Friday, October 30, 2015

News & Views
10/24/15-10/30/15

Happy (almost) Halloween everyone! It’s sad that we’re coming to the end of my favorite month of the year. But it’s exciting that the holiday is almost upon us! It’s not too late to join me in my Scare Fest 2015! I foresee candy and pizza and scary movies in my future. This time of year is great, too, because right after Halloween we go headlong into Thanksgiving and Christmas. Party time!

News & Views is back and awesome as always. This week I found great writing about why Halo’s story doesn’t matter, how Miyamoto wanted to create an entirely different GoldenEye, designing SOMA’s unforgettable monsters, and how the original Assassin’s Creed was so revolutionary.

In honor of Halloween, this week’s Spotlight is the 25 best horror movies since 2000. So now you have no excuse: get out there and watch some great stuff this spooky-scary weekend! Keep an eye on The Impact Factor on the 31st for something special!

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight
Joshua Alston et. al, A.V. Club

Worth Reading
Latoya Peterson, Fusion.net

Kris Graft, Gamasutra

Daniel Hunter-Dowsing, Gamasutra

Michelle Ehrhardt, Kill Screen

Ben Kuchera, Polygon

With Comments
Ben Gabriel, Kill Scren
Gabriel writes a fascinating piece about how video games can be perfect vehicle for creepypasta. I love creepypastas. /r/nosleep is fantastic. This article really makes me want to borrow my fiancée’s 3DS to see Aika’s nightmare for myself. Spooky stuff fit for Halloween weekend!

Keith Stuart & Jordan Erica Webber, The Guardian
Miyamoto is such an interesting figure. His approach to game design is so thoroughly unique. I’d love to see his full vision of N64’s GoldenEye. A shooter with less violence, in which all of your downed foes greet you at the end of your playthrough sounds awesome. Stories like this are always fun to read, too. You’ve got to assume there’s some parallel dimension in which this version was released.

Mitch Dyer, IGN
Game ads are notoriously deceptive. They often lie about graphics (use pre-rendered cutscenes) and gameplay (show live actors). But I’ve never seen them lie about a game’s story, like what has happened with Halo 5. I’ve only played the first Halo and even I was captured by the concept behind the new game’s story. Master Chief is the bad guy?! And Spartan Locke is going to try to take him down?! So it came as a huge shock to me that this never happens in the game. I feel cheated, and I don’t even plan on buying Halo 5. It’s so bizarre.

Tyler Lee, Polygon
A boss battle best-of list with some nice visual flair. Like any superlative list, Lee misses out on a lot of great fights. The bosses he did choose, however, are all fantastic. It’s a nice graphic that brought a welcome bit of nostalgia. Man I need to play Shadow of the Colossus again.

Johnny Chiodini, Eurogamer
Chiodini puts together a video conversation that the industry has been collectively having for the past couple years. When should we review a game? Games are often broken at launch and improved in the week or two that follows. But what about online features? What about lasting impact? It’s a tough question and one that I suspect doesn’t have one good answer. Something to think about for all of us who share our thoughts on games.

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