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This week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup of the most important critical writings about games from the past seven days.

Hidden passage

This week we open with a couple of quality longreads, both about dungeon crawlers. Let’s dive in.

“The people the protagonist helps go on to help others, who in turn help others. Even in the face of repeated defeat, his heroism improves the world around him, creating ripples that ultimately help him save the day. It’s a virtuous feedback loop that ultimately makes a happy ending possible.”

Public audit

In the next section we will look at different constructions of and questions about the concept of audience.

“I find myself appreciating the dark undertones of the story when I stop trying to film the action. As I said, The Crush House knows how to make sausage in reality TV: when I step back from the drama, I really feel the wrongness of the house. I notice how the kitchen starts with no food, and you have to buy it with advertising money (otherwise the contestants only drink Crush Juice). I notice how fast I move when I run; the service even really reminds me of Portal, as does the basement decor that hints at something sinister going on. Why Doing “I already run so fast, don’t I?”

Interviews

We have a few interview-style pieces for this issue, bringing together conversations about labor and sound design.

“It takes a whole team of digital artists,” he says, to animate the movements of the human performers. “You need a modeler to build the character, then you need someone to do the texture mapping, as it’s called, which is painting the body or the Spider-Man suit,” he says. “Then you need a rigger, which is the person who draws the skeleton, and then you need an animator to move the skeleton. And then you need someone to light the character.”

Legacy Explorers

Here are some critical reviews of new and old games.

“In short, the story is better in concept than execution. This exploration of conflict failed to elicit an emotional response from Ayana, whose voice actress half-heartedly reads the script. That apathy dictated how invested I became, and little about the protagonist and overall premise is ever properly realized. It’s a shame, since themes like reclaiming one’s identity and the abuse of foreign corporations are highly relevant in the modern era. Not capitalizing on the real-world politics around us was a disappointing missed opportunity.”

Free play

This section collects various articles that explore the different values ​​and meanings of play.

“I win a whole tea game (sort of) Pokémon Blue to coffee game Pokémon Red) by watching a pigeon wash itself in my birdbath, which is smaller than it is. I think about not turning this piece in, it feels so self-absorbed. But self-absorption feels like one of the cores of the game, and as I spend the day reorienting myself to the world and its games, I remember that writing about them has always been something else.”

Critical hunter

Our closing segment this time consists of two parts, which invite both reflection and refraction.

“It’s mind-boggling. You don’t remember anything. You follow links down rabbit holes; boutique companies sell special, limited edition cassette players (always sold out) that promise almost any size video cassette tape with “near-perfect accuracy.” A two-year-old pinned tweet promises a special disk format model coming soon.”