Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – February 2019 By Stu Horvath • February 15th, 2019 The February issue is here, with stories on Mirror’s Edge, disabilities representation in games and lots more.
Checkpoint Distant Worlds By Corey Milne • February 13th, 2019 Launching a 10-month journey to the very edge of known space may not be the safest journey, but for this photographer, it’s worth the risk.
Rookie of the Year Falling Hard for the Bent-Neck Lady By Matt Marrone • February 12th, 2019 Matt Marrone may not be scared of the Bent-Neck Lady, but her iconic scene proves so horrifying it’s poetic.
The Heavy Pour Extra Lives By Sara Clemens • February 11th, 2019 If Tom Bissell could write about how he did too much cocaine while playing Grand Theft Auto, what could I write about?
Backlog The Stiff Brown Cloth in Which the Knife is Kept By Gavin Craig • February 9th, 2019 Knowing a fable’s end first can change its meaning. Especially when you remember endings are things of fiction.
Documentary Sunday Welcome to Marwen By Megan Condis • February 8th, 2019 Mark Hogancamp’s biopic has plenty of Hollywood movie magic, but not enough to distract from the omissions that undermine its moral.
Here's the Thing Marvel’s Offshoots Are Way Better Than Their Big Films By Rob Rich • February 7th, 2019 The biggest budget Marvel movies often pale in comparison to their smaller side-story counterparts, and Rob has a theory as to why.
This Mortal Coyle Rochelle By Deirdre Coyle • January 30th, 2019 If the outbreak happened outside my window, I’d be digging through drawers for my most metal band shirts and cursing my lack of foresight in not purchasing a black Violator babydoll.
Revving the Engine Raji: An Ancient Epic By Stu Horvath • January 29th, 2019 Unwinnable chats with the team behind Raji: An Ancient Epic, an action adventure game that draws from Indian and Balinese mythology.
Feature Excerpt Friday Nights in the Hostile Environment By Rob Haines • January 28th, 2019 British developer PanicBarn’s Not Tonight offers a Brexit-flavored critique of the past ten years of the hostile environment.
Feature Excerpt Teaching Crunch By Melissa Brinks • January 28th, 2019 Many students enter the video game industry well aware of its infamous crunch culture. After all, their colleges groomed them for it.
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – January 2019 By Stu Horvath • January 16th, 2019 Welcome to a new year of Unwinnable Monthly. Here’s what is inside the January issue.
Backlog What Was the Question? And Why Do You Ask? By Gavin Craig • January 15th, 2019 The most complicated question in Mass Effect: do geth units have souls?
No Accounting for Tastes Stressful Environment By Adam Boffa • January 15th, 2019 First Reformed considers the emotional impact of climate change awareness. Sometimes.
Checkpoint Surviving a Dead Galaxy in Duskers By Corey Milne • January 15th, 2019 From its mechanics to its setting, Duskers exudes a sense of isolation.
The Usurper Noteworthy Metal – December By Astrid Budgor • January 11th, 2019 In the spirit of List Season, Astrid made a roundup of metal records she missed over the course of the 2018.
Collision Detection At Least Videogame Advertising Has Grown Up By Ben Sailer • January 11th, 2019 The days of shit-talking the competition are gone. Now videogame companies demand our attention by . . . just making better products.
Here's the Thing The Near Miss By Rob Rich • January 10th, 2019 The over-reliance of CG in movies bothers just about everybody these days, but to Rob, “The Near Miss” is one of the most egregious offenses.
Documentary Sunday The Power of Glove By Megan Condis • January 10th, 2019 With videogame culture obsessed with retrofuturiusm, it’s only a matter of time before the ultimate nostalgic artifact makes a comeback: the Nintendo Power Glove.
The Heavy Pour Get Your Kicks at the Cosmic Horrorshow: A True Story By Sara Clemens • January 9th, 2019 On a Route 66 roadtrip, Sara asks: “What am I doing in the middle of this godforsaken desert?”
Memscape The History of Twitter’s Little Bunnies By Alyse Stanley • January 9th, 2019 Twitter’s ushering in a new age of Ascii art, whether its users know it or not.
Another Look Corrupted Architecture By Yussef Cole • January 8th, 2019 In both Bloodborne and The Favourite, wanton avarice rots leaders from within, spreading like a plague to their surroundings.
This Mortal Coyle Willow By Deirdre Coyle • January 8th, 2019 Just like Willow from Don’t Starve, Deirdre can’t control what goes on in the world. But she can keep her sanity meter up in the meantime.
Feature Excerpt Videogames in Kuwait By David Wolinsky and Tali XOXO • January 7th, 2019 David Wolinsky and Tali XOXO share their impressions of GX and Kuwait Battle Royale.
Feature Excerpt Go to Jail: The Complicated World of Pirated Board Games By Ryan Cooper • January 7th, 2019 Tabletop Simulator lets board game fans recreate their favorite games and craft a globalized shared space. . . even if that means breaking a few laws to do so.
Feature Excerpt Scorched Earth By Devin Raposo • January 7th, 2019 Fornite’s 50v50 mode can feel like performance art or improvisational city-planning, with outcomes based more on luck than coordination.
Rookie of the Year 2018 and Everything After By Matt Marrone • December 28th, 2018 Matt Marrone’s picks his favorite album of 2018 and celebrates 25 years of friendship.
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – December 2018 By Stu Horvath • December 17th, 2018 Our final issue of the year is jam packed with thought provoking stories. Find out more here!
The Chest By Stu Horvath • December 14th, 2018 Unwinnable chats with Ferenc Vincze about his animated film The Chest, made using Unreal Engine 4.
Self-Insert The Unsinkable Darcy Lewis By Amanda Hudgins • December 7th, 2018 A side character from Thor has almost 15,000 fanfics featuring her. Amanda Hudgins asks the question: Why does Darcy Lewis persist?
Another Look Writing About Games: Learning to Love the Compromise By Yussef Cole • December 6th, 2018 There is only so much compartmentalization you can do in separating a game from its production process and the worldview it espouses before you, as a writer, become morally compromised.
Memescape We Are All Gritty By Alyse Stanley • December 5th, 2018 Gritty: An obsession; a movement; a cult. Ultimately, though, he’s a googly-eyed reflection of this tumultuous time.
Backlog What Matters and What Matters Last By Gavin Craig • December 4th, 2018 It’s a difficult thing to write about videogames when one doesn’t play very many videogames.
Documentary Sunday Terrace House By Megan Condis • November 28th, 2018 Unlike on American reality television, at no point do any of the residents of Terrace House seem interested in ceasing to be polite and starting to get “real.”
Rookie of the Year Let’s Go Paisley By Matt Marrone • November 27th, 2018 Not everything about Paisley Park is weird.
Collision Detection DDR Movie Marks a Positive Step By Ben Sailer • November 26th, 2018 Why make a movie about Dance Dance Revolution? Maybe a better question to ask is, “Why would they make a movie about any other game at all?”
Feature Excerpt Crack the Network: It’s Called Cyberpunk Not Cybersecurity By Liam Conlon • November 23rd, 2018 While disappointed by Cyberpunk 2077’s announcement to exclude a non-binary option, Conlon thinks it’s necessary to desire more than small kernels of representation.
This Mortal Coyle The Encarta MindMaze Witch By Deirdre Coyle • November 21st, 2018 Hidden in Microsoft Encarta ’95 lies one of the foundational goths of Deirdre’s childhood.
Feature Excerpt Flash Forever By Phantom • November 21st, 2018 A history of the delightful weirdness of Flash games.
