February 20, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

Haywire Magazine: Games of 2014

Editor in Chief of Haywire Magazine Joe Köller put out the word some time ago that they were doing another roundup of the best games of the year by getting as many critics together to write blurbs for as many games as they could. This year I participated alongside 32 other video game critics. At first, I only committed to writing about one game. My personal game of the year, Dragonfall. I knew no one else was going to and someone needed to represent for it. | more

February 10, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

‘The Banner Saga’ Presents a Living World Through a Lore That Is Actually Lived

I examine the elegant delivery of The Banner Saga‘s lore this week in my PopMatters column. This is one of those subjects that if I had the time and space I could have expanded into a very long piece. Most lore is extraneous information meant to give texture to the world. Often, it’s done abstractly, but along the journey you do actually cross a few of the locations on the map. Had you read it ahead of time it grants that extra texture not abstractly, but through better understanding of the goings on. | more

February 6, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

NPC – Non Play Criticism: Love Music, Hold the Criticism

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

February 3, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

’80 Days’ and the Limits of Fiction

My weekly column is up on PopMatters on inkle’s 80 Days. Don’t read it. It’s shit. Due to a miscommunication, the wrong version was posted and now there’s nothing that can be done about it. It can’t be edited and I can delete it. Below is the correct text to the post. The only change made in deference to the PopMatters’ version is the title. | more

February 3, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

Investigating ‘Ethan Carter’

This week on the Moving Pixels Podcast we try to parse out The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Thanks to Steam sales and a lot of great games hitting near the tail end of last year, we’re doing some catch up. Kind of grateful that January has been slow in that respect. It ended up being a pretty great discussion because none of us really agreed with the interpretation and evaluation. Or at least it was going well until the last 10 minutes or so when I try to make a point I can’t quite articulate on the fly and fumble the whole thing. | more