Happy Halloween! Don't Forget to Play Games...

Well the day is finally upon us, it's Halloween! But alas I will not be able to celebrate it in the traditional sense. Unfortunately, I have class this evening and won't be home till late. Nonetheless, don't shed a tear for me. I plan to join Guild Wars 2 this evening for the final holiday festivities. It should be fun as the Halloween event in Tyria has been a blast.

So if you can't make it out tonight, or want to kill time before that killer party, cuddle up with your favorite "Halloween" game. There are plenty you can choose from to get the sense of the season. Therefore, grab your copy of Left4Dead, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Black Ops for its zombie mode, Team Fortress 2, an MMO with holiday festivities, or whatever game that catches the feeling of Halloween.

Have fun trick or treating and be safe. Have a great Halloween!

A Sad Day for Star Wars Geeks?

Today for the first time, I really understood how Luke felt when Darth Vader revealed that he was in fact his father. I was very shocked by the news today that not only did George Lucas sell LucasFilm to Disney for over $4 billion, but that Disney is also going to be creating three new Star Wars films -- how this was kept secret has me dumbfounded. But what does this mean to the Star Wars brand, and ultimately Star Wars franchise video games?

With the new Star Wars game 1313 being currently developed by LucasArts, I figured this would be the best way we would engage cinematically with the Star Wars universe. I actually believed Lucas when he stated that the films were complete after Episode III and that the Star Wars universe would be limited to the 3D Clone Wars cartoon, a potential live-action television show (which I guess is no more), and of course video games.

Nonetheless, video games appeared to be the way that would expressed cinematically the Star Wars mythos. With games such as Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, The Force Unleashed, and the recent Star Wars: The Old Republic, it seemed that video games enabled us fanboys to deeply immerse ourselves into Lucas' creation. And with the unveiling of gritty 1313, which is the first mature Star Wars video game, I had come to the conclusion video games would fill the void left by the movies.

But that all changed today when Disney announced the purchasing of LucasFilm. Today, we are seeing a new beginning to the Star Wars franchise. This new direction will either bring a repeat of the summer of 1999 where people camped out for weeks (and even months) just to see the new Star Wars films. Or, on the flip side, this is merely a pathetic attempt to milk as much out of the franchise as possible, and maybe, even running the entire franchise into the ground. With the upcoming future films, and with that future Star Wars licensed games, we can only hope Disney treats the Star Wars franchise with care.

Please don't ruin my beloved Star Wars. I don't want more pathetic Star Wars licensed games. What are your thoughts?

Dear Developers: I Want First-Person Shooters with Holiday Themed Maps

My wife and I are currently enjoying the Halloween event taking place in Guild Wars 2. The beauty of the Halloween themed scenery in Lions Arch is breathtaking to say the least. As I have been playing through the event I have been wondering why don't developers incorporate more holiday themes in first-person shooters like MMOs and other genres?

To give you a better idea as to why I believe holiday themes would be great for FPSs, the aesthetics in Guild Wars 2 had me recalling one of my most favorite holiday themes in a game: The Winter Crash map in the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This map was created only for the PC in which the map Crash was given a Christmas makeover that included holiday lights, a Christmas tree, as well as Santa reigning down carnage on enemies below (I can still hear him shouting "Ho-ho-ho" as the bombs exploded). Last Christmas I actually reinstalled CoD:MW just to play this map once again. And what caught my attention was how much I enjoyed playing through the holiday themed map in spite of the age of CoD:MW. Playing a Christmas themed map during the holiday season really added to my enjoyment of playing an FPS, more so than just playing on a standard map. Therefore, why not follow the tradition set by MMOs and Winter Crash, and create holiday maps for FPSs?

Wouldn't you love to see holiday maps in FPS? Can you imagine if Black Ops II included a map like Winter Crash or Battlefield 3 taking an existing map and adding a holiday theme to it? Wouldn't it be fun to be in a firefight in Santa's Village or in a Halloween themed haunted house? For me this would be an exciting facet to the FPS genre.

The only argument against such an idea is that if developers were to create a holiday theme map, it would only feel relevant during that particular holiday. In other words, you are not going to want to play a Christmas themed map in May. And since games like CoD are rebooted annually like sports franchises such as Madden or FIFA, it wouldn't be a good use of resources to create such a map. Thus, why spend money creating a map in which players would play for a short while and then shelve.

However, I believe having holiday themed maps would be a great way to enjoy an FPS, and besides they can always make it DLC to cover costs. If Team Fortress 2 is able to have Halloween themed maps annually, then why can't games like CoD, BF3, MoH, Halo or any of the other popular FPS games include at least one map that makes you feel the sense of a season. I know I'd return to play on the maps even if the game is over 5 years old.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Now I'm off to Guild Wars take on the Mad King once more!