The February brought us many amazing game jams, and so we recommended 52 entries made for 15 different jams. There are games about the meaning of love and home, but also best retro hack’n’slash action, mind-blogging puzzles as well as atmospherical exploration and narrative games. So have fun with our February issue of “The Jam Report”!
The February brought us many amazing game jams, and so we recommended 52 entries made for 15 different jams. There are games about the meaning of love and home, but also best retro hack’n’slash action, mind-blogging puzzles as well as atmospherical exploration and narrative games. So have fun with our February issue of “The Jam Report”!
The year started with Friends after watching too much of it during my December 2017 holiday. It ended with The King’s Speech on New Year’s Eve. I began the year with MoviePass and ended it with AMC Stubs A-List, ensuring I had my fill of the latest movies in theaters. I sold my car some months ago and the journey to the movie theater took on greater meaning in the last couple of months.
A lot of the reading on here came from my American Literature II class in which we studied twentieth century literature. Most, but not all. Some was just random nibbles on the train when I wasn’t consumed with my new-found fascination with podcasts. I include the Selected Shorts podcast to reduce the guilt of engaging in so much non-fiction.
Kwaidan was the most interesting, I think, if I have to pick one. It just feels like a daring creation of its time and place, with each horror story more compelling than the last. My interest in horror from 2017 appears to have legs and I hope to continue seeking out good, interesting horror stories.
I think I’ll do this monthly in 2019. It’ll give me a chance to reflect in short bursts instead of attempting to comprehend a year’s worth of fiction.
Short Stories
“In the American Society” by Gish Jen (1987)
“Claire’s
Lover’s Church by Teri Ruch (1984)
"Where
We Are Now” by Ethan Canin (1986)
“The
Incorrect Hour” by Debra Spark (1986)
“Conviction”
by Tama Janowitz (1986)
“Sparks”
by Susan Minot (1987)
“Last
Night” by Dennis McFarland (1984)
“In
Christ There Is No East or West” by Kent Nussey (1986)
“The
Things That Would Never Be Mine” by Michelle Carter (1987)
“Jillie”
by Ehud Havazelet (1985)
“Hands”
by Gregory Blake Smith (1983)
“Cuisinart”
by Fred Leebron (1986)
“The
River” by Tori Cárdenas (2018)
“View
from Kwaj” by Patricia MacInnes (1985)
“Ten
Cents a Dance” by Joseph Ferrandino (1987)
“Three
Maids’ Children” by Mona Simpson (1987)
“Massé”
by Leigh Allison Wilson (1986)
“Flight”
by Linda Svendsen (1985)
“Daisy
Miller” by Henry James (1894)
“The
Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain (1865)
“The
Soft-hearted Sioux” by Zitkala-Sa (1921)
“The
Sculptor’s Funeral” by Will Cather (1905)
“Petrified
Man” by Eudora Welty (1939)
“Sexy”
by Jhumpa Lahiri (1998)
“Lullaby”
by Leslie Marmon Silko (1981)
“The
Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
“Medley”
by Toni Cade Bambara (1974)
“Gallatin Canyon” by Thomas McGuane (2003)
“Weekend”
by Ann Beattie (1976)
“The
Balloon” by Donald Barthelme (1966)
“The
Most Girl Part of You” by Amy Hempel (1990)
“Sportsman”
by Amy Hempel (1997)
“The
Dog of the Marriage” by Amy Hempel (2005)
Audio Shorts
“Benefactor”
by Greg Ames (2017)
“Dog”
by Richard Russo (1996)
“Tobermory”
by Saki (1911)
“Take
It from Cats” by Helen Ellis (2014)
“Roslyn’s
Dog” by Arthur Bradford (2002)
“The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" by Henry Slesar (1961)
"Head Over
Knees” by Eric Schlich (2016)
“Dornicka and the St. Martin’s Day Goose”
by Helen Oyeyemi (2016)
“Watkyn,
Comma” by Joan Aiken (1990)
“The Suitcase”
by Meron Hadero (2015)
“The Bridge” by Daniel O’Malley (2017)
“The Great
Silence” by Ted Chiang (2016)
“Breadman” by J. Robert Lennon (2015)
“Yancey” by Ann
Beattie (2015)
"The Mappist” by
Barry Lopez (2000)
"The Orange” by Benjamin Rosenbaum (2001)
“The Man, The Restaurant, and the Eiffel Tower” by Ben Loory (2017)
“I, Gentile” by David Gordon (2014)
Novels
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (2006)
Plays
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
(1956)
Comic Single Issues
“Futurama
Comics #57” by Jesse McCann, John Delaney, Andrew Pepoy, Robert
Stanley, Karen Bates, Bill Morrison (2011)
“Strangers
in Paradise XXV” by Terry Moore (2018)
“Gary: Book One” by Tyrell Cannon (2010)
Graphic Novels/Trades
Megahex by Simon
Hanselmann (2014)
Blacksad by Juan
Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido (2010)
Bottomless Belly Button
by Dash Shaw (2008)
Video Games
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
by Naughty Dog (2017)
Star Wars Battlefront II
by EA DICE (2017)
Catherine by Atlus
(2011)
SPACEPLAN by Jake
Hollands (2017)
Monument Valley by Ustwo Games (2014)
Mega Man by Capcom
(1987)
Plug & Play by Playables (2015)
Mega Man 3 by
Capcom (1990)
Mega Man 4 by
Capcom (1991)
Super Mario Bros.
