That piece about FFVII was well-written - enough to get a little panic through the bustle of day-to-day life and escapism of diving into games. However, I'd always be wary of drawing dire warnings for the future from works of fiction. Fiction by nature simplifies - one can take lessons from fiction, but I think the…

Is that iOS only? I've spotted something called "Text Fiction - Playable Novels" on the Play Store, which seems to have a rather different "Messenger app" interface (apparently it doesn't involve typing). I might check that out - snuggling up in bed with a good text game on a chilly weekend sounds like an enticing…

Wow. You've somehow made me actually want to play a game about gangsters which I was previously content to only read about and not play. Though, PS4, so I'm not gonna run out and buy it right now. How are the more… gangster-y bits? I had heard there was something to do with prostitutes or a hostess club or something…

For once, the title is accurate - I've played basically nothing this week; however, I intend to play some Interactive Fiction over this evening and weekend. I wound up on some blogs cented on the genre/medium, and me being me, binge read all of one and am working on the next. Naturally, this got me pretty enthusiastic…

Oh, this isn't my second playthrough, I was just vaguely aware of the lesbian romance and the fact that it wasn't a horror. Honestly I don't think that affected my opinion of it negatively. I was more able to enjoy the characterisation and the beginning of the romance since I wasn't distracted by being nervous or…

Yeah, I guess any example I can come up with is "gameplay tension" of whether you will achieve your difficult task. I really can't think of any game which has maintained other sorts of tension, like dramatic tension, when you die. Perhaps if dying changed what was going on completely, or if dying didn't reset you, but…

What is it about that creepy header picture that makes every damn games writer want to inflict it on their poor readers?!?
More seriously, that point about death in games defusing the tension is very true, even outside of horror. And there's a trade off when it comes to checkpoints, too. Shorter checkpoints let you get…

The prize for "Best Onomatopeia of the Year" goes to CharAznable! (I know it's early but I'm confident in this)

I friggin love The Stanley Parable - mostly because of one particular ending, which so perfectly demonstrated a crucial aspect of basically all games, and did so using the mechanics and design of the game. Also, it's hilarious! And sometimes, it's even quite sad. (I really should play it again soon…)

How many chapters does that have? I started it a week ago but couldn't play it for long because I was really scared for some reason. I'd like to know how much extra time my twitchy checking round every corner, behind me etc is costing me…

Was this late or something? I only just saw it! Anyway, this week I've actually somehow been continuing to finish games! Wait, it's because I'm playing short games rather than the long ones I'm still working on…
(Speaking of working on, the Game Jam went pretty good! I was the only programmer, and very inexperienced…

Well, I've actually still been playing a decent amount recently. I finished Grow Up, which you might say grew on me since the last time I played (ahahaha… ha). Probably due to a greater distance from playing Grow Home, I was more able to appreciate Grow Up for what it was and enjoy exploring. Fortunately, I did not…

One the one hand, I want to do the usual "Anime is a medium not a genre!" thing and complain about the generalisation, but on the other hand "Anime bullshit" perfectly and succinctly commumicates exactly what the author means about the game's tone and content, so I can't actually fault its usage.

I'm just going to second that mention of Keyboard Geniuses! I'm really getting worried about it :(
At least we had some gaming articles this week, there weren't that many the past few and I was even more worried…

For me, "portable" mostly means "I can lie in bed and play video games" rather than "I can play this on a plane".

Well, you know, I'm quite excited about a lot of these - I really appreciate the inclusion of plenty of more obscure or indie stuff in there. I'm hoping that perhaps one of the indie games I'm following the development blogs for will release this year.
Those are:
Heat Signature
Manifold Garden
Return of the Obra Dinn
Wobbl…

For me the major draw is portability and not needing the TV. WiiU had that to some extent, but the screen was really kind of rubbish looking, and not portable at all. The idea that I can play console-level games on a portable device is very enticing - I hardly ever finish console games, and currently I'm in a shared…

Well, last weekend I showed Her Story to my Mum - I essentially watched her play it through. She quite liked it, though I had to step in at the end to find a few big plot videos she was having trouble finding. By the end of the game she was a bit tired of trying search terms - she hadn't really been writing them down…

Seems like this is being reported loads of places… even noticed an article about it on the BBC. Wonder why it's ended up reported outside the usual gaming circles.

Funny story about that… I didn't realise that was possible until reading it there. The game only lets you type yes or no in chat, and I tried to type something else, so I thought you just couldn't type in chat at all! What a thing to miss! Doesn't affect my opinion of the game, though I guess it decreases my opinion…