Update: July 6th, 2015

Hey folks! Here’s a rundown of the stuff I’ve written since I last posted one of these update post dealies.

I’m pretty concerned with issues of connection, intimacy, and love, and how games approach and portray these aspects of life. Much of the stuff I’ve written in recent weeks is a reflection of this. 

My post Yearn was the conclusion to an ongoing personal reckoning of sorts with the quest of Dark Souls II, a game in which I think the curse your character is trying to break is one of isolation and lovelessness. This was a really personally important post for me.

image

Also on the topic of intimacy, I wrote about the game Sunset and the complexity of feeling close to someone who is never around in my post Sunset: An Intimacy of Absence.

image

And in my post On the Champion’s Road, I wrote about the meaning of sharing games and sharing life with other people. 

image

My post lost in the forest is about Cameron Kunzelman’s game Epanalepsis and how it seemed designed to force me to confront the sense that something is missing in the lives of its characters, and by extension, in mine as well.

image

my brain is a xanadu is about the wonderful computer at the center of Kentucky Route Zero’s third act, how it reminds me of the way that technology once seemed magical and transcendent and alive to me, and how I see some of my own clunky brain in the mystifying, moldy old circuits of that machine. 

image

I also wrote a short post called Based Batman about a little GamerGate-themed joke in Batman: Arkham Knight, and another post about why I think a critical examination of violence in games can be important even when it’s not leading us to think about games in exciting new ways. 

And lastly as far as games-related writing, I just had a new piece go up on VICE that addresses crime investigation mechanics in games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Her Story, and argues that it’s far more interesting for a game to let you do some of the detective work yourself, even if it means letting you fail, than it is for a game to reward you for going through some simple motions like AAA games often do.

Finally, this piece isn’t strictly game-related but it is media criticism so I’m tossing it into the mix: Creating the green place: on Mad Max: Fury Road, Beyond the Lights, and images of empowerment.

If you like my work and you’re able to do so, please consider supporting my Patreon if you’re not already. In any case, thanks so much for reading! See you on the game grid.

image