Level One

A look at gaming for beginners.

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7 Great Games to Play With Friends

A game with a great co-op mode can enhance both your friendships and your gaming experience! Even those who wouldn't call themselves gamers or don't even really like video games all that much can enjoy the occasional puzzle game or Super Smash Brothers battle. Here is a list of seven games that are even better when you play with a friend (or more.) 

Little Big Planet 2: Sackboy is back in this sequel to Little Big Planet to fight an evil force that has invaded Craftworld called Negativitron. There is much co-op and competitive play, which keeps everyone engaged and allows you and your friends to team up to do some fun puzzle solving. This is a great way to get your friends who like gaming and your friends who don’t know much about video games to interact through gaming together without boring the former and intimidating the latter. 

Team Fortress 2: TF2 is fantastic team game that is also Free To Play! Each player picks from a cast of 9 different playable characters with different abilities, from the Spy to the Pyro. There are different objectives you can choose from and you can either play on the same team or split up and play against each other. 

Portal 2: In the co-op portion of this game, you and your friend play as two adorable testing bots (Atlas and P-Body) created by GLaDOS and work your way through a series of increasingly challenging puzzles in the Aperture Test Labs. Together, you and your teammate can tackle problems that would no be solvable in the single player mode. 

Minecraft: Collect resources, fight off zombies and build towns with your friends! This game has a unique look and feel and reminds me of what it felt like to play with legos as a kid. Minecraft is great because if allows you to exercise your creativity, fight off monsters, and interact with others, all in a very distinctive retro visual package. 

Left 4 Dead 2: Get from point A to B with battling zombies with your teammates under tough conditions. The limited supplies and challenge of friendly fire make this game fairly challenging. This survival game is great fun but can also serve as a useful way to decide who will be on your survival team when the zombie apocalypse does come...

Borderlands 2: From the beginning, it seems clear that co-op is the best way to enjoy this game. It is shooter/RPG hybrid game allows you and your friends to have fun playing off of each others abilities as different characters. There is a lot of loot, a ton of guns, and plenty of fun to be had! 

Super Smash Brothers: Who doesn’t love a friendly brawl between some of your favorite video game characters? Similar to Little Big Planet 2, this game in particular is a great one to play with your friends who don’t spend a lot of time gaming or are intimidated by other more intense video games. (While the trailer in the link is for the upcoming Super Smash Brothers to be released in 2014, there are several previous ones out that you can play!)

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The Steam Summer Sale

These past few days, if you’ve been on Reddit or any gaming related websites, you might have seen the Steam Summer Sale mentioned. If you’re new to gaming, this might mean nothing to you right now, but for the sake of your wallet (and your gaming library) you should definitely head over and take a peek at what they’ve got. 

In case you didn’t know: The Steam Summer Sale is one of the sale periods that the gaming platform Steam holds every year. 

Steam is a platform for games developed by the Valve Corporation. Valve, the creator of notable games such as Half Life, Counterstrike, and Team Fortress, wanted to create a way to update its games automatically and exercise more effective anti-cheating and anti-piracy measures. Initially released in 2002 with the Beta version of Counterstrike 1.6, Steam eventually rose to acclaim as a cult favorite amongst dedicated gamers, and is now one of the most widely loved platforms in gaming. 

During the sales held a few times a year, games can be purchased for incredible deals. Games typically sold at full price can be gained for as much as 75% or 90% off! For instance, a look at todays sale shows that you can get Deus Ex Human Revolution for 85% off, for just $2.99. 

Steam features a wide range of available games, including role playing games (rpg), strategy games, simulation games, adventure games, and more. This is a great opportunity (especially for beginners) to gain lots of games for some pretty fantastic prices, and can be a way for you to build up your gaming library.

You can check out Steam and the Steam Summer Sale at steampowered.com

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A funny video from AVbyte detailing the recent console wars of this generation a la the West Side Story musical. 

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Smartphone Games: Nothing to scoff at!

While smartphone games are often overlooked by more ‘hardcore’ gamers, they offer something for everyone and provide a fun way to pass the time when you’re on your own or with friends. They are also much less intimidating than their PC or Console counterparts; with simpler controls and a wide variety, smart phone games are ideal for the individual interested in gaming, but lack a console or confused by how to start. 

From social games to puzzle games and everything in between, smartphone games are a simple way to enter into the somewhat confusing and daunting realm of gaming. These games can be fun, engaging, and best of all - portable. 

Here are some games to consider:

Cut The Rope: In this game, you need to help the adorable ‘Om Nom’ get to his candies by cutting ropes. The game starts with easier puzzles that get progressively more difficult. With a cute character, snappy colors and engaging puzzles, Cut The Rope has gained a strong legion of fans around the world. 

Tiny Village: In Tiny Village, you will need to assist prehistoric characters build up a village into a thriving metropolis. This game involves collecting resources, building homes, stores, and interacting with other players through Tiny Social. My favorite part about this game? Dinosaurs! You get to hatch dinosaurs, raise them up, and then fuse them to create more dinosaurs. 

Polymer: A beautiful puzzle game, Polymer is designed around sliding shapes together on a grid to make ‘polymers.’ A lovely color palette and simplistic controls, this game can get surprisingly challenging and complex. Polymer has burst onto the scene in late 2012 and has since gained a strong following. 

