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call of duty

April 2015

…it to your discretion to learn more.

From Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Quintin Smith discusses the item degradation in the survival game The Long Dark and why it’s actually good.

Full Disclosure

In an incredibly feat of both play and analysis, Noah Caldwell-Gervais offers a comprehensive retrospective of all eleven titles in the Call of Duty franchise noting what is unique about each and how the franchise changed over time.

Over at Errant Signal, Chris Franklin uses a “selective ludography” to look at the design ethos of Blendo games. In particular,…

July 2015

…how menus work as a form of introspection that present information internal to the playable-character. In this video he specifically analyzes the menu options, and how they promote social engagement, in Persona 3.

Elsewhere, Heather Alexandra looks at Planetside 2 and its (intended or not) message about the value of life. Unlike Call of Duty or CounterStrike, Planetside 2 has no matches, and as a result, there is no start or stop to conflict. The constant respawns after death can make the player feel like they are trapped in a endless war where death is denied and…

December 20th

…means, but Maddy Myers provides us with some entertaining speculation.

Meanwhile, Femhype contributor MostlyBiscuit interviewed Kayla Squires, who recently became the first woman to qualify for the Call of Duty World League.

On Unwinnable, our own Riley MacLeod talks about his response to the unreliable narration of Secrets Agent and Dr. Langeskov, and on PopMatters, Jorge Albor talks about his love-hate relationship with Fallout 4.

Should old acquaintance be forgot?

On Gamasutra, Brandon Sheffield brings us the most surprising 90s games, a list chock-full of doozies. While we’re on memory lane, John Romero recently provided us…

This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2015

…of Duty titles (video) and how the series has evolved over the last 12 years. And Nate Ewert-Krocker performed a close reading of Final Fantasy Tactics and how its main character comes to recognize their privilege.

Brendan Vance’s longform critique of “The Ghosts of Bioshock” covered the real history of Wounded Knee, Manifest Destiny, and the Boxer Rebellion, versus how their shadows are felt through Bioshock Infinite‘s compromised vision. Samantha Blackmon and Alisha Karabinus came together to in a video for Not Your Mama’s Gamer about the art and animation style of Cuphead and its invocation of blackface tropes,…

January 2016

…run of Call of Duty, finding ways to subvert a game that expects you to shoot things by… well, mostly letting all those things shoot each other, but still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHGdD30LcX4&index=1&list=PLe42eyVEdO28uXuU3565Aq6tpus87uoFg

Lastly, Joshua Trevett (one of my many talented colleagues at Haywire Magazine) brings us a New Year’s episode of Talk Simulator, a unique take on the radio talk show to the stylings of Euro Truck Simulator 2. Expect lively talk of videogames, books, and more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuT3BpDxJTs

And that’ll do it for this month! Don’t forget to submit your favorite February Let’s Plays to us on Twitter…

April 24th

…Normative Institutions | Not Your Mama’s Gamer Ashley J. Velázquez compares the politics of Call of Duty and This War of Mine.

“Not only are aspects of gender present, but generational constructs are as well. Grandparents, parents, and children are all bodies experiencing war in varied ways, challenging the normative perceptions of what war is, what war means, what war does, and who survives war.”

Companions

Discussions on the gendered (and species-dependent) division of emotional labor emerge in writing on relationships in game narratives.

Even More Daddy Issues: Fatherhood and Gendered Labor…

July 4th

…control we might not otherwise have, wouldn’t it be lovely if we had a little more control there, too?”

What do you remember?

Looking at the darkness in American and European history, these pieces examine games in conversation with traumatic cultural memories.

History Respawned: Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 – YouTube (video, captions) Bob Whitaker discusses the history of American secret services with two experts.
Inside Recapitulates the Horrors of the Holocaust | The Hub City Review Matthew J. Theriault praises the effective use of intertextual references to Schindler’s List in…

Episode 37 – Noah’s Crit

…advantages of his long form style, how he chooses games, and his plans to branch out into travel writing.

http://www.critical-distance.com/podcast/Critical-Distance-Confab-episode-37.mp3

Direct Download

SHOW NOTES

Noah Caldwell-Gervais’ YouTube Channel

A Thorough Look At Fallout

The Complete Call of Duty Single Player Campaign

Game Natures: Firewatch and The Long Dark

Postal, Hatred, and Weighing the Worth of Asshole Simulators

Mad Max in Close Critique

What’s Been Going on With Alien: Isolation‘s DLC?

Noah Caldwell-Gervais’ Patreon

Opening Theme: ‘Close’ by The Alpha Conspiracy

Closing Theme: ‘Wishing Never’ by The Alpha Conspiracy

…

July Roundup: ‘Spectacle’

…how each game was played and performed by different “players” in sync while also making me really wish that I could have been there. It’s okay, I’m not bitter or anything.

Next, Miguel Penabella takes to his blog Invalid Memory to examine how different modes of spectacle can convey different meanings. Penabella enjoys the blockbuster bombast of Call of Duty‘s gunfights but he also notes how well spectacle in games like Kentucky Route Zero can invoke mood and characterization even when indifferent to the movement of plot: “Such works broaden the parameters for videogame spectacle beyond explosive blockbuster action,…

May 14th

…music and sound.

“the sounds of death are not shorthand. They are the things we are supposed to be paying attention to. Those sounds are supposed to grab us and keep us. They’re meant to haunt us beyond all reason and thought, and they work, at least for me.”

Excavation

Two pieces on remembering games this week suggest different ways of approaching our memories of games.

Stalingrad was Call of Duty’s Perfect Moment | Unwinnable Matthew Byrd argues that nostalgia isn’t about the past as a whole, but about the moments of…