comScore
  1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser

Remember Me

Review

Review: Remember Me Packs A Punch, But Doesn’t Complete The Combo

by Becky Chambers | 12:33 pm, June 14th, 2013

Remember Me is built on great ideas. A device that acts as an external hard drive for your memories. A society that edits out suffering, rather than facing it head on. Memory junkies, addicted to quick fixes of positive emotion. Dissidents who steal the memories of some so that all might be free. A city clothed in highly skilled artwork. A soundtrack I can’t wait to own. A free-flowing combat system that invites the player to get creative.

Developer Dontnod Entertainment deserves praise for all the quality concepts packed into their debut title, as well as for standing by their multiracial female protagonist when others straight up told them they shouldn’t. But this compliment goes hand-in-hand with my general problem with the game. Great ideas, all around — but there needed to be more than that.

READ MORE

Essay

In Which I Am Pretty Darn Sure That Most Gamers Are Fine With Female Protagonists

by Becky Chambers | 12:31 pm, March 29th, 2013

Last week, the Penny Arcade Report interviewed Jean-Max Morris, creative director of the upcoming female-led game Remember Me. After going into the game’s cyberpunk roots, Morris discussed the publishers who wanted nothing to do with a female protagonist. “We don’t want to publish it because that’s not going to succeed,” he paraphrased. “You can’t have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.”

As the article made the rounds, I couldn’t help but notice what gamers were getting excited about elsewhere. Tomb Raider had just slipped to number two in the UK sales charts, after two weeks at number one. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm had already sold 1.1 million copies in its first two days. Indie developer Supergiant Games, the folks behind Bastion, announced their new action RPG, Transistor, which features a leading lady. Their booth enjoyed two hour lines at PAX all weekend. I’m told that the lines for Remember Me were comparable.

I don’t think it’s gamers who have a problem with female protagonists.

READ MORE

+2 Cha -2 Str

Jean-Max Morris Recalls Being Told “You Can’t Have a Female Character in Games”

by Susana Polo | 12:13 pm, March 20th, 2013

“We had some [prospective publishers] that said, ‘Well, we don’t want to publish it because that’s not going to succeed. You can’t have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.’ …We wanted to be able to tease on Nilin’s private life, and that means for instance, at one point, we wanted a scene where she was kissing a guy,” Morris said. “We had people tell us, ‘You can’t make a dude like the player kiss another dude in the game, that’s going to feel awkward.’ I’m like, ‘If you think like that, there’s no way the medium’s going to mature.’ There’s a level of immersion that you need to be at, but it’s not like your sexual orientation is being questioned by playing a game. I don’t know, that’s extremely weird to me.” — Jean-Max Morris, creative director of Remember Me, to The PA Report.

Remember Me is a cyberpunk themed game whose hero Nilin “can “remix” an individual’s memories by hacking into their neural implants as she attempts to reclaim her memories.” Morris talked about the game, and the difficulties it encountered in getting made simply because it had a female player character, with the PA Report. His remarks illustrate, among other things, how misogyny and homophobia are often intertwined.

Previously in Women in Gaming

READ MORE

The Future Is Now!

8 Games To Watch Out For In 2013

by Becky Chambers | 1:58 pm, December 28th, 2012

2012 has been a great year for games. AAA titles are huge and spectacular, indies are fearlessly exploring new territory, and the cultural conversation about this ever evolving medium gets livelier by the day. For all the growing pains both the industry and players are working through, this is a truly exciting time for anyone who loves games.

Even though I’m still playing catch-up with my backlog, 2013 will soon be here, and with it, a whole new batch of worlds to discover, puzzles to solve, and battles to fight. Without further ado, here are a handful of upcoming games that have my attention.

READ MORE

Things We Saw Today

Things We Saw Today: Armored Edition Arkham City Catwoman Costume Is Like A Million Billion Times Better Than Regular

by Susana Polo | 4:55 pm, August 16th, 2012

Arkham City is getting a port to the oncoming Wii U, and because every console has got to have something to boast about, all the playable characters are getting special “armored” versions of their costumes. The Catwoman one, we can say unequivocally, is about a million billion times better than the default one. As much as we love the game. And kicking ass as Catwoman. (Kotaku)

READ MORE

X