Storybundle brings a stellar holiday collection of games writing
Do ereaders dream of electric stocking stuffers?
Zach Budgor
This short film celebrates the beauty of space
In space, no one can hear you gawk.
A video handily explains all the wonderful things videogames do for your brain
It’s well-documented at this point that playing videogames has an effect on your brain. It’s just what effect, exactly, that scientists haven’t quite figured out. Something to do with decision-making and sensory awareness, right? But it’s a step toward appreciating games for what they are—valuable i
These glitches turn Assassin’s Creed Unity into a grotesque worthy of Picasso and Goya
Liberté, Égalité, Terreur
Bycatch smartly distills drone warfare into a card game
This season of Homeland opened with a botched drone strike, and six episodes later teetered on a moment where a drone nearly became an instrument of revenge. Granted, Homeland is about one Jason-masked murder rampage from 24 territory, but the show usually mirrors one actual political concern per se
Vektor thinks mega-cities aren’t all that rad after all
Future-hell in the year 199X.
Wandering the hypnagogic kaleidoscope with Parasomnia
The 2010 sf/slasher hybrid Beyond the Black Rainbow was the best argument for shooting on film since…well, since the days where there was no other option. Directed by first-timer Panos Cosmatos (son of George P. Cosmatos, director of the hands-down best movie where Sylvester Stallone eats pizza with
Lucas Pope finds his procedural zen
The follow-up to Papers, Please is looking lovely and decidedly lo-fi.
Hell-bent for leather with Bayonetta 2
Stand by for Exciter.
Relish the look of Beyond Eyes’ watercolor visions
One-woman studio tiger & squid’s Beyond eyes reached nearly half of its Indiegogo goal last October. Since then it’s gone dark, only resurfacing this week to the news that publisher Team 17 (best known for the Worms series, but they’ve been diversifying as of late) has picked up the game for a 2015
The dream of the 80s is alive in VR
Console cowboys welcome.
Mecca 3D allows Muslims to make a pilgrimage using VR
The hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam; it demands that all able Muslims make pilgrimage to Mecca at least once before they die. That’s kind of a lot to ask, I imagine, especially if you find yourself without the means. But what other choice does a devotee have? Well, there’s Mecca 3D, an app
Alien: Isolation might do the impossible: make Alien scary again
You have my sympathies.
At least someone’s thinking of your thumbs
Big phones are increasingly the norm. And aside from the obvious challenges of these handheld obsidian monoliths—such as “Where do I stash this thing?”—there is a more concrete problem, an issue of design: the way you hold your (pitiful, obsolete) phone now is not going to be the way you hold one of
Poor old Kinect is finding new life as a scientific assistant
Well, it’s good to see it busy.
The garish psychotronic madness of Uriel’s Chasm nods to early Swans
The band Swans have two distinct phases. The first is grimy, industrial no-wave that churns and roils Tetsuo-like with dystopic paranoia and twisted sexuality. The second phase—their current one—is patient, unfurling twenty-minute art rock tapestries largely devoid of distorted guitars and far more
Beat Blox is like real-life Patatap
The intuitive, color-soaked beat-making app Patatap is something we still think you should check out. Following in its footsteps is Beat Blox, a grad project by Swedish student Per Holmquist. His piece, created at the Beckmans College of Design, takes Patatap‘s tactility and fuses that with the much
The developers behind Monument Valley are making a VR game
Fleece jacket not included.
Human Harp lends grace to industrial spaces
Di Mainstone is an artist whose work bridges the gap between sculpture and the human body. She entwines the two, creating wearable, touchable, playable apparatuses that range from pulsing Cronenberg-style bioforms to a neck-mounted motion-based instrument that transforms its wearer into a one-woman
Sit by the fire and listen to The Lion’s Song
A meditative Ludum Dare entry conjures the spirits of de Palma and von Trier.
Due Process is a love letter to lavish early-90s action movies
They are the law.
Secret Ponchos turns the desolate spaghetti western into chaotic multiplayer
Take a stool and drink up.
SUPERHOT shoot-dodging its way to Xbox One
Superhot is both the Matrix videogame we’ve dreamt of (naturally, whilst cradled in our biomechanical nutrient pods) and the best argument yet for the Oculus Rift. Meditative may be a stretch. Superhot is a pensive shooter. It slows you down. Like For Each Our Roads of Winter, Superhot invites you t
Arbitrary subjects turn into kaleidoscopic imagery with Light Pattern
The intersection of photography and computers generally connotes Photoshop and Instagram. The first is a tool for refining and altering photos, enabling manipulation far beyond what’s possible in the darkroom. The second is a sort of casual dumping ground, a worldwide clothesline sagging with millio