the-escapist posts

In what might prove to be the most meta post ever, I'm going to talk about gaming journalism and how it's changed in recent years. Now, the mainstream media -- by which I refer to traditional magazines like Time and Life, and news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times -- have always worked diligently to maintain a high-quality standard for themselves. As a collective, they follow the rules set down in regulatory tomes such as the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Of course, every publication has its own house style to which its writers must adhere, but by and large there are many generally accepted guidelines concerning tone, editorial slant, and the like.

As video games grew as a phenomenon, it quickly became evident that the mainstream press wasn't going to give it the coverage its enthusiast audience demanded. Typically adopting an outsider's approach, traditional news outlets left their coverage at "Here's a new trend. It's kind of strange and we don't understand it, but the kids seem to like it." This journalistic void left the field wide open for a new generational voice to inhabit.

There's all sorts of philosophical implications behind immortality. Is it really desirable? Wouldn't you become bored after living for so long? What if everyone lived for that long? This is the focus of The Escapist's latest Game Design Sketchbook, featuring a game about choosing immortality or death. It is appropriately named Immortality.

Move around with the arrow keys, and press down to pick up blocks. Your goal is to place blocks to reach either immortality (the infinity symbol) or death (the skull). You can only scale blocks that have the brown steps sticking out the side. It's a very simple short game, but it gets you thinking. It's free, so download it from The Escapist and give it a try. Just promise us you won't catch a case of Philosophy.

Grand Theft Auto IV has arrived on the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and if Metacritic reviews and first day sales numbers are to be believed, it's one of the greatest, most successful games in history. So when do PC users get their overclocked hands on this morally deviant masterpiece?

CVG reported a while back that a French retailer had revealed October as the European release window for a PC version of GTA4. That would match Rockstar's last-gen precedent of releasing PC GTA titles six months or so after the console versions. CVG contacted Rockstar, and were given the classic response: "no comment." Not a denial, but not a confirmation. How disappointing!

While the date is up in the air, it's probably a safe bet that a PC version is coming, given the precedent and the lack of a denial. Every GTA game to date has seen a PC release. Why stop now? We mean, besides the piracy and the depressing sales numbers. Oy!

[Via The Escapist]