Yearly Archives: 2018

What Do Great Open-World Games Have in Common?

The open-world genre - if you can even call it a genre, given how, well, open that descriptor is - continues to evolve and go from strength to strength, giving gamers around the world massive sandboxes to play in and stories to discover. I’ve always played a lot of open-world games, and lately I’ve been thinking about the things my favourite games of this type have in common. Have a read, then let me know what you think the best open-world games have in common in the comments.

You Construct Your Own Stories

One of the most obvious trends we’ve seen in open-world games over the last few years is a move away from mini-maps covered in icons, to a more emergent style of storytelling. In these games the stories you build are less scripted, and are more likely to be organic events that just happen as you’re out exploring the world.

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Opinion: Pirates of the Caribbean is One of the Greatest Love Stories of the 21st Century

For fans of romance, the 21st century, thus far, has not been without some great additions. From the more traditional stuff like Crazy, Stupid, Love or 50 First Dates to off-kilter entries like The Fountain or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there’s a lot to love.

But for me, those love stories pale in comparison to those that permeate through the fully realised exploration of the wide gamut of love on offer in the Pirates of the Caribbean saga.

Yes, all of the movies, even the less-than-stellar ones. Well, On Stranger Tides less so than the others, but even the divisive Dead Men Tell No Tales continues the trend of a three-dimensional love story that sails beyond the typical fare of a solitary obsession with romance. After all, love is a complex thing. It’s not always healthy. Its endings are not always happy. We fall in love, platonically love people, and tumble head over heels for ideologies and even things. Pirates of the Caribbean explores all of that.

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Hereditary: How Director Ari Aster Made a Movie that Doesn’t Feel Safe

SPOILERS: The following article discusses scenes and key events from Hereditary. You have been warned...

My favourite horror films are those that flirt with the fantastic. Movies that maintain a weird ambiguity around the reality of their central events. They all eventually table a simple question: is something genuinely supernatural happening here or is a plausible, rational explanation just out of sight?

The Turn of the Screw is the classic example of this effect. It’s entirely possible to read the novella believing the ghosts are real, preying upon young Miles and Flora, and it’s equally viable to interpret them as the delusions of the young governess employed to look after them. The same incidents can be consolidated in different ways, producing two competing interpretations. While The Turn of the Screw never really resolves this effect, most horror movies do.

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Hereditary: How Director Ari Aster Made a Movie that Doesn’t Feel Safe

SPOILERS: The following article discusses scenes and key events from Hereditary. You have been warned...

My favourite horror films are those that flirt with the fantastic. Movies that maintain a weird ambiguity around the reality of their central events. They all eventually table a simple question: is something genuinely supernatural happening here or is a plausible, rational explanation just out of sight?

The Turn of the Screw is the classic example of this effect. It’s entirely possible to read the novella believing the ghosts are real, preying upon young Miles and Flora, and it’s equally viable to interpret them as the delusions of the young governess employed to look after them. The same incidents can be consolidated in different ways, producing two competing interpretations. While The Turn of the Screw never really resolves this effect, most horror movies do.

Continue reading…