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• Columbine Revisited: It Was Never About the Games

  Ten years after the Columbine shootings, violent video games have been cleared of blame for the massacre. All things considered, it's hardly an event worth breaking out the champagne for. At the same time, even though I don't feel smug or vindicated in the least, I'm baffled that anyone would believe that two kids driven to such astronomical levels of violence would be inspired by the silly spurts and canned screams of video games. An article by USA Today revealed the twisted motivations of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, finally cobbled together through years of studying diary entries, emails, and witness testimonies. Harris and Klebold had initially planned to blow up Columbine High School—and the man they were imitating in reverence was Tim McVeigh, not Bomberman. Society has long been wary of video games and the dashing ladies and gentlemen who play them, but the Columbine incident truly demonised the pastime thanks to seemingly fabricated reports that Harris and Klebold loved Doom. I remember reading that and thinking, all the way back in 1999, “Who plays Doom anymore?” Doom is fun and fully deserves its accolades, but it still makes me dizzy to even think that an ancient computer game could be blamed for such a tragic act of violence. Not because I'm worried about what strangers think about my favourite hobby, but because I am a sensible, sane person like 99.7% of gamers out there. People who become depressed or angry enough to kill fellow human beings are thinking in a twisted, hellish realm that's thankfully closed off to most of us. Though outside factors—any outside factor—can trigger a final, deadly explosion, the problem lies with the damaged machinery itself. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 12:23 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: doom, nadia oxford, game violence, columbine

• A Day in the Life: iD Before Doom

  iD have always been more interesting than their games. That’s not to take away from Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, or Quake. The technology that John Carmack created for those games and their mutual successors redefined the shape of a videogame, the type of interactive space a person could create. His partner, the ever-lovin’ John Romero himself, was no slouch either. Of course, John’s legacy lies not in the realm of groundbreaking design tools but in aesthetics (read: the preponderance of games about shooting things directly in the face.) I can’t disrespect those games, nor the creativity behind them. After reading David Kushner’s Masters of Doom, though, it’s impossible not to think of those personalities before anything about the games themselves. The story of Carmack, Romero, Tom Hall and the rest of their team is almost operatic. There’s betrayal, sex, fame, money, broken dreams. The history of iD is the nerd version of Carmen. It would be pretty interesting to be a fly on the wall of their cluttered office before it all went wrong, a look at young people at their creative peak creating something brand new for the world to play. It’d probably look like this. Read More... Posted Apr 07 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, doom, id, wolfenstein, quake, john romero, masters of doom, commander keen, tom hall, carmen, david Kushner, daikatana

• Ghostface & DOOM Bring The Ruckus To Chinatown

  Arguably the biggest game released this week was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS. It's an impressively deep, true-to-the-series, handcramp-inducing marvel, but when it comes to a series like Grand Theft Auto it's not about the game, it's about the street cred. Many were worried about a loss in credibility by putting such a controversial series on the family-favorite DS. Well, contemporary music snobs and hoodrats alike, take note, as Chinatown Wars gets a heaping helping of respect in its theme song. Oh yes, villains, it's the legendary killer bee Ghostface Killah and the man in the mask DOOM (formerly MF Doom) in this sick cut produced by Oh No. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 11:30 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, music, doom, grand theft auto, gta: chinatown wars, ghostface

• Screen Test: Mars

  Videogames teach you lots of things. For example, after renting Dragon Warrior as a tot, I realized that I needed to read every word that was in front of me. At five years old, I understood that dragons and warriors were totally sweet, but I did not intuit that the word “stairs” would actually assist me in using stairs in the game. Games have also taught me important lessons about our solar system and astronomy in general. For example, I know that manned expeditions to Mars are a bad idea. Mars is filled with gateways to hell and is overrun with demons, you see. It would be bad to go there. Thank you, games.  Mars, from French developer Spiders Games, serves as a helpful reminder for anyone who forgot the enlightening tutorials provided by Doom and its sequels. Mars is an action RPG for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC featuring exciting action combat and QTEs! The world of Mars “is unprecedented, not at all like normal mythological or fantasy worlds, offering a journey in a credible futuristic world where survival and the ability to adapt are keys to be able to withstand a hostile, desperate and decadent environment.” A credible futuristic world full of… demons. It also happens to look like a Dreamcast game. Read More... Posted Mar 11 2009, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, screen test, doom, dragon warrior, mars, spiders games

