Digitally Disillusioned

My move to Edmonton to work at BioWare brought many things, and one of those things is semiregular video game sessions with my friend Sebastian (nee phenyx) who I’ve known for a very long time, and who started as a programmer with BioWare about two years ago. We play popular single player titles together, swapping who gets to play on level switch or player death.

What we’ve chosen to tackle right now is No More Heroes, a game for Nintendo Wii that has obtained some noteriety for its extreme level of violence on the “family friendly” console. You can see video evidence of this over on YouTube here if you require edification.

This game is really unique in two important ways:

First, when its not being marvelous its being unplayably terrible. I have never seen a game waffle so badly between awesome and horrific. While combat is fun, enjoyable, over the top, and hyperviolent, everything else they crammed in this game has been done better by shovelware developers. Its astonishing that the creative team behind this would settle for a product like this.

Second, the main character is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. Remember him? Of course you do! Byron, from Babylon 5’s less than stellar last season. If you forget, its the man in the picture below. (thats the one on the right)