Cozy games and Romantic poetry both invite us to “return to nature,” but what does that really mean? Is escape from industrialism the best we can do, or are these texts asking more complicated questions?
Pain and Glory at PAX East 2024
Luis Aguasvivas braved the pain of endless lines for the chance to find videogame glory at PAX East 2024. Did he find it?
Palworld's One Good Question
Palworld seems to think it’s being edgy when it’s mostly being dumb, but it does raise one good question. Nate Schmidt asks what it means to be entertained by cruelty to animals, even when those animals aren’t real.
Mashed Brains in Videogames: The Curious Possibilities of The Evil Within and Star Fox 64
The final bosses of The Evil Within and Star Fox 64 take the form of giant brains. The goal is to mash them and return to reality. Don Everhart approves of this: the mind is more than what’s inside the skull.
Being Replaced in The Talos Principle
Nate Schmidt considers the relationship between Croteam’s The Talos Principle and debates about artificial intelligence. What can a game about a world with no humans tell us about co-existing with AI?
Dredge; or, Capitalism vs. the Queer Mutants of the Sea
Tof Eklund and Roger Whitson consider the similarities of Dredge and Moby Dick. Both reflect the eldritch terrors of capitalism that echo through history from Aotearoa, New Zealand to New Bedford.
CON-tagious: California’s Largest Fan and Pop-Culture Conventions Under Covid
Are conventions safe in the midst of the ongoing pandemic? How are convention goers navigating COVID-19?
Blake Reno’s Top 10 Games of 2022
Blake Reno recounts some indie gems you might have missed in 2022 (and Yakuza)!
Gaming in 2022: Loss & The Not So New Normal
Roger Whitson describes the role of games in a year punctuated by loss.
9 Games of Color in 2022
A collection of indie games of color that not only offer new gameplay experiences (from dating sims to artistic fishing games) but also different and important perspectives on the world!
Nate’s Games of the Year, 2022
Heavy with soul, though not all soulslikes - it’s the only GOTY article with a musical interlude!
10 Games I Could Have Been Playing instead of M:tG and Vampire Survivors
Tof ponders the year in gaming that could have been! A year of indie gems, cozy sims, and hack and slash!
NORCO and the Death of Society
NORCO is a game that asks what happens when we no longer believe in society, when our sense of collectivity has died the death of a thousand social crises.
Super Mario Sunshine and Ecological Disaster - Hark, the Phantamanta!
The Phantamanta is coming to get you! How Super Mario Sunshine turns ecological disaster into a boss fight.
Rats Like Stars in the Sky: The Horror of A Plague Tale
What’s horrifying in A Plague Tale: Innocence and Requiem are numbers - the overwhelming numbers of rats as they swarm over the screen.
The New Age Monsters of Tetris Effect: Connected
Now, boisterous beasts and creepy crawlies might not be the first things that come to mind when you think of Tetris, but give us a chance to convince you that there’s something frighteningly powerful lurking beneath the layers of abstraction in Tetris Effect: Connected.