So to continue what appears to be an accidental series of blog posts writing about Gearbox Software's Borderlands games, I wanted to get something down on paper regarding the newest title, Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. Now, if you follow my writing and Twitter and such you probably already know that I recently reviewed the game for Paste… Continue reading Janey Springs Eternal
Category: Gaming Reflections
Fabula Spoilers Crystallis
So I wrapped up Lightning Returns and in the process I had some thoughts about how the history of the FF13 meta-series has gone down. Thus I just sort of sat down and poured them onto the page. In the absence of having any new or interesting critical commentary to post, I figured I'd just throw… Continue reading Fabula Spoilers Crystallis
Saintsception
This has been a long time coming. It's time... to blog about Saints Row. Specifically, the latest game in the series, Saints Row 4. We're going to get there in a roundabout way, however, so bear with me until this is over. I want to talk about how Saints Row 4 is a game, about games, about games.… Continue reading Saintsception
Me and Bobby l’Cie
So earlier today on Twitter, Denis Farr and I were discussing how mages in the Dragon Age universe have a lot of queer readings, especially in the sense of political queerness in the 70s/80s. In the process I mentioned that I got a similar vibe from the much-maligned cast of Final Fantasy 13, specifically the relationship between "fal'Cie" (power… Continue reading Me and Bobby l’Cie
Day in the Sun
So, this semester I'm teaching a course on "Game Design for Expression." It's really more of a class on how students -- especially students with no technology or game background -- can make small, personal games. I've been fortunate to have a lot of guest speakers willing to talk about their work, including Mattie Brice,… Continue reading Day in the Sun
Not Ghosts But Spirits
I had a brief conversation with Kris Ligman this evening about the Game Church, which led to me reading an interview they did with Steve Gaynor of Fullbright about Gone Home. In reading it, I had what the kids are calling "some feels" and while it won't make a very long blog post (sorry America), it's too longform… Continue reading Not Ghosts But Spirits
Duck Soup
So Polygon reviewed DuckTales Remastered and then Twitter got ahold of it and, you know, stuff has happened. Since I'm trying to keep in the habit of blogging, I figured I'd write something about it, especially after I had an extended convo with Matt Bremner about it on Twitter earlier. Matt was pretty unhappy with the review, and… Continue reading Duck Soup
The X Factor
Okay so Project X Zone (the 'x' is read 'cross,' as is common in Japanese pop culture loanword-ing) is coming out soon. In fact you can download a demo of it for the 3DS off the Nintendo e-Shop (handy link to a page with a QR code to jump right to it). Now, I am really… Continue reading The X Factor
Why I’m A Mass-market Sellout Whore
Right, so Aevee Bee wrote a very interesting short blog post on "The Case for Never Talking About AAA Games." I read it and I think in many ways she is spot on, but there's a couple of places where I disagree, and have been urged to do so by various Twitterati I am going… Continue reading Why I’m A Mass-market Sellout Whore
Infinite Regress
I know I probably shouldn't but I'm going to write a thing on Bioshock Infinite since I played it all the way through, and a theme in the game has been gnawing at me. It doesn't hurt that the theme now has echoes/resonances in other arguments going on among the beautiful people of gaming criticism, who… Continue reading Infinite Regress