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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…
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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…
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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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Mario’s Game Gallery, or The Place Where Reality Crumbles
I haven’t played much of Mario games in my life. It may sound wild, especially for an American reader, but I didn’t own any Nintendo console up until I bought Switch some five years ago. Along with Switch, I purchased Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to see what’s all the fuss is about—it’s okay, I guess—and…
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Wolfenstein 3D
Shareware versions of both Wolfenstein 3D and Doom were pre-installed on my first PC machine back in 1995. When friends came over, we played Doom «Nightmare hotseat»—we sucked, rarely beating E1M1, but it was pure fun. Personally, though, when remaining one-on-one with my best pal Volkov Commander (also pre-installed by patriotic Russian hardware sellers), I…
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Anvil of Dawn
Anvil of Dawn is perhaps not the best dungeon crawler ever made, but it’s undoubtedly one of the most streamlined and accessible. As one of the evolutional peaks of the genre, the game optimizes its essential aspects while filtering out everything unnecessary, excessive, and burdensome. Additionally, Anvil of Dawn is one of the most beautiful,…
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[Cleaning the Backlog] Ascendancy
Ascendancy is not a turn-based strategy game but a real-time one with an active pause. The genre’s usual production-science-food triangle helps build, research, and grow faster. You colonize planets, build ships, meet other races, wage colonization wars, and eventually stop playing. Nothing is pretty much out of the ordinary at first glance. But in contrast…
Baking Potatoes On the Ashes of Society