Games Should Let Me Hurt Myself More: Grim Dawn and Hardcore Modes

You can watch this piece here. Games are extraordinarily forgiving. You might rail at a punishing encounter or an unfair boss fight but, for most games, failure is just a prelude to trying again. Death doesn't have much sting if it's closely followed by a refilled health bar, a pat on the back, and a 'better …

Haunted Coast – Growing up with the Spooks of Bottle Bay

For the longest time I was sure I'd invented The Spooks of Bottle Bay. If i didn't own a few episodes on VHS I'd have been completely sure of it. I used to watch it obsessively, this one video tape. My parents could never find another and so I saw the same four episodes on a …

Playing Dod – The Detail of Dominions

Dominions is extraordinary in scope. It’s a fantasy game series by Illwinter Games, now in its fifth iteration, that eschews Tolkienesque high fantasy for something steeped in real-world traditions of folklore and myth. All of them. That’s very nearly not exaggeration. Each in-game nation is meant to evoke a specific facsimile or fusion of historical …

No Cartrdige and Alternative Funding

What if you had a great idea but nobody with the cash and influence to make it happen agreed? What if you had something interesting to say but no editor would give you the space to say it without chopping it into a numbered list? You might start a YouTube channel or a blog, publish an …

In Mordor Where the Shadows Lie – Black Metal and Tolkien

When you think of black metal - if you think of it at all - you might think of death and darkness, misery and misanthropy. It’s been demonised by Christians, feared by parents, scorned even within the wider metal fandom. In many ways, that’s because all of the above works in reverse, with black metal …

Hollow Knight, Place, and Telling a Rich Story

This has pretty big spoilers for Hollow Knight. Last time, I made a fairly inoffensive assertion: that fiction and fantasy are great for exploring sensitive topics and uncomfortable truths. Arguably, it's what they're there for; gleaning some truth about ourselves through the stories we tell about ourselves. To this end, they'll lather themselves in theme, reference, and allegory. …

Darkest Dungeon, Trauma, and Lovecraft

Few games open with a warning. Most will do something like offer a sensible selection of difficulties, a little challenge cheeseboard, maybe with labels denoting what you can expect from each option. Darkest Dungeon offers shot after shot of smouldering spirit, and politely encourages that you try the strongest variety, right after telling you how …