Replay: The History of Video Games

Review

I really liked Replay. It was much more in-depth than I'd have guessed. The history of video games is fairly short but there are countless interesting stories from the past 5 decades. One of the strongest aspects of the book is strong coverage of non-American/Japanese games and game designers. A fair bit of time is devoted to the UK scene in the 80s or French adventure games. While these didn't have the impact or cultural recognition of Mario and GTA they were very interesting sections and I'm glad they were in the book. The book becomes a little more shaky near the end with a couple of factual errors that were easy to spot (mentioning the Xbox 360's wireless broadband comes to mind.) Additionally the book covers the GTA series through IV well but doesn't really go into modern games that well or more importantly cover the rise of the modern AAA title. The book is in many ways the stories of video game developers as much as games and leaving out the stories of these 200 person teams is quite the oversight. I think the book would have been better and avoided these complaints entirely if it ended with the launch of the PS3/360/Wii. It covers these consoles briefly but really just doesn't have the depth here that was seen of earlier systems and games. Regardless, I enjoyed the book and I'd highly recommend it for someone interested in learning more about the history of video games.

Consumption history1

1. Feb 24, 2014

   Completed★ 4 / 5

   physical