Neuromance

Moving Pixels Podcast: Leaving the Asylum for the City

2012-01-23T05:44:00.001-08:00

Man, I totally dig the images featured at Dead End Thrills, like the one of the Joker above.

You can find that same image adorning the latest installment of the Moving Pixels podcast, which features a discussion of Arkham City. It is a game that I have written two or three things on before (links at the destination page at PopMatters or somewhere down below), but as always, I can usually talk a game to death if need be.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Leaving the Asylum for the City

Post-It Note Role-Playing, or the White-Collar Warriors of Skyrim

2012-01-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

So, yeah, this one might get me in trouble today. Though, it isn't as if I kinda haven't written about this before.

Bethesda's open worlds are not my personal favorite spaces to play in. It's the "to do" lists that nag at me, that demand my time. Which is funny, because all games demand your time. It's just something about the presentation of Skyrim's demands that turns me off.

I get that people like the game. I really do. But here is why it just isn't my thing:

Post-It Note Role-Playing, or the White-Collar Warriors of Skyrim

Moving Pixels Podcast: Exploring Open Worlds

2012-01-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

Nick Dinicola and I were joined once again this week by Mattie Brice. We discussed open worlds for a very long time. It's hard to put a halt on a good conversation, though. (Or maybe I just don't know when to shut up).

I don't say it often enough, but Nick is the hardest working guy in games criticism. Writes like a work horse, edits audio like a dream.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Exploring Open Worlds

Requiem for a Tiny Internet

2012-01-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

I don't think that I talk about the social aspects of gaming that often.

Of course, I haven't played much multiplayer these last few years.

However, I used to (more so in the 1990s I think), so I do have a few thoughts on the "tinier" internet of that era. Those thoughts emerged in contrast to the my recent forays into the League of Legends community:

Requiem for a Tiny Internet

Moving Pixels Podcast: Game of the Year Edition

2012-01-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Nick and I got together with one of the newer bloggers at PopMatters, Mattie Brice, to discuss the concept of Game of the Year lists. Nick is thoughtful as ever, and Mattie has some great things to say as well. And I guess that I'm there, too.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Game of the Year Edition

Vulnerable Icons and the Bat's Need for a Cat

2012-01-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

And I'm still talking about Batman: Arkham City?

It's a highly competent game, the actual ending of which saved it from seeming like a soulless version of the first game. However, I wasn't aware of the fact that there is another "ending" to the game (I guess I was aware that the possibility of such an ending existed, but I forgot about the choice that leads to it almost immediately after making it in the game), and it is the interesting implementation of the "Catwoman" ending that I decided to talk about.

I'm working on some things right now concerning boys, gender roles, and how those roles are reflected/encouraged through game objectives, so the broader implications of male-female gender roles suggested by the conclusion was of interest to me.

Vulnerable Icons and the Bat's Need for a Cat

The Best Flash Games of 2011

2012-01-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

And... we're back.

While I seem to recall all the year in retrospect stuff used to appear on television during the month of January, everybody seems (to me) to do it these days in December. All of our gaming discussion looking back over 2011, though, at PopMatters seems to follow the old school model; we'll be discussing 2011 for at least this week and next in a number of different ways.

One of my contributions to the 2011 retrospective is my second annual "Best Flash Games" column. You can find it here:

The Best Flash Games of 2011

Review: The OnLive Cloud Gaming System

2011-12-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

All right, maybe one final post for 2011.

I did spend a few weeks with an Onlive system, got to play Braid through, got to try out Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Amnesia, got to be spied on by other players while playing aforementioned titles.

The system worked exceptionally well for me on PC, and in many ways, it feels like the future of gaming--something akin to streaming video and the like. I don't know that they have all the kinks worked out, but I like the library of games and the structure feels right.

The OnLive Cloud Gaming System

The Problem of the Female Gangster

2011-12-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

Kind of a weird post to wrap up the year, but it probably is my last post until January.

This time out I consider the recent talk arising from the release of the Grand Theft Auto V trailer about the possibility that some fans were holding out for a female protagonist for the upcoing title. This is something that I have given some thought to in the past, and in the post, I hope that I articulated a lot of my thinking about it.

To me, writing a credible female gangster is problematic because Rockstar tends to rely on historical and cultural precedents. The female gangster and really women and criminality are both actually rather alien or strangely handled concepts in Western history and media.

Here are a few more thoughts on the potential pitfalls of trying to build this type of character:

The Problem of the Female Gangster

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Curse of 3s, or the 2011 Holiday Gaming Season

2011-12-12T05:22:00.000-08:00

This will be the last podcast of the year, so we decided to just chat a bit about the state of games during the holiday season. I observed a couple weeks ago that a kind of overly polished quality marks a lot of the sequels of this season, which includes an awful lot of games that are the third in a series. So, basically we used the idea of questioning the value of sequels in the industry as a jumping off point about the year in gaming.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Curse of 3s, or the 2011 Holiday Gaming Season

The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2011-12-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

A lost Moving Pixels podcast of sorts this week. This episode was recorded way back near the release of Deus Ex, so its responses are fresh--even if its topic is not.

The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses Deus Ex: Human Revolution

A Holiday Season Awash in Competence

2011-11-30T05:21:00.001-08:00

Nothing says holidays like grousing about the holidays. So, I guess I'm gonna be one of those people.

I'm just posting a bit about my holiday gaming season disappointment. I think maybe earlier this year I was feeling like there was a fair amount of innovation in some titles that seemed a bit more unusual than the norm. The polished quality titles at the end of the year all seem fine enough, but some of the year's rawer fare has left a bad taste in my mouth of sorts for these soulless but well cooked sequels that are making up the bulk of the holiday releases.

A Holiday Season Awash in Competence

Moving Pixels Podcast: The "Girlfriend on a Couch" Edition

2011-11-28T05:08:00.000-08:00

So, I've been planning this podcast for a number of weeks, and it was recorded a couple of weekends ago. A discussion with a student precipated it, as we began discussing whether it was fun or not to watch games, and she suggested her status as a former "little sister on a couch."

Our discussion was intriguing to me for any number of reasons, so I thought that maybe getting together what games journalism often calls "girlfriends on couches" to discuss this seeming form of game spectatorship might be interesting.

