Caravaggio (the Italian painter) has become famous to history for being a bit of a thug. He killed someone sometime around 1590 (the greatest of his crimes, but by no means his only one). A decade later he was decorating the Contarelli Chapel. Today, a few centuries later, if you…
Read MoreOpinion by Matt S. There was an interesting article that was published over at The Gamer earlier this week, and it’s the kind of thing that got me thinking about video games at a more conceptual level. The piece is titled “Where Is The Video Game?”, and it’s largely a…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. China, as one of the oldest continuous cultures and nations on the planet, has a long and deep literary history. Some of its greatest masterpieces were written well before Europeans invaded places like America and Australia and re-drew the maps to suit their colonial expansion. Across…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. One of the core discussions within any field of art is that of the “masterpiece” – what makes a work a masterpiece (yes, it’s more than “it’s really good), and why are masterpieces important? It’s also a word that is very commonly misused in the videogame…
Read MoreGame Theory by Matt S. Note: To be upfront and fair, there are major spoilers for Death Come True and The Caligula Effect ahead. Don’t read on unless you’re comfortable reading discussion about the endings of these two games. Four years ago, an artist named Matsuda Keiichi produced a wonderful…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Video games are art. It’s something that we’ve long accepted and demanded that those outside of the games industry also accept. There’s certainly no denying that games are art, either – whether it’s the philosophical intelligence of Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata, the aesthetic beauty of a…
Read MoreOpinion by Matt S. Yesterday brought some great news; a selection of Studio Ghibli films would be coming to Australia (and most of the rest of the world) on Netflix. In total, 21 classic animated films will be coming across three “waves” – seven per month over three months. These…
Read MoreOpinion by Matt S. A fair few years ago now, I had the privilege of watching a production of Samuel Beckett’s seminal play, Waiting for Godot. It’s not the easiest play in the world to watch… in fact, very little actually happens in it, and while it can be both…
Read MoreOpinion by Matt S. I touched on this in my review of The Alliance Alive HD, but I wanted to expand on it while it’s fresh in my memory. I know that I’ve talked about how games should be shorter in opinion pieces in the past, but here I wanted…
Read MoreOpinion by Matt S. I’ve been thinking a great deal about art and transgression recently. As regular readers probably know, it’s a topic that I regularly come back to. In fact if I’d say there’s any one thing about art that appeals to me, it’s the way that art can…
Read More