Steven Poole's Recent Blog Entries

• Melody Makers
  The best videogames allow the player to show off while accomplishing preset tasks, yet most music games stick to the Pavlovian QTE route.

  Here in the snowy early days of 2009, I am setting my metronome and practicing fingering studies on my beautiful new guitar.
  
  Every few days or so I find I can bump the tempo up a notch, getting a satisfying confirmation of my improvement; and then I will allow myself to plug in to Guitar Rig and lay down some punishing heavy metal nonsense. All told, it’s much more fun than playing a videogame.
  
  February 17, 2009
• Tomb Tomb Tomb Raider

  Does repetition deserve such scorn in the world of videogames?

  It’s a curious experience to be playing Tomb Raider: Underworld a full dozen years after the first game’s appearance.
   
  Sure, Lara now slaps petulantly away at innocent fronds of vegetation, and the arms-at-her-sides pose when she is balancing sideways on a beam is pretty cute (although arguably thematically inconsistent – it looks like a posture someone who wasn’t used to balancing on things would adopt).
  
  January 28, 2009
• Drinking Game Wisdom
  The Nailing Game is the best drinking game ever made, and videogames can learn from it.

  The best game I played this month had zero polygons and no particle effects; it was unscripted, cost nothing and didn’t even require plugging in to the power.
   

  January 4, 2009