Shadows of the Damned: Punk's Not Dead?

This is the second article that I have written recently that has a questions as a title. I hate leading with questions (especially rhetorical questions--though this isn't intended as one).

That being said, I really don't know that I have a clear position on the issue that I bring up here, regarding Suda51's much vaunted "punk aesthetic" and whether or not it is a clear or sensible or recognizable approach to his audience.

I'm still playing Shadows of the Damned and am on the fence about the game as a whole. I usually like Suda51 because whatever he offers smacks of at least being different. Here, Suda is spending a lot of time aping what I think of as "neo exploitation cinema" (think Machete or Planet Terror), and I'm seeing less of his interrogation of gaming as a subculture or as an act, just a couple of his topics that he frequently seems to have something to say about.

See? I'm just kind of rambling here. Shadows of the Damned just seems to drive me to lose focus...

Shadows of the Damned: Punk's Not Dead?

Moving Pixels Podcast: In Defense of Tower Defense

This is a podcast that we recorded some time ago but whose publication has been put off for a variety of factors. I'm pretty sure that it seemed like it seemed really interesting at the time.

Moving Pixels Podcast: In Defense of Tower Defense

Review: Wii Play: Motion

I have a hard time with motion control. I think that it becomes a way of reducing gaming machines to activity machines.

My review of Wii Play: Motion focuses on the difference that exists in my mind between the two:

Wii Play: Motion

Boys Get Naked Better than Girls

Hmmm... this was up sooner than I thought it would be, though I wrote it a couple weeks ago.

This commentary actually precedes my discussion of the presentation of the new Lara Croft at E3 on our podcast. I had not actually seen the playthrough video when I wrote it, but that video did confirm to me some of what I had read about this new Lara, though.

While there are a number of things in this written piece that touch on the podcast discussion, this is a more broadly expanded discussion of gender and clothing damage in gaming than just the potential pitfalls of the new Lara.

Boys Get Naked Better than Girls

Watching As Gameplay: L.A. Noire Merely a Visual Novel?

Some additional thoughts on L.A. Noire and the criticism of it as being more a visual novel than a game.

Watching As Gameplay: L.A. Noire Merely a Visual Novel?

Moving Pixels Podcast: Reflections on E3 2011

Well, it's an inevitable to hve to at least acknowledge E3, I suppose (I'm actually more fond of kind of vastly different approaches to the topic, like Kris Ligman's article from last week). So, we did sit down for a podcast on the expo's major announcements this year. I think that I like the discussion (sort of towards the middle) about Tomb Raider the best because the playthrough video was probably the thing that most intrigued me and maybe worried me a little.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Reflections on E3 2011

Great Games and Podcasts for Summer Fun

I'm responsible for a few blurbs in PopMatters's feature on games of summer. I was under the impression that we were trying to highlight games with a "summer vibe." Thus, my picks... I think.

Anywho...

Great Games and Podcasts for Summer Fun

The Comforts of Home: Defending Applebee's in Modern Warfare 2

I feel strangely between games right now. While I am in reality in the middle of a bunch of titles, including Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, Bayonetta, Alice: Madness Returns, and The Witcher 2, somehow I don't feel moved to talk about any of those titles right now. So, instead, I returned to 2009 to talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in part because I got thinking about it after seeing a Modern Warfare 3 playthrough at E3 and in part because there is something that I intended to express about it (besides my thoughts on "No Russian") for a while now.

I'm not quite sure that I exactly nailed my thoughts on the way that MW 2 attempts to personalize its warfare, but here goes anyway:

The Comforts of Home: Defending Applebee's in Modern Warfare 2

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Look at Inclusivity in Video Games

Today's Moving Pixels podcast includes a host of guests from The Border House and GayGamer.net, including Alexandra Raymond, Denis Farr, and faePuck.

Moving Pixels Podcast: A Look at Inclusivity in Video Games

The Best of Thoughtful Gaming Podcasts

A simple enough post this week--a shout out to a number of podcasts that I like.

I don't realy listen to gaming news podcasts or any of the big review sites, as I tend to be looking for more analytical discussion, so I guess in the spirit of being a little anti-the-hullabaloo-of-E3 I figured that I would mention a few folks that talk about games in a broad and thoughtful way, rather than emphasizing those excited only about the latest and the greatest.

The Best of Thoughtful Gaming Podcasts

L.A. Noire: The Fatalism of American Sticktoitiveness

I'm in rather bad shape this week, as I'm recovering from a tonsillectomy. I did spend much of this time playing L.A. Noire though, a game that I really felt like I had little to say about initially. I kind of disliked it at first, but it slowly grew on me as I spent more time with it (maybe its overall slow pacing was perfect for someone that is trying to just take it easy while his body recovers). It gets better as one grows accustomed to its "vibe."

Having heard some criticism of the game's tendency to be more of an interactive narrative than a game, though, got me thinking about how that tendency matches the overall tone and attitude of typical examples of hardboiled fiction. So, I grabbed a copy of Raymond Chandler's "The Simple Art of Murder" (an essay on Chandler's sense of what a detective story should be) and talked a bit about L.A. Noire in terms of genre conventions and why its inevitable momentum towards solution may be entirely appropriate for its genre.

Here is the result:

L.A. Noire: The Fatalism of American Sticktoitiveness