How Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts Illuminates the Margins of Medieval Art

Scriptorium not only makes an obsolete, long dead art accessible to a modern audience, but miraculously brings it back to life for a brief moment

10 Years Mash X to Muse!?

Much to my own surprise, Mash X to Muse has been around for an entire decade and more than a quarter of my life—not a lot on a cosmological scale, but a significant amount for a humble blog, and to me personally. It's a very different place

A Field Guide to Folk Horror Games

It can be surprisingly tricky to spot a folk horror game in the wild. Sometimes, you may catch a glimpse of a game that looks just like one, only to realise that the similarity doesn’t extend beyond an earthy aesthetic or shared iconography of wicker dolls and horned masks.

The Existential Dread of Baldur’s Gate III, Part II: The Curse of Consciousness

This is the 6th article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Content note: This article touches on issues like depression, nihilism and self-destructive urges. It also contains major spoilers for Baldur’s Gate III. In

The Existential Dread of Baldur’s Gate III, Part I: In Defense of Darkness

This is the 5th article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Content note: This article touches on issues like depression, nihilism and self-destructive urges. It also contains major spoilers for Baldur’s Gate III. After

How Games Imagine the Cosmos, from Bloodborne to Super Mario Odyssey

This article was originally published by Eurogamer on January 30 2018. This republished version includes some minor changes. Humans have gazed up at the sky and wondered about their place in the cosmos since the very beginning. Do the same in a game like, say, Breath of the Wild, and

The Layered Worlds of Pentiment

This is the 4th article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Spoiler warning for Pentiment. Pentiment’s ambition keeps spilling over the margins of its seemingly humble frame. The entirety of the game’s narrative takes

The Gnostic Dystopia of NORCO

This is the 3rd article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here, and the first piece on Gnostic influences in games here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Spoiler warning for NORCO. "My child. I understand that you wish to remain here

The Gnostic Horror of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

This is the 2nd article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Spoiler warning for The Excavation of Hob's Barrow. There's something strange lurking at the heart of The Excavation of Hob'

Elden Ring: Cosmologies in Conflict

This is the first article in the Video Game Cosmology series. Read the intro here. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! From the moment we step under Elden Ring’s sky, we spend most of our time in the shadow of the colossal, luminous Erdtree; a

What in the World(s) is Video Game Cosmology? An Intro

This is the intro to the Video Game Cosmology series. If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon! Chances are you are reading these words on a machine fixed by gravity to the surface of a planet called Earth. You maybe use that same machine to conjure make-

Why Gwyn Must Die

This article was originally published by Kotaku UK on October 10 2018. This republished version includes some minor changes. Gwyn, Lord of Cinder and former Lord of Sunlight, sits at the centre of the tangled labyrinth that is Dark Souls. The harmful consequences of his presence spread through every capillary

From Software

The Doomed Heroes of Dark Souls

This article was originally published by Kotaku UK on March 24 2017. This republished version includes some minor changes. Video games usually have an easy answer to the question “What does it mean to be a hero?” It’s an opportunity for excitement and adventure, to enter a virtual world

From Software

Bloodborne, Transhumanism and Cosmic Cyberpunk

This article was originally published by Kotaku UK on August 18 2017. With all its morbid decadence, the richly-layered Gothic imagination and cosmic horror of Bloodborne tends to overshadow some of its more (post)modern influences. Bloodborne isn’t a traditionalist, after all, but a punk: or to be

Medieval

Not Yet Built and Already Ruined: The Ruins of The Green Knight and Pendragon

The Arthurian worlds of Inkle’s tactical narrative game Pendragon and the movie The Green Knight have one thing in common: the grand, pathetic ruins of castles, monasteries, and chapels. In The Green Knight, a castle in ruins is the first landmark Gawain passes as he sets out on his

From Software

The Artists and Paintings That Bleed Through Bloodborne

This article was originally published by Kotaku UK on December 9 2016. This republished version includes some minor changes. Even as you are beaten to a bloody pulp by some horrific creature, you can’t help but notice the beauty in From Software’s action RPGs. Whether you’re playing

Literature

What the Epic of Gilgamesh can tell us about Disco Elysium’s most troubling character, the Deserter

contains spoilers for the Epic of Gilgamesh! (also Disco Elysium) It’s an old story. The oldest we know of, in fact: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Having been confronted with the terrible reality of death, our archetypal hero Gilgamesh embarks on a quest for the legendary figure of Utnapishtim, who

Musings

The Past Stays Present. Thoughts on Before the Storm's Farewell Episode

*spoilers ahead, ye landlubbers!* I’ve spent many hours (re)playing the whole Life is Strange series over the last couple of months. Even though I liked the original game very much at the time of its release, it’s one of those rare games that I’ve come to

Horror

We’re all Meat. A few thoughts on Resident Evil VII and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Depictions of the eating of meat in horror films and games have been a major fascination for me for years. As a vegetarian, I may have a different gut reaction to this than most people, but that doesn’t mean that the trope of disturbing carnivorism lacks mainstream “appeal”. The

Game Cosmology

Revolution without End

This is a translation of my article “Revolution ohne Ende” which was originally published in WASD 11 “Revolution – Games & Change”. (c) WASD, 11/17. Marked by ruins and the undead, the world of Dark Souls may seem apocalyptic, but the old order is still very much (half-)alive. This

Musings

Prey Tell, What Lies through the Looking Glass?

No major spoilers, but I recommend playing at least halfway through Prey before reading. One point of criticism often levelled at Prey is its story, setting, and characters — what you might call its fiction. On the surface, it’s true that the story has pacing issues, that the setting is

Review

Hollow Knight Review

Navigating intricate spaces is one of the purest pleasures of videogames, and Hollow Knight offers one of the most intriguing labyrinths I can think of. As an intrepid bug explorer, you descend into the dark passageways and caverns of a lost insect kingdom. Having learnt more than a few design

Musings

Playing with the Trickster

This article was originally published on Kill Screen, October 2016. Since the site is no longer online, I'm re-publishing the article here. I also wrote a follow-up piece, which you can find here. “They are the lords of in-between. A trickster does not live near

Musings

Why Trico Matters

Animals in video games are usually nothing but robots in skins and furs. They’re utterly predictable and mechanical, even those that are modelled realistically or animated with care: rabbits hop away in straight lines, bears attack on sight and until they drop dead. If we observe them from a