Carolyn Petit
‘Tales from the Borderlands’ Is the Gaming Equivalent of an Addictive TV Show
Telltale's now-complete series is very funny, surprisingly sincere, and the gaming equivalent of a TV show on Netflix that I can't help but binge watch.
A Little Window of Light: How Mechanics Make Meaning in ‘Prison Architect’
Attempting to understand what really matters to the virtual people inside these giant, horrific, interconnected machines.
Grace Under Pressure: On the Thrilling Heist Mechanics of ‘The Swindle’
Size Five's summertime heist-sim has me recalling Robert De Niro's criminal code in "Heat"—be capable of dropping everything, or die.
Video Game Critics Admit Which Classic Titles They've Never Played
Nobody has the time to play every game in the world, you maniac, so these misses are understandable. Right?
Building a Mystery: Gaming's Crime Investigation Mechanics and the Beauty of Being Unsatisfied
What satisfaction do you really get from being the Batman, when his gadgets do all the detective work?
Glimpsing the Ghost in the Machine: The Beautiful Instability of ‘Axiom Verge’
The newly released retro-styled adventure turns the glitches of older games into fresh methods of exploration.
We Were Younger: ‘Life is Strange’ and Nostalgia for the Moment
Dontnod's episodic game seems to take place somewhere outside of time, both now and then, today and yesterday.
In the Mouth of the Moon: A Personal Reading of ‘Majora’s Mask’
The freshly remastered "Majora's Mask" is a Zelda game unlike any other, where pertinent lessons are there to be learned.
Taking the Ego Out of Video Games
Gaming could use more protagonists who aren't the centers of their worlds.