Category Archives: Video Games

Round 1 Finish, Round 2 Fight!

I am undeniably a geek. So when I start thinking of phrases and comparisons to describe my life, it is geek culture that I draw from. As we finish the first real engineering sprint for Firewall (our year-long senior game … Continue reading

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How to Play Wizard101 on a Mac

Wizard101 is a freemium MMORPG designed to be playable by all ages 10 and up. Unfortunately, the client is PC only, which leaves those of us who are on the Mac and want to play high and dry. Fortunately, there is an awesome program by CodeWeavers called CrossOver Games that will let you play Wizard101 on the Mac almost perfectly. Continue reading

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Living in Borrowed Time: A Reflection on LA Noire

If this sounds like I’m describing a scene out of LA Noire, that’s no accident. As I played through LA Noire, I couldn’t help but feel like I was living in the city my grandmother grew up in, and playing a character that added to the tapestry of that time. I realize the in-game maps of LA aren’t perfect, and that the landmarks so painstakingly re-created are not exact replicas, but I couldn’t shake the impression that, were my grandmother sitting next to me, we could go on a tour of LA as it was, with her as the tour guide nad me as the credulous tourist. I felt like I was playing in the time of her childhood, and that the gameworld had been borrowed by Rockstar and Bondi by the generation that actually lived in that time. Continue reading

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The Killer: My Impressions

There have been lots of games that have dealt with focused, specific messages, games that are trying to make a statement. Especially in the flash game arena, titles like Darfur is Dying and September 12th have been pointed to as hallmarks that games can be serious media. For me, though, there was a problem with both of these titles: they looked too stylized, too close to what those who study such things normally think of when they think of Flash games. And they didn’t really provide any character for the player the associate with. Jordan Magnusson’s The Killer changes that. Continue reading

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