Unfortunately, when the time came to record, my own equipment goofed up, so luckily, Jorge Albor came to my rescue and hosted the podcast (he did an amazing job--better than I do at hosting really). However, I was still bummed that I could only briefly participate.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this episode, which brings together both gamers and non-gamers for a discussion of spectatorship and participation in gaming. The whole group is really very interesting and includes Dawna Perry, Jamie Dunston, Adrian Dunston, Nicole Martin, Jean McLachlin, and the podcast debut (and probable last appearance ever, according to her) of my own "wife on a couch," Sarra Williams. She did a good job, though, and I'm not just saying that because I love her and stuff.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The "Girlfriend on a Couch" Edition

The "Subtle" Sex Appeal of Saints Row: The Third

2011-11-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

Saints Row has always wanted to be Grand Theft Auto, from imitating its gameplay to imitating its outrageous sense of humor. While Volition has gotten some of the gameplay right and has even surpassed Rockstar at times with some of its slicker mechanics (in the previous two iterations, I'm afriad--less thrilled with The Third but maybe I'll talk more about that at a later date), the sense of humor.... eh....

So, a few thoughts on the "subtlety" of Saints Row's efforts at satire:

The "Subtle" Sex Appeal of Saints Row: The Third

Review: The Sims 3: Pets

2011-11-23T01:27:00.000-08:00

Much of my review of The Sims 3: Pets is informed by my general distaste for sandbox-style play. I've mentioned at various times that I am a gamer more than a player. In other words, I like some rules, boundaries, and whatnot to guide me towards goals; I have a difficult time making up my own goals.

Thus, I have always weirdly preferred the more narrative-driven console versions of The Sims, despite their undeniably dumb storytelling and goofy plots. This console version of The Sims seems to me to be less "dumb" than previous console iterations, maintaining the series strengths in emergent narrative instead (which is what the more sandbox-style of Sims excels), while also putting me on enough of a leash, satisfying my more "gamer-y" tendencies.

I think the review clarifies what I mean a bit more coherently:

The Sims 3: Pets

Necessary Failure: Some Late Thoughts on The Path

2011-11-16T04:48:00.000-08:00

I'm late (very, very late) to the party on talking about The Path. I have played and written about Fatale, which I admire, but I hadn't looked at Tale of Tales most successful game.

It's a bit slow to get going, and while initially its controls seem agonizingly irritating, once the concepts of the game begin to become clear and how they relate to those controls (which theme and gameplay are definitely related here), the game is pretty engrossing.

I am aware of some of the thinking on this game, and while I obviously agree with most about its overall theme (the loss of innocence), I think that I might present a slightly different view of what Tale of Tales is communicating about that process in this revision of the Little Red Riding Hood story.

Necessary Failure: Some Late Thoughts on The Path

The Moving Pixels Podcast Reconsiders the Cutscene

2011-11-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

Rick wanted to talk about his distaste for cutscenes, and I know a bunch of critics hate 'em. I think that maybe Nick and I kind of have a soft spot for the visual reward that is the spectacle of the cutscene.

The Moving Pixels Podcast Reconsiders the Cutscene

Review: Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

2011-11-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

Playing Dead Rising 2 again--just as a different character, the shlubby journalist Frank West--didn't seem especially attractive to me. Then, I played through it again for review.

Man, I like Dead Rising, even recycled Dead Rising:

Review: Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Review: Batman: Arkham City

2011-11-11T03:42:00.000-08:00

While I'm playing The Path for the first time, you can read more about Batman: Arkham City:

Review: Batman: Arkham City

Batman and “Bitches”

2011-11-09T05:06:00.001-08:00

Some discussion has emerged concerning the language used in Batman: Arkham City. The language is unpleasant.

But then again so is nearly everything in noir and hard boiled fiction.

I don't intend this piece to defend Rocksteady's usage of language. However, I do think that part of what informs its usage concerns the overarching philosophy of the genre that the Batman mythos emerges from, hard boiled pulp and film noir. Unlike some genres, which aren't often governed by a central philosophy (though there are other subgenres that, like noir, do find themselves entrenched in a "position" or world view, cyberpunk, for example, is very much anti-corporate on the whole), noir is very much expressive of a particular brand of cynicism that suggests that few, if any, human beings are anything more than creeps. So, this piece is really an attempt to trace the history of noir and hard boiled attitudes through their evolution into neonoir and how Batman as an exemplum of the genre's adherence to its philosophy emerges contemporarily.

Writing this piece was weird because I grew up on a steady diet of comic books and film noir. I know Batman and American crime stories rather well, and I kind of forgot that I did.

Batman and “Bitches”

Moving Pixels Podcast: Another Princess, Another Boss Fight

2011-11-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

Topical again this week at the Moving Pixels Podcast. This week we discuss the tradition of boss fights in games and consider whether it is a tradition worth reconsidering.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Another Princess, Another Boss Fight

Developing Games with the Player: An Interview with Rick Dakan of Mob Rules Games

2011-11-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

My colleague Rick Dakan, a founder of Cryptic Studios, is getting a small indie development team off the ground called Mon Rules Games. I interviewed him this week in the Moving Pixels blog concerning the philosophy of his development house, which wants to grow a community alongside the development of their games:

Developing Games with the Player: An Interview with Rick Dakan of Mob Rules Games

Review: Dark Souls

2011-10-31T00:51:00.000-07:00

It feels like a long time since I have written a review (I actually have quite a few thing to write up right now, though).

However, I have written a couple of things about Dark Souls, so this review may be a little familiar in some of its observations, but there it is. I do focus once again on gaming and consequence and also how amazingly engrossing this cruel, cruel game is.

Review: Dark Souls

Dead Again: Notes on the Impermanence of the Virtual Body

2011-10-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not done thinking about Dark Souls, yet. I had only really gotten to the start screen in my first post on it a couple of weeks ago, and I still wanted to address its consequential approach to death and compare it to other forms of death in video games.

This is the result:

Dead Again: Notes on the Impermanence of the Virtual Body

Other Princesses, Other Castles: The Problem with Playing Romantically in Video Games

2011-10-25T03:49:00.000-07:00

I've found myself in recent years writing a lot about sexuality and sex roles and how they are expressed in video games. My newest Movng Pixels column revisits this topic and does some of the things that I've done before with it, like considering how mechanics express romantic concepts. Additionally, I do an abbreiviated survey of romance in video games, all of which is related to a larger project that this column is serving as a bit of a dry run for.

So, hopefully, this column is of interest because it represents some ideas that I want to express in a more formal way in the nearish future.

Other Princesses, Other Castles: The Problem with Playing Romantically in Video Games

Self Indulgence or Self Realization?: Sony's “Michael” Ad

2011-10-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

So, you know that moment when one of your relatives is doing something public, like public speaking or some kind of performance, and you can just see that they're choking? And you love that person, you don't want other people to see this lapse because you know that they are better than this moment?

