I quickly discovered, though, that the videogame world is better than its reputation (which is set by the most violent and outrageous games, which I avoid). In fact, the best games out there may actually be good for the soul. [more...]
I've never been much of a gamer, mostly because I lack the skills, hardware, and budget, and because even though I in theory respect the video game as a legitimate artform, I can't help thinking, whenever I play videogames, that I'm seriously wasting my time.
Still, certain games have caught my attention for the kudos they've gotten for their storytelling. In particular, I've whistfully wished I could play BioShock
, and for the last several years, I've been consistently impressed by the advertisement art for the Final Fantasy series, which, from what I've heard, generally has good storylines to match the visuals. Speaking of Final Fantasy, a year or two back, I was so arrested by a poster for Kingdom Hearts II
that I didn't move from it for several minutes. I like to believe I have a built-in good story detector,* and that poster sent it pinging off the charts. Alas, I've not played the game.*I generally find my detector is quite accurate; however, it has no ability to detect if the good story is well executed.
