The Cross-Platform Conundrum

Depending upon where you stand as a gamer, you already know that this time in a console cycle is either very exciting, or completely numbing.  The arrival of a new console is heralded with unprecedented media coverage, gamer fanfare, and usually a degree of hyperbolic rambling that make the new machines seem powerful enough that they could be ushering in the Singularity.  Of course, this same level of fervor can be looked at with a certain degree of bemusement too.  After all, when all is said and done, gaming consoles facilitate your enjoyment of gaming, they don’t create it.  The same way that a set of golf clubs allow you to enjoy golf (if that’s your thing), but by definition, the clubs are not golf. So then, outside of the mire of information that is flooding...

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Dead Rising 3 and the Potential of Next Gen

Now that we are little more than a week away from the beginning of an entirely new generation of gaming consoles, even a cursory glance at the launch lineup for either machine will likely instill a feeling of familiarity.  While there are a couple of new games that could conceivably represent the start of successful new IPs, the rest can’t help but convey a draining sense of franchise fatigue.  Of course, this fatigue is nothing new, it has now been upon us for several years, and will likely be with us for many more, given the industry has embraced a model of yearly or bi-yearly franchise releases.  It was of great surprise to me then, that one of the games that most appealed to me on a personal level was exactly what I was most disappointed to see – a franchise title. An...

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