“Come, tuck yourself into bed / Let me tell a story / Of Lemuria, a kingdom past /And a girl born for glory,” a woman lyrically instructs as the stylized game begins. Much as it’s opening lines suggest, Ubisoft’s new cross-platform RPG Child of Light in many ways resembles a […]
PC
Trigger Warning: this post contains discussions of rape and slavery in Minecraft Ok, as a member of a number of various historically oppressed groups I just don’t get slavery play in video games. That shit ain’t fun and it ain’t playful. That’s why I get plan old enraged when I […]
Below is a post that follows in the vein of arguments I have made here and here about procedural ethics. Where many theories of games, and ways of analyzing games, start at the code and move forward, procedural ethics starts at the code and moves backwards. Rather than see code as something […]
“Metroidvania,” Defender, and three super powered little girls. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect nostalgic side-scroller. But Radian Games intentionally added an extra ingredient to the concoction: classic animation. Thus The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville was born. Using their ultra-superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated […]
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’ve been playing a lot of Diablo III lately, and not just out of guilt from pre-ordering it when it first came out and never really getting into it. For many reasons that I won’t bore you with here, I chose to explore it as one of three primary case […]
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 […]
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 […]
Okay, I promise, this is the last time this year I’ll talk about it, but after several fits and starts and test games, the epic playthrough of State of Decay: Breakdown has taken over my life. Something simmering on the stove? Knock out a mission. Taking a break from wrapping […]
At last: the game I’ve waited for all year, or at least, the beginning of it: the debut episode of The Walking Dead’s second season, All That Remains, starring the young and vulnerable Clementine. For me, this episode’s release was an Event (capital E), and so I hope you’ll forgive […]
**Trigger warning: suicide, violence** Thanks for nothing, goodbye. Unlike the haunting message that introduces the tone of The Cat Lady, a side-scrolling horror game developed by the UK based company Harvester Games, even what small portion I have played thus far proves that this statement certainly doesn’t describe this narrative-driven […]
For those of you who love Dungeons and Dragons, you’ll definitely want to check out Neverwinter. Neverwinter is a free MMORPG, with gameplay that is reminiscent of WoW and Diablo 3. It’s a nice mix of classic roleplay with some updated combat and action. They also have something called “The […]
It’s no secret I’m a big fan of State of Decay. In fact, the action-apocalypse title from Undead Labs has easily been one of my favorite adventures of the year, but there are only so many times you can trek through Trumball County, hunting the truth about the army and […]
Pink hair, frills, magical girl powers and lots and lots of death; this is certainly how I would describe Long Live the Queen, a visual novel role-playing game created by Hanako Games. Originally debuted last year, it was only recently released on Steam to a larger public as a result […]
Last week, Telltale Games finally confirmed what many of us have suspected–or hoped–since we wrapped Season One of The Walking Dead: Season Two will follow Clementine in a post-Lee apocalypse. There’s been no confirmation yet on the timeline for the new episodes, so we may pick up with Clem anywhere […]
Power Hour Reviews are a new NYMG feature in which we spend one intense hour playing newly released games in order to get a sense not only of game mechanics and characterization, but narrative as well. Let us spend our time first, so that you don’t have to waste yours. […]