Even if you wanted to tell a story that took the politics of the Deus Ex world really seriously as parallels for real world stuff (which they apparently did not given the game they shipped), the language and imagery they used were evocative of questions of race, and “race” isn’t really the best lens for looking at…

I think, though, that as an artist you have to realize that people are living in a big crazy world, and things are going to happen, and you’re going to have to pick your battles. These days people hear “ISIS” and they don’t think “Egyptian God” they think “Terrorists” and you have to recognize that. Adam Reed and…

But since “Black Lives Matter” was created, you realize the connection and how that’s going to look and you shelve that particular piece of concept art and not release it.

I really wonder how much Mankind Divided was hurt by its marketing campaign (which was pretty awful). Certainly you can make a game about prejudice towards cybernetically augmented people, but even so throwing things like “mechanical apartheid” and “augs lives matter” in your marketing shows you’re not really going…

Got to run through the now deeper dungeon with a lot of the alternative characters. Learning to play again with Monk or Dove (or Bolt, ouch) is going to be tough.

Ash is ultimately not a bad character, but using Chief Williams and Navigator Pressley as the window to the “Humanity First/I don’t trust aliens ma’am” viewpoint was somewhat clumsily executed. This is the sort of thing that Bioware has gotten progressively better at (presenting viewpoints that a player might find…

Considering that Bioware generally writes companions and members of the protagonist’s inner circle to represent and speak for specific viewpoints, cultures, or ideologies (Wrex is your window into “what Krogan think”, “the Iron Bull is your authority on the Qun”, etc.) it’s far from unreasonable for at least one of…

I feel like this is specifically the niche that Fig, as opposed to Kickstarter fill. It presents a safer proposition for the consumer than Kickstarter does, since they don’t let just anybody put up a game on Fig. It’s more of a space specifically for “Big Indies” (notably Obsidian, InXile, and Double Fine, who…

It can be difficult, but it’s not unfair. I must say that once you get the hang of it it nails the “this game is a joy to play because it flows so well” thing that is incumbent to rhythm games being fun. So you want to keep playing (at least I do; I have 171 hours logged) long enough to get better.

The original game consists of 4 acts with different enemies/aesthetics, the DLC adds a 5th. If you play as the new character, every floor will have one room with 5th act enemies and tiles. Your main cast won’t be seeing those tiles or enemies until they get to act 5 however. There are new items and spells in the…

Played about an hour last night, and while Nocturna is powerful (the weapon she starts with is one of the strongest in the game), I’m sort of unclear on what the benefit of turning into a bat is. You fly, but your attack range is only 1 square and it costs 1/2 heart to change back? Am I missing anything.

Anything crafted by a person (directly or otherwise) will have that person’s notions of “what is normal, acceptable, and desirable” in there somewhere. If you portray anything whatsoever, you’re saying something about it through that portrayal. Even just including something with no intentional commentary on it is…

I’ve been playing a lot of Minesweeper++ mode on Mine of Sight: https://zblip.itch.io/mine-of-sight

My favorite example of “politics are inextricable from games” is how SimCity has very specific ideas (and very American ideas at that) regarding citizen’s feelings towards taxation. You need to provide some reason to not just set the tax rate as high as possible, but that Sim Citizens as far back as 1989 would prefer…

I think insofar as “cheating” has a negative connotation (it’s more loaded than say “exploiting”), it pretty much only applies when there’s some kind of harm being caused to someone. So if it’s a single player game, and whatever you’re doing serves only to enhance your enjoyment of (or minimize your frustration with)…

I don’t know why people feel the need to take a crack at Mass Effect 3's ending every time the series is brought up. Sure, it was controversial, but a lot of us really liked it too (people who like something just don’t tend to throw newsworthy tantrums, though.)

Hmm... not really a fan of “you have 24 hours to watch and once you’re done watching it disappears.” If I start watching a movie and really like it, can I stop midway, and rewind to the beginning so I can invite other people to watch it with me?

Hmm... not really a fan of “you have 24 hours to watch and once you’re done watching it disappears.” If I start…

Fallout 4, in light of its DLC especially, seems less of “dissapointing” and more a game that deserves to be consigned to be quickly forgotten, except in the lessons we can learn from it. As engrossed as people were in it when it first came out, it really didn’t generate much of anything memorable and felt…

Yeah, I get that it’s fine when it makes sense and fits the tone of the work. If something is clearly a romance, then you’d expect it to be steamier than a “band of youngsters travel the kingdom to right wrongs” sort of thing. What’s off-putting is not that there is ostensibly sexy content, but that it’s so…

Personally, I take this sort of thing as a clear signpost that “this is not for you” so I take this is as indication that I should be watching something else where I’m not being actively disinvited. I basically stopped watching anime about 8 or 9 years ago for this reason.