That's kind of how I felt initially when I saw Sony's "Michael" ad, an ad that both places a whole bunch of video game characters in a weirdly "real" context but also revels in the narcissism of gaming--that players are constantly trying on the roles of heroes for the sake of their own pleasure.

However, I then found myself feeling a bit differently about the ad, seeing its self indulgence as honesty about what the medium is and what is unique about it as an art form.

I'm not sure that I've worked out my ambivalence about the ad's presentation, but here is more of my thinking on that ambivalence:

Self Indulgence or Self Realization?: Sony's “Michael” Ad

Moving Pixels Podcast: What's the Point of Points?

2011-10-17T19:21:00.001-07:00

What does the image above have to do with this week's podcast topic?

Ummm... it is art based on a classic video game that has points... I guess...

I don't know. I just think the painting is really cool.

If you want to hear about the value of points, though, head over here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: What's the Point of Points?

A Quiet Start Screen Speaks Volumes

2011-10-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

A few brief thoughts on how a start screen can evoke dread.

A Quiet Start Screen Speaks Volumes

Moving Pixels Podcast: Fun, Sun, Zombies

2011-10-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Given as many hours as I committed to a game that I wasn't actually sure that I wanted to play, taking part in a podcast seems appropriate enough.

I rather like Dead Island in terms of mood and in terms of its gameplay. This ain't Shakespeare, but it handles its more functional qualities rather well.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Fun, Sun, Zombies

Living for the Short Term Grind

2011-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Lordy, League of Legends is good.

Ironically, I'm singing its praises in my recent blog post for "shortening the grind." The truth is, though, it is consuming so very much of my own, as it definitely is a "just one more match" kind of experience.

Living for the Short Term Grind

The Moving Pixels Podcast on CivWorld and Social Gaming

2011-10-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

As my post from last week indicates, I (and my Moving Pixels colleagues) have been spending time with CivWorld on Facebook. Like any social game, it is engaging on some level, drawing the player back in regularly to maintenance his "segment" of the game.

Also, as I indicated in my previous post, this is also a game that lacks some ability to keep the player hooked, largely because it fails to establish a strong enough sense of ownership for the player over his own corner of this particular universe.

But you can hear not only what I have to say about it but also Nick and Rick's sense of the game's strengths and weaknesses.

The Moving Pixels Podcast on CivWorld and Social Gaming

Paying to Own, Paying to Compete: Monetizing the Social Game

2011-09-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, I've been playing a fair amount of CivWorld on Facebook for the past few weeks. I have done so in preperation for a podcast that we recorded last weekend on Civworld, casual gaming, and the hardcore player.

In addition, I have helped manage my wife's city in Cityville since some time around the beginning of the summer.

Seeing the differences between the social game oriented towards the casual player and the one (ostensibly) oriented towards the more hardcore crowd has me thinking about the problems of doing well with a social game in the CivWorld vein. It's harder to monetize.

Here's maybe why:

Paying to Own, Paying to Compete: Monetizing the Social Game

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Role of Cheating in Video Games

2011-09-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Konami code.

I've always hated god mode. It's boring.

I also really don't love using gamefaqs. They make me feel... less accomplished.

That isn't quite what we talk about during this 'cast, as Rick's framing of the discussion makes cheating more of a moral question. But that's okay because I like such frames in any case.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Role of Cheating in Video Games

Tropico 4: In Politics (and Video Games), the Game Never Changes

2011-09-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

A podcast should be posted up at PopMatters a little later on today. The topic will be cheating.

In the meanwhile, I reviewed Tropico 4 for the site and largely found myself writing about the problem with assigning numerical scores to games, as a result of trying to review this new Tropico correctly. Basically, the quandry for me is that this is a very good game, but it is also the same game that I played last year.

Is that good? Is that bad? What number represents "very, very good but..."?

Here's my unresolved thoughts on the matter:

Tropico 4: In Politics (and Video Games), the Game Never Changes

Could You Carry Our Stuff? Oh, and Maybe the Plot, Too, While You're at It

2011-09-21T05:53:00.001-07:00

So, I've spent the last week and a half or so with Dead Island (among a few other odds and ends). I think the gameplay is quite good, the game lags a bit in the middle (and also seems much more suited to multiplayer than my own single player tendencies at that point in play), and it has a serviceable plot.

What I got interested in this week was the charcter Jin, who is not one of the playable characters, but instead, an NPC that doubles as a storage container for the PCs.

Strangely much of the plot's burden is left to this mobile storage device rather than to the ostensible protagonists, so I talk a bit about the perspective that that gives one on the game's story.

Could You Carry Our Stuff? Oh, and Maybe the Plot, Too, While You're at It

The Moving Pixels Podcast Is Being Difficult

2011-09-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

A common enough difference between game players is how much difficulty that they're willing to stand.

Within my Saturday night board gaming group, there are any number of answers. Some of our players want a game to be as complex to master as possible. Some want a system that evokes more mood than challenge.

Such levels of difficulty very much affect our attitudes towards a game. Wih difficulty often improving a game's pleasure for some of us, while possibly just as often it serves as a hinderance to fun for others.

So, this week the Moving Pixels Podcast considers how difficulty contributes to the pleasure and pain of video gaming:

The Moving Pixels Podcast Is Being Difficult

Parenting with Angry Birds

2011-09-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing heavy today.

Casual thoughts on a casual game:

Parenting with Angry Birds

Moving Pixels Podcast: Art, Commerce, and the Auteur in Video Games

2011-09-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

So, a brief hiatus for the Moving Pixels podcast due to Labor Day last week.

In our return this week, we are joined by podcasting vet Scott Juster of ExperiencePoints.net for a discussion of whether the auteur theory is a useful concept to apply to video games, which gets us launched into discussing issues of marketing and commerce within the medium.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Art, Commerce, and the Auteur in Video Games

In Some Games, It's the Pattern, Not the Plot, That Makes Them Beautiful

2011-09-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

I kind of see this as a companion piece to my essay on "Why Video Games Might Not Be Art" column from a few weeks ago, though that may make little sense to anyone but me.

When I wrote "Why Video Games Might Not Be Art," it was in an effort to address a few issues that have bothered me when it comes to how folks talk about video games and art and how I feel like most of the smart talk about games has avoided distinguishing between aestehtic categories. Not that I think that that talk isn't smart or relevant, I do, just that few people seem equipped or willing to confront aesthetics themselves, focusing on other lines of critique when it comes to games, social, political, rhetorical, etc.

