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Part Two discusses narrative structure and immersive factors in older games, and begins to draw contrasts with the newer games.

Full editorial

Earlier this month, IGN published a list of awards given out to exhibits at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 (E3) and the absurdist comedy themed puzzle-game Portal 2 wins Best PC Game, Best Xbox360 Game, Best PS3 Game, but curiously not Best Overall Game.

Full List at IGN

[Submitted by RedConversation]

Conservatives talk about the fifties, liberals talk about the sixties, Muslims talk about the late seventh century, and gamers talk about Quake, and the SNES.

So why is it so many people are convinced that "those days were better than these days?" What was so compelling about "those days?" Were those days really so great?

Full editorial

Two days ago, Volition, Inc. and THQ released this trailer for the next Red Faction. The latest game, entitled Red Faction: Armageddon is set for release in March 2011. This new addition to the series apparently has ties to the confusingly named SyFy Channel. It is said that SyFy is co-producing the game, and is laterally producing a two-hour made-for-TV Red Faction Movie which is intended to serve as a backdoor pilot for a possible television series of the same.

Original Story at Broadcasting & Cable

[Submitted by RedConversation]

[ Read the rest ... ]

I'd like to give a hearty welcome to RedConversation who has just joined our editorial staff. We all look forward to the insights he will be sharing with us in the near future.

The Humble Indie Bundle is a unique collection of well-received multi-platform DRM-free indie games packaged into a name-your-price bundle. That's right, you can decide how much you want to pay for these games. Not only that, there is no corporate middle man involved in the transaction and the proceeds are split between going directly to the developers and going to charity.

The games are: Gish, World of Goo, Penumbra Overture, Lugaru HD, and Aquaria.

I've seen this sales model tried in the music industry, but this is the first I've heard of anyone doing it in the game industry. We'll see how it goes. They are only offering the deal for about 4 more days.

Interesting related side note: they have displayed the current average sale price broken down by platform, and Linux customers are paying almost twice as much (about $13.50) as Windows customers (about $7).

Official Humble Indie Bundle website

The lead designer and programmer behind the 2006 award-winning horror adventure game "Scratches" is preparing to make you soil yourself a second time.

Full editorial

For the rich video game collectors out there a copy of Air Raid for the Atari 2600 has shown up on eBay. Only a handful of these cartridges are known to exist and this one is complete with box making it doubly rare.

At the time of this writing it can be yours for the low price of $12,700. Bet you didn't think video games could be worth that much.

Auction on eBay

Lee Sheldon, an assistant professor at Indiana University, has decided to make the grading scheme for his class like an MMO. Students start with zero experience points (equivalent to an F) and earn them throughout the semester by taking exams (which he calls "fighting monsters") and doing homework (which he calls "crafting"), etc.

He claims that this has helped to get his students far more motivated than when he uses traditional assessment methods. The thing that confuses me is that the differences sound purely semantic. This still sounds exactly like traditional methods but with things simply renamed. Additionally, this idea introduces a cultural bias to the grading. Someone who is not a gamer may easily be confused by all of these gamer terms used in the class.

I wonder if students are more motivated simply based on the fact that he gives more continuous and explicit feedback on their grading progress than typical professors. I suspect that re-theming the grading as an MMO may actually have very little to do with it.

Full story at Yahoo Games