People have a hard time talking on the internet about crying. Crying is a vulnerable enough act on its own that taking the time to write about it just seems over the top! When we talk about games like Journey, we usually talk about how "the room got dusty," or we "got something in our eye."
Edge Magazine editor Jason Killingsworth has a theory as to why Journey has kicked up so much dust in so many rooms over the last few weeks—it's the jumping.
The jumping is where Journey breaks your heart. The jumping is why many players cried, even if they couldn't pinpoint the cause. The jumping is the tiny, insignificant-looking wingnut holding Journey together, without which it would collapse into a heap of exquisitely airbrushed scrap metal. It's not Thatgamecompany's token nod to classic videogame interactions, settled on after staring blankly at an empty white board for two hours, unable to come up with anything more engaging to have players do. It's not just a tool for poking around its stunning vistas and drinking in the sights.
Killingsworth says that he initially didn't understand people's desire to play Journey for a third, fourth, or fifth time. But now that he's thought about the jumping, he gets it—it's about weightlessness, it's about the incredible, near-perfect feeling of jumping in the game. "Jumping affects the emotional tenor of gameplay in the same way a well-timed key change does a pop song."
Crucially, it's not about flying—it's about jumping. "We don't want to KO gravity; we simply enjoy head-butting it in the nose repeatedly," Killingsworth writes, citing other not-quite-flight abilities in Just Cause 2 (yes!) and Batman: Arkham City.
I like flight as much as the next guy, but I think Killingsworth is on to something here. Without the gravity, the jump means less. And my fondest memories of Journey involve sliding down the sand with the sun in my eyes, shooting up the edge of a ramp, and jumping, jumping, jumping.
You can rent and buy both TV shows and movies on Amazon's video service, which appeared today on the PlayStation 3, Joystiq reports. Still no HBO Go. [Joystiq]
Games2U is a mobile franchise business that operates vans packed with video game consoles, renting them out for children's parties and other special occasions. It sounds like the perfect business for a child molester. According to authorities, Leonard R. Filipkowski of Lakeland, Florida thought so too.
The 44-year-old owner of the local Games2U franchise faces nine counts of lewd and lascivious molestation on a victim under 16 years of age and 11 counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition in the presence of a child. He was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff's Office early this morning.
According to police Filipkowski used the company van to commit sexual acts with a 13-year-old and also admitted to having sexual relations with a 13 or 14-year old victim in his home.
During a press conference held today Polk Sheriff Grady Judd called Filipkowski, who had no previous criminal history, "our worst nightmare", adding "He has no criminal record, no history... and he has a van."
Filipkowski in front of one of his Games2U vehicles, via his Facebook page.
Games2U, which we've covered here in the past, was established in 2007 by a pair of brothers based out of Austin, Texas. Since then the company has expanded rapidly, with more than 140 franchises in 28 states. The final paragraph in the 'About Us' section of the company website reads: "We love what we do. And it shows in the way we run our business. We think you're going to love what we do even more."
It's a fine business concept. It's won various awards from entrepreneur and franchise-related magazines. I've been in a couple of their vehicles, and they really go out to make sure their customers have a memorable time. That just makes the thought of someone taking advantage of such a situation that much more disturbing.
Eventually we'll have to start requiring employees of businesses that cater to children and teens to take psyche evals and obtain a special license. I'm not so sure that's a bad idea.
Update: Earlier today I reached out to Games2U headquarters for comment on this story. What follows is a statement by company president and co-founder Stuart Pikoff.
"We are appalled and deeply disturbed to learn that an independently owned and operated Games2U franchisee has been arrested in Polk County Florida for allegedly assaulting minors. This is obviously a horrible situation, and our thoughts are with the victims and their families
"Our management has reached out to the Polk County Sherriff's Office, and we pledge our full cooperation while they continue their investigation. Further, we urge anyone with relevant information about this matter to immediately contact the authorities.
"As the largest company in our industry, with over four years of operations and more than 50,000 events, we have never encountered a situation like this one. Although the Polk County Sheriff's Office has confirmed that this individual had no criminal record, we will nevertheless continue to work with our franchisees to help ensure that parents, children, and all Game2U customers can be confident in the services our franchisees provide.
"We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement officials but will have no further comment while the investigation continues."
It's been popular for far too long to complain about Star Wars. I'm sick of it, because it all sounds to me like a bunch of old people complaining about kids these days.
Sorry, haters, but you are living in an era of wonderful Star Wars, and your childhood isn't being ruined. And I'm not even sure if things peaked with The Empire Strikes Back.
The latest Star Wars sin, if you'll believe my Twitter feed, YouTube comments or other online chatter, is that a new video game features a dancing mode that turns Cloud City into a disco and features Han Solo and Lando Calrissian dancing to pop songs that have been remixed with Star Wars-themed lyrics.
What problem can the Star Wars haters have with sarcastic Han Solo and paisely-lined-cape Lando Calrissian acting like goofs?
I guess they take Star Wars seriously.
