Tag Archives: Sandbox

A quick scan of any video game message board is likely to demonstrate the polemic nature of our industry. Quite simply, a substantial constituency enjoys arguing about games nearly as much as they like playing ...

While the existence of a third-generation Sim includes most of the crucial milestones of an actual life, Maxis’ virtual beings have traditionally been barred from attaining a college education. Following the fulfillment of a high-school ...

From Doom’s demon decimating BFG 9000 to Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s demoralizing PDW-57 submachine gun, first-person shooters have a long history of conveying empowerment through dominating devices. That said, few franchises can compare ...

In 2008’s The Dark Knight, Alfred offers up an astute analysis of the Joker’s motivations to Bruce Wayne- “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”  With an unmatched conflagration algorithm which let players ...

The game industry’s holiday period is similar to Hollywood’s summer blockbuster season- both are bursting with visceral, big-budget thrill rides fated for the top of the charts. From Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Call of ...

Considered the apogee of the late baroque period, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is now ubiquitous. Reduced to a hackneyed signifier of luxury, the concertos have been used in ads for Hewlett-Packard, Lincoln as well ...

In the weeks leading up to Assassin’s Creed III’s release, there was little doubt of Ubisoft Montréal ‘s mammoth ambitions. With reports of a three year development cycle sustained by the efforts of four separate ...

Save for Pierce Brosnan’s farcical depiction of a melancholic, middle-aged hit-man in The Matador, media routinely romanticizes the assassin. From Chow Yun-Fat’s debonair, yet doting, gun for hire in The Killer to the exploits of ...

The game industry is no stranger to the oxymoron. From the endurance of the Final Fantasy franchise, the amount of wholly original content in New Super Mario Bros. 2, to control schemes which provide only ...

Irrefutably, Sleeping Dogs is a tale of vengeance. On one level, the game’s protagonist- undercover officer Wei Shen, retaliates against a multitude of treacherous types, impaling foes on stacks of swordfish and pressing the faces ...