Thursday, January 26 2012
Batman Is Boring in ‘Arkham City’
Batman is a bit player in his own story, and I think a lot of that stems from his desire to save everyone.
Wednesday, January 4 2012
The Best Flash Games of 2011
These games taught me: the danger of following the rules; the pleasing presence of unexpected personalities; the pleasures of a well paced and meditative process; the joys of a frantic and chaotic twitch-fest and; the satisfaction derived from a game that brings out my inner masochist.
Friday, November 18 2011
If You Can’t Help Me, Just Die: Survival in ‘Dead Island’
Dead Island is old-school survival-horror game, a subgenre that seems to have largely disappeared from the medium with the ascension of the action-horror game.
Tuesday, October 25 2011
Other Princesses, Other Castles: The Problem with Playing Romantically in Video Games
The insensibly repetitious nature of romance present in both video game plots and in their mechanics leads to all too familiar storytelling.
Monday, September 26 2011
The End of the World Makes Sense in ‘Bastion’
The multiple endings in Bastion all feel like natural conclusions to the story.
Monday, August 29 2011
On Costumes, Video Games, and the Art of Pretending
A little nostalgia goes a long way. Sometimes, you get so lost in looking at a thing that you forget that it's not real. Or at least, you want to forget that it's not real.
Tuesday, August 23 2011
Why Video Games Might Not Be Art
Roger Ebert might have a point when he claims that 'games can never be art'. At least, Aristotle and T.S. Eliot would have agreed.
Thursday, July 21 2011
Death Is Boring: Immortality as Character Development in Video Games
The infinite lives of video game characters present an interesting narrative conundrum: how does a writer create tension when the hero is essentially immortal?
Friday, June 24 2011
Boys Get Naked Better than Girls
In games like Kabod Online, male characters expose themselves to an audience. This makes them look stronger, more powerful, more manly than they do with their clothes on.
Thursday, May 19 2011
The Narrative Pastiche of Games
Beyond the cinematic presentation of many games, their pacing and storytelling has more in common with novels and television than with film.
Friday, April 29 2011
Rewind to Advance: Jordan Mechner’s Games with Time
Games feature the ability to constantly challenge the forward momentum of time, rewinding (as it were) to reconsider the best route to reach a more optimal solution, challenging what we know about time and how we consider consequence.
Tuesday, April 5 2011
Kickstart the Presses
In the past month, two friends of mine have undertaken major print projects. How are they covering the costs of what some might call a foolish endeavor? By going online for funding, of course.
Tuesday, March 29 2011
The Assassins’ Politics
Through a series of puzzles Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood paints a picture of corruption and conspiracy throughout the US government from the 1700s to the present.
Friday, February 25 2011
Horror in Video Games: There’s Seeing—and Then There’s Realizing What You’re Seeing
My wife is right. The Necromorph known as a Slasher is extremely gross. But even though I played Dead Space for hours, I never noticed it.
Friday, January 21 2011
Civil Violence in the Old West: ‘Red Dead Redemption’
Red Dead Redemption shows us over and over again that the bonds of society do little to quell man’s violent nature. Rather, man’s violent nature shapes the civilizations that we live in, creating a world of constant conflict on a personal and national level.
Tuesday, January 18 2011
‘Glee’ on the Wii
Video games and cross-promotional marketing yield the inevitable: console karaoke for Gleeks.
Tuesday, January 11 2011
Frankie Goes to Hollywood & Gets There Behind the ‘Wheel’ of a Classic Commodore 64
'Frankie Goes to Hollywood' on the Commodore 64 is a surrealist nightmare in 16 colours, where GTA-style freeform roaming rules, and the band's sexual imagery forms a hedonistic scavenger hunt for aponia, the Epicurean absence of pain.
Monday, January 10 2011
Instant (Mixed) Messaging: How to Keep Online Chats from Becoming Personal Spats
Instant messaging is a quick and convenient way to chat, but a lot can be lost in translation.
Monday, November 29 2010
The Best Flash Games of 2010
This has been an incredibly fruitful year for independent game design, featuring games that are beautiful to look at, funny as hell, and even a few that provoke pleasure even as they make us more than a little uncomfortable.
Monday, November 8 2010
How Can I Be Me?: The Gamer’s Role in Interactive Fiction
As an interactive medium, the roles that we play in video games are just as dependent on how we approach a game as they are up to the developer. Neither side has total control over the experience, so there’s a constant tug-of-war between authority and autonomy.
