This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/5FMtjGoORp0
I want to talk about family, memory, and story. I want to talk about how memories become stories — the kinds of stories that get repeated so often through the generations, they become enduring myths that define how members of a family see themselves. I want to talk about how trauma can replace stories with silence, and how anyone with the courage to do so can re-open the book and start writing a new chapter.
I want to talk about What Remains of Edith Finch.
Part 1: Memory becomes story
“Memory…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/DWpjyTw8-Pc
Welcome to my video essay on NieR: Automata. In this video, I’d like to offer my critique on a game that was lauded by critics and embraced by fans. I’m going to lay out my case for why this game is a mess of unfulfilled potential, from the poor structure to the clunky writing and characterisation, to the undeveloped themes and uninspired gameplay. But let’s start at the beginning.
For those who haven’t played it, the story of NieR: Automata is set against the backdrop of…
This article contains many, many spoilers for Outer Wilds.
When I think of Outer Wilds, when I run my mind over the sheer mind-blowing achievement of it, I’m struck all over again by amazement and wonder. There’s a sun that explodes, conjoined planets filling and emptying each other, a watery tornado planet that belts islands up into space, a crumbling planet with a fricking black hole in its centre. Most games don’t have a single idea this good; Outer Wilds has a dozen. The physics, from the space flight to the planets’ trajectories and gravity, are all astoundingly well realised…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/pixeladay_depth
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” -Carl Jung
It begins with a door. A very unassuming door, a door that barely warrants a second glance. I open the door and step inside, into a place named the Depths. Here, I find a gloomy cellar full of grotesque creatures and dead meat. From the cellar, a sickening drop into a pit of bones and a descent through a dank sewer complex, and at the bottom of those…
This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Kingdom.
As we move into the second year of the COVID-19 nightmare, people have already begun to speculate about when the inevitable wave of “virus outbreak” movies (probably already in production) will hit us. Films that will satisfy the cathartic urge to see our year of collective suffering reflected back at us while we process the lessons that were learned along the way. Well I’m here with an announcement: there’s no need. Pack up production, save your money. Because we already have Kingdom.
Who would have thought that the most…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/-WQU5m5vzMs
It’s March 2021 and I’m tired. Not only has my state recently come out of one of the most intense lockdowns in the world, but I’ve also been working non-stop for over a month in a crazy workload-spike that I’ve had no choice but to push through. And on top of all that, the last two times I tried to organise a holiday so I could sit on a beach and let the sun bring me back to life again, untimely Covid outbreaks ensured that neither…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/xsbURcSkmPE
A while ago now, my mum and I became obsessed with the show “I Shouldn’t Be Alive”. It’s a documentary series that involves dramatic re-enactments of real, life-threatening events and miraculous survivals. People recount their stories of breaking their leg while hiking, being lost at sea, or getting stranded while mountaineering. For half an hour at a time, mum and I took a nail-biting voyage to the edge of the void along with some very unfortunate people. The stories were grim and harrowing, so much that…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/GWMzG6cuvVk
Everywhere you look these days, there is 80s nostalgia — TV shows and movies eager to remind us of the glory days of walkie talkies, poofy hair and first dates at the arcade. And while a lot of us are more than happy to re-play these rose-tinted versions of our childhoods, taking a nostalgic view of the past runs the risk of downplaying or erasing things we’d rather forget. And media which aims to evoke nostalgia for the past can sometimes fall into the trap of…
Why did The Last of Us 2 have me play with the dog?
This is the question I keep coming back to, months after my playthrough of the game. If you’ve played it, you know exactly what bit I’m talking about. After playing through three in-game days, the game flashes back to day one and switches perspectives, having you play as the archnemesis of the character you’d been playing so far. Then, you can play fetch with the doggo that you (as the first character) had just brutally stabbed to death. You murdered this pupper, the game seems to be…
This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/GWMzG6cuvVk
“Yet, here I am. The place I spent my whole life escaping.”
These are En’s first thoughts as her spaceship touches down on a cold, distant planet. On her back she carries a cube which she believes will grant her access to the planet’s mysteries.
And so begins ECHO. Since it came out in 2017, quite a bit has been said about this game’s stunning art design and brilliant virtual architecture, but I’d like to take a different perspective. In this video, I’m going to analyse…