In any case, this post is an effort to address something that I keep hearing from game critics that seems to suggest that narrative and art are somehow intertwined, as if beauty is not accessible without a story. I would agree that story is one of the clearest access points to the beautiful. It is a great "vehicle" for art. However, I don't think that it is requisite to call something art.

In Some Games, It's the Pattern, Not the Plot, That Makes Them Beautiful

Review: Frantic Frigates

2011-09-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

Must. Stop. Writing.

More flash reviews. More Writing.

More. More. More.

Need less.

Review: Frantic Frigates

Cut to the Chase: Undressing the Video Game Plot

2011-08-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

More thoughts on Deus Ex this week. However, they are really thoughts about game design (more specifically game revision and editing) that Deus Ex has provoked from me.

I watch too much Project Runway. I concern myself too much with appearance. As a result, I worry a bit about how video games present themselves to the player.

I think that is what this is about:

Cut to the Chase: Undressing the Video Game Plot

Moving Pixels Podcast: More Great Flash Games for 2011

2011-08-29T04:49:00.000-07:00

Well, with all my flash game talk of late, I guess another podcast on flash titles was inevitable.

We are very short handed this week, so the whole conversation is between Nick Dinicola and I, and we talk about several titles that I suggested: Skinny, Alphaland, and Rebuild.

Links to all three games can be found in the article below, so feel free to play before you listen (though Rebuild is probably much more involved than most flash games usually get--it's easily a four hour investment, I think).

Moving Pixels Podcast: More Great Flash Games for 2011

Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2011-08-25T23:37:00.001-07:00

Its voice acting is bad, many of its side quests are tired video game plot devices, and it starts very, very slowly.

But Deus Ex: Human Revolution really grows on you. Its homages to Blade Runner are actually very appropriate, and the gameplay as the game advances just gets better and better. If I had the choice, I'd play it on PC, rather than on the 360, nevertheless, the central plotting is tight, the gameplay is--again--a pleasure, and it really does a great job reinvigorating late 80s and early 90s cyberpunk themes. I'll probably have to write on that latter idea more later, but in the meantime, here's my more detailed review:

Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The Five Games That Actually Should Be on the Nintendo 3DS

2011-08-24T04:55:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday I talked about games and art. Today it is all about games and schlock.

I don't have very much respect for 3-D as a technology because I feel like I can see just fine as it is. So, this list is presented in a manner that is more than a bit facetious.

The Five Games That Actually Should Be on the Nintendo 3DS

Vampire Vision: A Study of the Player, A Study in Incentive

2011-08-23T23:13:00.001-07:00

Write, write, write. Review, review, review.

Another review of a flash game here (something triple-A by Friday I think). It's a funky little "educational" game called Vampire Vision (a link to it is available in first line of the review). It's simple, answers the question: what would vampires look like if they were muppets?, and is also weirdly addictive due to some Zynga-style incentivization to play.

Not a bad way to hook research subjects... err... players, I guess.

Vampire Vision: A Study of the Player, A Study in Incentive

Why Video Games Might Not Be Art

2011-08-23T01:53:00.001-07:00

I admit right off in this post that the title may be misleadng regarding my own position in the "games as art" debate. However, I wanted the chance to point out that the opposition to this position is not crazy for calling this premise (that games are obviously art) into question, and I also wanted to take the opportunity to discuss some issues that I have with my side not really addressing aesthetics clearly at times.

That being said, I have done a bad thing and really largely not named names regarding who I am directly responding to on either side, which may make my argument appear to be more than a bit of a straw man. However, I just really didn't want to pick a fight with any of the folks that I am speaking of. Bad pool on my part, I guess.

Finally, though, picking fights is part of my problem with having this discussion at all. Probably a lot of readers will find my discussion a bunch of presumptuous gobbledygook, while another part of the audience will be irritated that I haven't grounded my discussion in enough research. So be it. I just needed to get a few general thoughts off my chest about aesthetics and games that I probably should have written awhile ago.

Hopefully, someone finds something interesting in there.

Why Video Games Might Not Be Art

Moving Pixels Podcast: Misogyny, Misandry, and Catherine

2011-08-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today's episode of the Moving Pixels podcast is one of the more enjoyable (to me) conversations that I have had about a game in awhile. Kris Ligman of PopMatters, Skyler Moss of Gamepad Dojo, and I chat about Catherine.

I should warn folks though that we absolutely comb through just about every granule of the game's plot and characters, so it is spoiler heavy. I think we mention the main thrust of each of the major endings as well as a host of other details along the way. So, if you haven't played it yet, you may want to just bookmark it for later listening.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Misogyny, Misandry, and Catherine

Grey Story: A Boy, a Girl, and Invisibility

2011-08-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

A review of a bittersweet, little flash game.

Maybe next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled reviews of very expensive $60 titles.

Grey Story: A Boy, a Girl, and Invisibility

Sorry, But Our Princess Wants to Be in Another Castle

2011-08-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

This is a classic style of blog post, I think (unlike, my usual tendency to turn blog entries into full on essays).

It's just an observation that I had during a recent gameplay session that made me think a little bit about games and storytelling. Nothing earth shattering here, but it made me go, "hmmm..."

I've been thinking about plotting a lot since encountering the RPG Fiasco, which many describe as "the Cohen brothers RPG." Essentially, this is a game that through some simple parameters about character and motivation is capable of provoking Cohen-brothers-style plotting in a couple hour RPG session.

A really simple sequence in Uncharted 2 concerning Chloe made me think of how just adding clear motivations to supporting characters can complexify plots in fairly interesting ways.

The observation follows, as usual, at PopMatters:

Sorry, But Our Princess Wants to Be in Another Castle

Rebuild, a Game about Zombies and the Economy

2011-08-17T02:57:00.000-07:00

A review of sorts early today, though I have a smallish (for me, I think) blog post on Chloe from Uncharted 2 coming a little later on.

This review is from a game released much earlier this year over at Kongregate. Rebuild is a turn-based strategy game by Sarah Northway, which has a pretty lengthy playtime for a flash game. The graphics are pretty stripped down and the play is pretty much simple decision-making, but I think that it has a really intuitive interface (important to me in games of this sort) and is definitely a different approach to a zombie-themed game than usual.

This is zombies and economy, not a mix that I would think of as working right off the bat, but I think it is a pretty solid approach to both. You can also find a link to the game at the bottom of my review if you want to play it first before reading.

Rebuild, a Game about Zombies and the Economy

The Taming of the Dude: Catherine and the Sex Comedy

2011-08-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, so more discussion of Catherine. I really like the game and keep talking about it. In fact, we'll be recording a podcast on it tonight (probably a couple of weeks out before that goes live, though).

