In the wake of Metroid Dread, Mike & Alex discuss the enduring merits of the decades-old metroidvania progression style. The argument: 2D adventure games with metroidvania progression are innately suitable for developers with limited experience & resources alongside strong artistic abilities & a well-conceived world. Metroidvania also scales well to larger budgets & diverse art styles, potentially even 3D perspective, due to the universality of its conceits. It even encourages remote community participation, a sort of “extrinsic multiplayer”, in wiki culture.

Gaming Under The Influence

Metroidvania: Still One of the Best Type of Game - GUI 99

Caught up with Valheim & older titles, Mike & Alex have already added a pile of recent releases to their backlogs. Tune in this week for a discussion of the most interesting games you may have missed in 2021 and why they are worth playing. Also features a more detailed discussion of Valheim’s special appeal: this is a game that synthesizes the radical possibilities of the survival genre (often lacking a meaningful goal, purposefulness) with circumscriptive soulslike combat against titanic bosses and hands-off storytelling about cosmic stakes.

Games We Already Missed in 2021 - GUI 98

Our discourse on the best games of all time has been forcibly interrupted by Valheim. This week the Green Dragon crew works towards a theory of survival games, specifying their appeal as a world building medium. We posit that the up-front fixation on the dialectic between player and environment makes the “inner logic” of created worlds the “remote or subject matter” of the genre (instead of individual personalities and human tensions in, say, TLoU2-style adventure games).

The Valheim Episode - GUI 97

In response to IGNs recent treatment of the “best game of all time”, the boys at GreenDragonCVR return to the fundamental topic of why exactly games qualify as [one of the] “most advanced phase[s] of poetic depiction”. We will return next week with an alternative list, based on the criteria we articulate in this episode, of the best games of all time.

In Response to IGN’s “Best game of all time” - GUI 96

Alex & Mike persist with their discussion of Tales of Arise, this week expanding on the topics introduced last episode. Topics include the genre-literate design of the early zones & combat, the sincerity of Japanese video game story telling & how Tales of Arise engages with capitalism in a manner that puts Western game journalism about “politics” to shame.

Tales of Arise: the Discussion Continues - GUI 95

Alex & Mike are pleasantly surprised by Tales of Arise. Conveyed by innovative and beautiful animation, a lean progression system and circumscriptive action combat, a high fantasy world on par with any [more expensive] genre peer has got the boys hooked. Tune in this week for a deep dive into the systems & world of Tales of Arise based on the first third of the game.

Tales of Arise: the Best JRPG of 2021 - GUI 94

Mike & Alex return to a style of video game they have no small measure of conflicted feelings about: open-world action-rpgs. Alex returns to Ghosts of Tsushima & Mike to Maneater to check out the DLC for both titles. Concludes with an explanation of the particular appeal of open-world progression styles: without the punctuation & demands of other games like Souls (with taxing combat) or JRPGs (with complex systems to manipulate), they convey grand gestures of worldbuilding.

Open-World Games: Comforting AND Wholesome - GUI 93

Mike & Alex discuss the last great western video game genre: classical or western rpgs. If, as we have previously discussed, the rpg genre definitionally represents the conduct of intelligent life in fiction, the western rpg (in contradistiction to the deterministic jrpg) does so in-deterministically, affording the player political and social agency over the course of the game world

CRPGS: the Last Great Western Genre - GUI 92

Mike & Alex discuss potential games to pursue amidst the great summer game drought of 2021. Touching on Final Fantasy X, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Biomutant etc.

The Great Summer Game Drought of 2021 Continued - GUI 91

We have come to this year’s ‘great summer game drought’. In the absence of any new releases captivating us, Mike & Alex delve back into their backlogs. Discussions range from the necessity of ‘sense of place’ in worldbuilding; the capacity of difficult games to transpose the player into the alterity of his ritual identity; the weird & wonderful world/art of Grime; Far Cry Primal as a masterful gesture of worldbuilding & the best Far Cry.

The Great Summer Game Drought of 2021- GUI 90

Mike & Alex discuss the vast discrepancy between Western journalistic reactions to recent scandals at Activision and the Chinese government’s reported disdain for the predatory style of games peddled by Tencent. While the West demands superficial “change” that would leave brutal fundamental structures in tact, the CPC appears to target the very economic bases of exploitative game design. Alex also explains the over-gameyness of Skyward Sword: how the insertion of burdensome, arbitrary mechanics impedes player attunement with the concept of the game. Lastly a few words on Grime, a fantastic and beautiful new Soulslike.

Tencent Under Fire, Over-Gameyness in Zelda & Grime - GUI 89

This week Mike & Alex return to the most basic element of a game - it's [self-justifying or autotelic] world, hopefully expressed in a gameplay loop that facilitates instead of inhibiting its clarity. Last week Subnautica was a refreshing escape from the overbearing psychological motivations we are required to empathize with in many third-person story games; this week, the single-player campaign of Stacraft the first does the same. Also featuring a discussion of the special merits of the survivial genre & our enthisuaism for Evil Genius II.

Starcraft, Subnautica & Evil Genius 2: Video Games for Their Own Sake - GUI 88

After being dragged by the nape through the meandering and uninteresting personal/psychological motivations of most protagonists in most games born in the West the past generation, Mike & Alex delve into two games unburdened by the trappings of western AAA. Subnautica BZ: in search of her lost sister, an ex-corpo becomes infested by an alien consciousness, proceeds to research the inner logic of an aquatic ecosystem & evade death at the maw of leviathans 900m deep. Starcraft I Single Player Campaign: A galactic empire beset by a dictatorship is further afflicted by the emergence of a spy-become-alien queen. Does the multiplayer justify this or the inverse?

Subnautica BZ & Starcraft I Single Player:revisiting the concept of autotelic games - GUI 87

What do space Bezos, the easy mode debate, “professionalism” and game pass have in common? In all these we witness the celebration of the instrument-in-itself. What was once [at least purportedly] a means to an end becomes the goal, purpose, satisfaction; money and gratuitous expenditure for its own sake, the raw physical act of gaming in violation of its formal causes, cheap games, whatever they are. A party line coheres to protect the immanent eschaton, the functioning and discharge of the “every day” in and for itself.

F*** easy mode, professionalism, gamepass, & space - GUI 86

Mike & Alex back at it featuring a discussion about the "new Sony" and their uninspiring first party offerings as of late + the general state of the medium in summer 2021. What no one wants to hear: Sony kinda sucks now, 

Gaming in 2021 ft. Sony & their uninspiring first party trend - GUI 85

Green Dragon is a video game store and bar in Woodbridge, ON, operated by Mike & Alex, a pair of old pals and lifelong gamers who love to put back a few drinks and talk games. Our approach is rooted in our shared belief that, like all art, games exist (against all corporate, political or other pressures) for one purpose: to be beautiful.

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Gaming Under The Influence

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