An "Objective" Overview Of Gamergate

Responding to the first and most obvious criticism of this piece, there can be no truly objective human perspective. Humans by nature are influenced and shaped by their own experiences and thus will always be biased. For example my personal biases are that I’m a supporter of Feminism, very anti-censorship, anti-bullying and in favour of transparency and honesty within journalism of all kinds, hence this initial disclaimer.

This is an attempt to be objective and to also provide a clearer explanation of this entire controversy for those who have been relative outsiders to it. Those whose only sources of information are the same sources having their integrity and credibility challenged and thus any attempt to decipher what’s really happening is long-winded, conflicted and difficult.

The comparatively humble beginnings of Gamergate start from issues fairly distanced from what it has ultimately become. A man named Eron Gjoni ended a relationship with indie game designer Zoe Quinn after revelations of infidelity on Zoe’s part came to light and the two were unable to work through their differences. 

Eron submitted a lengthy post detailing the life and death of his relationship with Zoe to forums on Something Awful and Penny Arcade, who deleted the threads for reasons not entirely clear. It’s the first hint of issues of bias and censorship within this issue whilst for others it’s a justified moderation of a clearly slanderous post.

Eron went on to upload what he’d written on its own separate blog, believing the warning of Zoe’s supposed manipulative and dishonest nature was important for people within the games industry to read. The first igniting sparks of gamergate come from the details of those involved in Zoe’s affairs, including her boss and a writer for gaming website Kotaku called Nathan Grayson. 

Many would bring up the issue of “conflicted interests”. That writing about or working with someone you have a relationship with causes bias, favouritism and ultimately corruption within supposedly unbiased media. Others have gone so far as to suggest Zoe instigated these relationships solely to advance her career and get positive coverage for her games.

Next is where things get a little crazy and convoluted.

The issue attracted increasing attention until known names in game development, journalism, gaming internet personalities and other popular media weighed in on the topic. Someone or some group of people began regimenting these people into opposing armies and exacerbating the disagreement into a conflict rather than a discussion. 

It’s generally believed the majority of the abusers came from the particularly anonymous and unregulated forums of 4chan but I don’t doubt many people simply jumped on the bandwagon. Believing their assaults were a righteous crusade or simply relishing in other’s misery, droves of people sent mockery, harassment, insults, even death and rape threats to Zoe Quinn and her most prominent supporters, including but not exclusive to Anita Sarkeesian (Feminist and video game critic, subject to her own controversial content) and Phil Fish (Former acclaimed indie game developer). 

Angry, irrational, often illiterate abuse and negative feedback is sadly nothing new to anyone contributing content on the internet but some people took the harassment further. It is claimed that Zoe Quinn as well as her friends and family had their personal details discovered through forms of internet hacking known as “doxxing” and the abuse spread to their mobile phones, personal email addresses and bank accounts. Quinn, amongst others claimed to have been forced out of their homes due to the extent of this abuse and were contacting the local authorities to track down those responsible. 

It is worth noting that we only have Zoe and her supporter’s word for this as no logs or evidence would exist publicly once the abuse moved on from the internet. Articles that later commented on Zoe or her supporters being driven out of their homes only linked to the person’s twitter comments as evidence.

At this point large numbers of people on Zoe’s “side” began fighting fire with fire and responding to the online abuse with their own attacks. Gaming journalism websites began censoring topics related to the controversy on their forums, whilst posting articles arguably very skewed into supporting Quinn, portraying all gamers as disgusting misogynistic abusers in rather blanket statements. 

“These obtuse shitslingers, these wailing hyper-consumers, these childish internet-arguers -- they are not my audience. They don’t have to be yours.” – “'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over.” – Leigh Alexander. Gamasutra.

This mainly served to backfire however as it reinforced suspicions of collusion and bias between gaming websites, angered groups of anti-censorship supporters and gamers with no participation in the conflict, offended at being grouped in with those harassing and abusing. As a result more people joined up with the movement known as “Gamergate”. 

The term originated and predominantly resides on twitter as “#Gamergate” often grouped with “#notyourshield”. An accompanying moniker to reject the assumptions from journalists writing the aforementioned articles, that all gamers are the stereotypical socially inept, ugly, white male and they are the ignorant, immature, misogynist harassers of Zoe Quinn and her supporters. 

Hundreds of arguments flew back and forth between the opposing sides. Some civil discussions, some abusive insult flinging, all of them making no noticeable progress one way or another. Some supporters of Gamergate denied the abuse and harassment ever happened, that Zoe Quinn and others manipulated and fabricated the attacks, whilst others claimed the movement was and always had been about journalistic integrity and defeating corruption within the gaming industry.

The numerous sites seemingly on Quinn’s side continued to report on the controversy, some firmly believing the “fighting corruption” angle of the gamergate movement was just to disguise their “hate campaign”, others entertaining the idea that their methods of discussing and reporting gaming news were perhaps flawed and biased. 

Gaming website The Escapist actually made significant amendments to their reporting style, publishing an “Ethics Policy” pledging to provide more unbiased and transparent journalism. This still wasn’t enough for some people, others appreciated the reflection and reaction on their comments and some expressed their disappointment at The Escapist submitting to a supposed bullying mob’s demands. 

Meanwhile Quinn herself released logs of online chat forums she had been secretly monitoring. The logs are extremely long and full of digressions but the overall topic is centred on Quinn. Discovering and distributing personal information about her or her supporters, discussing how to further the gamergate movement by influencing social media sites like Reddit and Tumblr and how to conceal their abuse and harassment under the mask of “journalistic integrity”. 

