Games :: Features

Catching Up With Jason Rohrer

By Jason Johnson at 10:30 AM on October 6, 2012

Paste talks to game designer Jason Rohrer about Diamond Trust of London and living frugally in the 21st century. read more

The Pursuit of Life and Liberty In Assassin's Creed III

By Sean Clancy at 8:36 AM on October 5, 2012

Paste heads to Boston to relive the Boston Tea Party and ponder the historical fiction of Assassin's Creed III. read more

The Leaderboard: Runnin' Down A Dream With Driver: San Francisco

By Robert Zacny at 1:13 PM on September 30, 2012

Robert Zacny looks at how dreams, reality and muscle cars merge in last year's overlooked driving game. read more

The Leaderboard: Now You're Playing Without Power

By Jordan Mammo at 2:08 PM on September 16, 2012

Jordan Mammo looks at how Japanese developers Katsura Hashino and Atlus Persona Team marginalize the player in Catherine. read more

Catching Up with Harmonix and Rock Band Blitz Project Director Matthew Nordhaus

By Garrett Martin at 11:00 AM on September 15, 2012

Paste talks to Rock Band Blitz project director Matthew Nordhaus about Harmonix's new instrument-free Rock Band spin-off. read more

The Leaderboard: When "Hard" Games Aren't Actually Hard

By Kevin Goldstein at 11:49 AM on September 1, 2012

Baseball scout and Dark Souls fan Kevin Goldstein looks at how difficulty is relative. read more

Infographic: The Virtual Life of The Legend of Zelda

By Megan Farokhmanesh at 3:00 PM on August 22, 2012

We've outlined interesting facts and dates about the series to provide you with a link (ahem) to the past and present. read more

The Leaderboard: E3 and the American Art of Violence

By Drew Dixon at 11:22 AM on June 26, 2012

Drew Dixon views the violent videogames of E3 from a broader cultural context. If someone completely oblivious to American culture were to visit E3, they’d likely perceive us to be a gun-and sex-obsessed culture at best—barbaric jingoists at worst. And yet, videogames are supposedly a bastion of creativity—a medium rife with innovation. In an era of economic uncertainty, videogames are a thriving business—one to which some of the brightest minds are turning. And yet, as I watched demo after demo at E3, I couldn’t help but notice what all this supposed creativity was being devoted to, namely, the taking of... read more

BurgerTime: Peter Pepper Turns 30

By Jeff Giles at 11:15 AM on June 24, 2012

Long before NBC turned desperate weight loss into reality TV gold with The Biggest Loser and juvenile diabetes became a high-fructose epidemic, children of the ’80s fought their own battle against the bulge—a desperate, fast-paced struggle in which they learned that their favorite junk foods were literally trying to destroy them in an 8-bit battle to the death. read more

E3 2012: Nintendo - Wassamatta U?

By Garrett Martin at 4:44 AM on June 8, 2012

Nobody has any idea what they really want. Game journalists groaned in unison at the violent shooters that dominated the Microsoft and EA press conferences. Many of the same writers immediately mocked Sony’s Wonderbook, an interactive storybook for kids, and every family-friendly game shown at Nintendo’s press event. Sure, Nintendo’s software line-up is full of more iterations of the same handful of franchises they’ve fixated on for three decades, but at least their event wasn’t a ninety-minute sizzle reel of exploding heads. Nintendo might be stagnant but their games are still a nice, primary colored change of pace from the... read more

E3 2012: Sony Casts A Wide Net

By Garrett Martin at 1:00 PM on June 6, 2012

We expected Skrillex. Last year Sony’s press conference ended with a surprise performance by Jane’s Addiction. If Sony tried to follow that up this year Skrillex would have been the obvious choice. Dubstep is a constant at E3 2012, blasting out of every booth and on top of every game trailer. (Dubstep and Gotye. I heard four different versions of “Somebody That I Used to Know” on Monday and Tuesday.) There was no Skrillex after Sony’s press conference, though, just a somewhat abrupt end and an exit to a city buzzing from an NHL playoff victory. Sony briefly mentioned their... read more

E3 2012: Thoughts on Microsoft's Press Briefing

By Garrett Martin at 6:30 PM on June 4, 2012

“When you’ve begun to think like a gun / the days of the year are already gone.” – John Cale, “Gun” Microsoft’s press briefing immediately established the prevailing theme of E3 2012: guns, and the men who shoot them.... read more

E3 Day Zero: It's All For You

By Garrett Martin at 10:30 AM on June 4, 2012

I’m on the thirteenth floor of an apartment building in Los Angeles. Below me are bars, nightclubs, coffee shops, and a multitude of people from various points of the socioeconomic spectrum. Some of them own dogs. I like dogs. I also kind of like Los Angeles, even when we have to call 911 after stepping over the catatonic husk of an unresponsive sidewalk sleeper. Los Angeles gets knocked for its perceived superficiality. What massive gathering of individuals isn’t superficial to a signifianct extent, though? LA’s just self-aware. In turn it makes us more self-aware, like when I put on my... read more

The Leaderboard: Who's the Bad Guy?

By Mattie Brice at 11:55 AM on April 25, 2012

Paste has long believed that videogames are a vital part of pop culture. We’ve expanded our games coverage with a new essay column called The Leaderboard. Twice a month we’ll be running an essay or editorial from a rotating crew of writers with a wide breadth of expertise and experience within the industry. From critics to designers to academics, The Leaderboard will highlight a variety of insightful voices. Today’s column is written by Border House staff writer Mattie Brice. Manchild. It’s one of those dirty, fighting words, meant to initiate confrontation with an embarrassing truth. My first memory of hearing... read more

GDC Postmortem: A Tourist at the Game Developer's Conference

By Brian Taylor at 4:00 PM on March 28, 2012

The Game Developers Conference began 24 years ago, the story goes, in a designer’s living room. This year’s conference hosted 22,500 attendees. read more

The PlayStation Vita: New Life For Gaming Handhelds?

By Garrett Martin at 9:05 AM on February 28, 2012

It's easy to be skeptical about the PlayStation Vita. "Vita" means life, which is an optimistic name for Sony's new handheld gaming system. You don't need to crunch any numbers to see how smartphones are slowly strangling the life out of portable gaming consoles. read more

I Want To Break Free: The Story of Queen's The eYe

By Logan K. Young at 4:30 PM on January 31, 2012

Logan K. Young examines how Queen's discography was turned into a game in The eYe, the most epic rock ‘n’ roll game ever played...in 1998. read more

Switched Off Star Wars: The Actual End of a Virtual World

By Brian Taylor at 4:24 PM on January 13, 2012

Seven hours until a world ends and I’m a tourist. I feel ghoulish. There are battles between the Rebellion and the Empire going on in a few places across the galaxy, but my character is too new, and people there will be too busy fighting to talk. read more

How to Read A Videogame: The Books of Skyrim

By Dan Crabtree at 12:24 PM on November 14, 2011

The bluntest instrument in a game designer's repertoire is text. The modern maestros of fantasy at Bethesda have penned thousands of pages of text for the Elder Scrolls series. read more