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Games
Every Blade of Grass: The Pros and Cons of Photorealism in Video Games
The dream of creating photorealistic video games seems odd to me when considering the medium itself, especially in contrast to other artistic mediums.
21 Jan 2015
Games
'The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth' and the Transformative Power of the Monstrous Body
In The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the body is wrecked and made ugly for the sake of freedom from fear. Instead, it becomes something fearful in its own right.
26 Nov 2014
Games
'The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth': More Grotesque, More Fun
Grotesque, strange, and difficult, Rebirth offers a fantastic vision of what might be the ideal roguelike.
Erik Kersting
25 Nov 2014
Games
Six Little Horror Games That Would Like to Play With You This Halloween
Here are a few little games to put you in the spirit of the spooky season. How you will come out of the other side is up to you.
29 Oct 2014
Games
Dead at Last: Notes on the Consequences of Death on the Virtual Body
In games that feature perma death, by melding narrative consequence to mechanical consequence, a great deal of meaning is added to even the most routine of skirmishes. Death makes play matter.
Erik Kersting
28 Oct 2014
Reviews
'Runers': What's My Motivation?
Shoot better and better and better. Then, shoot some more.
17 Sep 2014
Games
The Pleasures of the Apocalypse, Fantasies of Pain
We don't want utopia. We already have that. We need dystopia, something less familiar, something challenging, something painful.
14 May 2014
Games
'FTL' and the Failure of Text Narratives in Roguelikes
While it is possible for a roguelike to tell a story, textually based narratives are a burden to the genre.
Erik Kersting
05 May 2014
Games
Gaming and Masturbating, Masturbating and Gaming
Edmund McMillen's A.V.G.M. is a test of fortitude and relies on the assumption that gamers are unwilling to resist their own masturbatory instincts.
18 Dec 2013
Games
Enjoying the Social Death
Sometimes failing in front of an audience is a good thing.
05 Sep 2013
Games
Playing to Suffer, Suffering to Play
I have found myself struck with admiration recently by games that I have played that have put me in less than empowering positions, games that celebrate difficulty and hardship, struggling and deprivation, rather than empowerment and excess.
23 Apr 2013
Games
Thinking About 'Cunt'
I had known of Cunt by reputation only. I knew that it bore the stamp of Edmund McMillen's central aesthetic, the grotesque, and thus, that it wasn't going to be pretty.
25 Sep 2012
Games
Brevity, Death, and Replay Value
I find myself more discouraged by the games that encourage me and more interested in letting brief failure teach me patience, better strategy, and to appreciate the few victories I squeeze out of hours and hours of play.
18 Sep 2012
Games
The Pleasures of Playing in an Economy of Pain
The greater the failure of the video game player, the greater the financial reward of the video game machine’s owner. More frustration, more 'death', used to mean more quarters per hour. These days, it means something else, entirely.
16 Aug 2012
Games
Moving Pixels Podcast: Back to Isaac's Basement
The Moving Pixels podcast discusses the troubling, provocative, and alluring world of The Binding of Isaac.
11 Mar 2012
Games
Returning to My Own Vomit: Playing 'The Binding of Isaac'
Isaac's basement is a horrible place full of blood, vomit, and excrement. But I keep going back, and I know why.
21 Feb 2012
Games
Fearing God, Fearing the Body: The Theology of 'The Binding of Isaac'
The game's “theology” is less concerned with questioning submission to the will of God than it is about a seemingly deep seated fear of the body itself.
14 Feb 2012
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