Life’s but a Game: The Gamifying Trend

At some fundamental level, all games are built from the same basic concept. From Skyrim to football to Monopoly to poker, a player has both a goal and a set of rules that frame exactly how he or she achieves that goal. Some rules say what you can do, some say what you cannot. All the same, something about our brains craves rules. In a very innately human way, they create challenges for us to exercise our minds and bodies. At the same time, it’s very arbitrary. There’s no intuitive reason why one

Curiously-Named Game Bucks a Trend

With the benefits of time, money and experience, most video game series improve over time. Adding new game mechanics, scrapping the bad ideas and especially boosting graphics quality all keep a franchise alive. In a very strange move, one particular game, Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, bucks the trend. The latest in a series of episodic role-playing games based on the popular Penny Arcade webcomic, PA:ORSPD3 (No, I can’t call it anything shorter) is probably the first e

The Future of Gaming is Impulse-Driven

Call me a cheapskate if you want, but I haven’t paid full price for a PC video game in at least a year. At the same time, I have well over a hundred games in my Steam library, and at least a dozen more from other digital download services. What’s strange, however, is that at least a quarter of them I’ve never played; of those, I bet at least half of them I never will. Yet I scope out new game deals nearly every day, and fight the temptation to add the increasingly backlogged catalog of games. Do

A Chat With Indie Game Developers

Two weeks ago I reviewed a then-just-released indie game called Anodyne. It was a familiar style of game set in an unfamiliar world, with quirky characters, dreamy landscapes and great music. I took my chances and emailed the developers, Sean Hogan and Jon Kittaka, to see if they’d be open to a brief interview. First off, thank you for agreeing to this interview! I’ve been pretty excited for the past few days in anticipation of learning more about the game and the development process. For star

Indie Game Delights with Retro Appeal

Indie video games often fall into roughly two categories: those that experiment with a novel core game mechanic and those that pay homage to tried-and-true tropes of classic gaming while turning them on their head. Recently released and catching my attention, Anodyne, a top-down Legend of Zelda-inspired adventure game, resides firmly within the latter category. I felt like I was taking a (tiny) chance buying this little indie game I’d yet to hear anything about, but I trusted the retro 16-bit su

Castle Crashers Will Capture Your Heart

Personally, I find it difficult to select a video game to review. Do I choose the latest and greatest AAA titles? On the one hand, you’ve probably heard of them and are eager to learn more. On the other hand, you’ve almost definitely read a review by a more eloquent, professional and studly reviewer already. Plus, brand new big-name titles are expensive, and I’m a college student. So instead, each game I choose to review is one that I think will surprise you, defying your expectations and treati

Artistic Gameplay for Artist-Inspired Work

The contemplation of video games as an art form rears its head every so often in gaming journalism. Comparisons are drawn to works of art in traditional media, and everyone takes a moment to reflect on the meaning of art in general. Recent years have seen the influx of “art” games, designed with the purpose of being artistically thought-provoking, that utilize unique visuals, sounds or game mechanics. Artists often desire to distinguish themselves and deliver their own unique perspective and sty

A History of the Videogame Narrative

I scoured the Internet for fresh games in preparation to write a game review for this week’s issue of The Student. Even with my computer’s dated hardware I figured I would find a new(ish) title that would pique my interest and be worth sharing with the Amherst community. Several titles caught my eye, yet before I reached for my wallet, I took a look at games I had played and reviewed so far. Few of them place significant emphasis on narrative in a fulfilling way. Instead, the story often serves

A Sequel That Surpasses Its Predecessor

After fighting my way through a horde of armored war-beasts, greedily snatching fallen gold and weapons and narrowly avoiding death, I looked to my clock and realized with surprise that two hours had passed. That sums up my experience with Torchlight 2, an action role-playing game and the sequel to Runic Games’ Torchlight. While you don’t need to have played the original to enjoy this sequel, Torchlight 2 dramatically improves just about every aspect of its predecessor. It expands on a playful p

Small Developers and their Big Bundles

While television and movies have struggled to migrate to the internet and take advantage of the boundless possibilities it offers, video games, as a relatively young medium, have been fortunate enough to evolve hand-in-hand with internet and online communities. More so than traditional media, the video game industry has embraced the internet as a rich digital distribution system, allowing developers and publishers to get their games out to a large audience. Digital distribution doesn’t only appl

An Indie Video Game Worth the Price

Over the past two decades, video games have ascended from being a subculture to becoming one of the biggest entertainment industries of our generation. Many of us enjoy AAA titles, such as Call of Duty, Super Mario Bros. or Grand Theft Auto. In the past few years, however, the industry has witnessed an explosion of small developers producing indie games, exploring innovative new game concepts and offering these hand-crafted experiments at low prices. I’ll be reviewing a recently released indie t