The Archive

Review: L.A. Noire
May 31 Reviews

Review: L.A. Noire

Why is everyone in Team Bondi's L.A. Noire obsessed with Cole Phelps? Kirk Hamilton makes a run through its virtual Los Angeles, and never looks back. 

Review: Stacking
Feb 28 Reviews

Review: Stacking

Double Fine's new downloadable puzzle game Stacking is drenched in style. Think about that word: "drenched." As if a game revolving around the secret lives of Russian matryoshka dolls weren't stylized enough, project lead Lee Petty has also elected to dress the whole thing up in retro Industrial Revolution chic. The doll thing and the retro thing are both so pronounced that either one could stand on its own; when taken together they constitute a stylistic soaking. And at first glance, it's a welcome one—the silent-film aesthetic, along with Peter McConnell's spritely, Shostakovich-tinged piano score, conjures an energy that is at once familiar and pleasant. The animation team's extraordinarily inventive work lends the characters a surprising degree of humanity despite their deliberately simplistic design. It's all just so charming.

Onward, Pac-Man!
Dec 20 Articles

Onward, Pac-Man!

The path to survival lies straight ahead. I cannot scale these walls, Sam Fisher-style, and wait for my pursuers to haplessly wander underneath. Nor can I dig a makeshift hidey-hole and wait for danger to pass. This is not Splinter Cell, this is not Minecraft; this is Pac-Man, and so the path to survival lies straight ahead.

Categories

Tags

Writers

Latest Issue

#5: Sound

Issue 5 brings together our two most personal obsessions: the games we play, and the sounds that make them whole.

Free PDF sample! 1 Issue for $12 4 Issues for $40
Issue #5

Kill Screen by Email

Get sneak peeks of new issues, special offers, and lovingly crafted late night musings.