October 2, 2017 Eric Swain External Sources The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses ‘Tales from the Borderlands Episode 5’ Weeks later, we finally finish up our mini-series of episodes on Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. This podcast episode did not go the way I thought it would. See, Nick had steadily become more and more hyped on the game with each passing episode. So, I figured episode 5 would continue our enamored love fest of the game, while trying not to retread all the jokes in it, as with the previous episodes. I did not expect the contentious argument regarding the game’s conclusion that would result. | more
September 11, 2017 Eric Swain External Sources The Moving Pixels Podcast Discusses ‘Tales from the Borderlands Episode 4’ This week we continue Telltale’s episodic foray into the Borderlands universe with episode 4. The game keeps getting better and better. We laugh. We cheer. We cry. The heist has got it all. You can find the podcast on PopMatters, SoundCloud, iTunes and through the RSS feed. “Catch a riiiiiiide!” | more
July 31, 2017 Eric Swain External Sources Moving Pixels Podcast: Tales from the Borderlands Episode 3 – Catch a Ride This week we continue our drive through Telltale’s episodic adventure game, Tales from the Borderlands, with episode 3 “Catch a Ride.” Sorry about last week, there was a slight snafu hitting the Monday release date. Then then episode was supposed to go up mid-week last week, but that didn’t happen either. So, it’s released this Monday and we’ll be back on schedule next week with the next episode. No extra waiting for it. | more
June 26, 2017 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
May 31, 2017 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
February 4, 2016 Eric Swain Game Essays ‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 5 review It’s good. If you’ve waited this long to find out whether or not you should get Tales from the Borderlands, I really don’t know what to say to you. If you haven’t finished it or even played it yet, then you should really go remedy that before continuing to read what I have to say here. There is a concept of the innovator and master in art. The idea that some artwork innovated on a concept and later some other artwork showed mastery of that innovated technique or style. | more
February 4, 2016 Eric Swain Game Essays ‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 4 review What I’m loving about Tales from the Borderlands is that it allows itself to go wherever the story needs it to. Case in point, after three episodes of being a treasure hunt, the game just up and says, “let’s change genres. We’re now a heist film.” Ok, a treasure hunt and a heist aren’t too far off from one another in the narrative output department, but it is still a big shift in focus. Now that our plucky cadre of miscreants are under the thumb of Pandora crime boss Vallory, they have to satisfy her desire to complete the vault key rather than their own. | more
February 4, 2016 Eric Swain Game Essays ‘Tales from the Borderlands’ episode 3 review I don’t remember where I heard, saw or read this, but I remember an interview with John Cleese, the estimable comedian behind Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda, that he had to learn how to do comedy differently for each of those works. When he moved on to doing a full half-hour show in Fawlty Towers, he realized there was a difference to how he was doing the few minute shorts of Monty Python. | more
January 14, 2016 Eric Swain External Sources Reviews from April – December January 14, 2016 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts and tagged with: Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow is Today, Dreamfall Chapters, Games of Thrones, Hand of Fate, Life is Strange, PopMatters, Reviews, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, Tales from the Borderlands This is just housekeeping for the reviews I wrote last year for PopMatters, but didn’t catalog on my site. | more
April 2, 2015 Eric Swain External Sources Reviews for January/February/March A new year, a new slate of games to review. A bit of a theme going on here. 2015 starts off with 4 new episodic games and my attempts to review every single episode of each one. All of Telltale games, so far, are licensed games. It’s difficult not to frame their game in the light of the licensed property. I may have gone a bit too far with my Tales from the Borderlands review, but I really do not like the main Borderlands games and Tales by comparison, I am enjoying so much. | more