Month: July 2013

Eric Swain External Sources

There’s a Little Killer Podcast in All of Us

I was on the Moving Pixels Podcast again. This time to talk about an older game, namely Suda 51′s magnum opus: Killer 7. It’s a weird game and a difficult one. I had a really busy week and didn’t get around to playing it until the day of the podcast and despite many hours could only get through the first two full levels. I am going to finish it, because it’s just one of those games that demands to be played. On a side note, if anyone can identify why my audio is so horrible on these podcasts, I’d be very appreciative. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

July 28th TWIVGB

Ok, despite how I closed out last week’s TWIVGB, saying that Kris would be back, I did another one. She asked me if I was available and I was actually freer to do things, because I didn’t have to play 6 games over the weekend. One thing I did notice this time around was how the style of criticism has changed since the beginning of the year. What was once popular, New Game Journalism, Personal Writing, Fractured Essays, are all genres that have waned in the intervening months. | more

Eric Swain Uncategorized

‘The Last of Us’ is Emotionally Manipulative

Last week, The Last of Us Moving Pixels podcast was published. I was on it and the lone dissenter as we worked are way through examining the game. I found that I was able to properly explain my position on the game and I’m pretty sure I sound like I’m simply babbling. I knew that much from the recording session. So, I decided to spend my next column doing just that, explain myself and where I feel The Last of Us fell short. I spent a long time crafting that post and editing it. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

July 21st TWIVGB

Kris needed a break and I took the reins for TWIVGB this past weekend. It went a lot quicker than I remember it being. Maybe it’s because I read nearly all the posts ahead of time. Maybe there weren’t as many suggestions. Maybe the new categorization system just means the work goes faster. Who knows? It was a crowded weekend, what with Steam trading card farming for money and having to play 3 games, two for review and one for podcast. My phone also died over the weekend so that meant more time out of what I had to do. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Porpentine of the Twine

And my last post looking into Interactive Fiction is done. Every time I come up with some sort of theme it ends up getting so off track for one reason or another. In this case it was playing all these twine games for this post and the last one and then having to digest them all. I purposefully left Porpentine’s work out of my twine overview in the previous post for several compounding reasons. She is an author that is prolific enough, her work ranges from fairly interesting to oh my god the depth is crushing me and she has had a pretty big spotlight on her for quite a while. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Reviews For May/June

July 7, 2013 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: Cognition, PopMatters, Review, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, The Room, The Showdown Effect, Thomas Was Alone I did a number of reviews for PopMatters in the months of May and June. There are a few more waiting in the wings to be published. In published chronological order: I really like this review. I didn’t think much of The Showdown Effect, but I didn’t dislike it either. | more