Moving Pixels Podcast: It's Very Dead... in Space

Okay, I've beaten this horse (the dead one), but there's one more go round before I put Isaac Clarke and his ferocious friends to bed.

I've written a lot about Dead Space for the past few weeks, and I've hashed out a bunch of issues that I think that are interesting about the game. So, it's time for me to dialogue (rather than just what have mostly been monologues) with the Moving Pixels podcast crew about both games in the series (though I think our focus largely stays with the sequel more than anything else, which is good--I think--since a lot of my discussion has revolved around the first game).

So, if the topic hasn't gotten too stale for you, one more for the road (I'll be on to Bulletstorm this Wednesday, and then further onwards towards some as yet uncharted territory, perhaps):

Moving Pixels Podcast: It's Very Dead... in Space

Horror in Video Games: There's Seeing -- and Then There's Realizing What You're Seeing

If you have followed a number of my recent posts, I've had an issue on my mind about the way that we see as spectators and the way that we see as players in video games (in fact, for what it's worth, the article below used to be titled "Seeing as a Spectator, Seeing as a Player in Video Games"). Largely this interest has something to do with the fact that my long suffering wife often sits with me as I play games, and I am frequently interested in the sorts of things that she sees and that I don't and vice versa while playing.

Much of this started to come to a head when she was thoroughly disgusted by my playthroughs of Dead Space and Dead Space 2, so much so that she abandoned me to my play. Given that I had failed to see much of the repugnant images in a horror game, I started thinking about how play sometimes interferes with seeing and what consequences that has to appreciating the full extent of a game's presentation.

This is the result:

Horror in Video Games: There's Seeing -- and Then There's Realizing What You're Seeing

Review: Mario Sports Mix

Jorge Albor and Scott Juster of ExperiencePoints.net have recently been talking a lot about difficulty and challenge in Nintendo products. I have mentioned there that while I personally admire the steep difficulty of New Super Mario Bros., what I especially admire in that game is its ability to allow players of unequal skill (especially younger gamers) to play alongside players of considerably more skill (especially the Nintendo generation parents of such younger children), allowing everyone to play with the right degree of challenge.

So, it is ironic that I just got done playing Mario Sports Mix, another Nintendo product, and my biggest gripe about the game is its inability to successfully handle providing the right challenge to the right players:

Mario Sports Mix

High Tea: Reflex Economics, or a Twitch-Based Economy

A rather brief (for me) posting this week discussing a flash game over at NewGrounds called High Tea. Refreshingly, it is a flash game that isn't a platformer or an adventure game.

The genre of the game itself is kind of unique (at least I cn't recall anything quite like it), as it is an economic simulation that requires fast reflexes. In other words, it is kind of twitchy.

Anyway a few thoughts on how it plays and maybe why (in terms of its theme of addiction and profiteering):

High Tea: Reflex Economics, or a Twitch-Based Economy

Moving Pixels Podcast: Things to Do in Space When You're Dead

In anticipation of a discussion of the release of Dead Space 2, the Moving Pixels podcast explores the universe of Dead Space as a media phenomenon.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Things to Do in Space When You're Dead

Stacking: A Commitment to Simplicity

Some thoughts on Stacking, a game that I want to love but that I merely think is pretty good, are available in my most recent piece for PopMatters.

It's a game that is simple--but not in a good way, which is it downfall.

I'll be writing more about the problem of challenge in a review of Mario Sports Mix next week, but in the meantime, a review of Stacking:

Stacking: A Commitment to Simplicity

Visceral Games, Body Horror, and the Monstrous Female Body

"It is hard to forget an 80-foot femininely formed atrocity that belches demons from its nipples."

A little analysis of Visceral Games's presentation of the female body in games like Dante's Inferno, Dead Space, and Dead Space 2:

Visceral Games, Body Horror, and the Monstrous Female Body

Moving Pixels Podcast: MIA

As a result of a whole bunch of scheduling conflicts, the most recent episode of the Moving Pixels podcast was recorded much later than usual. Its tardiness has resulted in a Monday without a 'cast that is ready to go. We will be back next week with a discussion of Dead Space as a transmedia phenomenon.

However, in lieu of sending anyone with a hankering for some thoughtful discussion of gaming related topics away hungry, I will recommend catching up on episodes of Scott Juster and Jorge Albor's always compelling Experience Points podcast instead.

It is what I'll be listening to:

Experience Points

Isaac Clarke: Intergalactic Handyman

Work, eviscerate, work, eviscerate.

An intergalactic handyman's work is never done:

Isaac Clarke: Intergalactic Handyman

Moving Pixels Podcast: Storytelling in Enslaved

A new Moving Pixels podcast is up over at PopMatters. Yes, yes, it more discussion of Enslaved, though the crew remains divided on the relative merit of the game and especially its storytelling. We discuss the strengths and weaknsses of cut scenes as a storytelling device along with how well integrated storytelling and gameplay need to be in video games in this episode.

You can find it here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Storytelling in Enslaved

Namelessness, Thy Name Is Monkey

Probably because we just recorded an upcoming episode of the Moving Pixels podcast on Enslaved, I find myself thinking about the game some more this week. For today's post, I had been thinking a bit about the kind of mimalistic approach that the game takes to its storytelling presentation (short cut scenes, brief and simple dialogue, and the like). So, I decided to talk a bit about the "quieter" ways that Enslaved implies who its characters are and what they are all about. In this case, I focused on Monkey's lack of an actual given name and what that implies about him.

Namelessness, Thy Name Is Monkey

Moving Pixels Podcast: Participating in the Gruesome Spectacle of Dead Rising 2

Shifting settings from the mall to the casino, the Dead Rising series hasn’t changed in its commitment to gross excess and superficiality.

Which is a good thing, yes? Since those are the strengths of the series, right?

Moving Pixels Podcast: Participating in the Gruesome Spectacle of Dead Rising 2