Digital identities and the real-life power of FIFA’s player ratings
When confronted with digital scores, there is something strangely humanising about seeing real world athletes coming to terms with being ranked as videogame characters for FIFA 21.
Enter the Gungeon and the importance of the videogame forward roll
Whether you call it a roly-poly, a forward role or a diving dodge, this evasive manoeuvre is now as much of a staple of modern videogaming as shooting and jumping – perhaps there is no better example of this than in Enter the Gungeon
The ballad of Golf Story’s Coach – hubris, humility and redemption in one NPC
All hail Golf’s Story’s Coach, a unique videogame study of hubris, doomed ambition and the power of perseverance, pomposity and being a semi-reliable friend
Streets of Rogue – a very modern quest to build a complex, chaotic, 2D open world
Streets of Rogue developer Matt Dabrowski talked to Squareblind about the challenges of building a more complex, 2D open world and its relative limits and benefits over building similar sandbox setting in 3D.
The art of a great crash-landing AKA the Launchpad McQuack principle
In the strange, occasionally anthropomorphic history of fictional navigators, few characters have captured a consequence-free of fearless aviation than a cartoon bird in flight goggles.
While the character Launchpad McQuack is not new to videogames. Totally Reliable Delivery service is a game that best captures the childish and wondrous approach to being a meat headed daredevil of the skies.
Shadow of War – Ye Olde spite simulator
Were you to strip Shadow of War of its Tolkien-inspired setting and story, what you would have is a fully functioning, highly entertaining spite simulator.
To be or not to be Arnie? Embracing explosive chaos over control in modern 2D shooters
If conscience does make cowards of us all; two different 2D shooters take a very different approach to conveying violence with very different consequences for living out our inner action hero.
Behold the Kickmen – An anti-football game for the FIFA age
In blending satire with a retro-football game that shares more than a few of the absurdist mechanics of the Dark Souls series, Dan Marshall has created a unique kind of anti-football game.
Super Mario World – a study of a complex 16-bit digital ecosystem
World building is a consideration that we tend to attribute to more modern game design and interactive storytelling – yet the idiosyncratic character design and foibles of Super Mario World’s bad guys creates a real sense of place.
Minecraft Dungeons – a family friendly lust for power
If you are going to go power mad, there are worse places than Minecraft Dungeons to get such a kick.
