I’ve been pandering to my gaming nostalgia of late, replaying childhood favorites like Sly Cooper, playing new games that adhere to retro aesthetics like Celeste, playing basically anything by Nintendo (who seem to be masters of evoking a nostalgic vibe in all their games). During my latest phase of nostalgia, […]
Episode 168: She Came to Slay: A Conversation on Community Building and Video Games (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, BlogTalk Radio, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week we are joined by NYMG and Mixer community member Nicole Kirchoff (@NKirc) as we talk about gaming, building community around games, and […]
Women as reward. It’s an unfortunately common sexist practice I see in many of the video games I have played and the video games I have seen marketed. Rewarding players with women, all women – not just those that are cisgendered, is equally problematic. While games use women and women’s […]
Content Warning: This post details sensitive and controversial topics that occur in Doki Doki Literature Club! It also contains plot and character spoilers. In my last post I went into detail on the unconventional gameplay of Team Salvato’s visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club!, while also mentioning the unexpected disclaimer that appears upon […]
Late last year, I stumbled across an ad for Mosaic, a film-based interactive story app helmed by film director Steven Soderbergh and starring Sharon Stone. Intrigued, I downloaded it immediately, but I never got very far. At the beginning, at least, “interactivity” seemed nonexistent, and while I appreciated the story for […]
Episode 167: No Such Thing As A Stupid Question: Taking On Your Questions (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, BlogTalk Radio, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week Alisha and Sam answer questions submitted to the show and throw in one (each) of their own. It was a shorter episode, but […]
If you’re like me, WoW was one of the most fun (and intense) gaming periods of your life. Many people I know went down a WoW hole for sometimes months, sometimes years. If you’re really like me, you’ve tried to go back several times, but the game had changed so […]
Disclaimer: There will be heavy spoilers in this article regarding the nature and content of Doki Doki Literature Club! If you have any interest in the game, I would recommend checking it out before reading this article; however, please refer to the warning list beforehand and play at your own […]
Last year I walked into a store dedicated to board and card games for the first time. I love board games but it is not always easy finding a store that is the analog equivalent to GameStop. And usually when I do find them, they are far away. So when […]
(Disclaimer: I received a review code for a free copy of Celeste, but that has not influenced my opinions of this title in any way). Celeste is the latest title by MATT MAKES GAMES, and Indie developer known for the hit game Towerfall released back in 2013. Similar to Towerfall, Celeste […]
CW: Visual depictions of sexism and violence As the semester kicks off, I’ve been doing a lot of reading for a class I’m teaching for the first time called Communicating Through New Media. The class covers a wide range of topics relating to how to most effectively communicate through new […]
Episode 166: Looking Back, Looking Foward: Our Favorites of 2017 and Most Anticipated of 2018 (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, BlogTalk Radio, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week we chat about our favorite games from last year and the games that we are most excited to play in 2018. We’re […]
A couple of months ago I picked up the Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy, remastered by Vicarious Visions for PS4. I was pretty excited to play through Naughty Dog’s original claim to fame, since I skipped over the PS1 generation as a kid and never had the change to play through […]
Note: I used an italicized ‘Orwell’ when talking about the game as a whole and ‘Orwell’ when talking about specifics of the governmental program within the game. Over break I bought a game called Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You. I had never heard of this game before but it […]
I bought Fallout 4 as a holiday gift for my partner and me back when it released in 2015, but after playing for maybe 45 minutes, I put it aside. Since then, I’ve picked it up a few times, but never for more than one short play session—until late last […]
(Disclaimer: I received a review code for a free copy of Dynasty Feud, but that has not influenced my opinions of this title in any way). Many of my friends know that fighting games are one of least favorite genres. Admittedly sometimes that is not the fault of the game […]