I find most game stories extremely obnoxious. Beyond the irritations with craftsmanship and cliche, beyond being merely bored and annoyed, there are patterns I see over and over again in intros and cutscenes and store pages that are distastefully tedious…
I played through Cult of the Lamb a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to write about for a little while but got derailed by a general failure to write anything. Cult of the Lamb is a roguelite…
There’s a very special kind of annoyance when it becomes obvious that a work of art that you really like has actually impacted its medium for the worse. For instance, while I quite like the film Inception, for years afterwards…
I don’t like spell-casting much in games. If I get the option between playing as a character who uses physical weapons and one who uses magic I will almost always choose the former – which is a bit odd when…
Solving a problem is one of the most satisfying sensations in the world. Often this satisfaction is preceded by hours, days, months, or years of tedium and frustration as we struggle to understand the problem, collect the tools and skills…
“In my restless dreams, I see that town.” I miss Silent Hill. The games are still around, of course, and perhaps I ought to replay them – but you can’t really go back, and any replay is going to be…
As a rule, I usually avoid writing about “fun.” I don’t feel “Fun” is a very useful term for analyzing game design – it’s poorly defined, it’s subjective, it’s regarded as a self-evidently good thing to have. In short, “fun”…
Something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and which I’ve been perpetually putting off, is writing some short Steam reviews for the games I’ve played over the past few years. I have read from many sources that hitting…
For the past few months, the higher-ups at game company after game company have announced that they’re going to be integrating NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) into their games. For those unfamiliar with the concept (probably not as many of you as…
1. You’re tired already, and anticipating the sheer weight of emotion that might be dredged up by an unfamiliar but well-written story makes you uncomfortable. There is too much emotion on your plate already. Someday you’ll be up for it,…