The last time I took Star Wars completely seriously was when I was three years old, I lived in Seattle and the local shopping mall had a guy in a Darth Vader costume stride down the aisles and greet some kids. I was terrified and tried to hide behind one of my mother's leg. That was 1979. Since then, I played with Star Wars toys, I tried to process why George Lucas had Luke smooch with his sister and I saw a man do his entire set at the MTV Movie Awards dressed as previously-scary Darth Vader.
Since the last time I took Star Wars completely seriously, I've watched the cornball Star Wars: Holiday Special and played three slap-stick Lego Star Wars games. I laughed with all of them, even when Lego Star Wars showed me that I could play as Darth Maul in a scene on Dagobah that originally featured Luke Skywalker.
Must we throw out dancing Lando with steps-in-dung Jar Jar Binks? I say no.
I have no problem with Star Wars camp, but what about the haters who would have you believe that modern Star Wars retroactively ruins childhoods? Must we throw out dancing Lando with steps-in-dung Jar Jar Binks? I say no.
But the haters aren't just complaining about Star Wars comedy. They seem to complain about most new Star Wars: something about George Lucas ruining it all, which might go back to the time he said he was considering casting the members of a boy band for a cameo in one of the prequels ... or maybe to when the opening scroll for the first Star Wars movie in 16 years promised an epic about tax policies ... or when endless tinkering with movies that were good enough the first time around produced such non-minor debates such as whether a rogue protagonist should shoot the guy who is shaking him down in cold blood and whether a sometimes-evil dad who redeems himself by saving the life of his son should appear in ghost form as his younger pre-evil self or as his older redeemed-dad self.
George Lucas brought this on himself, we can agree.
Yes, modern Star Wars howlers, George screwed up, but you're making it way worse.
I understand why modern Star Wars haters are protective of their childhood. I believe they are nostalgic not just for old Star Wars but for the forgotten era of Star Wars scarcity when there was so little Star Wars content that on average, as whole works, each was pretty good. I believe their withering grumpiness is a byproduct of Star Wars proliferation. There's now so much Star Wars stuff, that many, many whole works of Star Wars content—entire movies, instead of just scenes; entire video games, instead of just levels; etc.—are now spoiling the whole batch.
Hard as it is to imagine today, there was a period when new Star Wars content was rare. Star Trek was the milked sci-fi franchise with new novels and spin-off shows incessantly beaming into existence. Star Wars was maybe too good for that.
I remember that era of Star Wars scarcity. I remember a time when there were only two Star Wars movies and I can remember, in high school, in 1991, when a novel called Heir to the Empire came out. The novel was the first major piece of new Star Wars content in eight years. It counted. It told me what happened next to Luke, Leia and Han. It mattered, and it was pretty good. Grand Admiral Thrawn was a great new bad guy. If the caretakers of Star Wars were going to be this judicious, they may have never been swatted with today's backlash.
Eventually, Star Wars sprawled. We got more than three movies and three new books and the odd comics or Splinter of the Mind's Eye that eked out. We got shelves of novels. We got piles of video games. We got some terrible stuff, including the first major comic book expansion to Star Wars lore that was so bereft of good ideas that it brought back the presumably dead Boba Fett and Emperor Palpatine.
In other words, as soon as Star Wars started sprawling, we got more crap. I think Princess Leia would assess the situation thusly: the more you loosen your grip, the most junky star systems are held by your fingers.
As soon as Star Wars started sprawling, we got more crap.
What could have seemed, in the past, like the perfect airtight franchise that only had excellent movies to its name became the franchise that had some stinkers and some clunkers. In my preferred corner of entertainment, video games, we didn't even half a ratio that was that good. In video games, the bad Star Wars has been outnumbering the good Star Wars for ages, which really just makes Star Wars like anything else.
The tiresome backlash against Star Wars simply conflicts with the idea that this thing—this franchise that started with its fourth episode and was therefore always presented as being part of some continuing thing—now no longer is always good. That fall from the loftiest perch was inevitable. It doesn't make things bad; it just makes Star Wars realistic.
Perhaps modern Star Wars haters would have liked Lucas to have left it all alone. Don't tinker with the old movies. Don't' make new ones. Let it all stand still. Turn them all into museum pieces. A Carbonite-frozen Star Wars would have kept us from the great role-playing game Knights of the Old Republic. It would have blocked us from Lego Star Wars. It would have robbed us of Revenge of the Sith a movie that improves the emotional impact of A New Hope.
A petrified Star Wars would have disallowed the great ongoing Clone Wars computer-graphics cartoon as well as the lovely hand-drawn one that preceded it. We'd have been robbed of many dozens of excellent John Ostrander-written Star Wars comics from Dark Horse.
I can laugh as much as anyone at how busted the lightsaber battles of The Phantom Menace were.
But did you know the The Clone Wars show regularly showcases lightsaber battles that are more exhilarating than any ever put in even the best Star Wars films?
And that it does the same for space battles? (Sorry about the music that the person who made that compilation used!)
The Clone Wars is a series ostensibly made for children. I've seen adults turn their nose up at it for that reason. Mistake. It has the characterization and heart of the old movies, and it out-dazzles any spectacle early-Lucas ever produced. It is the progeny of his vision even though he's barely involved in it, and it's as great Star Wars content as there's ever been. It even sometimes makes Jar Jar Binks interesting.
