The Brainy Gamer

Your favorite game of '09

I'll soon record my annual Gamers Confab holiday podcast, and I'm looking forward to it. If you happened to catch last year's edition, you know that I ask my guests to name their favorite game of the year and briefly discuss why they chose it. 

Sometimes the game that makes the biggest impact on us isn't necessarily the game we consider "best" of the year, and I enjoy hearing people talk about why certain games appeal to them personally. Last year, for example, I thought Fallout 3 was GOTY, but my favorite games of '08 were Little Big Planet and No More Heroes.

This year, I'd like to add more voices to the mix, so I'm asking you to post a comment and tell me your favorite game of '09. If you can, please offer a few thoughts on why you chose it too. I'll periodically update this post to list the games you cite, so folks can quickly see a compilation of all our favorites. Maybe we'll jog each others' memories of titles we overlooked or identify games that simply didn't receive enough love this year.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for pitching in, and happy gaming!

Update: Many thanks for all your thoughtful responses. I'm startled, in the best possible way, by the wide range of games you've mentioned as your favorites. Rather than update this post with a long list, I'll write a new post this weekend that accounts for all the games recommended in your comments. The variety and general lack of consensus suggests something important about the current state of the games community, broadly defined, that I'd like to explore. 

Thanks again for your comments, and please feel free to keep them coming!

Help fly Ben to GDC

Many of you who frequent my blog know Ben Abraham. He's been a regular reader and commenter here from the beginning, and he's a familiar presence on many other game blogs. Earlier this year he founded Critical Distance in an effort to highlight some of the best writing about games from all corners of the 'net. It's an impossible task, of course, but Ben's devotion to the project and his efforts to build an inclusive aggregation site are commendable.

Ben lives in Australia where he's pursuing a Ph.D. and working toward a career in game criticism. In other words, he's crazy. So crazy, in fact, that he's decided not to let anything stop him, including his particular limited circumstances and the fact that nobody's quite sure if game criticism exists as a field of study.

My friend David Carlton and I are apparently crazy too because we've decided Ben needs to attend the upcoming Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. We're drafting him to serve as a roving reporter and generally soak up as much of the event as possible. I cover GDC each year, and it's easily the most important annual event for those of us who follow the creative side of the industry. Ben needs to be there, and we intend to help make it happen.

Gamasutra, which syndicates Critical Distance, is graciously providing a GDC 2010 all-access entry pass for Ben. So that's one big expense out of the way. David and I are working together to take care of lodging, so that leaves one more hurdle to overcome: intercontinental plane fare. And this is where I'm asking for your help.

If you'd like to support Ben and help us get him to GDC, I hope you'll consider clicking on the widget in the upper right corner of this page and contributing a few bucks. Any amount is helpful. All the money we collect will go directly to Ben’s travel expenses (except for PayPal's credit card processing fees). If you'd like to help publicize our effort by sharing this widget on your blog, just click on the ‘Copy’ tab.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Note: The ChipIn widget can be slow to update, so if you contribute but don't see it reflected immediately in the total, don't worry. It will appear soon.

Delay

I've been home taking care of a sick toddler for last couple of days, so I'm afraid I haven't been able to finish my mini-series of Uncharted 2 posts. Grandma arrives on a childcare relief mission this weekend, so I hope to find some good writing time then.

In the meantime, Zoe is perfecting her snot bubbles, and we're logging some serious play time with Animal Crossing and SimAnimals Africa. For what it's worth, she believes one of these games is significantly better than the other, and I agree. Two years old, and already a critic.

Sorry for the delay. More soon.

On the way

A quick post to apologize for not updating sooner. I've just returned from a trip to EA's headquarters in Redwood Shores where I spoke to some Sims and MySims developers and took an early look at some upcoming games.

As you may know, I recently posted about my experience playing The Sims 3, and I have much more to say about that game - informed, I hope, by conversations with a variety of long-time Sims players, some Q&A with EA devs, and more time spent with the game. Look for a new post tomorrow.

I think you'll find this interesting. Even if you're not a Sims player (heck, even if you hate the series), I believe the newest version is quietly demonstrating a mode of storytelling with important implications for broader game design. I'll try to explain why I think so in the next post or two.

I'll also cover the games I saw at EA. Many of these left me...well, uninspired; but one in particular has me on the edge of my seat. I'll tell you all about it later this week.

As always, thanks for reading. Happy gaming!

The thing about controllers

   

This past weekend I had the pleasure of appearing as a guest on the Big Red Potion podcast along with my Gamers Confab pal Mitch Krpata. Hosts Sinan Kubba and Joe DeLia produce a consistently thoughtful show, focusing each episode on a single topic.

In this episode we discussed game controls past, present, and future. Aside from a few rambling bits from me, it's a good conversation that I hope you'll enjoy.

You can download the episode here, and subscribe to the podcast feed here. Thanks to Sinan and Joe for inviting me on, and thanks to Mitch for always bringing the smart stuff.

