The Weight Of Failure: A Close Reading of The Darkness II

[This discussion centers around the ending of The Darkness II. Spoilers aplenty. Proceed at your own risk.] Doctor Vic says, “You die here, you are really dead. It’s over.” A disgruntled Jackie Estacado stands at the edge of a rooftop,

How Video Games arrived

Some may say a lot of gamers are like me: a varyingly unemployed twenty-five year old who grew up on X-Men cartoons, Super Nintendo video games, and fruit roll-ups. As a generation we saw movies like Clerks and we envied

After Pressing Start: On the Docks of Shadow Moses

The Metal Gear Solid series is widely known for two things: its excessively convoluted storylines and themes, and presenting those themes in incredibly obtuse ways. Its longwinded, feature film-length cutscenes and often overwrought dialogue are frequently lampooned for being far

Nightmare Mode Video: StarCraft, the Sport?

For the inaugural installment of Nightmare Mode Video, we took a look at Starcraft II as a professional sport – complete with coaches, tournaments, and even ego. In this world, sports and video games collide, but how well do they

Afterlife: Beyond Mere Death In Games

People have a hard time dealing with death. We don’t just grieve over lost loved ones: we mourn complete strangers and celebrities we’ve never even met. Death is a subject that is difficult to approach, so it’s unsurprising that game developers have incorporated death in a way that is either crass, facile or both.

Games don’t really have ‘death’ in the sense of finality: it’s just one long stream of life, punctuated by save points to which we can rewind after a mistake. Narratively, the only universe that exists is the one where we played perfectly. What could be more fake, hollow and unrealistic than a perfect life? Games should be able to give us new perspectives on life, rather than conforming to ideal ones.

The Campfire presents: The Nutcracker

The Campfire is a new column where we regale you with tales of our video game adventures. This is a story about a Spartan getting shot in the testicles.

Team snipers.

How I loathed this gametype lurking within the team slayer playlist of Halo 3’s matchmaking. Even though 90% of the time I would get to play something fun, occasionally I had to subject myself to this riff raff to avoid getting down-ranked for quitting a game. I prefer beating my opponent’s stupid face in with the butt of my gun(*) to staying in one spot and scanning the area for anyone foolish enough to walk into the open. This was not going to be my idea of a good time and certainly was not a pleasant way to introduce my friend sitting next to me (logged in as a guest) to online-multiplayer in a first-person shooter.

How Many Warlocks Does it Take to Screw up an Empire?

Arcane comes from the Latin word “arcanus” meaning hidden or secret. Paradox Interactive’s new game revels in both of these things, asking players to learn its quirks before unlocking its potential.  Cajoling into place an erratic mixture of city planning,

I Can't Hear Myself Talk

When I first booted up Christine Love’s Digital: A Love Story, I was looking for nothing more than an enjoyable diversion for a lunch break or two.  What I did not expect was for a short visual novel to finally

Feedback Loop: Games Aren't Fun

Step back. Preachers wail in the wind and call us to arms; accept the failures of men, but learn from them. Jesus, on the mount, rewards those not so invested in competition, but in resolution and timidity. Perhaps those of

Waiting to Respawn: How Draw Something Fixed Co-op

Everybody thinks their friends are awesome. Having a goal, punching it in the throat, and getting shit done is awesome, too. And clearly, based on the fact that you’re reading this on a website dedicated to video games, they’re pretty