How Diablo III's Always-On Internet Requirement Makes It A Better Game 
Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is 
Stop Preordering Video Games. Please. 
Can Diablo III Really Bring Back That Old Diablo Magic? 
Most Popular Video Games Are Dumb. Can We Stop Apologising For Them Now? 
I Am An Imagined Journalist 
A few weeks ago, The Atlantic magazine published a profile I wrote of the developer Jonathan Blow, a man known in gaming circles as much for his criticism of the mainstream game industry’s intellectual shortcomings as he is for Braid, the outstanding game he created.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been playing the American-made visual novel, Katawa Shoujo. Like the name of the genre implies, there is a heavy emphasis on the story to the point where you’re almost reading as much as you would with a print novel.
Earlier this week, I wrote about my first hour playing Girls RPG: Cinderellife. For a laugh, I poked and prodded the game, pointing out its less-than-inspiring portrayal of women — though this is nothing new when it comes to games or any other popular media really.
It arrived on my desk almost three years ago. Sealed in shrink-wrap, protected by packing peanuts, boxed in brown cardboard, it was never meant to be played. No writer in the building wanted to go near it, no reviewer wanted to play it. As I was about to put it in the communal freebie box, the figurative fly swat of the universe came down on my brain to stop me. I put the game in my bag and took it home.
You would not believe how many Kickstarter ideas we’ve been shown in the last few weeks. Ever since Double Fine (and then Wasteland 2) showed there was serious money to be made on the service, every man, his dog and his dog’s workmates from the IT department have been sending us their idea for the next big thing.
I’ve never played as a black video game character who’s made me feel like he was cool. Worse yet, I’ve never played a black video game character who made me feel like I was cool. Instead, I’ve groaned and rolled my eyes at a parade of experiences that continue to tell me video games just don’t get black people.
Forgive me, I had not heard of The Hunger Games before I posted an item about Canabalt‘s creator and mentioned he was making an iPhone game coinciding with the film’s release. That was a week ago. Since then, I could not avoid the topic if I tried, and not just because of its understandable appeal to video gamers.
Today people got angry about Mass Effect 3 — for a new reason.