"Aug 21 17.23.31 <sarahv> The problem is that making it about Zoe sleeping around amounts to a personal attack which, while funny and something she totally deserves, will hurt our chances of pushing the other point"

Numerous comments from certain users seem to confirm a sexist viewpoint, others a strong hatred for “Social Justice Warriors” and Feminists or at least a feeling of victimisation as a man, concretely dragging feminism into the fray. Members also mused and laughed about ways to ruin Zoe’s career, severely humiliate or injure her or even coax her towards suicide. These logs proved evidence of the harassment against Quinn and her supporters, whilst also giving credibility to the idea that the gamergate movement was a ruse for a hate campaign. The latter claim however can only be used so far as to prove that groups were trying to steer and manipulate the gamergate movement into abusive actions, not that the entire movement was a manipulated hate campaign from the start. 

The chat logs naturally also had their legitimacy criticised and accusations appeared of Quinn manufacturing them or at least “cherry-picking” the offending statements out of context. Supporters of Quinn proudly took release of the chat logs as a killing blow, trying to next promote the hashtag #Gameovergate. 

Quinn followed up these logs with claims that they were being relayed to the authorities and even the FBI in a police report. Again we only have her word for this but I feel at the point where very real and substantial organisations like the FBI are being brought in, it becomes far more difficult to lie about such occurrences. I’m not entirely sure what would serve as justifiable proof about the real world reactions involved in this but larger, more reputable news sources have begun commenting on aspects of the issue and unless we begin questioning the credibility of those as well, most would consider that proof.

Insults, abuse and hatred towards anyone strongly involved can still be found online, articles on gaming websites continue to be written, some of which from less-established journalists are now actively pro-gamergate, the twitter hashtag remains a fairly active movement, whilst growing numbers of Gamergate supporters publicly denounce the actions and views of those harassers that inflamed the controversy so wildly. 

Some of those opposing Gamergate have admitted there are people with noble intentions towards journalistic purity within its ranks but still believe that the “well has been poisoned” and that a movement with such ugly, divisive origins can’t meaningfully make progress campaigning for honesty, inclusivity and integrity.

If you remain interested in the ongoing Gamergate movement and its accompanying controversy I highly recommend doing extensive research into both sides of the debate and above all else, forming your own opinion. For what it’s worth my belief is that idiotic and cruel people exist on both sides, blowing things out of proportion, hurting individuals solely for their views and sowing seeds of discontent. There are also honest and decent people seeking civil, intelligent discussion about the future of gaming and game journalism. Those who, despite falling on different sides of this metaphorical warzone, have many shared interests and can most likely reach a healthy progressive compromise.

The future of Gamergate is still being written, often quite literally in articles, blogs, tweets, comment sections and more across the internet. There are aspects of the preceding controversy that are now so entangled in accusations, and counter-accusations, that we might never be able to determine the exact truth of them. Hopefully amidst this eruption of underlying problems within the industry and culture we, as gamers, players or fans of video games can still progress. I’d hope we can all agree there’s nothing worse than being stuck on the same level forever.

E3 2014 - Nintendo

An unconventional start for Nintendo with a self parodying and E3 mocking animated intro starring Reggie Fils-Aime. I can only assume it was written and made by or at least approved by the Robot Chicken guys as it is completely in their style. Then the first segment is introduced and the insanity officially takes over as Reggie and Satoru Iwata straight up have a super-powered fist fight...i'm not joking, it actually happens and it's both baffling and kind of amazing.

Even if you watch none of the game trailers, you owe it to yourself to see this.

 This ultimately leads into a Super Smash Bros trailer introducing the new feature of playable personalised mii characters. Not only that but you can define your mii into one of three classes or types. The "brawler", "sword fighter" and "gunner" all of which should be fairly self-explanatory but come with their own unique movesets. Director Masahiro Sakurai goes on to mention how this can pave the way for Abraham Lincoln, Elijah Wood, or any other character you can create in mii maker becoming a Smash Bros fighter. If you've ever seen some of the vast variety of creations made by gamers in Mii Maker, you'll know that this adds a world of comical potential match-ups. Perhaps this is perspective and bias due to being a big Smash Bros fan myself but this signals a strong start to the "conference/digital event/stream thing.

More footage shows old and new features such as the character trophies, mini games, classic bosses, improved online systems and match customisation options. It's never explicitly said but the director also talks about working with a large number of variables on 3DS, which probably translates to fixing bugs and ensuring performance is solid. That may explain the delayed release date of "3rd October 2014" when the 3DS version was scheduled for summer 2014.

We next move to real Reggie who gives details of the "Amiibo". A selection of toys or figurines you may have heard were in the pipeline and were utilised briefly in the earlier Iwata-Reggie DBZ showdown. These figures, coming in designs of all the classic Nintendo characters, can transfer and receive data to and from the Wii U. In regards to Smash Bros this results in supposedly "unique" versions of the character portrayed, appearing in the game and either assisting you in fights or actually being your opponent. Reggie continues in stating that Mario Kart 8 will also implement the Amiibo with a sly bit of footage acknowledging "Luigi's Death Stare" that has become something of a trend across the internet.

A monologue about the greatness of Nintendo and how they'd really please like more Wii U's sold follows into a segment interviewing two Japanese chaps. A vaguely titled employee of Nintendo and an employee or presumed manager of "Good-Feel". A company seemingly specialising in yarn. This appropriately leads into introducing Yoshi's Woolly World due for release in 2015. A sequel to Kirby's Epic Yarn with similar yarn based aesthetics and gameplay features. Besides obviously Yoshi and now a co-op mode i'm unsure how this will significantly differ from K.E.Y but it appears a polished, chirpy, fun platformer and Nintendo are usually very good at those.

