Review

New Drivers Wanted

Twisted Metal gets another sibling in its long familial line on Playstation. Through the game’s noble attempt to shephard in new players while staying loyal to fans, Lana Polansky wonders if the game needed reinvention at all.

You Don’t Know Jackie

Gothic shooter The Darkness II is a great exercise in comic-book style and tentacle gore, but it gets tangled up in genre fiction. Rob Zacny explains how.

Where’s Your Head At?

Why is Phil Fish’s new puzzle game so addictive? Because it hides everything in plain sight, and lays bare the rest.

Chewing the Cud

Can poetry handle Ian Bogost? Can gaming handle poetry? Tommy Rousse takes up the joystick and puts on his literature goggles to decipher A Slow Year, Bogost’s collection of game poems.

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.