For science, you monster

• 6Aug 12

  Thank you, I'm here all week

  

  Like we said in Friday's Start/Select, this is my final week at GameSpot.

  I've had two marvellous years here, working with some of the handsomest, cleverest, funniest, handsomest people in the business we call writing about video games on the internet.

  I'll be doing more of that in my next job, but here's not the place to talk about it.

  As I set to excavating my desk out from under two years' worth of notepads and promo discs*, I wanted to say thanks for having me, GameSpot.

  Thanks for watching and reading and commenting. Thanks for listening to the podcast (I'll do a last one tomorrow). I love what I do, but I love it harder because of people like you.You're alright, you are.

  Jane

  *If anyone was looking for Depth Hunter: The Spearfishing Simulator, I had it

  • Posted Aug 6, 2012 9:34 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 2Aug 12

  Don't smile, ever, okay

  Do evocative video games demand photorealistic graphics? Christoph Hartmann, the 2K Games supremo, says true photorealism is required to depict "deep emotions".

  

  Games are mired in military shooter territory without them, he says, because without photorealistic characters it's easier to make meatheaded Michael Bay romps than wistful Brokeback Mountain complexity (the latter, his example). Until we can do la douleur exquise on Marcus Fenix's zillion-polygon next-gen mug, we'll languish in these bro-tastic badlands.

  I don't know. I am broadly in favour of fewer inhuman rictuses, but photorealistic computer graphics aren't a prerequisite for emotional authenticity. Speaking as someone who skipped the first 20 minutes of Pixar's Up on a second, in-flight viewing to keep from openly weeping on the passenger beside me.

  Saying photorealism is essential overlooks a host of stylised visual approaches that can be just as effective--not to mention a whole bunch of sensitive, evocative games without really lifelike visuals.

  • Posted Aug 2, 2012 6:18 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 17Jul 12

  Damn you, Greenland

  

  According to my simulation (Plague, iOS), humanity will make its last stand against the lethal J-Virus in Greenland, which is totally impermeable to disease.

  • Posted Jul 17, 2012 7:18 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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