Review by Lachlan W. To me, “walking simulator” will never be a derogatory term. For someone who values story over all else in games, I appreciate the narrative purity of walking simulators. The Fidelio Incident, by Act 3 Games, is the latest entry into the genre on PC. But does…
Read MoreReview by Britta S. The first thing the Finch family starts building in 1937, when they are shipwrecked on Orcas Island, on the Pacific Northwest coast, is a cemetery; only then do survivors Sven and Edie, with their little daughter Molly, begin the construction of the Finch home. This is…
Read MoreReview by Matt C. The year is 1970. In a remote area of Quebec, renowned private detective Carl Faubert is investigating a string of vandalism attacks against the property of storekeeper W. Hamilton. Bit when Hamilton turns up dead and a blizzard traps Carl in this seemingly deserted community, things…
Read MoreReview by Matt C. I’m surprised at how few “walking simulators” there are for PlayStation VR, given how perfect the platform is for that sort of game. Atmospheric, narrative-rich first-person adventure games are what VR was made for. So why are they still so rare? Luckily, Fated: The Silent Oath…
Read MoreReview by Matt C. You’d probably think me crazy if I told you that you are, in the most literal sense possible, the chair you’re sitting on and the house in which you reside. If I told you that you are Donald Trump, you’d probably punch me (and be justified…
Read MoreArticle by Harvard L. If the golden rule of writing is “show, don’t tell”, then the equivalent for game development is surely “feel, don’t show”. The greatest strength of video game storytelling is the ability to make the player an agent: for the actions they take to affect the overarching…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Those themes of uncanniness which are most prominent, … are all concerned with the phenomenon of the ‘double’, which appears in every shape and in every degree of development …the ‘double’ has become a thing of terror.” (Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, 1919) Related reading: Here They…
Read MoreReview by Matthew C. If you go into Virginia expecting a crime drama, you’re going to be disappointed. Yes, it’s centred on a pair of of FBI agents looking into the strange disappearance of a young child, but that’s really just a frame for the far more interesting story at…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. To everyone out there, have you played Dear Esther? I would assume most of you have – the prolific surrealist piece developed by The Chinese Room is still a free download on PC’s and almost necessitates a name drop in every “Games as Art” conversation. Perhaps…
Read MoreReview by Matt C. There’s been a welcome surge in first-person adventure games in recent years, but there are still pockets of the community that write these off a “walking simulators” and argue semantics about whether or not they actually qualify as games. Most such games are content to just…
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