I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the cliché of the grizzled, brown-haired hero, wondering just what it is that keeps them at the top of the game-protagonist heap, and what encourages designers to keep on designing them. I’ve been thinking about these men, so similar, and about Lee Everett […]
Alisha Karabinus
185 posts
I’ve often wondered about the potential reach of games. If marketing was a little different. If (some) games were. So when Her Story came along, with its straightforward interface, search-based mechanic, and nonlinear mystery narrative, I saw the potential immediately for the game to spread, though the problem with something […]
Over the years — and particularly, in the last year — the notion that game reviews should be objective, depoliticized, or both, has arisen time and time again, and been debated, discussed and parodied to oblivion. But who are the people asking for objective game reviews? Who thinks they’re possible, […]
Since its release, I’ve spent a lot of time playing, and thinking about, Sam Barlow’s Her Story. I’ve played it on my own Steam account, and also on my husband’s — I didn’t want to interrupt my own game, which was then unfinished, but I did want to see if […]
I’m not sure how much time I’ve actually spent playing Her Story. The game was open for a long time while I was trying to stream (unsuccessfully), and more time passed as I searched for paper and took notes. And then there was the time spent considering and studying and adding […]
I like to fight as much as the next person who grew up with video games, but I find I’ll often avoid combat when I can. Not in the style of oh, let’s run past these guys when playing Destiny, for efficiency’s sake… it’s more the thrill of finding a […]
Yesterday, it was reported on Twitter and Reddit that Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet’s MMORPG, had added a transgender NPC — or rather, featured the transition of an NPC, Sya, who had formerly been known as Symon. Sya appeared with yesterday’s game patch that featured the re-opening of Lion’s Arch, a […]
I’m not sure why I call myself such an unapologetic fan of Bethesda Softworks and all their related arms; I played Skyrim a while, but found it mostly boring, I won’t touch Elder Scrolls Online, and if you mention The Evil Within, I will set off on an hour-long rant […]
A quick stroll through the Playstation or Xbox stores reveals the distinct lack of a once-common feature: demos. A search of the Steam store returned 15 demos released since the beginning of June, most for free but some available only for purchase. Many of these demos, however, are for games […]
When I was a kid, I wanted to be Han Solo, or Princess Leia, or some sort of princess hybrid of the two. They were my heroes. Sometimes I wanted to be a female Robin Hood instead, or Laura Ingalls or a character from a fairy tale, but whatever the […]
Bloom, by Caelyn Sandel, presents the interactive story of a someone discovering a new identity and wholeness later in life than most. As Sandel puts it, “I started writing Bloom because there are some wonderful stories out there for trans women coming out in their teens and twenties, but few good […]
Back in early April, we announced our Patreon campaign, which yielded much-needed money for expenses for our first month of activity, and we’re looking forward to month two. We’re so grateful to our supporters. But as we learn more about this platform, and figure out how best to use it, […]
(Some spoilers for the first three episodes of Life is Strange here, but painted in broad strokes.) Now that we’re halfway through Life Is Strange, with two episodes to go, the game is shaping up to be quite the experience. While some of the major plot events are so heavily […]
This week, everyone is talking about the final scene of the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, the meaningfully titled “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” from those who would define it in generous terms to those who would denounce it and go so far as to declare they’re done with the […]
I had a little extra time this week, so I thought I would take a risk and buy a new game without more than the most cursory glance at information. I chose Lifeless Planet because the cover was fascinating. I didn’t know what kind of game it was or anything […]
It’s been 25 days since I gained early access to State of Decay Year One Survival Edition. We don’t get a ton of review codes around here; as a smaller site with a focus a little to the left of traditional gaming sites, we’re not exactly a standard destination for reviews, […]