“Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.” ~ Epicurus

Fear is a powerful motivator; it has both changed individual lives and altered the destiny of civilizations. The fear of death will move a man to fight against impossible odds to guarantee his own survival. This concept is at the heart of every first person shooter ever made…until now.

Despite its equilibrium distorting gravity effects and innovative “portal” mechanic, Prey is the least frustrating game I have ever played. Why? It is because of the game’s third innovation: “Deathwalk.” The single word that has taken the fear out of gaming.

Nothing is more frustrating then getting yourself killed and having to replay a portion of game again as a punishment for your mistake. That thought keeps players on their toes. It keeps them cautious. It makes them move forward slowly. It makes them pick their battles and when needs be, fighting smart by using cover. It makes them manage when to take health pickups and most of all: it makes them afraid to die.

Prey’s Deathwalk takes mortality and turns it into a can’t-lose minigame. Want to play the whole game using the melee attack? You can just about do it, and when you die six times while charging down a rocket launching spider-alien? Each reincarnation will just get you one step closer. Is Prey the easiest First Person Shooter ever made? I’m afraid so.

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“Nothing endures but change” ~ Heraclitus

The news that E3 is going to drastically downsize and move out of its current space-time location struck the gaming world like a ton of bricks this week. Before there was PAX, E3 was the gamer’s Mecca, one made even more of a tantalizing destination due to its closed door exclusivity. I myself equated it to Wonka’s fabled chocolate factory in my first column for the Comics101.com page. Well it turns out E3 wasn’t exclusive enough.

There are various and sundry reasons why this is happening; you can go find those out and make up your own mind on the situation. All I can think of is the summer of 1992. I worked retail in a used video game store, and through my connections there I got at ticket to that year’s Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. I was 15 and it was honestly the coolest day of my life up to that point. The hot game was Super Mario All Stars, Jake and the Fatman was still on TV, and Square was still porting games for a Nintendo that was still pounding competing systems into the dirt. To this day I still have all the swag I scored.

Two years later the Chicago Summer CES was gone forever. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but because of it, I know now that even though the E3 we knew (or wish we knew) is now gone, it will be back in some form again someday, and maybe this time we’ll all be welcome.

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“We killed ‘em on football. They could give that thing away for free, Scotch-taped to a ham sandwich and we’re still going to beat them.” ~ Jeff Brown, EA’s Vice President of Corporate Communications boasts to GameDaily about Madden NFL 2005 outselling rival ESPN NFL 2k5 despite ESPN’s $20 price tag.

This famous gaming world quote sprung into my mind while I was browsing The Tag yesterday. On a cardboard standee the store shared an offer: two free Snickers bars for any pre-order of EA’s latest football products. No ham, no bread, and no tape, but still in a time of death and change, at least there one story this week that really satisfies.

This is my stop.

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Comments? Questions? E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com. Complaints? The only thing more pretentious then using quotes is bugging people about it!
Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.