Up next is a polished, chirpy, fun platformer called Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, due winter 2014. There seems to be a mining theme involved but apart from that it's classic 3D Nintendo fare of traversing obstacles, simple colourful combat and puzzles. The bigger question is whether anyone has ever actually wanted to play as Toad? He has never starred in his own game before but maybe there's a reason for that. Usually he is the backup, filler character, players are resigned to choosing when all their favourites are taken or who they regrettably end up being as the third or fourth member in a multiplayer Mario game.

It's nice to see 50-a-day smokers can still get voice acting work though.

A short and uncharacteristically tame robot chicken skit later and a new Zelda game is introduced. Open world, with an art style somewhat similar to Skyward Sword. A brief cinematic trailer shows Link fighting some kind of laser demon on horseback (i should clarify Link is on horseback sadly not the laser demon) Then the big reveal seems to be as tame as Link wearing blue for a change although i have since heard rumours and developers have hinted that this character is not in fact Link, so that could be interesting.

A wild trailer appeared for the remakes of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire due November 28th 2014, which confirms that they're also getting the X/Y treatment with full 3D, Mega evolutions etc. Bayonetta 2's trailer promises much of the same Devil May Cry-style action as the first, which they even acknowledge with a direct quote from DMC1. It also includes novelty Link and Samus costumes...if you're into that kind of thing...

Hyrule Warriors footage follows and interviews with the developers claim lots of playable characters, memorable boss fights suggesting requiring more thought than simply "where's the massive glowing weak spot?" and a two player mode through the use of the Wii U gamepad. They treat this as a vast improvement over splitscreen but it just seems to me like an uneven balance of screen size between players. Somebody gets the full television while the other gets the reduced gamepad screen. That's still technically a splitscreen, it's just an unevent split. That aside, the large scale battles and other playable characters  besides Link do intrigue me and there isn't a long wait as Hyrule Warriors releases September 19th 2014.

The imaginatively titled "Kirby" gets a brief trailer looking like another polished, chirpy, fun platformer where the most interesting thing is the bizarrely lacking title. Are they implying this is a reboot? Probably more likely the game simply doesn't have a name yet since there's nothing immediately obvious to distinguish it from past Kirby games.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a spiritual successor to Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, which is apparently praised for reinventing and revitalising the JRPG genre. I'll have to take the critic's word for that because to me it appeared like a thoroughly generic Japanese, sci-fi mech adventure in its trailer. Also the character's faces are a worrying homage to the Gamecube-era of graphics. Adding to the slow descent of excitement in the conference is Mario Maker. A game where you can customise and build your own Mario courses in either the classic or modern style...sure, that's cool i guess...

A fleeting spurt of new ideas breathes momentary life back into the event as Splatoon is introduced. An online (hopefully not solely) multiplayer cartoon third person shooter based around firing ink over as much of the level as possible to mark your territory, whilst wielding an assortment of ink guns, bombs, bazookas and paint rollers. The characters can also transform into squids ('cos ink, i guess) at will that give different abilities and increased speed and such. It's an interesting concept but will it actually be fun or satisfying to play? or will it feel like interior design that never gets finished? Regardless, Splatoon deserves credit for being a new and fairly creative IP, especially amongst Nintendo's worn out and stagnating franchises. It's due for release sometime in 2015.

Aiming is apparently gyroscopic...hopefully that's optional...

 The stream finishes with a Super Smash Bros anime of all things but this is ultimately just another character reveal for someone called Palutena who i believe is from the Kid Icarus series. Considering how hype many people got for this anime trailer alone, perhaps Nintendo should've considered making a separate project of that instead of the bait and switch trailer we ended up with.

Nintendo's "conference" started on a high that Sony and Microsoft didn't even reach in their shows but it fairly consistently slipped downhill from then on. With only one new IP and limited innovation in their established franchises, it's overall a fairly mediocre output from Nintendo when they could've potentially pulled out all the stops (cough, Metroid) to win back support in the Wii U.

E3 2014 - Sony

Sony's conference begins with a mostly cinematic trailer for a generic seeming, clichéd sounding but polished enough Sci-Fi, looking somewhere between Mass Effect and Halo. The end of the trailer reveals this is actually Destiny, Bungie's much anticipated initially PS4 exclusive and first game since leaving development on Halo. Well that's a rather underwhelming start.

Andrew House enters the stage to yammer about Playstation's vision and how Destiny is the embodiment of everything they're trying to achieve, which is a little worrying. He announces a beta for Destiny available July 17th, and an Alpha for PS4 owners the coming weekend. Continuing to try and hype Destiny they announce a new white PS4 and Destiny bundle.

The Order 1886 is up next with some mutant werewolf zombie...thing action. The game seems very cutscene heavy but does transition seamlessly between that and gameplay. This is impressive visually but will it be confusing when actually playing? In the short segment alone i saw manual walking and what i'm pretty sure was automatic running as you just controlled the aim and fire of your pistol as you run. Will it be clear when and what you have control over? or will the game fall back on QTE's to sidestep this problem?

I feel like there'd be some tension here if we could go ten seconds without a cutscene...

Contrasting this comes Entwined, a surreal colourful title involving a bird and a fish in love, who you control simultaneously flying through obstacles and such. Though not technically a race from what i can tell, a racer is the closest genre category for it. Once someone remembers to turn up the guy's microphone we learn it's designed by recent graduates from the company Pixel Opus. Entwined is their first game and possibly the developers' first time on stage as he's quickly replaced by someone higher up to reveal the $9.99 price and immediate release date.

