As children, many of us will have played video games that relied entirely on gameplay to make them popular. Some of the earlier video games had absolutely no incidental music, and any sound that they did include was (theoretically) made by the onscreen character, the weapon they were using, and the characters in hot pursuit. Where games did have music, it was frequently barely distinguishable from the other sounds, and it was all a mess of bleeps and bloops. Perhaps it is a consequence of innovation where […]

Not so long ago, when a movie was completed and released for the public to watch, there was a very simple pattern to things. The movie was scripted, then edited, then recorded and directed, then cut and shown to a test audience, then tidied up and released to a waiting public. Now, pretty much no blockbuster movie is complete without a tie-in video game. Well, some are, of course. An 1800s costume drama where all of the action is in what is said (and left unsaid) will […]

The popular view of video games seems to be that they entail someone sitting with a controller in their hands, shooting people on a screen. Of course, this is a simplistic view, and there are several other kinds of video games. However, the ones which fit in with a stereotypical idea of what the games entail tend to involve controlling someone’s physical activity in a very simplistic way. Many video games, however, are based around a more considered, statistical way of getting to an end goal. It […]

It is hard to talk about video games for a long time without mentioning Grand Theft Auto. And it is hard to mention Grand Theft Auto without talking about the controversy about the game, a controversy which is whipped up every time people have a difficulty in trying to sell newspapers or attract viewers or listeners to topical talk shows. You know how it goes – the game encourages violence, and it is responsible for lawless youth. It is a complete logical non-sequitur, but it gets people […]