Tag: PopMatters

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‘The Fall’ Explores Artificial Intelligence and Indentity

This time on PopMatters’ Moving Pixels Podcast we talk about my second favorite game from last year, The Fall. We continue this week with another philosophically loaded sci-fi game touching on the concept of identity. Originally, we thought about discussing both The Fall and The Swapper in the same podcast, but after recording both episodes, I’m glad we decided to separate them. They’re both such thematically dense games and we didn’t get to touch on everything I think we could have in them, that cutting the time we spent on each wouldn’t be fair to either game. | more

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Exploring the Nature of the Self in ‘The Swapper’

This week we discussed The Swapper, a game I put off playing for far too long. Upon relistening to our discussion, I was glad we did connect much of it back to the game as possible. I remember our discussion of the philosophy of the self and epistemology taking up the majority of the discussion. Which is fine, because if a game can engender such a discussion that’s a mark in its favor. It’s also games like The Swapper that show having a wider reference point is not just a plus, but a necessity. | more

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One More Episode: A Second Look at ‘The Detail’

I said I’d take a look at the second episode of the The Detail on the last Moving Pixels Podcast and that’s just what I did. I had hoped it would get through some growing pains and get better especially since it clearly wants to be more than a mere pulp escapade. The set up is similar to The Wire, in getting a special detail unit together to handle big cases, but certain details are calling to it. Plus, the ending stats where it shows the percentages of players who made certain choices it adds in a fact about the real social issue that choice connects with. | more

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Gaming in the Analog World

And I’m finally back to writing my column at PopMatters. I’ve been out of the game as it were these last few weeks. I was wiled away by the prospect of getting back into playing Magic. I’ve been lamenting leaving the game for a while now and wishing I could get back into it. With money being a major factor as to why I left the game, it was also difficult to jump back in. Over time one loses contact with the game and makes it even harder to muster up the drive to come back. | more

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The Moving Pixels Podcast Focuses on ‘The Detail’

We look at another episodic adventure game, The Detail. Though, instead of going episode by episode, we just dip out toes into the first one. I like what The Detail was doing in its functional form aspects to some degree, but too much of it feel route. It’s not helped that it keeps bringing to mind better examples of it is trying to do with gang and drug violence against a crack team dealing with it. The Wire on the realistic end and Batman on the more bombastic side. | more

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‘White Night’, White Noir

This week on the Moving Pixels Podcast we discussed the noir infused horror indie game White Night. I really like the discussion on this game. It speaks well of any game that is able to engender a conversation that speaks to expressionism, subtle themeing, genre mixing and long discussion on craft on how it affects the representation of the game’s themes, even a game I’m not personally high on. | more

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Questioning the Context of Video Games

Context matters. It’s something I end up saying a lot. This week on the podcast we check out how the context effects appraisal and understanding of video games. The idea of this podcast came from the fact that we were and still are going to do a podcast on The Longest Journey. It has gotten pushed back several times, because it is a long game and not all of us had the time right at that moment. It’s coming. Meanwhile, since it is an older game, it was worthy asking about context. | more

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Unearthing the ‘Charnel House’

This time on the Moving Pixels Podcast we talk about the recently release point-and-click adventure game, The Charnel House Trilogy. I appreciate The Charnel House Trilogy more as a formal exercise than I do as a work on its own. I have complicated feelings about it. On the one hand, I don’t feel as if everything connected together or gave me fulfilling story. Yet, on the other, it doesn’t feel like a work that is finished. | more

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Challenge and Abstract Narrative in Adventure Games

I continue off a thread I left hanging last week by addressing adventure games need and use of challenge. Where last week I used the example of The Charnel House Trilogy as a game where easy puzzles and clear direction made of a good experience of playing the actor in a script. It challenges the dichotomy of the adventure game and the point-and-click subgenre specifically. Having my mind opened to this new lens, a way of viewing information that had already been bubbling around in my head, I looked at the other end of the scale. | more

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What is ‘Jazzpunk’?

This week we discussed Jazzpunk on the Moving Pixels Podcast. Jazzpunk was one of my favorite games of last year. It was a pleasure to talk about it on the podcast. Listening to the podcast again it made me appreciate how dense and how deep the game is. We talk for over an hour and we don’t manage to scrape the surface of the material. There’s plenty we didn’t get to dive into and what various elements say about the creators, video games and culture in general. | more