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On yet another episode of Counter-Currents Radio, host Greg Johnson and frequent Counter-Currents contributor Thomas Steuben were joined by special guest American Krogan to discuss his BioShock video series, as well as answer YOUR QUESTIONS, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
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Earlier this year what is billed as the “first patriotic video game” was released. Heimat Defender: Rebellion was developed by Kvltgames, part of an Austria-based patriotic art collective called Kvltgang. Sometimes politics and art do not mix well, with some of the most politically aware lacking artistic skills and some of the most (more…)
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Yomawari: Night Alone is a survival horror videogame from Nippon Ichi Software, released in fall 2015 in Japan before being rapidly localized into English in 2016. It has enjoyed commercial success across multiple platforms (PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS Vita) and spawned a sequel, Midnight Shadows. The player character is a little girl with a red bow drawn in simple anime style; a sort of Minnie Mouse from a more mature world. (more…)
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“In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, there is only WAR . . .” tells us the strap line of the world’s most popular miniature wargame. In the 41st Millennium, mankind has collapsed after a Dark Age of Technology and an Age of Strife, and is set upon by nefarious, merciless alien races. Humanity is struggling against a primordial force of the universe — Chaos — that corrupts and deforms men into inhuman monsters.
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Last summer, Transolar Games released Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, a role-playing adventure game which the creators characterized as the “spiritual successor to our Quest for Glory series.” The title stands as an interesting study of how far video game developers are now under the spell of social justice in terms of issues such as race and gender, and to what degree they can still express independent thoughts.
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“This pain, this sadness! This desperation! You know nothing about it!”
(Major story spoilers ahead.)
NieR: Automata is a critically acclaimed 2017 JRPG from renowned director Yoko Taro, and is an indirect sequel to his previous NieR and Drakenguard games. The game is a niche action-adventure gem, balancing engrossing narrative with tense, challenging combat. (more…)
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Last month marked the much-anticipated release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, an open-world action role-playing game (RPG) set in fifteenth-century Bohemia. The game sold five hundred thousand copies across all platforms (PC, PS4, and Xbox One) within two days of its release and surpassed the one million mark after two weeks, an impressive feat for a crowd-funded game developed by an indie studio. (more…)
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Last Friday at the convention known across gaming fandom as Blizzcon, the full trailer was released for the upcoming film Warcraft, which will be based of course on the Warcraft and World of Warcraft video game series. As an ardent fan of the games, I was filled with enthusiasm and impatience upon watching it. I rarely go to the movies anymore, but for a film that cinematizes one of my favorite games, I would surely be there on opening day. It will be out in June and will star Travis Fimmel, who plays Ragnar Lothbrok in the Vikings TV series. (more…)
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In the popular video game Half-Life 2 and its sequels, the players fight against the Combine Empire. This empire may be fictional, but it has many aspects that are all too real. The universe of Half-Life 2 has been created with patience and a lot of work, as one can guess from the number of tryouts for designing one of the game’s most important buildings. The result is a very well-thought, sometimes subtle universe that goes often unseen because players are more concerned with solving a particular riddle or fighting a particular battle. (more…)
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On November 11th, 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
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Nathaniel Drake, the hero of "Uncharted" II: "Among Thieves"
On October 13, 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment released Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the Playstation 3 video gaming console. It was received warmly by nearly every video game critic in the US, having won numerous awards including “Best PS3 Action Game” and given a nearly perfect rating across the board. Adam Sessler of G4 (a video gaming news channel) even claimed it is the “best single-player game I have ever played” in a recent review. (more…)
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In today’s world, cell phones, pagers, iPods, computers, video games, and the like are as common a part of life as food and sleep. For the most part, these things are a distraction, and in case of video games, an outright form of escapism comparable to drug addiction. (more…)