January 11th

Welcome back readers.

I’ve got a quick pre-announcement this week before we get into the weeds with the reads: it’s time to dust off your HTML skills like it’s 1998, becuase we’re hosting another Fansite Jam very soon. Expect a dedicated announcement post with details and participation guidelines in the next week or so.

In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, check out Kaile’s phenomenal end-of-year recap. While you’re at it, take a look at our Patreon, which makes all that we do possible, and if you’re already a supporter (thank you!), consider passing the message along to other folks in your life who have an affinity for games crit!

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Detective Friction

I’m being a little loose with this first grouping–it started with detective games but expanded to engage with cyberpunk concerns both fictional and blisteringly real.

• AI Assistants Like Project Ava Would Turn Gaming Into A Chore | Inverse
  Robin Bea contemplates the contradictory ethos that AI Assistants bring to the gaming experience (Further Reading: Robin’s previous writing on gen-AI trends in games).
• Data Points | Bullet Points Monthly
  Reid McCarter ponders the depths and delusions of digital detective work in The Roottrees Are Dead.
• of the Devil – Episode 2 Review | Gamesline
  Rose continues to vibe hard with this VN’s grounded exploration of cyberpunk themes (Further Reading: Rose’s review of Episode 1).
• VILE: Exhumed Shines A Light On The Internet’s Most Toxic and Entitled Corners | Exalclaw
  Wallace Truesdale contemplates the impunity of online misogyny as he excavates the computer of a creep in Cara Cadaver’s VILE: Exhumed (Further Reading: Spencer Johnson on VILE: Exhumed).

“This game cuts ruthlessly at the heart of what creates toxic online spaces dedicated to harming women and reveling in that harm. Refusing to sell it for “sexual content with depictions of real people,” as Cadaver states in her developer statement — grounds that cannot earnestly be called a good faith or, frankly, honest read of what the game explores and how — does more to help these online spaces thrive unchallenged than meaningfully tackle their existence.”

Runtime Script

I’m being a little cheeky in this section, putting in conversation different meanings of the word “run”.

• Searching for Ghosts in Pacific Drive | No Escape
  Kaile Hultner goes lore-chasing one run at a time (Further Reading: Sophie McEvoy’s interview with director Alex Dracott).
• time on feet + clair obscur | one more run
  Grayson Morley applies lessons from running to pace in play.

“I want to finish Clair Obscur, but it’s going to take a lot of time on feet. But because I’m committed to going the distance, like my easy runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I try to remind myself to go at exactly the pace I want to be going. Games are an endurance sport, after all. You’re in them for the long haul.”

Stories of Seasons

The passing of time, of seasons, of moments, brings together these next four picks.

• It’s A Good Sound, Just Not My Sound – UNBEATABLE (PC) Review | Gamesline
  Maverick unpacks the discord in his feelings on the long-awaited UNBEATABLE.
• Despelote takes a bold step forward for documentary storytelling | AV Club
  Elijah Gonzalez reflects on Despelote‘s innovations and contributions to interactive documentary and autobiography (Further Reading: Nicanor Gordon on Despelote).
• Passing Time in Persona 4’s Tourist Town | Eteo Archetypes
  Emily Price dwells on Persona 4, rural Inaba, and the passing of the seasons.
• Winter and Death in Harvest Moon | Eteo Archetypes
  Holly Nielsen highlights the seasonal structure scrubbed from more contemporary farming sims (Further Reading: Jess Elizabeth Reed on Story of Seasons and remakes).

“I had barns filled with immortal animals producing the highest quality milk, wool, and eggs; every romance option adored me, all the townspeople thought I was the most wonderful thing to ever happen purely because I existed and occasionally spoke to them. The only thing that ever changed were my crops. Because as each season came and went, they grew and withered with them. The plants got to have their winter, but nothing else did. A lack of death made it feel lifeless. It’s only with hindsight that I see the true value of that bizarre little funeral for my beloved digital chicken.”

Grit and Grim

Both of our next featured authors are, in addition to mechanical and thematic exploration, doing a bit of genre examination in the strategy and horror genres, respectively.

• Rally Point: Unorthodox. Complex. Laborious. Not just XCOM again. Of course I love USC: Counterforce | Rock Paper Shotgun
  Sin Vega digs into the granularity and friction–good and not-so-good–of a rececnt turn-based tactics game with some distinctly old-school sensibilities (Further Reading: Sin Vega on Empires of the Undergrowth).
• Fragile Traditions | Unwinnable
  Phoenix Simms muses on Silent Hill: Homecoming, porcelain, and intergenerational trauma (Further Reading: Grace Benfell on Silent Hill f and the horror of home).

“Homecoming oftentimes grapples with questions of how agency is constricted by societal notions of obedience. Scarlet’s sequence and the motif of domestic materials, like porcelain, ultimately make the player think about how often such notions of obedience and tradition are hidden in plain sight.”

Critical Chaser

Kimimi closes out our week with a look at some Falcom gold.

• Zwei!!: My happy place | Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster
  Kimimi revels in a distinctly cozy outing from Falcom.

“Some games are special in an emotive, personal way; treasures that elicit the same warm feelings as a cherished toy. Zwei!! (which I will refrain from over-punctuating from here on out) is one of those for me, a soft hug that’s somehow also a game. I love the way it makes me feel. It’s as if Falcom found a way to bottle the sensation of playing an enchanting RPG for the very first time; excitement, awe, and joy in plentiful and completely sincere supply.”