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Game Culture Narrative Design Personal Favorites

I am Vincent Brooks.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the ending of Catherine. Catherine, Atlus’s 2011\12 visual novel puzzle game amalgamation is a game I’ve seen cited as “one of the most sexist” games made and another example of “the weird Japanese and their games about sex”. I don’t have much interest getting into the racism and ethnocentrism of that […]

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Personal Favorites

A Shattered Goddess

“… Rapture’s genius will be held within her new DNA, able to shift into desired patterns at will. A Utopian cannot be confined to a single throw of the genetic dice. When needed, she is a composer. A dancer. An engineer. She truly will be the People’s Daughter.” System Shock 2 is SHODAN’s story, your […]

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Personal Favorites

Life on the Edge.

Mirror’s Edge feels like a game made specifically for me. I’ve worked in offices, shopping centres, and warehouses and am now being asked to exploring highly stylised but authentic recreations of such spaces, using my new abilities to gain a mastery over these environments that I could never hope to achieve in my day to day life. It even […]

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Personal Favorites

Mercenary Behaviour.

“They’re not the ones fighting here, we should make the profits.” Nasreen Davar really isn’t a nice woman. I can’t judge, I’ve done some terrible things myself, I’ve killed people, a lot of people. For money. Because I had to. Because I could. She’s saved my life more than once, and I’ve returned the favour; and yeah, maybe […]

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Game Design Personal Favorites

Sea of Dreams.

The (dead) cat is out of the underwater city it seems, the first teaser trailer for BioShock 2 (Possible full title BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams), available as bonus content on the Playstation 3 release of BioShock, has found its way online; as such things always do. I’ve mentioned BioShock numerous times on this site, […]

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Personal Favorites

Flatlander Woman.

Now that it’s done I’m starting to regret it. I said it in such a throwaway manner, I guess I wasn’t really certain it would have any effect. After all I’d seen first hand what Agent Navarre was capable of. It’s still hard to believe the power contained in those two words. I didn’t really have […]

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Game Design Personal Favorites

Look at you Hacker.

“Where were we after forty years of evolution? What swamp were we swimming around in, single celled and mindless? What if SHODAN’s creations are superior to us? What will they become in a million years, in ten million years? What’s clear is that SHODAN shouldn’t be allowed to play God. She’s far too good at […]

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Game Design Personal Favorites

Casing the joint.

“I’ve always equated ‘feelings’ with ‘getting caught’ they both get in the way of my money. Unfortunately not everyone is as committed to their work as I am.” Garrett isn’t an embodiment of traditional power fantasies, he might save the world but he does it reluctantly, accidentally. By the time he actively decides to foil […]

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Game Design Personal Favorites

Combat Evolved.

“Don’t get any funny ideas.” I like Halo: Combat Evolved. In any list of my personal favourite titles it would be up there with Midwinter II: Flames Of Freedom and Thief II: The Metal Age. Each of the Halo sequels have been entertaining but none had the same impact, nor felt as pure in their execution […]