February 6, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

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

February 6, 2015 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: Music, Non Play 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. | 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

January 31, 2015 Eric Swain Game Issues

TGC Game of the Year 2014

January 31, 2015 | Filed under: Game Issues, Recent Posts and tagged with: End of Year, Game of the Year Before I get into what I felt were the best games of 2014, that I played, I want to talk about the concept of list itself. It may seem unnecessary. All that may seem necessary is a bare bones ten line list of the titles and be done with it. That wouldn’t be acceptable in my case. I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner regarding the issue and now have to put my money where my mouth is. | more

January 23, 2015 Eric Swain Game Essays

Minor Moments: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

January 23, 2015 | Filed under: Game Essays, Recent Posts and tagged with: Minor Moments, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Sometimes there are moments in games that stick in my mind, but aren’t big enough or otherwise important enough to warrant inclusion as a part of a larger discussion. Sometimes there isn’t room in a piece to include mentioning it or there is no simple way to crowbar it in while talking about the game. But they still stick in my mind and I think are somewhat worth mentioning. | more

January 20, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

‘The Vanishing of Ethan Carter’ Fails to Live Up to It’s Own Promise

I was playing through The Vanishing of Ethan Carter as part of my catch up in time for the end of the year. It was an indie game getting some buzz and the opening certainly was interesting. Unfortunately, it never seems to capitalize on that promise. There’s my two-sentence review of the game. I also would like to note that there’s a lot of visual goodness to like in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. There are bits of the game I think are quite good and worth experiencing, even if the whole doesn’t stick the landing. | more

January 19, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

Moving Pixels Podcast: Our Best Games of 2014

It’s that time of year again, the one where critics and websites all sit around and have fun talking about the games they liked over the past 12 months. As per usual, I’m still working out what my best of year list will look like. I’m still playing games for instance that could make it on. Lots of catch up happens at the end of year and, for me due to my CD commitments, into January. That list is still incoming. As for our discussion, it is really interesting to see our unique perspectives come through our lists. | more

January 19, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – On ‘Killing is Harmless’

Things are still getting hammered out with regard to the direction we want the podcast to go. In the meantime, I interviewed Brendan Keogh about his book that headed a whole wave of video game criticism books, Killing is Harmless. Don’t have much to say at the moment. The interview quite nicely speaks for itself and plans for future possibilities are still being worked out. Now that I’m back from my road trip the RSS feed has been updated so it should be on iTunes now. | more

January 5, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Goes ‘To The Moon’

The first podcast of the new year is up on PopMatters. We discuss the 2011 indie game, To The Moon. I was on the positive end of things when it came to To The Moon, but at the same time it wasn’t a game I was willing to fight over. It’s a game that is fine, not exceptional, just fine. That’s where I was after playing it and after the recording of the podcast. I’ve grown a little warmer towards it upon relistening to the conversation. | more

January 2, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources

My Work in 2014

January 2, 2015 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: End of Year It’s become customary to share ones work at the end of the year in one big roundup. I think it should be pretty obvious by now that I’m in favor of looking back and reflecting upon the past year. I don’t feel like going to deep on it though other than making mention of what I managed to accomplish. I fell apart quite a few times and couldn’t keep up with my own set workload, so I’d rather just let the aggregate of what I did worth mentioning be it. | more