Mancrush in 5, 4...

I'm a perfect harmony of my two parents. My dad's a massive geek. My mum's a very post modern woman.

Both have great moral fibre, and both are deep loving intelligent people, and while I can't claim my fathers technical prowess or my mothers raw intellectual spark, I'd still consider myself a fairly smart, capable and confident guy.

Anyway, enough auto-felatio.



Christmas whine.
I spent the christmas period with my parents. Dad's recently gotten a PS3. Why? To go with his 3d tv! And now that 3d games are going out, it's the next step.

A note on my father, he's a real techno-phile. So was his dad. They both did Betamax, dad adopted HD-DVD, and now he's jumped on the 3d bandwagon. Personally I think 3d's too gimicky, and there's even evidence to say it's potentially damaging. For me though, it really doesn't add anything to the gaming experience, and if anything might cause a bit of an uncanny valley effect due to things that aren't real looking even more real, while still not being real...


Daddy Gaming
So he's got this PS3. He's got the latest GT5, which is all well and good, but I was never really much of a Sim gamer, and I find racing a sports games to be a little dull and repetetive. So I take the oppurtunity to introduce him to a few of the good ones over the last few years.
I bought him a copy of Fallout 3, a game that he's still struggling to get to grips with, and downloaded some of the better demos. Arkham Assylum, Infamous, Uncharted 1 and 2. Sure there were a couple of others but still.

Fallout's fallout
On the fallout 3 thing. Personally I love it as a game, and I think it marries character development, plot, rpg and fps in a beautiful way. I got it for my dad both because I think it's awesome, and could really show him that a game can have a story and a point, and because I though it'd be a good first-time game, due to the VATs system taking the edge off of some combat.
My mistake. Dad lacks the rigors of muscle memory that I've picked up across 20-odd console/controller combinations over 17 years of gaming. Even his basic control of the character (walking and looking) were a struggle to get to grips with. From what I hear he's gotten used to the idea of "being" the character, as well as the controls and is now enjoying himself.

Anyway, after a few play-tests, in which we (my cousin and girlfriend were present as well) both show-cased and let him play the assorted demos, I asked him "so, out of all these, which do you think you'll buy?"
Mostly I figured it would be something like infamous, the most visually impressive, or Uncharted, probably the most organic.

I'm Batman
Instead he answered "Batman".

"Why?" I though it would be because he's a big TDK fan like EVERYONE else on the planet.

"I like that Batman doesn't kill, and I like that's taken into consideration in the game mechanics".

I decided not to point out the fact that grappling-enemies into a mile-deep pit left them unconcious as well. But the point still stands. I thought, I pondered and I decided
"when was the last time I played a game without ANY violence or combat?"

Even Batman's still kicking the tar out of various enemies, and sure he doesn't kill them but he'll break every limb.

Conflict, or not conflict.
I don't think a single game I've played in the last few years has had no combat. At least, no game that also has some semblance of a plot. Sure bejweled doesn't involve killing, but it's a nonsense game.
Even games like fallout, where choice is prime, and you can be peaceful, you'll still be killing. Even Deus ex 2, in which they included the option to not kill anyone, means you tranq the enemies and run away instead.

I guess Amnesia didn't have any killing, at least not in game, but there's still all sorts of horrible and violent imagery.

This leads to my point. Extra Credits, Non Combat Gaming. Yeah, i know, I blow their trumpet a lot, but it's still pretty true.
James, Dan, and the Alison, you lot do a fantastic job. And I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way.

Another thanks from me to you.

teh_steve