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Article, Vice Games Posted onDecember 25, 2017March 8, 2018

Dishonored’s Billie Lurk Was the Spirit of Justice in 2017

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, the stand-alone expansion to 2016’s Dishonored 2, follows the story of Billie Lurk, the assassin Daud’s erstwhile protégé, and Corvo Attano […] Read More

Article, Unwinnable Posted onDecember 22, 2017March 8, 2018

Dujanah

Pastiche is an aspect of post-modernism that involves borrowing from pre-existing aesthetics, cultures and time-periods when creating new work. It’s “the imitation of a peculiar […] Read More

Article, Unwinnable Posted onNovember 10, 2017December 31, 2019

Cuphead and the Racist Spectre of Fleischer Animation

Cuphead is a 2D platformer with run-and-gun gameplay reminiscent of classic games like Mega Man. What sets Cuphead apart from its predecessors is its unique aesthetic which pays […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onOctober 30, 2017March 8, 2018

Battlegrounds’ Uneasy Proximity to Military Simulators

I’m lying prone on a hill overlooking one of the many ramshackle towns that dot the island map of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Nestled against a nearby tree, […] Read More

Article, ZAM Posted onOctober 7, 2017September 11, 2018

Suraya Hawthorne: Destiny 2’s Token Human

One of the main NPCs in Destiny 2 isn’t one of the Guardians, those beings granted immortality by a giant alien orb known as the Traveler, but […] Read More

Article, Bullet Points Posted onSeptember 16, 2017March 8, 2018

BioShock Infinite: Whose Fantasy?

Bioshock Infinite’s floating city of Columbia is a fantasy. It’s a fantasy not only because it’s a picturesque turn-of-the century cluster of islands floating effortlessly through […] Read More

Article, Vice Games Posted onJuly 27, 2017March 8, 2018

In ‘Injustice 2,’ Even Our Heroes Are Authoritarian Assholes

NetherRealm’s Injustice 2 is ostensibly a game about a group of superheroes getting together to fight an arch-villain named Brainiac. Brainiac threatens to abduct several cities before […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onJuly 26, 2017March 8, 2018

7 Questions We Have About the Lore of Arms

Nintendo’s Arms is a game about punching opponents with cartoonish, springy appendages where regular, non-extendable arms would normally go. In it, neon emblazoned characters duke it out […] Read More

Article, Vice Games Posted onJuly 26, 2017March 8, 2018

‘Prison Architect’ Has No Room for Political Action

This September saw the largest ever prison work strike in American history. On September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, 24,000 prisoners at […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onJuly 6, 2017March 8, 2018

5 Movie Aliens That Probably Inspired Prey’s Monsters

Prey’s Typhon monsters are seriously creepy. Whether it’s a run-in with a duplicitous mimic, a stalking phantom or those eerie, confounding telepaths, you’re likely to […] Read More

Article, Unwinnable Posted onJune 23, 2017March 8, 2018

Separate Invisibilities

Looking back at the spy genre’s vast catalogue of films, novels and games, it’s hard not to notice the paucity of black leads. When it […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onApril 27, 2017March 8, 2018

Bungie Has a Crucible Problem in Destiny’s Multiplayer

Bungie, by presenting a narrative paint-job for Destiny’s multiplayer, takes a departure from its previous first-person shooters. It marries its main storyline – about a humanity […] Read More

Article, Vice Games Posted onApril 2, 2017March 8, 2018

Scoring Video Games at the Flea Market

Though it may seem silly, I find the ease with which I can buy video games to be a useful metric of my success as […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onMarch 14, 2017March 8, 2018

Dishonored 2 Transforms the Liminal Space of Elevators into Dynamic Devices

During a recent session playing Arkane’s Dishonored 2 I found myself stuffed into the attic crawl space of the Addermire Institute with my dead lover’s heart in my […] Read More

Article, Featured, Vice Games Posted onMarch 1, 2017March 8, 2018

Black Skin Is Still A Radical Concept in Video Games

Over the past few years, there has been notable improvement to the range of representation in games. Last year alone saw two separate big-budget titles […] Read More

Article, Ontological Geek Posted onFebruary 26, 2017March 8, 2018

Game Cultures of Collecting

The cost of mod­ern­iza­tion has dri­ven peo­ple into cities where we earn increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed liv­ings. A per­son feels as alone in their car crawl­ing along in […] Read More

Article, ZAM Posted onDecember 30, 2016September 11, 2018

Titanfall 2 and the Trope of the ‘Good Robot’

The recently released first-person shooter, Titanfall 2 has you playing as the novice pilot of a “Titan,” a two-story-tall military robot that can be climbed into and […] Read More

Article, Paste Posted onDecember 8, 2016March 8, 2018

Mass Effect, Arrival and Social Responsibility in Sci-Fi

Science fiction works best when it uses fantastic worlds to comment on our real one. Paul Verhoeven’s dystopic run of films in the 1980s were […] Read More

Article, Vice Games Posted onNovember 16, 2016March 8, 2018

Playing In the Shadow of Progress in ‘Doom’ and ‘Inside’

Playdead’s Inside and Id Software’s Doom were lauded on release for smart game design, sharp aesthetic execution, and for some pretty clever mechanics. But both also have something to […] Read More

Article, ZAM Posted onNovember 9, 2016September 11, 2018

Brendon Chung’s Materials

In December 1890, a group of artists decided to break off from the well-established Paris Salon — the dominant venue for artists to exhibit their […] Read More

Article, Medium Posted onJune 27, 2016March 8, 2018

Unlocking the Truth, Video Games, Metal and Being an Awkward Black Kid in NYC

I recently watched Breaking a Monster, a documentary by Luke Meyer about the band Unlocking the Truth, made up of three 13-year-old black kids from Brooklyn who […] Read More

Article, Ontological Geek Posted onApril 20, 2016March 8, 2018

Common Battlegrounds: Comparing The Division and Freedom Fighters

Games have long relied on the nar­ra­tive of hero­ic strug­gle against over­whelm­ing odds to sup­port their most pop­u­lar mechan­ic: shoot­ing men and col­lect­ing loot. Whether […] Read More

Article, Medium Posted onNovember 24, 2015March 8, 2018

Fallout 4: An Apocalypse Outside of Context

The Fallout franchise of games take place in an alternate universe, one in which the United States totally embraced nuclear weapons and technology after winning […] Read More

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