MACHINARIUM and Steel-coated Contemplation

Movies – and by extension, games – are afraid of silence. They are deadly afraid the silence will bore the audience – and a bored audience will walk away. In response, movies and games are now coated with noise, music, action… anything to deter that silence. In the end, they confuse content with busyness.

Machinarium is a game where you play as little robot trying to do some good, correct some wrongs and solve some puzzles as they come along. It is a game very much like a Hayao Miyazaki cartoon, with its whimsical graphics, charming characters, moody soundtrack – and, yes, the silence: various quiet “empty” moments where characters just stand in contemplation. Or maybe that was me? I’m not sure anymore.

Fixing Reviews: The Lying Score

Review scores are tricky; they are not for everybody. For a scoring system to have any worth, it must have consistency. Not everybody is ready for that. You can’t call a game a master-piece only to call it a disappointment at the end of the year. Review scores must also be honest and, believe it or not, even less people are ready for that. Here, I’m not talking about the flawed notion some outlets have that the average between 0 and 10 is 8. That’s just being mathematically deprived. Instead, I’m talking about Metacritic, Amazon, App Stores and whatever other place that aggregates scores from users in order to present a single information: that the cosmos has voted and decided that game X is a 8.6 out of 10.

Guess what? They are all lying.

They are lying because they encourage users to lie in their reviews. Yes, that means the liar is ultimately you, Mr. User.

GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE – Review

GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE is a videogame developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS. It was directed by SHU TAKUMI. Ghost Trick was a game I purchased mainly because of its cover. It is pleasantly odd and unique.

About Game Reviewing

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Escapist Magazine. That link on our blogroll? My fault. I visit it practically every day to watch their videos (and by the Love of Kefka, those videos can load FAST!).

Apple Gets Thaaaat Much Better…

See Matt’s Blog post regarding his new job. Have you been a fan of IGN’s Matt Casamassina? I have. For a long long time, I must admit. When Matt took over as the cheif Nintendo editor it was the best