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What will happen to BioWare?

What will happen to BioWare?

The retirement of BioWare cofounders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka leaves the beloved developer in transition. Here's what might happen.

Sep 19 Essays
Love for a Machine

Love for a Machine

For more than two years, Ryan Kuo has edited for Kill Screen. As he heads off to pursue an M.S. at MIT, he reflects on the life of iPad gaming that is now ending when he gives back the tablet to the company. When is an app more than an app?

Aug 3 Essays
Chris Marker: Open-World Pioneer

Chris Marker: Open-World Pioneer

The late Chris Marker was a forerunner of experimental science fiction and transmedia practice. Today, Henry Crouch reflects on his contributions to art and the open-world game.

Aug 2 Essays
A Series of Uninteresting Decisions

A Series of Uninteresting Decisions

The popular airline simulator Pocket Planes may not provide goals, direction, or even motivation, but it does demonstrate the importance of being bored with a videogame.

Jul 27 Essays
Love to Worry

Love to Worry

Games are a collision of study and play, but they lean heavily on the former. Jason Johnson's trip into the chaotic mines of Spelunky taught him how to love the inhumanity of the machine.

Jul 26 Essays
Nintendo's Power

Nintendo's Power

Nintendo's new gaming console, the Wii U, has already been dismissed by gaming experts and fans. Is their skepticism warranted, or are they missing the forest for the trees of Hyrule? Jon Irwin thinks the latter.

Jul 5 Essays
Love and Chaos

Love and Chaos

Since its release in March, Mass Effect 3 has come under fire for everything from its ending to the inclusion of a gay male Commander Shepard. But what really made the game's fans and critics so upset? In honor of Pride Day, we examine the series' finale and the complicated sexuality of its protagonist in light of recent developments in queer politics to find out.

Jun 25 Essays
The Importance of Being in Jest

The Importance of Being in Jest

Videogames are rarely above an inside joke. But can cheeky self-reference become a wolf in sheep's clothing? Lana Polansky on why good satire is hard to find, except when the game stars Charles Barkley.

Jun 22 Essays
Getting Closer to Our Bodies, One Missing Limb at a Time

Getting Closer to Our Bodies, One Missing Limb at a Time

The University of Manchester has had amputees healing their pain by controlling avatars with Microsoft's Kinect motion interface. Michael Thomsen argues this has implications for the creative potential of videogames, which might one day privilege physical pain over competitive challenge.

May 29 Essays
Why Planescape: Torment Tempted Us To Find the End of Play

Why Planescape: Torment Tempted Us To Find the End of Play

In 1999, Black Isle Studio released Planescape: Torment was released to wide critical acclaim for Chris Avellone's rich story-telling pulled from the world of Dungeons & Dragons. In this Reset column, we explore once more how the game pushed the boundaries of imagination.

May 18 Essays Reset
Blessed Are the Geek

Blessed Are the Geek

While much of modern gaming revolves around success or achievement in its various forms, Rich Clark argues that a clearer vision of what games could be comes from the well-known Beatitudes, preached in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. After a week of grasping hell, Clark offers a differing view of heaven.

May 17 Essays
Will Work for Fun

Will Work for Fun

What are the roots of free-to-play capitalism? Michael Thomsen argues that in-game commodities and microtransactions are not new ideas so much as the latest ways that videogame companies instrumentalize us.

May 14 Essays
Dealing With Urban Decay

Dealing With Urban Decay

The raw materials of New Marais, the setting of Infamous 2 based on New Orleans, tell a story both longer and more pressing than their digital textures suggest. Nora Khan climbs through its multilayered history.

May 10 Essays
Black Undead Damnation

Black Undead Damnation

Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption is the latest videogame to host an urban legend. A house on a hill is said to be haunted—in reality—so we went ghost hunting.

May 9 Essays
Track Shots

Track Shots

Our favorite Trials Evolution user-created levels have some unexpected themes in common.

May 8 Essays
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