Features
Monday, January 30 2012
The Best Games of 2011
This year was a year when something called Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars could be celebrated alongside the latest Gears of War game. This was a year in which one of the most reviled games, Dragon Age II, was also one of the most revered.
Reviews
Tuesday, August 23 2011
Dragon Age II: Legacy
For a story pitched as casting a shadow on the Hawke family line, the actual revelation doesn't really tarnish anyone's reputation.
Monday, March 21 2011
'Dragon Age II': Making the Case for "Quality" Games
The game makes the most of its often glaring limitations to deliver on some of the strongest character-driven storytelling that we've seen out of a Bioware title.
Friday, March 5 2010
Mass Effect 2
Blame Mass Effect 2 for the debate that gamers and journalists find themselves suddenly engaged in. The topic: what exactly is a role-playing game?
Friday, January 4 2008
Mass Effect
One of the major themes of Mass Effect is xenophobia and the reasons that certain species hate or mistrust the others.
Friday, May 13 2005
Jade Empire
The similarities in story and mechanics to other role-playing games threaten to undermine Jade Empire's goals.
Blogs
Tuesday, April 5 2011
Space Jihadists: 'Mass Effect 2: Arrival' Just Keeps Digging Its Hole Deeper
Arrival demonstrates an almost appalling similarity to American media, not just in the way that we create our own enemies, but in how we manage to disregard the ensuing violence as the Other's doing, surely not our own.
Tuesday, March 29 2011
Take Your Damn Rivalry Points Like a Man: The Non-Dialectic of 'Dragon Age II'
This whole outcry stands as a testament to why gamers need to get over notions of "fairness" -- especially when "fairness" isn't really fair.
Tuesday, March 22 2011
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsless Rogue: 'Dragon Age II''s Isabela
If there's one thing I never expected a game to do, it would be to teach self respect.
Tuesday, March 15 2011
Things I Was (Happily) Wrong About in 'Dragon Age II'
Something tells me that despite its flaws, Dragon Age II is going to have real staying power over time, especially among the critical and theoretical blogosphere where already some important dialogue is taking shape.
Tuesday, March 1 2011
'Dragon Age' Lets Me Celebrate Girl Power (And Doesn't Make Me Self-Conscious)
I'm not very traditionally girly, and I like it when a video game character is able to communicate that mixture of gendered ideals without becoming a caricature. I found that in Dragon Age.
