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I don't think the example she generated necessarily needs a love story or a male damsel. It's essentially the Lion King story which didn't exactly rely on damseling or a love interest to be compelling. While those elements were there (reuniting with nala and his mother and her pack being at the whim of scar) they were secondary to the central theme of the narrative which is dealing with responsibility and overcoming failure. So I certainly think it's possible to write powerful narratives that don't rely on a male - female dichotomy. Look at Journey as a video game example. Depicting an androgynous character was an effective move to allow agency no matter the identity of the player. Of course, not every game protagonist needs to be androgynous. My point is traditional tropes need not be the only route toward telling a good story in a game.

That tracing article is just great.

Yeah I had that thought process too. Not to mention the scene RIGHT before Dyson dies where Arnie rips his arm open gruesomely to prove he's a bot.

Ahahaha! Total Recall totally deserves the adjoining youtube clip:

Other hand-centric movie moments of the 90s: Cliffhanger "Stallone seems oddly undisturbed by this traumatic moment" http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XOW1rhZCTmg Adam's family anything with Thing in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7AuH1FLVvkE Evil Dead 2 Ash's hand vs Ash. (actually this was late 80s) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EWY7OYUcB0&feature=player Blade Runner nail through replicant hand to get the joints unstuck gets honorable mention despite not being 90s. Also worst nightmare of Deckard getting fingers broken through a hole in the wall (adam jensen style) without even seeing how or in what order.

It has some great moments. The Geth/Quarian storyline as well as the Krogan one were some of the most impressive storytelling of the series. I still enjoy the combat as well. The coop mode was very fun for a while. Lastly, I hear the citadel DLC is the best thing ever. Haven't played it yet though. Hoping to restart the game from 1 with a new character so all my changes carry over. That was the one thing really holding me back from truly enjoying 3. (Jumped from 360 to PC and lost my saves between 2 and 3)

I imagine it's some kind of alternate universe Rapture. I honestly don't care. I like the tone and love the setting, all that remains is execution. I'm also slightly dubious that Levine had as much to do with this content as he did with the original game. Now that he's working on movie scripts and what have you.

Clash in the Clouds looks like a pass. Something like Dunwall City Trials but without the great gameplay that sets Dishonored apart (and a cut above, imo). Burial at Sea looks verrry interesting. This is exactly the kind of standalone storyline DLC that more games should embrace. Seeing the little sisters getting indoctrinated gave me chills. I only hope they breathe a bit more life into NPC interactions, as everything felt a bit cardboard in Infinite. Will Bioshock the 1st survive the lack of verisimilitude that exhuming all the NPCs will certainly threaten?

"In a world where no one's wife is safe, a simple gardener becomes involved in a plot that will change his life, and the history of the country, forever."

That's what I'm telling myself. I hope to return here soon with some sweet corpo-hacking shenanigans!

There's a demo for it which should be fairly illuminating. http://www.indiedb.com/games/teleglitch/related/downloads I quite enjoyed the demo so look forward to playing the full version. It feels like a top down twin stick doom. I love the style and the atmosphere and the crafting system is pretty brilliant.

I do think Civilization has some interesting things to say, born purely out of its simulations. As much as the game favors an imperialist viewpoint, it doesn't stop us from generating compelling narratives based on the outcomes. A great example of this is the 10 year civ 2 game that surfaced last year: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/

Interest registration application - signed and sealed.

Damn, that ending was great.

thanks for bringing these to my attention juv3nal. Howling Dogs is incredible. And I'm still in the midst of Business Tycoon and quite enjoying it. The language is so colorfully descriptive that I think these games stand alongside KRZ just fine. (In fact KRZ's text-only parts are some of my favorite moments of the game. That bait and tackle shop!) I agree that if you hate the writing style you won't get much out of this, though.

Ah ok so I only overspent on Gods and Kings, which I bought standalone. Thanks for the explanation.

I am confused by the Civ 5 Gold deal. Does that include all DLC? Why is the other stuff even on sale at all then? And for way more money? I'm kind of bummed as I bought all the DLC during the sale before Gold went on sale, I think?

Well apparently I have invisible mods or its scanning my hd. Who knows. Either way, I guess I'll have to bow out. Have fun guys.

I did but now I keep getting kicked out for having mods... when I have none?

And oh look, my password reset email is in chinese. Inspires massive confidence!

Welp, I hate GFWL more than anything I've ever experience in the world of computers. It is a humongous piece of shit. Did you know, if you have 'save my password' checked, it doesn't allow you to enter a new password in that field? And it doesn't tell you this? You have to google it. And the captchas for resetting your password are terrible. mixed case with mixed sized characters, I'm STILL struggling to get my password reset. Fuck you GFWL!

Boy, but does this game take up a lot of disc space.

Though, to extrapolate: the way you guys tend to interpret games leads me to think you've done a huge loop/barrel roll around the framing of the medium. (picturing the Chris who loved Diablo 2 but can't stand the same mechanics in 2012.) Maybe it's owed to you guys working in games but all those niggles that aren't hugely bothersome to me are often brought up in the cast. Vending machines in people's homes, ladder puzzles, character height and so on. Stuff that designers compromise through necessity and gamers swallow out of habit. Which is why I find the cast so valuable; it does a great job of bringing to light aspects of gaming I had (through complacency) failed to think about. It also interestingly mirror's the reactions of my friends who don't play games. But in a more detailed manner than simple "that's dumb/nerdy/waste of time" (which is what i was going for with the awkward plane analogy)

I really appreciated Charlie Brooker's highly relevant take on Last of Us' gameisms from the interview he did with Cara Ellison: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/15/gaming-made-me-charlie-brooker-part-1/