Also in this week’s Georgia Straight is my preview of the games to come this fall. It all starts next week with Resistance 3 and Space Marine. Gears of War 3 follows soon after.

When will we find the time to play?

As @BenKuchera tweeted tonight: “I’m looking at my stacks and e-mails and going: how will I get done? Then I think: I really get to play all THIS for work?”

Admittedly, many of the games coming this fall are sequels and new chapters in franchises with which we’re all familiar. But we’ve got high expectations of them. Here’s what you can look forward to playing over the next few months.

In an update to the Vancouver video game development family tree I created a couple of years ago is my feature article in this week’s Georgia Straight.

In the article, I look at how the game sector in Vancouver is alive and well, but looks much different than it did even a year ago.

For some 20 years, Vancouver was a jewel in Canada’s video-game industry. It was home to the first Canadian companies that developed games, and as the interactive-entertainment sector grew, so did the studios in the Lower Mainland. Today, though, Vancouver is no longer the largest centre of video-game development in Canada.

Next week sees the release of Eidos Montreal’s prequel to Deus Ex.

In the Georgia Straight I look at the development of Human Revolution.

The video game Deus Ex was a unique proposition when it was released in 2000. For one thing, it was a hybrid, blending elements common to role-playing games, action adventures, and first-person shooters. It also attempted to let gamers in on the storytelling by emphasizing player choice, and made sure they realized that their decisions had consequences, both good and bad. Hybrids and games that claim to give players agency are commonplace today, but Deus Ex was one of the first such titles.

I also look at some of the mature themes explored by the game.

Jean-Franícois Dugas was compelled to work on Deus Ex: Human Revolution because of its mature content. “I’m not 20 years old any longer,” the game’s director told the Straight in a phone interview.

In early August, my interview with noted writer and technologist Cory Doctorow ran in the Georgia Straight.

We talked about copyright as it impacts the video game sector and the Straight also ran an edited transcript of my full interview with Cory, in which we ranged about copyright reform in general.

The occasion was the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference that was held in Vancouver earlier this month, where Doctorow was delivering the keynote address.

Vancouver’s United Front Games had some good news to announce yesterday. The action game in development at the Vancouver-based studio has been picked up by video game publisher Square Enix.

Originally set-up for publication in November as True Crime: Hong Kong, Activision cancelled it in February.

Square Enix has not announced what the game’s new title will be, but the company has not acquired the rights to the True Crime franchise. A new release date and platforms have not been revealed as yet.

Lee Singleton, general manager of Square Enix’s London Studios told Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt that since Activision’s cancellation, UFG continued to develop the game with a smaller team, and that “we’re ready to turn up the heat and get the team up to capacity”.

Japan-based Square Enix, best known for the Final Fantasy games, has been expanding its portfolio of titles and genres, exemplified by its acquisition of Eidos in 2009.

The company also seems to be quite interested in Canadian development. Eidos Montreal will be releasing its first game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, in August, and there have been rumblings that Square Enix was looking for a site for a possible second Canadian studio.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight