Year: 2017

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Goes ‘Knee Deep’ in Swamp Noir

We begin another episodic adventure game to alternate between episodes of the podcast. We begin with episode 1 of Knee Deep. The episode is a bit more chaotic than usual, mostly because I don’t think any of us knew quite what to make of Knee Deep. It’s not a bad game, but it’s also not really a good one either. It’s doing quite a few interesting things, but also, its positioned itself as more generic work in the gaming landscape. It’s hard to read into it when everything it’s doing is rather boilerplate. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

TGC Game of the Year 2016 Addendum

I struggled a bit with my game of the year list, mainly because I was trying to squeeze more games than would fit. 15 games into 10 slots at final count. I debated whether I should increase the list to 15 to accommodate all the games I wanted to mention. I also did think about forgoing the top 10 format entirely. With an alphabetical list I could put as many as I wanted onto the list without getting wonky with the numbering system. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

TGC Game of the Year 2016

July 5, 2017 | Filed under: Game Issues, Recent Posts and tagged with: End of Year, Game of the Year Time got away from me. I could have passed on doing this altogether, never published it and nobody would have cared, but I’d know. I’d know and that would gnaw at me. This is a wrap up to 2016. In a way, this is an exercising of the last remnants of that year. Things haven’t improved overall, but carrying on any psychic baggage that could otherwise be compartmentalized away from the present is something I don’t want to do and cannot afford myself. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Talking on Games

There interview was delayed a little thanks to E3, but here it is with Hamish Black of Writing on Games. I want to quickly apologize for how I sound and my less than stellar ability in asking questions in this one. At the time I thought I was normal and all right to go. Only during the editing did I realize how loopy on antibiotics I was. I also want to make some observations on the changing nature of these interviews that isn’t appropriate to say in the official post. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses ‘Tales from the Borderlands Episode 2′

We continue our episodic discussions of Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands with episode 2. There has been a big change in how we handle episodic games in our podcast between this series and the last time we tackled a Telltale game. Before they were a form of audio playthrough. We went chronologically through the events of each episode discussing plot points and our rational for our choices. We did much the same when we did Life is Strange. But our discussion for Tales from the Borderlands is much more fluid. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Goes ‘Full Throttle’

This week we check out the recently release remaster of the LucasArts classic, Full Throttle. I feel like comedies are difficult to discuss in the manner we usually dissect video games. Instead of going into story details, much of our discussion is concerned with the mechanics of how the game functions both literally and thematically. I make a comment near the end of this podcast that we didn’t really discuss the story all that much. Instead, we focus on the pieces that make up the world and the game. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses ‘Tales from the Borderlands Episode 1′

And so, we begin a new series of episodes on a Telltale Adventure game. This time the action/comedy Tales from the Borderlands. We’ve been away from Telltale for a while so covering Tales from the Borderlands both felt like coming home to a knowable, comfortable quantity and getting a splash of cold water to the face. If there’s a through-line to our discussion, it’s this dichotomy. In changing up to a comedy instead of another tragedy, Tales feels fresh and something of a clearing the air over our burnout of the relentlessness of Telltale’s other titles. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Documentary Delight

I interviewed the director of the gaming documentary Gaming in Color, Philip Jones. This was a bit different from the other interviews, as it seems every interview in this series is, that instead of a whole body of work that I could discuss we focused solely on a single piece, the film. Can’t think of anything else to add that didn’t make it into the interview. I will admit, this one is a little behind the original schedule. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Seeks the ‘Lost Constellation’

This week, we discuss the free Kickstarter teaser, demoish thing for Night in the Woods, Lost Constellation. I personally didn’t get much from the game other than a nice, pleasant feeling from the game’s art style, but fellow podcaster Nick liked it a lot. I didn’t have much to contribute this time around, but Nick and Chris went in depth on a discussion of folklore and rituals and how Lost Constellation reflects that aspect of human behavior. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Becomes The ‘Beholder’

This week we look at the Russian indie game on living in a totalitarian society, Beholder. It’s one of those games where I found the discussion engendered by the game far more interesting than the game itself. I contend on the podcast that this was by design as it felt thematically appropriate to withhold certain aspects of how to play the game but nonetheless makes it a frustrating experience to play in the first place. Nick got more out of it and gleaned some facets about how the game makes you behave by subsuming yourself to the system. | more