I don’t play massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMOs) anymore. I’ve tried Eve Online, Age of Conan, and of course Lord Creator World of Warcraft. I’ve watched my friends play and heard them discuss numerous others, and from what I can gather, they all involve two key elements that millions of people confuse with fun: countless hours of grinding and prolonged interaction with players with names like “L33t Mastah Killah” and “IPWNNOOBZ.” WoW‘s marketing …
Far Cry 2 was one of the biggest disappointments in gaming history. Anyone who disputes this is… wrong. And yet Ben Abraham, an unassuming gamer, chose to play through the shitgasm that is this game with a caveat: die, and he’s done. His goal was to get closer to the relativistic experience of a game, to suffer with his character for real rather than through the lens of a monitor. Ben’s been blogging about this …
Tap’s American readers are doubtless checking the site today out of a sense of duty and responsibility (thank you), in between the brining and basting of turkey for our annual celebration of giving smallpox to the Native Americans Thanksgiving. The big day is tomorrow, and it is on that day that that around 70 homes will catch fire, and many dozens of people will be seriously injured in misguided attempts to deep-fry their turkeys, a …
I found this at a blog my novelist brother contributes to, and thought it was amazing. Not, perhaps, as soul-quaking as the 3D Hubble Ultra Deep Field video, but still a nice way to remind us that we are very small indeed, and that even very small things can create beauty. Odd beauty, sometimes, but still.
GamePolitics reports that a Danish anti-domestic-violence Flash game allows users to beat a woman, I guess as a way to teach dudes why it’s wrong to do so. In fact, if you have a webcam, your swings and backhands will be interpreted by the model as real strikes! Is it just me, or is this plain wrong? Look, I applaud the concept of games that deal with mature, heartrending themes like violence. But when the …
The International Game Developers Association announced on Monday that it is launching a health care program through an alliance with Association Health Programs, a service reserved for members – and one of the goals founder Ernest Adams dreamt of way back when he created the organization, only to be (along with a bevy of subsequent leaders) thwarted by the global nature of the organization and the immense legal complexities involved. While details of the program …
A sad update to a story from the other day: contrary to early rumors that owner EA was simply going to slash staff at Pandemic Studios, news comes in now that the ten year old studio will be shut down entirely and all 200 staff laid off. This is the first of what’s sure to be many casualties, as EA has committed to reducing its workforce by 1,100 people in order to offset a nearly …
Yesterday Steerpike wrote a thoroughly enjoyable take on Electronic Arts going back to its evil ways, but in all the fuss and rightful condemnation we shouldn’t be forgetting that there are other players in this game too and that they’d like a minute under the spotlight as well.
Poor EA. Just as the publisher, long-reviled as a frumious monsterporation of creativity-gobbling soul-holery, was beginning to recover its tarnished rep among gamers and industry, it gets walloped by losses for its trouble. $391 million in losses last quarter, plans to slash another 1,500 employees – this time from Pandemic, Maxis (!), Tiburon, Mythic, Black Box, and the internal Command & Conquer team – along with about a dozen titles on the current slate. All …
So, the biggest title this season finally drops. The successor to 13-million-strong-in-sales Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is finally out, sans the Call of Duty prefix, marking a true beginning to a new IP and, possibly the birth of yet another gaming related but general-population-targeting controversy. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or failing to read Tap-Repeatedly) in the last couple of weeks, you are aware just what we’re talking about here. In one …
I mean seriously, what is the matter with this guy? First he decides to stir up a pointless ruckus by complaining that Valve’s Steam service is exploitative of the little guy, a conflict of interest for Valve, and untrustworthy – an act for which he is universally condemned, and called much harsher names than I’ve called him. Then today he decides it’d be wise to further assify himself by accusing Valve/Steam’s position on PS3 sales …
Tapper Emeritus Old Rooster was first to announce Alice’s return, and I followed on with a rambling but love-laden panegyric to the underappreciated game. Now we have a trailer, a date, and a rawther minimalist new teaser site. Only two years remain to find out of American McGee still has his mojo, or if blunders like Bad Day L.A. and Grimm are all we can expect from him now. UPDATE: Aieee. It looks like that …
If we didn’t love gaming none of us would spend a couple of hours each day here, checking out what’s new at Tap-Repeatedly.com. The fact is, we love not only the process of playing the games, but are equally mystified and fascinated by the process of game design, development as well as production. For years we kind of hid in the dark, listening to our parents’ criticisms about our seemingly insatiable desire to play our …
Bitmob delves a bit deeper into the various potential sexual escapades of characters in Bioware’s upcoming epic Dragon Age: Origins. It would seem that after the tame-but-maligned-by-Fox-news hot alien lesbian sex scene from Mass Effect, the team’s kicked it up a notch. Unfortunately, based on writer Demian Linn’s experience, they’ve not done it that well.
I’ve been in a bit of a gaming slump over the summer and into the fall. Nothing has really caught my attention. I drove a Fallout expansion around the block earlier this summer but it just didn’t stick. I made another run at Guild Wars, buying up the last two releases, Factions and Nightfall, killing a couple of weeks grinding away before sputtering to a stop. Korsakovia was an interesting foray into the Half Life …