Philip K. Dick may be decades-dead but the extraordinary visions that lined the pages of his fictions are more alive than ever. There is perhaps no better proof of this than Californium—a videogame that weaves Dick’s influential stories with his own drug-fueled delusions into a multi-dimensional tri
“Life in Anaheim, California, was a commercial for itself, endlessly replayed. Nothing changed; it just spread out farther and farther in the form of neon ooze. What there was always more of had been congealed into permanence long ago, as if the automatic factory that cranked out these objects had j
War may never change, but Kill Screen does. Back our Kickstarter to help support our print relaunch! Fallout 4 takes us back. Back to the beginning. Back before the bombs fell, and before the world of the Fallout series took on its mutated, feral, apocalyptic form. But what did that world look like?
Remember Radio the Universe? It started popping up around the web in 2012, ran a successful Kickstarter at the end of that year, and has been surfacing here and there for the last three years with bits of art and minor updates. It was among the first wave of smaller games that seemed invested in tak
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Viscera Cleanup Detail (PC) BY Runestorm For most people, the idea of cleaning up anything sucks. It’s a chore; not meant to be enjoyed, just endured. What’s going on with Viscera Cleanup Det
Unlike movies, videogames rarely have memorable trailers. Most of the commercials created to show them off are either brief sizzle reels or prolonged, hacky punchlines. The TV spot for the original Gears of War was an exception, however. Undercutting the promise of apocalyptic alien carnage with the
Corpse of Discovery is an upcoming PC game that looks like it combines the horror of being lost on an unknown planet with the wonders of exploration. You play as a stranded astronaut who has to brave the harsh and unfamiliar conditions of new worlds while searching for a way to return to your family
“So what do you actually do?” It’s worrying that this has been the biggest question surrounding No Man’s Sky for the duration of its public existence. At the same time, that mystery is what has probably kept us engaged for the past two years. Every time one of its features is outlined it’s like a ma
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” – Philip K. Dick Humanity’s centuries-old attempt to understand our own consciousness, from philosophy to biology, can basically be summed up by one single image: a dog trying to chase its own tail. From Descartes’s declaration
There are few interactions more intense than sex. And I mean good sex. Not the kind of sex where you’re lying on your back just taking it. Being a supine host for an unaccomplished zealot is no fun. But when you want to taste and inhale your partner, and they return that same lust, what forms is a c
“We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors,” says Snow in Stanis?aw Lem’s 1961 novel Solaris. Part science fiction, part philosophical meditation, Lem’s book inverted the usual tale of extraterrestrial exploration. Rather than focus only on the strangeness of another world, Lem used its insur
The best virtual worlds mix work with play Eve Online is a rich universe most people don’t know exists How a sci-fi world creates some of the best non-fiction CCP wants to turn the virtual lives of Eve Online players into a TV show
The beauty of an imaginary childhood is that it never has to end. You can keep going back to the well in search of inspiration. Thus, Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, whose 2014 book Tales of the Loop depicted the suburban milieu of his youth albeit with a sci-fi twist, is now raising funds on Kickst
Frictional Games, creator of 2010’s infamous horror hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent, has announced that its latest title SOMA has hit beta—it looks and plays near-exactly as it will in its final version, in other words. All that’s left between now and a release date is waiting for Frictional to gather
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Mel Croucher’s Deus Ex Machina is how unremarkable it is. Although, that’s not quite true. Created way back in 1984, it’s among the first videogames to give rise to the “is it a game?” debate, while its author asserted its position as a piece of art and an “inte
