Ryan Stevens May 9, 2022. 9 minute read
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Asks How Far We’ve Come Since the Original
When The Stanley Parable released in 2013, it caught mainstream attention for its dense narrative examining the nature of free will and decision making in video games. While it wasn’t the first to take a meta spin on the medium’s typical conventions, it gained notoriety and critical acclaim for its…
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Ryan Stevens Apr 22, 2022. 8 minute read
Norco Paints the American South With Alarming Familiarity
This article contains spoilers for Norco. When I was in college in South Carolina, something strange happened. A torrential downpour flooded the city two Octobers in a row. It would become a repeat occurrence at roughly the same time in the years to come after I moved away, as well…
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Ryan Stevens Feb 25, 2022. 5 minute read
In Yellowjackets, We’re All Stranded in the 90s
Yellowjackets is a show about being stranded. Across two time periods, one in 1996 and the other in modern day, the members of a girls’ high school soccer team are adrift and astray. Those that survived the ordeal of 26 years ago still carry their scars with them in the…
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TV/FILM
Ryan Stevens Nov 24, 2021. 5 minute read
A Girl is A Gun: How Violence Lives in the Body in Metroid Dread
The following article contains spoilers for Metroid Dread. Nintendo has called Metroid Dread an ending to an era for Samus Aran’s adventures, as it concludes a number of narrative beats and themes that originated in Metroid for the NES. As Samus’ struggle with the parasitic alien Metroids comes to a…
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Ryan Stevens Aug 27, 2021. 8 minute read
The Uncanny Reality of Virtual Homecomings
“Don’t be a stranger,” my dad said when he and my mom dropped me off at college. I was two hours away from my hometown in South Carolina, where I’d lived up until that point. He’d repeat this reminder when I moved across the country to Los Angeles, and again…
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