• Gaming for Therapy: A Rabbi Plays Call of Duty

  Oy vey. A freelance rabbi (whatever that means) plays Call of Duty: World at War, and it helps him to face the horrors of World War II era persecution of the Jews. That's the schpiel that Micah Kelber is spinning: The surprising benefit of the game was that throughout my entire life, since sneaking into the synagogue library with David Yagobian and paging through a book of Nazi medical experiments, I have had nightmares about Nazis. Jewish summer camp didn’t help. In games like “Call of Duty,” you get unlimited lives; you keep playing the game until you are victorious. It’s a safe place. When your character dies, you may have to go back to a checkpoint, but this is simply inconvenient, never tragic or final. You will always have another chance to kill your demons. So, playing Call of Duty helped Micah face his fears. Read More... Posted Mar 09 2009, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: doom, cole stryker, call of duty world at war, nazi's

• Duke Nukem 3D Was Actually a Great Game

  It may be hard to believe, but there was once a time when the phrase "Duke Nukem" didn't conjure up hoary old jokes by would-be Internet comedians who were known to say, "More like Duke Nukem ForNEVER, am I right!?"  Well over a decade ago, Duke Nukem was actually relevant, and Duke Nukem 3D was a creative, tongue-in-cheek alternative to id's Doom series, the aesthetic of which could only come from people who read Spawn unironically. I might have been a 14 year-old boy back when 3D came out in 1996, but I was savvy enough to recognize that Duke's over-the-top masculinity was an insincere, tongue-in-cheek take on action heroes, a la The Simpsons' McBain. The question here is, will today's 14 year-olds--who weren't even multi-celled organisms during the original release of Duke Nukem 3D--get the joke? And will anyone else care? All of this Nukem news is relevant because tomorrow the game will be available on the XBox Live Marketplace for the pauperly sum of 800 Microsoft Points. That's a tiny price for what amounts to a lot of game, but I'm not here to tell you about the 360's faaabulous deals. In fact, I'm not even going to buy the game; my old CD still works fine, and programs like EDuke ensure that the original files I once played on my Pentium 133 will work long into the future.  The important thing to think about here is how Duke Nukem 3D was once innovative and unique; this is very hard to imagine after the franchise was left to fester with increasingly awful console ports and reimaginings, but it's true. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 11:30 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, doom, duke nukem, bob mackey, xbox live arcade, pc games

• Bringing Sexy Back: John Carmack

  You’d think I’d be sitting here talking about John Romero, American McGee, or one of the other lookers from the grand history of id software for a Brining Sexy Back feature, but John Carmack is the only one for me. Those penetrating, bespectacled eyes, the sandy blonde quaff that says, “I could have been one of the Duke boys if I hadn’t been an indoor child.” It’s all too much to resist! John Carmack isn’t exactly what you what call sexy in the traditional sense, though he seems significantly more personable these days. For anyone who has read David Kushner’s Masters of Doom (an excellent page turner. Seriously.), you know Carmack’s come a long way from the “computer with legs” he was described as in his youth. What’s sexy about Carmack is his devotion to a singular goal: making the best damn foundation for a game he can build. Carmack and id’s games have never been beautiful creations, aesthetically or mechanically. The company made a name for itself on the cartoonishly grotesque and through its blunt, aggressive play, a combination that has kept their games satisfying (if not revelatory) for fifteen years. But they have always been elegant creations thanks to Carmack’s engines, from the scrolling animation of Wolfenstein 3D all the way to the still-stunning light-and-shadow play of Doom 3. Read More... Posted Jul 17 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, bringing sexy back, doom, rage, id, wolfenstein, john carmack, quake

• The Art of Gore in Project Origin

  There are many, many first-person shooting games. Doom was the ship that launched a fleet of thousands fifteen years ago and, since its release, a lot has changed in the genre. Engrossing narratives (Bioshock), ever evolving team play (Team Fortress, Counterstrike, etc.), the capacity for sociopolitical commentary (Call of Duty 4). But, as the old folks say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. First-person shooters are still about shooting and, like their ancestor Doom, are very pre-occupied with blood. Loathe as I am to admit it, I’m still pretty engaged by it myself. I find bombastic, gory violence deeply satisfying in my entertainment, often as much as a perfectly portrayed human relationship or an honest, unsentimental depiction of emotion. Like anything else in fantasy, it’s the heady experience of the unreal that satiates. Blood’s just another type of icing. Mark Wood, developer Monolith’s FX artist extraordinaire, has written up a short essay on the process of creating blood effects for Project Origin and it's a fascinating read. Read More... Posted May 22 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, fps, doom, counterstrike, fear, monolith, project origin, team fortress