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On Ubi-Soft and Where the Occupy Wall Street Movement Went Wrong (Their Answer: No Forced Suicide Bombings)
28 February 2012 -
Spreading the Virus: A Forensic Review of Prototype 2
21 June 2012 -
Intro to Gender Criticism for Gamers: From Princess Peach, to Claire Redfield, to FemSheps.
24 May 2012 -
No Commanders Here: How Renga Reconfigures the Player in Co-Op Games
22 September 2012 -
EQUIP WOLF SHIRT > USE: WHISKEY: On Letting the Bodies Hit the Floor
14 March 2012
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Monthly Archives: November 2012
The Game is Talking Back: A Review of “Killing is Harmless”
As I write, Brendan Keogh’s new book has been out for less than a week, and has already been declared a landmark of games criticism. The book’s primary qualification for this opinion seems to be its length, around 50,000 words, … Continue reading
The Incredible Machine: Auto-Amputation and Incredipede
What happens to your body when you play games? Or, more specifically, how do you think of your body when you enter a game space, when you begin to identify with not your own self, your “meat,” but rather with … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Conversation, Reviews
Tagged Anna Anthropy, Auntie Pixelante, Auto-Amputation, B.U.T.T.O.N., Biohazard, Bioshock, Chicanery, Dead Space, Die Gute Fabrike, gears of war, Incredible Visible Man, Incredipede, Kyle Carpenter, Marshall McLuhan, Ninja Gaiden, Quozzle, Resident Evil, Spiders, System Shock, The Copenhagen Games Collective, The Incredible Machine, Thomas Shahan, uncanny, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
2 Comments
Toys in The Attic: A Thoroughly Modern Reading of Revolution X
History is a series of repeating cycles meshing like gears in varying but finite permutations. The saving grace of this eternally restless sturm und drang is the return of past works to relevance, and the power to mine new meaning … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Conversation, Humour
Tagged Acclaim, Adam Maresca, Aerosmith, CDs, EDI, homefront, Joe Perry, Just Push Play, Lazerdisc, Midway Plaza, Red Dawn, Revolution X, Steven Tyler, Wembley Stadium
5 Comments
On Avatars: Creating An Other Self
I’m a sucker for customizable avatars. If any game has even a halfway decent character creation system or any significant way to alter the protagonist’s appearance then it’s probably going to end up in my collection sooner or later. I … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Conversation
Tagged Hari MacKinnon, Kaitlin Tremblay, Mass Effect, Soul Calibur, Vivienne Chen, WWE Smackdown
5 Comments
Snuff Enough: Hotline Miami, Manhunt, and the Theater of Killing
The question posed in Hotline Miami is rhetorical. “Do you like hurting other people?” Of course you don’t. Or you shouldn’t. But this is a game, and so you do. Killing is often the language of games. It lubricates plots, … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Conversation
Tagged Action games, Cactus, Dennation Games, Hotline Miami, Manhunt, Nate Andrews, PC, PS2, Rockstar
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Challenge is Conflict: How Difficulty Makes Game Narratives Work
Back when Twilight Princess was first released, my girlfriend—who has liberated Hyrule almost as many times as it’s needed it—had only one complaint: it was too easy. The puzzles were well enough designed but a misstep hardly left a scratch … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Conversation
Tagged Aperture Labs, Battletoads, Contra, Death Star, Dorkly, Episode 2, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Half-Life 2, immersion, interactivity, Jesper Juul, Joystick Division, Makai Mura, Mark Filipowich, Nightmare Mode, Ninja Gaiden, PopMatters, Portal, Prince of Persia, The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, walkthroughs, We Got This Covered, X-Wing
2 Comments
Why Are You Doing This? Hotline Miami and Drive
Hotline Miami is a violent game. It is also an incredibly original game, bearing the mark of Jonatan Söderström’s (AKA “Cactus”) fascinatingly hideous punk sensibilities. This distinction sets Hotline Miami apart enough that people are willing to ask if it … Continue reading