A brief trailer for some Infamous Second Son DLC and we're dropped rather abruptly into a Little Big Planet 3 demo with a host of new characters and some rather cringey commentary from the players. This gets a lot of praise from the crowd but i can't see much of a difference from the previous games which the next speaker rather confirms stating that all old creations from the first two games can be played in 3. A solid but unremarkable looking inevitable sequel due in November.

"Bloodborne" is introduced as the next project by director Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software, the creators of the increasingly popular Dark Souls games. Instead of a Medieval fantasy setting this appears slightly advanced, perhaps Victorian era but with much the same staples as Dark Souls with darkness (naturally), blade wielding hooded individuals and demonic monsters (though they might be implied to be vampires this time). The trailer is again purely cinematic and fairly short so unfortunately not much else can be gleaned from this besides a vague 2015 release date.

Far Cry 4 receives a decent length but fast paced demo. As you'd expect it sticks closely to the formula of Far Cry 3 in mechanics and engine from what i can tell. The only noticeable new additions being the new Himalayan setting where tigers have been replaced by elephants and those kind of things. as well as a co-op mode. That said, the gameplay still seems solid, fun and exciting so if there's a another well-told storyline accompanying it then Far Cry 4 should be a great, if familiar sequel.

To tangent slightly, the game appears to be attempting the entire narrative through a first person perspective again, which worked well in 3. This means we don't directly see our protagonist in this demo but i'm disappointed that he sounds like another regular North American guy. The box art that sparked racism controversy, i assumed was a blatant copy of the Far Cry 3 box art style, where the protagonist is trapped or dominated somehow by the main villain who takes prominence in the artwork. This is true again here to a point but the man dominated in the box art appears to be an Asian native to the Himalayan area and yet is apparently not the protagonist of the game. Perhaps this is nitpicking but there's a real lack of diversity for protagonists in games. Wouldn't a native of the land, that presumably gets upset by the villain's intervention, have more interesting backstory, connections and motivation than what seems to be another American tourist caught up in foreign conflicts?

With all the speakers i used to mock leaving their respective companies, we're left with one i found genuinely infuriating. The smirking pumpkin presumptuously talks about "when" you buy Far Cry 4 and a type of download play for the co-op requiring only one person to have bought the game.

Next we move into a strange kind of letter time and apparently someone told Sony we want more zombies...cue a Dead Island 2 cinematic trailer (thankfully far more tonally appropriate than the trailer for the first game) along with Last Of Us zombies cameoing in Diablo 3 for some reason.

Continuing with bad jokes and his misplaced "down with the kids" attitude grinning irritant talks about Battlefield Hardline and its three features. These are as follows, "buzzing buzzword" "buzzing graphical buzzword" "and a grappling hook!" To which he gets a thoroughly deserved concrete cold silence from the audience.

Grappling hooks and ziplines are his "jam"...

A so called "gameplay" trailer shows off snippets of generic first person driving and shooting under a "cops and robbers" theme before Boyes talks Toyes (Fuck, i'm as bad as him) detailing some stuff about The Avengers appearing in Disney Infinity. A segment that never really ends as yet more talking about Destiny and its exclusive features is unintentionally interrupted by the shout of "Hulk Smash!". I'm starting to think even The Hulk could achieve better audio mixing at this conference.

"Brand new things that you've never seen on the platform" apparently equates to a Magicka sequel so mindblowingly innovative they had to pad out the trailer with a live-action sketch, leaving about ten seconds of gameplay that looked like your standard Diablo with wizards. Boyes is interrupted again by a "special" joke letter about Tim Schafer and old adventure games which leads to revealing a Grim Fandango remake for PS4 and Vita. I've not played Grim Fandango but know of its cult popularity and it gets huge cheers from the audience so we'll assume for now this was a good move.

A montage of upcoming indie games follows, again sold as initially exclusive to Playstation and all published under Devolver Digital. Broforce, Titan Souls, Not a Hero, Hotline Miami 2 and The Talos Principle offer mostly visually retro shooting and action with the exception of the last title that's full 3D and looks more like Portal. Next up is "Let It Die" Suda 51's new title, exclusive to Playstation. Other than violence, gore and guns the mostly live-action trailer tells us very little. At the opposite end of the spectrum comes ABZU. From the makers of Journey which appears a similarly styled and atmospheric game this time set under the ocean.

No Man's Sky is an open world procedurally generated indie Sci-Fi looking like a first person spiritual successor to the best parts of Spore. Exploring alien planets, discovering new species and vast space battles all feature in the trailer and whilst the gameplay appears a little sparse, the concept, visuals and potential look great, apparently inspired by classic Science-Fiction literature this was the closest to a "wow" moment that i really got from the whole conference.

The transitions from within the planet's atmosphere to outer space appear seamless.

Andrew House returns to briefly talk about the Playstation camera and the virtual reality headset endeavour "Project Morpheus" For which they state two demos are playable on their show floor. Obviously i can't say any more about that, not having been there but many consider VR to be the real step into the future for gaming.

The slimiest businessman ever slithers onto stage and rattles off statistics about online play and social connectivity. How Playstation has advanced its stream and gameplay sharing capabilities, directly through Youtube and seemingly Twitch. As well as this, a ton of Free To Play games are introduced by objectively the worst possible hand wringing oily suit to do so. I've never completely felt comfortable with Free To Play games if only for the deceptive title of the format and it feels even more money-grabbing being described by Lord Business.

He's been to "every E3 except the very first one" and still has no idea how to do a good conference...

