Unwinnable Monthly – April 2018
This is a reprint of the Letter from the Editor from Unwinnable Monthly #102. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.
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Welcome to our April issue! Let me show you around.
You’ve already seen Oscar Joyo’s richly African depiction of Bayek from Assassin’s Creed Origins on the cover. That matches up with our main feature, Yussef Cole’s essay on blackness in the historical and cultural depiction of ancient Egypt, in that game and elsewhere. We also talk to Oscar about his gorgeous illustration work in our Artist Spotlight.
We have three more features for you. First is Khee Hoon Chan’s look at humor in Octogeddon, followed by Alex Meehan’s exploration of the positive effects gaming can have for folks on the autism spectrum. Finally, our sponsored feature is a deep dive Q&A with the developers of Research and Destroy, a forthcoming turn-based, third person tactics game about killing monsters with science.
In short: the usual eclectic Unwinnable mix of features. Our columns this month are similarly varied.
Gavin Craig gives us a bunch of short takes and inadvertently reveals a perhaps troubling obsession with mobile games.
Yussef, not content with merely writing our cover story, draws comparisons between Titan Fall 2 and the film Edge of Tomorrow in his column. Sara delights in the anger that lies at the heart of the film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. Megan Condis finds herself embroiled in the pizza wars after checking out the documentary series Ugly Delicious and Rob Rich explains all the reasons to love the anime Trigun.
Astrid Budgor delivers another slate of noteworthy metal with a wintery tinge to drive off the impending Florida summer (I particularly dig Messa, if you care to know) and Matt Marrone discovers he has a favorite album he never knew about. In a similar sort of revelation, I discover an embarrassing secret about my relationship with the classic horror film The Exorcist.
Irishman Corey Milne reexamines how games depict Irishness and Brock Wilbur revels in the body warping horrors of Inside. Last, but certainly not least, Deirdre Coyle sees an opportunity in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice to confront her impostor syndrome.
It’s a bit of a roller coaster in Unwinnable Land this month.
A couple other things worth mentioning. The gang has been streaming with increasing frequency and we’ve had a ton of great writing on the website – the best way to keep informed of both is to follow us on Twitter @Unwinnable. We’ve also got our 15th Geek Flea coming up on April 28, if you’re in the north Jersey and want to hang out. Lastly, I’m still doing posts every weekday on Instagram @VintageRPG if that’s your thing.
OK, get readin’. I’ll see you in two weeks, when Exploits #2 comes out!
Stu Horvath
Kearny, New Jersey
April 15, 2018
