Publisher: Wired Productions
Developer: LKA
Year: 2022
Platform: Windows, Xbox One, PS4, PS5
Rating: 1
Martha is, indeed, quite dead. At the same time, she is quite lucky. I spent six hours in this world and grew increasingly jealous of Martha every minute. Because by being dead, Martha never had to play this game. Despite my jealousy, I would like to think Martha’s spirit was looking out for me, as a repetitive game-crashing bug kept me from finishing.
Continue reading Martha Is DeadPublisher: Fullbright Company
Developer: Fullbright Company
Year: 2013
Platform: Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, PS4, XBox One, Switch
Rating: 6
Walking simulators (a game where there are virtually no puzzles and you walk around unveiling the story) are fairly popular now, but they were few and far between for the first thirty years of gaming. An early one that comes to mind is Infocom’s A Mind Forever Voyaging, though being a text-only game it still felt like there was quite a bit of work to do. The Dark Eye comes close, though there’s a lot of guessing as how to advance the story and there are some binary choices to make. I would guess the first big modern version of the genre is Journey, though it wasn’t ported to the PC until 2019; no doubt it inspired the wave of PC games to come. And it appears the wave started with the excellent Gone Home.
Continue reading Gone HomePublisher: City From Naught
Developer: City From Naught
Year: 2021
Platform: Windows
Rating: 5
I worked in a video store in the late ’90s and my manager was the only person who could get rid of customer late fees. One day a verbally abusive regular came into the store and I knew she had a late fee so high the computer system wouldn’t let her rent unless she paid it off. I was not in the mood for that confrontation, so in a panic I tried to wildly guess my manager’s 4-digit password. I nailed it on the second try. Bye bye late fees!
Continue reading Keyword: A Spider’s ThreadPublisher: 5am Games
Developer: 5am Games
Year: 2022
Platform: Windows, Mac, Switch
Rating: 7
Toying with lexicon has been an adventure game staple since the beginning, though it’s largely become a niche since the VGA era. Modern games that attempt to merge graphics and text gameplay have a daunting task of providing both a coherent story and an element of exploration while also engaging the brain with enough challenge. 5am Games, an all-women team from Switzerland, took on this challenge with their first game, Letters – a written adventure, and have largely succeeded. While the novelty of its unique gameplay mechanic wears off over time, the game’s charming aesthetic, word-driven approach and endearing young protagonist make for an earnest and delightfully unusual adventure.
Continue reading Letters — a written adventurePublisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Developer: Technocrat Games
Year: 2015
Platform: Windows, iOS
Rating: 8
I’ve always been cautious to play games that take place in cyberspace after my brutal first experience with Ripper. While it’s still generally not my cup of tea, I am happy to report that Technobabylon won me over despite (and in sometimes because of) it’s tech immersion.
Continue reading TechnobablyonYear: 1993
I realize music from teenager years is probably overrated, but man I still think the golden era of country music was the first half of the 1990s. Just so many good singers that didn’t emphasize twang and drawl, but still played acoustic guitars and not every song was about rugged individualism. Now get off my lawn.
Year: 2010
I legit liked this song for like a year before I really listened to the lyrics and realized it’s about a potential school shooter.
Year: 1955
I wonder how many of the old geezers in the audience were anti-union.
Year: 2008
My favorite songwriter has a half-dozen songs or more that I considered. Brick, Best Imitation of Myself, Carrying Cathy, Landed, Boxing pretty much get me every time.
And this one.
Year: 1997
Fogerty has always been great live, with no significant difference between the studio and his live performances. Blueboy is pretty much his signature swamp rock tune outside of CCR. He also knocked it out of the park with the backup singers for this song and the rest of the album Blue Moon Swamp.
Death By Troggles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.