Explosion

Charles Battersby

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Charles is a proud contributor to Explosion, as well as the Xbox/ PC Department Lead at Player Affinity, a weekly columnist for Default Prime, a reviewer at The Indie Game Magazine, and a Special Agent at the U.S. Department of Electronic Entertainment.

  • Games Meet Theater In Brooklyn

    The Games As Art debate grows more one-sided each year as game designers find ever more profound themes to explore. However, artists in other media...

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    Gaming
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    The Games As Art debate grows more one-sided each year as game designers find ever more profound themes to explore. However, artists in other media are using video games as a source of inspiration, including a burgeoning community of theater artists. The annual Game Play Theater Festival in Brooklyn New York bills itself as “The intersection...
    821
    1 share, 821 points

  • Director Brent Hodge on “A Brony Tale”

    Wil Wheaton once said “Don’t let anyone tell you that that thing that you love is a thing that you can’t love.” The My Little...

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    Movies
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Wil Wheaton once said “Don’t let anyone tell you that that thing that you love is a thing that you can’t love.” The My Little Pony franchise has been around for thirty years, and for almost all of that time it was meant for little girls. However, with the latest cartoon incarnation of My Little...
    829
    829 points

  • Interview With Robyn Miller of Myst & The Immortal Augustus Gladstone

    Twenty years ago the Myst franchise dominated the PC gaming market. An enigmatic narrative that challenged players to explore a mysterious island while also challenging...

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    Features
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Twenty years ago the Myst franchise dominated the PC gaming market. An enigmatic narrative that challenged players to explore a mysterious island while also challenging the perspective that games were just for kids. Robyn Miller was co-designer of  Myst and its sequel Riven but he left the developer, Cyan Worlds, to pursue work in other mediums....
    864
    864 points

  • Dominique Pamplemousse – Review

    Games are big business! Huge companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars paying massive teams of developers to slave away for years producing blockbuster online...

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    Gaming
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Games are big business! Huge companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars paying massive teams of developers to slave away for years producing blockbuster online shooters that push the boundaries of hyper-realistic graphic technology! Games are also made by one person, like Deirdra Kiai who used some clay to make a video game called Dominique...
    822
    822 points

  • Making The Game Should Be Enough

    What consumers expect from a video game has changed over the last thirty years. In the 80’s there were cloth maps and thick manuals in...

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    Features
    1
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    What consumers expect from a video game has changed over the last thirty years. In the 80’s there were cloth maps and thick manuals in every box. When slim CD cases became the standard packaging, players stopped expecting pack-in items beyond a tiny manual. Since hard drives were added to consoles Downloadable Content has become...
    823
    823 points

  • Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut

    Making a video game is hard. Having a good idea is only one small part of it. After the designer says “I got a great...

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    Reviews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Making a video game is hard. Having a good idea is only one small part of it. After the designer says “I got a great idea for a game!” the developers then spend years programing it, making art, editing sound, writing dialog, and trying to get it released to the public. Deadly Premonition is a...
    825
    825 points

  • Chivalry Deadliest Warrior

    The Deadliest Warrior TV show has “Video Game” written all over it, and there have been some games based on the franchise, but none of...

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    Reviews
    3
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    The Deadliest Warrior TV show has “Video Game” written all over it, and there have been some games based on the franchise, but none of them were remarkable. A few years ago there was a 3D fighter game based on the show that had some neat features, but was ultimately bogged down with too many...
    817
    817 points

  • Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies

    Aerial combat is a common genre of gaming, but it’s often so realistic and hardcore that casual players can get turned off. Sid Meier’s Ace...

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    Reviews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Aerial combat is a common genre of gaming, but it’s often so realistic and hardcore that casual players can get turned off. Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol took the action-packed dogfighting of WWII and adapted it into a turn-based system where players commanded a small squadron of fighter planes using tactical RPG style mechanics. The new...
    828
    828 points

  • Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia – Book Review

    The introduction to Capcom’s new 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia points out that Capcom got its start from arcade action and fighting games where story and...

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    Features
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    The introduction to Capcom’s new 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia points out that Capcom got its start from arcade action and fighting games where story and character were virtually non-existent. Back in the 80’s players were lucky to get anything more than a line of text explaining that “Super Joe” had to go shoot somebody or...
    851
    851 points

  • EA Mobile Announces Winter Line-up Including Plants vs. Zombies 2 for Android

    When Plants vs. Zombies 2 hit iPhone earlier this year it gave tower defense junkies a dose of free-to-play heroin for the addictive franchise, but...

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    Features
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    When Plants vs. Zombies 2 hit iPhone earlier this year it gave tower defense junkies a dose of free-to-play heroin for the addictive franchise, but Android users have had to wait until now to play it. EA not only made that surprise announcement earlier this week, but also unveiled a few other new games coming...
    868
    868 points

  • New York Comic Con 2013 – Approaching “Peak Geek”

    The Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side has folded up its cape and taken off its tights, changing back into its secret identity as...

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    Features
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    The Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side has folded up its cape and taken off its tights, changing back into its secret identity as a humble convention center. The New York Comic Con 2013 is over, leaving in its wake an internet filled with cosplay pictures and a ripple of fluff pieces in the...
    842
    842 points

  • Hands-On With Montague’s Mount

    It can take just one little thing to ruin an otherwise good game. Imagine a first-person narrative puzzle/adventure game that allows players to explore a...

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    Previews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    It can take just one little thing to ruin an otherwise good game. Imagine a first-person narrative puzzle/adventure game that allows players to explore a mysterious island off the coast of Ireland. A romantic, exotic, mysterious locale filled with authentic Irish flavour and a heaping dose of danger. Now image that the character exploring this...
    821
    821 points

  • Cognition Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review

    Cognition Episode 4: The Cain Killer – Review It has been a year since the first episode of the adventure series Cognition appeared, and the...

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    Reviews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Cognition Episode 4: The Cain Killer – Review It has been a year since the first episode of the adventure series Cognition appeared, and the final episode has arrived to show how extensively an indie game can grow over the course of a year. When it first appeared it followed a psychic FBI agent name...
    834
    834 points

  • Betrayer Hands-On Preview

    Monolith Games made some amazing first person shooters, including the horror/shooter hybrid F.E.A.R. And the spy parody No One Lives Forever. A splinter group of...

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    Previews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Monolith Games made some amazing first person shooters, including the horror/shooter hybrid F.E.A.R. And the spy parody No One Lives Forever. A splinter group of designers has broken away from Lith to form their own studio, and their first game is a first person shooter with a bit of a twist; it’s set in the...
    816
    816 points

  • BioShock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds DLC

    Bioshock Infinite divided its gameplay into clear sections where Booker and Elizabeth explored the floating city of Columbia in a story-based adventure, and other sections...

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    Reviews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    Bioshock Infinite divided its gameplay into clear sections where Booker and Elizabeth explored the floating city of Columbia in a story-based adventure, and other sections where the pair were swarmed by enemies in fierce combat. The first of three DLC packs arrived this week giving players a combat-focused experience with virtually no story content. Titled...
    833
    833 points

  • Doodle Jump Kinect

    When the Kinect was unveiled, hardcore gamers correctly deduced that it wasn’t going to have many games that appeal to the traditional Xbox fan and...

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    Reviews
    Charles Battersby
    by Charles Battersby
    When the Kinect was unveiled, hardcore gamers correctly deduced that it wasn’t going to have many games that appeal to the traditional Xbox fan and their Gears of War style of gameplay. This was never Microsoft’s intent. With the other two consoles sporting motion-sensing controllers the Xbox would be at a loss on how to...
    809
    809 points

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