This Week on Post Games:
Act 1: Why Game Criticism Is a Kindness
Act 2: What a Game Review Can and Can't Do
Patreon Bonus: The Real Reason Review Scores Make People So Mad
Guests:
Harper Jay: Critic and Writer
Act 1: Why Game Criticism Is a Kindness
Games Criticism Is A Kindness (Kotaku)
Kieron Gillen (Wiki)
The New Games Journalism (Kieron Gillen’s workblog)
Art for Art’s Sake (The Art Story)
Alan Moore Interview: Magical Consciousness, Disowned Works, and the Long London Quintet (Retrofuturista)
PsychOdyssey: The Making of Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine)
Trash, art, and the movies by Pauline Kael (Harper’s)
Act 2: What a Game Review Can and Can't Do
The Arcade Review: Issues 1-3 (StoryBundle)
The New Games Journalism, Same As The Old Games Journalism (Aftermath)
A Dialogue with Austin Walker (Unwinnable)
The Final Fantasy VII Letters, Part 1 (AV Club)
Bow N***** (Always Black/Archive.org)
Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (New Yorker)
Patreon Bonus: The Real Reason Review Scores Make People So Mad
Review Scoring (IGN)
How Kotaku Reviews Work (Kotaku)
We’re Making A Change To Video Game Reviews At Kotaku (Kotaku)
Metacritic Matters: How Review Scores Hurt Video Games (Kotaku)
Polygon is updating its reviews program for 2018 — and saying farewell to scores (Polygon)
Dying Light 2 is a perfect example of the ‘7 out of 10’ game (Polygon)
This Week in Video Game Links
Maps, mice, and moody hues: The making of Mina the Hollower (Mothership)
Killing Discs Could Mean More Expensive Games, And Fewer Discounts: ‘This Move Is All About Profitability And Control’ (Kotaku)
Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection (The Verge)
Consoles continue their trend of just becoming worse PCs (PCGamer)
Rhythm Paradise Groove review - a joyful and generous celebration of beat-matching (Eurogamer)
Krafton Agrees to Pay ‘Subnautica 2’ Bonuses as Developer’s CEO Resigns (Bloomberg)
Free Game of the Week: Concerning the Dog Days
"An interactive meditation on all things contradictory in dog-human relationship." (Itch.io via Warp Door)
What Else I’m Enjoying
Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean goes high tech. And it’s losing its mystique (LA Times)
'Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep' is full of beautifully written grotesqueries (NPR)
The Leopard Man (1943) Original Motion Picture - Film Noir (YouTube)
Guide to Horror (Neil Cicierega)