Unwinnable

Thanks, Mom.

There’s a long list of writers, directors, artists and musicians who have influenced me. Recently I wrote about how the science fiction author Douglas Adams helped lead me down the left hand path towards atheism. But I would have never read Adams or countless others if not for one woman. My mother had more to do with me becoming the person I am today than any teacher ever did. And she did it behind the wheel of a faded fire-engine red Ford Fairmont station wagon. (more…)

“Those pesky play-it-safe publishers are concerned only about their quarterly profits,” says a fictitious composite of veteran developers on Kickstarter. “They won’t let us innovate and make a sequel to this two-decades-old game. That’s where you can help. With Kickstarter, you have the power to make a statement that you do want innovative games. Games just like your grandma used to make. Now in HD! Remakes and sequels so original that publishers run away screaming.”

For years, we’ve been told that publishers stifle innovation. But now that we’ve found a way to bypass them, in place of safe and predictable sequels to last year’s hits, we get safe and predictable sequels to decade- or two-decades-old hits. (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art wants you to play Canabalt with a mouse. I don’t even think that’s even possible outside of the museum’s Applied Design exhibition. It’s a little weird, yet Canabalt’s mouse controller is just one example of how the show’s curator Paola Antonelli has attempted to change up the way gamers think about interacting with their favorite games. (more…)

Street Fighter is hard.

To be more specific, being good at Street Fighter is hard. Most specifically of all, being good at Street Fighter is hard for me.

However, I love Street Fighter – more than most. It’s my fondness for the franchise – the brilliant game, the gorgeous character design, the catchy music, even the wacky, wandering storyline – that makes it painful to be so… mediocre at it. (more…)

I swear, I wanted to be a good king.

My men were in the middle of assaulting Sarleon as I had this thought. Sarleon is the capital city of the old kingdom in the Mount & Blade: Warband mod “Prophesy of Pendor.” Mount & Blade, if you haven’t picked it up yet, is a medieval combat simulator by TaleWorlds, and “Prophesy of Pendor” is one of its more popular mods. You’re thrown into a land divided by war, and you’re free to make your way across it as a mercenary, a trader, an upjumped noble or some combination of the above. (more…)

When it comes to the “Big Four,” I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Slayer trailed in last place for me. Part of the problem was that they were too fucking scary. Slayer albums were ugly, satanic-looking things that looked like they were cobbled together in blood and flesh by some addled madman. I preferred the austere, somewhat boneheaded symbolism of Metallica’s album covers. Lady Justice is crumbling because the government is all messed up, you know? (more…)

Two months ago, a glowy teaser trailer for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon dropped and it felt like something I’ve already seen a million times before. (Know that those impressions are coming from someone born two years too late to actually experience the nostalgia being marketed here.)

Pop culture will never forget the ’80s. Cyclical waves of the excessive period come and go every few years, and right now we’re in the midst of a cynical and dark barrage of neo-’80s fluff that’s only going to lead to more stubborn remembering in the future. (more…)