The year games got funny again
Goats, microtransactions, anal probes, pizza: 2014 saw a new form of comedy emerge.
Tate Worlds mines classic artwork for Minecraft inspiration
Jump into paintings, sort of.
The release of Papers, Please for iPad is a commentary on border policing
Is technology improving the ways we screen those entering and exiting our countries?
Van Gogh’s troubled psyche explored in lurching claymation
For her Master Thesis at the IT University of Copenhagen, Federica Orlati has spent the past nine months meticulously crafting Ever Yours, Vincent. It’s a point-and-click adventure based on the letters that Vincent van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo while living in Arles, France. In the game,
Twitch Plays Pokemon and the year in crowdplaying
In 2014, developers gave control to the hivemind.
The Year in Maps
The family resemblance in game maps is getting too strong to ignore.
A videogame for all you lonely kids (and adults) out there
There may not be a greater intimation of loneliness than a child attempting to play a videogame that was designed for two persons. Picture them sat cross-legged in front of an old boxy television, completely by themselves, attempting to rush their limbs across two gamepads, and sighing with their en
In Stellar Smooch, you’ve got a hot date with fate and outer space
Explore the abyss that is love and relationships with Stellar Smooch.
The Deer God makes you relate to hunter and hunted
Finding karma deep in nature.
Watching sports from a more videogame-like perspective could reinvent them
In praise of the first-person view.
Wander through rural Scotland in the deeply personal Beeswing
How would you capture your hometown in a videogame?
Play with your food, manipulate 3D art, lose your mind
Three totally insane games to do instead of … whatever else you were planning today.
Here Be Monsters
How Dungeons and Dragons lets you map the fantastic places in the corners of your mind.
Storybundle brings a stellar holiday collection of games writing
Do ereaders dream of electric stocking stuffers?
Chaos Reborn, from the maker of X-COM, is playable now
Chaos Reborn, the latest entry into the tactical turn-based strategy genre from Julian Gollop, creator of the X-COM series, is now available for early access Steam. The current lineup of features in this boardgame-meets-Magic: The Gathering title is austere, as only online multiplayer is available.
Peter Padder Pauleypop reminds players why being a grown up is totally depressing
Take a deep dive into this anguished love letter to SNES Final Fantasy games.
The uncompromising Alien: Isolation just got uncompromising-er
There are two things to know about Alien: Isolation, the Creative Assembly horror game from earlier this year based on the long-running Alien series of films. The first thing to know is that it is really, really, really good-looking. The gone-to-shit space station you explore is bafflingly dense and
Finally, comeuppance for zoning out on mass transportation
Hereafter referred to as the tube.
Introducing Aviary Attorney, a game about a bird lawyer
Hatoful Boyfriend goes to court.
The triumphant return of 5734L3R, one of the most beautiful pieces of vaporware ever
Cyberpunk as a texture.
This glitch art recreates the hell of cubicle work
Glitch art comes in all shapes and sizes, and much of it is very, very bad. (Google it and you’ll see a lot of low-rent ghost imagery and, um, that one dreamy picture of Kurt Cobain?) The work of Wayne Edson Bryan cuts a different figure, though. It starts with process: Bryan actually hand-makes the
A quick update from the uncanny valley, courtesy of this Scottish Mafioso
“Just blink if yer gettin’ this.”
WWE 2K15 reveals the grueling life of a superstar
A harsh reality.
The next time someone doesn’t understand systemic prejudice, send them this game
Procedural rhetoric is at its finest in Parable of the Polygons.
Lumino City is gorgeous, but what is it hiding?
Digging into State of Play’s paper-craft world.