New everything, in all directions. Story, mechanics, genres, audience-targeting for developers, &c. None of it's "new," per se, but the end-product of synthesis is about as "new" as it gets. (Border theory in avant garde studies cites this as the better explanation of "new" and "experimental" content in our societies.…

Winged roundhouse kicks. That's the gods' Roadhouse.

I need to finish this talk when I actually get home, but it - honestly - scares me a little bit. I know these guys are the big-timers of narrative gameplay, perhaps with the exception of someone to represent the Infinity Ward and Naughty Dog crews, and what they've got to say about writing interacting with gameplay…

I was going to pick up Space Marine until I thought about how many Warhammer games have a whopping one to two backgrounds and palettes in the entire game. Considering that the fluff actually provides for the Space Marines to be deployed anywhere at any time, I'd like to see more planet-hopping. Drop pods. Drop pods…

I'm there with you. The only problem is that Netflix is bleeding out its movie collection, so I've had to make some important purchasing choices regarding certain five-dollar-bin favorites. Well, or if the movie's specifically notable for its visuals - a lot of the Zhang Yimou-ish and Hollywood spectacle films are…

"Humans and beasts began to battle and the demon lord returns, but this time he is armed with the legendary blade of Hermes."

"You may make a difference in the world, but you're really just along for the ride."

Thanks for the nod!

True, true. It's a success for the illusion, for sure. I appreciate the fact that they didn't sacrifice the pacing of the shooter for the feeling of heaviness. (Shotgun play in MP comes to mind - it's very fast paced, actually.) Pretty great combo.

Y'know, the more you talk about the translation in terms of things lost/unrecognizable, it reminds me a bit of how much time my Old English professor'd spend covering culture instead of language. When I took a Chaucer class with the same professor, she did the same thing - a holistic approach to understanding the text…

That might explain my three balls.

It was for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Thank ye kindly, sir, for the praise.

"Another example would be that you can't use subtle facial expressions or have characters internalize without some sort of monologuing in theatre."

Check out FF4, too - if you get the time. It's probably my favorite of the series, to be honest. It's not the greatest game ever made or the greatest story, for that matter, but the way they handle the character change with the protagonist - given that we're talking about video games here - is pretty spectacular. I…

You couldn't pay me money to play FF8. I watched someone play about fifteen minutes of it, watched a few videos, and promptly refused to touch it with a 40-foot pole.

I thought about this when I saw the PS Vita commercial, too.

Really? I'm shocked how much I still love 'em. The jokes are bad and awkward, yeah - but, FF5, in particular, has one of the best uses of anagnorisis in all of gaming. Love the writing, though. Massive, overblown plots with insanely operatic characters duking it out under the excessively abstracted JRPG Final Fantasy…

1. Gameplay and controls

I'm not sure I agree with your full list of better/worse - a lot of the early Final Fantasies succeed as well if not better than Gears at the audience-based, genre-heavy storytelling, to be particular - but it is a little silly how people seem to be drawing conclusions on Gear's story on the basis of "it's stupid."