Despite what some may have you believe, women have been in video games from the start, and while not always the main stars, they have always left an impression on gamers. In fact, there have been so many famous ladies in gaming, that this list has caused quite a free-for-all here behind the scenes. So get out your flame shield while we cover the ground rules.
First off, we’re starting with the third generation and only counting home consoles, because that’s when characters became less abstract, allowing them to be more recognizable on their own, and gaming came back to life after the great video game crash of 1983. This is important, because iconic is a balancing act between fame, recognition, and excellence. Some characters may be from games that sold far better, and were of higher quality, but you wouldn’t be able to pick them out from a crowd, often by design, so they didn’t make the list. If you don’t like it, feel free to let us know in the comments section below. Furthermore, there can only be one most iconic female character per generation, and that character can only make the list once.
Remember, this list is just our opinion, so don’t get your jimmies too rustled as we go forward.
“There’s no better playground to explore the thrill and excitement of motorsports than America.” The gameplay trailer puts it perfectly, The Crew 2 is the ultimate motorsport game. Take on the roads, seas, and skies in a fully realized open world USA. The map itself is over 2,000 square miles of streets, forests, rivers, oceans, and of course open sky.Continue reading E3 2017: Ubisoft shows off The Crew 2→
Hello, I’m James Wynne, owner of CSG and former freelance writer for video game media sites, like GameZone, and I have a proposition for you. Have you ever wanted to write about video games for fun and eventual profit? There’s an opportunity for you here at CSG, if you’re willing to put in 75% of the effort I ask of myself. Continue reading CSG is recruiting writers→
Uwe Boll, notorious german filmmaker and all around swellguy, has announced that he will be retiring from filmmaking this week.
Feel free to take a few moments to celebrate however you deem it appropriate before we continue.
For those not in the know, Uwe Boll is a german filmmaker who has a longstanding career of making some of the most critically panned movies in the history of Hollywood. Stretching back over 25 years in the industry Boll has been prolific (though not necesarily talented or even competent) in producing movies for world wide audiences. Boll is most infamously known for adapting video game titles such as Far Cry, Postal, House of the Dead, BloodRayne, In the Name of the King, and Alone in The Dark. All of which ended up as huge financial losses and horrible abominations of cinema that enraged gamers throughout the gaming community. Only made profitable due to Boll exploiting a loophole in german tax laws that placed a large part of the financial loss on the government. Loopholes which have since been fixed.
In an interview Boll said he was losing capital by having to finance movies himself. The losses proving to be too great. He explained that his films made in the last decade were all self-financed and that he only made his video game adaptations to raise the funds for his passion projects.
“I’ve been using my money since 2005 and if I hadn’t made the stupid video game based movies I would never have amalgamated the capital so I could say, ‘Let’s make the Darfur movie,'” Boll stated. “I don’t need a Ferrari, I don’t need a yacht. I invested in my own movies and I lost money.”
Boll’s video game movies have been nominated for a total of 16 Razzies throughout his career, with Alone in the Dark being especially notable for it’s panning by critics. Jeffrey Lyles of The Gazette considered it so bad that, “…other legendary bad films…await a film of this magnitude because it gets awfully lonely on the island of misfit movies.” While Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel stated: “Alone in the Dark shows just how tenuous Plan 9 from Outer Space ‘s hold on that ‘worst movie ever’ title really is.”
Gamers have long been infuriated by Bolls movies, citing that they rarely have relation to the actual game that they are titled after. Having cheap special effects, horrible visuals, and writing/characters that spit on their beloved franchises and in their own faces as well. The potential of a BloodRayne or House of the Dead movie forever tainted in their minds. Comforted only in the knowledge that Boll failed in his bid to attempt to direct the 2016 Warcraft movie.
On behalf of the gaming community I would like to bid Uwe a fond farewell. You will not be missed……like at all.
No Man’s Sky became yet another game on the long list of games that over-promised and under-delivered. Features like interactions with other players were promised but not implemented in the game, so it’s no wonder that players were upset. Thankfully, companies such as Valve and Amazon were quick to offer refunds to those dissatisfied with the game.
My call for help did not fall on deaf ears, and thanks to that, this site will soon start bustling with a lot of new content. Someday, I hope we can all look back on this as a case of greatness coming from humble beginnings. A time when gamers banded together after years of strife, and made something cool. A place to congregate without others, especially the writers, insulting you for your taste in games, platforms of choice, or views on the media as a whole.
