Tag: PopMatters

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The Moving Pixels Podcast Takes a Trip to ‘Pony Island’

This time on the Moving Pixels Podcast we discuss Daniel Mullins’s game Pony Island. This is a weird little game that I think I kind of love almost solely for its weirdness. It’s always throwing something new at the player and never allows itself to become complacent or stale. And it ends in the most pitch perfect way possible of an uber triumph of bombastic proportion within its own stylistic confines. I also like that there may be more underneath the surface that we just weren’t able to tease out. | more

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Storytelling Engines: The Story Arc Has Ended and Yet the Game Keeps Going

I wrote this piece trying to examine my own response to “storytelling engine games” and why they don’t grab me for long. Every time we do one of these games for the podcast I end up on the “ehh” side of lukewarm. Darkest Dungeon being the most recent, but you … (This post is lost beyond this point.) Storytelling Engines: The Story Arc Has Ended and Yet the Game Keeps Going » PopMatters | more

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The Moving Pixels Podcast Plumbs The Depths of the ‘Darkest Dungeon’

On this episode we delve into the Darkest Dungeon, the horror RPG that hates you. I find whenever we do one of these roguelike games that’s light on authored content, you have to hope the description of how it plays leads to some sort of metaphor. Thankfully, Darkest Dungeon is one of those that does. The game hammers hard on the “grind up those cogs in the corporate machine” message. But beyond that base message and a few shades of specifics in the behavior that is rewarded by the system, there doesn’t seem much. | more

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Mind of the Machine: AlphaGo and Artificial Intelligence

I finally wrote a new column for PopMatters. I stayed up all night several days in a row to watch the AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol match play out. It was being held during the day in Korea so that meant it started around midnight here on the East Coast. I feel it was worth it. I really like the game of Go and try to talk about it when I can, but unless you are ingrained in the game, a lot of the specifics are utterly meaningless. I suppose that’s a lesson that could be applied to most games. | more

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Hinduism and Buddhism Meet Science Fiction in ‘Cradle’

This week’s episode of the Moving Pixels Podcast is on the indie game Cradle. I was on this podcast, but it was quickly apparent to me that I had nothing to say on this game. I was near catatonic I was so bored with this game. So, I’m introduced, make some comments at the beginning and then am pretty much silent for the rest of the running time. Which is a pity given all the fascinating things Chris and Nick were able to get out of this game. | more

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Learning about Love from ‘Cibele’

Just in time to miss Valentine’s Day we look at the confessional, autobiographical love story by Nina Freeman, Cibele. Cibele is an important game in the video game landscape right now. You wont find too many games as personal and as open as it. It’s short, yet dense in its drive to reach for that singular emotion of that event. I am positive towards it on the podcast, but that was recorded weeks ago after playing it. Now, I’m having trouble remembering that emotional resonance. | more

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The Moving Pixels Podcast Gets Under the Hood of ‘Undertale’

This episode we talk about last year’s indie darling Undertale. Don’t know what I can say here that I didn’t managed to say on the podcast itself. I went in expecting Undertale to disappoint me due to overhype and it did not. I also didn’t “finish” the game as there is so much more to it once you “beat” it on the first go around. You can find it on PopMatters, SoundCloud and the RSS feed for use in the podcatcher of your choice. | more

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Moving Pixels Podcast: The Best Games of 2015

It’s that time of the year again, where those of us on the Moving Pixels Podcast list our top 5 games of the year. I’m a little disappointed that Chris didn’t makes one of those vertical slice composite images of our game choices like he did in previous years and instead went with a generic screengrab from one of the games. Ah well. I always like these look backs and celebrations of games we loved. | more

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Reviews from April – December

This is just housekeeping for the reviews I wrote last year for PopMatters, but didn’t catalog on my site. Tales from the Borderlands episode 2: Atlas Mugged Dreamfall Chapters Book Two: Rebels Game of Thrones episode 3: The Sword in the Darkness Life Is Strange™_20150328152238 Life is Strange episode 2: Out of Time Hand of Fate Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow is Today Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! | more

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The Moving Pixels Goes Around the World in ’80 Days’

And we get around to playing and talking about one of my favorite games in 2014, 80 Days. I’ve said quite a bit on this game already and I bring that preparedness to the discussion. Really, it’s an hour of the three of us valorizing this game and all the various stories it has within it. We get into what it changes from the original book, what experience it gives us as its own work and all the various social mores it upends by presenting a different view of the late 19th century. | more