Critically Speaking
Critically Speaking
Episodes
Episodes of Critically Speaking
Mark All
Maturity and violence have long gone hand in hand in the gaming industry. But do they have to? If the only axis on which we judge our games' maturity is how violent they are, it is unlikely that we will see other modes of play moving into domin
Controversy. How does an industry with games that feature so many guns and so many deaths not have controversy? According to this week's feature article, there are no controversial games. Nate and Scott try their best to understand and shed som
Theme is more than a simple bullet point to be added amongst the various graphical effects, multiplayer modes, and stat systems. When big name titles aim for thematic resonance, is there ever a possibility in which they can be successful in the
When does marketing become sheer deception? It's one thing to manipulate the audience in benign ways, getting them excited for a product that the creators are equally or more so excited about. It's entirely something else when he marketing dict
What qualifies someone who is passionate about a topic? Be it art, film, or gaming, there is a tendency to designate between those who feel strongly about a medium—and demonstrate those feelings by spending vast amounts of time on it—and those
If purchasing decisions tie less and less to the opinion of a published review, what place do reviews have in the gaming industry? This week Scott and Nate discuss the neccesity of gaming reviews and their power over sales.
Every genre has a defining title that sets the stage for a new, more polished generation. But at some point, the product reaches a quality that requires more effort to improve than the return benefit. While no game or series is perfect, sometim
Games have always striven toward the goal of creating believable virtual worlds, but with the recent advancements from Oculus and Sony's Project Morpheus, VR is closer to becoming a reality than ever before. What happens when the world you choo
Sometimes the best topics come straight from the news. This week's episode does just that. CryEngine on SteamOS, a crisis for the console market, and a handful of PC and iOS games fill out the discussion.
Time will outlast us all, if it even exists, but in gaming, time is often a tool or a feature or altogether absent. What happens if games focus on time in a different way? In life, we grow, we live, we build families and communities, and then w
In life everyone has their pet peeves, and the same is true with videogames. Whether it's piles of junk everywhere or slow travel from place to place or stilted dialogue, game designers should keep an eye out for the things that bring their aud
Sometimes our characters talk, and other times we make them talk. What happens when our choices mean as little in the first case as they do in the second? Can a game take away player agency and still be better for it? For character dialogue, th
Nothing is a pure original, but if that is true, then what does it mean when videogame protagonists are so homogenized that they can be boiled down to a series of journal entries of no more than a paragraph?
Without action there can be no stealth. Or is it, without stealth there can be no action? Either way, sneaking, hiding, and gathering information in order to get the upper hand on NPCs or other players is a fascinating and thrilling experience
Restrictions may breed creativity, but what happens when the restrictions become the starting point? Game genres help marketers, publishers, and press decide how to discuss a given title, and help gamers make purchasing decisions. However, many
Special guest Ryan Payton of Camouflaj joins Nate and Scott to discuss his studio's new game, Republique Episode 1: Exordium and the Kickstarter process that led to the game's publication.
Does gameplay, real gameplay, emerge? Or, does a designer have the final decision? Whether a guiding hand or a free-for-all, the discussion around the best way to design games continues toward better products for all. Nate and Scott weigh in on
When all the gaming outlets are discussing Game of the Year, does it make more sense to consider Game Played this Year? Scott and Nate take a look back at not only the year in games, but the year in games that they played and enjoyed.
Avatars represent more than just our preferences in character design. Statistically, players choose characters that resemble themselves, and often characters that represent idealized versions of themselves. What goes into the avatar selection p
No matter the topic, occupation, or activity, rarely do people want to feel like outsiders. With the games industry expanding in content and subject matter, the old identifiers (namely "gamer") no longer seems accurate in great many cases. And
Where were you in 1998? Games were in a state bound to the rules of the tabletop RPG, and though on the surface things seem to have changed a great deal since then, many of gaming's traditional roots still hold fast.
The opposition from NPC's in games is often limited by a number of factors. Meanwhile, especially at the beginning of a new console generation, hardware manufacturers tout the coming increase in artificial intelligence. What happens when the NP
You may, in fact, only live once, but what happens when a game only lets you die once? Whether its an arcade shooter with a steadily increasing swarm of enemies or a quiet hiding place along the tree line in Day Z, permanent death in games is g
Game after game after game, sequels in this and other entertainment industries seem never to end. Are the audiences the better for having another title in their favorite franchises, or are we just lining up for another helping of the same old r
Mario and Michelangelo, Zelda and Zefferelli, either way discussions of games lead inevitably toward the mature analysis of other media. But how do we increase the range of intelligent criticism and discussion surrounding these interactive expe
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