In Mass Effect 2, you play the commander of a space ship on a mission to destroy an alien threat. Along the way, you collect team members of various species and genders. The performance of these characters depends in part on their feelings for you as a person. And this is where the game got […]
In my enthusiasm for the unique non-linear opportunities offered by videogame technology, and my desire to see this potential being explored, I sometimes forget how versatile this medium is. “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” demonstrates quite convincingly that the so-called non-linear medium can also effectively double as a vehicle for good old-fashioned story-telling. It’s not difficult […]
Jean Baudrillard always insisted that the Apocalypse had already taken place. Even if we hadn’t noticed it and can’t quite pin-point when exactly. There was no nuclear disaster, no viral epidemic, not even a disintegration of nation states or a spectacular shift of power towards mega-corporations. Yet, Baudrillard maintained that we are clearly living in […]
Christianity has two faces. At least the Christianity that I am most familiar with, living in Belgium: Roman Catholicism. On the one hand, Christianity is a moving story about a mother who gave birth to a son only to see him sacrifice himself for the sake of strangers whom he called brothers and sisters. A […]
In BioShock 2, you play a character named Delta, who has apparently resurrected after having been dead for 10 years. When you wake up, you find yourself in a heavy sort of diving suit. And you don’t know anything. Though your suit seems to. It almost feels like the suit makes you move, rather than […]
The things that were most interesting to me in Quantic Dream‘s Heavy Rain were the quiet moments of tender interaction. They were not interesting to me because of the story. Or because of the character I was playing, or the character my avatar was interacting with. These moments were simply moments that I recognized from […]