Read this: Edge on the representation of women in The Last of Us

Ellie, Marlene and Tess with protagonist Joel.

The Last Us is a game about the downfall of civil society in the wake of a serious natural disaster. Developer Naughty Dog has crafted both gameplay and a story that can carry the weight of the setting.

At its core, the story is about one man dealing with his past, but its strength lies in his interactions with the characters he meets along the way. There is a subtlety and a level of detail to these interactions that sets The Last of Us apart.

Naughty Dog's previous games, the Uncharted series, were praised for their representation of strong female characters. Uncharted 2 is in many ways the pinnacle of what I want from videogames. An article I wrote about that game was featured on edge-online.com. However, Uncharted had it's problems, most notably the huge body count and the overly sexualised nature of characters such as Chloe.

Writing on edge-online.com, Jason Killingsworth highlights how the developers have moved beyond that, presenting a cast of strong women who aren't defined by their sexuality. It also presents perhaps the only gay character in videogames who's primary defining characteristic isn't his being gay.

"It’s depressing that mainstream games have such an atrocious record with portrayals of women that simply writing your game’s female characters in a humane fashion warrants congratulatory slaps on the back. This ought to be standard practice. But with the inertia pushing so forcefully in the wrong direction, it’s worth taking a moment to examine and appreciate the ways in which The Last Of Us rattles the cage of the game industry’s institutional sexism and moves things forward."

Read the full article here.

The game is developed by Naughty Dog and was released for Playstation 3 in June 2013. Jason Killingsworth (@jasonkill) is features editor for Edge magazine.

From gas-power to quantum mechanics: The development of Bioshock Infinite

The Bioshock Infinite released last week looks very different from the one announced back in 2010. It looks different from the one demoed at E3 2011. It looks different from the one hinted at in the interviews creative lead, Ken Levine, gave throughout development. Take a look.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

PS3/Xbox 360; €54.99; Konami; 18+

Two hours into Metal Gear Rising everything just clicks. From its opening scene the game refuses to hold players’ hands. But the sensory overload of early combat gives way to fluid, instinctive action. This is a game that demands players stay alert and on the offensive.

Rising is a third-person perspective action game. Raiden, the protagonist, is a sword-wielding, robotically-enhanced soldier who engages armed and armoured opponents in hand-to-hand combat. This ‘cyborg-ninja’ bats away bullets with the blade of his swords, dashes and jumps with ease, and single-handedly takes down ‘Gears,’ the towering armoured enemies that gave the series its name.

It’s an unexpected change of pace for a twenty-six-year-old series with its origins in the last years of the cold war. Metal Gear games have always had a strong anti-war message - albeit one buried under the excesses of Japanese anime. Stories about rogue states and nuclear proliferation complemented gameplay emphasising stealth over combat.

Violence is your only option here. Using two buttons, light and heavy blows are strung together into elaborate attacks. Wear an enemy down and you can trigger ‘blade mode’ with a tap of the L1 button. This slows time to enable precision attacks that cleave off armour, cut the weapons from larger mechanical enemies and even remove limbs.

Put yourself in someone else's shoes with Auti-sim

Can videogames help us understand the experience of others? A new first-person game from Canadian Taylan Kay is trying to answer that question.

Auti-sim (Photograph: Toughcellgames.com)

Videogames have come a long way. From shooting space invaders to experiencing the simulated life of a single mother fighting for custody of her daughter in Richard Hofmier's Cart Life. But a game that directly puts us in the shoes of someone else, seeing and feeling what another person sees and feels is something different.

Auti-Sim is a short first-person experience that tries to simulate auditory-hypersensitivity, which impacts the cognitive functions of some children with autism.

It's a terrifying experience, one well worth experiencing. You can play it in your browser and it will only take you a couple of minutes.

Find out more about the developer on his twitter account.
Play the game on GameJolt here. 

Watch it: Gabe Newell talking economics and design

Gabe Newell, founder of Valve Corp, can be heard here talking a little about game design and a whole lot about economics and the organisation of corporate structures.

The conversation ranges from awe-inspiring to terrifying. The focus on productivity over the emotional impact of gaming is worrying. So far Valve haven't put a foot wrong, so for as long as they keep on making engaging games I'll be happy.



The man is a confident, intelligent speaker. Take a look.

Watch it: Jonathan Blow on Truth in Game Design

Gamasutra are hosting this video of a talk on the creative process in game design by Jonathan Blow. The presentation was made at the European Game Developer's Conference back in 2011.

Blow is the developer behind the 2008 classic 2D puzzle-platformer Braid. The talk is interesting for two reasons. The first is the glimpse it gives into the mind of the man. Second, and more importantly, this is the first time I've heard a game designer talk about allowing design to be led by content, in the way a writer or musician might talk about their creative processes.

Blow talks about sitting back to observe the truth inherent to the systems he's created, and then refining, building and curating what comes from that.

Click here to watch the video

It's a fascinating talk if you have 45 minutes to spare.

Thoughts on 2013

The  new year carries the promise of new consoles, Steam-boxes and big name releases. But there's an interesting new trend that emerged in 2012 that hopefully won't get lost  - the rise of successful story-driven indie releases.

Source: Freebird Games

There's been a huge growth in the indie scene since the launch of the Xbox 360. Small releases are gaining acceptance and generating financial returns on platforms from Xbox Live Arcade and Steam to a slew of indie-focused marketplaces like Desura.

Retro aesthetics and arcade mechanics defined the space for years - relegating more thoughtful works to the shadows. But 2012 seemed to change that. Small teams of indies, with the specific goal of engendering a given emotional response, popped upduring the year. The style of simple, focused design is similar to what Team Ico achieved a decade ago.

These days indies and smaller studios are just as likely to experiment with story-telling as they are with mechanics, and long may it continue. The Walking Dead may have raised some questions about what constitutes a 'game,' but it still took numerous game-of-the-year awards. 

I've already written about Dear Esther at length. Here are some of the other games that stood out: