Playing Tokyo Jungle reminds me of my insomnia, of all things. The reason I often stay up until I can greet sunrise is because there’s this serene calm that comes with being awake late at night. Everyone is asleep. The streets are empty. It’s peaceful to not have anyone around. I can focus. It’s kind…
Check out this rad Mass Effect 3 print by Courtney Billadeau, now available for preorder from the Bioware store here. It’s called “No One Left Behind.” Click to enlarge
Remember Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, the absurdly adorable game made by a five year old girl? Now she’s doing things like TEDTalks, which unsurprisingly touch on her experience making Ponycorn. Her dad also chimes in, reminding us of the importance of enabling children to become creators, not consumers. Crazy to think the girl is so…
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn based strategy game…or is it? While I acknowledge that I am a grade-A wuss in all things frightening, XCOM can still feel scary—almost like a horror game. You’re incredibly vulnerable, for starters. Regardless of how much I upgrade, the alien threat is always capable of destroying me. So I…
If you listen closely to those who advocate for games as a worthwhile medium, you can sense the hope that games will change the world. Either society becomes enraptured by the possibilities that interactivity presents, or games become another avenue for making a difference—if not both. We stand on the precipice of public awareness when…
They say you’re not supposed to judge something by its cover, but screw it: 007 Legends‘ awful cover gives the game away. The second giveaway of the title’s quality also revealed itself early on: in the middle of the first level, Pussy Galore asks who our intrepid secret agent is. His response? The most monotone,…
I’m having the same, recurring nightmare of late. It’s one of those stupid ones where something that’s normally inane and innocuous becomes unreasonably horrible. Here’s what happens: I’m on Pandora, out on a mission—to kill someone, probably—when I notice something. Maybe it’s a a box or a locker. And the second that I notice that,…
No, seriously. This is a question I’ve had to wonder of late thanks to Dexter, the hit TV show that follows a serial killer who kills other serial killers. This would make him a “good” serial killer—at least, as good as someone who murders people can be. That may sound ridiculous, but being privy to…
“Indiecade is like the burning man of video game events.” I can’t remember who said that to me, but that’s how the young conference celebrating independent games —which started off as a part of E3 before it went off and did its own thing—was introduced to me. I have no real conception of Burning Man,…
Stickers, ineffable wonder, and childhood go hand in hand. And perhaps Mario has always spoken to this. Cliff Bleszinski once said that “There’s something about the hidden element to Mario where you jump and hit your head on a block and just out of nowhere secret things would appear. They made you feel like a…
[Editor’s Note: What follows is a story about someone who took drugs and writes honestly about her experience. We do not endorse the use of drugs and warn you to be mindful of the risks of any substance that’s subject to abuse. We accept the reality that many who play games use drugs or have…
College was good for debauchery, “experimenting,” and surprisingly, video games. I guess I learned some things too, but, eh. Academics was the least interesting part of college for me. I graduated from a small liberal arts college this spring, where video games made regular appearances—but so did things like alcohol, drugs, and parties. This was…
I could have quit. I could have made my defeat happen quicker, less painfully. But cliche or not, the captain goes down with the ship. The rules don’t change just because we’re in space. So I watched my crew dutifully tend to my systems, keeping the ship running as best they could. We knew we…
Forget the hero of Albion. Theresa—a prophetic seer who has appeared in all the previous Fable games—is not only hundreds of years old, but she likes to orchestrate things from the shadows. A character who commands true intrigue. She has visions of the future, but her motivations are always unclear. So she’s a mystery woman.…
Despite my aversion to shooters—god, there’s too many of them—Overstrike, with its playful, comical tone and its cartoon aesthetic caught my eye. The approach felt like something fresh. But we don’t have Overstrike anymore, no, instead we have Fuse. Compare the two trailers for the games and you see see a world of a difference…
When you’re a problem solver like Joe Ricks, nothing stands between you and your dream. For Ricks, the dream was the holy grail of any kid growing up attached to a controller: making video games. So determined was the cash-strapped man, that he risked it all to get the education he needed. Joe Ricks enlisted…
Steam Greenlight, the voter-determined submission system created by Valve, isn’t free anymore. The point was to decrease the number of illegitimate submissions, which was neccesary after the insane influx of games that Greenlight saw just days after release. Some weren’t happy with Valve’s decision, given that other methods could have solved the submission problem without…
Most people might take their stealth tips from Solid Snake or Sam Fisher. Me, I’m more in tune with, uh, the Kool-Aid man. Seriously. Just burst into the room in the most reckless way possible and “problem solve” by shooting people up close in the face—that’s how I do things. Patience, finesse and furtiveness aren’t…
Middle school was a drag for most of my pre-teen classmates—unless it was computer class. Computer class felt less like the boring, uninspired rote that the rest of our education was and more like a gateway to a technological wonderland. Most of us couldn’t even afford computers, so that was our one chance to mess…
You know what I hate? Audible character heartbeats in games. I can’t deal with that. It’s too stressful. I start breathing harder and I start to feel my own blood rushing as I start pondering the possibility that somehow—despite all logic—I’m about to suffer a heart attack. I mean, listen to my heart (which is…
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