by Nintendo Creative Department (1985)
Super Mario Bros. 2
by Nintendo R&D4 (1988)
Spider-Man
by Insomniac Games (2018)
Little Nightmares
by Tarsier Studios (2017)
Red Dead Redemption 2 by
Rockstar Studios (2018)
Minit by JW, Kitty,
Jukio, and Dom (2018)
Shorts
“About
face” dir. Graham Annable (2017)
“Dekalb
Elementary” dir. Reed Van Dyk (2017)
“My
Nephew Emmett” dir. Kevin Wilson Jr. (2017)
“The
Eleven
O’Clock”
dir. Derin Seale (2016)
“The
Silent Child” dir. Chris Overton (2017)
“Watu
Wote” dir. Katja Benrath (2017)
“Garden
Party” dir. Théophile Dufresne, Florian Babikian, Gabriel Grapperon,
Lucas Navarro, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Claire (2016)
“Negative
Space” dir. Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata (2017)
“Revolting
Rhymes” dir. Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer (2017)
“Achoo”
dir. Elise Carret, Camille Lacroix, Charlotte Perroux, Lucas Boutrot,
Maoris Creantor, Pierre Hubert (2017)
“Lost
Property Office” dir. Daniel Agdag (2017)
“Weeds”
dir. Kevin Hudson (2017)
“Maybellene" dir. Graham
Annable (2018)
"Out
of Water” dir. Simon Duong-Van-Hyuen, Joël Durand, Thibault Leclercq,
Valentin Lucas, Andrei Sitari (2018)
“Chapped
Lips” dir. Kelsi Phụng, Fabien Corre (2018)
“Breathless”
dir. Pierre-Marie Adnet, Jean-Luc Dessertaine, Guillaume Pochez, Tristan
Poulain, Vincent Rouzière, Alessandro Vergonnier (2018)
“The
Tree” dir. Han Yang, Basil Malek (2018)
“I’m
waiting for the night” dir. Arthur Chaumay (2018)
“Ostrich
Politic” dir. Houhou (2018)
“Lorenzo”
dir. Mike Gabriel (2004)
“The Little Matchgirl” dir. Roger Allers (2006)
“How to Hook Up Your Home Theater” dir. Kevin
Deters, Stevie Wermers (2007)
Movies
The
Iceman dir. Ariel
Vromen (2013)
Bright dir. David
Ayer (2017)
The Whole Nine Yards
dir. Jonathan Lynn (2000)
Trading Places
dir. John Landis (1983)
Hostiles dir. Scott
Cooper (2017)
Black Panther dir. Ryan
Coogler (2018)
Phantom Thread dir. Paul
Thomas Anderson (2017)
Lady Bird dir. Greta
Gerwig (2017)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dir. Martin McDonagh (2017)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night dir. Sidney Lumet (1962)
Darkest Hour dir. Joe
Wright (2017)
Call Me By Your Name
dir. Luca Guadagnino (2017)
The Post dir. Steven
Spielberg (2017)
Annihilation
dir. Alex Garland (2018)
A Wrinkle in Time
dir. Ava DuVernay (2018)
Beloved dir. Jonathan
Demme (1998)
Pacific Rim: Uprising
dir. Steven S. DeKnight (2018)
A Quiet Place dir. John Krasinski (2018)
Game Night
dir. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein (2018)
Beirut dir. Brad Anderson (2018)
The Brothers Grimm
dir. Terry Gilliam (2005)
Isle of Dogs dir. Wes
Anderson (2018)
Rampage dir. Brad
Peyton (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War
dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2018)
Ready Player One dir.
