Sunday Supplement: “all-brawling and all-stealthing”

Welcome to your Sunday reservoir of interesting writing about video games. Grab your reading jacket, a cup of coffee and get ready to exercise the brain.

Critical Distance: Critical Compilation: Grand Theft Auto IV
Michael Clarkson finds the common threads running through the wealth of – yes – critical writing about Rockstar’s return to Liberty City.

Experience Points: Dead Ends
Jorge Albor reasons why we ought to pay attention when a game permanently kills off a playable character. Part two of the series can be found here.

Gamer Limit: In Defence of Grand Theft Auto IV
James O’Connor examines the way Niko makes you feel guilt in this very personal response to GTA IV.

PopMatters: Asserting Femininity in Super Metroid
LB Jeffries highlights how Super Metroid resonates with maternal metaphors and banishes any idea of Samus’ androgyny.

Red Kings Dream: Arkham Asylum and the space of traumatic memory
Daniel Golding suggests there’s a moment in Arkham Asylum where Batman’s trauma becomes our own.