The Sunday Papers

The podracing scene in The Phantom Menace is one of my favorite movie sequences ever. It’s just so dang cool: The futuristic racers tear over treacherous Tatooine terrain while various Star Wars aliens bark at each other in incomprehensible sci-fi languages. Eventually a young Anakin Skywalker proves his mettle by clawing his way from the back of the pack to win the race, which left an impression on me when I first saw it at 10 years old. I always wished I could pilot a podracer myself. Over the past several days, I’ve been able to live out that dream thanks to Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which takes everything from that brilliant scene and packs it into a thrilling video game. In Galactic Racer’s campaign, you play as Shade, a cargo pilot who gets a shot at racing in the underground Galactic League circuit to eventually challenge the smarmy champion Kestar Bool. The game is basically a roguelike. You start a run (called a “tour”) by picking between a few different vehicles — though you don’t get to drive a podracer until partway through the campaign — and selecting various perks that can influence your style of play.

The fight against dementia is one that science – and humanity – is losing. More than 55 million people live with the condition today. That number is expected to double every 20 years in our ageing population. By 2050, there will be almost 140 million people with dementia, and their care is projected to cost as much as 1 per cent of the global GDP.

Activision recently released ports of 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops and 2012's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on PlayStation, and they were massive hits. According to a report, the games combined to sell…

For the last 16 years at Tokyo Game Show, Masahiro Sakurai has handed out awards centered on game design to celebrate games that do things differently. This year, however, was the final year for this event, and in a new interview, he shared a somewhat bleak reflection on the importance of originality as he discontinued the prize. Sakurai’s Game Designers Award was centered on promoting original game design ideas, regardless of sales performance. Winners of the award, not necessarily limited to a single game each year, have included the original Life Is Strange, Mario Kart: Home Circuit, Viewfinder, and Scribblenauts. However, during his speech at the awards show last month, he painted a somber picture, lamenting, “Though it may sound rather grave, originality doesn’t actually have a strong impact on sales. I think it actually ranks low on the list of priorities for many.” He compared the problem to the way the novelty of a limited-time drink flavor might fade after it’s been released, although he hopes the games industry hosts enough creative minds to avoid this problem.