Month: November 2013

Eric Swain External Sources

‘Memoria’: Stories and Truth

For my Thanksgiving week column, I decided to go back and write about Memoria. I don’t feel like I’ve done the game justice here. I really liked it and I really would like others to share in my joy. Daedalic Entertainment’s output and I have not really gotten along. For all the praise they seem to get all I see are mediocre to downright awful point and click adventure games. Given the size of their output I can only assume they have multiple teams and that Memoria was made by a different team than Deponia, A New Beginning and The Night of the Rabbit. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Neon Noir Fairy Tales

The next episode of the Moving Pixels podcast, the first in what is sure to be a series, discussing The Wolf Among Us. I am an unabashed Fables fan. I spend much of the time on the podcast resisting the urge to spew continuity all over the place. The angle of Telltale has chosen to work with the subject matter has so much to work with and benefits greatly if you know the details about the world. And from what my fellow podcasts have said, it works even if you don’t know the world that much. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Anachronic Mixup of ‘Beyond: Two Souls”

It’s a day late, but my post discussing Beyond: Two Souls is up on PopMatters. I wanted to expand upon a point I made in my review of the game, which was the anachronic nature of the game’s presentation. David Cage decided that it would be a good idea to present the story of this woman’s life out of order for some reason. At the end, an in-game fictional excuse is given for why the game is presented as it is, but it doesn’t matter as it doesn’t work in the real world with me as an audience member experiencing it. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Playing the Gigolo: ‘Killer is Dead’ Changes the Pace of the Game

I want to start out by saying I chose neither the title nor the picture for the Killer is Dead piece. I am terrible at titles and sometimes leave it up to editors to come up with them for me. You can see what I put in the title field in the back end in the URL. There’s a lot of craziness going on in Killer is Dead, which I guess is standard for a Suda 51 game. But it does something I wish more action games would do. It gives the player an area to play taking a break. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Sword, Sex and Suda 51

A while back we at PopMatters played Suda 51 latest creation, though only in a writing capacity this time, Killer is Dead. The studio sent multiple codes, so I got one and we decided ‘hold a podcast on it.’ I expressed my thoughts on twitter on beating the game, and later repeated them on the podcast, as “thoroughly mediocre.” I think it might be the most apt way to describe the game. While it does have interesting points, plenty to grab onto for a discussion and absolutely dripping with Suda 51′s artistic self all over the place, it just meh. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

November 10th TWIVGB

I took the reins from Kris Ligman for this week’s TWIVGB feature so she could go on vacation. Enjoy Montana Kris. Usually, I just fill up space here with some anecdote or quick observation regarding the round up. Instead, I want to take this time to address something I’m betting no one has noticed but has really been bothering me regarding the TWIVGBs. Way back when I first became affiliated with Critical Distance, I made a public declaration both here and on twitter, something I’m sure no one actually remembers. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Cinematic Framing in ‘Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons’

I get back to playing more recent fare with a piece focusing on an oft overlooked element in gaming and its use in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. The week’s column was spawned by that all too great motivator, desperation. It was getting late and I had to go to bed early because I was working the election polls the next day. I had to be up at 5 am. I looked over my list of games that I’ve played but haven’t written anything about (every critic should make a list like this) and pick out something I could find something to say about. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Reviews For September/October

Only 4 reviews over the last two months. It would have been more, but several things have kept them from others being published on time. Late review copies, accidental double scheduling etc. My next review round up looks to be a doozy. What is there really to say about Divekick? I’ve never been really all that into the fighting game scene or games in general. I’ve usually owned at least one for some matches with friends when they’re over as they’re generally good party games with a quick turnover. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

We Have No Mouths and We Must Scream

Just one day after Halloween, out comes our two many podcast discussion on the classic adventure game I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. In the beginning we lament that we have to warn about spoiling the game, including puzzles. In fact, a large portion of the podcast could constitute a walkthrough because of the integrated nature of them regarding the thematic content. The puzzles aren’t divorced from the story like many traditional point and click adventure games and on that alone I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream comes out far ahead of much of its genre. | more

Eric Swain Game Issues

A Cultural History of Horror

Horror stories are meant to be dark reflections of ourselves or rather more importantly a dark reflection of what we fear most as a society at the time. This isn’t true on an individual level, because what one person finds scary, bores another and what may be a broken taboo for some, is just par for the course for others. But in the aggregate, trends pop up and these are what succeeds in scaring a great majority of the populace. Thus reflect the thinking of a society as a whole. | more