Next a significant section talking about Playstation Now. The backwards compatability download service being very slowly implemented to allow PS4 owners to play PS3 games. Then some stuff about a device allowing Sony TV owners to play games without needing a Playstation. Snake Oil continues to drone on about Playstation's vision, history and his own personal anecdotes until we finally get a gameplay trailer of Mortal Kombat X (10). A lot of knowing how well a fighting game works is playing it yourself but the noticeable changes in the trailer are graphical enhancements, new characters, and fatalities that seem pretty brutal even for Mortal Kombat.

Riskily talking about television for a while, we're introduced to an adaptation of the graphic novel "Powers". This basically follows two homicide detectives in a world full of superheroes and i guess it could be alright but all they currently had to show was concept art. Also there's a Ratchet and Clank movie coming and a PS4 remake of the first game. Andrew House mercifully returns and shows us a purely cinematic trailer for Metal Gear Solid V (5) and an announcement trailer of Grand Theft Auto five for some reason coming to PS4.

As the excruciatingly long conference draws to a close (only fifteen minutes longer than Microsoft's, but fuck me did it feel a lot longer) there's a gameplay trailer of Batman: Arkham Knight. Showcasing the Batmobile driving sections, it seems they were either controlled by an expert or are very fluid and transition quickly to and from normal gameplay. The batmobile also apparently has Bat-Tank capabilities which is nice variety even though it looked a bit generic in action. The trailer finishes with a threat from Scarecrow and a brief look at his seemingly disfigured face. House bookends the trailer by announcing exclusive levels for PS4 owners of the game. While i'm incredibly cautious about getting hyped for a fourth Batman game, this footage does show promise and PS4 exclusive content will help persuade gamers to their cause, even if the tactic feels rather sleazy.

The conference finishes with a solely cinematic announcement trailer for Uncharted 4 where the story narration and subtitle of the game suggest a conclusion to the series. Take this with an overburdened truck full of salt however since how many times have you heard characters like Nathan Drake taking "one last job" and even if it is, assuming it's successful, the industry sure as hell won't let it die.

So a pretty mediocre performance from Sony as well, rivalling but not really surpassing Microsoft or Nintendo. No Man's Sky is personally a highlight from all of E3 and not just this conference but then negating that for Sony is the unsettling, tedious and overly long presentations from Captain Corporate. Besides that there was the similar problem of generic looking games and far too many CG or cinematic trailers without gameplay.

E3 2014 - Microsoft

With an introduction that basically says "you're in charge of Microsoft now, we dunno what the fuck we're doing so we'll just listen to you." Phil Spencer also claims this will be an "entire conference dedicated to games" That's a pretty good start i have to admit, it's almost like they're capable of learning. He goes on to talk about "new ip's" and the "next generation" before showing us a demo of the next Call Of Duty...

So Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare appears to have Metal Gears, Michael Bay levels of explosions, somewhat futuristic weapons, jetpacks and what i initially mistook to be the Kryll from Gears Of War. They are in fact swarms of robot drones and you can tear car doors off to shield yourself from them. Of course there has to be a noble team-mate sacrifice at the end of the demo and whilst they resisted having you black out, you don't leave unscathed.

An explosion knocks you back and the expected shrapnel flies past but for once in a rare element of realism for COD, your arm has been severed off and your shellshocked character doesn't seem to realise until he's being dragged to safety. Now a friend thought this was just hilarious but to me it seemed like hinting at a greater exploration of the real horrors of war and that would be interesting. Unfortunately i then realised this would never happen in any other iteration and is probably just so you can have a Bionic Commando replacement.

Forza 5 gets a fair amount of stage time just like last year, detailing DLC that is available immediately which as release dates go can't be faulted. Aaron Paul shows off his new voicebox and introduces the sequel; Forza Horizon, with a trailer, the likes of which i have absolutely seen a hundred times before.

Assassin's Creed Unity has its world premiere demo, although describing it as having the biggest game world of any AC game is not necessarily a good thing. Online four player co-op however could be, and it seems to work quite well within confrontations at least. I'm going to assume at this point it won't also be available through splitscreen...

With Unity, the series appears to be returning to its roots of infiltration, crowd-based stealth and actual assassinations. All enhanced from the original with the advancements in speed, combat and fluidity we've seen since. It's possible all the bells and whistles are still present outside of this demo, but initial footage is promising and the setting feels more alive than in some of the previous games.

People have long hoped for AC during the French Revolution.

The Sunset Overdrive trailer mocks modern military shooters then quickly becomes mockable itself with cringeworthy comedy and badly breaking the fourth wall. Irritating presentation aside, "Tony Hawk with guns" does at least then show gameplay footage that looks colourful, comic book inspired and fast. Dead Rising 3 is up next, awkwardly still describing itself as an exclusive despite a PC version already being announced. More cringey comedy as the game tries to get its goofy back with online multiplayer modes through DLC, of which the quality is questionable but again it's available immediately so that's commendable.

Oh and Dance Central is back i guess...

The new Fable Legends brings more co-op gaming along with an interesting RTS Overlord style feature playing as the villain. Initial criticisms would be that the constant quipping from characters will get repetitive and annoying fast but besides that the gameplay looks fine and functional at this stage. All throughout the conference the trailers and demos have been interspersed with odd little Vox Pop interview segments starring different game developers. They add little to the proceedings but help break up the otherwise constant stream of game footage in a 90 minute conference i suppose.

