Essay
For more than two years, Ryan Kuo has edited for Kill Screen. As he heads off to pursue an M.S. at MIT, he reflects on the life of iPad gaming that is now ending when he gives back the tablet to the company. When is an app more than an app?
Essay
The popular airline simulator Pocket Planes may not provide goals, direction, or even motivation, but it does demonstrate the importance of being bored with a videogame.
Review
Why is Phil Fish’s new puzzle game so addictive? Because it hides everything in plain sight, and lays bare the rest.
News
When Borderlands 2 is released on September 18, it will expand on the comic-book wasteland setting of its predecessor in more than a fictional way. The first game, a combination of first-person shooters, role-playing games, and massively-multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, set itself ap
News
Kill Screen contributor, comics artist, academic, and high-concept game maker Pippin Barr debuts a new game today. It’s called Epic Sax Game and it’s a glorious feat of keyboard jamming, Guitar Hero spoofage, paint-by-MIDI, and Eurovision homage. Check out this video (at your own risk) to see/hear t
Review
Everything looks wrong at first about BioWare’s final space opera. It turns out the makers gutted Mass Effect 3 to make it right. Here are their conclusions about humanity.
Essay
With apps, games, multimedia, multitasking, and online functionality galore, Sony’s newly released PlayStation Vita wants to be everything to everyone. Ryan Kuo argues that it is definitely one thing for one person: the hardcore gamer, whatever that looks like.
Columns
In our second Flash column, the joys of landing butt-first on gelatinous bears. Ryan Kuo gives three talking points about Juicy Beast’s cannonball game.
Essay
A rumination on the effects of rationality and irrationality on videogames big and small, including Skyrim, Dark Souls, Passage, and Braid—and why it’s important that game systems come out of culture.
Review
What does it feel like when your game talks back to you? Bastion quite literally finds a soul in the unlikeliest of places.
Review
An endless game doubles as a meditation on love. Just don’t run out of gas, or drive into a hole in the ground. We review Simogo’s latest, Bumpy Road.
Review
Cheap and easy iPhone games are a dime a dozen. How do they affect us on a deeper level if they’re meant as distractions? Quantum Sheep’s monochromatic space jumper tackles the dilemma head on.