Xbox Live is no substitute for all the late nights and bourbon we used to have with Ben, and every now and then we end up in a conversation that reminds me how much I miss my friend. We always exchange the usual desultory talk about how work is going and what games we’re currently working on, and last night was no exception.
"What do you think of Kameo?" he asked.
"It’s pretty," I replied, "but it’s not holding my attention."
"You know, I need to spend more time on it," he said. "I’m beating Condemned right now."
"I’d love to play Condemned, but I’m useless at those kinds of games," I said enviously, hanging my head a little. It’s true, and I blame it all on my playing The 7th Guest as a kid. I tried to confront my fears by playing Silent Hill and Resident Evil years later, but I barely made it through the opening levels before I put the games away for good. Still, that didn’t stop me from having nightmares for weeks afterwards.
Ben laughed. "If you don’t like scary games, don’t play it. Jess gets so disturbed she can’t watch it."
"I read the reviews," I said, "and the gameplay sounds brilliant, maybe even ingenious. But after playing the demo I went to Jonathan and said: ‘I need a hug.’"
"It’s interesting. I don’t know—I hated it at first," he said. "It may not even be a good game, but it may be an important one. It’s a meditation on violence in a lot of ways."
(Continued … )
"It reminds me of the comic book/movie ‘A History of Violence,’" I interjected.
"Yeah, it’s a lot like that," he agreed. "On one hand, you play as a cop who’s trying to figure out a mystery. On the flipside, you scream, "You bastard!’ when you bury a hatchet in some junkie’s head."
