By Melissa Velte
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Capcom, PSP , 2007
As a huge fan of the Playstation title, this reincarnation of Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP instantly jumped to the top of my must-have list. But a subtle fear lurked inside me: Would I throw away $40 for just a duplicate title with a couple new features? I almost dug out the original, prepared to suffer through the sketchy English translation. Almost.
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By Melissa Velte
Devil May Cry 4, Square Enix, PS3 , 2008
Ready for more over-the-top action served with tough-guy lines and awesome stunts? Newcomer Nero stars in this fourth installment of tough and fulfilling gameplay, available on both PS3 and Xbox 360.
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By Robyn Fleming
It’s five in the afternoon, and I’ve just changed my outfit for the third time. I’m not preparing for a date; it’s the first meeting of my new, all-women gaming group, and I want to make a good first impression. Since two of my four players this evening have never played a tabletop game in their lives, and the other two have had only a little experience, I’ve decided that I’d better tone down my natural nerdiness as much as possible. Unfortunately, every clean shirt I can find says “geek” somewhere on the front.
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By Stephanie Pegg
Once upon a time (not very long ago), I helped to run a theatre-style Live-Action Role Play game. This isn’t a particularly special thing to do; people run LARPs all the time. However, we tried something I’d never done before: a registration questionnaire asking all the players what kind of characters they’d like to play. This helped us to fine-tune casting - it meant that with some of the storylines, particularly those involving romance, depression and same-gender relationships, we could be far more relaxed about which players were doing what. And, of course, it gives me the opportunity to answer the vexing questions:
- What do LARPers really want?
- How different are men and women gamers, really?
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By Brandy Resnick
I am a 31 year old woman. In the last two years, I have been taking real steps towards l33t g33k status, though my geekiness has been within me for most of my life. My first foray into the genre of fantasy really began when I was eight years old and my grandmother handed me a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring to browse through for a good name for my new troll doll (remember the ugly plastic ones with the crazy colored hair that were so popular in the 80’s?). I picked “Frodo” because it called to me. Then I read the book. I don’t think I have ever fully come back from that world. I still have Mr. Frodo – he’s on a hutch in my bedroom and he’s gotten me through some pretty hectic times in my life.
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By Stephanie Pegg
Portal, Valve , 2007
Portal: A Gateway Game?
I don’t play First-Person Shooters. This is arguably a shocking way to begin a review, but the reason will become clear in a little while. I don’t play them for several reasons: my hand-eye co-ordination isn’t great, I’m less interested in aggressive play in favor of resource building play and, I think crucially, I get very disoriented by the rapidly changing point of view. Many of my friends love them, which is fine, but I’ve generally steered clear of them beyond occasionally glancing over someone’s shoulder as they go out and shoot things.
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By Abby Wilson
Star Fox, Nintendo EAD/Argonaut Systems, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1993
The other day I was browsing through some of my old Nintendo 64 games in a big plastic box I keep beneath my TV. It’s probably my favorite way of avoiding homework; my, my, look how dusty these games are! Look, now they need to be organized. Genre? Title? Let’s do both and see which one works the best! I happened upon my old copy of Star Fox 64 and fired it up. I’m the only one in my family who actually enjoys this game – my siblings preferred Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007. I laughed at “Do a barrel roll!” long before the internet capitalized on it. (more…)
By Melissa Velte
Separation
My first recalled memories all involve video games: The Intellivision, playing Utopia and Dungeons and Dragons with my mother, or watching my father play TRON: Deadly Discs. I remember the graphics and sounds vividly, even though I was only three years old. I continued to play games as I grew: Atari Track & Field and Pitfall, Lode Runner and The Incredible Machine on the PC. I still play NES games, and have sporadic and horrible obsessions with Heroes of Might and Magic II and Sonic CD.
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By Latoya Peterson
Aww, sweet, sweet geek love.
The New York Times recently published a piece titled “How to Date a Video Gamer” which revolved around the relationship of Miho Walsh and Roy Prieb. While the piece is almost cloyingly sweet, describing a modern day love story, upon completion I couldn’t help but sigh.
The piece was great for romantics. The piece was not so great for the image of gaming in the mainstream mindset, especially in terms of how female players are perceived in the media. (more…)
