Category: Game Essays

Eric Swain Game Essays

Thoughts on Batman – The Telltale Series Episode 1

August 11, 2017 | Filed under: Game Essays, Recent Posts and tagged with: Batman, Batman - The Telltale Series, Telltale After finishing the first episode of last year’s Telltale Batman game I was just gushing with observations, criticisms and other related thoughts. Instead of trying to pound them into a coherent essay (any one of these points could make an essay unto itself), I figured it would be more accurate and honest to leave them as the grab bag of thoughts they were. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 5 review

It’s good. If you’ve waited this long to find out whether or not you should get Tales from the Borderlands, I really don’t know what to say to you. If you haven’t finished it or even played it yet, then you should really go remedy that before continuing to read what I have to say here. There is a concept of the innovator and master in art. The idea that some artwork innovated on a concept and later some other artwork showed mastery of that innovated technique or style. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 4 review

What I’m loving about Tales from the Borderlands is that it allows itself to go wherever the story needs it to. Case in point, after three episodes of being a treasure hunt, the game just up and says, “let’s change genres. We’re now a heist film.” Ok, a treasure hunt and a heist aren’t too far off from one another in the narrative output department, but it is still a big shift in focus. Now that our plucky cadre of miscreants are under the thumb of Pandora crime boss Vallory, they have to satisfy her desire to complete the vault key rather than their own. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 3 review

I don’t remember where I heard, saw or read this, but I remember an interview with John Cleese, the estimable comedian behind Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda, that he had to learn how to do comedy differently for each of those works. When he moved on to doing a full half-hour show in Fawlty Towers, he realized there was a difference to how he was doing the few minute shorts of Monty Python. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Minor Moments: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

January 23, 2015 | Filed under: Game Essays, Recent Posts and tagged with: Minor Moments, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Sometimes there are moments in games that stick in my mind, but aren’t big enough or otherwise important enough to warrant inclusion as a part of a larger discussion. Sometimes there isn’t room in a piece to include mentioning it or there is no simple way to crowbar it in while talking about the game. But they still stick in my mind and I think are somewhat worth mentioning. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Following Fogg: Adapting ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ into ’80 Days’

Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days is a Victorian era adventure novel following the exploits of Phileas Fogg and his valet Jean Passepartout in their attempt to win a wager. Done as a series of episodic exploits that take place in various countries along the route, it’s easy how one could adapt the book’s structure into a video game. However, a novel written in the 1870s is not something that will work as a video game in the 2010s. Not the least of which is the book’s very imperialistic vibe. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Minor Moments: Quest for Infamy

Sometimes there are moments in games that stick in my mind but aren’t big enough or otherwise important enough to warrant inclusion as a part of a larger discussion. Sometimes there isn’t room in a piece to include mentioning it or there is no simple way to crowbar it in while talking about the game. But they still stick in my mind and I think are somewhat worth mentioning. This is an occasional series to just that. (*Spoilers for Quest for Infamy*) There are two moments I want to mention in Quest for Infamy. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Memoria Review

December 11, 2013 | Filed under: Game Essays, Recent Posts and tagged with: Memoria, Review This review has quite a storied history. I accepted the game for review from a PR contact with the purpose that it would go up on PopMatters. I didn’t know that someone else was already doing the game and had a review in the pipeline. So began my trek to find this review a home. After a number of dead ends, one editor said he’d look into it, though by that time it was too late to be paid for. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Fallen: A Story from Primordia

As I’ve expressed before, I’m not a big fan of sequels as a concept. Continuity driven series are fine and all, but video games have a dearth of self-contained experiences. So, if I were asked if I’d want to see a sequel story in the world of one of my favorite games of last year, I would have said no. I would have begged against it. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more complete whole in a video game than Primordia. Yet so many fans of the game apparently wanted to see a sequel in that world filling in all the cracks ignoring that they were A. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays

Deponia: Down in the Dumps

(I was assigned to do a review on Deponia, was given a review copy and everything from Nightmare Mode. It was written, editing and ready for posting. Then the day before it was scheduled Nightmare Mode went on hiatus to restructure itself into its present form. I was given my review back and allowed to find it another home. Another site took it, but it fell by the wayside for various understandable reasons. I remembered recently that this existed and I asked for it back and the editor graciously said yes. | more