Our Games Are Not Depressing Enough [Feedback Loop]

An excess of violence has become a point of criticism for video games. The real problem isn’t the violence, but how games want us to feel about our stylized murder sprees.

In recent interviews David Cage and Warren Spector both addressed the need for games to be more emotive and less violent. However, it shouldn’t be an binary situation. Violent games could be a path to better art, if we deal with the violence in the correct way.

In Edge magazine, Cage’s interview centered around the recent E3 demo Kara. The demo by Quantic Dream showed a game character presenting subtleties of emotion only approcahable by the last Quantic Dream tech demo, ‘The Casting’.

While next-generation technology is not required for good games, Quantic’s demo shows the potential to create characters with greater emotional depth, a characteristic that does more to make them realistic than all the pixel resolution in the world.

Thanks to this videogame related ruling, I'm moving to Europe.

I’m moving to Europe. I’ve always wanted to, not least of all because it’s old, beautiful, and full of real castles. But there are other perks as well. For instance: mandatory paid vacation. That’s why Europeans have so much time

Why The Tomb Raider Franchise Isn't Beyond Saving

After the disappointing sales of Tomb Raider Underworld, the Crystal Dynamics team realized that Lara Croft was in trouble. They took a hard look at the video game landscape and came to the conclusion that they needed to re-work and

David Cage: Games should be more than fun, are niche

Fun. Any of the writers here at Nightmare Mode will tell you that we have a serious problem with that word. It could mean anything, and yet it’s often considered the most important metric when judging games. Aside from this,

I Don't Want To Save the World

I don’t want to be the chosen one. I don’t want to get the girl. I don’t want to make kingdoms rise and fall on my whim. I don’t want to dictate who lives and dies. Most of all, I

Are We Ready For Catherine and Real Life?

“Oh, you’re looking at that again.” It’s said with such disdain, you’d think I was looking at dead orphans or something, but no, it’s my friend, and I’m looking at Catherine trailers. Commonly known as “The Sex Game That Patricia

David Cage Would Have Left the Industry If Heavy Rain Hadn't Been A Commercial Success

Yes, seriously. In an interview with Games, David Cage reveals this shocking fact: If Heavy Rain had been a commercial failure, I would certainly have had to go back to more standard types of games…actually, I would probably have left

LA Noire To Defeat the Uncanny Valley

Some people will tell you that the uncanny valley does not exist. Others champion it like a knight overthrowing a dragon: a trophy to denote sweet, sweet victory. Team Bondi, the developers behind the 1950’s detective game LA Noire, claim

Director, Character, Player: How Heavy Rain Asks Us To Reconsider How We Approach Playing A Game

When granted choice, I’ve never had a problem figuring out how to play my games. I play as the selfish white knight. I realize that may seem contradictory, but hear me out. Sure, I’ll save your orphan. But before I

Not-So Weekend Note: It's Persona 3's Fault

Yup. That’s why there was no weekend note last week, and there almost wasn’t one this week! Last week, there was only a month or less left in my game, and I figured that I could burn through it and