I spent a few hours earlier this week, between reading academic articles and Moby Dick, playing a browser-based game with a concept that caught my eye. As I often do [...]

When it comes down to it, gaming is one of the most expensive forms of entertainment for a single user. Movie tickets may be pretty pricey, and a DVD for [...]

There is something disgustingly tantalizing about a really difficult puzzle. Maybe it is a masochistic delight in wrestling with something that feels much, much smarter than you, making impossibly complex [...]

One of the most universally obvious elements that set games apart are the fact that you can fail at them. Instead of trying to explain, I’ll let gamer and comedian [...]

A few days ago I spent a long afternoon with a friend where we began by chatting and ended playing with Lego. It was an afternoon well spent. The result [...]

You wake up in a sterile environment. The music swells to consciousness, and a sense of something floating in the ether above commands you to move. Not like you’d forgotten [...]

This week, Marko told us of his descent into the pool of academia, and shared his passionate defence of gaming in class with us. After three full years in the [...]

There’s a reason casinos don’t have windows. The logic of the place is to keep you in there, cut off from the outside world, pulling the one armed bandit (not [...]

Back when Pong was still a game people actively wanted to play on a regular basis, when the princess was still in another castle, and the concept of 3-dimensional graphics [...]

Not too long ago I read an article somewhere (I’m too much on holiday to look for it) where one of World of Warcraft’s developers said essentially that singleplayer games [...]

I used to be very idealistic about the online revolution. It is a place for democracy! Anyone gets a say! Heck, the fact I’m able to put these thoughts out [...]

Blood Meridian is one of the novels my English course has got me to read for exams. Cormac McCarthy’s bloody western sometimes reminds me of an open-world game, a bit [...]

My laptop is a lot like the Death Star. It looks good on paper, is big and impressive, yet fails due to a critical oversight about thermal exhausts. It is [...]

I have saved the world many times. I have fought countless battles. By my hand, the forces of darkness have been driven back time and again. I have stormed the [...]

With a resounding roar of “BRAAAAAINS!”, the first wave of the zombie horde breaks through the first line of turrets in their unstoppable hunt for the grey matter they crave. [...]

Life is the worst RPG. I spent a few years levelling my guitar skill, but the other day I re-equipped my acoustic and couldn’t remember a single thing. My many [...]

The bomb drops. A massive flash of light blinds all observers as the mushroom cloud billows upwards. One step closer to armageddon. On the ground, squadrons of tanks push forward [...]

What happens when a game isn’t a game? Don’t get me wrong: I’m not asking what happens if a game isn’t fun. In that case, you reach for the off [...]

I’m not the best person to play co-op with. I have a slightly irreverent sense of humour and a seemingly genetic love of teasing. Don’t get me wrong, I love [...]

I’ve never been one for nicknames. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re pretty great things to have (on the whole). It’s just that, for whatever reason, I’ve never really [...]

It is a bloody pit down there. Headless… things… and maggots. Shudder. Maggots. There are fires and disembodied heads. Thank goodness for the simple graphics, otherwise The Binding of Isaac [...]

When I was a kid, I used to love building cities out of blocks. Same with sandcastles. Even more than this though, I loved trashing them. Being Godzilla, smiting them [...]

I was playing a certain indie game (unnamed to avoid spoilers), where I was offered a moral dilemma. I come upon a man who betrayed me, lying beaten almost to [...]

The island has vast tracts of forest, corners of desert, tiny islands, and a huge volcano. There are floating rocks, mushroom cities, buildings made of beetle carapaces. A cross-island journey [...]

I take a moment to gather my thoughts. I put the gramophone on, and the voice of Bobby Darin fills the old saloon. My heart rate finally drops again. I [...]

It sounds like an old dial-up modem. When last did I even hear one? The beeping has ripped through that familiar little jazzy number that was playing on the radio, [...]

My girlfriend is slowly becoming a gamer. She can use a PlayStation control now. She has more than one favourite game. Her current favourite allows her to run around, picking [...]

“F#@k, I HATE dying!” The outburst next to me says my sister’s game of Titan Quest is not going as well as expected. “Dying is such a pain. I hate it!” She says the words without a drop of irony. I more than make up for it: “Yes, Lins. Most people do.”

The controller balances on my knee. The familiar rolling action across the arrow keys powers up. The timing is right. A punch from at least 10 years ago lands perfectly. [...]

“Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it”. Oh Sam Levenson, you know us too well. A cursory glance at some of the greatest [...]