Hellmode

This Isn’t the Article I Wanted to Write About Tomb Raider

Ashelia — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:48:45 +0000

This isn’t the article I wanted to write about Tomb Raider. In fact, I had an article that was a lot more poetic; there were lines about agency, the environment becoming a character, and how Tomb Raider truly was a next gen title that was my game of the year. Instead this is an article [...]

Morals of the Mojave

Rollin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:35:59 +0000

In Fallout: New Vegas, there are certain factions that, regardless of the circumstances, you gain karma by killing. The Legion and Powder Gangers both suffer this fate. Patrolling, sleeping or guarding an outpost–it doesn’t matter. They have been designed this way and therefore any method of punishment you can dispense is legitimate because, clearly, they [...]

The Final Fantasy MMORPGs: Roads Less Traveled

Ashelia — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:08:58 +0000

My overall conflicted experience with Final Fantasy XIV still didn’t stop my jaw from dropping the first time I saw a dust storm settle over the sky of Ul’dah at night. But for better or worse, Ul’dah and its dust storms are something that many gamers will never see. Unfortunately, not many saw its distant [...]

The Collector’s Conundrum

Ashelia — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:50:10 +0000

Civilization V is coming out soon and I feel like I’m ten years old again on Christmas Eve; unabashedly, I brimming with excitement. For me, the series represents the very foundation of gaming. It was also one of the staple titles of my early youth, something that grew up as I did–from my years in [...]

What Final Fantasy XIII and Heavy Rain Have in Common

Ashelia — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:10:09 +0000

Gaming is about the experience. Mashing buttons and keys is how I spent the nineties–I stomped on Goombas, explored dungeons in Hyrule, and bunnyhopped in Quake. When playing Doom in my early years, I was terrified of the demons that the gates of Hell unleashed. And I’ll never forget the first time I saw the [...]

Video Games Are Undeniably Art

Ashelia — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:32:44 +0000

Video games are art. It’s boring, it’s been said, and it’s been argued against. But it’s true. Game developers are this generation’s unnamed Ansel Adams and Andy Warhols. The video games they work to create are their own unique worlds imagined and they bring to life these visions with precise direction and immense effort. By [...]

Playing Video Games With an Open Mind

Ashelia — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:50:02 +0000

I thought the pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV were pointless, but I found them all anyway. I spent hours getting Tonberry as a Guardian Force in Final Fantasy VIII although he was underpowered as a summon. I even saved Cybil in Silent Hill through some extra legwork. I try to play video games with [...]

My Darker Competitive Side

Ashelia — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:02:59 +0000

My hands hurt from holding my mouse so tightly and my heart’s pounding. In a few seconds, I will be wiped out by several siege tanks, but I don’t know this yet and what I don’t know is killing me. It’s a mirror match for 1v1 ladder play in StarCraft 2. I just placed platinum [...]

On Morality and Making Choices Matter in Video Games

Ashelia — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:55:24 +0000

I take my choices in video games seriously. Although their concept of morality is usually nothing more than a ruse to present players with a common thread to characters, I still care about the illusion it generates–repeatedly finding myself entangled in the web of choices that are presented. Moreover, I always find a sense of [...]

There’s Narrative in my RTS: StarCraft Told a Story, Will the Sequel Make People Listen?

Ashelia — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:11:44 +0000

The next great American novel won’t be inspired by a zerg rush, but Kerrigan and Raynor want their story to be told nonetheless. For over a decade now, the StarCraft series has aspired to a daunting task. It’s tried to weave a compelling tale in the real-time strategy genre, attempting to break categorical confines and [...]