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I've got one better than that: Hello Kitty Cutie World.

...but would you buy it?

Everyone says they want creative and original games, then line up in droves to buy the next FPS and MMORPG.

How will things like Katamari Damancy really sell?
Personally , I really enjoy something that's really really different, I had great fun with "Construction Destruction", Airfix Dogfighter and of course, the amazing Liquid War, but I think I'm the exception, and games of that style will never be really big.

I'd be happy to know I'm wrong, actually...

Ah! ValuSoft then ;)

The big stumbling block for most people, I think, was the hype: Written by the Wachowski Brothers! Cost as much as a movie! Best thing to hit gaming since Pong! It turned out to be thoroughly average, with Powerade ads and a plot tie-in to the Matrix movies (yay! FMV!). Of course the game sucks compared to the hype, but it's not an unmitigated disaster like Daikatana or Outpost. It's just... blah.

By the way, if you want to see some truly awful games, Something Awful's Games Reviews have you covered (note: visiting Something Awful from work may earn you a "chat" with your admin or worse. You have been warned). Also, there's Valu-Soft. Anyone who's ever played a Valu-Soft game (usually sold in the bare jewel cases at computer stores stuck out in front of the good games) will immediately know what I'm talking about; the rest of you, STAY AWAY! Your eyes will melt, your hair will fall out, you will age 50 years in a single second, and that's before the install is over. Valu-Soft is the worst travesty against gaming ever created by Satan.

Umm.. Is it just me or is The War In Heaven not the first time that Katz's implied religious zealots invaded the gaming industry? Doesn't Doom have religious overtones? I mean, you're fighting your way out of Hell.. gee, sounds familiar. Or how about Heretic? Or ANY roleplaying game with pagan elements? What about the old NES Kid Icarus? How about the dredel game? Let's face it, religion is a part of human life, whether or not you buy into it or not. Katz, you didn't state it outright, but it's clear that you have some serious prejudice against Christians. How is prejudice against a religious group any more logical than prejudice against a racial group.. or gasp.. prejudice against geeks? I'm not Christian, but this game sounds original and fun to play, even if it is a blatant publicity stunt from the makers of that stupid and uncreative Deer Hunter game.

Jon, Jon, if you're going to be a "free speech rulz, why can't everybody just get along" kind of guy, you really need to get over this allergy you seem to have to anything labelled "Christian" ...

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.
-- G. K. Chesterton

If I hadn't been able to find the company page for the game, I would have guessed that this was a hoax/parody/whatever in the style of Jesux rather than a real product. But granted, somebody really is releasing a DOOM-style first person shooter game, with an "angels 'n' demons" theme, and marketing it as a "Christian" game.

I suppose if somebody is going to wrap a DOOM interface around the process list, and given the all the work done on DOOM/Quake "skins", that this was inevitable. But what wider conclusions are appropriate from this?

The arrival of the first Christian computer action game opens a whole new chapter in the never-ending struggle between technology and the self-proclaimed forces of morality.

Wow. One sentence, and at least four glaring problems:

• "first Christian computer action game": Technically, it's the first "first-person shooter" game billing itself as Christian. There have been Christian action games for a while, based on the "Mario" model, plus others. So it's not the first "action" game. Furthermore, just because somebody slaps a "Christian" label on something and hopes to make a buck off of the Christian market doesn't automatically make something Christian.
• "opens a whole new chapter": Maybe in the mind of Jon Katz, but I reserve the right to see if "The War in Heaven" sells more than a few dozen copies before I count this as anything earthshattering.
• "in the never-ending struggle between technology and ..." Sigh. We've gone over this before. Christianity is not anti-technology. Even the Amish are not anti-technology (as proof, consider the fact that some of the most important agricultural innovations of the last 200 years stem from Amish experimentation and innovation, and that they continually improve upon their farm equipent and assimilate certain technologies from the "English" world.
• "... and the self-proclaimed forces of morality." Ah. The "self-proclaimed" is the tip-off. Anything that starts with namecalling this early is sure to be a rant on how those awful Christians are trying to ruin everyone's fun by not celebrating the uplifting virtues of pr0n on the Internet and gore in first-person shooter games.

Let's see ... relate everything in the world to the Columbine shootings, drag out the old myths about Galileo ... flog, flog, flog.

Has it occurred to you that, rather than some sea change, this is simply some guys with a software firm out to make a few bucks?! .

As for myself, and the other Christians I know, the release of "War in Heaven" is going to be a yawner. For those Christians who don't mind DOOM/Quake (yes, they exist), this won't mean anything. For those who object to first-person shooter games because of the violent paradigm, the fact that the characters are dressed up as angels and demons will not make it better (in fact, it makes it worse, as it verges on being a blasphemous attempt to exploit for profit). I suppose there will be some small segment of Christian parents of teens who view the release of this game with a small sigh of relief -- those in the category of not liking this kind of game, realizing that kids are going to play them anyway, and being happy that there is at least a "kinder and gentler" alternative.

But for a person who objects so strenuously against the stereotyping of "geeks," and to the usage of stereotype to push an agenda, you've got some housecleaning to do yourself in that departmet.

I do profess to be impartial in the sense that I should be ashamed to talk such nonsense about the Lama of Thibet as they do about the Pope of Rome
-- G. K. Chesterton

Jon, Jon, if you're going to be a "free speech rulz, why can't everybody just get along" kind of guy, you really need to get over this allergy you seem to have to anything labelled "Christian" ...

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.
-- G. K. Chesterton

If I hadn't been able to find the company page for the game, I would have guessed that this was a hoax/parody/whatever in the style of Jesux rather than a real product. But granted, somebody really is releasing a DOOM-style first person shooter game, with an "angels 'n' demons" theme.