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On Taste, or I’m Too Old for Discoveries
It’s hard to overestimate the scale of the change that we as a society of over-consuming and technologically-enslaved junkies had came through in the last twenty or so years. We are still way over-consuming and even more technologically-enslaved than ever, but the way itself we consume and depend on technology had changed drastically.
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[Private Wheels] Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998)
Need for Speed III was released the very next year after its predecessor, and the game’s primary achievements were: a) keeping up with technological advancements in computer graphics; b) saving the series from downfall by correcting the Need for Speed II’s mistakes. The game was highly praised, and the franchise was saved. Again I’d argue that the game’s mechanical aspects aren’t the sole reason for the public reception—Need for Speed III fixed not just the racing itself but also the symbolism.
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MyHouse.wad is not another gimmicky Doom map with ingenious level design
MyHouse is not another gimmicky Doom map with ingenious level design. It’s an art piece with a strong and effectively delivered message. The message of the importance and complexity of personal exploration, however frightening, dangerous, and challenging it can be. I see it as especially powerful due to its medium of choice—not just a videogame, but one of the most transformative videogames ever made.
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[Private Wheels] Need for Speed II (1997)
After the significant success of the debut, the sophomore game in the series, Need for Speed II, was released in 1997 to a somewhat mixed reception. Several technical aspects of the game can be conceived as problematic from the gameplay perspective, but I’d argue that the game’s primary weak point is of symbolic nature. Need for Speed II lacks saturation and focus—instead of presenting a playable power fantasy, it’s a confusing and unconvincing attempt to impress.
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The Butlerian Jihad: Gatekeepers of Digital Consumption
Machines themselves aren’t the problem—hierarchies are. When there are hierarchies, there are also small privileged groups of people that tend to screw up horribly with disastrous consequences for everybody else. Therefore, our pitchforks and sledgehammers should be used to dismantle hierarchies and not destroy machines.
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[Private Wheels] The Need for Speed (1994)
Atomized individualism, hierarchal status, Darwinian competition, and petty rebellion—the symbolic realm of a private vehicle, a direct metaphor for neoliberalism. And like neoliberalism, a car is also a prison. But I’m straying away—a car as a prison is less relevant for this text because believe it or not, this article is about videogames.
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UNRECORD: This is why we can’t have the nice things
Wasting opportunities is one thing, but doing so in a destructive, immoral, and irresponsible way is another. My thoughts on Unrecord’s gameplay trailer.
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Subnautica
I’ve played Subnautica for dozens of hours and came to the only conclusion someone in the right mind can reach: we should boil it! Boil the hell of this wet abyss, burn the remains, bury the ashes, and then nuke the burial place several times! This is the only way.
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Adios
By the phrase «cinematic experience,» when used in the context of videogames, people usually mean visually appeasing spectacle of destruction or dramatically charged cutscenes. Adios lacks both, yet it’s the most cinematic game I’ve played in a long time. Like Italian neorealism films, the game embraces and utilizes the mundane instead of avoiding it; like French New Wave cinema, it weaves long and seemingly empty conversations, hiding under their covers motivations, fears, inner struggles, and beliefs of the conversing characters.
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Mad Max
Mad Max: Fury Road and Mad Max, the videogame, were released the same year, in 2015. Nevertheless, it is said that George Miller wasn’t involved in the videogame production, and there is no direct connection between the projects. Does it matter? No. The game has all the essential things that elevate Mad Max into a cultural phenomenon as precious as petrol in its post-apocalyptical chaos: Max, style, and a dramatic spectacle of vehicular manslaughter.
Baking Potatoes On the Ashes of Society