Dark Souls broke me. Why did I give it another chance?
Jason Johnson gave up on From Software’s murderous masterpiece a year ago and recovered. Then he relapsed.
Jason Johnson
We interviewed the DayZ developer right before he was arrested in Greece
Ivan Buchta stands accused of espionage for taking pictures in Greece. We talked to him about designing landscapes days before his arrest.
The presidential debate is going to be boring. Let’s gamify it.
Kill Screen’s suggestions for making the debate watchable, for once.
Can a Flash game improve the lives of Syrian refugees?
Inside the Egyptian-made food-prep game that aims to help Syrians displaced in the civil war
Attention angry nerds: stop sending Bayonetta creator death tweets
INTRANURTZ rage has gone too far this time. Now, it’s personal.
Won’t virtual reality die already?
I thought Valve was working on a real-life portal gun. Instead, they built 1992.
Electing the Freshman Class to the UN of Gaming
This post is part of a content series presented in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, simplicity is delicious. Technology may be making the world smaller, but as the computer scientist Vannevar Bush pointed out in his watershed 1945 essay As We May Think, it is also making the world infinitel
Designer Matt Parker’s Lumarca is 3D and out of this world.
What’s inside this box?
Hello childhood. Darksiders II is action figurines for adults.
Like playing with dolls? Then you’re going to love Vigil Games’ addition to the Darksiders franchise.
Love to Worry
Games are a collision of study and play, but they lean heavily on the former. Jason Johnson’s trip into the chaotic mines of Spelunky taught him how to love the inhumanity of the machine.
In Search of Mothra Fairies
What do onigiri treasure, killer doll heads, spreadsheets, and gymnastics have in common? It turns out nothing, but we can recommend them all in the sudden return of Flash Forward.
The Radioactive Circus
Is this London installation the most dangerous ride in the world? Jason Johnson speaks with artist Ryan Doyle about The Liquidator, a kinetic sculpture he built using radioactive metal collected from the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Mise-@-Scène
Before email and Twitter, the @ symbol was the faceless character of Rogue and its cult of roguelikes. New from rising developer Michael Brough is Zaga-33, a dungeon crawl that manages to be beautifully abstract and polemical at once. Has Brough found the message in the medium?
"Humans Can’t Keep on Top of Numbers."
Buddhist metal duo Yamantaka // Sonic Titan recently contributed to Klei Entertainment’s upcoming Mark of the Ninja. We talk to Ruby Attwood and Alaska B about the cosmic in Chun-Li cosplay and creating drum patterns as code.
The Tricky Serve of Mario Tennis Open
Tennis, as a videogame, has never exactly replicated the complex physics of the sport. Instead, tennis videogames give a skin to button-ordering finger memory games. We see how Mario Tennis Open for the 3DS furthers the illusion.
The Creator of the "Worst Videogame in the World" Sees New Life in BDSM Doc — and as a Therapist
E.T. is known as the game that almost killed the videogame industry in 1983. But its creator Howard Scott Warshaw hasn’t let the failure derail his life. We talk to the man behind the legend about his new life as a therapist for the Digital Age.
How Ghost Recon Might Teach You How To Shoot a Real Rifle.
They say art imitates life. (Or vice versa.) For the men who craft the weapons in upcoming shooter Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon, creating viable machines meant pulling from the paintball court and the firing range. Jason Johnson dives into the fray.
Sine Mora is Bullet Gulag
If there was a strongman contest for the frenetic “bullet hell” genre, Sine Mora might be it. The Hungarian developer gathers steam and spits fire as Jason Johnson dives into this review.
Black Undead Damnation
Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption is the latest videogame to host an urban legend. A house on a hill is said to be haunted—in reality—so we went ghost hunting.
There She Blows
What does Nintendo’s new role-playing saga have in common with a sad, dying whale? The list spans the creature’s hide.
Poisonous Paragraphs
The transgender community has found an unlikely folk hero in Poison, a sexed-up Street Fighter character. Jason Johnson traces her murky evolution from concept sketch to rallying point.
Gunning With Scissors
How can we understand a world coded in language? William S. Burroughs had some violent ideas in the form of handguns, scissors, and word games.
Bullish Stupidity
Jeff Minter’s new fruit ’em up Five a Day is profoundly stupid. Here’s why it dodges skill and statistics, and goes straight to the soul.
The Legend of Donkey-Woman
When your game breaks all the time, will you give up or will you play along? We go looking for guts and glitches in the Wild West.
Going Overboard
Some fear heights; others, going outside. Jason Johnson is afraid of fish, which makes even the most innocent and childproof videogames horrible things.