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twoplayer comic: Revolution Bill of Health
comic
posted by: Aaron Stanton
publisher: GamesFirst! Internet Magazine
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date posted: 08:53 PM Sun Sep 25th, 2005
last revision: 08:53 PM Sun Sep 25th, 2005


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Click here to read this week\'s twoplayer game comic.

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the Revolution\'s controller was a hospital bed. As far as I\'m concerned, the thing looks less like a bleached remote control and more like a the controller for one of those adjustable mats you can prop up to better see the TV. Imagine the havoc that will ensue when some doctor confuses these two in the hospital lounge after 25 hours on call. It won\'t be pleasant.

It also sort of bums me out that I\'ve lost every single remote control I\'ve ever owned. I recently found my TV remote deep in the recesses of a drawer in my kitchen (who knows how it got there), smelling like onions and covered in sticky. Sticky what, exactly, I don\'t know. Whether or not I like the Revolution controller is beside the point; I seem to posses an unconscious desire to store my remotes with food products, something I\'ve never had a problem with using my game controllers. At least until now. Nintendo has gone and added another whole worry onto my life. Thanks, guys.

On another subject, one of the things I love about working at GamesFirst is the progressive nature of the website. Being completely independent and driven mostly by the passion and the talents of the people that work for us allows for some pretty swift changes that are... well... swift. Ideas can go from plan to reality in a few days, sometimes making little improvements like being able to host better screenshots, and sometimes making large improvements like launching a Podcast, comic, or \"other\".

It\'s the Other that\'s been interesting me lately.

Specifically, I think it\'s time that media in the video game industry ? online media specifically ? really start making use of the tools at our disposal. Video reviews are nice, but they\'re almost never used to much effect; a good review would use the video to reinforce the statements made by the reviewer during the voice-over. Instead, most just play video from the game in the background while the reviewer describes the game\'s ups and downs. If the reviewer says that clipping issues are a problem, I want to see someone in the video wander through a wall, or textures jump in and out of the screen. Instead, most video reviews are like regular reviews with moving screenshots.

Entertaining, but certainly not any more informative than a tradition pen and paper review. In fact, we need to figure out new ways of conveying information in video, since limitations in bandwidth and download speed limit them to a low minimum length; written reviews will almost always be more informative about the reviewer\'s opinions. Videos, on the other hand, carry information about how the game plays that you\'ll simply never be able to match in written work.

We need to find a way to combine elements of both to provide an informative review at the same time as taking advantage of actual game footage.

My first attempt of solving this was sort of a flop. I\'m still working on it, though...

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