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journey

Far Cry 2

…you’re reading these blog posts, and you’re interested in the critical discussion of games in general, Shooter is worth reading.

Extra Lives by Tom Bissell (Chapter 8)

Like Shooter, Bissell’s book Extra Lives is not exclusively about Far Cry 2. Bissell discusses numerous games in the book, and each chapter is devoted largely to a different game. Bissell’s analysis is more personal and intimate that most other pieces written about the game, and the book as a whole reads almost as a travelogue of Bissell’s journey through the medium and his developing understanding of how games achieve their…

June 2021

…in her own journey of self-discovery. (Autocaptions)

  • Queer Fantasy | Finding Your True Self in Cyberspace – Transparency (49:57)

    Transparency think about how MMORPG spaces, mechanics, and communities (such as those of Final Fantasy XIV) can allow players to explore personal questions of gender and sexuality. (Manual captions)

    • Colonial Reckonings

    These next few videos are about games engaging with, critiquing, and sometimes enacting narratives of invasion and colonialism.

    • Umurangi Generation, Colonialism, UAPs, UFOs and Alien Invasion Stories – Super Bunnyhop (22:54)

      George Weidman takes Umurangi Generation’s representation of colonial apocalypse as a

      …

    September 13th

    …something to say about affective or evocative design in games, be it in terms of narrative direction, dramatic pacing, or, hey, just being nicer to dogs maybe!

    • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition Is an Enchanting Journey into Mystery | Paste Waverly finds Crystal Chronicles to be a game at its affective best during the quiet in-between moments: a story of smaller stories rather than grand moralizing narratives.
    • Videogames, Please Stop Making Me Kill Dogs – Paste Allison Keene implores devs to expand their horizons when it comes to designing interactions with dogs.
    • Sins of the

    …

    January 3rd

    …the negative echoes signalled by their absensce. They look alternately at virtual worlds, material worlds, and the liminal boundaries in-between.

    • Tom Nook, Capitalist or Comrade? | Loading… Emma Vossen searches out what is really going on in the online discourse that alternately lionizes or vilifies Animal Crossing’s Tom Nook, and finds that the true takeaway might be the game’s raw power to bring people together to discuss radical economic reform.
    • My Journey to Solitude: Loneliness and Virtual Fatigue in The Elder Scrolls — Gamers with Glasses Nathan Schmidt recounts the ways in which The Elder Scrolls games

    …

    January 24th

    …they can instill.

  • Looking Back at If Found in 2021 | Gayming Magazine Waverly returns to If Found five months later and finds that what you take from the game has a lot to do with where you are on your own journey of self-discovery and self-determination. Depending on where you are, returning can be hard.
  • Digital Prophecies – New Rules Anna Kate Blair introspects on online divination as escapism, as play, while dwelling on breakups in a time robbed of the possibility of physical intimacy.

    • “I know that pining for somebody who doesn’t want…

    August 29th

    …with and without those differences. What creates the “essence” of Final Fantasy is their emotional journey through the game which emerges from its primary elements and the arc of play.”

    Full Context

    Up next, two authors talk in and around their subject games to pull at uncomfortable tensions around their production and implementation, as well as naming along the way some of the difficult questions critics must not turn away from.

    • This Is Not a Diablo II: Resurrected Open Beta Preview | Paste Holly Green poses difficult questions about how we talk about publishers, and…

    Emilie Reed | Keywords in Play Podcast, Episode 2

    …it, it’s almost a cliché at this point like the, the point of reference where like, a lot of institutions were like “Wow! Maybe videogames can be art?!”

    [Laughs]

    Emilie: It’s, it’s like, it’s like ‘Journey’ or ‘Flower’, these are the ones that always come up and I dunno, I kinda get sick of it. It’s like, it’s like if every like art show you went to started with a Picasso painting, like.

    Darshana: Yeah

    Emilie: [chuckles] It’s like ok, there’s, there’s other stuff. But I guess the thing is that like, the process of indie kind…

    April 4th

    …the grind.

  • Game Pile: Final Fantasy VI | press.exe Talen Lee reminisces about Final Fantasy VI as a game more about its characters than its narrative or even its journey.

    • “It has been over twenty years since I played this game, really played this game, really fucking played this game. And what lasts to me are stories about people. About characters who love each other or who still inspire warm feelings or who remind me of things I wished could be true.”

    Horror and Hauntings

    It feels appropriate in an increasingly time-slipped era

    …

    March 2021

    …that came before them.

    • Gris and the Beauty of Grief – Cyril Focht (22:13)

      Cyril Focht reads the colour-coded platforming world of Gris as a journey through Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief. (Manual captions)

    • I Loved Persona 5, And I Hate Persona 5 Royal – Joyce-Stick (49:09)

      Joyce takes issue with the reversion to status quo politics implied by the new ending of Persona 5’s ‘Royal’ rerelease. (Manual captions)

    • Dark Souls 3 is Thinking of Ending Things – Jacob Geller (26:52)

      Drawing parallels with the internalised meta-chaos of Charlie Kaufmann directed film I’m

    …

    May 2nd

    …killing of Kung Lao, and I think “yes, this is appropriate, and I am happy for him.” I am not turning my brain off. This is not some kind of happy refuge from the other, more stressful world. I’ve been introduced to an engine that operates on heightened principles of mythical proportions and told to keep up or be left behind, and I’ve decided that I’d rather keep up and go on what I hope will be a long journey of sequels ahead.”

    Play Feel

    Our next two featured articles this week deal with the textures, sensations,…