Steven Spielberg (2018)
Kung Fu Yoga dir. Stanley Tong (2017)
Blockers dir. Kay
Cannon (2018)
I Feel Pretty dir. Abby
Kohn, Marc Silverstein (2018)
Overboard dir. Rob
Greenberg (2018)
Deadpool 2
dir. David Leitch (2018)
Life of the Party
dir. Ben Falcone (2018)
Solo: A Star Wars Story
dir. Ron Howard (2018)
Upgrade dir. Leigh
Whannell (2018)
Adrift
dir. Baltasar Kormákur (2018)
Hotel Artemis
dir. Drew Pearce (2018)
Hereditary dir. Ari
Aster (2018)
Ocean’s 8 dir. Gary
Ross (2018)
Wanted dir. Timur
Bekmambetov (2008)
Lethal Weapon
dir. Richard Donner (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2
dir. Richard Donner (1989)
Lethal Weapon 3 dir. Richard
Donner (1992)
Lethal Weapon 4 dir. Richard
Donner (1998)
Mamma Mia!
dir. Phyllida Lloyd (2008)
Cargo dir. Ben
Howling, Yolanda Ramke (2017)
Righteous Kill
dir. Jon Avnet (2008)
Tag dir. Jeff
Tomsic (2018)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom dir. J. A. Bayona (2018)
Incredibles 2
dir. Brad Bird (2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp
dir. Peyton Reed (2018)
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
dir. Stefano Sollima (2018)
Sorry to Bother You
dir. Boots Riley (2018)
The Equalizer 2
dir. Antoine Fuqua (2018)
Mission: Impossible 2 dir. John Woo (2000)
Mission: Impossible III dir. J. J. Abrams (2006)
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol dir. Brad Bird (2011)
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2015)
Mission: Impossible – Fallout dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2018)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation dir. Genndy Tartakovsky (2018)
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
dir. Ol Parker (2018)
The Darkest Minds
dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (2018)
The Spy Who Dumped Me
dir. Susanna Fogel (2018)
BlacKkKlansman
dir. Spike Lee (2018)
Alpha dir. Albert
Hughes (2018)
The
Meg dir. Jon Turteltaub (2018)
Crazy Rich Asians
dir. Jon M. Chu (2018)
Constantine dir. Francis Lawrence (2005)
The Predator
dir. Shane Black (2018)
The Nun dir. Corin
Hardy (2018)
The House With a Clock in Its Walls dir. Eli Roth (2018)
A Simple Favor
dir. Paul Feig (2018)
White Boy Rick
dir. Yann Demange (2018)
Searching
dir. Aneesh Chaganty (2018)
Hell Fest
dir. Gregory Plotkin (2018)
Bad Times at the El Royale
dir. Drew Goddard (2018)
The Sisters Brothers
dir. Jacques Audiard (2018)
Kwaidan dir. Masaki
Kobayashi (1965)
Halloween
dir. David Gordon Green (2018)
First Man
dir. Damien Chazelle (2018)
House dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi (1977)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2017)
Rumble in the Bronx
dir. Stanley Tong (1995)
Eraser dir. Chuck
Russell (1996)
The Bad Batch
dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2016)
Wind River dir. Taylor Sheridan (2017)
Hold the Dark
dir. Jeremy Saulnier (2018)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald dir. David Yates (2018)
The Negotiator dir. F.
Gary Gray (1998)
Ralph Breaks the Internet
dir. Rich Moore, Phil Johnston (2018)
Young Guns
dir. Christopher Cain (1988)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (2018)
Gerald’s Game
dir. Mike Flanagan (2017)
Widows dir. Steve
McQueen (2018)
Green Book
dir. Peter Farrelly (2018)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter
Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (2018)
Mortal Engines
dir. Christian Rivers (2018)
The Fault In Our Stars
dir. Josh Boone (2014)
Night at the Museum
dir. Shawn Levy (2006)
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle dir. Andy Serkis (2018)
Click dir. Frank
Coraci (2006)
Killer Elite
dir. Gary McKendry (2011)
Bumblebee
dir. Travis Knight (2018)
Aquaman dir. James
Wan (2018)
Maleficent
dir. Robert Stromberg (2014)
The King’s Speech
dir. Tom Hooper (2010)
TV Episodes
The Simpsons
– “Treehouse of Horror XXIX” (2018)
Bob’s Burgers
– “Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street” (2018)
The Simpsons
– “Little Orphan Millie” (2007)
The Simpsons
– “Homer the Father” (2011)
The Simpsons
– “Bart’s New Friend” (2015)
The Good Place – “Everything Is Bonzer!”
(Part 1) (2018)
The Good Place – “Everything Is Bonzer!”