Another inane quipping, cartoon, self-referential title called Project Spark appears, that apparently allows over one million different types of game level creation. As a fan of mapmakers i'm certainly intrigued and there does seem a genuine wide variety of possible creations in the trailer. This ends with a seeming segue into a new Conker game! Now that would be news but in fact it's just Conker as a random feature in the aforementioned game. The wording and introduction of this feature feels more than a little deceptive and cheap, not to mention probably rising, puncturing and sinking the hearts of many starved fans watching.

I believe this is known in the industry as "a dick move"

Visually stylised 2D indie platformer with a sombre story? That's ORI...at least i think that's what it was called, the typography was a bit flamboyant. Halo 5  is then introduced with its iconic accompanying theme, now a little awkward considering the attempted lawsuits by composer Martin O' Donnell. A purely cinematic trailer it unfortunately turns out but some Keith David narration is always nice.

Bonnie Ross enters the stage to wax vague lyrical about Halo before announcing a boxset of all the previous titles. I wonder what kind of insanity that will cost? The "Master Chief Collection" apparently all fits on one disc and transitions so seamlessly between games one can create playlists of their favourite moments. We then see some brief gameplay of an (optionally) graphically improved Halo 2 multiplayer. As well as announcing some other extras to the huge Halo collection the release date of the 11th November is surprisingly soon. I can't really criticise this package at all until i know the cost.

Phil Spencer introduces another visually stylised 2D indie platformer with a sombre story titled "Inside". It certainly doesn't look bad but this style of game is not automatically "innovative" and is quickly becoming tired. Continuing on the indie train we get a montage trailer of indie games with a decent variety, though some still fall into the aforementioned overused category. A few that stood out to me personally were Plague.Inc Evolved, Cuphead, Fru and Woolfe.

Following this, a purely cinematic announcement trailer for Tomb Raider 2 (The Rise Of The Tomb Raider) which suggests a darker more psychological focus that could just be all in the trailer because we don't see any gameplay. Next up a demo for The Witcher 3 which not knowing much about the series appears to be Dark Souls crossed with Monster Hunter and not too shabby in either regard. Ken Lobb talks briefly about Killer Instinct before showing a completely cinematic trailer for a rebooted Phantom Dust, a title i'd frankly never heard of and that this new glimpse does little to intrigue me.

As the show winds down there's a brief demo of Tom Clancy's post apocalyptic third person shooter The Division, a dragon riding mythical thing, sans gameplay, called Scalebound and Crackdown 3 in another purely cinematic trailer. At this point you might have guessed my main criticism of this conference. Too many cinematic trailers without actual gameplay and while i'm not strongly against cutscenes and some of my favourite games are cutscene heavy, it's a different story in regards to trailers. Even in a purely gameplay trailer, it is still a trailer and can be manipulated and edited to look far superior or vastly different to what the game actually is. This is significantly more the case if the trailer contains little or no gameplay and has cinematics made solely for it.

There is also not a great deal of groundbreaking innovation  and whilst that's a problem with the entire industry, it is still prevalent here. That said, Microsoft took about the best strategy they could this year by focusing solely on the games and this actually felt like the kind of conferences we used to get before Nintendo broke the mould with the original Wii and all successors were overrun with hardware gimmicks.

So overall, certainly not a bad effort from Microsoft. A fair few of the titles were exclusive and whilst nothing groundbreaking or mindblowing surfaced i am interested in some of these games shown.

And thanks for not mentioning television...

The Amazing Spiderman 2 - Attempted Cinema Review

EDIT: (I spent all day writing this review, analysis, thing and i've got a headache just thinking about it all. I fear this review borders on the kind of incoherence and structural collapse that you'll see in the film. If i were any kind of smart i'd pretend that was an intentional metaphor but in fact this is just an unfinished rant on a truly baffling film. Hopefully it will inform or entertain you on some level)

It took me a while to really confirm my own opinion on this especially with all the others flying around and people's eagerness to tear this film to shreds. Let's clarify the overall opinion of this review and possibly negate any point in reading past these opening sentences. Amazing Spiderman 2 is not a good film and i do not recommend it, however it is also not the Antichrist abomination many are making it out to be. There is plenty wrong with this film from the writing to the pacing to editing, but it is not completely devoid of any enjoyment and some people against all odds have enjoyed it.

As a background statement, i didn't think the first Amazing Spiderman was as bad as many condemned it to be. This sequel seems to be trying to rectify those mistakes many highlighted and appeal to the howling mass of different opinions that have arisen since that first film. The problem with this is that AS2 then becomes a complete mess of different people's desires. Both the filmmakers and the angry outspoken fans have had some terrible ideas that made it into this movie.

The tone of the film is incredibly difficult to comprehend. It is one minute a deadly serious gritty thriller, then a light-hearted family-friendly superhero flick, then a complex emotional character study with broken relationships and finally a hammy action movie more reminiscent of Sam Raimi's classic comic cheesy trilogy. I wish i could say it happened in that order as well but it doesn't. It's like five different interpretations of the same film spliced randomly together.

Unfortunately from this point on in the review, features i deem good or bad are intensely debatable because different people became invested in the different styles of film crushed together. The basic plot is a debate all of it's own but essentially i gathered it to be a continuation of Peter's guilt about dating Gwen when her father's dying wish in the previous film was for them to stay away from each other. This causes relationship issues between the two as Peter tries to respect this wish and protect her while Gwen tries to nail down a definite direction for her life and yet the two are still hopelessly in love with one another.

These scenes are okay in my opinion due to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's natural chemistry and the worst of the writing staying out of the relationship parts of the story.  I still have issues however with Peter Parker's character in the Amazing Spiderman series, who still acts far too cool and suave for a supposed nerdy science student. There is a moment when he turns up late to his own graduation and casually snogs Gwen Stacy on stage right in front of his family, fellow graduates and unimpressed tutors. It is one of the most out-of-character moments i think i've ever seen on film. There's reboot level of changes then there's making someone a completely different character.

