CHRIS CHARLTON
COMMUNITY WRITER
Chris17
Followers (4)
Following (5)
LOCATION
Kawasaki, Japan
I'm a grizzled gamer living in Japan. Find thoughts on matters from the recent to the long forgotten here, with stylistic nods to messrs Campbell and Brooker, while falling to nowhere near that level.
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FEATURED POST
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The gaming world's latest art house darling, Journey, shares a Shakespearean connection with its first, 1984's Deus Ex Machina. Find out more within.
Friday, March 16, 2012 | Comments (1)
POST BY THIS AUTHOR (29)
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I attend the Japan Media Arts Festival- typically a place where videogames have their day in the sophisticated world of art gallery hobnobbing.
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Remember all those terrible full-motion-video games we were subjected to in the mid 1990s? Uncharted 3 has more in common with them than you might think. Read on to find out why (spoilers included).
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Batman: Arkham City is an excellent game, and a worthy follow up to its 2009 predecessor. Until the final couple of hours, where everything kind of collapses. Find out why- join the spoilerfest!
Aw20a
Empowerment can make us complacent, and so developers occasionally deem it fit to cripple the player. Is that the right thing to do?
Lsd_coverart
... the videogame, that is. I take a look at a little known PS1 title that has garnered somewhat of a cult following, and influences modern titles Child of Eden and Journey more than you may think.
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3DS is not even six months old, and Vita isn't hitting shelves until the end of the year. Could it be that the handheld console race has already been won by Apple, however?
Lanoires
Bumpy Road and L.A. Noire share a passion for vintage cars and a period setting. The most interesting of their many differences, however, is how they handle failure.
No-time
Games require a significant investment in time to enjoy. When and why, then, should we be told to stop playing? Nintendo and Capybara have different answers with Pilotwings Resort and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP.
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A dead PS3 leads to me sifting through the app store rough. Here are some diamonds.
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A teacher living in Japan shares his reactions to the recent natural disasters and questions the general lack of docu-games.
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A Bitmob community member's hands-on account of the first five days with Nintendo's 3DS.
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This month, the Japanese art world gave some space for videogames to show off. Echochrome 2 and a neat Kinect mod garnered positive nods, while tech designed for disabled artists to pursue their passions may point to an interesting future for gamers as well.
COMMENTS BY THIS AUTHOR (49)
"Absolutely, the biggest enemy to scary games is empowerment. It also helps if your jump scares are random a la Clock Tower.

The biggest failing most horror games I've played has though is just in terrible character design. Biohazard Revelations is a major offender there. It doesn't matter if you're restricting ammo to make everything tense when the enemy that leaps out at you is a ridiculously comical fishman thing with a distended arm, since it just becomes a joke at that point."

Saturday, March 03, 2012
"Don't you feel like actually playing breaks your immersion though? Everytime you're in control (fully, not just pressing up) it's like Drake's possessed by a bumbling idiot."
Saturday, January 07, 2012
"I sort of agree. The distinction you didn't quite make though was between narrative driven and experience driven games. If the objective of a game is to get you through and experience the story or art design, then I'm a hundred percent with you- I made similar points to yours praising L.A. Noire, and Child of Eden also has a no fail mode in place.

Then, though, you have Pac Man cedx, or Super Meat Boy, or what have you. The joy of these is in their mechanics and systems- simply put, if SMB had an easy mode, it wouldn't be the same. 

Where the twain meet is a hard grey area, and that's why Ninja Gaiden Black, or Viewtiful Joe are divisive- it depends what you're playing them for. I loathed Ninja Gaiden, too, but loved the notoriously tough VJ back in the day. Portal 2, meanwhile, doesn't get a completely free pass from me, thanks to its middle act- when you move away from the lab setting- transforming the game from asking 'how do I get there?'to 'where do I go?' harms it."

Sunday, July 03, 2011
"We're still not on in Japan, which means the voices of the 'entitled' are growing ever louder. I'm happy with L.A> Noire until I can finally get to do Portal 2 co-op, and agree with most of this.

Capcom EA Activision, the most affected, though? That's not the case. Most affected are the little people, the PS Mini developers and smaller dev teams that are truly reliant on their games doing well through psn and xbla. Not only have they lost a month's potential revenue, as the backlog gets cleared over the next few weeks with more and more store updates, the little people will get lost in the rush. EA aren't little people."

Monday, May 23, 2011
"There are good virtual buttons and there are bad ones. The biggest issue comes with shoehorning entire console game control sets and movelists onto virtual buttons, meaning three or four fingers performing gymnastics on the screen at any one time. As Dan mentions, the best iphone games are the ones that are made with the medium in mind. I'd say Infinity Blade is a touch overrated, but have a look at superbrothers, if only because I've just written about it."
Friday, April 29, 2011
"Very true.I appreciate that devs want to dangle these carrots in front of you to urge you on, but it doesn't have to be so obvious. If I'm playing an MMA game say, and go to ground a lot, I'd expect my takedown stats to improve, possibly at the expense of my striking, automatically and invisibly. Last year's UFC game just arbitrarily awarded you points to assign to different skills."
Thursday, April 07, 2011
"They just stick with you in the plaza, which is a shame."
Friday, March 25, 2011
"Jason, you're thinking of Disaster Report, the forth installment of which was cancelled after the quake. 

I don't feel it's a trouble with finding a villain- the conflict, if there has to be one is over adversity.

The trick is framing the game as educational rather than as entertainment, and in finding the right avenue for it to be played. I reckon it'd be something well worth exploring, if only to help communicate the feel of the near heart attack I just had at the aftershock an hour ago. I'm fine, really."

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
"Check my post man!

I think Apocalypse, just like Yakuza of the end, is suffering delays purely out of sensitivity. Too close to have a game with apocalypse in the title. As I wrote about though, the cancellation of Disaster report is a bigger shame."

Monday, March 14, 2011
"But where's the salute to Sensible Software's Cannon Fodder? That is well worth a salute."
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
"I have mine and I'm in the middle of an impressions piece that'll go up Wednesday. Read or avoid, depending on your mentality."
Monday, February 28, 2011