(Part 2) (2018)
The year started with Friends after watching too much of it during my December 2017 holiday. It ended with The King’s Speech on New Year’s Eve. I began the year with MoviePass and ended it with AMC Stubs A-List, ensuring I had my fill of the latest movies in theaters. I sold my car some months ago and the journey to the movie theater took on greater meaning in the last couple of months.
A lot of the reading on here came from my American Literature II class in which we studied twentieth century literature. Most, but not all. Some was just random nibbles on the train when I wasn’t consumed with my new-found fascination with podcasts. I include the Selected Shorts podcast to reduce the guilt of engaging in so much non-fiction.
Kwaidan was the most interesting, I think, if I have to pick one. It just feels like a daring creation of its time and place, with each horror story more compelling than the last. My interest in horror from 2017 appears to have legs and I hope to continue seeking out good, interesting horror stories.
I think I’ll do this monthly in 2019. It’ll give me a chance to reflect in short bursts instead of attempting to comprehend a year’s worth of fiction.
Short Stories
“In the American Society” by Gish Jen (1987)
“Claire’s
Lover’s Church by Teri Ruch (1984)
"Where
We Are Now” by Ethan Canin (1986)
“The
Incorrect Hour” by Debra Spark (1986)
“Conviction”
by Tama Janowitz (1986)
“Sparks”
by Susan Minot (1987)
“Last
Night” by Dennis McFarland (1984)
“In
Christ There Is No East or West” by Kent Nussey (1986)
“The
Things That Would Never Be Mine” by Michelle Carter (1987)
“Jillie”
by Ehud Havazelet (1985)
“Hands”
by Gregory Blake Smith (1983)
“Cuisinart”
by Fred Leebron (1986)
“The
River” by Tori Cárdenas (2018)
“View
from Kwaj” by Patricia MacInnes (1985)
“Ten
Cents a Dance” by Joseph Ferrandino (1987)
“Three
Maids’ Children” by Mona Simpson (1987)
“Massé”
by Leigh Allison Wilson (1986)
“Flight”
by Linda Svendsen (1985)
“Daisy
Miller” by Henry James (1894)
“The
Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain (1865)
“The
Soft-hearted Sioux” by Zitkala-Sa (1921)
“The
Sculptor’s Funeral” by Will Cather (1905)
“Petrified
Man” by Eudora Welty (1939)
“Sexy”
by Jhumpa Lahiri (1998)
“Lullaby”
by Leslie Marmon Silko (1981)
“The
Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
“Medley”
by Toni Cade Bambara (1974)
“Gallatin Canyon” by Thomas McGuane (2003)
“Weekend”
by Ann Beattie (1976)
“The
Balloon” by Donald Barthelme (1966)
“The
Most Girl Part of You” by Amy Hempel (1990)
“Sportsman”
by Amy Hempel (1997)
“The
Dog of the Marriage” by Amy Hempel (2005)
Audio Shorts
“Benefactor”
by Greg Ames (2017)
“Dog”
by Richard Russo (1996)
“Tobermory”
by Saki (1911)
“Take
It from Cats” by Helen Ellis (2014)
“Roslyn’s
Dog” by Arthur Bradford (2002)
“The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" by Henry Slesar (1961)
"Head Over
Knees” by Eric Schlich (2016)
“Dornicka and the St. Martin’s Day Goose”
by Helen Oyeyemi (2016)
“Watkyn,
Comma” by Joan Aiken (1990)
“The Suitcase”
by Meron Hadero (2015)
“The Bridge” by Daniel O’Malley (2017)
“The Great
Silence” by Ted Chiang (2016)
“Breadman” by J. Robert Lennon (2015)
“Yancey” by Ann
Beattie (2015)
"The Mappist” by
Barry Lopez (2000)
"The Orange” by Benjamin Rosenbaum (2001)
“The Man, The Restaurant, and the Eiffel Tower” by Ben Loory (2017)
“I, Gentile” by David Gordon (2014)
Novels
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (2006)
Plays
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
(1956)
Comic Single Issues
“Futurama
Comics #57” by Jesse McCann, John Delaney, Andrew Pepoy, Robert
Stanley, Karen Bates, Bill Morrison (2011)
“Strangers
in Paradise XXV” by Terry Moore (2018)
“Gary: Book One” by Tyrell Cannon (2010)
Graphic Novels/Trades
Megahex by Simon
Hanselmann (2014)
Blacksad by Juan
Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido (2010)
Bottomless Belly Button
by Dash Shaw (2008)
Video Games
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
by Naughty Dog (2017)
Star Wars Battlefront II
by EA DICE (2017)
Catherine by Atlus
(2011)
SPACEPLAN by Jake
Hollands (2017)
Mega Man by Capcom
(1987)
Mega Man 3 by
Capcom (1990)
Mega Man 4 by
Capcom (1991)
Super Mario Bros.
