Reading List February 2021 (Patreon)

After that storm of reviews over the past few weeks, I finally got time to get this live. Enjoy another pile of great games criticism from around the internet!

Second Opinions

Whenever I finish a review, I usually end up watching a few other reviews or other related content afterwards. Here’s some of the best stuff other people have had to say about the games I’ve been talking about lately!

Bowser’s Fury: Pros and Joycons by HotCyder: HotCyder also reviewed Bowser’s Fury, and primarily focused on how the game merges the designs of 3D World and Odyssey.

Bad Bosses, Beautiful Vistas, and Baffling Mysteries: Blips Episode 8 by Errant Signal: Errant Signal always finds fascinating gems with his indie recommendation series, Blips, and from a game about building your own string and corkboard conspiracy theories to the shiniest, most atmospheric marble platformer everywhere, this has been one of his best collections thus far.

ULTRAWOOD by Civvie11: Civvie’s one of the best names in town if you’re looking for opinions on retro-ish shooters, so of course he’s got plenty of great stuff to say about Ultrakill — with the added bonus of a second recommendation, too!

Fuser DJ+Play with DJ Jimbo: When Fuser released, it came with a livestream of a real life DJ putting the game through its paces.

Designing Characters

There’s a lot that goes into designing a video game character, from both the technical and creative sides of the business, and we happened to have two videos that went deep into the nitty gritty of those considerations.

The Secret Backbone of Animation by Jenna Stoeber: Stoeber at Polygon used the craze over Lady Dimistrescu as a springboard to talk about animation rigging and the challenges of creating non-standard size character models.

Bugsnax Designer Explains How (& Why) Each Bugsnax Was Created by Noclip: Noclip got John Murphy, one of the developers of Bugsnax, to explain the team’s processes behind not just how each Bugsnax would look, but also how they would mechanically function and interact with each other.

Capturing Life

Critics use their own life experiences to reinforce their arguments about games all the time, but this month saw several fairly poignant (or just hilarious) personal anecdotes from around the web!

Hey, Dad: Hades & Fatherhood by George Umbarger: Umbarger found a lot of his own life reflected in Hades’ central conflict between Zagreus and his father, and used that connection to talk about the cyclical nature of both the game’s systems and grief.

Hitman 3 is the First Game to Get Argentina Right, and Hopefully Not the Last by Diego Arguello: Arguello talked about how Hitman 3 nailed Argentina’s culture in its Mendoza level, and used it to talk about the importance and challenges of honestly representing diverse cultures in games.

Casey Fossum Once Destroyed Me by Jon Bois: Bois usually covers remarkable or quirky sports anecdotes, but this time shared one of his own: that one time he got absolutely demolished by some kid with a weird pitcher in MLB 2K6. What follows is a humble but hilarious story of online frustration that a fair number multiplayer gamers have probably experienced before.

Your Favorite Game is Irrelevant by HeavyEyed: HeavyEyed did a video about the state of public games discourse, primarily looking to frame how it exists in the wider world, in which online “hardcore” gaming is still a very small pond.

Everything Else

Amazon Can Make Just About Anything — Except a Good Video Game by Jason Schreier: Schreier chronicles Amazon’s attempts so far to make a hit video game, as well as what those attempts have looked like behind the scenes.

What Does “Immersion” Actually Mean? by Adam Millard: Millard took on a big topic this month, trying to get to the core of what we mean when call a game “immersive,” as well as all the many tricks games try to reach that state.

Pepsiman’s Theme Song SHREDS by 8-bit Music Theory: Who knew that Pepsiman actually had a monstrously good theme? 8-bit uses it to full effect to talk about the music theory behind jazz improvisation!

Ratchet and Clank Nexus (Creative) Retrospective by Micah Edmonds: Friend of the channel Micah Edmonds has a whole big retrospective covering the entire Ratchet and Clank series, and he rounded it out with a stand alone add-on about Into the Nexus. Though he recommends you watch the full retrospective first, I found this to be a good jumping on point with a shorter video before you go whole hog into the full retrospective.

A (Biased) Analysis of Yakuza: Like a Dragon by Writing on Games: Writing on Games really likes the Yakuza series but really doesn’t like a lot of the JRPG design, but he found a lot to enjoy in how the two came together to create a unique system of mechanical reinforcement that differentiates Kasuga’s character and circumstances compared to longtime protagonist Kiryu.

Comfort and Control: Video Game Recommendations for the Ongoing Lockdown by The Guardian: Several Guardian staff all came together to give recommendations on what games have been getting them through the worst of the ongoing covid lockdown, covering everything from Hitman to Cloudpunk to personal favorite Paradise Killer.

Mass Effect 3 Could Have Had a Completely Different Ending by Cian Maher: One developer discusses how they would have finished Mass Effect 3. Making games can be a messy, frantic business with a lot of moving parts, so the article should probably be taken with a grain of salt, but it still makes for an interesting anecdote and tiny glimpse behind the scenes on the game.