Tag: PopMatters

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

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

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

Eric Swain External Sources

Moving Pixels Podcast Finally Plays the Long Delayed ‘Last Guardian’

We finally get around to talking about the finally released The Last Guardian. This one has been a long time coming. This is one of those titles that has always been on the docket to be discussed, basically as soon as enough of us have played it. We discuss the wait that The Last Guardian put us through and how the expectation game might effect our appreciation of it. Though we do get into a discussion into how The Last Guardian delivers its story and develops the relationship between Trico and the boy through its play. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast ‘Reigns’

This week on the Moving Pixels Podcast, we discuss the tinder-esque mobile kingdom simulator, Reigns. I am sometimes surprised at some of the games we do for the podcast are able to sustain a discussion. For as simple as Reigns is and as reductive as it has to be to fit the format, it has a lot of commentary embedded into its structure. At one point I call it a game of political one-liners. While true for a lot of the mini quests that make up the deck of cards, it’s a bit reductive to regarding the meaning in the mechanics. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Plays ‘Sorcery!’

This week we look at the first two games in the Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series. The Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is so arch that delving into the game in any sort of detail is inevitably going to turn into a discussion of the fantasy genre and its tropes. Sorcery! is from a particular brand of fantasy from the 1980s. Born of the monopolization of the Campbellian monomyth and world building lessons of Tolkien. We discuss the game’s context from which it was born and the effect of a road trip narrative filled with mini-story arcs throughout. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Explores ‘This is the Police’

This week we dig into the Belarus indie police simulator This is the Police. It was a game that seemed fine at first, but slowly devolved into ‘I don’t give a fuck just be over already.’ I danced around what I felt the major failing of it was, because I hadn’t completely ordered my thoughts on it, but it’s so damn cynical for no reason. And cynical in a way that doesn’t really make sense. It’s a depressing cartoon of a police force that so desperately wants to be taken seriously. | more