by Nintendo Creative Department (1985)
Super Mario Bros. 2
by Nintendo R&D4 (1988)
Spider-Man
by Insomniac Games (2018)
Little Nightmares
by Tarsier Studios (2017)
Red Dead Redemption 2 by
Rockstar Studios (2018)
Minit by JW, Kitty,
Jukio, and Dom (2018)
Shorts
“About
face” dir. Graham Annable (2017)
“Dekalb
Elementary” dir. Reed Van Dyk (2017)
“My
Nephew Emmett” dir. Kevin Wilson Jr. (2017)
“The
Eleven
O’Clock”
dir. Derin Seale (2016)
“The
Silent Child” dir. Chris Overton (2017)
“Watu
Wote” dir. Katja Benrath (2017)
“Garden
Party” dir. Théophile Dufresne, Florian Babikian, Gabriel Grapperon,
Lucas Navarro, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Claire (2016)
“Negative
Space” dir. Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata (2017)
“Revolting
Rhymes” dir. Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer (2017)
“Achoo”
dir. Elise Carret, Camille Lacroix, Charlotte Perroux, Lucas Boutrot,
Maoris Creantor, Pierre Hubert (2017)
“Lost
Property Office” dir. Daniel Agdag (2017)
“Weeds”
dir. Kevin Hudson (2017)
“Maybellene" dir. Graham
Annable (2018)
"Out
of Water” dir. Simon Duong-Van-Hyuen, Joël Durand, Thibault Leclercq,
Valentin Lucas, Andrei Sitari (2018)
“Chapped
Lips” dir. Kelsi Phụng, Fabien Corre (2018)
“Breathless”
dir. Pierre-Marie Adnet, Jean-Luc Dessertaine, Guillaume Pochez, Tristan
Poulain, Vincent Rouzière, Alessandro Vergonnier (2018)
“The
Tree” dir. Han Yang, Basil Malek (2018)
“I’m
waiting for the night” dir. Arthur Chaumay (2018)
“Ostrich
Politic” dir. Houhou (2018)
“Lorenzo”
dir. Mike Gabriel (2004)
“The Little Matchgirl” dir. Roger Allers (2006)
“How to Hook Up Your Home Theater” dir. Kevin
Deters, Stevie Wermers (2007)
Movies
The
Iceman dir. Ariel
Vromen (2013)
Bright dir. David
Ayer (2017)
The Whole Nine Yards
dir. Jonathan Lynn (2000)
Trading Places
dir. John Landis (1983)
Hostiles dir. Scott
Cooper (2017)
Black Panther dir. Ryan
Coogler (2018)
Phantom Thread dir. Paul
Thomas Anderson (2017)
Lady Bird dir. Greta
Gerwig (2017)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dir. Martin McDonagh (2017)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night dir. Sidney Lumet (1962)
Darkest Hour dir. Joe
Wright (2017)
Call Me By Your Name
dir. Luca Guadagnino (2017)
The Post dir. Steven
Spielberg (2017)
Annihilation
dir. Alex Garland (2018)
A Wrinkle in Time
dir. Ava DuVernay (2018)
Beloved dir. Jonathan
Demme (1998)
Pacific Rim: Uprising
dir. Steven S. DeKnight (2018)
A Quiet Place dir. John Krasinski (2018)
Game Night
dir. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein (2018)
Beirut dir. Brad Anderson (2018)
The Brothers Grimm
dir. Terry Gilliam (2005)
Isle of Dogs dir. Wes
Anderson (2018)
Rampage dir. Brad
Peyton (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War
dir. Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (2018)
Ready Player One dir.
