Like A Conflict In Space

So, at long last I finally managed to finish re-reading the New Jedi Order series of books. This has, sadly, taken me quite a while to do. Not just because there's about 20 volumes of the damn thing, but also because a lot of other stuff happened when I was doing it. Like buying that wretched Xbox for example. That was a bit of a distraction.

Can't read, busy shooting things.

X & Violence Part 10: Sequelitis

As we all know, the modern entertainment industry is creatively bankrupt in all it's forms. Be it games, films, TV or music there is hardly anything original being produced any more. The cinema is an endless parade of sequels, reboots and comic book adaptations. And with games is basically the same thing. Only worse because instead of just having a crappy reboot we have a crappy FPS reboot.

Seriously, can we just stop doing this?

X & Violence Part 9: High Hoe

Since I am apparently going through a phase of stating the obvious in regards to commonly discussed topics, let's have a little chat about this whole hardcore vs casual thing.

Ever notice how often this image crops up when you talk about hardcore gamers?

X & Violence Part 8: Brother, Thou Wert Art

So, last time we ended on a bit of a downer. Again. But I still think the point remains valid, and it leads us neatly to the subject of the artistic merit of the gaming medium. So let's talk about that a little.

X & Violence Part 7: Something Blue

Okay, so I think it's time to take a break from serious and/ or controversial topics for a while, and talk about something a little more light hearted. So, what's on my mind today?

The whole area of pre owned games & the various attendant issues arising from it.

Yeah, this is gonna go well.

X & Violence Part 6: Alone Time

Okay, so last time I elected to talk a little about sexism in games. This then led to start thinking about the issue of SEX in video games. After I'd had a "cold shower" I thought I'd get to work. And then maybe do some writing.

TAKE IT!!!

Anyway, leaving aside the increasingly laboured masturbation jokes for a moment, I feel that I should take a moment to preface my usual ramblings with a warning. And not simply that you may end up with a permanent mental picture most people would politely file under "FAR to much information". See, I can't really talk about this issue without talking about a type of game many people find somewhat distasteful. And one game in particular that has received a lot of press as being the worst thing ever™. At the very least we're going to be talking about something that many people do not necessarily find a comfortable topic of conversation. Consider this a trigger warning if you like. Because we're going to be talking about Rapelay.

X & Violence Part 5: And Sex(y)

So, let's talk about sexism in video games. I mean, this is a subject that anyone who's interested in the medium is going to have address sooner or later. I must admit that while I had some thoughts and ideas for a post I wasn't planning on doing one so soon. But then events caught up with me...

X & Violence Part 4: Taking The Shark For A Walk

So, I managed to achieve a couple of things last time. I managed to retain a mostly positive tone when discussing something. And thing that I was discussing was one of the key titles involved I finally convincing me to actually buy a new console. There are a few of these as you might imagine. And I haven't gotten all of them yet. But today i'd like to talk about another one of them. And this time I don't think I'm going to be able to be QUITE as positive overall.

So, let's talk about The Force Unleashed.

X & Violence Part 3: Hell Is Other People

One of the things I wanted to do with this particular series of posts was to talk about specific games, and the thoughts and issues that have arisen through playing them. So far I've not really been able to do this, as I've been discussing things in a broader sense. But one thing that I particularly wanted to talk about going into this was the Halo franchise. Obviously it's a big important IP for the xbox. But more than that it's something that I quite like, but I know quite a lot of people don't. Certainly none in my social group. So I figured it could be fun to explore what it is I like about the franchise, and see if I can answer some of the common criticisms levelled at it.

And the funny thing is that normally the answer is "Yeah, that's very true."

I refuse to not use this picture.