Very few people actually want to die and it's that commitment to living that, in a way, unites us. War and, more specifically, the need to kill or be killed, succeeds in robbing us of a basic respect for life. Aggression and violence both have the capacity to turn us into something un-human. In a way, entering the battle means admitting defeat.
It's anything but game over for "Video Games Live." The multimedia concert, which features live performances of music from video-game franchises like "Mario," "Zelda," "Halo" and "Final Fantasy," returns to the Chicago area this weekend.
Last week, Ryan Mancl missed a midterm so he could play video games. It's not what you're thinking. Mancl, an 18-year-old native of Glencoe, was one of 800 people from 78 different countries who competed in the eighth annual World Cyber Games last week in Cologne, Germany. And he actually had the blessing of his chemistry professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Christine Yerkes.
If one is to draw any conclusion from the shift in tone from "Fallout 2" to "Fallout 3," it is that the world is less humorous and more scary.
It wouldn't be Halloween without "Silent Hill," and Konami doesn't disappoint. The latest entry in the franchise, "Homecoming," shifts the action from the town of Silent Hill to nearby Shepherds Glen.
Four years after its launch, Blizzard Entertainment's ''World of Warcraft'' continues to dominate the field of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (known by the acronym MMORPG). It's not for lack of competition; dozens of companies have tried to peel off some of the 10 million ''WoW'' subscribers, only to be stymied by technical problems, lack of polish and player attrition.
Music from the Beatles is coming to video games ... but not to ‘‘Rock Band.’’ MTV Networks and Harmonix — the game developer behind the popular ‘‘Rock Band’’ franchise — together with the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd., are developing an entirely new interactive music game based solely and exclusively on the entire Beatles catalog. The game will not be part of the ‘‘Rock Band’’ franchise, but will be based on the same platform.
It turns out you can make a good story better. Lead designer Peter Molyneux has tweaked and improved upon "Fable." The sequel is an engaging, bare-bones fairy tale that puts you in control of a majority of the storyline for your hero/heroine/villain.