Shadow of The Colossus (PS2/PS3) Thoughts.. brilliance of a different age

Shadow of the Colossus was originally released back in 2005 to critical acclaim and hefty sales. I received the game as a gift sometime back then.. in 2006 or 2007.. but it sat wrapped on my shelf awaiting it’s place in my backlog. Sadly I never got around to it until the recent HD re-release on the PS3. Last night I finished playing it, and, I was a little disappointed in the overall experience.

But is it the game’s fault? I’m not sure. Playing a 6 year old game is like watching a 50 year old film.. things were just done differently back then.

Fox News fails to understand video games(again)

As if we haven’t forgotten the idiotic hysteria over Mass Effect , Fox is back to it’s old game, making assumptions about video games and selling their patented brand of fear to anyone who will listen.

This time, the target is the first person shooter Bulletstorm. Fox begins their article with a bold headline: “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?”, flanked by a violent image that’s not from the game(a tiny caption clarifies this).

They go on to complain about the extreme violence in the game and how games like this are played by “kids as young as 9″ and therefore the game is innapropriate.

Can’t we just shun the VGAs?

I admit it, I love video games. I’m 29 years old as of this writing, and gaming is probably my favorite hobby.

Now of course, to many, this “admission” will simply file me into their mind as an immature dope that has no life outside of games. They’ll immediately assume I’m that guy waiting outside of Gamestop at midnight for the latest Madden, Call of Duty, or HALO game.

Of course, that couldn’t be further from the truth for me and the majority of adult gamers. We are generally normal people, with normal jobs. While you may go home and plop down in front of the tv all night, we choose instead to be involved more directly in our entertainment. Sometimes we’re flexing our minds playing games like Professor Layton or even figuring out puzzles embedded in action titles. Sometimes we’re just mindlessly shooting things. It’s not always Shakespeare, but neither is television. Would my free time really be better spent by watching the latest episodes of The Jersey Shore or reruns of Seinfeld? Not really. (and I’m not hating on Seinfeld, either.. it’s probably my favorite show)

So, why does the game industry have such a poor image among many? It doesn’t make sense considering more people than ever are playing games. Every year, billions are spent on games, and this simply wouldn’t be possible if it was the niche that many think it is.

Well, I don’t have the answer to that, but things like Spike’s VGA’s are not helping. This is an award show on a fairly popular television channel.Like it or not,  this is our public face. And what do the VGA’s do for us? They make us look like those meatheads who use their Xbox as a Call of Duty machine. People who take off from work to argue with 12 year olds  while playing online games.

This show is simply terrible. It praises everything that is wrong with gaming culture. And yet, nearly every game blogger that I follow on twitter was right there with it on saturday, commenting on everything as the night went on. Sure, they were generally mocking it, but they were still watching it, and many of them were carefully recapping the nights’ events on their respective sites.

I get that this is the kind of thing that’s generally expected from a gaming blog, but are the demographics for those sites really the same as those watching the VGAs? I hope not. Can’t gaming blogs simply take a stand and stop supporting that abortion? Who would they upset? Spike? Who cares? Who made them the authority on Video Games?

Come on bloggers,.. I implore you to stand up and STOP feeding into the VGAs. Let them shrivel and die, our hobby will be better for it. If you’re lamenting the loss of pageviews for that 1 day, just keep reminding yourself that they once gave out an award called “Most addictive game powered by Dew”.