Believe it or not, there was a time when gaming media was almost as satisfying as the games being covered. Many of us older gamers may remember the excitement that came with getting that copy of PSM, EGM, Nintendo Power, Ultra Game Players, etc. from the store or in the mail. News on big upcoming games, letters, fan art, contests, and comics/gag strips, inserts, and other cheap gifts felt magical. There was a wit and a charm to old gaming magazines that hasn’t been matched since.
While the magazine medium has almost completely died off, with the internet replacing it, that doesn’t mean the spirit of this forgotten medium can’t live on. That’s what we’re trying to do with Common Sense Gaming: Reclaim the spirit of gaming’s Golden Age, and adapt it to today’s modern media.
Now to the part where those of you reading this help out.
As a new face on the scene, our content is going to be limited by our views. Until we get enough eyes on us, most (non-indie) publishers won’t even respond to our inquiries, let alone ship us early copies for previews/reviews, or sit down for interviews. They want exposure, and at the time of this writing we can’t give it to them in the amounts they desire.
However, we’re gamers. Problem solvers, either by nature or the nurturing of gaming’s school of hard knocks, and we have a plan: This site has no ads. None of us are paid by advertisers or clicks, the great corrupters of today’s media. We don’t have to funnel your eyes to our site. The site isn’t important at all. What’s important is that you see our content, wherever it may be, and let the developers and publishers know you’ve seen it.
Being the gamers we are, we’ve turned the problem with the magazine medium on its head, and made our faux magazine style our biggest strength. Before, magazines were cumbersome, and slow to distribute. Now, we turn a page into an image you can download and share freely with others. There’s no ads to filter, no time wasted. If you like our content, right-click, save as, post wherever, and enjoy at your leisure.
All we ask is that those of you who like our stuff take that extra fraction of a second to retweet or share. You don’t even have to add a witty comment. Would it be awesome if you donate to our patreon or tip us directly through paypal? Fuck yes it would, this shit is coming straight out of my pocket, christ I can’t afford this forever, what am I gonna do about re– Yes, it would be great, but its not currently needed.
A glimpse at something we’d like to bring to our followers: Boss ass console/pc decals.
A big part of our goal moving forward is to capitalize on our easily spread nature to become known and reach out to developers, publishers, and artists. This is so we can bring cool stuff that you would expect from a 90’s gaming magazine. Envelope art and other such contests with cool prizes, decals for your gaming systems, and maybe someday physical collectors edition publications so you can really feel that magazine magic.
That’s pretty far off, but it’s where I want us to be. Until then, this is just a labor of love for gamers, by gamers.
I currently have my hands full, and my output is going to continue to crawl as i set up my new apartment, look for a new job and find a new vehicle. At the same time, I’m working up to the eventual full start of the Faux 90’s Gaming Magazine CSG and video content. You can currently see what I’m going for by clicking over to the reviews section on this site.
I’d like to cover all of the bases found in classic magazines: Previews, Reviews, Interviews, Tips & Tricks, Letters, Features, Comic/Gag Strip, Fan Art Envelopes, etc. I need content to practice laying out pages, and that’s something I’m currently light on.
Are there any gamers that enjoy writing and want to team up? There’s currently no profit, so you’ll have to settle for those wonderful exposure bucks everyone talks about, articles that have a unique look when shown off to potential employers, review copies, and an introduction to editors from sites that actually do pay.
There’s also complete transparency: I am investing my personal money into eventually making something of this site. If and when I turn a dime on this side project, all records will be made known to the group, and everyone involved will get a share. However, that’s still far away.
Again, I’m not looking for journalists. I can find those. I’m looking for gamers that want to share their experiences and have fun making throwbacks to PSM, Nintendo Power, EGM, etc., while building a community and media source gamers deserve. If you want to write for fun, with the added perk that it may eventually get noticed or make money, then let’s work together.
It’s finally time to compare these games head to head. I’ve made it no secret that I prefer DMC4 over DmC, but when I put them side by side hopefully you’ll see why.
I should have played DMC4 before DmC in this retrospective. The games control so very different that it’s jarring to go from one back to the other. I was so used to the pulls and dodges of DmC that it took me much longer to re-acclimate to DMC4’s traditional controls than I’d like to admit.
Common Sense Gaming 