14 DAY TRIAL // Take a look at the line up of action and first person shooter videogames which are coming up in the next few months. We have Gears of War 2, which tells the, apparently, more mature and well thought story of the way humans are striking back against the Locusts. We have Far Cry 2 which is set to tell the gritty story of mercenaries surviving in Africa and we have Resistance 2, which has grim aliens invading Earth while humanity is in a bad position to strike back.
Whichever of the above games you prefer, they are all AAA titles, they are all eagerly expected and they are all, well... kinda humorless. And videogaming is supposed to be a fun pastime. I know that you can have fun without humor, but games from ages past, like Duke Nukem and Serious Sam, managed to make the player take down hordes of alien enemies while also providing a lot of occasions to laugh. Sure, the humor in these games might have been low brow and sometimes very childish, but I'm sure a lot of gamers liked it. We all like a bit of humor from time to time and not only in its childish and animated form.
After all, the new Duke Nukem game, which we don't know whether we will ever get to see released, is awaited mainly because we hope it will inject some self referential sarcasm into the genre of first person shooters. Shooters have been taking themselves way too seriously. After all, we're talking videogames not Dostoevsky. Sure, we can appreciate a good story and a dire situation. But I really don't want to go to bed, after a few hours of shooting, just thinking about tactics, cover and the destiny of the human race. I want to remember that time I caught a Locust on the toilet and I shot him in the face for laughs. Give me that, Gears of War 2!