Why am I babbling about books? Because I’m trying to explain, as best I can, why I haven’t done much gaming this month. Or, at least, not much that I can bring new content to you with. There was some more Kinect – my parents are better at the bowling game than I am – and some other little bits and pieces like a quick foray onto Team Fortress 2 to craft weapons and hats.

So, my apologies for the brevity of this post! What I did play was Portal 2, on the ‘Play Day’ that marked the one year anniversary of its release. I thought it’d be a good thing to write about, so I did a Google and it turned out we (BadRep) are the second result when you search for “Portal 2 feminist”.

Look! There we are! Second in the results!

I also had a gander at that top link and presented my counter-argument over on my own blog here, which some of you who follow us on Twitter might have already seen.

I didn’t want to simply regurgitate what I’ve already written elsewhere all over BR, which is why this is such a short post, but if I may, I’ll show you what I’m excited for in the upcoming Gaming Future.

• Portal 2: Aperture Perpetual Testing Initiative – May 8th
• Diablo III – Finally being released(!) and I’m looking forward to playing as some of those kick-ass looking fem-versions (apart from those stupid heels, ugh, seriously?!) – May 15th (UK)
• Max Payne 3 – More for the technology than the (totally original – hurhur) damsel-in-distress storyline – May 15th

Later on, there’s also Borderlands 2 which I’m looking forward to, and Crysis 3 but I have to finish Crysis 2 first – oops! I’ll also endeavour to play something a bit less, er… shooty and more casual, for those of you out there who don’t really do the FPS thing. Hopefully I’ll get some new tech over the summer to help on that front.

I’ll also be writing up some interesting posts about humour and gender in games, and I might do some ‘case study’ style posts on some of the prominent female characters out there. I’ll do my best to bring you more exciting tales next month!

First off: the games.  Obviously there’s Mass Effect 3, but as I’ve mentioned before, there will be a full post dedicated to that shortly.  For now, though, I’ll say that it’s a great addition to anyone’s collection: well-constructed story, superb combat mechanics, good graphics and generally an absorbing and engaging universe.  The ending(s) have caused issues among some fans of the franchise, and although I shan’t say here what they were or why that is, I’ll just say that I had no problem with the way it ended.

Better then that we talk about the Kinect.  I got one at the beginning of March and a few little games to go along with it.  Kinect Adventures is the title that comes with every single sensor (if you’re buying second-hand, be sure to check!) and it is a simple bit of fun.  You use your body to complete little challenges on the screen, collect points and progress through various ranks of adventurer.  It’s a little bit addictive when you first get the Kinect as it’s all very new and novel and amazing, but in the long run it would probably hold the attention of younger gamers or be best suited to family-centred gaming sessions.

I also got Kinect Sports (the first game), which proved much more popular between my partner and I.  You get the option to partake in six different events: Football (Soccer), Bowling (10-pin), Table Tennis, Track & Field (which contains six events in itself), Boxing and Beach Volleyball.  Again, this is a great bit of fun and you can use it for a spot of exercise as well.  You can play against four levels of computer opponent, as well as playing against your friends (or with them) online or in the same room.  You garner points and progress towards Champion status, but really it’s all about the amusement and the potential for collective gaming.

There are another two Kinect games knocking about my living room, but I didn’t want to talk about them as they don’t have the rather pleasing feature I’m about to detail.  The Kinect games that use your Xbox Avatar in-game (especially in Sports) are also populated with lots of other Avatar people as your opponents or team-mates.  Now, this may not sound altogether too ground-breaking or interesting, but for me it was quite nice to see a fairly equal mix of – albeit randomly generated – Avatars of all descriptions.  In simpler terms, they aren’t all male.  Even on team sports that are traditionally ‘single sex’ sports (like football) you have men and women of all ages charging about the pitch with you.  I thought that was a nice little nod – particularly for games that will have a lot of younger, more impressionable gamers – just to say “Hey, women exist too!”.

Now for the depressing stuff.  The company Game went belly-up in March and already my local Gamestation (part of the group) has been stripped bare and locked up tight, never to be set foot in again.  I admit I rarely bought anything from Game or Gamestation, but as the last notable games-only high street chain, it’s sad to see it fail.  As a PC gamer at heart, I felt the group had forgotten about me over the years as it focused more on console gamers – and that’s fair enough if that’s where the money is – but apparently that didn’t bring in enough revenue to save them.

Things were not helped when EA refused to supply the group with copies of Mass Effect 3 on credit and they had to give everyone who had pre-ordered their money back.  Even a few days before they closed up shop, the Gamestation I usually wander around was begging for trade-ins of the title as not a single brand new copy was in sight.  I suspect this may have been the last straw for many customers, but the advent of the internet worked its evil glory too: after all, if you can buy a two-week-old title for £15 on Amazon when it remains £30+ in a high street store, why would you go that extra mile and pay more?

It is, nevertheless, a little saddening to see the group suffer the same fate as many other high street names.  Should they remain, in one form or another, I hope they can take a more competitive stance on the price war with the internet and stop pricing themselves out of the market. Game’s statement has more detail on the immediate results of their entry into administration.

One final word…

Coincidentally, a couple of days before Game was declared a financial black hole, my partner bought himself Skate 2.  You may remember January’s Gamer Diary, where I mentioned watching him play Skate and lamented that there were zero lady-boarders.  Well, in the second instalment, there are girls flying around on boards, and you can also choose to be one.  Super!  Also, the mechanics and graphics are much improved.  It has, however, to me been dubbed ‘Skate 2 AKA “Shut up, Reda!”’.  Don’t worry if you don’t know who Reda is; all you need to know is he talks too much.

Next Time

I’ll be honest: I don’t yet know what the remainder of April will bring for me.  Never fear!  I will locate juicy content for you and in the meantime you’ll soon be able to read all about what I made of ME3 at last.