Tag: Spec Ops: The Line

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

Eric Swain External Sources

‘Spec Ops: The Line’ Denies the Player the Pleasure of Play

All of us at PopMatters finally got around to playing Spec Ops: The Line several weeks ago and I just got around to writing about it now. Coming to a game late with an eye towards writing criticism about it is a daunting task. There is always that knowledge that someone, somewhere must have already said anything you’d think was interesting. There is that fear that you have nothing new, insightful or otherwise useful to add to the conversation. More than usual, I mean. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

Video Game Twists

(*Spoilers for Braid, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Spec Ops: The Line*) A few weeks back on IGN, Michael Thompson wrote an article how spoilers and the fear of themselves spoiling the experiences games can give us are a problem. They no longer serve the audience because people become wrapped up in the minutia of detail rather than what any of those details mean. Thompson frames it as twist endings. There are different types of problems that his basic thesis covers, but I’ll run with it. | more