Great Characters in Gaming: The Next Generation

After nearly a year long hiatus, Great Characters in Gaming is back with a version befitting our current generation of consoles (which are for some reason still dubbed next-gen). This list follows the familiar format, but every character here is from a game released within the last two years, with one exception who made his debut back in 2007. Characters featured in games these days need to bring more to the table than those of previous generations. In the 80s, we were content with some pixels and a jump button. The 90s saw a shift to a more character-driven gaming experience, but still lacked voice acting and quality dialog to speak. It wasn't until the last decade (2000-2010) that we started seeing real effort put into character development, and the last five years in particular have seen a boom of believable players to star in the best of games. Top notch voice acting combined with detailed writing has yielded us some memorable people, and below are just a few that I personally have found particularly wonderful.

Community Voice #24: Do We Need an Uncharted Movie?

The recent announcement of Mark Wahlberg being cast as Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie, not to mention the extreme liberties they seem to be taking with the games' stories, were not only disappointing, but it also got me thinking, “Do we even need an Uncharted movie?” Granted, I would loved to had seen Nathan Fillion as Drake instead of Wahlberg, but even then, could anyone but Fillion do any justice to the franchise? Even if the writers of the movie followed the story of Uncharted 1 or 2 line for line, is that something gamers would want to see? The story in both titles worked so well within the game, I don’t see a point in creating a movie based on those games.

Community Voice #23 : Your Black Friday Hauls: How’d You Do?

The weekend after Thanksgiving, starting with the notorious Black Friday and going through Cyber Monday, are an annual shopping bonanza, in which retailers of all shapes and sizes offer steep discounts in an attempt to separate us from our hard-earned cash.

So, how did you guys do? Did you score big deals online, or did you battle the crowds for the last deeply discounted PS3/TV bundle at Best Buy? I love to hear a good deal, so please share your hauls in the comments, or maybe those items you hoped to find on sale but didn't (and maybe are still waiting for).

Editorial: A PlayStation Thanksgiving

With turkey just around the corner, I'd like to take a look back at this last year and why I'm grateful for the PS3. Released at the end of 2006, the Playstation 3 has had an interesting run. From a struggling competitor to the Xbox 360, to now a dominating player on the market, it's influence can be seen in it's sales and game production.

Holiday Gift Guide for Casual Gamers

Casual gamers seem to always be the hardest people to shop for, especially from a hardcore gamer's perspective. They don’t like certain genres, they don’t spend all day playing games, and they often can’t handle games with complicated controls. While many of them would love to get an iTunes Store card to pay for their iPhone games, I’ve come up with a list of titles and accessories perfect for the casual gamers on your shopping list.

Every Kratos Kill Ever: Chains of Olympus

Narratively, Chains of Olympus actually comes before God of War in the timeline of Kratos' universe. In terms of real world game releases, it comes third in our God of War series, and also makes the series' debut on the PSP. Though one of the earliest PSP games to hit the market, Chains of Olympus would be one of the top rated and most successful games on the platform, only surpassed in quality by its successor (Ghost of Sparta) and a few other choice picks. The crux of Chains of Olympus is that Kratos is a tool of the gods, particularly Ares himself, and when the Pantheon themselves are threatened, it is up to this mostly mortal man to fix their problems. He does so with his twin Blades of Chaos, and while his killing isn't nearly as rampant and bloody as in any other game in the series, this is technically his heroic debut, so we can forgive him a shorter death list.

Community Voice #22: Console Based Exclusive Content: Good or Bad?

As this gen of gaming continues, the trend of console exclusivity seems to be slowly fading in to the past. Key characters like Master Chief, Mario, and Nathan Drake will remain loyal to their respective consoles, but you're seeing less and less console-exclusive games. Don't forget the “exclusive” franchises that eventually break rank and end up multiplatform. Take Halo creators Bungie Studios for example. Since Halo 2, they'd been an Xbox 360 exclusive company, and yet now their recently inked partnership with Activision has them poised to appear on other consoles.

What we're seeing more and more of is publishers and developers striking deals with one of the “big three” to release exclusive extra content, meanwhile leaving fans of the game who don't own said “exclusive” console out in the cold. So instead of Xbox 360 fanboys arguing with their PS3 nemeses about things like graphics, you've got one rubbing their console exclusive content in the other's face. Moreso, it takes choice away, in a sense, from the consumer, rendering some versions of the game less "complete" than others, since access to exclusive DLC will be forever (or at least for an extended period of time) barred from those users' access.

Holiday Gift Guide for Busy Gamers

Has your day job taken over your life? Do you struggle to find free time for anything, even including your favorite hobby? Since finding extra game time in the day can be nearly impossible, busy gamers need to get the absolute best experiences they can in the few short hours of free time they have. This guide is written with that gamer in mind.

Every Kratos Kill Ever: God of War 2

God of War 2 basically begins the war between Kratos and the rest of existence. You might say he started this war in the first game, but his motivations for killing Ares were fairly solid. His hatred of Zeus is something relatively fresh in the game, and isn't even fully explained until much later in the series. This beginning also heralds in a string of butchery far outpacing that of his initial journey, a serial killing that would only be rivaled by the holocaust that is God of War 3.

Gift Guide for the Gamer Who Has Everything

Last year I compiled a list of things for the affluent, items few gamers would ever purchase but that we might all have drooled at as they taunted us, glittering wonderfully behind store windows. It was actually more of a mix of mostly accessible items and socially irresponsible toys. This year I'm taking a slightly different perspective on things. I'm still going to compile a list of items that your poor gamer would probably pass on, but it might be a touch more practical this time around. In other words, there won't be anything on this list costing more than a grand.