Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Three S's

 It’s come down from on high that Capcom’s Deep Down, a F2P PS4 exclusive, is not allowing female characters to be created in the game. As the pronouncement was translated in an interview from Japanese to English, one has to take it with a grain of salt. Translation errors have accounted for more than a few embarrassments, so while things look grim on that front, there’s always hope. Whatever happens in the end though, it’s another stab in the gut for the industry. Video games are one of the only forms of entertainment that have a few good women fronting popular series. The reboot of Tomb Raider was quite good, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Last of Us, are all examples of strong female leads.

Friday, February 7, 2014

The Trust of a Hero

Have your ever noticed that the hero is never trusted? Superman and Batman, Buffy and Angel, Master Chief and Cortana; every modern hero has to face the idea that the very people that they save, that they fight with every day will end up mistrusting them. It’s something of a modern convention. In the old days calling a man a liar was paramount to signing your death warrant. A gentleman would have you at ten paces by the dawn, and in the west if you weren’t shot outright, you’d be looking at a six shooter on a dusty main street.