Hotline Miami and the portrayal of violence
Hotline Miami is one of the most violent games of recent times, and its sequel Wrong Number has managed to outdo its predecessor, so much so that it was (perhaps unsurprisingly) banned in Australia.
The Great Gamble: Why loss is more important than difficulty
Why do we put difficult games on a pedestal? Perhaps it is risk, reward, and potential for loss – not the difficulty itself – that makes it exhilarating.
Are lives on the line?
Once upon a time lives and 1ups were the standard currency of videogames.
Enter the Void: The Grimy Playfulness of No Wave
Rumbling out of the dingy nightclubs and bars of a nocturnal New York City easing into the early 1980s, the no wave artistic scene offered a perversion of Debbie Harry and David Byrne, rebuking new wave music at large with a nihilistic criticism bordering on parody.
Games of the Year: Part 1
The games industry never stands still for long and 2013 has proved no exception.