How Do you Solve A Problem Like Miranda Lawson? A Discussion Of Romance And Character Creation In Video Games

The character creation tools afforded in many games are a funny thing. They can be unbelievably complex, and players can and often do devote full hours of time fine-tuning the perfect intrepid hero (or horrific monster) out of the numerous sliders, style choices and tweaks that alter the facial and body features of their player-character. It’s one of the defining tropes of the RPG genre.

Yet for all that creativity and time sunk into making your own character, once the game actually starts that huge amount of attention is often inconsequential. In some games, like Bloodborne, you rarely even see your character’s face after all of that effort. In the best cases character creators build a connection between the player and their avatar, but it never goes further than that. Other characters in the games you play never have anything to say about your character’s appearance, whether they have the chiseled features of a Greek statue or the twisted figure of a del Toro monster. It’s all the same to the inhabitants of Skyrim’s Tamriel or Fallout’s American Wasteland. It’s a small, forgivable but ever-present gap in video game logic.

3 Most Amusing Things To Do In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

With its launch several days behind us now, we can safely say by general consensus that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a huge success. I’m currently loving just about every moment, filling in the gaps of Big Boss’s legendary story, and while the overarching story is as dark and tragic as its ever been, it wouldn’t be Metal Gear Solid without Hideo Kojima’s trademark sense of humor. Here are some of the more light-hearted (spoiler-free!) surprises in the game that I absolutely adore.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s Launch Trailer Is A Nostalgia Trip

For all of the fantastic games to come out this year,  none have roots as deep in the medium as Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid. The series has spanned 28 years and evolved to suit countless hardware changes and technological refinements. The newly released  launch trailer, directed by Kojima as always, is dead set on reminding you that September marks the end of a cherished and longstanding piece of gaming history.

Mass Effect: The Next Trilogy We’d Want To See

At E3 this year EA teased Mass Effect: Andromeda with a brief CG trailer that hints at some kind of focus on terraforming/discovering habitable worlds, which is a tantalizing concept for a game set after the events of Mass Effect 3. Amazing possibilities burst out of those first few frames before the attention shifted to a conventional action sequence with a Commander Shepherd-looking Spectre agent, and Andromeda began to look a lot like an iterative sequel to the original Mass Effect trilogy rather than the brand new story within the Mass Effect universe that Bioware initially conceived.

Deadpool Teases New Trailer Coming Tomorrow

Teasers for trailers are admittedly a ridiculous thing, but sometimes they’re presented in a way that justifies their existence. Today’s example of this is a surprise from 20th Century Fox, informing us that the first trailer for Deadpool is slated to drop tomorrow.

Fallout 3: or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

There probably isn’t much point in devoting an article to Fallout 4‘s announcement because let’s face it, you’re on the internet, so you’ve heard about it. Bethesda’s unveiling of the post-war RPG made the rest of E3’s news sound like that droning gibberish Charlie Brown hears whenever adults are talking – it drowned nearly everything else out. So rather than dissect the small bits and pieces of information we have on the upcoming iteration, I want to go back to Fallout 3 and talk about why a new chapter in the series is such a big deal, at least for me.

A Summary of Ice and Fire: Game of Throne 5.01 – The Arcs To Come

Sunday’s premiere of Game of Thrones brought us back from what felt like the longest break from the series to date.

New Batman: Arkham Knight Footage & Another Release Delay

Arkham Knight is getting its second delay, after already missing its originally planned Fall 2014 release.

Batman: Arkham Knight – Newest Trailer Is A Fight Over Gotham

2015 is finally gearing up. Spring is just around the corner, and come next month a slew of 2014’s most promising titles that never made it to last year’s store shelves are going to start trickling into our consoles and PCs. Near the end of this long-awaited arrival is Batman: Arkham Knight, the finale to one of the most celebrated trilogies of the past generation. Rocksteady reminded us today of the Dark Knight’s return with a brand new trailer for Arkham Knight, appropriately titled ‘Gotham is Mine‘.

The Broken Combat Of Dragon Age: Inquisition

Over the last few months Dragon Age: Inquisition has been raking in Game of The Year wins (even our own Elton Jones gave the game a praiseworthy critique) and we’re currently enduring another game drought, so a couple weeks ago I set aside my better judgment and decided to give the game a shot. To be blunt, It’s been a rough journey. My save file tells me I’m around 60 hours into the game, which, admittedly in a game as large as DA: Inquisition still leaves me with a large portion of the game to play. But with this much time spent on the thing I think I can pretty confidently say that the combat feels terribly broken, and it makes the so-called best game of 2014 one of the most frustrating games I’ve played in years.