A Viewpoint

      The general consensus in the Mid-range category of Graphics cards is that as AMD offers a bit more straight up Rasterization performance which results in a tad higher FPS than the NVIDIA cards (in most cases), it's generally understood that AMD provides much better value for money in this price segment. But this point of view is largely incomplete as it doesn't take into account for both Ray Tracing and Upscaling capabilities which offer substantial reasons as to why NVIDIA cards (some of them, at least) can be a better buy over AMD even in this segment.    Cause honestly, if you're willing to buy a Mid-range GPU in 2024, there's absolutely no reason why you would want to skip on Ray Tracing which is present in far more titles than it's ever been and is well on it's way to become a new visual standard in the industry.     And as far as Ray Tracing goes, it's a well known fact that AMD is still far behind NVIDIA at this moment. So going for ...

    The past decade in Videogames has seen a gigantic step-up in terms of it's ability to tell cinematic stories and memorable, branched narratives that shape itself based on the choices made by the player. Both of these elements have ushered a whole new era of non-linear storytelling in gaming that is simply unmatched by any other entertainment medium that has ever existed. Today, almost all the games that's out there and those that are currently being made, make use of this in some way or the other, resulting in added layers in their narrative that rewards multiple playthroughs.  But underneath this non-linearity lies a groundbreaking and genre-bending innovation that took place in gaming quite silently and to this day, is barely appreciated or even noticed. And today's article is about what it really is and why it's been so pivotal in shaping Videogames of the 21st Century.    All Videogames are primarily made up of 3 core components that work in synergy to c...

      Great games are made of great gameplay, and what we call the overall gameplay experience is essentially a wide range of individual mechanics’ that the player gets to perform over and over throughout the course of a game. But there are some gameplay mechanics’ that stand out as far more enjoyable and satisfying than others, so much so that they become the sole reason for replaying the game over and over again. And at the nucleus of all truly great videogames are these unique and memorable gameplay mechanics’ that feel exciting and rewarding every single time you do them and never really get old. And this article is about celebrating those timeless gameplay mechanics’ that have also made the games they’ve appeared in some of the greatest in videogame history. They’ve been ranked according to their ingenuity and re-playability, so let’s dive in.      7. Maximum Armor (the Crysis series) : This is more of a personal favorite but I've always found t...

      Even though all videogames share the same 3 core Design Elements (namely Gameplay , Level Design and Storytelling ), some turn out as classics while most others simply can’t come close. And this article will attempt to explore the reason behind this with just as much detail as to not hinder an enjoyable reading experience too much. And for full breakdown of the Design Elements along with how they work together to create the videogame experience we all know and love, you can read up on the Anatomy of Videogames trilogy of articles. Besides, it’ll also help you comprehend this article fully. The difference between truly great games and the not-so-great ones lies solely in how the 3 Design Elements are working in them. We know that these work together in tandem to create the experience the devs intend, but in most games these elements merely support each other whereas in case of any great game ever made, the elements or at least some of them, completely fuse ...

This second and final part of The Dark Side of Videogames will focus on a personal experience on how videogames condition our psyches towards violence. Back in 2005 (or maybe 2006), when F.E.A.R came out, it quickly became one of my go-to videogame experiences, I was hooked from the onset----the gritty, realistic graphics (by the standards of it’s time), the visceral gameplay that seamlessly blended both surreal first person shooting mechanics and close combat martial arts thrills perfectly, and on top of all that, it’s horror infused story that had you trying to bring down a threat that you have absolutely no idea how to. Needless to say, it was one of the most promising videogame experiences and totally lived up to it’s premises and more. And even to this day, in the ‘lists’ of most memorable FPS’ of the past decades, you’ll most likely find F.E.A.R popping up in them. Anyway, there was a certain level in the game which gave you a pretty unique kind of weapon—instead ...

