Month: October 2014

Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: The Paradox of Horror

October 31, 2014 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: Horror Games, Non Play Criticism, Philosophy It is a truism in video game circles of serious thinkers that video games are a young medium and that we are forging new territory with our criticism. That is of course bullshit in both respects. Video game critics are often cut off from other mediums. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Ghouls, Ghosts and Gaming

As has become a staple of the Moving Pixels podcast, we try to do something special for Halloween week by checking out horror games. This time we looked to two free indie games. Both are first person walker games set at night in a mostly open style creepy outdoor environment. However, the two games seemed to be illustrative of how to do it right and how to do it wrong. Haunted Memories is an episodic game on Steam that never seemed to move passed its first episode and is pretty terrible on all counts. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: The Dictionary, The End All Be All of Meaning?

It is a truism in video game circles of serious thinkers that video games are a young medium and that we are forging new territory with our criticism. That is of course bullshit in both respects. Video game critics are often cut off from other mediums. May perhaps that our medium is so new that more energy is required to get anything done as each new step is not just walking along a singular path among the fold, but having to stir and pour the concrete before a step may be taken. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: Defining “Arthouse”

It is a truism in video game circles of serious thinkers that video games are a young medium and that we are forging new territory with our criticism. That is of course bullshit in both respects. Video game critics are often cut off from other mediums. May perhaps that our medium is so new that more energy is required to get anything done as each new step is not just walking along a singular path among the fold, but having to stir and pour the concrete before a step may be taken. | more

Eric Swain Game Issues

Virulent, Vociferous and Vocal

(Excuse this entire article. I wrote this a few weeks ago when I needed to do so. This ended up as my version of stream of consciousness writing and given how I normally write that’s saying something. But, at this point, it’s merely an exercise in style and testing a new feature on the site. I have no idea if there is anything worthwhile to be gleaned in this post. If there is, great. If not, you were warned.) I generally like to give credit to what inspired me to think along certain lines with an essay. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

‘Spec Ops: The Line’ Denies the Player the Pleasure of Play

All of us at PopMatters finally got around to playing Spec Ops: The Line several weeks ago and I just got around to writing about it now. Coming to a game late with an eye towards writing criticism about it is a daunting task. There is always that knowledge that someone, somewhere must have already said anything you’d think was interesting. There is that fear that you have nothing new, insightful or otherwise useful to add to the conversation. More than usual, I mean. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Hardboiled Hijinks

The summer doldrums ticked away and so we went back to talk about an indie game from 2013: Gunpoint. As we found there was little to grab onto with regards of our usual in-depth discussion about craft and theme, but we still managed to find things to say about style and tone. Overall, I think Gunpoint is a fine game. Not an exceptional game, not one I’d leap up and down and say you have to play it right now, but a fine enough game that leaves a pleasant feeling after having played it. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: Women in Clothes

It is a truism in video game circles of serious thinkers that video games are a young medium and that we are forging new territory with our criticism. That is of course bullshit in both respects. Video game critics are often cut off from other mediums. May perhaps that our medium is so new that more energy is required to get anything done as each new step is not just walking along a singular path among the fold, but having to stir and pour the concrete before a step may be taken. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

My Downward Spiral with ‘Watch Dogs’

I’m finally back to writing my weekly posts on PopMatters, coming back with one that had been holding me back almost since I stopped writing. This was originally supposed to be a review of Watch Dogs. I had gotten a copy from Ubisoft for that purpose. But the game was taking so long to play. Every time I sat down the play, I wanted to literally do anything else. While playing the game, I wanted to stop. There would be days or weeks in between play session as I got over my aversion to it. | more