Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – May 2020 By Stu Horvath • May 18th, 2020 Find out what’s inside!
Revving the Engine Omno: In Search of Awe By Stu Horvath • May 14th, 2020 Omno seemed to want to wander, to find adventure, to “be awed by the world around him.”
Try Reading... Buck Destiny By Harry Rabinowitz • May 14th, 2020 In Norroway, is destiny something to fulfill or defy?
Forms in Light Japan Style Architecture By Justin Reeve • May 13th, 2020 The structures in Sekiro were clearly created by people with a passion for traditional architecture
Here's the Thing The Weird and Disturbing World of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends By Rob Rich • May 12th, 2020 Rob remembers one of his favorite cartoon shows, about a foster home for imaginary friends, and realizes that it’s kiiiiiiiiiinda disturbing when thinking about the details.
The McMaster Files A Smaller World By Jason McMaster • May 10th, 2020 With everything that’s going on, Jason’s found that his favorite Twitch streamers have helped make things a bit easier and the world a little smaller.
Rookie of the Year The New York Times Bestseller List, July 25, 2021 By Matt Marrone • May 9th, 2020 If we make it through all this craziness, Matt predicts that next summer’s must-reads will definitely have a running theme.
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – April 2020 By Noah Springer • May 8th, 2020 Noah finds a bit of normalcy in hip hop when that quarantine paranoia begins to set in.
Collision Detection Finding Meaning in Animal Crossing’s Weird-Ass World By Ben Sailer • May 7th, 2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons has dominated social media since its release. This explainer might help you understand the appeal, or it might not explain anything at all.
Musings Persona 5 and the Eternal Classroom By Blake Hester • May 6th, 2020 Persona 5 is a glorious reminder that even if high school sucked, being a kid kinda ruled.
Feature Excerpt Sticks and Stones Might Break My Bones But Words Will Never Hurt Me By Autumn Wright • May 4th, 2020 Marvel’s New Warriors series is an attempt to land the most expensive “how ya doing fellow kids” meme in the history of late capitalism.
Another Look Resource Extraction By Yussef Cole • May 4th, 2020 Why not have a game that recognizes that in order to have that perfect garden world, that communal utopia, you must endlessly fight and sacrifice for it?
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – April 2020 By Stu Horvath • April 22nd, 2020 April’s issue is here, find out what’s inside!
This Mortal Coyle Rowan from Seers Isle By Deirdre Coyle • April 14th, 2020 This spectral figure makes an impression as a great storyteller long before she’s ever introduced.
The Fail Cycle A Gamer’s Guide to Weightlifting By Declan Taggart • April 14th, 2020 Weightlifting has the kind of level-up progression perfectly suited for someone with a compulsive dependence on videogames.
Collision Detection On GameStop and Contempt for Nostalgia By Ben Sailer • April 13th, 2020 Ben thinks way too hard about his strained relationship with a struggling videogame retailer and learns about Swiss mercenaries along the way.
Self-Insert RPF By Amanda Hudgins • April 13th, 2020 Bring Real Person Fanfiction onto The Graham Norton Show, cowards.
Rookie of the Year Bite Club Episode 1: Mangia Ninja! By Matt Marrone • April 12th, 2020 Matt begins a pilgrimage to the most bizarre restaurants the world has to offer.
Forms in Light Bizarre Brutalism By Justin Reeve • April 11th, 2020 In Control, developer Remedy takes the supernatural aspect of this architectural style and runs with it.
Here's the Thing I Hope the FFVII Remake Changes My Mind By Rob Rich • April 10th, 2020 Rob isn’t the biggest fan of Final Fantasy VII (to put it lightly) but he’s hoping that the upcoming remake will change that.
Musings Code Orange and the New Reality By Blake Hester • April 10th, 2020 Code Orange’s newest album feels like the group’s most cohesive product to date.
No Accounting for Taste Movies Could Be More Boring By Adam Boffa • April 9th, 2020 The Star Wars sequel trilogy is too exciting to be interesting.
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – March 2020 By Noah Springer • April 8th, 2020 Noah celebrates this column’s one-year anniversary with some great new albums.
Feature Excerpt Expanding Worlds with Video Game Tabletop RPGs By Scott Roepel • April 2nd, 2020 Unlike in roleplaying videogames, for tabletop roleplaying, all you need is an imagination, a good storyteller and a set of dice.
Feature Excerpt Carrington’s Dreamscape By Daniel Lipscombe • April 2nd, 2020 Videogames, especially those of the horror variety, could seriously stand to take a leaf from surrealism’s book.
Feature Excerpt Accepting Death as the Sun Goes Out By Ryan Cooper • April 2nd, 2020 The Outer Wilds’ tragic time-loop helps Ryan Cooper process real-world struggles.
Revving the Engine A Juggler’s Tale: Pull the Strings By Stu Horvath • March 25th, 2020 “There is a traveling circus inside a puppet theater play inside a videogame – it’s always so hard to summarize this game in one short sentence.”
No Accounting for Taste Lost in Space, Out of Time By Adam Boffa • March 19th, 2020 In Outer Wilds, the clock is always ticking.
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – March 2020 By Stu Horvath • March 18th, 2020 Welcome to March, gang. It is getting weird out there, but a new Unwinnable Monthly is here, as ever.
Another Look Fantasies of Fatherhood By Yussef Cole • March 13th, 2020 In Death Stranding, players get a chance to parent less a child than the idea of one.
The Fail Cycle Healing and How to Make It All Better By Declan Taggart • March 12th, 2020 [redacted] was a huge success last year for [redacted] Studios, Inc., but players consistently complained that being a healer was boring. How can we improve on that?
Musings Rock is Dead. Long Live the Dirty Nil. By Blake Hester • March 12th, 2020 The Dirty Nil, in just one 39 minute album, is more intelligent, interesting and fun than most classic rock out there.
Try Reading... It’s Just a Game By Harry Rabinowitz • March 11th, 2020 DIE Volume 1 asks: if your game becomes real, can you still treat it like a game?
Collision Detection Could the Decline of Violent Football Videogames Have Predicted the Future of Player Safety? By Ben Sailer • March 10th, 2020 Football videogames in the early to mid-1990s reveled in over-the-top physical violence. Could the disappearance of that tendency be connected to changing public perception around the safety of the sport?
Here's the Thing Avatar and the Importance of the Mundane By Rob Rich • March 10th, 2020 Rob takes a look at one of the most well-loved episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender and posits that it’s mundane slice-of-life moments that truly draw us in to stories about people with superhuman abilities.
Revving the Engine Backbone: We’re All Animals By Stu Horvath • March 9th, 2020 What better way to examine the human condition than in a story about animals?
This Mortal Coyle The Ad Salesman from Animal Restaurant By Deirdre Coyle • March 9th, 2020 Animal Restaurant is a mobile game that does the impossible: It makes promoting in-game ads adorable.
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – February 2020 By Noah Springer • March 6th, 2020 This month’s column includes one of the more powerful albums Noah’s heard in a while.
Feature Excerpt Picking Fruit in Hyrule: Playing Breath of the Wild Like It’s Animal Crossing By Alyssa Wejebe • February 21st, 2020 If you’re sick of emptying your pockets to Tom Nook and microtransactions, another Nintendo mainstay may be exactly what you’re looking for.
