Faced with a challenge, people are largely motivated by one of two processes - either the opportunity to demonstrate…
Calling it "the straightest Grand Theft Auto ever," largely for effect, PopMatters' G. Christopher Williams says The …
That picture above poses an interesting question to Massively's Seraphina Brennan. Why, she wonders, is the…
New Super Mario Bros. Wii released a week ago, and even its lighthearted cartoon environment and four-player…
In film or literature, the creation of acclaimed work is sometimes attached to a personal event, or reaction. "That…
Was GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence in 2007's critically acclaimed Portal, in fact a game designer? And if so,…
In video games, senior citizens are largely stereotyped NPCs. Rare is the kind of game like Metal Gear Solid 4, with…
The upcoming Heavy Rain features a sequence in which its female protagonist is forced to strip for a disgusting mob…
Finishing a bad or uninteresting book might feel like a chore, or at least unsatisfying, but it's nothing like…
Just how did we get to $59.99 for the cost of a new game, anyway? Collusion? Happenstance? For a sector that mimics…
Who reads instruction manuals any more? These days even the most complex console game arrives with just a 16-page…
Few things mar a game, especially a role-playing game, like being sold on creating a complex, even unique character…
In an essay for Gamasutra last week, academic Lewis Pulsipher mused that games have become so complex as to feel…
In light of the fact this is a holiday weekend, here's a lighter look at how video games are a context for our…
Mass Effect is a sophisticated, acclaimed video game. It took uninformed flak for its sex scene, which gamers…
Typically, the controversy over "Virtual Jihadi" - a mod of a skin of 2003's budget-bin jingoist shooter Quest for…
TIE Fighter was released in 1994, a time in which serving as the instrument of an oppressive, corrupt government…
Fallout originally did not plan on having NPC followers at all. But the original game's designer figured out how to…
Another new concept we're trying out for our expanded weekend coverage is the Weekend Reader, where we excerpt a…