Game Ranter Banter: Beyond Two Souls, Minecraft and Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel

EA's Summer Showcase took place this week and was host to several major video game announcements, including the first bit of Mass Effect 3 single-player DLC, an even bigger,  the confirmation of a new game we're going to touch on here.

This week's Game Ranter Banter, our writers give their opinions on the newly announced Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, David Cage's comments regarding Quantic Dream's upcoming Beyond: Two Souls, the lack of genders in Minecraft, its creator Notch, and skepticism towards Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Let's begin.

Beyond Fun (By Brian Sipple)

When David Cage says he’s "not interested" with Beyond: Two Souls offering any fun — “I want to challenge their minds” — it's tempting, at first, to be antagonistic. We can be skeptical (“Good luck with that business model, genius… I’ll set aside $10 to snatch it on Amazon next year"), belittling (“Yeah, like I’m gonna sit through Heavy Rain again.”), traditionalist (“But video games HAVE to be fun!"), insulted (“Doesn’t he know I can endure emotional weight AND have fun? — I own the complete filmography of Christopher Nolan.”) — even masochistic (“Bring the pain, Cage!”).

But I think the Quantic Dream founder is on to something with his latest work. After all, Cage’s directorial vision has always been about the creation of meaning. Certainly a game has to be engaging; we wouldn’t stay awake otherwise. On the other hand, though, the absolute absence of “fun” is central to some of the most important pieces of human expression. Look at tragedies or love stories or war documentaries. Look at Picasso or Shakespeare.

Yes, suggesting that Beyond is on equal footing with Macbeth is a little… premature — but it’s the principle: why can’t gaming be a platform for the anti-fun, an outlet that drains pure joy as means to power thought, emotion and transformational bonding? David Cage thinks it can - and without sacrificing quality. I say have at it. Hell, have fun.

Is 'Notch' the New John Romero? (By Kyle Matthews)

I've noticed an increasing number of news articles lately, in which Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has been mentioned. Whether he's in yet another Twitter argument, or locked in legal battle with another developer, Notch's happenings seem to be getting the media attention of a Britney Spears freak-out. And while I'm on the topic of things that aren't relevant anymore, I'll just come right out and say it: who cares what Notch thinks?

With the help of social networking sites, countless folks around the world are able to give their input on any number of discussion topics without thinking them through. This week, the Internet's favorite award-winning, pot-stirring "indie" developer has his sights set on Microsoft's upcoming OS, Windows 8. While there are understandable concerns with a number of alleged new features, which may threaten the state of PC gaming as it exists today, Notch seems to have approached the situation with the sole purpose of hearing himself talk -- and social media sites lap it up.

Notch does deserve a level of respect for his achievements in the gaming community. However, he seems to be stuck in an awkward limbo between indie game coder, and full-blown rockstar developer -- and his involvement in a conversation that did not address him to begin with, leads me to believe this could be the beginning of the kind of gaming disaster we have not seen since the Ion Storm days. Can we stop Notch from becoming the next John Romero -- please? I know it's a bold suggestion.. but so is hosting the second-annual fan club convention of your video game in freaking Paris.

Army Of Wasted Potential (By Rob Keyes)

I enjoyed the first Army of Two. It looked pretty, had a certain charm to it, albeit a corny one, but it was a fun co-op experience despite being incomplete in term of its customization/upgrade system. The sequel was a mess, but when rumors of a third installment hit, there was a real solid opportunity for Electronic Arts and developer Visceral Games to make the game bigger and better with Army of Four.

The leaders in the third-person shooter genre, Gears of War 1-3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier both offer full four-player co-op campaigns AND additional four-player co-op mutliplayer modes. The newest game, titled Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, despite telling a new story with different protagonists instead remains at only two players, and it still praises itself as a genre defining co-op game. Wrong, EA. Battlefield 3 co-op sucked, Medal of Honor: Warfighter doesn't seem to have legit co-op play (that we know of) and we already have a two-player co-op shooter coming from Visceral with Dead Space 3.

For a game that only is played for it's co-op, why limit to two players? What year is this? Let's hope we find out about more modes and (new) features when Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is fully unveiled at GamesCom August 15-19, 2012.

Genders in Minecraft (By John Jacques)

A few days ago Minecraft creator Notch spoke about genders within the game. It's a great thing that the game takes away focus from gender, even though thousands of female-based skins are already out on the web. There have been a few people out on the web who seem to have taken offense to Notch's words, to which I raise the question: why does it matter? Since when does the gender - or lack thereof - change the gameplay at all?

In essence, what Notch did is the same thing as J.K. Rowling stated that Dumbledore was gay after the series was concluded. It didn't change the books and it no way changed the quality of the character. Don't get upset just because you assumed Minecraft was presumedly all-boy club for some reason - enjoy the game for what it is, and don't get political. Gender or no gender, the game is fun, and the newest update is worth playing.

It'll Take More Than Linkin Park, EA (By Anthony Molé)

If I had to use a few words to describe 2010's Medal of Honor, “boring” and “vapid” would have to be my first choices. Some gamers state that the reboot had a good story, because it was authentic and grounded - however authentic doesn't equate to good, and Medal of Honor's narrative had roughly the same depth as a puddle.

After the emotional "Leave A Message" trailer, I was quite ecstatic to play the game. However, the final product was a disjointed mess, flipping between four character arcs that never developed into anything substantial, all while the game tried to pass itself off as meaningful because soldiers.

Later this year, Danger Close and EA will release the game's followup, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, but they're caught in the same marketing cycle as before. Some jargon about authenticity, a trailer about a soldier with a family; I've heard it before, and this time it's going to take more than a trailer to regain my interest.

Conclusion

That's all for this week's Game Ranter Banter. As always, let us know what you think of this week's news in the comments, or on Twitter @GameRant and Facebook.com/GameRant.

If you have specific topics you'd like any of the team to cover, don't hesitate to ask.