Faith, Choice, and the Higher Power of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
What happens when you give an apocryphal religious text to a Japanese game studio and ask them to make a videogame about it? In this case, you got a narrative experience that resonates with people of many faiths, even if for wildly different reasons. Richard Clark explains his own experience with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, and the ways it draws out the player’s own views of faith, choice, and a higher power.... read more
PAX 2011: Connecting Through Gaming
Game designer Nels Anderson looks at the connections and relationships forged by the annual Penny Arcade Expo gaming convention.... read more
Outsider Videogames: The war of the end of the days
Welcome to the first installment of what will be a monthly series of reviews of “outsider videogames” — games that are created by people who are outside the mainstream of videogame development. We can think of outsider games as being akin to outsider music like The Shaggs or Wesley Willis, or to outsider artists like Henry Darger.... read more
Paste mPlayer Issue #3
This week's issue features one of our favorite bands, My Morning Jacket. Paste editor-at-large Jay Sweet has stalked their progress so closely these last seven years that we’re thankful Jim James hasn’t tried to get a restraining order. In a 4,500-word story that spans 13 encounters in five cities, Sweet was the fly on the MMJ wall as the band worked its way up through the ranks. read more
Beautiful Madness: American McGee Talks Alice: Madness Returns
11 years ago, Alice Liddell returned from Wonderland only to have her life torn into pieces. Her sanity was broken as a blazing fire consumed her home and family. Committed to an asylum, she retreated to the one place she could: Wonderland. But not all was well; twisted by her broken mind, Wonderland itself had fallen into chaos. However, Alice eventually saved Wonderland, escaping its twisted grasp and regaining a piece of her sanity.... read more
[E3 2011] Twitter Impressions From the Convention Floor
![[E3 2011] Twitter Impressions From the Convention Floor](http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/system/images/thumbs/www/articles_2011_06_06/pasteate3_100x100.png?1307393407)
E3 2011 has come and gone, but there is still so much more to see. While the bulk of the game industry descended upon downtown Los Angeles, the rest of us watched anxiously online as publishers and developers alike released the latest information about their upcoming titles.... read more
Hands-On: Call of Duty's "Elite" Online Service
"Four or five years ago, it would have been easy to describe a Call of Duty gamer,” said Activision VP of Digital Jamie Berger. “That's changed." Berger was speaking at the San Francisco unveiling of Call of Duty Elite, Activision's upcoming social media network. In Berger’s words, Elite will be “a new vector of innovation for the Call of Duty franchise.”... read more
Accountability: Xbox Live and The Playstation Network
It was about nine in the morning on Easter Sunday. I was halfway through brushing my teeth when I remembered, quite spontaneously, that on the next day my Xbox Live Gold account would automatically renew for another twelve months. I had received the email from Microsoft a month earlier, warning me they would be using my credit card to take another $80 from my bank account and, at the time, I thought little of it.... read more
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 10
This is the final part in our retrospective letter series. An index of all letters can be found here.... read more
Paste Goes To PAX East
March, 2011 - I was standing in a line for a PAX East press pass when Curt Schilling walked in, garnering absolutely no reaction from the people around me. That's the only time that's ever happened anywhere in Boston. That's like Norm not being recognized in Cheers. He might look like a taller version of your lumpy suburban dad, but he's still Curt Schilling, outspoken baseball superstar and famous video-game big shot. His face beamed from a nearby newspaper box, filling out the cover of every issue within. Nobody bothered him as he walked through the lobby.... read more
Jason Rohrer's Infinite, Star-Filled Sky
What follows is an interview with Jason Rohrer, an independent game developer with whom I chatted a couple of days after the Game Developers' Conference in early March. Publication got delayed a bit due to some technical issues, but I'm happy to share it with you now. I wanted to note that in the time since I wrote this, a fair amount of controversy arose regarding Rohrer's game Chain-World; you can read a solid breakdown of the whole thing here. Thanks to Jason for taking the time to speak with me.... read more
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 9
Part nine in our ongoing retrospective letter series. An index of all letters can be found here.... read more
Interview: Galactic's Stanton Moore and SCEA Music Manager Jonathan Mayer Talk The Music of inFamous 2
In 2009, inFamous introduced the world to Cole MacGrath, a courier-turned-lightning-toting superhero with a morality complex. This summer will see the release of inFamous 2, transplanting Cole from the electric metropolis of Empire City to the shambling bayou town of New Marais.... read more
Super Happy Fun 3DS Time
Right now, the 3DS is probably the most expensive pedometer you can buy. Or at least, that’s what I’m using it for the most. I’ve taken 50,853 steps with it in the last two weeks. What’s keeping it in my pocket is the shallow hope I’ll bump into someone else with a 3DS so they can give me things. I love things.... read more
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 8
Part eight in our ongoing retrospective letter series. An index of all letters can be found here.... read more
Bit Player: Genre Attack!
For sixteen years, I mispronounced the word "genre." I had never had cause to utter it out loud to anyone; in my head I heard it as gin-ear. It wasn't until I played Phantasmagoria in 1996 that I was finally prompted to say the word out loud; I was describing the game to my older sister. "It's kind of like The Shining," I enthused, "and it uses full motion video! It's really pushing the adventure gin-ear forward." As if seeking to wipe the dopey smile from my face, she haughtily corrected me, "It's pronounced jeahn-re." Imagine my chagrin; her pronunciation... read more
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 7
Part seven in our ongoing retrospective letter series. An index of all letters can be found here.... read more
How To Fix Mirror's Edge
For how long must I wait? I know there’s something wrong. So the theme tune goes. It’s been 28 months since I free ran through the Mondrian reverie of Mirror’s Edge, yet still the game has no sequel. I know there’s something wrong. For if any game deserves a sequel surely it’s Mirror’s Edge. The game may be clumsily imperfect, but at its free-flowing best it is so refreshingly distinct. Yet its imprint on the industry remains so shallow. EA led us on with soundbites about a sequel in development only to blow us off by announcing halted production earlier... read more
The Bed of Baby Dreams
In the beginning, everything needs to be learned. Babies don’t even know how to breathe, and subsequent weeks and months are filled with the wonders of life, of encountering everything for the first time. If you’ve ever seen a baby in its crib, staring at its fingers as it clasps the air in front of its face, just beginning to understand that thoughts can move muscles, you might have some renewed sense of romance for learning. Imagine the strangeness of it: you have a thought in your head and miraculously something happens in your hand.... read more
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 6
Part six in our ongoing retrospective letter series. An index of all letters can be found here.... read more
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