While primarily serving as wish fulfilment, games have got quite adept at showing us some of our shortcomings and, perhaps in a redemptive way, how we can look to overcome and get around them.
When Spider-Man came to the first Sony playstation with his very own videogame, he showed gamers for the first time that is was possible, and even entertaining, to be an overpowered character.
Games are often better for not trying to eschew real-world simulation and instead let us live out a very specific type of fantasy, even for a few hours. Yet in adopting an ‘out of body’ experience mechanic, Driver San Fran always felt cynical
Despite some cosmetic similarities, notably around the theme of giant creatures – The Last Guardian and Monster Hunter World are very different beasts – in every sense of the word.
There are videogames that, through the medium’s interactive nature, can offer insightful, empathetic new ways of conveying the human condition and stories of he we react to each other. Then there is a game like Doom, where you smash off a demon’s head with its limbs, both approaches are valid artforms.
A game cannot have a soul in the traditional sense of the word – if such a thing exists at all.
Yet in true videogame form, the entire basis of The Last Guardian is built around the principle of making you believe there may be something organic and sentient within the programming of Trico.
The Playstation 5 may soon be upon us – will in the next three years or so – with gaming media debating the nature of “soon” and just what exactly a next generation console should be.
