2014’s final Moving Pixels podcast at PopMatters covers the ever-divisive Spec-Ops: the Line (Williams, G. Christopher, Nick Dinicola, Eric Swain. “The Moving Pixels Podcast Steps Over ‘The Line’.” PopMatters. Dec 8 2014.). It was a good discussion and it inspired me to review a some of the writing about the game which, in turn, inspired … Continue reading The Great Expectations of Spec-Ops: The Line
Post-apocalyptic fiction continually attempts to project itself into the future by resisting endings; each ending becomes instead an opportunity for continuation. Storytelling is the main method by which post-apocalyptic fiction attempts to resist closure, and this method can be traced back to the roots of the genre itself. Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, published in … Continue reading “If you can read this, LEAVE!!!” Storytelling in Left 4 Dead and Zone One
[This piece was written as a part of Critical Distance‘s November 2014 Blogs of the Round Table feature] I’ve been considering how space makes meaning in games. I’ve been considering this not only in response to my past writings, but also to some amazing responses from some of my favourite games writers. Earlier this year … Continue reading Thoughts on Representations of Space
[This piece was written as a part of Critical Distance‘s February 2015 Blogs of the Round Table feature] One of the submissions for Critical Distance‘s October 2014 Blogs of the Round Table feature comes from The Rev 3.0. The article is one of my favourite kinds of criticism; that is, it really digs into a deep … Continue reading Masks Upon Masks: Layers of Identity in Persona 3
[Originally posted on PopMatters] There’s a traceable pattern in some indie game movements, particularly those inspired by so-called retro, 8- and 16-bit aesthetics. Starting (arbitrarily) with Terraria‘s platform adaptation of Minecraft, we can see Starbound take the same concept into space, Spelunky replaces construction with exploration, Bro Force focuses on destruction. In every case, the formula … Continue reading Review: Cosmochoria
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