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zolani stewart

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May 11th

…has options you can check in the menu to turn on “full screen glow”? Who else holds suspension of disbelief and immersiveness as their highest goals?

And back with Eurogamer, Tony Coles poses: is Solitaire the first roguelike?

A/V

At Gamasutra, Mike Rose has the story of how the unusual party game compilation Sportsfriends came to be.

Indies are also on the minds of the fine people over at Not Your Mama’s Gamer, who in their most recent podcast interview Dominique Pamplemousse developer Deirdra Kiai.

Past Critical Distance contributor Zolani Stewart has posted the…

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July 27th

Let’s Talk

This article by Dan Grilopoulos on Eurogamer delving into the origins of Minesweeper could have gone further into today’s competitive scene, but it is still an interesting piece on the ubiquitous software. In it, he interviews the original developers behind the game and Microsoft’s better-known plagiarism.

Back on Paste, Ansh Patel interviews Arvind Raja Yadav, game designer of the recently released Unrest, a game set in ancient India. (Full disclosure: I am a backer of this game.)

Meanwhile, at Sufficiently Human, Critical Distance contributor Lana Polansky and alumnus Zolani Stewart get into discussion over

August 10th

…writes about the story in Transistor (spoilers here too) and how the love story of this digital game lightly critiques the digital world.

Daniel Galera has a wonderful long-form read this week that lets you relive the wonder of Prince of Persia while simultaneously making poignant observations about agency, algorithms, youth, love and more.

Zolani Stewart, who has also recently joined the Critical Distance team, brings us another long-form read this week about the history of Sonic The Hedgehog and his status as a fluid media object moving between mascot and fully realized character.

Finally, Perter Christiansen…

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September 21th

…of culture as some Japanese fans believed the original Toad to have been female.

Design, Culture, Coverage and Other Great Debates

Studying games from a sociological background, Joe Baxter-Webb examines PC gamer culture – how it’s discussed and portrayed online, and how this reflects back on games culture and perceptions of it from those who don’t identify as a part of it.

Alternately, Zolani Stewart and Lana Polansky posted a podcast that discusses leaving videogames behind when its culture and spaces are no longer those with which one can, or wants, to identify.

Joining in the…

September 28th

…has rolled up a big ball of essays on Katamari Damacy on Metafilter. Finally, Zolani Stewart talks about the use of image and space at his own blog.

Rolling in Engrams

The time has come, Guardian. You have made it to… THE CAVE. Kirk Hamilton lines up the first shot with Kotaku’s review of Destiny, which frames The Loot Cave as a critical design flaw of the game. Michael “Sparky” Clarkson flanks with a focus-fire on The Loot Cave.

Matthew Gallant scouts out the area in depth, discussing the game mechanics at work in and around The…

October 19th

…the Night, Not, I Hope, Unarmed

That’s it for this week! As always, we value your contributions via Twitter mention and email.

There is still a bit of time to get involved in October’s Blogs of the Round Table. It’s a fun topic touching on Halloween, so I encourage you to give it a whirl!

Did you know we’re commissioning new features? Because we are! Head over here to learn more.

And a few more sites and resources to relax into your Sunday:

–Arcade Review is a quarterly magazine edited by our contributors Zolani Stewart

November 9th

…Jones compares the feeling of driving at night between Glitchhikers and Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Zolani Stewart explains expressionism paintings and their lessons to understanding worlds like that of Sonic Adventure 2.

Horror Games

At Outside Your Heaven, Matthew Weise feels like he should like Alien Isolation more than The Evil Within, but he finds that the former just retreads too much ground.

On Gamasutra’s member blogs, Sergio Hidalgo has some words on the mental tax on developers making horror games, drawing from his personal experience.

Craftsmanship

A concerning not only with content, but…

February 1st

…big-name game designers of the 90’s. We don’t have a choice you see, they are the only ones who give us any credibility.

As Cyarron notes, one would be remiss in going this week without mentioning this formidable essay by Austin Howe, our own Zolani Stewart and others over on Haptic Feedback:

When, as a critic or analyst, you invest your time and capital in the definition of proper form, your analytical projects are always, necessarily, about the inclusion and exclusion of both people and ideas within a perceived community. Naming ludocentrist rhetorical analysis as a thing is…

February 15th

…you take on an over-the-shoulder perspective focused on character development and specificity, but on the other hand, there is the bird’s eye view of narrative totality […]

Speaking of Kentucky Route Zero, Magnus Hildebrandt has finished his guide to the cultural and literary references of Episode 3. It’s only available in German right now, but as for the earlier episodes, will be translated soon.

The first episode of Critical Switch is here, so why not listen to our own Zolani Stewart’s smooth voice expound Bernband. Not enough weird games for you? Stephen Beirne reads Kanoguti’s Walking as self-suggestive…

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February 22nd

…shares his enthusiasm for the Resident Evil REmake, and in particular analyzes just what makes it so splendid to play.

Critical Switch, a mini-podcast in which Austin Howe and our own Zolani Stewart trade off hosting duties each episode to tackle a particular short subject. In this episode, Howe explores how party size in Japanese role-playing games can take on a symbolic and narrative meaning.

On PopMatters Moving Pixels, Scott Juster wonders why death, such a mainstay of the Game of Thrones television show, is treated so inflexibly in Telltale’s game adaptation. And over on Virtual Narrative, Justin…