Sure, there were a lot of big games on display at festival Arcadia, Canada’s only video game festival open to the public. You could stand in line to play Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s huge new title, which was hidden behind gossamer curtains like the VIP room at an Amsterdam brothel. Call of Duty 4 lived in camo tents; boot camp for armchair soldiers who like to sit and click on stuff instead of actually fight. And, of course, there was Resident Evil Wii and Super Mario Galaxy in the fenced-in Nintendo pen, the latter of which featured some of the most original level design I’ve seen in a while. And then there were the games nobody wanted to play, which were made with flash animation and leftover polygons from Wolfenstein 3D. Those were awesome.

The Assassin's Creed peepshow.

For Trivial Pursuit addicts whose friends won’t play with them anymore, there was Ambush! Trivia, a runner up in the Great Canadian Video Competition. Ambush had had a disproportionate number of questions relating to Silver Age comic books, meaning that it sucked up my afternoon and made me late for a meeting.

Then, there was “Meet Officer Roberts”, a conversation simulator that provides the exciting opportunity to play the role of a police sergeant discussing poor report filing with the beat cop who guards the door of the police station. The game provides detailed feedback of your conflict resolution effectiveness, which perfect if you’re just about to confront your girlfriend about her reorganization of your Manga shelf. There was also “Redistricting”, about the wonderful world of congressional redistricting. If you’ve ever felt the need to create an ethnic enclave to influence elections, or practice gerrymandering to prepare for an upcoming keg party, here’s your chance.

I spent 45 minutes on the first, and an hour on the second. I’ll challenge any assassin to take on my level 4 Democratic district.

alkratina@comicbookbin.com