘every joe version’ and the other the ‘academics try and outdo what they think other academics might do edition’… just a thought.

Setup…
The way the book is actually set out is fantastic. It is essentially cut into chapters and these in turn house various questions relating to the chapter heading. All respondents answers are chunked together uniformly under the question number so you read the question at the beginning of a new chapter section and then all the respondents answers to that one question follow on. It is a far better setup than to have had each respondent have their own section thus making for a flick and search style of reading when comparing answers.

Length…
Oh come on, what difference does size make? Oh ok ok, it’s a rather nice 363 pages long including supplementary guff such as the foreword and contributors listing. All in all it is just right, it could have no doubt gone on and on given the sheer amount of people who would no doubt have opted to respond had they been aware of its existence prior to print (grumble grumble).

Multiplayer…
A definite plus for this book is the thought factor, it really leads you to want to discuss the varying aspects within its many pages. If you’re lucky enough to know other gamers of like mind don’t be afraid to point them in the direction of this title wen you’re done with it because the ensuing conversation will be well worth it. As the product blurb states, the answers in this book are radical, loving, conservative, funny, mundane, controversial and emotional – what binds them together is the commitment that these questions are worth answering. And therefore worth talking about with your gaming pals.

Graphics…
Graphically speaking there’s not much to this title, you may overlook this in your bookstore as it hides out in that dark corner that is the social sciences section, but huzzah you can purchase it online.

Gameplay…
It has that pick up and play factor, the foreword is a joy to read thanks to the humorous approach taken by James Newman and Iain Simons. Given the set up of the book as previously mentioned this also makes it far easier to read and was a clever move on the part of those who put this title together. Sure it does suffer from a few irks but these can be firmly pointed at these fragging academic types who are only interested in outdoing some other bespectacled so and so whose main job is to make as many readers brows furrow in perplexity as is possible. For the most part however respondents managed to stay on track and give amusing and insightful answers.

Overall…
A fantastic effort that is worthy of any gamers bookshelf be she / he academically driven or purely gaming mad. The insight you’ll gain from the differing views and perspectives is something few (if any) other gaming books will give you because it is the structure and diverse responses that will have you thinking and wondering why other books haven’t taken a similar tack as this.

If you like a little dabble in the waters of academia and you also happen to be an avid gamer you should purchase this book with haste. Regular gamers with little interest in the academic realm may also find much of this book of interest and it will certainly give them insight and intelligent inferences that they’ll carry with them from that point on. Given the huge mix of contributors there’s bound to be something here for you. All in all a really nice book that finally examines fundamental and seemingly simple questions we all thought we knew the answers to, but perhaps we truly hadn’t even begun to consider.

Footnotes:
¹Gamers as in the respondents. These range from academics to developers to students.