Recent content by Norman Rafferty

I'd suggest your thesis needs more work, because I'd suggest the antithesis: How often have triple-A developers been the innovators? The early consoles were promising "the arcade experience at home!", first with Pong and then later with Space Invaders, Asteroids, etc. Porting an...

Halt and Catch Fire is a fictionalization inspired by Compaq. Compaq was created in 1982 by three guys who were dissatisfied with their jobs at Texas Instruments, so they made the first IBM PC clones. Famously, Compaq used a ?clean room reverse-engineering? ? that is, they spent $1 million...

"Magical thinking is thinking that one's thoughts by themselves can bring about effects in the world or that thinking something corresponds with doing it." (Source: Wikipedia) Magical thinking can refer to "associative thinking" -- for example, I wore my lucky under-wear today, so my favorite...

I found this Big Picture extremely confusing, because Bob didn't even bring up the previous adaptation of the Hobbit, which told the story in only 90 minutes. (He must be aware of it, he used stills from it.) And in discussing if the story was too long, he didn't bring up all the added bits...

This is the best anecdote for "lowest common denominator" I've seen. Now, watch the video again, only instead of "fear", think of these characters as "game developers". Puts the whole "big ideas" talk into perspective.

Here at the Escapist, we've been posting anime reviews for several months. What do you think of our performance so far? Take our poll, or comment here.

Anime Review: Black Butler He?s a little kid so ruthless that he?s sold his soul. And he?s one hell of a butler who will never fail in his service or duty! They fight crime! And live together. And dress each other. And ? make fun of Jack the Ripper? Read Full Article

J'accuse! What was the "Era of Names", and how is it weaker or stronger than it used to be? Here's a start to the listing of Big-Name Game Designers. To be a Big Name, when someone heard they were working on the game, lots of people bought it. This list also includes their tenure of game...

Anime Review: Casshern Sins Would Mega Man be improved if you recast our hero as an amnesiac villain wandering the empty doom-scape of humanity?s extinction? No, of course not. Read Full Article

OMG, I hated, hated, hated this opening sequence. Five minutes of bad acting interrupted by 30 seconds when I'm allowed to play the game. Good job! One thing you missed? Those two deaf, blind Japanese guards are smoking cigarettes. Okay, any WW2 buff will always quote the line, "never light...

"The latest entry in survival horror" = "The bad guys can kill you in one hit, but you must hit them 10 or 12 times, each. Also, we took out ammo drops, and you can't shoot and use the flashlight at the same time." "A new experience in Massively Multiplayer." = "Merely spending time...

Star Control, where Spacewar meets Team Fortress. It's currently available as "Ur-Quan Masters", but an update would be nice. Ultima. Recently, there was a nice redux for Dungeon Seige 2. The original "sandbox" RPG, where quests were something you had to puzzle out, and there was more than...

Halo Reach's television adverts claim that their game is the "Most Anticipated Release of 2010." ... Really? Star Craft 2 sold more than 1 million copies in 24 hours, and in one week, it's already out-sold Star Craft 1's entire 12-year sales. Is Halo Reach going to have even nearly the same...

Most people don't watch movies or TV with the captions on, for fear they'll miss something there. (Queue up a movie with subtitles turned ON, and most people will reach for the remote to turn them off.) For the most part, it's the point you just made -- fear of "missing something". Video...

When I watch a television show or a movie, I'm expected to pick up on what's going on by listening to what the actors say, and by watching the videos. Closed-captions aren't turned on unless I go in and turn them on. But modern video games always have subtitles turned on by default. What...