New duds

After nearly two years, I decided it's time for a Brainy Gamer makeover, so I've redesigned the site to make it brighter and easier to read. I hope you'll find it cleaner and a bit less drab than before.

I've also added RSS feeds for individual posts so you can track comments without having to return to the site.

If there's anything else you'd like to see here, or changes you'd like to suggest, feel free to let me know.

Happy gaming!

Podcast update and other stuff

The podcast has been enjoying a summer respite, relaxing on sunny beaches and shooting the breeze with other vacationing podcasts. But a new edition is in the works, and I think you'll be pleased with what I have in store. No spilling the beans here, but I hope you'll agree it was worth the wait. Look for it near the end of this month.

In the meantime, the Vintage Game Club begins its collective playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask today. You're welcome to join us and be part of the conversation. Or lurk and smirk. Whatever suits you. ;-)

Finally, we're taking a brief child-free getaway (highly recommended if you have kids and forget what it's like to be a couple), so I'll be posting infrequently for the next week. I won't go silent, however, because a little portable game called Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is going with us, and it's already provoking me. Oh you pesky divine Atlus. Every time I think JRPGs are finished, you put out a game that makes me eat my words.

Happy gaming, everyone!

Sidelined

Hi everybody. Just a quick post to apologize for not posting since Monday. We've been hit with a flu bug that's worked its way through my family sparing none of us. I'm back on my feet today and hope to have a post up very soon.

The flu ain't fun, but it does clear the decks for uninterrupted gaming sessions, and I've been taking full advantage. I look forward to sharing with you what I've been playing, including a couple of off-the-beaten path games I think you'll find interesting.

As always, thanks very much for reading my blog.

Brief hiatus

I'm away from the blog for a few days, but I'll be back on Monday with a new post. In the meantime I plan to finish a few games, make plans for the next podcast, and spend some outdoor time with Zoe.

By the way, did I mention she's talking now? Oh, yes. Look for her special "Games for Toddlers" segment in a future episode. ;-)

Happy gaming.

Gaming-a-go-go

One of the best things about being a teacher - aside from the enormous pay and sexy cultural cachet -  is never having to say goodbye to Spring Break. Mine arrives next week and not a moment too soon. We're all headed to Santa Fe New Mexico for some much needed rest and rejuvenation, and I can't wait.

By the way, did you know Santa Fe's art market is the second largest in the United States, after New York City? Pretty amazing for a city of 75,000.

So I'm looking forward to a week of handheld gaming, and I thought it might be fun to temporarily transform this place into The Brainy Portable Gamer and focus on titles I otherwise tend to ignore. I'm bringing my iPod Touch, PSP, and DS with me (gotta maximize my options, ya know), and I plan to post a little something each day about the game(s) I'm playing. Don't expect deep analysis (I am on vacation, after all), but more of a daily gaming diary that simply highlights what I'm up to.

If you'd like to play along with me, feel free to jump in and comment. Below is a list of recent games I'm bringing with me. It's heavy on iPhone games because I've got some catching up to do on that system. A total of 5177 iPhone games have been released since the device appeared, so my attempt to catch up has no chance of success; but I'll give it a shot anyway. Surely, somewhere in that massive pile are some good games. 

iDracula (iPhone)
Retro Game Challenge (DS)
Crisis Core (PSP) - not exactly a quick-play game, but one I've been longing to try
Edge (iPhone)
Field Runners (iPhone)
Rolando (iPhone)
MLB '09 (PSP)
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS)

If I'm missing a game you think I should try (especially an iPhone title that emerges from the crowd), feel free to let me know. We leave on Sunday. And, yes, we know Santa Fe is hardly a typical Spring Break destination. That's sort of the whole point. ;-)

Opening night

If you're a regular Brainy Gamer reader, you may have noticed I've posted a bit less frequently of late. That's because I've been working on my production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, which opens tonight. 

The Pillowman is a very dark comedy about a writer in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their possible connection to a series of local child murders. It's a brilliant and provocative play that explores the nature of art and the explosive power of storytelling. I feel grateful for the chance to grapple with it over the last five weeks, and I'm proud of the work our actors have done bringing it to life.

I've missed playing and writing about games as often as I like, but these last five weeks have reaffirmed my love of live performance...and oddly enough, they've taught me a few things about the striking similarities between rehearsing a well-written play and playing a well-designed video game. I'll try to explain what I mean in a forthcoming post.

If you happen to be in the area, The Pillowman opens tonight and runs through Saturday at 8pm each evening in the Fine Arts Center at Wabash College. Tickets are available at the box office (boxoffice@wabash.edu) or (765) 361-6411.

Note: The Pillowman contains adult language and situations, and it's probably not suitable for young children.

Holiday hiatus

Happy holidays, everyone. I'm taking a few days off to celebrate with family, catch up on sleep, eat more than I should...and, oh yes, play a bunch of games.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Festivus, and Zombie Yule. Thanks for all you have done to make this year so much fun for me.

Happy Gaming!

Best,
Michael