Aunt May must be so proud...

Garfield thankfully still excels in the actual Spiderman persona, there's just no switch or difference between his Peter Parker attitude and his Spiderman. The film is also lacking greatly in the humour that elevated the first. There are a handful of amusing moments but most of it has been spoiled in the trailers. Speaking of which, early footage shows a subplot about Oscorp spying on Peter which is never anywhere in the actual film...Trailers also led me to believe this would be a clusterfuck of villains bad enough to rival Spiderman 3. That is not the case as the film centers mainly on Jamie Foxx's Electro with the new Green Goblin remaining in origin building territory until the film's finale.

Which leads us to the worst of the films writing in these new villains. Their motivations are flimsy, unnatural and contradictory. Max Dillon (Electro) is set up reasonably well as a character. A dorky Oscorp technician ignored by everyone until a lifesaving encounter with Spiderman sparks an obsessive fandom with the only person to ever really notice him. Peter should be able to really relate to this guy if he had ever not been the slick skateboarding heartthrob he's been from the beginning. So Max eventually befalls his experimental accident and supervillain transformation, being turned into a bald glowing blue humanoid with control over electricity.

We're lead to believe that Max is unaffected mentally by the accident as he staggers out into the city, afraid and confused by his own new powers. He remembers Spiderman and just wants help despite the city's police turning violent towards him. Next comes the gaping ravine in logic oddly coupled by the only close to subtle piece of filmmaking in this production. I assumed fame or at least infamy and notoriety would be Electro's motivation and this is hinted at with Times Square's myriad of screens all showing footage of him once he is noticed by the police and news reporters. He gazes up at his own image on the gigantic screens and for once he is the center of attention, until Spiderman arrives and all the screens change focus.

This could have functioned fine as a motivation but it's instead ignored and Electro ultimately attacks because...Well Spidey forgot his name...or it's claimed he "set him up" somehow or perhaps because the cops shoot at him, even though they already had a few times earlier to no effect. It becomes really unclear and from this point on Electro irrationally despises Spiderman, acts and talks like an insane supervillain spouting electricity based cliche monologues. All his dialogue just slips away into nonsense even with the dubstep soundtrack reinforcing his unclear motivations with expositional gritty whispers. The first in many features making me feel this film is being deliberately hammy but then contradicts itself with a new style and tone five minutes later.

Spidey goes from this guy's idol and lifesaver to arch nemesis in a matter of minutes...

 Dane Dehaan's acting is good for the script he's been given (most of the actors actually perform well considering), i think he gives up on it towards the end though and begins hamming up his Green Goblin parts which might have been the best possible outcome considering his equally nonsensical origins. Harry learns he has a genetic disease that killed his father. Knowing that Peter takes photographs of Spiderman he tries to make contact with the web-slinger in order to ask for a sample of his blood, hoping that the superhuman qualities will save him from his disease. Peter and consequentially Spiderman are reluctant to give this away, unaware of the potential side-effects but there's a chance for tension and drama here since Harry is his friend and time is given to establishing this fact. So Peter has to make a choice.

Here are the four possible outcomes of this scenario as i see them.
1. Peter gives Harry the blood and it cures him with no side effects, their friendship is intact, rainbows and smiles all around. No consequence or impact for the film. Pointless.
2. Peter refuses Harry's request and the genetic disease worsens and kills him, inflicting Peter with a huge sense of guilt for letting one of his friends (or only friend it would seem in this movie)
die. This obviously prevents any Green Goblin antics but actually has an impact on the film.
3. Peter gives Harry the blood and it mutates him into the Green Goblin, landing Peter with huge guilt for turning his friend into one of his greatest enemies. Though Goblin would have no motivation to attack Peter in this scenario, i've always gathered Goblin is like the Joker of Spiderman and insanity can gloss over much of his actions. More importantly this has an impact on the film's story and consequences for the characters.
4. Peter refuses to give Harry Spiderman's blood greatly damaging or destroying Harry and Peter's friendship. Harry then discovers that his family's company Oscorp has had a cure to the disease all along despite his father Norman Osborne never utilising this to save his own life. Harry finds the cure and injects himself with it but for some reason still mutates into the Green Goblin and now has motivation to attack Spiderman. This choice's only impact on the film is giving Spiderman another villain to fight.

Which one of these sounds the most convoluted and far-fetched? Because that's what the film goes with. Leaving the cinema i got a feeling very reminiscent of the kind of incoherence i hadn't seen since the Star Wars prequels yet similarly this film will try to bombard you with action and visual spectacle to distract you from its flaws.

Taken from the PS4 version of the film...

There is also an entire subplot about Peter's parents, assassination attempts, Oscorp and the downright stupid change to the lore that makes the Parker bloodline unique and only he could be Spiderman, which is not only a huge "chosen one" cliche it kills the already strained ability to relate to this nerdy, unpopular character (who isn't at all unpopular in this film). I'm only mentioning it briefly at the end because it bored my bollocks off but it takes up a tedious amount of the film and seems set to show up more in the inevitable third film.



 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Cinema Review

If you were like me and hoping that the shield corruption, moral conflicts and commentary on intelligence organisations hinted at in the trailers would play a big part in this film then you'll be pleased to hear those hopes are realised. One of The Winter Soldier's biggest achievements is making a superhero film with the expected mainstream large action sequences as well as an effective espionage thriller. Some of the tense atmospheres of distrust created are potent and will have you second guessing the motives and allegiance of almost every character on screen.