This time I focus on Catherine as a traditional farce, so it is much more a discussion of the plot and how it compares to some cinematic forebears than the gameplay issues I discussed last week (which you can find a link to a few entries below).

I think that there are some good things in here, but I am not sure because my wife didn't read it before it went live for a change. Wish I had her opinion beforehand. She usually catches the obviously dumb stuff if there is any.

The Taming of the Dude: Catherine and the Sex Comedy

Moving Pixels Podcast: Subjectivity and Interpretation in Child of Eden

2011-08-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

Having had no opportunity to get a hold of Child of Eden, I did not participate in this week's Moving Pixels podcast, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't listen to it (indeed, perhaps, my absence is even more reason to do so).

This weeks 'cast finds a house more or less divided with half of the crew largely positive about this release and the other half, well, less so. Another reason to tune in is that long time PopMatters contributor and former Multimedia Editor, Mike Schiller, filled in my vacant seat. I wish I had been there just for that reason, as Mike and I have worked together for years and haven't actually ever spoken beyond written communication. Maybe next time.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Subjectivity and Interpretation in Child of Eden

On the Clock: Narrative and Gameplay Tension in Catherine

2011-08-03T04:55:00.001-07:00

So, I'm pretty into Catherine. (I'm not supposed to say that, am I?). But it's good. Like Vincent, I can't help myself.

I wrote this week in defense of the game, as a game, because I've seen a lot of lukewarm reviews that are especially critical of how the gameplay relates to the storytelling.

I think that I probably want to write a bit about the game's possible relationship to the genre of bedroom farce and obviously sex comedies more generally. Maybe next week, though.

In the meantime, my discussion of time pressure in the game's play and narrative can be found by following the link below:

On the Clock: Narrative and Gameplay Tension in Catherine

Moving Pixels Podcast: Holla Back with Fat, Ugly or Slutty?

2011-08-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

Credit for today's podcast goes to Kris Ligman for setting up an interview with a number of the admins from Fat, Ugly or Slutty? and serving as host. Additionally, props to Nick Dinicola for once again getting all of our editing done and also being a genial and thoughtful participant in our discussion.

I'm on this 'cast, but I believe in a post-surgery semi-haze. So, it may be best if I just allow Kris to introduce our guests and the topic of dealing with distasteful behavior in online gaming:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Holla Back with Fat, Ugly or Slutty?

In the Grip of the Paternal: Thomas Brush’s Skinny

2011-07-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, it has been a less than productive month blogging. I've kind of been wrapped up in things and not doing too much gaming.

So, I return with an entry on a smallish game, the follow up to Thomas Brush's Coma. Brush's new game is called Skinny, and it stars a gangly robot with mommy issues (of a sort).

I don't think that I am as captivated by this title as the previous one, oddly maybe because it has more game-like qualities to it. While a more fully developed game, Skinny's activities maybe interfere with the moody atmosphere, and atmosphere is what Brush does very well. That being said Skinny still has a rather beautiful aestehtic and tone. Dude knows how to create a mood, which is what I largely admire him for.

Also, I think that I am beginning to catch hints of an anti-authoritarian vibe that I think I really appreciate, however, I may just be placing my own lack of love for paternalism on his work. That's kind of what this blog entry is about, considering whether Brush has some of those ideas in mind by comparing some of the paternalistic anatagonism present in both games.

Read on over at PopMatters:

In the Grip of the Paternal: Thomas Brush’s Skinny

Moving Pixels Podcast: Madness and Maturity in the Shadows of the Damned

2011-07-26T02:18:00.000-07:00

Just podcast after podcast this month. I haven't written much (or played much for that matter) because I have been on the road and living in a more or less gypsy fashion for weeks. However, there is a blog post (finally) for Wednesday.

In the meantime, the newest Moving Pixels podcast is on my favorite recent topic:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Madness and Maturity in the Shadows of the Damned

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Grotesque Wonderland of Alice: Madness Returns

2011-07-18T17:03:00.001-07:00

I'm having a terrible time writing blogs for podcasts. Too much time is elapsing between recording them and when I post them, which indicates that I really need to start writing "summaries" right after recording rather than waiting until around time of publication.

Thus, I feel like there is some really good discussion in this podcast about the nature of Alice's weird take on mature themes and some legitimate criticism of its gameplay, but I can't recall much in the way of specific details. Best I can say is that I think that there is stuff worth hearing here? (More terrible salesmanship on my part).

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Grotesque Wonderland of Alice: Madness Returns

Moving Pixels Podcast: To Live and Die in L.A. Noire

2011-07-11T09:23:00.001-07:00

I really wish that I had the good sense to write up blurbs concerning podcast topics immediately after recording (of course, there are about 10,000 things I should have the good sense to do if there were an extra six or seven hours in a day). It is so difficult (for me at least) to describe the tone and specifics of a podcast correctly a week or two after recording, let alone three to four weeks out (as is the case with this week's episode).

I am pretty sure that there is some really meaty and really interesting stuff that the whole crew discussed in this episode regarding L.A. Noire, I just can't recall the specifics of that really good stuff (as the overly general "synopsis" at PopMatters too readily suggests). So, you should really have a listen to this episode, but I can't remember why (what a terrible salesman I am...).

Moving Pixels Podcast: To Live and Die in L.A. Noire

“I would kill the world before it did you harm”

2011-07-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

A follow up of sorts this week to last week's initial discussion of Suda51's Shadows of the Damned. This is a considerably more considered discussion because, well, I'm actually done with the game, and the ending had a significant effect on how I'm seeing the game now.

Last week, I was still kind of stuck between admiring some of the gameplay (which is so not something to do when playing a game by Grasshopper Manufacture) and being really stuck on the fact that the game seemed just so focused in its juvenile attitudes (which works to a point as "punk"--again, see last week's essay). Then the ending came, and I realized why Shadows of the Damned very much needs to revel in its juvenile qualities. It speaks to mythologies that are at the core of masculine development. It is a game about the stories of masculinity taught to boys.

“I would kill the world before it did you harm”

Shadows of the Damned: Punk's Not Dead?

2011-06-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is the second article that I have written recently that has a questions as a title. I hate leading with questions (especially rhetorical questions--though this isn't intended as one).

That being said, I really don't know that I have a clear position on the issue that I bring up here, regarding Suda51's much vaunted "punk aesthetic" and whether or not it is a clear or sensible or recognizable approach to his audience.

I'm still playing Shadows of the Damned and am on the fence about the game as a whole. I usually like Suda51 because whatever he offers smacks of at least being different. Here, Suda is spending a lot of time aping what I think of as "neo exploitation cinema" (think Machete or Planet Terror), and I'm seeing less of his interrogation of gaming as a subculture or as an act, just a couple of his topics that he frequently seems to have something to say about.

