The Burnt Offering The Music and the Dice By Stu Horvath • September 11th, 2023 Like any live performance, a tabletop roleplaying game’s greatest power resides in the moment, experiencing the event as it happens.
Interlinked Squall is Extradimensional By Phoenix Simms • September 8th, 2023 When Laguna knew Squall and his allies were there but felt they were like faeries hovering in the ether unseen, wasn’t that what early encounters on forums and instant chat services felt like?
Here Be Monsters We Can’t Get Out Without Talking About Slenderman By Emma Kostopolus • September 7th, 2023 Born of a 2009 creepypasta and culminating in the 2014 violent assault of a twelve-year-old girl by two classmates, Slenderman was largely responsible for a digital Satanic Panic in miniature.
Mind Palaces Architectural Intent By Maddi Chilton • September 6th, 2023 For a book that is nominally about the hubristic imaginings of a genius architect, Rose/House seems to have no actual interest in architecture.
Self-Insert Mafia By Amanda Hudgins • September 5th, 2023 KinnPorsche is probably the best example of the mafia alternative universe aesthetic. Everyone is beautiful and darkly dressed and prone to drinking and smoking in dark rooms.
Past Presence Object Lessons #1: Field By Emily Price • August 31st, 2023 Are fields a stage for action to take place on, or are they the action themselves?
Run It Back 1982 By Oluwatayo Adewole • August 30th, 2023 This month we step on over to 1982 to discuss two films which tell the stories of a Black relationship on each side of the Atlantic.
Noise Complaint Nu-Metal Might Be Good, Actually? By Ben Sailer • August 29th, 2023 Ben recalls a time he talked shit about a Korn cover band and is forced into several personal epiphanies.
Funeral Rites Inventing a World of Insectoid Wonders By Justin Reeve • August 25th, 2023 We delve into the mind of creator Eduardo Carabaño, exploring the history, philosophy, inspirations and design processes that carried Settlers of a Dead God from inception to publication.
Feature Story Spacemen & Dinosaurs By David Busboom • August 24th, 2023 Interplanetary explorers have been encountering dinosaurs or dinosaur-like creatures in fiction for more than a century.
Feature Excerpt Odes of the Boomershooter By Holly Boson • August 23rd, 2023 “If we’re entering an age of renewed zeal for nu-metal, I think Slayers X deserves to be mentioned within the first breaths of the conversation.”
Here's the Thing Enough With The “Alien” Comparisons By Rob Rich • August 16th, 2023 Most modern sci-fi horror movies that involve a monster (or monsters) wind up being compared to Alien, which Rob thinks is a load of bull.
Forms in Light Hidden Assumptions By Justin Reeve • August 15th, 2023 Cities: Skylines and Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic provide unique experiences in urban planning and resource management while representing completely different political economies.
Noah's Beat Box How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love Vanderpump Rules By Noah Springer • August 11th, 2023 “The Beat Box” is rebranding to “Noah’s Beat Box.”
Area of Effect Space in Space By Jay Castello • August 9th, 2023 Mars First Logistics being about delivery, moving through the open world becomes something very deliberate, rather than feeling like an accident with, at best, an improvised solution.
Rookie of the Year Off Switch By Matt Marrone • August 8th, 2023 We were all going on a fast. A screen fast. No iPads, no Nintendo, very limited television, for the next three weeks.
Interlinked Uprooting Time By Phoenix Simms • August 4th, 2023 Déraciné is an interesting rumination on what makes game narratives convincing, but it’s also a game that effectively communicates EcoGothic fears of being at the mercy of nature.
Noise Complaint 12 Records I’ve Made the Time to Listen to So Far in 2023 By Ben Sailer • August 3rd, 2023 Feeling that 2023 is flying by too quickly, Ben stops to reflect on the music that has provided his soundtrack for the year to date.
Here Be Monsters The Unsettling Mindfulness of Horror By Emma Kostopolus • August 2nd, 2023 To succeed in a survival horror experience, mindfulness is an incredibly helpful tool.
This Mortal Coyle KJ from Life After Magic By Deirdre Coyle • July 28th, 2023 “There’s a bunch of different subcultures under the punk and goth umbrellas. Doesn’t always have to be about wearing black and being angry.”
