Media coverage from cynical bastards since 2011.
I love Metro 2033; but it isn’t fun
In an effort to catch up in time for its sequel, I’ve been playing a healthy amount of Metro 2033 recently. For those reading who aren’t familiar with the series, it’s set in post-apocalyptic Russia, where the few survivors have flocked to the subway tunnels to escape the destruction and radiation. Most of the game takes place in these tunnels, with some infrequent and ill-advised trips to the surface. [Read more...]
I had my copy of SimCity ready to be installed and I was eager to play. At the designated time of release, I entered my 25-digit product key and hit the download button. Nothing happened. The download servers were already at peak capacity and no one could download the game they had purchased. Luckily, I had a physical copy of the game, so I did something I haven’t done since probably 2005: I put a physical game disc in my disc drive and installed it from there. Around fifteen minutes later my install was complete and I was ready to start playing SimCity.
Nope, that definitely didn’t happen.
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One of the joys of writing this review column is that it’s essentially a “whatever you want” sort of gig — you can’t make new old games, after all. As such, I’m afforded the luxury of being able to plot a certain rhythm to the games I choose, and make adjustments if I’m feeling especially aggrieved or burnt out with one sort or another. [Read more...]
I must be a glutton for punishment. [Read more...]
I’ve recently been playing a bunch of old games (this statement being equally appropriate to introduce anything I’ve written here), as a means of casual fun and time passing, with a couple of friends about my own age. I’m 26, and as such was in the prime of my youthful interest in video games at the advent of the Super Nintendo era. This was also the era of the Sega Genesis for some, but I was never as taken with the console, its games I had played at friends’ houses, and its marketing tact (this remains one of the most scurrilous ads of its time). I’ve owned exactly one Sega system in my life — my ill-fated seduction by the Dreamcast, years later. [Read more...]
In the wake of the release of last year’s The Walking Dead from Telltale Games, a lot of discussion began over whether or not it was a “game”. There were a variety of reasons for this, many argue, but the most common is that the mechanics of The Walking Dead simply aren’t “deep” enough. These sort of discussions have popped up a lot in the past, but the question is still worth examining: exactly what constitutes a game?
WARNING: The following editorial is a dissection of Bioshock Infinite’s plot, themes, and ending. Reading this before playing the game would be doing yourself a severe disservice. There may also be spoilers for the game’s progenitor, 2007′s Bioshock.
This last Christmas, my younger brother (who also happens to be the chief proprietor of this website) schemed a clever idea for his Christmas wish-list, which would ultimately come to involve me to a great extent. He sought out a Famicom on eBay, as well as a lot purchase of Japanese games — about 110, if memory serves. He did the same in procuring a Super Famicom, meaning that after the somewhat grueling process of setting it all up (while the Super Famicom was a cinch, our lack of a North American RF switch, and an RF compatible TV, was a thorn in the side) we had hours of video game exploration ahead. What games would be in that enormous box? Some we’d recognize from American release, perhaps, but surely there’d also some peculiar, Japanese-only games that we likely wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.
Hi, my name is Clint and I am a transmedia consumer. I’ve watched video game movies and short series. I’ve read video game comic books. I’ve even been known to dabbled in video game novels from time to time. Whew, that was a difficult thing to get off my chest. Okay, Clint, you’re alright. Take a deep breath and everything will be okay. [Read more...]
Don’t worry, she’ll walk it off.
In lieu of doing my typical editorial, this week fellow editor Clint Prentice and I have a letter-based discussion about ludonarrative dissonance in Tomb Raider. In functions as a complementary piece to his review, which you can find here.
