When is a bad game not a bad game? When it inadvertently nudges you towards a good game. I began this week playing a very weak HAWXlike coded in Tehran and, via some connected Wikipedia delving and Steam sifting, ended it playing a powerful adventure game set during the Iranian Revolution.>

Squadron: Sky Guardians’ flight model resembles actual flight in the same way a vaulting horse resembles an actual horse. (more…)

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Politics and puzzles. Art and animation. Cats and coups. A little bit of little-discussed history that’s all too relevant to what’s happening right now. … [visit site to read more]

Rehearsals and Return is the new game from (primarily) Peter Brinson, creator of the remarkable art/history/politics vignette The Cat & The Coup. This shares a certain cut-up appearance and a maudlin tone (well, depending on how you approach it), but it’s a rudimentary platform game set to surrealistic, sometimes chaotic backgrounds, wherein you collect dialogue options then make decisions about how to treat assorted famous and infamous figures. And a few less famous ones too.

At present it costs just $1, and will eventually rise to $4. This is a discussion of the experience I had with it, not of its value proposition.> … [visit site to read more]

Politics is boring. It’s not politics’ fault that he’s boring, that’s just the way he is. If variety is the spice rack of life, politics is nutmeg. Completely unremarkable and dull to your average teenager, until you mention the fact that it caused a few wars. In large enough doses, nutmeg can also give you palpitations and make you see things that aren’t really there. Like I said, boring, right? No wait, that’s the opposite of boring. That’s interesting.

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I was going to treat this as a Wot I Think, but sometimes you meet a game that just isn’t at all suited to any kind of verdict like that. There’s plenty I could probably find to moan about if I put my critic’s hat on, but what a futile endeavour that would be.

The Cat And The Coup doesn’t exist to serve games’ usual purposes, although that’s not to say it’s entirely divorced from why we play them. You owe it to yourself to free up 20 minutes for this. And I don’t only say that because it stars a cat.
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