Ewan Wilson Mar 16, 2021. 5 minute read
Mundaun Finally Gives Video Games Their Very Own Wicker Man
A rickety old bus winds its way up a mountainside. Your grandfather has died in a tragic accident, but according to the local village priest there’s no need for you to make the long journey up. The bus pierces the cloud sea that was obscuring your view up until now. Mundaun reveals itself…
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REVIEWS
Ewan Wilson Mar 10, 2021. 7 minute read
Video Game Puppets Have Become a Creepy, Creaky Portal to Empathy
A couple of things come to mind when thinking about puppets. The first is that they are inherently strange. They’re objects which sit firmly inside that “uncanny valley,” which is probably why they’ve become a favored motif of the horror genre. But they’re also profoundly empathetic things — their likeness,…
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FEATURES
Ewan Wilson Dec 14, 2020. 8 minute read
Remember Piranesi: Exploring Video Games’ Infinite Halls
With its 2017 sci-fi game ECHO, developer Ultra Ultra, now nonexistent, are responsible for one of gaming’s greatest openings. Enigmatic characters and situations are one thing — you play as “En”, a genetically designed “Resourceful” in search of a mythical Palace, with only a dead man trapped in a cube…
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FEATURES
Ewan Wilson Oct 8, 2020. 4 minute read
Rewilding the Edgelands with ‘Cloud Gardens’
Somewhere between the city and wilderness is an in-between zone, one which the poets Paul Farhey and Michael Symmons Roberts call “Edgelands.” This isn’t the ideal, pastoral wilderness we see pictured on the front of postcards or read about in classic literature, but a rougher, unacknowledged alternate dimension — neither urban,…
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FEATURES
Ewan Wilson Jul 3, 2020. 6 minute read
Video Game Birds Most Likely to Prophesize Your Ironic, Untimely Demise
There’s no shortage of memorable moments in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. One of my favorite scenes from the classic horror film happens right before the feathered foes launch their first coordinated attack. Outside of the schoolhouse, Tippi Hedren’s character Melanie observes a small group of crows perched atop a jungle gym. Nothing…
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LISTS
Ewan Wilson Apr 16, 2020. 5 minute read
The 6 Chunkiest Video Games Featuring Retrofuturist Tech
“Retrofuture” is a strange term. Contradictory, it asks us to imagine what tomorrow might look like through the lens of yesterday. This strangeness brings something else into focus: the fact that “the future” is always rooted in history. When we talk about the future, we’re not just referring to some point in time,…
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LISTS