See? I'm just kind of rambling here. Shadows of the Damned just seems to drive me to lose focus...

Shadows of the Damned: Punk's Not Dead?

Moving Pixels Podcast: In Defense of Tower Defense

2011-06-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

This is a podcast that we recorded some time ago but whose publication has been put off for a variety of factors. I'm pretty sure that it seemed like it seemed really interesting at the time.

Moving Pixels Podcast: In Defense of Tower Defense

Review: Wii Play: Motion

2011-06-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

I have a hard time with motion control. I think that it becomes a way of reducing gaming machines to activity machines.

My review of Wii Play: Motion focuses on the difference that exists in my mind between the two:

Wii Play: Motion

Boys Get Naked Better than Girls

2011-06-23T23:11:00.001-07:00

Hmmm... this was up sooner than I thought it would be, though I wrote it a couple weeks ago.

This commentary actually precedes my discussion of the presentation of the new Lara Croft at E3 on our podcast. I had not actually seen the playthrough video when I wrote it, but that video did confirm to me some of what I had read about this new Lara, though.

While there are a number of things in this written piece that touch on the podcast discussion, this is a more broadly expanded discussion of gender and clothing damage in gaming than just the potential pitfalls of the new Lara.

Boys Get Naked Better than Girls

Watching As Gameplay: L.A. Noire Merely a Visual Novel?

2011-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Some additional thoughts on L.A. Noire and the criticism of it as being more a visual novel than a game.

Watching As Gameplay: L.A. Noire Merely a Visual Novel?

Moving Pixels Podcast: Reflections on E3 2011

2011-06-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's an inevitable to hve to at least acknowledge E3, I suppose (I'm actually more fond of kind of vastly different approaches to the topic, like Kris Ligman's article from last week). So, we did sit down for a podcast on the expo's major announcements this year. I think that I like the discussion (sort of towards the middle) about Tomb Raider the best because the playthrough video was probably the thing that most intrigued me and maybe worried me a little.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Reflections on E3 2011

Great Games and Podcasts for Summer Fun

2011-06-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

I'm responsible for a few blurbs in PopMatters's feature on games of summer. I was under the impression that we were trying to highlight games with a "summer vibe." Thus, my picks... I think.

Anywho...

Great Games and Podcasts for Summer Fun

The Comforts of Home: Defending Applebee's in Modern Warfare 2

2011-06-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

I feel strangely between games right now. While I am in reality in the middle of a bunch of titles, including Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, Bayonetta, Alice: Madness Returns, and The Witcher 2, somehow I don't feel moved to talk about any of those titles right now. So, instead, I returned to 2009 to talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in part because I got thinking about it after seeing a Modern Warfare 3 playthrough at E3 and in part because there is something that I intended to express about it (besides my thoughts on "No Russian") for a while now.

I'm not quite sure that I exactly nailed my thoughts on the way that MW 2 attempts to personalize its warfare, but here goes anyway:

The Comforts of Home: Defending Applebee's in Modern Warfare 2

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Look at Inclusivity in Video Games

2011-06-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today's Moving Pixels podcast includes a host of guests from The Border House and GayGamer.net, including Alexandra Raymond, Denis Farr, and faePuck.

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Look at Inclusivity in Video Games

The Best of Thoughtful Gaming Podcasts

2011-06-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

A simple enough post this week--a shout out to a number of podcasts that I like.

I don't realy listen to gaming news podcasts or any of the big review sites, as I tend to be looking for more analytical discussion, so I guess in the spirit of being a little anti-the-hullabaloo-of-E3 I figured that I would mention a few folks that talk about games in a broad and thoughtful way, rather than emphasizing those excited only about the latest and the greatest.

The Best of Thoughtful Gaming Podcasts

L.A. Noire: The Fatalism of American Sticktoitiveness

2011-06-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in rather bad shape this week, as I'm recovering from a tonsillectomy. I did spend much of this time playing L.A. Noire though, a game that I really felt like I had little to say about initially. I kind of disliked it at first, but it slowly grew on me as I spent more time with it (maybe its overall slow pacing was perfect for someone that is trying to just take it easy while his body recovers). It gets better as one grows accustomed to its "vibe."

Having heard some criticism of the game's tendency to be more of an interactive narrative than a game, though, got me thinking about how that tendency matches the overall tone and attitude of typical examples of hardboiled fiction. So, I grabbed a copy of Raymond Chandler's "The Simple Art of Murder" (an essay on Chandler's sense of what a detective story should be) and talked a bit about L.A. Noire in terms of genre conventions and why its inevitable momentum towards solution may be entirely appropriate for its genre.

Here is the result:

L.A. Noire: The Fatalism of American Sticktoitiveness

Moving Pixels Podcast: 2011 Flash Game Round Up

2011-05-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

We haven't talked about "little games" for awhile on the podcast, so I offered a few flash titles up that I have written about in the last few months to get Tom and Nick's perspective on them. They are all titles that I like for various reasons.

I think that it ended up being a pretty good discussion.

Moving Pixels Podcast: 2011 Flash Game Round Up

Defining Our Relationship to the Software: Jonas Kyratzes's Alphaland

2011-05-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Alphaland is an intriguing little Flash title from Jonas Kyratzes. Unlike the many titles that suggest an antagonistic relationship between ourselves and the systems that we play in, Alphaland looks at a more positive relationship between the two. It doesn't take long to play and really should be played before you read about it.

Defining Our Relationship to the Software: Jonas Kyratzes's Alphaland

Review: DodoGo! Robo

2011-05-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

Funny name for a game. A decent puzzler. Not great, not terrible. But it's only two bucks on the DSi.

I'll have a blog post on a Flash game called Alphaland a little later on today. It's kind of interesting.

DodoGo! Robo

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Conversation from a Critical Distance

2011-05-16T19:06:00.001-07:00

I really like what Ben Abraham and company do over at Critical Distance. It is my weekly newsletter of what is going on in smart video game writing, and I appreciate that these folks are willing sort out the links so that I don't have to, which is why we wanted to sit down with Ben (along with Critical Distance contributor, Eric Swain) to talk a little bit about how they do what they do and how they conceive of the current state of game criticism. Interestingly, all of this took place right before the "Dan Cook" incident last week, in which Cook called Critical Distance and the critical community out. So while we don't address Cook (since the discussion pre-dates his posting), it may speak in some way to that debate.

