FAQ:

FAQ:

1: why should I take you advice?

Answer: because I know what I’m talking about. I’m a political science major who has studied marketing both products and ideas who in the process of studying these subjects has also studied psychology. I can see a product, watch a commercial, and understand who it is made just by looking at it. Don't follow my advice and lose money.

2: What is the purpose of this site?

Answer: to offer individual insights and product ratings intended to be useful for consumers.

3: What makes this site any different than others?

Answer: what’s different is it’s not mass produced. I intend to respond to any individual question and offer feedback.

4: What games will I pick to write about?

Answer: ones that I’ve played for sure, ones that people ask me about that I’ll read about and do my best to give a good opinion. On request I’ll play games if enough people comment and ask me too.

5: Why did you start this site?

Answer: it started off as a college assignment but I’m definitely going to invest serious time and effort into making it work.

6: Aren’t video games a waste of time,

Answer: Isn’t television a worse waste of time, unlike video games when you turn on the television you don’t decide what you experience, you flip channels more than you watch them, and when you finally do watch them you spend half your time watching commercials. So that’s like a 75% percent waste of time if you count flipping channels and watching commercials.

7: aren’t they meant for kids?

Answer: half of all video games have 17 and up ratings so no their not just for kids.

8: Do video games make people violent?

Answers: does watching golf make you good at it?

The Madness Returns

Alice the Madness Returns is a more a psychological thriller than a traditional game or even the traditional story. Instead of a girls magical adventure is a woman's journey to overcome her mental illness and discover who killed her family through five chapters which I believe based on the five stages of grief.

Usually I write my recommendations at the end for who will should play this but if you are a person struggling with depression I would advise caution before playing this game or if you are person easily disturbed because this may be the most disturbing game I've ever played. However if you are a person with a troubled past this might actually help you make sense of things, it had the latter effect on me but I'm not you. Personally I found playing a game about grief and accepting that everything isn't what it could be and some things are downright awful helped me but I'm someone who has already dealt with the grieving process, and I'm concerned it could hurt those who aren't at the acceptance stage of the process.

Denial, Anger, Depression, Bargaining, Acceptance. Being of a somewhat warped mind its no surprise that Alice must go through the steps somewhat out of order.

In Chapter I we see Depression.

http://alice.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vale_of_Tears_concept_art.png
Here were explore Alice's most immediate thoughts, the death of her family.


In the Second Chapter we see the deluded depths where Carpenter and the Walrus try to Bargain with The Infernal Train by sacrificing her memories.

In the Third Chapter The Mysterious East we see denial where her mind goes to a place far away from London where she can escape reality.

In the Fourth and I think the Most important we see Anger. This is where she meets the Queen of Hearts. The heart has many meaning, it means love, but it also means vitality, survival, primal emotions such as rage which is the primary emotion displayed by the ruler the Queen of Hearts who Alice must reconcile with in order to defeat her madness, and the most natural survival instinct aside from fear is hate. Its no wonder that here she finds her answers.

In Chapter Five we have acceptance of a truth she always knows. How her family died and who is responsible. We see her revisit her past the imagery is very symbolic, brightly painted houses at first followed by a dungeon underworld showing that childhood often is not what we wished it was.

The Sixth Chapter is the confrontation with a murderer not a journey in her mind.

I couldn't help but wonder what sort of person would write a story like this so I googled the creators name "America Mcgee" and found this on Wikipedia:

"Being the only child, McGee had a number of stepfathers when growing up until his mother finally settled on a transgender woman. One day when American was sixteen, he came home from school only to find the house empty and abandoned. The only things left were his bed, his books, his clothes and his Commodore 64 computer. His mother had sold the house to pay for two plane tickets and the fee for her girlfriend's sex change operation. American was on his own. He packed up his computer, dropped out of high school and took a variety of odd jobs, finally settling on a Volkswagen repair shop.^["

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee

This should explain why he seems to have an almost pathological contempt for authority, family and particularly father figures. Although the man who killed Alice's parents isn't blood related he is certainly presented as a father figure. I had a feeling that he did not have an ideal childhood the moment I played the last level where brightly painted houses only conceal a dungeon. The metaphor was not lost on me. The analogy is simply childhood is a time of false innocence and false safety and the glorification of childhood is largely a lie constructed by adults. This is essentially what the message of the game is.

Games Need Great Villains part 2.

 

Fallout 4: Great Visuals, Great Gameplay, Horrible Story, Mediocre Game.

Like Metal Gear solid it has awesome visuals, awesome gameplay, but I just couldn’t care about any of the characters.

