Happy Halloween + Notes

As you’ve probably noticed I’ve had a hard time lately keeping up with this blog. Actually, the problem is that I just haven’t had much time to play games, and without games as input it’s pretty hard to generate consistent output. Right now I’m sitting in a hotel in Sapporo on the end of a […]

Horror vs the In-Game Store

Problem: Balancing game difficulty across ten or twenty hours of play in a way that enables all types of gamers to enjoy your game is hard. Games that get too hard will be frustrating, but games that are too easy are boring. There’s a sweet spot between those two that makes a perfect game, but […]

Storytelling in Resident Evil 5

I’m close to ten hours into Resident Evil 5. So far, I’m throughly enjoying it; it’s not some great masterwork but it’s an extremely well-made game and I haven’t run into any major frustration points. Unlike the technically similar Dead Space, the moment-to-moment game play is deep enough that simple pattern alterations (new enemy, new […]