Bloodlines Specter of Aesthetic Play By David Shimomura • September 2nd, 2020 Ghost of Tsushima is a love-sick letter to the tone and feel of pop culture samurai media.
Musings The Last of Us Part II: Over and Over Again By Blake Hester • August 11th, 2020 Though it likely wasn’t their intent, Naughty Dog’s sequel hits the nail on the head when it comes to an unflinching portrayal of the cycle of addiction.
Casting Deep Meteo No Home for Petals By Levi Rubeck • August 6th, 2020 “Given the trajectory we’re on, perhaps it’s too soon for 2020 comeback stories. And yet I’m charged by the germination of long-term plans of cosmic revival, hopefully to flower as soon as possible.”
Revving the Engine Revoider: Chipping Away By Stu Horvath • July 13th, 2020 “We want to encourage playfulness and evoke a sense of childlike wonder and curiosity…”
Rookie of the Year America is Under the Dome By Matt Marrone • July 8th, 2020 Watching what feels like an endless newsfeed of new acts of police brutality every day, Matt can feel the Dome closing in.
The Fail Cycle Gaming 21 Times Slower By Declan Taggart • June 9th, 2020 What titles can an ancient netbook even run? Left with no other gaming PC, Declan finds out.
Doom Eternally Better By Stephen Wilds • May 20th, 2020 Doom Eternal goes a long way to ensure players of every ability can tackle the hordes of Hell.
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.”
Behind the LudoNarraCon 2020 Poster: An Interview with Leonie Yue By Alyssa Wejebe • May 6th, 2020 For many folks, their first exposure to LudoNarraCon was the poster. We talk to the artist.
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?
Light Four Torches By Jeremy Signor • April 29th, 2020 Sometimes we take game design for granted, and miss that a lot of it is nonsense to many on the outside looking in.
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.”
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?
Best of 2019 The Best TV of 2019 By Team Unwinnable • December 30th, 2019 The ten best TV shows of 2019, as chosen by Team Unwinnable and our slightly shady voting system.
Feature Excerpt Games About Death (Are Stuck In a Rut) By Mark Hill • December 2nd, 2019 Why has the treatment of death in certain indie games become so predictable?
Rookie of the Year Remember. Every. Moment. By Matt Marrone • November 1st, 2019 Matt shares a story of R.E.M.’s Monster and parenting on the album’s 25th anniversary.
Here's the Thing Rebooting Saturday Mornings with Netflix By Rob Rich • October 12th, 2019 It’s been decades since Rob has set aside time for Saturday morning cartoons, but Netflix has brought that very specific brand of nostalgia back with a number of unexpectedly clever reboots.
Clacking Out a Few Kind Words By Levi Rubeck • October 10th, 2019 Levi plays Kind Words, a game about comforting and being comforted.
This Mortal Coyle The Exile from Grim Soul By Deirdre Coyle • October 1st, 2019 Deirdre survived a lonely summer by escaping to an equally lonely game.
Sayonara Wild Hearts Exudes Queer Energy By Jeremy Signor • September 25th, 2019 Sayonara Wild Hearts is not only a celebration of the queer and feminine in games, but proof that these qualities have been part of the medium all along.
The Blackout Club and the Perils of Being Seen By Levi Rubeck • August 29th, 2019 Levi checks out Blackout Club and delights in the frights of being seen.
Eliza Shows Why Human Bias Is Necessary By Jeremy Signor • August 28th, 2019 Bias is often held up as an obstacle towards impartial decision making. But in reality, it’s the key to the sense of empathy that connects us all.
Feature Excerpt Silly Old Bear By Dick Page • July 22nd, 2019 The review-bombing of Devotion was never about Winnie the Pooh.
Collision Detection When Amazon Gamifies Hell, Who’s Gaming Who? By Ben Sailer • July 3rd, 2019 Videogames placed in Amazon warehouses are allegedly intended to boost employee morale. However, reality may be less altruistic than the company’s PR spin.
Revving the Engine Jupiter & Mars By Stu Horvath • June 28th, 2019 James Mielke guides us through the post-human neon ocean of Jupiter & Mars.
Call Me Billy: Creepshow’s Unsung Feminist Hero By E.E.W. Christman • June 24th, 2019 Upon rewatching, Creepshow accidentally offers up a feminist icon.
The Heavy Pour Into the Mystic By Sara Clemens • June 10th, 2019 If you’re one of the rare few terrified by horses, they’re pretty easy to avoid. Unless you play videogames.
Pets Feature Seven Videogame Chickens, Listed from Least to Most Likely to Kick My Ass By Melissa King • June 7th, 2019 Look at all these chickens.
This Mortal Coyle Catboy the Cat, and Other Familiars By Deirdre Coyle • May 31st, 2019 Deirdre lists some of the best cat (or cat-looking, at least) familiars in pop culture.
Pets Feature Responsible Petting By David Shimomura • May 30th, 2019 What could be stressful about running a Twitter account about petting virtual dogs? A lot, apparently.
Downtown DIY By Steph Knarr • May 24th, 2019 The musicians of Pittsburgh’s DIY community are well-aware of their music’s past, but also keenly attuned to what’s currently popular.
Chasing Pinballs Through the Earth By Levi Rubeck • May 16th, 2019 Creature in the Well is a sly title that purports that everything’s all been laid out.
Documentary Sunday The Cleaners By Megan Condis • May 13th, 2019 A new kind of custodial labor is working to keep your social media feeds free from trolls, hate groups and terrorist organizations.
Katana ZERO Offers Only Excuses By Jeremy Signor • May 8th, 2019 For a game that channels Hotline Miami so heavily, Katana ZERO is unusually generous in granting players absolution for their eventual murder spree.
A Story of Crunch By Malindy Hetfeld • April 29th, 2019 Telling a personal story of voluntary overwork, Malindy Hetfeld tries to describe the ways of thinking and circumstances that lead to harmful practices and their continuation.
The Nine Types of Vampires and What They Represent By Lauren James • April 21st, 2019 From ancient myths to modern-day fairy tales, the monsters of our imagination have almost always served as manifestations of real-life fears.
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – April 2019 By Stu Horvath • April 16th, 2019 In the April issue, Unwinnable explores the politics of Godzilla, the hidden commentary of Pikuniku and so much more!
E-soterica Broken Reality Represents The Drudgery of Internet Culture By Khee Hoon Chan • April 10th, 2019 What fuels Broken Reality’s bizarro universe is the same kick of dopamine we get from the positive feedback from social media.
Backlog Whose Apocalypse? By Gavin Craig • April 2nd, 2019 While wandering through Far Cry: New Dawn’s unplausible dystopia, Gavin Craig sees it as just one ending in a cycle as old as time.