So, I never played X-Com. It is one of those blanks in my gaming life that I probably needed to fill.
That being said, I get it, but I don't love returning to it. A difficult interface and graphics that leave me a bit cold fail to thrill. It's interesting design admittedly, but the other guys advocate for it a bit more strongly than I do:
Today's Moving Pixels column largely concerns how conditioning to game difficulty may alter game design choices. I kind of consider how the shift from arcade-level difficulty to console ease affects how we think about how challenging a game should be.
I think that Nick and I had a really good discussion about the pleasures of shooters. We go well beyond the obvious stuff as well, looking at more than just Call of Duty and the like.
Nick had a really good concept for what he wanted to discuss this week about the manner in which games simulate physicality. We aren't talking so much about Wii and Kinect, as we are about how games make us see things from various perspectives and how games add drama by making us "feel" them in an almost physical way.
I think we explain it better during the podcast. So, please, have a listen.
Ah, League of Legends, you always get me thinking about player conduct and good sportsmanship... and mostly bad sportsmanship...
