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Articles tagged bioshock

Wednesday, September 7 2011

In Some Games, It’s the Pattern, Not the Plot, That Makes Them Beautiful

Tetris doesn't say a whole lot about anything, right?


Wednesday, May 18 2011

Defining Our Relationship to the Software: Jonas Kyratzes’s ‘Alphaland’

In order to play, the player needs the game, and in order to exist as a game, the game needs to be played.


Friday, February 4 2011

Killing Kids Is Scary

Any world built upon the bodies of children must be a hellish, nightmarish, or dystopian world. Sometimes it's one in which the player takes on the role of monster.


Wednesday, June 23 2010

All This Useless Interactivity

While we seemingly get lots of choices in a game about how we get from place to place, how to kill enemies (and with what weapon), and even how we make moral decisions, when the game prompts us we usually get down to doing what it tells us to do.


Monday, June 21 2010

Father’s Day Is Over, But Daddy Issues Remain in ‘Bioshock 2’ and ‘Red Dead Redemption’

Baby Boomer films such as Star Wars taught us about the corruptible and corrupting influence of an authoritarian father; now games like Bioshock 2 and Red Dead Redemption explore Generation X's “daddy issues”.


Wednesday, May 26 2010

You Say Apocalypse, I Say Retro Chic

Much like telling an erotic story within a Victorian backdrop seems ever so sexy, human depravity juxtaposed against a seemingly golden age of good, moral values is darkly comic and that much more disturbing.


Wednesday, March 31 2010

An Intimate Moment With the Computer

I cared about GlaDOS only because she was the one directing me. Oh, and then I really cared about her because she wanted to kill me.


Wednesday, February 10 2010

Of Philosophy in ‘Bioshock 2’: Some Words from the Devs

“I wouldn't say that games are the ideal way to experience literature. I think literature has done that quite well. That being said, games offer the opportunity to ask interesting questions and allow the player to answer them in a way that transcends previous mediums.” -- Jordan Thomas, Creative Director, Bioshock 2


Monday, October 20 2008

TWiG 2008-10-20: The Return of Pretty Much Everything

New releases for the week of 2008-10-20...


Tuesday, August 19 2008

To Ken Levine

L.B. has an odd lapse into remorse and gives a shout-out to some of Ken Levine's best games. Spoilers abound.


The Difficulty with Difficulty in Games (Moving Pixels) [1.Jul.08]
The Zerg Through the Eyes of Marx (Moving Pixels) [1.Apr.08]
Bioshock (Reviews) [8.Oct.07]
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A Painting Come to Life: 'The Mill & the Cross' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
A Far Too Safe... and Strained... 'House' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 9:00 am]
'Safe House' Is Ersatz Edgy (Reviews) [Fri, 8:06 am]
The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 7:50 am]
  1. 'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness' (Columns)
  2. The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader)
  3. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 1: From 13Ghosts to Friendly Fires (Features)
  4. The Best Games of 2011 (Features)
  5. Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast (Features)
  6. The 10 Greatest Movie Spies Ever (Short Ends and Leader)
  7. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation (Features)
  8. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 3: From Real Estate to Youth Lagoon (Features)
  9. Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Reviews)
  10. The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time (Sound Affects)
  11. Get Off of My Cloud!: 'Collecting' Music in the Digital Age (Features)
  12. Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Reviews)
  13. Google and the Production of Curiosity (Marginal Utility)
  14. Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth (Features)
  15. Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt (Columns)
  16. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
  17. Black Bananas: Rad Times Xpress IV (Reviews)
  18. The Gay Ole Countryside (Columns)
  19. Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (Reviews)
  20. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  21. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
  22. The 10 Best John Coltrane Solos (Sound Affects)
  23. A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men' (Features)
  24. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
  25. Chairlift: Something (Reviews)
  26. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - "Heart Attack" (Cosmic Kids Remix) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media)
  27. Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (Reviews)
  28. The Barbaric (and Poetic) Yawp of Shelby Lynne (Notes from the Road)
  29. After Cease to Exist: The Far-from-Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Features)
  30. Mitt Romney Can Reside at Today's Proverbial 'Downton Abbey'... Newt Gingrich Cannot (Features)
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