Horn: This is a solid action adventure game that is perfect for someone looking to get into some more ‘traditional’ gaming. A third person action adventure game, Horn features a blacksmith’s apprentice as a protagonist, battling a world where a curse has transformed everyone into mechanical beings. The 3D visuals, beautiful fantasy world and fun battles will entertain and delight. 

Year Walk: A horror adventure game, Year Walk stuns with its desolate, stark and stunning design and look. In this game, you play as a nameless individual who is journeying into a dark forest and through disturbing world Swedish folklore to win back his love. The game itself is rather short and can be played all the way through in just a few hours, but is well worth your time. Macabre, remarkable and extraordinary, this is certainly not a child's game. 

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I wrote a feature for class on females in the gaming community last quarter, you can find it on my website. 

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The Age Old Question of PC Versus Console

In the gaming world, there is one question that stirs passion in players like no other. The age-old question of pc versus console has enraged gamers and broken up friendships for years, and as both forms of technology continue to advance, it doesn’t look like the debate is going to die down anytime soon.

In the realm of raw specifications, PC’s maintain a lead over consoles - but the gap will soon be reduced with the upcoming wave of next gen of consoles. The PS4 and XBOX 720 will have top of the line graphics and specs that will catch up with what PC gamers have been able to have for years. Consoles have always been playing a game of catch up with PCs - they only come out a few times every decade, and soon become outdated. As processors reach a critical processing speed, the release dates between consoles will only get bigger. While this also affects PCs, desktops are full of interchangeable parts that one can swap out at any time and remain customizable. 

In terms of cost, a console is certainly cheaper and more affordable. The flip side is that while the console itself may be affordable, console games remain far more expensive than pc games. For instance, a newly released console game can cost around $60, while computer games can run around $20. Steam, a beloved platform amongst gamers, has made PC games even more accessible by holding sale during which they offer games for just a few dollars. 

An argument commonly used against PC’s is that despite the better specs, it would cost a lot of money to create a top-notch gaming rig. Nowadays  that is hardly true; Gamers can build their own gaming rig with off the shelf parts for $400 and it will still perform better than any console.

Costs aside, there are several distinct advantages of each system. A console seems to be the better vehicle for third person action games such as Uncharted or beloved adventure staples like the Zelda series. The experience is more cinematic due to the typically beefy TV sizes these days. Desktops have the higher ground in real time strategy, role playing, and first person shooter games due to the better responsiveness, graphics, and overall specs. Proximity to the screen is a definite plus in these types of games, as are the responsiveness of a mouse and keyboard, which outperforms the reaction capabilities of a controller

The area where consoles truly dominate with no competition is in sports games, or group party games, such as Wii Sports, FIFA, Madden, or Mario Party. In these types of situations, where gaming becomes a party or social activity that depends on physical interaction, a console in a living room has the advantage over a desktop. 

So what’s a beginner gamer to do? Try them both! Be sure to start with an open mind and whatever is easiest or most affordable for you. If you already have a console or computer, start with that. Both mediums are a window into a wonderful new world. 

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Violence in Video Games, An Easy Target

Recently, the New York Times published an article by Benedict Carey on the link between violence in games and real-life violence. Carey reports that while no studies have shown a direct link between video games and committing actual, physical acts of violence, studies have pointed to an increased level of aggression in players for a short period of time after playing the game. 

Short term aggression does not necessarily equate actual violence. The aggression that can come with gaming is due to the competitive nature of games, and other competitive activities such as playing a game of football can also cause short term aggression. Somehow, people aren't clamoring to argue that football is causing violent shootings.

In many ways, video games seem to be the perfect culprit. Mostly young men play them, there seems to be a lot of violence, and they are foreign to lawmakers, pundits, and most people over the age of 45. 

Much of the research and hubbub about the connection between media and violence has been based on 1950's psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s work. However, recently it's been discovered that Wertham revised and doctored much of his data, negating most of the popular knowledge about video games and violence. 

Video games suffer from being called “games,” which projects the image that they are all created for children. In reality, the violent ones people seem to have an issue with are not made for kids. Many games that are brought up in these discussions are rated M for mature. This means that it should be played by those who are 17 and over. If the name of a game has a felony in it, it is probably not suitable for your child. 

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Gateway Games

  Who would’ve thought that a kid who grew up in a household where video games were banned would turn out to be such a game lover? I only just discovered gaming a few years ago in college, but it took quite a bit of convincing and a few great gateway games for me to get over my preconceived notions of video games. 

Gone were my misconceptions of video games being just for anti social “nerdy” boys. An interactive world of fantasy, science fiction, heroes and villains opened up. The visuals were beautiful, the stories fascinating, and the possibilities were endless. 

Portal is a first person puzzle solving game. Trapped in a mysterious testing facility, you wake up to a machine’s voice guiding you through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles. Portal is one of the most original games out there and features a great story line. It uses simple enough controls that makes it a great introduction into computer gaming for a beginner.

Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time is an action adventure game where you play the hero, Link, from a third-person perspective. It was the first game of the Zelda series to feature 3D graphics and remains the quintessential hero adventure experience that envelops you in a world that is hard to forget. It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with controls that are consistent throughout all console games. 

Journey  is a beautiful game released in 2012 that is perfect for any beginner. Also a third person adventure game, its brief, visually stunning and emotionally moving, making it an ideal introduction into the many-faceted world of gaming. The movements are simple to learn and easy to pick up. This is one that will grab the attention of any player - new or old. The dreamy, somewhat desolate world of Journey will stay with you long after the game ends.