Kill Screen Archives: Archives

May 16 Reviews

The Talking Dead

The first episode of the game version of the popular comic-turned-telefilm The Walking Dead is an examination of truth-telling, silence, and testimony, which the game's dialogue forces us to grapple with at every twist 'n' turn.

May 15 Reviews

Can a Videogame Give You Closure?

Tyler Glaiel's Flash hit has blossomed into a much moodier and complicated appraisal of human existence in its PlayStation Network debut. We take a closer look at Closure and how a lot of darkness can bring a lot to light.

May 15 Interviews

A Father's Bottle, A Child's Pain, and a Grown Man's Memory.

How did Vander Caballero, the youngest member of a wealthy South American family, deal with a childhood littered with alchoholism and abuse? He created the world of Papo y Yo, an upcoming PSN puzzler in the form of autobiography set in a favela.

May 14 Essays

A Low End Theory

Wondering why so many games send us through hell? Look on the bright side.

May 14 Essays

Will Work for Fun

What are the roots of free-to-play capitalism? Michael Thomsen argues that in-game commodities and microtransactions are not new ideas so much as the latest ways that videogame companies instrumentalize us.

May 11 Profiles

Folded Into Ourselves

One of the iPhone's simplest ideas makes a difficult proposition on architecture. Kyle Chayka explains why Rem Koolhaas might love Tiny Tower.

May 10 Columns

Pixel City

Contemporary architecture is stealing pixels from videogames. Our columnist explores how and why this retro fad has become an unconvincing sign of the future.

May 10 Essays

Dealing With Urban Decay

The raw materials of New Marais, the setting of Infamous 2 based on New Orleans, tell a story both longer and more pressing than their digital textures suggest. Nora Khan climbs through its multilayered history.

May 9 Reviews

Trapped in a Cage

What makes the structure of a game stay intact? We play Assassin's Creed: Revelations and find a lot of hidden walls—some more apparent than others.

May 9 Essays

Black Undead Damnation

Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption is the latest videogame to host an urban legend. A house on a hill is said to be haunted—in reality—so we went ghost hunting.

May 8 Columns

Our Future Past

What do Halo and Portal have to do with 1950s universitites? They tell a surprisingly similar story through the hard lines of Brutalist architecture.

May 8 Essays

Track Shots

Our favorite Trials Evolution user-created levels have some unexpected themes in common.

May 7 Reviews

Step by Step

What's within this haunted house? And is it worth exploring with your own two feet? Jon Irwin wonders about the architecture of tedium as he explores Kinect title Haunt.

May 7 Essays

Grounds for Play

Why are playgrounds still so important in the digital age? We talk with some of New York's leading playground architects and designers about their work and the past and future impact of public play on urban space.

May 4 Articles

Killing Animals

Does PETA have a point? We dug through our game library and found moments of animal cruelty both blatant and subtle.

May 3 Reviews

Environmental Artist

Motorbiking in Trials Evolution isn't about speed, flips, or flails. It's an exercise in meditation on landscapes.

May 2 Reviews

There She Blows

What does Nintendo's new role-playing saga have in common with a sad, dying whale? The list spans the creature's hide.

May 2 Essays

Altered Appreciation

Land art is an appreciation of earthy materials churned into something new. Videogames—mechanical, artificial and synthetic—can gain something from the principles behind this form of art. Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP leads the way—but there are some foothills along the trek.