We've Got Star Power?

Games have always had the stigma of being for nerds and losers. If you had a gaming console in 70's and 80's, you weren't exactly the alpha male of your school (unless you could both manage playing games and being on the varsity football team, in which case you were a better person than I), and well, you didn't really care. As much as TV shows of that era made it seems like nerds hated being nerds, and that we were pent up in our basements playing games because we were shunned by society and had no other choice, we know different, and we enjoyed our games, and our outcast status, and sometimes we also brought people over, defying all stereotypes brought forth!

Look around you (and by that I mean the internet, television, etc.), and you'll see that that stigma is much less prevalent. It's still not gone, but I like to believe that the notion is still only held today by baby-boomers and my parents (who were born in Mexico, and therefore do not qualify as "baby-boomers). Games now are one of if not the biggest part of the entertainment industry, in both terms of income and influence. And when something becomes as big as games are, people usually start to take notice. Whether it's because they stand to make a lot of money from it, or they just want to be in on the latest trend (I'd argue that to mainstream consumers now, "the video games" look like a fad), people want in, and famous people are no different.

Sure, celebrities have been a part of gaming as early as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and maybe even earlier, and there are a few famous examples, but I think we can all assume that these early examples didn't really mean much to the celebrities who were providing their likeness; they were no different than putting your face on the front of a cereal box. They weren't trying to make the best game out there featuring them (even though it turned out that way for Tyson, and not so much for Shaq), they were trying to sell these things to kids.

And even when the stars did start taking interest in games, they weren't too excited about sitting down with a team and maybe getting one together that would or would have their likeness in it. We've seen lots of videos where celebrities profess their love of Halo, but they always seem to do it with an inflection that says that they're ashamed to do so. As if a person as highly regarded in society as themselves shouldn't be caught dead playing anything other than a Wii. Either that, or they're to the type of person so expertly portrayed in Mountain Dew commercials and sometimes in movies.

But, recent years have seen some exceptions. If you don't count movie tie-in games (which do feature celebrities, but are different from celebrity tie-in in that they're usually bound creatively to a licence), both the amount and status of actors and stars partaking in games has gotten better. Just last year we had Liam Neeson in Fallout 3, and Keifer Sutherland in Call of Duty: World at War (having trouble catching his voice? He's the guy yelling at you when you play as the Americans. And almost constantly cursing), and while these appearances are well-known, they're not exactly promoted as huge selling points. Neither appearance is promoted on the box, so most people who aren't up on these sorts of things probably won't realize until later, when they'll most likely think it's cool as something that was thrown in instead saying it was a shameless marketing ploy...

And then we have Vin Diesel. Research shows that he's played his way around a D&D board quite a lot, which is more than I can claim. He doesn't think it's embarrasing, either; and people who know better don't think he's a loser. Better yet, when he's not making blockbuster films, he's actually helping out making games, using his company, Taigon Studios, to develop games using his likeness. Sure, funding a company with the purpose of creating as many games with your likeness as possible sounds a little egotistical, but it's hard to argue with the results so far, and let's face it, Vin's not exactly a bad choice for a lead role in game.

What I'm hoping to see is actors and other celebrities taking games more seriously, and I don't mean the same way we do. I mean using video games as another outlet to expand their horizons, the same way they would use film. Not every game using someone famous has to bear their likeness, but just voice acting in a game might not only let people know they're more open to new ideas, but might also continue chipping away at both their stereotypes and ours.

My Top 10 Games of '08 - #1

You might be asking yourself right about now: If I loved Metal Gear Solid 4 so much because it didn't have any technical flaws, was polished as hell, and was such a tight experience overall, why is Fallout 3, who's biggest flaws are in fact the hugely visible presentation flaws that it shows, in my top spot?

My answer to that question, astute reader, is this: Fallout 3 is in my top spot because all of what it does well, all of the little niches and storylines that have yet to be uncovered by most people, the amount of depth to the exploration that exists, all of the moments that make you say "huh, didn't know that was in here. That's actually kind of cool" everything that this world has to offer, managers to dwarf all the issues that I have with it. Self-opening doors, awkward animations, and just an overall feeling of incompleteness will distract some (I would say it could be a deal breaker for people), for me does not outweigh its ambition.

The game wreaks of the "go anywhere, do anything" mentality that developers were spouting about years earlier, but ultimately had to limit somehow. Sure, the games isn't infinite in scope, and it isn't even as large as Cyrodil, but you, for the most part, really can do anything you want. You can say "to hell with this!" mid-quest if it doesn't suit you and go do something else. You aren't forced into the "You don't want to help me? Too bad, you're going to do it" loops of toher "choice" games. You can choose to be good, evil, neutral, or just walk around the wasteland and just kill anything you see unfit to live there.

The game is expansive in what it lets us, the players, do, not in where it lets you do it. The playground may be smaller, but your parents aren't there; there is the complete sense of freedom in that area, always finding something new to do, always discovering. Needless to say, the game swept me and got me hooked more than any game has done this year. The freedom is there for you to exploit, its nooks and crannies ready to explore. More than any other game (except for, arguably, GTA IV), it manages to create a living, breathing (albeit mostly dead, ironicly), and you want to live there, in the wasteland. And for whatever reason, you want to see more of this barren playground, and the game keeps giving you more, and that's why Fallout 3 is hands-down my favorite game of this year.