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Conversation from a Critical Distance

Moving Pixels Podcast: Stepping Forward into Portal 2

2011-05-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

Heading into finals, I am absolutely swamped with work this week, so I'm taking another brief break from my Wednesday posting. However, since I forgot to mention it on Monday, I should mention that we discussed Portal 2 on this week's podcast.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Stepping Forward into Portal 2

Review: The Next Big Thing

2011-05-10T03:18:00.001-07:00

On Monday, I posted a review of a rather solid point-and-click adventure by Pendulo Games. It has charm. Fans of the genre should probably check it out.

One of the game's writers e-mailed me this morning and was really pleased that I mentioned magical realism in the review, as he said that he had been reading Borges's "The Aleph" and some of his other stories while the game was in the pre-production stages and that he had avoided overtly referring to some of his literary influences in order to avoid appearing "snobbish." I was really gratified that he liked the review and that I managed to pick up on its influences.

The game has a really quirky plot, and I mean that in a good way.

More here:

Review: The Next Big Thing

“Her Name Is Caroline”: Identifying the Misbehaving Woman in Portal 2

2011-05-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Another day and still no dollars.

My latest post over at the Moving Pixels blog is available though. I still have Portal 2 on the brain (still need a partner for co-op though--my one possible partner got shut out by the PSN hack unfortunately).

Last week I discussedsome of the treatment of power dynamics in Portal 2's "politics of stupidity," while this week I really felt like talking a bit about GLaDOS's origins and the implications of the Caroline persona on who and what GLaDOS is and has become.

You can find those thoughts here:

“Her Name Is Caroline”: Identifying the Misbehaving Woman in Portal 2

Moving Pixels Podcast: Everyone Is the Champion of Kirkwall

2011-05-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

This podcast was inevitable.

Given the amount of interest that Dragon Age II generated among Moving Pixels bloggers in March, we had to get together and talk about it.

That discussion can be found here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Everyone Is the Champion of Kirkwall

Rewind to Advance: Jordan Mechner's Games with Time

2011-04-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

I kind of love Jordan Mechner. I've written on the significance of Karateka for the development of my appreciation for gaming as a storytelling medium before. We also recently posted a podcast exclusively on The Last Express over at the Moving Pixels blog.

As a designer and storyteller, Mechner is mature and artful, so I thought that I would consider some of the ways that his interests in playing with time as a game mechanic may or may not relate to the way that other visual media have approached temporal representation.

The following discussion is the result:

Rewind to Advance: Jordan Mechner's Games with Time

Portal 2 and the Politics of Stupidity

2011-04-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

What I perceive to be my own initial misreading of the political subtext of Portal 2 lead me to think about intelligence and competency and how those ideas relate to political power, especially in the context of Valve's new game.

Keeping Wheatley in charge may be the best option from the perspective of the oppressed lab rat, Chell. But that isn't an option that the game allows for, which highlights the very cynical perspective that is represented by Portal's take on the meaning of power and authority.

A more thorough examination of these issues can be found here:

Portal 2 and the Politics of Stupidity

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Utter Miscellany Episode

2011-04-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Ummm... improv podcasting?

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Utter Miscellany Episode

Portal 2: Very Much "Still Alive"

2011-04-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

No blog post for me today, as I spent the weekend tearing through Portal 2 in order to be able to post a review of the game in a timely fashion.

I haven't had the opportunity to dabble in co-op, but the single player campaign is very, very good, and I may get a multiplayer review up at some later date.

One of the more interesting things about this particular playthrough was having to play through without any access to FAQs, which I haven't done in years. While I generally try not to immediately jump to FAQs for solutions to games, I definitely would have done so in two spots here, what I now think of as the "painting room" and then maybe the last "official" test chamber in the game. I spent at least two hours on the aforementioned room and was just purely baffled for awhile on the second.

However, beating the whole thing on my own was really refreshing and satisfying. My wife refers to me sometimes as "mensa boy," and I kind of feel like I deserve the title having taken on some real mindbenders, persevering, and then actually getting through them.

Anyhow, my review at PopMatters covers the game and story in more depth, rather than just my personal experience of it:

Portal 2: Very Much "Still Alive"

Moving Pixels Podcast: Stepping Back into Portal

2011-04-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

I should have some thoughts on Portal 2 on Wednesday, I think. But before that happens, the Moving Pixels podcast has some thoughts on the original game right now:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Stepping Back into Portal

A Study in Sado-Masochism: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars

2011-04-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Based on a brief mention of Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars by Kris Ligman, I recently sought out said bawdy sounding title, and I wasn't disappointed. Anna Anthropy's game for the Adult Swim web site is pretty damned cool and pretty damned punishing, which I liked.

As I have said elsewhere, it's a "women in prison" movie, in reverse.

For a few additonal thoughts:

A Study in Sado-Masochism: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars

Moving Pixels Podcast: Rewinding The Last Express

2011-04-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Nick, Tom, and I had what I think is a really good conversation about Jordan Mechner's The Last Express last week, and this podcast is the result. To say that the game is very different than most other games is an understatement. It is mature, experimental, and contains innovations that still haven't been tapped by contemporary game development.

In addition to this 'cast, the game has also inspired a rather lengthy column by me (that is still being edited at present) about Mechner and his games with time (The Prince of Persia, of course, is also a dominant focus) that will probably appear over at PopMatters later this month or in early May sometime.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Rewinding The Last Express

War, Death, Wagers: Cormac McCarthy on Video Games

2011-04-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

This week's Moving Pixels post may seem like a bit of stream of consciousness thinking about games (and it kind of is). It concerns an interest that I have had since seeing a particular scene in No Country for Old Men about chance, will, and games. I feel like McCarthy really “gets” what games are all about—largely because he understands their stakes.

As a result, I have put together a post that somewhat misleadingly claims to be about “Cormac McCarthy's [take} on Video Games.” It is a pretty unfiltered post, as I just wrote it the way that I actually think and make connections in my own head. I haven't really bothered to organize the thoughts before I actually “compose” them--in the way that I might normally try to do when writing with an audience in mind (sometimes people ask me how I make the connections between ideas or (in other words) how it is that one begins interpreting something--I have given many answers to students, readers, and others over the years (some more authentic than others), but I guess that this is the “real” answer, take it or leave it). As a result, it may make sense to no one but me. But I think that it is kind of profound (if kind of really grim), and that's what blogs are for, right?

Ummm... right?

War, Death, Wagers: Cormac McCarthy on Video Games

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Evolution of Hack and Slash

2011-04-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hacking, slashing, getting phat loot. That's what it's all about, right?

