Articles
The
GameGuy: The Small-time Edition
I’ve got a new
book on the way. Tentatively titled The 100 Greatest Games of
all Time (and the folks who made them), the book discusses
everything from Monopoly to Doom, Magic the
Gathering to Bridge. Central to its success is input
by the games’ creators. What inspired Romero when he coded
Doom, did Larry Harris have any idea that Axis and
Allies would sell three-quarter of a million copies?
The publisher and I were
discussing the challenges in drawing meaningful comments from such
a diverse lot when I stumbled on a simple truth. The big names are
never difficult to reach. They want to tell their story. When I
was writing The Video Game Almanac, Romero called me out
of the blue to discuss video game history, Sid Meier eagerly contributed
his thoughts with little more preamble than an email to his publicist.
Conversely, my battery of calls and emails to recalcitrant smaller
companies remain unanswered to this day.
I still write the occasional
review. I love voicing my opinion, and reviews well suite my writing
style. What I don’t like is prying review product from tight-fisted
companies. Again, Microsoft will send me betas of their latest games
and it only takes an email to Blizzard or Activision to get whatever
assistance I need, but God forbid I should ask for dinner scraps
from the small-time folks. There’s a lesson to be gleaned
from the 236 previous words, and it applies to everything from computer
games to collective security. Big-time companies act big time; small-time
companies act small time. That’s why they stay that way.
Tight
Takes
No one said my Tight Takes have to be about computer games. Heck,
truth be known, no one ever says much of anything about them. So
in this column my words wander through a game, and a movie. Not
in that order.
Underworld…
beware yuppette critics with painted lips and pretty boy reviewers
who stayed awake during The English Patient. They will
not like this movie and their lives will be smaller for it. Moody,
stylistic, and fast, this is one of the best action movies of the
year. And Kate Beckinsale? What can you say about an actress who
plays the lead in a romantic romp (Serendipity), subtle
British comedy (Cold Comfort Farm), and this gem of an
action-horror flick with equal skill? She’s awesome.
Silent Storm 2…
nah, it isn’t out yet, but the demo sure looks good. Think
World War II vintage Jagged Alliance and you’ll get the picture.
Graphics as lovely as Ms. Beckinsale and a challenging turn-based
tactical combat engine bode well for this strategy-RPG hybrid. The
game is due out in 2004. If Nival can string together a bunch of
interesting missions in a reasonably sound story line, Silent
Storm 2 could go places.
Finally, long time gamers
will remember Wasteland, an RPG that many claim spawned
Fallout. Well, guess who now owns the rights to that name?
InXile Entertainment. That’s Brian Fargo’s (the former
CEO of Interplay) new company. Only Mr. Fargo knows if there is
a Wasteland 2 in the wings, but if he decides to do it,
at least he is ready. I like the way he thinks… it’s
big time.
©
Mark H. Walker, LLC 2003
Mark H. Walker is a veteran interactive entertainment journalist
who has written over 40 books including the recently published
Games That Sell – and designs games including his just released
board game Lock ‘n Load.
