Downloadable content is nothing new to the video game industry.  The basic concept has been around since the Atari 2600’s GameLine service.  Obviously the tech of the early 1980’s limited the use of such a service.  It was attempted again, over ten years later, by Sega.  The Sega Channel was more of a joint service since you had to purchase a special adapter via your cable provider as well as an extra monthly charge.  Although very similar to the XBLA [...]

As the videogame industry has grown into its increasingly dominant role within popular entertainment, more AAA releases have experienced an “introspective turn*.” Games have openly become more concerned with what they ask of players, and show this concern through the composition of their gameplay elements. Recent works of popular criticism, such as Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives and Brendan Keogh’s Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line, have examined these developments, questioning how these games reflect upon [...]

(Seven Reasons Why Crystal Dynamics and Rhianna Pratchett Utterly Failed to Make Me Care About Lara Croft….Again)

The Tomb Raider franchise has never been something that’s particularly interested me before. I wasn’t feeling the first one back in the good ol’ PSX days, and no amount of playground-whispered cheats to reveal crudely pixelated breasts was enough to change my mind. Platforming games aren’t really my thing to start with, and to me, Lara Croft’s never [...]

Remember when in-game dialogue was nothing but text? Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy I-XI, Terranigma, Legend of Zelda…

Wait… LoZ games don’t have full on voice acting, even today. That doesn’t make it a bad or outdated game… Well, some people would say that it does.

Ever since it became possible to use voices easily in video games, every game HAD to have voices in it. It became such a big thing, that even Final Fantasy started doing it. And it sucked.

That’s [...]

Remember that episode of Futurama in which an embarrassed Professor Farnsworth, determined not to be outdone by the competition, quickly sketches out the Smell-a-scope on a used napkin? Because that’s kind of how the Xbox One reveal felt to me – a little desperate. Following on the heels of Sony’s announcements made back in February  Microsoft had some nasty rumors to quell regarding the console formerly known as the Nextbox, and former Microsoft creative director Adam Orth’s suggestion that gamers ‘Deal [...]

Do you like the old Resident Evil games? Do you like their atmosphere and tension? Would you like to have that again? Now you can!

At least that is what Capcom promised with Resident Evil: Revelations, a game originally developed for the Nintendo 3DS, and released on January 26, 2012 in Japan; January 27, 2012 in Europe; February 2, 2012 in Australia; and February 7, 2012 in North America.

Of course, the 3DS was not exactly “printing money” during those days, so a lot [...]

This article may contain big, sweaty *spoilers* for both Bioshock: Infinite and Far Cry 3, but you knew that already, right?

Discussion over Bioshock: Infinite is currently estimated at taking up around sixteen percent of the entire internets. Nick Rueben gives five reasons why we should still be talking about Far Cry 3.

1. Did I ever tell you the definition of Ludonarrative dissonance?

No? Well, here’s the Wikipedia page anyway. Basically, ‘Ludonarrative dissonance’ is a term that gets used by your industry [...]

This is the first in a series of pieces that will occasionally run on Hostile Gamer about video game development, authored by Carlos Martinez.

I’m sure that most of the people who read this blog are avid gamers. And of those avid gamers, many have wanted, at one point or another, to make their own video games. It might even be your ideal job: Everything is pink and beautiful; you, at one with your muse; your ideas instantly translating into a [...]

It seems like the whole world is waiting for Grand Theft Auto V. With the impending release of the latest installment in the legendary Grand Theft Auto series due September 17, Nick Rueben takes a trip down memory lane, recounting his relationship with the series and examining its appeal.

My first proper taste of the Grand Theft Auto series was at my friend Jay’s house. He had a Playstation 2 set up in his kitchen, and I watched, open-mouthed, as [...]

With its three divisions of mode, the main menu of 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 signified a major shift in the videogame industry. Cooperative modes of play became a market-induced requirement of subsequent AAA shooter releases. The phenomenal success of Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War and Horde mode in Gears of War 2 in 2008 had revealed an audience hungry for the new modes of interaction offered by cooperative multiplayer gameplay. But why are [...]