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 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 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 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

December 21, 2014 Eric Swain External Sources

Reviews for October/November/December

These are the last few reviews I published at PopMatters for 2014. I do feel I’m getting better at the practice. I really did want to like Gods Will Be Watching. Of course, what person doesn’t want to play a game they won't like. It’s more than that, though. I have a penchant for gravitating towards works of a philosophical bent. Early on we get that the game is about making hard choices in impossible situations and the sacrifices that have to be made. I soldiered through to the end. | more

December 16, 2014 Eric Swain External Sources

Considering the Two Seasons of ‘The Walking Dead’ Video Game

My last PopMatters column of the year and I look back to compare Season One and Season Two of The Walking Dead. Everything seemed to be working in The Walking Dead‘s favor coming into Season Two. Everything I was hearing made it sound like we were in for interesting possibilities. Clementine as the main character seemed like a really good move and the integration of the 400 Days cast was expanding it into a wider world. And yet, it wasn’t bad, just lesser. | more

December 10, 2014 Eric Swain External Sources

Five of the Best Mobile Games of 2014

Given how huge they have become, mobile games don’t get enough space in the critical spheres devoted to them. I decided to rectify that a bit and take a short glance at 5 games I played this year. Most of the good stuff comes out on iOS as opposed to Android. There are a bunch of technical reasons for that having to do with the non-standard implementation of Android’s open platform that sounds legitimate to my uninformed self. However, I don’t have an iOS device. I have an Android phone and tablet. | more

December 8, 2014 Eric Swain External Sources

Moving Pixels Podcast Steps Over ‘The Line’

Two years after its release, we get around to discussing Spec Ops: The Line on the podcast. I hadn’t played it before we decided to finally do Spec Ops. I owned it and I knew, as a critic, it would be important to play, but there was always something keeping me from doing so. I hadn’t read Brendan’s book on it either. So in a very short amount of time, I both played the game and read Killing is Harmless in preparation of the podcast. | more