Steven Spielberg (2018)
Kung Fu Yoga dir. Stanley Tong (2017)
Blockers dir. Kay
Cannon (2018)
I Feel Pretty dir. Abby
Kohn, Marc Silverstein (2018)
Overboard dir. Rob
Greenberg (2018)
Deadpool 2
dir. David Leitch (2018)
Life of the Party
dir. Ben Falcone (2018)
Solo: A Star Wars Story
dir. Ron Howard (2018)
Upgrade dir. Leigh
Whannell (2018)
Adrift
dir. Baltasar Kormákur (2018)
Hotel Artemis
dir. Drew Pearce (2018)
Hereditary dir. Ari
Aster (2018)
Ocean’s 8 dir. Gary
Ross (2018)
Wanted dir. Timur
Bekmambetov (2008)
Lethal Weapon
dir. Richard Donner (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2
dir. Richard Donner (1989)
Lethal Weapon 3 dir. Richard
Donner (1992)
Lethal Weapon 4 dir. Richard
Donner (1998)
Mamma Mia!
dir. Phyllida Lloyd (2008)
Cargo dir. Ben
Howling, Yolanda Ramke (2017)
Righteous Kill
dir. Jon Avnet (2008)
Tag dir. Jeff
Tomsic (2018)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom dir. J. A. Bayona (2018)
Incredibles 2
dir. Brad Bird (2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp
dir. Peyton Reed (2018)
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
dir. Stefano Sollima (2018)
Sorry to Bother You
dir. Boots Riley (2018)
The Equalizer 2
dir. Antoine Fuqua (2018)
Mission: Impossible 2 dir. John Woo (2000)
Mission: Impossible III dir. J. J. Abrams (2006)
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol dir. Brad Bird (2011)
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2015)
Mission: Impossible – Fallout dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2018)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation dir. Genndy Tartakovsky (2018)
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
dir. Ol Parker (2018)
The Darkest Minds
dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (2018)
The Spy Who Dumped Me
dir. Susanna Fogel (2018)
BlacKkKlansman
dir. Spike Lee (2018)
Alpha dir. Albert
Hughes (2018)
The
Meg dir. Jon Turteltaub (2018)
Crazy Rich Asians
dir. Jon M. Chu (2018)
Constantine dir. Francis Lawrence (2005)
The Predator
dir. Shane Black (2018)
The Nun dir. Corin
Hardy (2018)
The House With a Clock in Its Walls dir. Eli Roth (2018)
A Simple Favor
dir. Paul Feig (2018)
White Boy Rick
dir. Yann Demange (2018)
Searching
dir. Aneesh Chaganty (2018)
Hell Fest
dir. Gregory Plotkin (2018)
Bad Times at the El Royale
dir. Drew Goddard (2018)
The Sisters Brothers
dir. Jacques Audiard (2018)
Kwaidan dir. Masaki
Kobayashi (1965)
Halloween
dir. David Gordon Green (2018)
First Man
dir. Damien Chazelle (2018)
House dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi (1977)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2017)
Rumble in the Bronx
dir. Stanley Tong (1995)
Eraser dir. Chuck
Russell (1996)
The Bad Batch
dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2016)
Wind River dir. Taylor Sheridan (2017)
Hold the Dark
dir. Jeremy Saulnier (2018)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald dir. David Yates (2018)
The Negotiator dir. F.
Gary Gray (1998)
Ralph Breaks the Internet
dir. Rich Moore, Phil Johnston (2018)
Young Guns
dir. Christopher Cain (1988)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (2018)
Gerald’s Game
dir. Mike Flanagan (2017)
Widows dir. Steve
McQueen (2018)
Green Book
dir. Peter Farrelly (2018)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter
Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (2018)
Mortal Engines
dir. Christian Rivers (2018)
The Fault In Our Stars
dir. Josh Boone (2014)
Night at the Museum
dir. Shawn Levy (2006)
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle dir. Andy Serkis (2018)
Click dir. Frank
Coraci (2006)
Killer Elite
dir. Gary McKendry (2011)
Bumblebee
dir. Travis Knight (2018)
Aquaman dir. James
Wan (2018)
Maleficent
dir. Robert Stromberg (2014)
The King’s Speech
dir. Tom Hooper (2010)
TV Episodes
The Simpsons
– “Treehouse of Horror XXIX” (2018)
Bob’s Burgers
– “Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street” (2018)
The Simpsons
– “Little Orphan Millie” (2007)
The Simpsons
– “Homer the Father” (2011)
The Simpsons
– “Bart’s New Friend” (2015)
The Good Place – “Everything Is Bonzer!”
(Part 1) (2018)
The Good Place – “Everything Is Bonzer!”
(Part 2) (2018)
It is well known by now that The Last Guardian almost did not get made. It entered development almost ten years ago for Sony’s previous games console, the PS3, but it was only released for its successor the PS4 at the end of 2016. For many years its name was a joke in the games industry.
From a distance, its production difficulties were puzzling. The game did not appear to be doing anything especially unique. It featured highly advanced animation amidst huge environments, but essentially this appeared to be just a sequel to the two games with which director Fumito Ueda had made his name back on the PS2: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Here was another wilfully abstract game about clambering through a ruined world with a strange companion; the jokes about killing off your giant cat-bird-dog friend at the end of the game wrote themselves.
