Month: November 2011

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Shock to the System

I am writing this, because I am freaking out right now and not entirely in a good way. I need to get this out of my right now, before my heart does something it shouldn’t. Twice today I’ve gotten a shock and both concern free games. Earlier today I was hanging out in my room reading my twitter feed, trying to catch up and I’m seeing a lot of chatter on Steam Sales, seems like they get earlier every year, and then I see Justin Keverne mention he feels like gift a game. | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Motorstorm: Apocalypse, the game that wasn’t there

This is one of those posts that felt like pulling teeth. It just didn’t want to come out. Then again it’s a post about how the game offered nothing to talk about, so that is understandable. I say in the first sentence that this was my fourth attempt at writing this piece, but with the editing and major corrections it went through it’s probably even higher. It should have come out a week or two ago, but it kept getting pushed back because I didn’t know what to do with it and the editorial team was equally stumped. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

The Supergenres of Action, RPGs and Adventure Games

I wrote a piece for Gameranx asking the question, ‘What is action/adventure?‘ This is part of the larger question about game genres, one that’s been discussed at length over twitter and several posts have come up as well with regards of what certain genres are. As much as the genre debate is generally one of semantics, or in the case of Action/Adventure pigeonholing, I feel there is a necessary undercurrent of philosophy and focus behind the question of what they are that is generally lacking in the current discussion. | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Costume Quest and the Annual Tradition

The day after Halloween I have a post up about a potential Halloween tradition in video games. I personally have traditions every year for other holidays with family and friends as I’m sure most if not all of you do. And while Halloween is important for my friends and I we don’t have any set ritual. It’s different ever year. As I have a weekly obligation to talk about games and I’m smack dab in the middle of another project that takes a lot of time and leads to little results until it’s done I decided to go back to a short game from last year. | more