The game starts out with a nuclear holocaust, I cared, then my family found shelter in a Vault where we were frozen, that’s good I guess. Then my wife was killed and my infant son kidnaped. I didn’t care. I didn't care about characters who weren’t even introduced to me. I didn’t care about any of the characters I meant throughout the game and I think I know why. Because none of them truly suffered, none of them did despite it being a post-apocalyptic universe people seemed to do pretty well for themselves forming communities that seem more functional than our own. You’d think there would be starving war orphans, people dying of radiation sickness, cheapness of life, you know things we deal with in our non-apocalyptic universe.

Then I found my son. Because he had been unfrozen he was actually older than me(I thought this was pretty cool). My reaction was wait a second I spent the entire game fighting the organization that I thought was holding my son captive only to find out he was its leader and the organization that he leads the institute isn’t all bad was, what a waste of time.

Like metal gear the graphics are superb, its also free roam so you can explore on your own. You have a tremendous amount of freedom and can even create your character from their intelligence and strength levels to the size of their nose. This would be great if I cared at all about the character.

The way villain should NOT look

People who should play this game: People with too much time on their hands(it takes way too much time), people who value presentation over substance, people who are just interested in graphics and design, people who don’t care about storylines and don’t want to.








On second thought this looks really cool. In a bad way of course

http://www.gamepur.com/guide/21218-fallout-4-institute-quest-end-line-airship-down-and-nuclear-family.html

Games Need Evil Villains: Metal Gear 5

Metal Gear Solid 5

 

It’s been said that a hero is only as good as the villain. I agree. When I play a video game and at the end I find out that the guy I’ve been fighting isn’t that bad of a guy. I don’t feel a sense of moral ambiguity, or some sort of deep thought, I see a waste of time. Now it’s one thing when the side you’ve your on has done some seriously morally questionable things, maybe that what they or your character has done was ultimately justified in combating a greater evil, that’s one thing. It’s another when you play a game and realize that all you’ve been doing up to that point was ultimately stupid and worthless. Now you might say that it’s more realistic because the world is typically that way. If you did I would agree with you, but it does not endear me to the character who I’m supposed to care about or make me hate those I’m supposed to defeat, it makes a very tedious game to play because you just don’t care.

 

Metal Gear Solid 5. Great Visuals, Great gameplay, Great Story, Great Game.

 

Maybe one of the best games ever made. On an artistic level it’s stunning. The way it shows the mountains of Afghanistan, the Jungles of Africa, the way it paints a brilliant story of intrigue that requires the players attention at all times.

The guy has two parts. Yes this is very unorthodox a game in two parts. Technically two games but I don’t think that I could talk about one without the other. In ground zeros your mercenary company who was basically used to do the dirty work for the US government is betrayed. You play as the boss the leader of this outfit. Knowing you are about to be betrayed you try to rescue Chico a former soldier of yours and a former double agent named Paz who are being held in CIA Black Site and have information that may concern the coming betrayal.

The gameplay is wonderful. Full of stealth, a wide variety of weapons, tactics, and strategies to accomplish your mission. Beautiful sunsets and landscapes in Afghanistan, Cuba, and Africa. All good things, but what really make the game is it’s easy to hate the villain and care about the protagonist.

After you rescue them you think you’re safe. But at the last minute Paz has a bomb sewn in her stomach. Then you come to the dawning realization that that’s what she’s been mumbling about but was too weak to say because of the intense torture she was subjected too by Skull Face. Skull Face a man who because of his disfigurement tortures people in a macabre effort to try to understand human nature and regain his humanity which he believes he lost in the fire as opposed to what he lost when he became an assassin which is far more likely the case. He’s already easy to hate, and when you realize that not only did he kill your friends but you lost two limbs (don’t worry you get better (its video game after all)).

After this you go on a quest for revenge taking across the world and fighting enemies on both sides of the Cold War eventually finding Skull Face and shooting his limbs off to return the favor of what he did to you.

Who should play this game: People are good at dealing with the frustration of dying all the time, having their friends die, people with no problem sneaking around instead of running toward the enemy shooting.

People who shouldn’t: easily irritated people, people with no patience, people with low attention to detail, people who don’t want to take the time understanding mind-numbingly complex storyline (it really can get mind-numbing)




The way a villain should look.
metalgear.wikia.com

About Page

What my sites about: Its about not only making games but what is good about them and who they appeal to. Too many times I see a game that would probably be fun to teenagers marketed to adults who will find it childish and dumb(Duke Nukem), or see an intellectual game sold to people who do not have the time to debate philosophy with a computer.


I made this site because I'm tired of buying games that I hate based on what number their rated, some games are so great that almost everyone will give them 10 out of 10 starts and some are so bad that everyone hates them universally but most are designed for a specific sort of audience. I intend to explain games in a way to you know if its right for you.