Years passed with no news until Sony abruptly announced in 2015 that the game really was coming out this time. This was remarkable enough, but it was further surprising to see that the game shown in the new trailer was essentially the same thing promised back in the original trailers from 2009/2010. It’s not uncommon in the industry for late titles to arrive looking like a totally different game; yet this was simply a bolder, sharper version of the same thing.
Perhaps we only had to wait for technology to catch up with Ueda’s ambition: but when this happens, it’s usually the case that ambition is swiftly curbed by the pragmatic demands of software development. In this case, The Last Guardian as it was released feels to me like exactly the thing we were promised all those years ago. It is, for better and for worse, the realisation of an artistic vision, free from the kinds of compromise that litter the modern video games industry.
You play a nameless boy who wakes up in a strange world. There is a wounded creature next to you. His name is Trico, though I don’t think this is ever specified in the game itself; the boy calls him something like Turico in his language, which is also fictional. It soon becomes clear that establishing trust between yourself and the creature is the only way to proceed. You must pull spears from his back, keep him fed, and show him the way to go; in return, he can fight off the army of animated stone knights that secure this place, and most importantly, he can traverse this world of tremulous scaffolding and vast crumbling towers.
It’s a neat (and entirely deliberate) inversion of Ico, which had the player leading a sort of alien princess by the hand through a series of puzzles and challenges. Even the controls recall the earlier game; one button on the controller is dedicated to focussing the camera on Trico, much like how the player had to hold a button to hold hands with the princess while leading her through that strange castle.
Here, the player is the vulnerable one, but the relationship now feels like something mutual. It isn’t until you actually see Trico in motion for yourself that you understand what this means. It is one thing to say that the animation is beautiful, but it’s quite another thing to experience it yourself, with a controller in hand. Watching a video of someone else play the game is not a comparable; because the creature is entirely responsive to your actions, you feel that when he looks at you, somehow he is really looking at you.
The Last Guardian is dedicated to making the player feel as though they are in control at all times, even when they are essentially just following a course of action that has been planned out in advance. To this end, everything the boy and his companion do occurs not because it’s pre-rendered, but because it’s the product of a series of complex interacting systems.
When Trico’s ears fold back in a certain way when he brushes against a wall, or when he shakes his fur, or when the player flicks their controller in such a way as to send the boy’s fleet sliding across a smooth stone floor — when these things happen, the player is not watching a little clip of a movie, but something that is the product of a million little calculations occurring simultaneously. That some of these movements might feel heavy or awkward compared to other video games only lends them a sense of deliberation. The player is looking at something which only exists for them, in that moment. How different the game would have been if Trico had thin fur instead of feathers, all of which move and drift dynamically in the slightest breeze.
One of my favourite examples of this systemic approach to action comes in a moment that is perhaps halfway through the game. The player has only just come to develop a relationship with this creature when it happens. They are on a rickety wooden bridge between stone columns which stretches above an abyss. It’s much too far for the player to make it alone, but they can tell Trico to jump across. But the shock of his jump is too much for the old bridge to bear, and it immediately starts shaking and crumbling.
I knew that the game had give me only one option to get out of this situation. Why, once I had done it, was I left with the feeling that this was something I had discovered myself? It was partly down to how much character had been invested in every aspect of the animation — from the bridge slowly breaking, to the soulful, uncertain expression of the creature — but it was also that I was in full control the entire time. At any moment, I could have failed in any number of un-cinematic ways.
In the video above, you can see that at one point, the boy turns around on the tip of the broken bridge. This is the moment in which I thought: no, this can’t possibly work, that’s much too far to jump. And that’s the point at which Trico gives a little sort of cry-bark, as if to say: come on, you’ve got to do it. And that was directed not at a hypothetical player but at me, in response to something I had done.
It is difficult to dwell for long on the game’s problems when it so frequently presents me with some of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen or felt in a video game. Its potency lies in the way in which it goes beyond words. The game didn’t need to explain anything about that scene to me, and equally, I’m aware that to explain it in this way feels underwhelming, and perhaps somewhat trite. You had to be there to get it; the context my explanation lacks is the terrible immediacy of the feeling that you could fail at any moment.
(what follows contains significant spoilers for the ending of the game.)
It is well known by now that The Last Guardian almost did not get made. It entered development almost ten years ago for Sony’s previous games console, the PS3, but it was only released for its successor the PS4 at the end of 2016. For many years its name was a joke in the games industry.
