GYGO: Ubisoft Again, Carbon Neutral Gaming, and Trans Representation

GYGO: Ubisoft Again, Carbon Neutral Gaming, and Trans Representation

What’s up everyone? Hanging in there? I haven’t had much time for gaming this week but I have been immensely enjoying Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries in my spare time. Now, here’s what has happened since last week. (more…)

GYGO: Ubisoft Again, Carbon Neutral Gaming, and Trans Representation

GYGO: Extremely Specific

Do you like extremely specific catalogues of minutiae in video games? Well, you’re in luck! Check out the The Video Game Soda Machine Project, which is a blog collecting the appearance of vending machines selling soda in video games. This is absolutely something I would not have thought of cataloguing, but it completely makes sense: soda is in itself a part of pop culture, and how developers and designers choose to depict it in their games can say a lot about their views on both the product and the culture around it. The list is pretty comprehensive—I had no trouble finding multiple posts for DCUO, a game I once spent too much time playing. (more…)

Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust Explores the Consequences of the Game’s Choices

Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust Explores the Consequences of the Game’s Choices

[Contains spoilers for Life is Strange]

If Life is Strange is a game about making choices, then Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust is a graphic novel exploring the consequences of those choices. More accurately, it explores the consequences of one specific choice in one specific timeline: saving Chloe Price’s life at the cost of Arcadia Bay and, presumably, everyone you know living there. Was it fate that Max discovered her power and saved Chloe’s life, or is the superstorm an undeserved consequence of tampering with time? There’s perhaps no choice in Life is Strange more divisive—as of this writing, the PC players have chosen 48-52 in favor of Arcadia Bay—but Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust can satisfy fans regardless of their choices. (more…)

Life is Strange 2: Episode 2 is a Tough, But Worthwhile Entry

Life is Strange 2: Episode 2 is a Tough, But Worthwhile Entry

[Content Warning: Brief discussion of child abuse. Contains spoilers for Life is Strange 2: Episode One.]

Life is Strange 2 gets something that its predecessor did not: that power itself is not a bad thing, but that it comes at a cost. For Sean and Daniel, two Latinx kids on the run after a supernatural blast kills a Seattle police officer, that cost is higher than most. (more…)

Review: Life is Strange 2 – Episode One Tackles Tough Subjects

Review: Life is Strange 2 – Episode One Tackles Tough Subjects

Life is Strange is one of my favorite games in recent memory. I’ve played better games, I’ve played more interesting games, I’ve played games I connect with more, and yet my heart still skips a beat when I think of Max, so much like me, and Chloe, so much not. It was filled with shortcomings, with scenes that downright offended me, and yet it had so much heart—DONTNOD has an earnestness I admire, even when the game sometimes had me rolling my eyes. (more…)