So its no secret that the Lego games are a big deal in my house. Some of them have even been purchased multiple times so that mama can play them on her handhelds while also playing them cooperatively on the full sized consoles with Pea. We have played Lego games […]
Miscellany
1089 posts
In the opening cinematic of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the titular character Claire “Lightning” Farron stands atop a clock tower, the glow of a fantastical city below her. She dramatically removes the sunglasses off her face, announcing her return not only to the fictional world that has progressed 500 […]
Trigger Warning: the game about to be described (The Day the Laughter Stopped) and the content of this article discusses and addresses rape and sexual assault An interactive fiction game – although in truth it more closely resembles an interactive narrative/fiction experience than what I’d personally define as a game […]
I spent the entire weekend playing games. That is, the entire weekend after Samantha (forcibly) made me drink Fireball Whiskey on Friday night and I spent the next two days on the couch with a headache. This isn’t an official power hour review or anything, but I just cannot think […]
This past weekend during the Super Bowl thousands took to Twitter to address their concerns over representation in advertisements during the various commercial breaks that are arguably as watched as the game itself. Each tweet called out various offenses that a number of companies were guilty of – lack of […]
Games scholar James Paul Gee introduces the idea of an intersection between identity and learning in his book entitled What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, through which he infers that video games are particularly able to encourage the player to assume the identities and mindsets […]
So it’s no secret that I have a penchant for Kickstarter projects. I have backed more projects that make the geek world more accessible to children in general and girls in particular than I care to remember, everything from flash cards, to games (board and video), to graphic novels, and […]
In the first part of this study of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, I questioned whether the Bechdel Test was the best benchmark for judging whether or not a piece of media had something to offer in terms of good female characterization. Is the Bechdel Test enough, or does even […]
Let me start by saying something that anyone who has ever listened to our show already knows…I Hate Pink! I have hated pink for so long and with such passion that I can no longer remember if I have always hated pink or if I hate pink because of all […]
American McGee has added another game to his portfolio of delightfully twisted fairy tales in Grimm, an episodic series recently debuted on Steam. The game is split into twenty-three individual parts. Each edition follows a traditional story from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the first of which is currently available for free […]
A video released the other day for the upcoming The Last of Us DLC gave an encouraging glimpse into something that I have come to realize is sorely lacking from video games: female friendships. In the clip Riley (who I was excited to see is a person of color), who […]
Trigger warning: This post has brief descriptions and video depictions of violence, torture, and sexual assault. This week brought us closer to the release of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and the mute, female sniper named Quiet. It also brought the announcement that the ESRB has coded the game […]
When the new year dawned after the close of another, I found myself curious regarding the quality of media representation for the year. As I set forth to do a little bit of investigative research I found that there are a decent amount of statistics for female representation in blockbuster […]
Episode 70: New Year, New Views: Predictions and Resolutions for 2014 (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The first episode of the new year and our first live video episode. Come and check out our predictions for this year and our discussion of our predictions from last […]
In my continuing look at game covers, I thought I’d explore the best-rated games of 2013 according to Metacritic’s compiled review scores. So far, I’ve looked at top-selling games instead of best-rated, or I’ve looked at a particular selection, as when exploring Xbox indies, and the results have been surprisingly […]
Possible triggers: sexual violence and assault. Game developer Brianna Wu of Giant Spacekat recently wrote a an essay that started as an examination of a game-of-the-year podcast and became a critique of gaming podcasts in general, an essay demonstrating how the dominant paradigm in gaming journalism — typically straight, white, […]