Video games
Winning little narrative adventure: South of Midnight reviewed
Grade: A– For this winning little narrative adventure we are in the South – all gris-gris gumbo yaya, decaying mansions…
Ridiculously fun: Assassin’s Creed – Shadows reviewed
Grade: A Sometimes you want to admire the pluck and inventiveness of an indie developer. At other times, you just…
The new Civ is gorgeous and richly rewarding
Grade: A- It has been nearly ten years since addicts of the empire-building simulator Civilization – or Civ, as players…
The latest Dragon Age game is unbearably right-on
Like all other forms of culture, video games offer a way to escape from, or reflect on, reality through fiction.…
Lovingly designed, touching and immersive: Neva reviewed
Grade: A- There’s a very faint echo of Jeff VanderMeer’s unheimlich Southern Reach Series in the new indie side-scroller Neva.…
Much more than just a game: World of Warcraft at 20
On 23 November, the video game World of Warcraft celebrates its 20th anniversary. That’s no small thing. By most metrics,…
Why is Elon Musk obsessed with Diablo IV?
Grade: A- I usually try to write about new games, but indulge me in addressing Blizzard’s open-world dungeon crawler Diablo…
Is it up to pop stars to save the planet now?
‘Walking by the banks of the Chao Praya on a breezy evening after a day of intense heat,’ writes Sunil…
Charming and silly: Sam & Max – The Devil’s Playhouse reviewed
Grade: B Readers of a certain age (mine, roughly) may have fond memories of 1993’s Sam & Max Hit the…
Can video games be funny?
Grade: B+ Games can be exciting, puzzling, scary, competitive and – occasionally – moving. Can they be funny? Not often.…
Gorgeous and deeply absorbing: Manor Lords reviewed
Grade: A ‘God games’, as they used to be called, have a storied history. SimCity, Civilisation and the excellently sadistic…
It’s time to free art from being ‘interactive’ and ‘immersive’
The American artist and critic Brad Troemel once pointed out that art galleries have all turned into a kind of…
Entirely pointless and extremely pleasant: House Flipper 2 reviewed
Grade: B+ Most video games challenge the player’s problem-solving skills, reaction time or hand-eye co-ordination. But a handful of them…
War games do something seriously unpleasant to our brains
Not all video games are war games but those that are do something deeply unpleasant to our brains, says Sam Kriss
Hot topic: How many of us own fans?
Growing fanbase A photograph of the Queen meeting Boris Johnson revealed that she uses a Dyson electric fan. How many…
Not quite scary or clever enough for legendary status: Resident Evil 2 reviewed
Grade: B Resident Evil 2 takes the original zombie shooter, which has become a cult classic and, to many, the…
Portrait of a seven-year-old state-run child
Saturday morning. Quarter to 12. Sit-down fish and chips at the Silver Grill: me, Oscar and Oscar’s cousin Atticus. Atticus…
The artist who creates digital life forms that bite & self-harm. Sam Leith meets him (and them)
Digital art is a crowded field. It’s also now older than I am. Yet despite a 50-year courtship, art galleries…
What will I do with a second chance at life? Play more video games
Does a near-death experience make you a better person? This is something I’ve been thinking about on and off since…