From a distance, its production difficulties were puzzling. The game did not appear to be doing anything especially unique. It featured highly advanced animation amidst huge environments, but essentially this appeared to be just a sequel to the two games with which director Fumito Ueda had made his name back on the PS2: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Here was another wilfully abstract game about clambering through a ruined world with a strange companion; the jokes about killing off your giant cat-bird-dog friend at the end of the game wrote themselves.
Years passed with no news until Sony abruptly announced in 2015 that the game really was coming out this time. This was remarkable enough, but it was further surprising to see that the game shown in the new trailer was essentially the same thing promised back in the original trailers from 2009/2010. It’s not uncommon in the industry for late titles to arrive looking like a totally different game; yet this was simply a bolder, sharper version of the same thing.
Perhaps we only had to wait for technology to catch up with Ueda’s ambition: but when this happens, it’s usually the case that ambition is swiftly curbed by the pragmatic demands of software development. In this case, The Last Guardian as it was released feels to me like exactly the thing we were promised all those years ago. It is, for better and for worse, the realisation of an artistic vision, free from the kinds of compromise that litter the modern video games industry.
You play a nameless boy who wakes up in a strange world. There is a wounded creature next to you. His name is Trico, though I don’t think this is ever specified in the game itself; the boy calls him something like Turico in his language, which is also fictional. It soon becomes clear that establishing trust between yourself and the creature is the only way to proceed. You must pull spears from his back, keep him fed, and show him the way to go; in return, he can fight off the army of animated stone knights that secure this place, and most importantly, he can traverse this world of tremulous scaffolding and vast crumbling towers.
It’s a neat (and entirely deliberate) inversion of Ico, which had the player leading a sort of alien princess by the hand through a series of puzzles and challenges. Even the controls recall the earlier game; one button on the controller is dedicated to focussing the camera on Trico, much like how the player had to hold a button to hold hands with the princess while leading her through that strange castle.
Here, the player is the vulnerable one, but the relationship now feels like something mutual. It isn’t until you actually see Trico in motion for yourself that you understand what this means. It is one thing to say that the animation is beautiful, but it’s quite another thing to experience it yourself, with a controller in hand. Watching a video of someone else play the game is not a comparable; because the creature is entirely responsive to your actions, you feel that when he looks at you, somehow he is really looking at you.
The Last Guardian is dedicated to making the player feel as though they are in control at all times, even when they are essentially just following a course of action that has been planned out in advance. To this end, everything the boy and his companion do occurs not because it’s pre-rendered, but because it’s the product of a series of complex interacting systems.
When Trico’s ears fold back in a certain way when he brushes against a wall, or when he shakes his fur, or when the player flicks their controller in such a way as to send the boy’s fleet sliding across a smooth stone floor — when these things happen, the player is not watching a little clip of a movie, but something that is the product of a million little calculations occurring simultaneously. That some of these movements might feel heavy or awkward compared to other video games only lends them a sense of deliberation. The player is looking at something which only exists for them, in that moment. How different the game would have been if Trico had thin fur instead of feathers, all of which move and drift dynamically in the slightest breeze.
One of my favourite examples of this systemic approach to action comes in a moment that is perhaps halfway through the game. The player has only just come to develop a relationship with this creature when it happens. They are on a rickety wooden bridge between stone columns which stretches above an abyss. It’s much too far for the player to make it alone, but they can tell Trico to jump across. But the shock of his jump is too much for the old bridge to bear, and it immediately starts shaking and crumbling.
I knew that the game had give me only one option to get out of this situation. Why, once I had done it, was I left with the feeling that this was something I had discovered myself? It was partly down to how much character had been invested in every aspect of the animation — from the bridge slowly breaking, to the soulful, uncertain expression of the creature — but it was also that I was in full control the entire time. At any moment, I could have failed in any number of un-cinematic ways.
In the video above, you can see that at one point, the boy turns around on the tip of the broken bridge. This is the moment in which I thought: no, this can’t possibly work, that’s much too far to jump. And that’s the point at which Trico gives a little sort of cry-bark, as if to say: come on, you’ve got to do it. And that was directed not at a hypothetical player but at me, in response to something I had done.
It is difficult to dwell for long on the game’s problems when it so frequently presents me with some of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen or felt in a video game. Its potency lies in the way in which it goes beyond words. The game didn’t need to explain anything about that scene to me, and equally, I’m aware that to explain it in this way feels underwhelming, and perhaps somewhat trite. You had to be there to get it; the context my explanation lacks is the terrible immediacy of the feeling that you could fail at any moment.
(what follows contains significant spoilers for the ending of the game.)