The ideas that old Star Wars was perfect or ineligible for parody or impossible to further serialize is as flawed on the complaints from yesterday's grandpas that the music or TV or movies of today is no good. George Lucas messed up by messing with his old movies, by doing the opposite of the video game studio BioWare and changing his epic when no one was even asking him to. But his re-editing of the past doesn't prevent the future of Star Wars from being wonderful and sometimes a bit camp.
Current Star Wars is plenty good. Some of it is better than the things Star Wars old-timers like me loved when we were kids.
If you know how to use the Internet, you will have little trouble finding people who will tell you that Kinect Star Wars is a bad video game. These people are correct. More »
We've had a copy of Star Wars: Kinect in our New York office for a few days now. Which means, aside from Stephen's upcoming review, people have been dancing their asses off to pop songs.
Pop songs that have been re-worked to include lyrics from the Star Wars universe. More »
I won't speak for everyone, but I'm sure many self-proclaimed geeks have had their hobbies and passions bashed by high school teenagers who couldn't comprehend the awesome. I certainly never replayed my favorite Final Fantasy games over and over in lieu of fellow gaming compatriots to share the experience with. No, never.
Felicia Day and crew—creators of the World of Warcraft-centered web series, The Guild—certainly have, or at least their online personas have. But now that the bullying has subsided and magazines like Wired and Vogue have risen to support geek culture, The Guild team feels vindicated.
So vindicated, in fact, that they wrote a song about it. The Guild's latest music video is part of Felicia Day's launch of Geek & Sundry, an Internet community devoted to videos about games, comics and more.
You can find three new shows (including Table Top with Wil Wheaton!) over at the site, as well as a trailer for a fourth upcoming show. We expect to see exciting things from Felicia, Wil, and the other hosts featured at Geek & Sundry.
Saturday Morning RPG starts off with a reference to the 1989 Fred Savage film The Wizard. That's pretty much all you need to know about this upcoming iOS game—from Care Bears to Transformers, it's a non-stop barrage of warm nostalgia.
It's also a role-playing game filled with areas to explore, sidequests to crunch, and enemies to kill. There's a combat system, reminiscent of Super Mario RPG but mostly like indie gem Charles Barkley's Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden. It's both turn- and rhythm-based. You have a variety of special attacks at your disposal, most of which require your fingers to dance around the screen, tapping at the right times to meet the goals of various minigames. While playing on my iPad, it was tough to do this properly without resting the tablet on my lap or a desk.
And the tap controls are very, very specific. To beat battles without dying a gazillion times, you'll have to remember exactly where to press and when to press it. You can also tap to defend yourself from attacks and tap before each battle to unlock scratch-off stickers that give you bonus effects in combat.
As a result of those mechanics, there are no mindless encounters. Even filler enemies feel like rewarding challenges. This is great when you want rewarding challenges, but frustrating when you just want to get through a dungeon and random enemies take way too much time and effort to take down.
Pop culture references are the hook in Saturday Morning RPG, but what might be most impressive is its soundtrack, a lovely set of tunes composed by Transformers fan cult hero Vince DiCola and collaborator Kenny Meriedeth. This is not a game you'll want to play on mute. But it's a game you'll want to play.
Saturday Morning RPG will be out Thursday, April 5 for iOS devices.
Angry Birds is everywhere. The A-Team used to be everywhere. Put them together, and you've got 30 years of pop culture condensed into one minute of flash animation.
If I died tomorrow and you played this video at my funeral, first off who the hell invited you to my funeral? Secondly, as the church police are dragging you out of the cemetery, my friends and family will note how neatly this silly little animated cartoon summarizes the life and times of Michael Fahey. From cradle to the grave, The A-Team to Angry Birds.
Realizations like these are exactly why people turn to a life of crime, donning berets and trying to blow up a team of hired mercenaries framed for a crime they didn't commit.
Weird Al's got nothing on this Minecraft-themed parody of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida."
Actually, singer TryHardNinja sounds a little bit like he's channeling Mr. Yankovic. Either way, this is pretty cool. Dunno which is most impressive—the song, the video, or the Minecraft map created for the occasion.
People have a hard time talking on the internet about crying. Crying is a vulnerable enough act on its own that taking the time to write about it just seems over the top! When we talk about games like Journey, we usually talk about how "the room got dusty," or we "got something in our eye."
![Van-Based Mobile Arcade Operator Arrested for Child Molestation [Update]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17igoh6fou12xjpg/medium.jpg "Van-Based Mobile Arcade Operator Arrested for Child Molestation [Update]")
Games2U is a mobile franchise business that operates vans packed with video game consoles, renting them out for children's parties and other special occasions. It sounds like the perfect business for a child molester. According to authorities, Leonard R. Filipkowski of Lakeland, Florida thought so too.![Van-Based Mobile Arcade Operator Arrested for Child Molestation [Update]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/post/9/2012/04/games2uvan.jpg "Van-Based Mobile Arcade Operator Arrested for Child Molestation [Update]")
