A Never-ending Cycle of Games about Never-ending Cycles. Josh Rivers September 6, 2016 Opinion 1 Games appear to have cottoned on to a neat little trick: they can extend their replayability by crafting a compelling narrative reason for why the game repeats itself. The mere fact of having a reason for the r...
Inside demonstrates the difference between unity and conformity Josh Rivers August 12, 2016 Opinion Inside is one of those games that doesn’t have a story so much as it has a sequence of events connected by themes. The question of “what the fuck” is very much left to the player to answer, and my word have a l...
Games are a Rorschach test, and that’s absolutely fine. Josh Rivers July 22, 2016 Opinion 5 Often in criticism we talk about what a game tells us about the people who made it, but more valuable still is what a game can tell us about ourselves. I have always maintained that art is a Rorschach test; ...
The success of episodic games is a double-edged sword Josh Rivers July 1, 2016 Opinion 1 Episodic games are one gaming experience split into numerous shorter episodes, and they’ve settled into the gaming market securely enough that you probably already knew that. There are plenty of reasons a devel...
Firewatch’s conspiracy would be MORE disappointing if it was real Josh Rivers May 20, 2016 Opinion A lot of people were disappointed that the conspiracy hinted at in Firewatch never had a payoff, and I can’t say I blame them. Most of the game was spent building up this idea that something big and sinister wa...
Enter the Gungeon: a lesson in resolve Josh Rivers May 6, 2016 Features, Opinion I’ve been playing a staggering amount of Enter the Gungeon recently. I’m not normally one to jump at games with roguelike elements (though I couldn’t necessarily tell you why), but the visual design, top-tier p...
