Video Games in TV: Law & Order SVU

"Some TV shows just don't get it." Part of a periodical series: Video Games in TV.

In this season six episode, "Game," NYPD detectives work a murder case that appears straight out of a video game. The episode explores the controversial topic of video game violence and does a fairly good job of representing both sides of the debate. But, like nearly every television series out there, they wind up using incredibly stupid-looking game footage, misusing video game terminology, and generally betraying their inept understanding of video games. So let's jump right into it.

Beautiful Escape is Beautifully Disturbing

I wouldn't say that I like Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, a free indie game by Nicolau "Calunio" Chaud. It's a game about stalking innocent people on the streets, seducing them, and bringing them home to your basement to sadistically torture them until you've broken their body and soul. Unlike the Saw and Hostel films where the goal is just gratuitous gore and violence, BE:D is actually fairly tame in its graphical depiction, aiming instead for the psychological aspects that motivate psychopaths.

The atmosphere of everything is so thick and disturbing that it crawls under your skin and makes you wriggle with discomfort, not just because of the subject matter, but because of how creepy it is to be inside the mind of a hunter. This isn't a game for everyone, but its underlying message is surprisingly meta. Not to mention it's definitely one of the darkest and most emotionally-moving games I've ever played. To that end, Beautiful Escape is a successful execution of artistic design, as disturbing as it may be. If you're morbidly curious about this game, continue reading for the rest of my review / analysis.

Wonderputt is Wonderful (Kinda)

The latest sensation on the circuits is Wonderputt, a free indie flash game on Kongregate. The premise is mini-golf, where you use the mouse to determine the direction and strength of your putts in a kind of bizarre putting green. It's basically what you'd expect for mini-golf, but there's a wonderful sense of charm with this game, mostly because of the level design. All 18 holes take place on the floating block in the sky, with a few dynamic pieces that change as you move around the course. It's a great way to kill some time, but that's about all it amounts to.

Bastion Wallpapers

Here are several wallpapers I made of Supergiant Games' Bastion. Some use the image of The Kid from the game's cover art, and the rest are screenshots from more artistic moments in the game. I had to do a little bit of photoshopping to crop The Kid, so if you look closely you might catch one or two minor differences, but I think it looks pretty good. I could easily add the Bastion game logo, if anybody's interested in a version with the wall and the stylized text. Click the full article for the wallpapers.

UPDATE: I added a wallpaper from the restoration ending.
UPDATE #2: I added a few more wallpapers, including the evacuation ending.

You Have One Chance to Play This Game

In six days, every single living cell on earth will be dead. You have one chance.

So says the the tagline for One Chance, a flash game hosted on Newgrounds by Awkward Silence Games. You've just found a cure for cancer, but the next day you find out that the cure is extremely deadly, and that it's killing everything. Every day for the next six days, you make a decision that will ultimately determine the fate of the world. Can you save humanity? Can you save your family? Can you even save yourself? It's one of those artsy games without a whole lot of gameplay, but it packs some emotional resonance into the experience, and that makes it worth playing. But be warned: you really do only have one chance. More after the jump.

Assassin's Creed 2 Doesn't Completely Suck

I did not like the first Assassin's Creed. It was flawed in nearly every way possible, but it had a rich, organic soul that still made it worth playing, at least in a strange, masochistic sort of way. Assassin's Creed 2 fixes nearly every single aspect that sucked from the first game, while introducing several new mechanics that make the gameplay far more compelling. But despite all of these improvements on the gameplay and presentation, it eventually starts to feel even more artificial than the first game. And that makes it really hard for me to appreciate this game. Continue reading for the rest of the break-down.

The End of Us is Rather Good

I don't have much to say about The End of Us, except that it's a brilliant execution of narrative design without anything resembling a story or characters. You play as a purple comet cruising through space, when suddenly an orange comet bops into you, initiating a playful dance of back-and-forth interactions as you hunt for stars and avoid asteroids before one of you inevitably hits the earth. The following is from the creators, Chelsea Howe and Michael Molinari, describing the philosophy of the game:

"The End of Us" was designed to evoke friendship, attachment, and affinity without overt narrative. The orange comet's behaviors are intended to endear. It might not arise directly from the actions but emerges from the familiarity of friendship, good and bad, and the hollow that arises after one-to-one attention vanishes, permanently, for whatever reason. 

As you grow and age and eventually start to fade alongside your friend, you come upon an asteroid belt that chips away at both of you. Your final (only?) choice in the game is who will take the fall, and who will have to suffer a solo existence after.

The effect really resonates, which is remarkable considering that these are two lifeless comets. Not a word is exchanged and yet there's a genuine feeling of companionship between the two of us. It's a free flash game that takes about 3 minutes to play. All I can say is go play it. You won't regret it.