I like it when people organize things into lists. The UK gaming site, Button Bandits, has revealed the top 100 games of all time as voted by gamers. Here is the top 10. Click through to get the rest of the list. I don’t know about the #1. Super Mario 3 not even in the top 10. Blasphemous!
What started out as a few blips and beeps has turned into full orchestral scores and original music by some of the world’s biggest bands. NPR has a great look at the history of music in our favorite past time.
The complexity of the music improved to the point where the score of a video game became almost indistinguishable from the music played in the finest concert halls. Wall went on to score the third and fourth installments of the Myst series, and he based the main theme for Myst III on Karl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
I remember the first time I heard the music in Zelda on the NES. I thought it was such a huge leap forward for video games. Now I look at things like Final Fantasy XII or Halo 3 or Uncharted and wonder what things will be like in another twenty years. We’ll probably have 10.1 channel sound cards embedded in our ears by that point.
You slap a Wii on your sign and you’ll draw a crowd. That’s what libraries in Albany, NY are hoping. Since people coming in and checking out books isn’t happening as much as it used to, library officials are doing whatever it takes to get people to read.
“It’s a growing trend nationally. Libraries are using what’s appealing to the preteen and teen market,” said Michael Borges, executive director of the New York Library Association.
“Using a media format that’s popular with teens and preteens draws them into the library. That demographic has been missing at the library,” Borges said.
While I do applaud their efforts, I think it’s futile. The generation their targetting is using the internet for everything a library is designed for. You need to do research? Go on the internet. You want to read a new book? Buy the ebook and download it. The library is really going the way of the dodo.
What’s worse for your kid? Seeing an extremely lifelike human character getting his brains splattered all over a wall with a 50 caliber bullet or seeing some side-boob? According to a recent survey, the side-boob is the worst thing possible.
WhatTheyPlay, a site for parents of gamers, ran a survey to find out what is the most offensive. The four choices were: A graphically severed human head, A man and woman having sex, Multiple use of the F-word, and Two men kissing.
As you can see from the resulting graph above, both A man and women having sex and Two men kissing came in above A graphically severed human head. So let me get this straight… having your kids see sex in a game (something they ALL will be doing when they grow up) or gay attraction is much worse than someone being beheaded? What a fucked up society we live in. I guess the parents from this survey want their children to be virgin homophobic killers. We’re going to get very far as a society with a lot of those people running around. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
Wait? What is this? Is this a study that does not attempt to rip gaming a new asshole? According to a study presented by the British Psychological Society:
There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the [violent] game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type.” The researchers also hope this study will pave the way to finding the “personality type” that is more likely to “transfer their online aggression into everyday life.” Their aim is a public health policy that addresses troubled young people, not video game players at large.
This study is noteworthy because it contradicts a prior study.
In 2000, the University of Central Lancashire conducted a study that concluded teenage players had “higher ratings on hostility and anger after playing the [violent] games.”
I have to say that whenever I am feeling a little perturbed, I find games are the perfect remedy. An example is last night. My girlfriend was bitching me out for no reason and I played about an hour of COD4 and felt much better. There are far worse ways to release anger than playing a “violent” game. Plenty of people turn to real violence, alcohol, drugs, or any combo if the three and if a one hour of a good gaming session is therapeutic; I see no problem in that.
Many of our readers have families and some have requested us to maybe help them find a way to include their children in the games they play. With most of the games nowadays are usually M for mature and would most likely make a 7 yr old shit himself with fear. Here is a link to some great games that you can play with the entire family. Hey, if it can get you extra gaming time, then why not? As the only editor of this site who is not currently married, I wonder how long it will be before Matt and Al fire some kids out. Not together though.
One good thing about Vista, maybe the only thing, is that it supports great gameplay. MS is trying to corner the oft forgotten market of PC gaming outside of the MMORPGs with some great titles on the way. Microsoft had this statement about its upcoming lineup:
“Games for Windows truly thrived in 2007. We went from two titles in 2006 to a continually growing portfolio of over 60 titles here at CES 2008,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.
The PC gamer demographic seems to be decreasing, but you have to like the ability to make a choice of what platform you want the game to be on, some are on both. Whether your machine can handle it, well, thats a diff story. Click more for the complete game list.
2007 has come and gone. It’s time to look back at the top 10 stories of the year. Some of them my have intrigued you, some of them may have pissed you off. Either way, these are biggest stories as ranked by our popularity generator (yeah, we actually have one).
Last night the wife and I had a few friends over for New Years Eve. Lots of alcohol was involved, and then we busted out the video games. A few people at the party were regular readers and commentators here at Loot Ninja, but some had never touched video games before. So we started out easy with a bit of Scene It for Xbox 360. Holy crap did everyone get into it. After a lot of screaming, laughing, and 3 Long Games later, we moved on to Rock Band.
Yes, Rock Band is a lot of fun when everyone is drunk. Sure, you can’t play on Expert too well (my brother in law can attest to that), but it’s damn fun. We rocked out to a bunch of songs, mostly with me singing (after I gave up the drum set). We gained a lot of fans for the band I have, Duck Sauce.
All in all, tons of fun. It actually made one of my friends consider buying a video game console (he’s already calling asking what to buy today or tomorrow). Hope your New Years parties were just as fun. I literally just woke up from mine (2pm EST). Let us know if you celebrated the dawn of 2008 with some games.
I always like to see how the so-called experts feel about what was the best of the best in the past year. So far. we have had a good track record with our choices. Here is a video comp their opinions.
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