Cave Story: Choices matter in the end
I finished Cave Story just minutes before I sat down to write this, so the impressions I’ll be sharing are fresh, but not entirely settled. First and foremost, I feel like I just blew up a lot of shit. At the end, you have to fight Misery, The Doctor, The Doctor after the red crystal … Continue reading
Three meditations on Journey
The first time I played Journey, I was a sojourner in a strange land. I started alone, climbing a sand dune to catch my first glimpse of a mountain with a brilliant light glowing at its peak. As I walked toward the mountain, I encountered a glowing mark which wrapped itself around my neck and … Continue reading
The world doesn’t end
After 50 very pleasant hours playing BioWare’s Mass Effect 2, I’m at something of a loss to make sense of what just happened. Perhaps it’s useful to begin with my description of those 50 hours as “pleasant,” which isn’t quite correct. There was a tremendous — and very interesting — tension at work during my … Continue reading
Things you should be paying attention to
1. Remember my Octodad review? Well, they are making a sequel thanks to Kickstarter. And they’ve re-released Octodad in celebration: In order to properly celebrate this occasion we’ve decided to release an updated version of Octodad 1 with TWO NEW LEVELS! Right now only the Windows v1.5 is available due to some issues with Mac’s … Continue reading
Let me tell you a story
Video games are a troublesome medium. Rogert Ebert, famously, isn’t convinced that they’re art. Even those of us who love video games are often apologetic. Yes, many video games are just terrible. Yes, it’s true that no video game can stand up to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, or Ulysses. … Continue reading
THAT Camp and “casual” games
Greetings faithful readers! 1. My gaming time this past week was comparatively light, because I spent the weekend at The 2011 Great Lakes THAT Camp talking about video games, rather than at home playing them. “What is THAT Camp?” you say? Excellent question! THAT is short for “The Humanities and Technology, and THAT Camp bills … Continue reading
The sun and the (Heavy) Rain
There’s fairly broad agreement that Sony/Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain was one of the great games of 2010. IGN.com awarded it “Game of the Year” for PS3. It was a finalist for PS3 Game of the Year on Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. (It lost to God of War III, but c’mon, this was Spike TV.) … Continue reading
