Part one of the evolution of fighting game royalty — In 1992 the fighting game landscape was a different beast than it is today. Street Fighter II had only released the previous year, igniting the first wave of tournament fighters gunning for a slice of that sweet, sweet arcade money. Unlike modern times where a new IP struggles to gain…

An analysis on the difficulties posed by open-world games for individuals with ADHD — I have a problem. For a long span of my life, I have had a hard time playing any and all open-world video games. I have had too many conversations with others on open-world games, with people wondering why I haven’t completed the game or why I’m not continuing to…

Video game publishers love using political imagery without the implications — On June 9, 2021, Electronic Arts revealed the newest Battlefield, titled Battlefield 2042. Set in a near future where the climate crisis has become worse and people (referred to as expats in the game) from countries that have dissolved due to the rising climate change now “fight not for country…

How a video game explored the natural consequences of Objectivism — Objectivism is a political system that emphasizes unrestricted and unregulated capitalism as the main tenant. Author Ayn Rand developed the concepts of objectivism in her novels (The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in particular). In the words of Gordon Gekko, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” …

There’s a surprising (and useful) connection between the world of Lordran and real-world depression — Most retrospectives of the Dark Souls series focus on the difficulty inherent in each game. If not the difficulty, then about how each game’s story is actually really deep if you want to dig through tons of item descriptions and duct tape together the lore. …

Kiryu Kazama’s Amazing Dragon Punch-venture. Every society has an organized crime mythos. There’s something in our subconscious that draws us to stories about a bunch of bad people doing bad things, flaunting their living outside of what we consider “polite society.” …

The Metal Gear Solid series is a well-loved series for a reason. Every entry has defied expectations in multiple different ways. Metal Gear Solid was one of the first games to have a true “cinematic” story. MGS 2 had a postmodern story that broke the fourth wall in multiple ways…

The Line is Several Shades of Grey. — War changes men, there are very few men or women who see combat that aren’t changed on a fundamental level. Mentally, we as humans can only take so much stress before we mentally break. Video Games have never been shy about portraying the violence without any consequences. …

The Metal Gear series of games has the reputation for being a driving force behind video games adopting more “cinematic” storytelling. If 1998’s Metal Gear Solid was the pioneer of the cinematic game, then its sequel, 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty showed the world what could be…