Run It Back 1934 By Oluwatayo Adewole • July 27th, 2023 In this case it seems dear reader, that the enemy of our enemy is not quite a friend – or at least they’re one who we shouldn’t invite to stay in our home.
Eyeing Elsewhere On Play in Tears of the Kingdom By Phillip Russell • July 26th, 2023 In Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo has found a captivating approach to its play design by allowing players to approach challenges in a seemingly infinite number of ways.
Funeral Rites Making Friends with Swords in The Vorpal Almanac By Jay Castello • July 25th, 2023 Swords, writes Levi Combs in the book’s introduction, need “to feel lived in.” And that’s exactly the focus of the 22 blades of The Vorpal Almanac, beautifully illustrated by Sally Cantirino.
Feature Excerpt In Hi-Fi Rush, Style is Substance By Ryan Stevens • July 21st, 2023 The hit rhythm-action title’s design decisions all emanate from its central comic booky visual style and its core commitment to its music.
Feature Excerpt The 3DS Made Dungeon Crawlers Accessible & Its Legacy Is Palpable By Latonya Pennington • July 20th, 2023 Through the 3DS, dungeon crawlers would go from being a niche genre to something more accessible as the console matured.
Here's the Thing Ted Lasso’s Third Season By Rob Rich • July 14th, 2023 While season three may not be focusing on Ted and his magic, it does still carry the original spirit of what came before it.
Forms in Light Influence and Persuasion By Justin Reeve • July 14th, 2023 In much the same way as architecture, power is reflected in the control exerted by level designers over the movement of players in videogames.
Always Autumn A Golden Halo That Could Be the Sun Part II: The Ones Who Stay and Fight By Autumn Wright • July 13th, 2023 What does it mean to be born of the dead?
Casting Deep Meteo Me, My Wife and Eye-rene By Levi Rubeck • July 12th, 2023 The best way to cut nostalgia? With a little bit of something new.
Area of Effect All’s Well in the Kingdom By Jay Castello • July 11th, 2023 The wells in Hyrule are incredible. I want someone to talk to me about all the wells in Hyrule, as well.
Rookie of the Year Breaking Up With a Videogame By Matt Marrone • July 7th, 2023 I won’t name the game or the platform. It knows what it is and I’m not here to rub any salt.
Noise Complaint Learning the Hard Way With Lucero By Ben Sailer • July 6th, 2023 Lucero’s music has always had two speeds: “I’m going to party hard” and “I shouldn’t have partied that hard.”
Mind Palaces Marathon May By Maddi Chilton • July 5th, 2023 This is not the best way to interact with art, but it’s also hard to see what the alternative is.
Past Presence The Wake of the Wake By Emily Price • June 30th, 2023 Folk-punk, increasingly experimental band AJJ is best listened to when you randomly remember them, like a book of poems you skim through annually and then put back on the shelf.
Run It Back You’ve Gotta Stop Living Like You’re Already Dead By Oluwatayo Adewole • June 29th, 2023 What use is it to name the knife that slides between your ribs if you can’t let yourself be helped?
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – June 2023 By Noah Springer • June 28th, 2023 It’s half-way through 2023 somehow, so it’s time to round up some notable releases from the first half of the year.
Funeral Rites Depths of the Abyss By Noah Springer • June 27th, 2023 To play, at least for Max Moon in the world of The Abyss of Hallucinations and MÖRK BORG, is to participate in a ritual that can potentially break the reality laid out by the capitalist trap.
Feature Excerpt Don’t Hurt Girls When You Dance (Or Any Other Time) By Juno Stump • June 23rd, 2023 I don’t know if Kurt Cobain would still be here today if he had the ability to inject estrogen instead of heroin, but I know his journal pages carry the same pain as me.
Letter from the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – June 2023 By David Shimomura • June 20th, 2023 Come as you are.
Here's the Thing The False Myth of the Black Cat By Rob Rich • June 15th, 2023 While the times have changed, black cats are sometimes still saddled with unfair stigma – and Rob rants about why that’s ridiculous.