You Say Apocalypse, I Say Retro Chic

Sometimes you just get a line in your head, and you have to write an essay around it.

In this case, it was this line: “Much like telling an erotic story within a Victorian backdrop seems ever so sexy (it is so much more fun unbuttoning something that seems to be so very buttoned up), human depravity juxtaposed against a seemingly golden age of good, moral values is darkly comic and that much more disturbing.”

This might seem weird to be focusing on if you read the essay though, which is about the retro aesthetics of Fallout 3 and Bioshock:

You Say Apocalypse, I Say Retro Chic

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Assassin's Creed

Our weekly podcast went live yesterday. Sticking to the topic of game worlds, we decided to take a look at the historical setting as well as virtual setting of the Assassin's Creed series.

You can find the podcast below and also a link to it on iTunes:

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Assassin's Creed

The Satisfaction of a Switch

Like most gamers, I have been thinking an awful lot about the switch:

The Satisfaction of a Switch

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Bioshock

In addition to my review of Alan Wake, the other bit of gaming related commentary that I have going live today over at PopMatters is the Moving Pixels podcast's discussion of Rapture. In the podcast much of our focus is on the sequel to Bioshock and how the good folks over at 2K are able to evoke such a powerful image of a living world out of the remains of a dead city.

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Bioshock

Review: Alan Wake

Alan Wake is a bit different than a lot of survival horror fare. Depending more on a creepy atmosphere than on gruesome violence and monstrosity, it is more akin to something like "psychological horror" (which is how the game has been billed) than it is something like a Resident Evil or a Silent Hill.

I can appreciate that, and the tone and atmosphere of the game is generally pretty good. It's writing and characterization is a lot more stilted though.

However, I spent time in my review talking more about the presentation of fear in the game than in complaining about the hamfisted dialogue. You can read more here:

Alan Wake

But Who Am I?: Schizophrenia as a Metaphor for the Player-Character Relationship

Some tropes, like the protagonist of a game having amnesia, are well worn ways of explaining why a character (and by extension) a player has so little knowledge of a world when getting started in a video game. Deadly Premonition offers a different metaphor to understand the relationship between the player and the scripted character:


But Who Am I?: Schizophrenia as a Metaphor for the Player-Character Relationship

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Mass Effect

This week our discussion of game worlds moves from the claustrophobic halls of the asylum to the vast reaches of space.

I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the Mass Effect universe. I think that I like listening to Nick Dinicola talk about it more than I like playing it. You can hear both of us (along with Thomas Cross and Rick Dakan) chat about it here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Mass Effect

Google Image Search: A Map of America

You may have noticed that I am into semiotics. I love pattern hunting. It's like a giant puzzle for me that's waiting to get solved -- my way.

For this month's Moving Pixels column, I decided to talk a bit about how meaning and patterns emerge in Google Image Search. Seemingly arbitrary but suggestive of trends and attitudes, Google reflects a kind of cultural consensus about what images mean.

So, this one is a bit less about video games. Nevertheless, I hope it's still interesting:

Google Image Search: A Map of America

Homeward Bound: Odysseus, Frogger, and a Simple Teleology of Play

Getting a little retro today, so I'm thinking about games and stories from the 1980s and the 8th century. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Frogger and The Odyssey are arttistically equivalent, but I do think that some of the thematic patterns underlying Frogger represent baby steps in our medium towards telling more thematically rich stories because it recognizes the need to map familiar motivations to a protagonist. In other words, the impetus was there in very early games to start telling great stories, and we've progressed a lot since 1981 (maybe less so since the 8th century).

Here's kind of what I mean:

Homeward Bound: Odysseus, Frogger, and a Simple Teleology of Play

Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Batman: Arkham Asylum

Well, we finally have podcasts available via iTunes. Our latest podcast shifts focus from storytelling to game worlds and how they contribute to the gaming experience. We decided to start out by focusing on the world of the asylum.


Moving Pixels Podcast: The World of Batman: Arkham Asylum