Videogames are infinitely more than just interactive-audio-visual trips and they have more than proved themselves as an equally capable medium with much meaning and impact as all the rest of the entertainment mediums out there. But there’s also another side to videogames that gets rarely highlighted and as gamers, we’ve somewhat grown to almost gloss over it completely. Yes we’re talking about the darker aspect of videogames, the part about it’s gratifying and unnecessarily-excessive mechanics of violence and over-indulgence in all kinds of moral deviations. Videogames, from the sole viewpoint of the player, are psychological experiences. Simply because in a videogame, we play with our minds . And even though they are interactive in nature and have a complex inner structure, but what videogames ultimately affect us on, is on a purely mental level, and from there, they also leave a deep footprint that stays with us long after we’re out of it. So yes, videogame...

Far Cry 3 was an insanely enjoyable game. With a sprawling open world, reactive wildlife & an incredibly satisfying stealth mechanism, FC3 was one of the more ingenious first person shooters in recent years. No doubt Ubisoft would like to raise the bar higher in the upcoming Far Cry 4. But there are a few things FC4 must take care of to improve on the FC3 experience. 1 . Variety in side missions : The side quests in FC3 was pretty awful. Most of them are redundant go-here-do-that activities, failing to utilize the diverse elements of the gameplay. I'm not talking about those knife throwing or jungle racing contests as those were just subtexts for money or xp & gets old pretty soon. It'd be great if FC4 includes side missions that have little stories of their own instead of being simple fetch quests. 2. More discoveries : I believe the missions where you get to find the ancient knife were the best in the game. Underwater caves, secret unde...

This article is based on my interpretation of the story in Far cry 3. If you haven't played the game yet, stop reading. Massive spoilers ahead. A serene blue lake. Quiet & peaceful, water flowing around smoothly. The sunbeams pour through the windy trees. I was on a mission, just passing through. But I stopped the car & stared at the scenery for a while, trying to soak it all in. A pack of deers were roaming around peacefully. Pretty as a picture. Suddenly, the deers started running. Looking at the opposite direction, I knew why. A Tiger has come across this place. Before I could do anything, the Tiger pounced on a fleeing deer & killed it. I returned to my car & kept moving toward my destination. “Nature of the predator”----I thought while driving. Suddenly a thought jumped on me---”what's the difference between those animals & the protagonist of Far cry 3 or in a larger scale, our society? Was there any?” Then I realized, we're very much ali...

Every medium of storytelling has their unique ways for dialing up the immersion. Videogames achieve this through scripted moments/events. While it's true that due to over-reliance & abuse throughout the years, scripted moments have lost their ingenuity. But when implemented with creativity & in moderation, these moments still make a gamer suspend his/her disbelief like nothing else. Scripted moments are not to be confused with in-game cutscenes. Cutscenes (pre-rendered or in-game) simply take control away from the player, keeping the story and the gameplay segregated. Scripted moments, however, leaves the player with some manner of control while still moving the narrative forward. Scripted moments “show” the story instead of “telling” it, blending the interactive nature of Videogames with the programmed sequences.  A great scripted moment makes the player forget that it's actually pre-programmed and adds a sense of aliveness that every medium of art thr...

Let me ask you ----” what is the one element that hasn't changed much or at all in videogames for 20 years or since it's inception?” The answer is : An overly simplistic approach towards conflict & resolution in both gameplay & narrative. Take a series such as Call of Duty. The main villain or bad guy is one man/terrorist that needs to be stopped/killed/eliminated. To do that, the games sets the player on a path to killing millions of soldiers/terrorists across different parts of the globe (read: levels). On the very last level, the player gets to put an end to the bad guy in a scripted moment or an in your face, slow-mo cutscene. Now compare this structure with older 8bit games. There's a big bad boss & he sends all his minions to fight you. You fight wave after wave of enemies across different levels. At the end you face the boss in a pattern based fight and beat him. End credits. The main difference in both these variants of games is little ...