The Game Critique

Working for the Weekend on Critical Distance

As some of you may know, or care, Ben Aberham will be gallivanting off to GDC thanks to the generous contributions from around the blogosphere, proving once more that some people have way too much time on their hands. All kidding aside, I’m sure Ben will do a bang up job covering the event. For [...]

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SLRC – So Long Righteous Comrade

SLRC is dead Long Live SLRC So reads the title of the ever changing acronym SLRC blog. Ben Aberham if not the most prolific internet critic is definitely one of the most important. Besides is own blog he was the creator of Critical Distance blog, trying to bring all the best of game criticism under one URL [...]

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The Nature of Reading: Interpretation and Auteurism using Final Fantasy VIII and Mulholland Drive

Recently on twitter I was pointed to an essay on Final Fantasy VIII that differs from the more generally accepted reading of the game’s story. If you have not read it yet, before you proceed with this post, please do. First let me speak on the essay itself. I think it’s a beautifully argued and supports [...]

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Where is the Last Third of Brutal Legend?

Brutal Legend's story is an epic, not just epic. An epic represented by the hero's journey. We progress through the game following this well-worn path in a new and creative environment based on the culture of heavy metal. So why does the game end 2/3 of the way through?

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VGHVI Podcast Appearance

Last Thursday I played Bioshock during the simultanious playthrough while talking on Skype with Denis Farr, Roger Travis, Micheal Abbot and several others. Roger took that conversation and made a podcast out of it. He was doing the recording and unforturenatly Skype kept kicking him out so he didn’t get everything, probably for the best. [...]

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TGC’s Game of the Year ‘09

So what is my game of the year? Well unlike the last two years that when I asked myself that question there was a clear winner. In 2007 it was Portal and in ‘08 it was Metal Gear Solid 4. There were plenty of other good games out those years, but those two to me [...]

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State of the Blog ‘09

A year and a fortnight ago I started this site from the idea that I wanted to critique games, as one would do to a book or movie, looking at what they mean. It is hard to believe that it has been a full year. In that time I’ve learned about the larger spheres of [...]

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Nostradamus Check Up ‘09

Last year I said I called it to a number of predictions I had made. Then in February I made several predictions about the coming year. Let’s see how I did. 1- On Resident Evil 5 I said that it would be an end to the series being about horror mostly because of co-op as an [...]

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A Wondeful Comment in an Otherwise Shitty Season

Over at Kotaku, I know I know, hear me out. Over at Kotaku they sometimes highlight some of the more interesting comments from their comment sections by giving it their own post, which is better than articles dedicated to breast admiration, though their next post defeats that purpose, but I digress.

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In Which I Respond to the Three False Contraints

When I first read Danc's post over at Lost Garden, Three False Constraints, I called it the stupidest thing I read from the critical community. I decided rather than write an immediate response I would wait a few days to calm down and think it over non-emotionally. I'm glad I did, not because I came to any agreement with him, but because I read this piece by Charles J Pratt over at Game Design Advance. It got me thinking more about the meat of the form of the medium. So I spent some more time thinking and went back to reread his post. Here's my response.

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