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, […]
Miscellany
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It’s that time of year again, the time when all of the academic conferences and game and comic cons start to bump up against one another and cry out for my limited attention (and cash). It’s this time of year when I really feel the liminality of the space that […]
The Batman franchise (Warner Bros.) has been frequently questioned on its representation of female characters, despite featuring some of comics’ most memorable women. The Batman: Arkham series has consistently featured some problematic representations of its female characters and other bits of sexist content throughout the four games. Batman: Arkham City […]
Jim Norton wrote in Time Magazine that “Americans have collectively become the most hypersensitive group of whining milksops ever assembled under one flag.” It’s easy to see why he thinks this. Go to a lot of popular blogs, and you’ll see that people are pissed off. Though, “people” is perhaps […]
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 […]
When Bethesda made the E3 announcement that they were going to be releasing a mobile Fallout game I was more than a little bit excited. I have been playing Fallout Shelter (iOS) almost constantly since it launched. I started with just one vault and thought that I might get that one […]
Episode 104: Because the Apocalypse Is About People, or An Interview with Undead Labs (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher). It’s not any kind of secret that we like State of Decay — we’ve written extensively on Undead Labs’ title since its […]
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 […]
I have been an avid Frisbee (aka disc) golfer for years. That’s not to say I’m good because I’m not, but I am passable. I played in the 2014 Amateur Worlds Championship (where I got second to last in my division, only because the person I was battling for last […]
Another E3 has quickly come and gone, and as I reflect back on the hours I spent watching conferences and live streams from the show floor, hunting down gameplay video, and reading the latest gaming news and updates, I can’t help but think that this year was notably different from […]
Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the games community about criticism and objectivity. Questions have arisen such as: What is criticism, and what does it mean for the gaming sphere? What are the bounds of criticism, and what purpose does it serve? Is critique censorship? What is […]
This week, I’ve been reading through The Cult of LEGO, which has turned out to be one of the most comprehensive accounts of LEGO I’ve read to date. The authors included a lot of fun and not so fun tidbits about the history of LEGO. For example, I knew, of […]
The recent NYMG piece on Sam’s reaction to the new Cuphead trailer has inspired a lot of reaction of its own about the game, the animation style that influenced it, and what it means to critique a trailer, and so for the purpose of further discussion and analysis, we have […]
I watched the movie Tammy last night. It stars the fabulous Melissa McCarthy, one of my favorite all-time actors. I started thinking about how amazing to see a plus-sized actress for the first time. I know, I know, there are “plus-sized” actresses and models all over the place, right? Well, […]
We joked several times on the last episode of the podcast that this was going to be the year of the 4 at E3. We were all anticipating 2nds, 3rds, or 4ths of some series or another and that held up for the most part. One of the things that […]
Approximately two years ago in the wake of E3 2013 I wrote an article for the site about how I had once wanted to be a booth babe. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, a “booth babe” is a woman, generally a model, who is hired by […]