I think Austin Walker’s A(s)century came at an appropriate time for me. I’ve just started re-reading Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, you see, and I’ve been thinking quite a bit about its influence on pop culture. Granted Ridley Scott probably has more than a little to do with the book’s impact, … Continue reading A(s)century, Philp K. Dick and Videogames
If somebody were to make a game out of that one twitter bot that proposes random situations (@AndNowImagine) the result would look something like Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. I really enjoy the game (Review: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. PopMatters. Feb 19 2014.), though I admit that I had an extended honeymoon phase with … Continue reading Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Defamiliarization
I wound up reviewing another adventure game recently. It’s an indie game for the PC called Deponia. I won’t speak at too much length about the game since you can read my thoughts on it on PopMatters (Deponia review. Aug 16 2012), but suffice it to say, as much as I liked it, I really dragged … Continue reading On Genre Preference
A week or two ago I finished playing Resonance for review.1 It’s a neat little adventure indie game with some retro charm, some effective self-deprecating humour and a couple of pleasant puzzles to help a clichéd but well executed plot go down. However, it got me thinking about adventure games as a whole. While I’m … Continue reading Adventure Games: a flawed genre?
[Originally posted on PopMatters] Every so often a game will come out that prompts game journalists to take a second glance at their terminology. When Mass Effect 2 trimmed most of the original’s already spartan RPG elements, many wondered, “What is an RPG?” When Starcraft II was developed with more competitive consideration than story, the … Continue reading The Problem of Genre in Video Games
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