Atmosphere is enough: Why Flower succeeds where Limbo fails

Last year I spent a bit of energy lambasting Limbo for not living up to the hype and being rather empty. The response was that Limbo was not a game that relied on traditional narrative, instead relying on mood and

DARK MEADOW and the Monologue Conundrun

We shouldn’t like monologues – particularly in games. Games are about agency. They are about the player acting out its desires. Monologues are contrary to that spirit of agency permeating games. They enforce passiveness and reflection. Above all, monologues are intrusive. Unlike cutscenes, one cannot skip a monologue happening in-game.

And yet here is Dark Meadow! A game that basically works as a one-man show, with a comedian stand-up hoping to entertain our protagonist with his musings via loudspeaker – and it’s captivating!

"Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning": Demo Impressions

I’ve been looking forward to the release of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (KoA:R) since I first heard about it, not least of all because of the names associated with it’s production. There’s Ken Rolston, lead designer on two of the

Tiny Tower dev posts passive aggressive response to Dream Heights

Tiny Tower, a hit from tiny three-man developer Nimblebit, was Apple’s iPhone game of the year in 2011. Large mobile and social games developer Zynga apparently took notice of this and according to Nimblebit’s Ian Marsh tried to aquire the small developer. Failing at that, Zynga has created Dream Heights, a game that is totally nothing like Tiny Tower. Naturally outraged, Marsh posted an infographic wishing Zynga the best of luck with their stolen idea.

Tales From The Fireplace – A Trine 2 Review

Tales From the Fireplace – A Trine 2 ReviewMade for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Developed by Frozenbytes, published by Atlus The narrator speaks with a warm, friendly voice. He has a British accent. How could he not? It

Guilty Gear creator determined to continue Japan's fighting game dominance

How many American fighting game franchises can you name? Like me, you could probably count them on your hand. Japan’s fighting game dominance has always been quite apparent and Guilty Gear creator/talented composer Daisuke Ishiwatari plans to continue that trend.

Terror when walking in their shoes, terror when running in their stilts

What makes survival horror terrifying is a well discussed topic. From the ambient sound to the ambiguous environment, there are plenty of articles already regard to how to stir up most fear in players. Fear, like humour, is such an

Sauntering in a Virtual World

  Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “It is a great art to saunter.” In his essay on walking, Thoreau explained that sauntering is derived from the French phrase, a la Sainte Terre, the saints of the Earth. These saints were

Dustforce Review: Cleaning in motion

The question, whenever you talk about Dustforce, is “Is it Super Meat Boy hard?” Super Meat Boy has become the gold standard for difficulty in platformers, so much so that everything has to be compared to it. For instance, I

Love Interest: Ikezawa Hanako, the Otaku Exotic

Mattie Brice picks a date from a visual novel and breaks down how they represent culture’s expression of sexuality. Today she talks about her time with Ikezawa Hanako from Four Leaf Studio’s Katawa Shoujo. Spoilers ahoy!   (Warning: There are