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August 10th

Hello, Critical Distance! I’ve been traveling on and off for nigh on the last month, and since I’ve been back, I’ve been consuming nothing but Games Crit. So delicious, so filling. Please, gather round with me for some nutrient rich content This Week in Video Game Blogging!

At All Costs

This week brings us several sources interrogating the concepts of cost, monetary and otherwise, in relation to games. For instance, both Tami Sigmund and Casey Johnston take a look at free games in terms of their non-monetary costs: Sigmund examines the phenomena whereby casual and mobile players

…

November 2nd

…music-based battle system.

Context Cues

Taking notes from the recently released Bayonetta 2, Paste’s Maddy Myers argues that the term ‘male gaze,’ which game critics borrow from film studies, is in fact woefully inadequate for describing the ways sexualized game protagonists can be inhabited and made empowering by their players.

On the subject of sexuality and women, Todd Harper shares his impressions of the queer characters in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, in particular how his impressions are inflected by how media has treated similar characters in the past.

On another subject, Marshall Sandoval showed up at PopMatters…

December 14th

…by Vi Hart and Nick Case.

Design and Development

Working in the game industry is tumultuous anywhere, but Anton Paramonov discusses the more unique and specific challenges Eforb faces as a development studio based in the Ukraine. For instance, he notes this as an unique position to find your business: “It’s tough to fall asleep in one country and wake up in another.”

Elsewhere, Holly Gramazio talks about her work designing place-based (parks, hotel rooms, etc) games — not all of which are digital.

Meanwhile, Damion Schubert discusses the concept of resonance (or really the lack…

This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2014

…get around the heteronormativity of the game to portray her friends within.

Bayonetta 2 also caused some discussion, with Maddy Myers seeing merit in Bayonetta as a sex positive figure that doesn’t bend to anyone’s gaze. On the other hand, Apple Cider Mage didn’t feel a character like Bayonetta can fill that role until there is a plethora of other characters of all types.

Todd Harper decided to take a week and write anything about Bayonetta 2 not having to do with the titular character’s position either as sex empowerment fantasy or sexual object. And at Failing Awkwardly,…

March 2015

…many great first episodes this month!) Squinky plays the game, Cubert Badbone, they developed 13 years ago when they was still in high school. Squinky remarks that the experience is much like looking back, years later, on one’s high school yearbook. Squinky discusses design choices made in the game and how the game reflects their thinking back then.

Elsewhere, Nate Ewert-Krocker revisits the games on the Playstation Interactive CD Sampler including Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Mortal Kombat 3, Loaded, Descent, NHL Faceoff, Wipeout, and more. As he plays, Ewert-Krocker notices things like “floaty controls,” how insufficient the d-pad…

01: Subjectivity

…interactions alone, for instance, is another type of folly. The value of a system when it comes to meaning making doesn’t come from the mere interactions but it is also a result of the surrounding facets that turns those interactions into abstractions of events. If I wanted to be wowed exclusively by systemic interactions, I could set up a spreadsheet. What matters, I believe, is that those interactions be understood as abstractions of action and then that those abstracted actions have symbolic meaning.

Let us consider a battle in a traditional turned based RPG. At the base level, it…

November 15th

…wears a nice silk scarf, for instance, is someone I want to find more about. Why do they care about their appearance even on the battlefield? Were they always a warrior, or did they have a different background? Is there someone they want to impress or look nice for?

Guess what’s out? Unwinnable Weekly issue 69, continuing a series profiling Unreal developer grants in “Revving the Engine: Planet Alpha 31”:

There are many sources that inspired the visuals of Planet Alpha 31 — from ancient Greek architecture to the vintage look of Star Trek, Alien and…

April 24th

…than offering clarity to the player. This expressionism reflects the murkier ideas of violation, transgression, and bodily autonomy running through the narrative.”

Homemakers

The work and play of creating a space is addressed through writing on art installations, survivalism, and sausages.

art/games The first issue of new magazine Art/Games is out, featuring Skot Deeming and Hannah Epstein among others, discussing gallery installations, dystopias, and maker spaces.
Far Cry Primal’s Survivor Mode Makes The Game Feel Complete Kirk Hamilton argues that Far Cry Primal is at its best when improvising under tough conditions.
Too…

Far Cry 2

…simple fact that 10 years later, people are still inspired to play it, to revisit it, and most importantly, to write about it.

So for the 10th anniversary of Far Cry 2, I wanted to share some of the best and most thoughtful criticism of the game that I’ve come across. I went back through old emails, searched the internet, and spent hours organizing my Instapaper account in order to narrow it down to what I feel are the ten best pieces written about Far Cry 2.

In terms of how I filtered them: for the most part…

Kentucky Route Zero

…of sea shells, nests and caves, the video installations in the “Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces” are basically a list of [French philosopher Gaston] Bachelard’s examples of intimate spaces. According to Bachelard, the sea shell (a theme that is repeated when the protagonists find hermit crabs using office supplies as their shells) is the foundation for the concept of home, a clear division between inside and outside. This lets us circle back to the beginning of the episode when the protagonists ask whether they are outside or inside the Bureau. Bachelard devotes an entire chapter to a similar question. Although he…