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Category Archives: videogames
Eastshade: Fantasy Without Crisis
Eastshade is a game somewhere between a traditional CRPG and a walking simulator. You’re a painter, exploring an unfamiliar island in a game without combat or skill-based challenge. It is, very approximately, Skyrim without swords and monsters, a CRPG led by environmental … Continue reading
Posted in review, videogames
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Caregiver Fantasy
One of the key things that videogame stories offer is approval. To some extent all media does this; but in videogames player identification with protagonists is a lot stronger, and more active participation is required – and needs to be … Continue reading
Heart’s Medicine: Time to Heal
It’s commonplace for a time-management game to feature character-driven plot, but Time to Heal sells itself really hard on narrative. The intro frames it as an original story. The game’s bumf is really focused on storytelling (and, in particular, that most irritating qualifier … Continue reading
Posted in review, videogames
2 Comments
Colonial Reform
Two similar games came out at about the same time in 2015. Both involve a Conan Doyle or Verne-style exploration contest between members of a clubbish Royal Society-like organisation; you assemble a small team of adventurers and go on a series of … Continue reading
Posted in videogames
4 Comments
Rebuild 3
I first encountered the Rebuild series on ArmorGames. Its surface was doing a good job of fitting into the popular YAY ZOMBIES aesthetic: grimdark colour scheme, blood-splatter fonts, post-industrial-soundscape music, gross rotting zombie front and centre in the splash screen. But beneath that, … Continue reading
Posted in review, videogames
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A Year Without Zombies 12: Teach Us To Care and Not To Care
(For 2015, I am trying to avoid playing any games or consuming any static media with zombies in them. My reasons, and other fun things like ‘what exactly counts as a zombie?’, are explained here.) I’m done. On the stroke of … Continue reading
Posted in board games, videogames
Tagged a year without zombies, pandemic legacy, project spark
2 Comments
A Year Without Zombies 10: Necrotic Creep
(For 2015, I am trying to avoid playing any games or consuming any static media with zombies in them. My reasons, and other fun things like ‘what exactly counts as a zombie?’, are explained here.) Oy. An impending overseas move, a … Continue reading
Posted in cyoa, interactive fiction, parser-based, rpg, storygames, videogames
Tagged a year without zombies
3 Comments
A Year Without Zombies 9: Down Among The Dead Men
(For 2015, I am trying to avoid playing any games or consuming any static media with zombies in them. My reasons, and other fun things like ‘what exactly counts as a zombie?’, are explained here.) I’m definitely in a slump when … Continue reading
Hail to the King: on games telling you how great you are
About a year back I got around to playing Brütal Legend. It’s pretty damn good, overall. As you’d expect of Double Fine, it has a distinctive premise, a vividly imaginative, joyfully over-the-top world, some kick-arse tunes, and more than one joke that’s … Continue reading
A Year Without Zombies 8: Losing the Will to Live
(For 2015, I am trying to avoid playing any games or consuming any static media with zombies in them. My reasons, and other fun things like ‘what exactly counts as a zombie?’, are explained here.) I have not been feeling like dedicating … Continue reading
Posted in cyoa, rpg, storygames, videogames
Tagged a year without zombies, Alphabear, Duel Master, monsterhearts, Necrodancer
6 Comments
These Heterogenous Tasks 