That's a good question, although a tricky one, I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few historic outliers, but by and large, I'd say that it's something that came with the 'indie revolution' that kicked in around 2007/08. The thing is, though, that necessity and aesthetic choice do almost always overlap in…

And yes, while I was too young to see Terminator 2 in any other form than a crumbling VHR tape (come to think of it, I have never seen it in something resembling proper image quality), I had the great pleasure of seeing Riki-Oh — of course many years later — in a midnight special on the big screen. It's possible that…

That running actually scared and scarred me more than the gorier scenes of the movie. So much so that I (and a couple of friends) were positively freaked out by a janitor of a building in town which just so happened to have a perfectly skate-able curb in front of it. I mean, as a skater, you're used to having to pack…

Also, Owlboy is probably a late runner-up for 'game that transcends the possiblities of pixel art while not over-stepping its vaguely-definied limits'. But while it's without a doubt extremely beautiful as well (and has also one my favorite scores of the year), ultimately, it's a bit too conventional to take away Hype…

I wasn't sure what to make of Hyper Light Drifter at first — I had kickstarted it and finished it in the first week or so after its release. I enjoyed it, but I didn't like the somewhat robotic behavior I adapted in the later parts of the game: I had gotten aware of how many mysteries and secret passages the game hid…

Thanks for your explanation — I can sign all of that in a heartbeat.

I think it's interesting that both you and Gerardi call the Amanita games 'extremely traditional'. I would rather argue that they are indeed not traditional/classical Point&Click adventures, at least not of the kind that most people might think about when they hear the term — that is 90s Lucasarts and Sierra games.…

No books published in 2016, but it's extremely rare that I read books when they come out, anyway. I guess what I enjoyed most this year was reading some fairly big novels, as a semi-conscious counterpoint to my quavering online reading-habits. I went to Melk this summer, which lead to me reading The Name of The Rose;…

He could be the actual Uncle Who Works for Nintendo!

Yeah, I also thought that it would be that scene in Toni Erdmann, but I can see why somebody who choose the one mentioned above as the standout one. Which just goes to show how many great scenes that movie actually had.

That, and the frankly so obviously-great-that-you-wonder-why-nobody-has-done-it-before idea of framing the hero's journey as a road trip not only makes this the first Final Fantasy game ever that I am interested in, but makes me seriously consider buying a PS4. (I think that The Last Guardian might push me over the…

I'm also intrigued by it, even though so far, I was more easily endeared to music that is related to the genre in strange but obvious ways. M83, or the (more aggressive?) synthwave that someone like Carpenter Brut produces, or the at once more etheral and darker sound of Oneohtrix Point Never's last two albums. (Which…

Even though I don't have a four day-weekend, I might get to play a few games! Namely, Owlboy and a variant of the goold old Trick Your Friends In Thinking You're A Better Writer Than Nabokov But Don't Get Tricked Yourself!-parlor game.

Fun fact: There was a Swiss politician who wanted to ban violent video games. His go to-example for what is wrong with the medium was Stranglehold, which was really not the best of choices, considering the fact that it is simply a toned-down adaption of a kind of movie that is even more violent. (Needless to say, no…

I'd say that Hana-Bi might be a good start. It has one foot in his more violent cop thriller/action movie-line, but the other in the bittersweetness and human warmth that I love about other movies of his, like A Scene at The Sea or Kikujiro. Basically, you get the best of two worlds, and it's a really great movie as…

DO IT, AVClub.

Yeah, I was pretty happy that he was mentioned in the article as maybe the only legitimate heir of Woo's throne.
I have to admit that I discovered the classic Woo movie's a bit late, at a time when the obvious use of prosthetics and the overall late 80s feeling was already a bit distracting.
So in my strange opinion, I…

There's a scene in The End of The Tour where David Lipsky, David Foster Wallace and two friends decide to go see Broken Arrow, because Wallace insists on doing so over the reluctance of the others. (He's overtly enthusiastic by how Travolta's character is impaled by a rocket at the end of the movie.)

Congratulations to everyone!

Ok, I just added you as a friend. Different name, but an avatar that looks a bit like this one. We'll work out the rest from there!