[originally posted on Unwinnable] Videogame interactivity is so great. Who wants to watch a hero when you can be the hero? That’s the promise games keep giving us on the back of the box, isn’t it? But they seldom deliver on that promise. Games welcome their players to a world, lay out a central conflict … Continue reading View From the Side
[Originally posted on Medium Difficulty] In the great sandwich of videogames, game mechanics are the baguette and game stories are the stuffing. Whether a game is simply a thin spread of butter on an oven fresh bun or a triple-decker steak’n’cheese with pan fried vegetables and extra dressing, a game is composed of these two … Continue reading Tighten up the Narrative in Level 3: The grammar of videogames
Between review games I’ve been picking away at Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. It’s a game with a fair share of problems: the shoehorned-in boss fights completely break the game’s tone, its plot and characters are wafer-thin, some of the character designs are a self-parody and it’s clumsy with some of its more complicated themes. Still, … Continue reading “We’re helping people, Adam”: Deferring Responsibility in Deus Ex: Human Revolutions
Please go read my review of Hate Plus (PopMatters. Aug 28 2013) and (more importantly) go play Hate Plus (Love Conquers All Games. Hate Plus official website). Now that you’ve done those things, I’m going to write at a little more length about some of the things I discussed in my review. Hate Plus, I … Continue reading Thoughts on Hate Plus and Discovery
[Originally posted on PopMatters] There are certain conversations in games journalism and criticism that are recycled every few months. Among them is the status of JRPGs and by extension Final Fantasy. For those that grew up with avatars that possessed bright spiky hair and RPGs focused on turn-based combat, it’s a little sad that once … Continue reading Alas, Poor Final Fantasy, I Knew You Well
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