Breaking My Backlog #13 – Sanitarium (Halloween Special, Part 1 of 4)

Writing about a game like Sanitarium is always an interesting prospect. It’s an old game, having come out 20 years ago. It’s a genre (adventure) that has fallen out of vogue considerably in that time. And it treats its subject matter (disability and deformity) in extremely problematic ways. Honestly, it’s possible that it’s a game best … Continue reading “Breaking My Backlog #13 – Sanitarium (Halloween Special, Part 1 of 4)”

The Banner Saga, Choice, and Agency

Let’s talk about choice. A couple of weeks ago, I spent much of my freetime playing The Banner Saga, the crowd-funded strategy-RPG from Bioware vets, Alex Thomas, Arnie Jorgenson, and John Watson. In playing this game, I learned two things about myself. The first is that I’m terrible at strategy-RPGs. I shouldn’t say I learned this about … Continue reading “The Banner Saga, Choice, and Agency”

Satoru Iwata (1959 – 2015)

I don’t remember what year it was, but it had to be around 1993. The world had started moving onto the Super Nintendo, but my family remained at the NES. We would eventually buy a SNES — a store model demo from a Shopko in North Platte, Nebraska — but, at the moment, I was still tapping … Continue reading “Satoru Iwata (1959 – 2015)”