The Dark Troopers first showed up in Star Wars: Dark Forces, a computer game released in 1995. They were a secret project by the Empire, a new generation of Stormtroopers: ones that were droid and not human, lethal and dangerous. Dashing rogue Kyle Katarn put a stop to that and on the adventures go. My… Continue reading Dark Troopers (And Reality)
Tag: Video Games
Story Language
A while ago, Merriam Webster (y’know, the dictionary) published an article that I found fascinating. It was about language as it’s used in Star Wars and it’s a short and interesting read. The gist of it is this: In Star Wars, George Lucas used a lot of plain, English words to create his world. There’s… Continue reading Story Language
Goals
I like having goals in my video games, something to work towards. Something that once I’m done, I’m done. Once upon a time that was catching all 150 Pokémon, every now and then it’s a matter of reaching that sweet sweet 100% completion. More recently, it’s taken the shape of getting that elusive Platinum Trophy.… Continue reading Goals
Stranded Solace
I find Death Stranding’s postgame to be wonderfully meditative. I realize that the tranquility I suggest sounds quite incongruous with the game, one that I’ve said before manages to capture the terrible wonder of the sublime. But when you’ve finished the main story, uncovered the central mystery, and become quite adept at avoiding the ghostly… Continue reading Stranded Solace
Comforts
I started playing Death Stranding again last night. I wanna Platinum it, that is get all the trophies in the game and really finish it. Also, I was watching The Great British Bake Off with the girlfriend, and the game seemed a nice match. Which, I realize, sounds kinda odd. Bake Off is a super-chill,… Continue reading Comforts
Feeling Like A Starfighter Pilot
Like any kid obsessed with Star Wars, I daydreamed about hopping in an X-wing and flying around doing cool stuff. Battlefront II, from way back in ’05, scratched some of that itch. The newer Battlefront II did too, although its starfighter mode got precious little attention. I’ve toyed with checking out the X-wing games from… Continue reading Feeling Like A Starfighter Pilot
A Civilized History
History, owing to the fact that it’s primarily written by white men, tends to be very white and very male. History is, ultimately, a narrative with facts chosen and framed to fit that narrative. Disagree? Look at how the Civil War is taught and remembered in the American South; it was firmly impressed upon me… Continue reading A Civilized History
Playing Pretend
Like many people my age, I grew up playing video games. Many of those games have gone on to be considered classics, like Crash Bandicoot or Pokémon. There’s a lot of their DNA in modern games, like how Dark Souls’ cycle of learning how to counter enemy’s moves by repeatedly dying is very reminiscent of… Continue reading Playing Pretend
Unrealistic
Board games aren’t realistic. Monopoly doesn’t look like any metropolis and the geography in Settlers of Catan makes Giant’s Causeway look conventional. The diseases in Pandemic are translucent cubes instead of microscopic blobs. This all makes sense, of course. Board games are an abstraction of reality, paring down big concepts into statistics. This can be… Continue reading Unrealistic
One More Turn
The first time I played Civilization V on my computer I ended up pulling an all-nighter. While in college. When I didn’t have homework. It was not the best of life choices. But it was a lot of fun. I dug into Civilization VI last night, not heeding the various other games I’ve been meaning… Continue reading One More Turn
