The festive period always makes me think about Christmases past: whether this is just my inability to move past my own past or whether this is something all people do, I am unsure, but I’ve spent a lot of time considering gifts that I had received in my youth. Of course, I feel terrible for … [Read more…]
The word ‘unplayable’ is thrown around far too much with regard to games, but 1st Person Pinball, another DOS game of the late ’80s vintage, truly does border on this dubious accolade. A lot can be said about the limitations of technology, as well as the virtue of trying new approaches to long-established genres and … [Read more…]
I’ve never really used games as an avenue for dealing with anger or any latent homicidal urges that I may have had: it’s why open-world games (playpits for sociopathy that they tend to market themselves as) have never really appealed to me, with the activities on show tending to cater to those who may find … [Read more…]
I find it odd that video game adaptations of game shows are ever commissioned: most of these formats rely on interaction between host and constestants to get the greatest entertainment value out of their core mechanics (who can forget the antics, clumsy though they may have been, of Catchphrase‘s Nick Weir), and that’s something that … [Read more…]
Its rare that a series of video games with a meaningful philosophical root exists, aside from cases of nebulous associations such as “all first-person shooters owe something to DOOM” or “most western fantasy theming in video games owes something to Dungeons and Dragons.” The Soulsborne games (a portmanteau born of desperation more than anything else), … [Read more…]