When discussing the evolution of video games as artistic entertainment, commentators and pontificators alike have asked a simple question: “Can a game make you cry?” Let’s get this out of the way first: Heavy Rain will most likely not make you cry. It does, however, provide one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had playing a videogame.
If you’ve been following coverage of Quantic Dream’s latest title you know that Heavy Rain focuses on four protagonists as they fight to track down and capture a serial murderer known as the Origami Killer. But what stands out from this simple premise is the unapologetically adult story. I don’t mean adult in the sense of gratuitous sex and violence or even in the game’s mature rating. Rather, it’s adult in the way that it doesn’t talk down to its audience. Heavy Rain encourages you to empathize with its characters, and in so doing allows you to experience a more satisfying and genuine role-playing game than what we typically consider an RPG. It also puts you in adult situations that, on paper, seem ridiculous, but you’ll find yourself standing in awe at doing something as pedestrian as changing a baby’s diaper. (more…)
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It seems the big boys want a piece of the pre-owned action as the Asda Living store at Crownpoint and Tesco’s Basildon Pitsea store both trial a trade-in scheme. 
I guess it really is tough out there as GAME have announced they’ll be closing 12 GAME stores, 6 Gamestations and all 25 of its Debenham’s concessions. Perhaps it includes the Gamestation in King Street as that’s had its shutters down for a while now – I just thought it was having a refit? Somebody correct me if I’m wrong please.
Although there’s a lot of buzz surrounding this game it’s not something I’d normally play. I had a quick shot on GOW 2 and I never really got into it but, I’m thinking, come on Graeme you own a game store you have to at least give it a try. So… I did… first impressions were ‘I’m wasting my time here, I could be planting some bombs in Sabotage’ but I think a good game can often start off like that and after a little while I started getting into it. My advice is give this a try as it might just surprise you. 
Pulse rifles, xenomorphs and shimmering stealth cloaks; all things that have long passed into gaming cliché since their debut on the silver screen, but in Aliens vs. Predator – the first-person shooter that sees Rebellion return to the universe it helped establish over fifteen years ago – the Oxford developer is given free rein to present these toys as God (or as it is in this case, James Cameron) intended. The result is a pitch perfect tribute to action cinema’s greatest icons, wrapped up in a game that’s equal parts horror, shooter and stealth-’em-up. 
As usual, Treyarch will be bringing us our next fix of COD and this, rumour has it, will be set in Vietnam. The net is abuzz with ‘proof’ that we’ll be living it up amongst the foliage but how will we adapt to jungle warfare and does this mean even more places for the sneaky campers amongst you to hide like the cowardly dogs you are? 