For those less interested in those affairs, the film still delivers on the big-budget marvel action movie side of its persona. Less so than other avenger-centric films perhaps but i feel the extra time devoted to plot and character conflict only makes the action better and it suitably tapers so that the second half of the film is much more action packed than the first.

I can't go into too much detail with the plot because i don't want to spoil things but the film does well focusing on about three or four major characters and exploring them all very well. The acting is also solid on all accounts especially from Samuel L Jackson. Tonally despite a rather dark distrustful atmosphere with quite a lot more violence than other Avenger franchise films, the story still finds time for plenty of injections of humour that help balance everything nicely.

The film is fairly long but it doesn't feel like any scenes are superfluous or time is wasted. From the very first shot the filmmakers are setting up characters and story and for a central character who is so defined by events in his past there aren't too many flashbacks either.

The complex web of betrayals, mystery and corruption is mostly watertight with only one or two minor plotholes emerging in the later scenes of the film. The leaps of logic and realism that can sometimes disengage in these types of films are also few, which considering the substantial, epic scale of events and characters is an achievement.

A few notes about Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow however in regards to character and treatment. In Avengers she was very cold, calculating and detached but in Winter Soldier they've made her much sassier with her far outnumbering the other characters in terms of quips and comical lines. These aren't bad and the acting is still very good it's just a minor gripe about character inconsistency that struck me whilst watching.

They've also made her much less "assier" (thought of that all by myself, i'm here all week, etc) by which i mean far less sexualised than in other films which is a refreshing step forward.
That said there is some interesting sexual tension between her and the titular hero which is mostly underlying and doesn't outstay its welcome but is another well implemented layer to the film weaved into much of the film's comedy.

Overall this is an excellent different direction to take the character in yet remaining a solid story with plenty of action, comedy and intrigue to appeal to fans of the Avengers franchise or action movie fans in general. I was worried that this vast arc of movies planned to live well into the future would be stretching the characters and appeal too thin but if Winter Solider, Iron Man 3 and arguably Thor 2 are any indication, the post-avengers films are only improving.

Video Games Saved My Life

I am an avid video gamer in my twenties who also suffers from depression. I have been playing video games for most of my life, often for long stretches of time taking up entire days. I have also long since lost count of the times my favourite pastime has been blamed for crimes ranging from theft to mass murder. This article feels like throwing a grain of sand against a grand tidal wave of negative press but in a way that justifies the need for it even more. Consider this a piece of much needed positive coverage for video games from someone who has actually played more than one.

The main fear I see portrayed on news reports and discussed on panels of exclusively non-gamers is that gamers will lose the ability to differentiate reality and the world of the video game they are playing. Many people seem disturbed by how immersed gamers can become but I see that and instead think “good” Good that they lose themselves inside video games so that they have a respite from the real world, which I have observed to be more sick, deranged, violent and poisonous than any video game I have ever played.

The thought of witnessing all the injustice, cruelty and random merciless chaos of life relentlessly without release, without break seems more likely to drive a person insane and dangerous than the most realistic, immersive video game I can imagine. People blame video games for crimes committed when in fact I wager that they have delayed or even prevented far more.

During my childhood I was frequently bullied both at school and at home and often the only thing I had to look forward to was the unrivalled blissful escapism of video games. Forgetting who I was and losing myself in these worlds where things were simpler, fairer and more controllable. As a teenager I became severely depressed and this would go undiagnosed until my early twenties. Years of crippling self-hatred, constant doubt and an inability to enjoy life made me thoroughly miserable and I have plenty of memories where I’m surrounded by friends, partaking in some leisurely pursuit I should have been fully enjoying and instead of fun or happiness I simply felt empty.

How does one escape from something that is tied to your very being? A nightmare in your veins? A slow draining rot of the mind? Films, books, television and music work to a certain extent but nothing could match the immersion and scope of video games. Amongst the upsettingly few memories of times I have genuinely enjoyed with friends are also a great many memories of adventures taken, emotions experienced, connections made and satisfaction gleaned from achieving something which I knew was ultimately meaningless but found immense pleasure in all the same because I was immersed. For a while I could feel that my only problems were the challenges faced in video games. Challenges I could actually succeed in.

Forgetting who I was, losing that reference point for all my loathing and self-destructive impulses and instead believing I was an acrobatic time-controlling prince or a cybernetic commander of a cutting-edge spaceship or even just a quick little blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, was often the only release I got from the crushing paralysis present in the rest of my life.

Which brings me to the point of this article in which I confidently state that video games have not only saved me from the darkest, depthless emptiness I’ve ever felt but they have given me some of the happiest times I can recall in an existence otherwise starved of such sensations. I would wager that many people in similar positions would claim the same. There is no news to be found in people who are content with something, so the vast majority of gamers go unheard, primarily because they haven’t broken the law.

I don’t believe the media and politicians are completely devoid of logic in their distrust of the medium of video games ( just mostly) but I ask them to broaden their thinking in that a person who cannot detach and dissociate themselves at all from such an experience is in need of help far more generally in life. An inability to separate fact from fiction can prove problematic and potentially dangerous in all walks of life not just in the context of video games. Essentially, someone capable of the crimes often causally linked to video games has far bigger problems than what video games may or may not contribute to. 

Someone of that disposition is at equal risk in any activity, from video games, to paintball to driving a car, so instead of looking for easy and simple targets to blame, censor, and ban, take up the harder, more complex but also more pressing task of improving mental health care for people with these conditions you are seemingly so fraught with concern about.