April 21st
byWelcome, readers. There’s a lot of looking back in critical games writing this week, which makes sense to me, since for many it’s a holiday weekend and we are in kind of a lull period between GDC and E3. Big releases have…
April 14th
byHappy Sunday, readers. There’s new Deorbital this week, which under any circumstances kicks ass, but this time around it’s bittersweet news, as the publication is going on hiatus while the team seeks out new ways to keep the project funded. Deorbital produces…
April 7th
byHey there, readers. Hope you’re taking care of yourselves. I hate that at this point I more-or-less expect to have a new big headline about labour abuse to talk about each week, but that’s the reality. This time it’s BioWare, and while…
March 31st
byThanks for stopping by, readers. This week EA is the latest of the major publishers to take a turn on the layoff misery-go-round. You can bet this news is on my mind as I gather together the latest critical writing on labour…
March 24th
byHappy Sunday, readers! First of all, if you haven’t already seen it, we’ve got a new Critical Compilation this week–this time on the Mass Effect Trilogy, courtesy of Emma Kostopolus. She’s gathered a bunch of great writing on how the series intersects…
Mass Effect Trilogy
byOur latest Critical Compilation sets sights on BioWare’s landmark Mass Effect trilogy, brought together by Emma Kostopolus. Emma is a Ph.D student of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Kansas, where her work focuses on the intersections of rhetoric and videogames as…
March 17th
byHey there. This was a pretty devastating week. The terrorist attack in Christchurch has sparked some long-overdue conversations about the extent to which white supremacist ideology is coddled at almost every level of western media and culture. This time around, games–and gaming…
March 10th
byHappy Sunday, readers! So last week I used this space to essentially subtweet a major publisher that did something really stupid and toxic in a cynical attempt to grab headlines. Is it possible to do the same thing to the largest distributor…
Assassin’s Creed II
byCritical Distance is proud to present this Critical Compilation of Ubisoft’s Assassin Creed II, curated by Gilles Roy. A history scholar with game design training at Montreal’s INIS, Gilles is also co-editor at Play the Past. You can follow him on Twitter…
March 3rd
byHappy Sunday, readers. Things happened this week in games. Some really, icky, bad things. Typically I leave some space at the top here to reflect on some of these things and maybe connect them to the week’s selection of writing, but if…