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My Fallout 3, and if they mess up with the new one, I’ll sulk for quite a while. Bioshock 2 they’re practically giving away now, and it hasn’t even been out for a year. I haven’t tried the online mode, but they’ve told me it’s similar to Timesplitters..

small live shows with few people make the music stand out more; the big ones are events, and I really struggle to feel the "event atmosphere" on a CD... I've only heard of mr beast from them, but they seemed a bit "bare" or I'm not quite sure what. I'll try with this.

It seems that this, after about ten hours, is destined to gather dust on the shelf. Gaystop already has a ton of them, and the game has been out for about ten days. It was smarter of me to grab Kane & Lynch 2, something I thought was impossible until recently. @s4doll: surely Bioshock 2 stank of a spin-off from a mile away, change of developer, same game engine, etc., in the end, it feels like a big DLC, not even bad, after all.

It seems that this, after about ten hours, is destined to gather dust on the shelf. Gaystop already has a ton of them, and the game has been out for about ten days. It was smarter of me to grab Kane & Lynch 2, something I thought was impossible until recently. @s4doll: surely Bioshock 2 stank of a spin-off from a mile away, change of developer, same game engine, etc., in the end, it feels like a big DLC, not even bad, after all.

Unfortunately, my PC abandoned me, and I have to connect whenever I can.. all very interesting, but graphic adventures practically disappeared before I started playing..

To explain myself better, I believe that video game-"art" is a video game that uses its structure merely as a means, but cannot be art-in-as-video game. (I don’t think I know any, but I’ve heard great things about Braid) To simplify, I don’t believe anyone has ever looked for artistic meanings of any sort in the game of chess :)

s4doll: of that "video game," in the traditional sense, I see great moments as downloading my ak 47 on perfect strangers on the internet, rather than attempts to approach the seventh art. But I totally agree, in the form today intended by the term "video game," the seeds are not included for the medium to make a significant leap in other directions. Perhaps because the video game should change so much that it questions its very belonging to the category. Regarding the first part of your post, I must have expressed myself poorly: smartphones & company are as nerdy as video games, but the latter connect much better to the original meaning of the term nerd, that is, "social misfit," "geek," or something like that. In every prejudice, there is a part of truth, and here the video game for a social misfit can constitute a sort of "alternative reality."

In my opinion, your speech, Lux, gets a bit tangled up when you start talking about "levels of cinematic art" and "playful meaning"; I mean, for me, video gaming has always been a bit like farting—pleasant, yes, satisfying even, but not exactly the ideal activity to showcase in society. But to me, that's also where the beauty lies: while playing MGS4, I never had the intimate desire to draw closer to any kind of cinematic expressiveness, precisely because the video game itself feels like entertaining chatter, and that's a good thing. When we talk about art, meanings, etc., we are merely (and incorrectly) considering the world of video games as inadequate compared to other cultural forms deemed "greater," when in reality, the points of contact are quite few. This is indeed a very common practice among nerds who, in order to have their hobby and passion accepted, make crude comparisons with cinema and literature (bringing in elements that in a video game are either accessory or solely functional, like the plot), thereby diminishing both themselves and what they are trying to advocate. (I’m also reminded of metalheads who make comparisons between metal and classical music.) If, however, as you point out, it happens that video games themselves claim a "high meaning in themselves," I believe it’s simply a case of intellectually dog-like authors.

Let me write down a couple of things that you surely can’t wait to read when you get back... talking about the decline of brands like MGS and Final Fantasy is a different discussion compared to criticizing this generation, which, despite Kojima and his crew, has abruptly shifted to the western front. There’s no shortage of big titles there; I believe the only one left for the Japanese is Demon’s Souls. Even MGS is far from being an interactive movie; it’s rather a game with too many cutscenes, or a game where the narrative component, which is quite poor by the way, takes precedence over the gameplay. A hybrid that has worked for other titles like Uncharted or Alan Wake, but here it forces you to endure real cringe moments like Meryl's wedding and the little scenes on the ship with Otacon. Kojima overstepped, which highlights the fact that he wasn’t exactly a genius. Now I would recommend you take the gloss off your memories and put MGS1 back on, and pay special attention to the cutscenes. I’m sure that if you tried it for the first time now, technological barriers aside, you would probably feel a strong urge to write an article similar to the one above. The past seems idyllic, but rather than a decline in the quality of games, there are the years we accumulate on our backs.

I fundamentally agree with the review, although from the first paragraph it seems like you don't know what you're talking about. Metal Gear and especially Final Fantasy are NOT Sony's intellectual properties.