Feature
Steamroll: Adam's Venture
Christian games infuriate me because I was a Christian. Although I have lapsed into apathetic atheism, I still hold enough fondness for Christianity that seeing bad games pay it lip-service to profit off well-meaning parents feels like watching sleazy merchants
Steamroll: Adam's Venture
Christian games infuriate me because I was a Christian. Although I have lapsed into apathetic atheism, I still hold enough fondness for Christianity that seeing bad games pay it lip-service to profit off well-meaning parents feels like watching sleazy merchants
Feedback Loop: Why video games should drag us kicking and screaming
Two weeks ago I went to a panel with Warren Spector at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. The conversation between Spector and Paul Callaghan, director of Melbourne’s Freeplay festival, was a fascinating look into the creative
Feedback Loop: Why video games should drag us kicking and screaming
Two weeks ago I went to a panel with Warren Spector at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. The conversation between Spector and Paul Callaghan, director of Melbourne’s Freeplay festival, was a fascinating look into the creative
The Lost Words of Mass Effect 3
“You have messages at your private terminal.” In Mass Effect 3, this single quote is repeated more than any other sentence to the player. Just approaching the the galaxy map will prompt Specialist Traynor to dutifully tell Shepard when new
The Lost Words of Mass Effect 3
“You have messages at your private terminal.” In Mass Effect 3, this single quote is repeated more than any other sentence to the player. Just approaching the the galaxy map will prompt Specialist Traynor to dutifully tell Shepard when new
Fixing Final Fantasy: A conversation, part two
Think Final Fantasy is a little bit broken? So do Nightmare Mode editors Tom Auxier and Adam Harshberger. The difference between you and they is that they had the time and inclination to have a minutiae-obsessed conversation about how to
Fixing Final Fantasy: A conversation, part two
Think Final Fantasy is a little bit broken? So do Nightmare Mode editors Tom Auxier and Adam Harshberger. The difference between you and they is that they had the time and inclination to have a minutiae-obsessed conversation about how to
The Ugly Paulistano
Every tourist is an ambassador for its country. As a man who mostly communicates with bullets, Max Payne isn’t perhaps the best man to represent its country.
Max Payne has always communicated through bullets, though. In Max Payne 3, the only difference is that he is now restrained from relying on any other means. As an ignorant foreigner, unwilling to learn the local language and expecting the impoverish locals to know his, Max forces us to play the role of the ignorant foreigner.
I’ve been living in São Paulo, or Sampa for short, for almost a decade now. A German friend of mine asked me how it felt to play as an alienated foreigner while being able to understand everything being said by the locals at the same time.
Finding out the answer scared me.
The Ugly Paulistano
Every tourist is an ambassador for its country. As a man who mostly communicates with bullets, Max Payne isn’t perhaps the best man to represent its country.
Max Payne has always communicated through bullets, though. In Max Payne 3, the only difference is that he is now restrained from relying on any other means. As an ignorant foreigner, unwilling to learn the local language and expecting the impoverish locals to know his, Max forces us to play the role of the ignorant foreigner.
I’ve been living in São Paulo, or Sampa for short, for almost a decade now. A German friend of mine asked me how it felt to play as an alienated foreigner while being able to understand everything being said by the locals at the same time.
Finding out the answer scared me.
Fixing Final Fantasy: A conversation, part one
Think Final Fantasy is a little bit broken? So do Nightmare Mode editors Tom Auxier and Adam Harshberger. The difference between you and they is that they had the time and inclination to have a minutiae-obsessed conversation about how to make
Fixing Final Fantasy: A conversation, part one
Think Final Fantasy is a little bit broken? So do Nightmare Mode editors Tom Auxier and Adam Harshberger. The difference between you and they is that they had the time and inclination to have a minutiae-obsessed conversation about how to make
Role playing games' puzzle paradox
Modern Japanese RPGs have moved to handheld consoles for a simple reason: the genre, as created, requires both major time commitment and a dedication to the relatively mindless. While big budget JRPG’s have become cinematic experiences, games like Etrian Odyssey
Role playing games' puzzle paradox
Modern Japanese RPGs have moved to handheld consoles for a simple reason: the genre, as created, requires both major time commitment and a dedication to the relatively mindless. While big budget JRPG’s have become cinematic experiences, games like Etrian Odyssey
Our Games Are Not Depressing Enough [Feedback Loop]
An excess of violence has become a point of criticism for video games. The real problem isn’t the violence, but how games want us to feel about our stylized murder sprees.
In recent interviews David Cage and Warren Spector both addressed the need for games to be more emotive and less violent. However, it shouldn’t be an binary situation. Violent games could be a path to better art, if we deal with the violence in the correct way.
In Edge magazine, Cage’s interview centered around the recent E3 demo Kara. The demo by Quantic Dream showed a game character presenting subtleties of emotion only approcahable by the last Quantic Dream tech demo, ‘The Casting’.
While next-generation technology is not required for good games, Quantic’s demo shows the potential to create characters with greater emotional depth, a characteristic that does more to make them realistic than all the pixel resolution in the world.
Our Games Are Not Depressing Enough [Feedback Loop]
An excess of violence has become a point of criticism for video games. The real problem isn’t the violence, but how games want us to feel about our stylized murder sprees.
In recent interviews David Cage and Warren Spector both addressed the need for games to be more emotive and less violent. However, it shouldn’t be an binary situation. Violent games could be a path to better art, if we deal with the violence in the correct way.
In Edge magazine, Cage’s interview centered around the recent E3 demo Kara. The demo by Quantic Dream showed a game character presenting subtleties of emotion only approcahable by the last Quantic Dream tech demo, ‘The Casting’.
While next-generation technology is not required for good games, Quantic’s demo shows the potential to create characters with greater emotional depth, a characteristic that does more to make them realistic than all the pixel resolution in the world.
Learning how to fly in video games
I was fascinated by flight before hand, but it was Astro Boy that solidified what flight was in my mind. Here was a boy capable of the most improbable thing in the world accomplishing it with a minimum of fuss.
Learning how to fly in video games
I was fascinated by flight before hand, but it was Astro Boy that solidified what flight was in my mind. Here was a boy capable of the most improbable thing in the world accomplishing it with a minimum of fuss.
Displacement in Final Fantasy VII
The world of Final Fantasy VII stands out as a remarkably bleak interpretation of the future. Released in 1997, it came long after the cold war, long before 9/11, while the economy was still booming and while environmentalism presented a
Displacement in Final Fantasy VII
The world of Final Fantasy VII stands out as a remarkably bleak interpretation of the future. Released in 1997, it came long after the cold war, long before 9/11, while the economy was still booming and while environmentalism presented a