Inspiration and Evisceration in They Bleed Pixels

The duo behind Spooky Squid has managed to produce an impressive oeuvre in just over three years since their founding.  Miguel Sternberg and Andrij Pilkiw have already created four freeware games and are now busy putting the finishing touches on

Waiting to Respawn: How My Princess Peach Taught Me About Myself

Despite what online forums and competitive gaming may tell you, there is no “right way” to play a game. Some styles might be easier than others, or faster for a certain goal, or explore particular gameplay aspects more fully, or

Why Blizzard's surrogate ruins Diablo 3

Video games, at heart, are about us. We may be someone else, but we’ll always be ourselves, too. Whether that someone is Gordon Freeman, physicist and monster-killer, or Kratos, menacing god of punching dudes with chains, or Lara Croft, we’re

E3 2012 is Upon us, but What Choices lie Ahead?

The mood is unmistakable. The current generation isn’t quite over, and the next one hasn’t gotten started yet. Unlike recent years, everyone has both eyes looking into the future even as both feet remain firmly planted in the present. It

The Steamroll: Dynamite Mad Alien Offspring

Interested in all those cheap games released on Steam, but don’t want to spend $5-10 on everything they release? Need someone to wade through the mess, toss out the trash, and reveal the gems? That’s why this column’s here. Welcome,

Off to strange worlds in The Dream Machine

“I long for a kind of quiet where I can just drift and dream. I always say getting inspiration is like fishing. If you’re quiet and sitting there and you have the right bait, you’re going to catch a fish

Smart phone connectivity is a way better industry fad than motion controls.

Easily the neatest rising trend in the game industry right now is the connectivity we can have with our games when we’re not playing them. Thanks to smart phone connectivity, we can bid on auction house items in WoW and keep our galactic readiness in Mass Effect 3 at a reasonable level without even booting up a PC or console. There’s even an app for an interactive map of Skyrim out there.

And so early in the event that keeps our YouTube and Google Reader tabs constantly open we have already have seen how Nintendo and Microsoft are making sure we don’t ever escape from our little gaming worlds.

Mega Man: An Outlaw in an Asimovian World

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First

Why Minecraft Makes Me Feel Like a Kid Again

Two weeks ago, I finally caved and gave in to the Minecraft craze. I’d resisted at first, since it didn’t seem to offer much more than a giant Lego simulator; but a fortnight on, and it’s hard to believe how

How the greatest shooter in years failed to find an audience

Commercial video games are a hit-driven industry. The big publishers rely on a few games selling at least five million copies in order to offset numerous other games that fail to chart. And this imbalance extends to the media coverage.