The Video Game Aesthetics of Spartacus: Blood and Sand

I don't usually write about media other than video games over at PopMatters. In this week's blog post, I don't avoid video games as a subject (and in reality, they still are the dominant interest of the piece), but I do talk a great deal about a television show. I think, though, that what I perceive as the misuse of CGI in Spartacus: Blood and Sand does allow for an interesting discussion of how video games' visual aesthetics work and how they have grown in recent years.

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The Video Game Aesthetics of Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Learning from Loading Screens: The Pedagogy of Bayonetta

I'm kinda weirdly jazzed by (of all things) the loading screens in Bayonetta. They serve the pedagogical interests of the "stylish action game" genre.

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Learning from Loading Screens: The Pedagogy of Bayonetta

Spectacular Voyeurism: Bayonetta and Hyper-Spectacle

I have written about spectacle as an aesthetic a number of times before. Sometimes I have framed it in terms of Piñata Porn, sometimes in terms of Splatter Porn, sometimes just in reviewing a game like Devil May Cry, but I am just sort of fascinated by the notion of grounding aesthetics on pure visual decadence. It might be because as a literary critic such topics tend to be of less interest, and video games expression of spectacle allows the "blind" critic to finally begin to consider issues that usually are addressed by folks that study the visual arts.

In any case, Bayonetta is the very essence of decadence in visual expression. It is also kind of great.

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Spectacular Voyeurism: Bayonetta and Hyper-Spectacle

Review of The Saboteur

Following my discussion of the metanarrative of The Saboteur's DLC, I figured I should do some basic evaluation of the game on the whole. The Saboteur features a very polite protagonist, one that is especially polite for the protagonist of an open world game. Much of this has to do with balancing Devlin's nastier open world characteristics with his role as hero.

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The Saboteur

The Value of Nudity: Considering The Saboteur

Happy new year. So, it is time to talk again about sexuality in video games. This time out, Pandemic Studios has included a nudity option but only via download in their new game, The Saboteur. It is free if you buy a copy and the apparent value of virtual nipples is about $3.00 if you are getting a hold of The Saboteur in some other way.

The oddity of nudity only being available via download and its value has me pondering the relative value of nudity in a narrative production, though. Thus, my latest blog post at PopMatters, which you can reach at the link below.

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The Value of Nudity: Considering The Saboteur