The Moving Pixels crews considers the phenomenon of the dungeon crawl, both as a gameplay style and as an experiment in co-operation and competition.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Evolution of Hack and Slash

Be Careful What You Say: Conversation in the Dragon Age Series

2011-03-31T08:39:00.000-07:00

A lot on Dragon Age at the Moving Pixels blog for the last couple of weeks. I am throwing in my own two cents on the game-like qualities of the conversation system:

Be Careful What You Say: Conversation in the Dragon Age Series

Moving Pixels Podcast: You Just Aren't Looking So Good, Old Video Games

2011-03-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

An aborted effort to play retro classic Maniac Mansion leads to a discussion by the Moving Pixels crew about differences between older and newer games.

It's an odd discussion I think:

Moving Pixels Podcast: You Just Aren't Looking So Good, Old Video Games

Gray Matter: Just Another 19th Century Video Game

2011-03-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

How come when I decide to take a week off, I still end up with a couple of posts that week? Ah, well.

My review of Gray Matter is up, a game that I was interested in for a number of reasons. One of which is that I have kind of had a hankering recently for an old school point-and-click adventure with a rich, well told story. Unfortunately, I didn't realize just how "old school" Gray Matter would be:

Gray Matter: Just Another 19th Century Video Game

Break Time

2011-03-23T01:51:00.000-07:00

I need a break.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Superhero and the Video

2011-03-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Originally conceived of as a discussion of the best superhero video games of all time, the Moving Pixels Podcast crew quickly discovered that super powered games have been—for the most part—less than super.

With that in mind, our discussion of the presentation of superheroes in video games became, instead, a discussion of the history of the superhero in video games—more particularly the refinements that have lead to more interesting gaming experiences within this genre.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Superhero and the Video Game

You Had Me at “Invisible Trousers”

2011-03-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, there's always time to write more (and more and more). Despite my desire for hitting pause this week, it just isn't in my nature to do so.

As a result, I wrote a brief discussion of a rather charming little flash game over at New Grounds called The Man with the Invisible Trousers. Besides really falling in love with the name of the game, I also enjoyed how the mad logic of the narrative matched the mad logic of the physics in this platformer.

More over at PopMatters:

You Had Me at “Invisible Trousers”

Moving Pixels Podcast: Boys, Bullets, Bulletstorm

2011-03-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

More fun with Bulletstorm. Macho, sweaty Bulletstorm. *sigh*

You can see what the other fellows in the Moving Pixels podcast crew think of Bulletstorm below. I haven't changed my opinion on it much.

Also, I'm a little uncertain about my regular Wednesday posting for this week. I have just really been beaten up by life in general for the last several weeks, and I may need to just hit pause for a moment and catch my breah.

We'll see, though, something may yet capture my imagination, compelling me to write anyway. That is usually how these things work out.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Boys, Bullets, Bulletstorm

We Need to Stop Saying That Games Tell Bad Stories

2011-03-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

Just a brief manifesto this week on how game critics talk about stories. There is too much bashing of the medium itself, and we need to stop apologizing for bad quality. Bad quality is pervasive in all of the arts. It isn't exclusive to video games, nor is it something that we have to be seemingly so embarrassed about.

This is a manifesto that will, of course, be ignored. But what the heck? I still think that it needs to be said:

We Need to Stop Saying That Games Tell Bad Stories

Moving Pixels Podcast: Dragon Age Expanded?

2011-03-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of the forthcoming release of Dragon Age II, the Moving Pixels podcast is reconsidering the first game, especially its DLC.

I'm not involved in this discussion as I have only played a few hours of the first game, and I was out of town during the time of the recording. However, that other "Chris," Kris Ligman is sitting in for me, which is good because she's smarter than I am anyway.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Dragon Age Expanded?

Bulletstorm: Murder by the Numbers

2011-03-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

Today's post concerns some initial thoughts on playing Bulletstorm. These thoughts concern tone more than gameplay.

I expected Bulletstorm to provide over the top parody of action games (the way that, say, Machete provides a similar critique of the exploitation film), what I got was over the top but an also altogether too familiar images of men in video games. If Bulletstorm is supposed to be a joke, how come it feels so much like Gears of War or Turok or Darksiders or any number of other games? Where's the parody?

Bulletstorm: Murder by the Numbers

Moving Pixels Podcast: It's Very Dead... in Space

2011-02-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've beaten this horse (the dead one), but there's one more go round before I put Isaac Clarke and his ferocious friends to bed.

I've written a lot about Dead Space for the past few weeks, and I've hashed out a bunch of issues that I think that are interesting about the game. So, it's time for me to dialogue (rather than just what have mostly been monologues) with the Moving Pixels podcast crew about both games in the series (though I think our focus largely stays with the sequel more than anything else, which is good--I think--since a lot of my discussion has revolved around the first game).

So, if the topic hasn't gotten too stale for you, one more for the road (I'll be on to Bulletstorm this Wednesday, and then further onwards towards some as yet uncharted territory, perhaps):

Moving Pixels Podcast: It's Very Dead... in Space

Horror in Video Games: There's Seeing -- and Then There's Realizing What You're Seeing

2011-02-26T01:03:00.000-08:00

If you have followed a number of my recent posts, I've had an issue on my mind about the way that we see as spectators and the way that we see as players in video games (in fact, for what it's worth, the article below used to be titled "Seeing as a Spectator, Seeing as a Player in Video Games"). Largely this interest has something to do with the fact that my long suffering wife often sits with me as I play games, and I am frequently interested in the sorts of things that she sees and that I don't and vice versa while playing.

Much of this started to come to a head when she was thoroughly disgusted by my playthroughs of Dead Space and Dead Space 2, so much so that she abandoned me to my play. Given that I had failed to see much of the repugnant images in a horror game, I started thinking about how play sometimes interferes with seeing and what consequences that has to appreciating the full extent of a game's presentation.

This is the result:

Horror in Video Games: There's Seeing -- and Then There's Realizing What You're Seeing

Review: Mario Sports Mix

2011-02-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Jorge Albor and Scott Juster of ExperiencePoints.net have recently been talking a lot about difficulty and challenge in Nintendo products. I have mentioned there that while I personally admire the steep difficulty of New Super Mario Bros., what I especially admire in that game is its ability to allow players of unequal skill (especially younger gamers) to play alongside players of considerably more skill (especially the Nintendo generation parents of such younger children), allowing everyone to play with the right degree of challenge.

So, it is ironic that I just got done playing Mario Sports Mix, another Nintendo product, and my biggest gripe about the game is its inability to successfully handle providing the right challenge to the right players:

Mario Sports Mix