Haywire Magazine

Games culture magazine turned shared space for games writing. We are here to help critics, by helping critics help other critics.

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Namco High uses metanarrative to deepen Davesprites character and raise interesting philosophical questions, including the obvious: who is he?

Let's Play a Love Game: Love Across the Fourth Wall—Eric Cline breaks walls and wins hearts.

https://t.co/06jXeDzEAU

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There's a kind of second puberty that happens to all the sorry saps of capitalism.

Live Your Own Way: What Running a Hostess Club in Yakuza 0 Can Teach Us About Life Under Capitalism—Harry Mackin goes a little crazy in the process.

https://t.co/apNSXzkuCv

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Hot Pursuit 2 stands apart for its singularly chaotic sense of spectacle, boasting more aggressive racing and enemy police than any other title in recent memory.

Racing Line: Road Warrior—Miguel Penabella battles for first place.

https://t.co/DFyB6NsCHb

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

What one gains from a story is intrinsically tied to what one brings to it: artistic biases, hopes and expectations, or even emotional baggage.

Let's Play a Love Game: 'Slow Damage' and the Artist's Palette—Eric Cline considers the tools of creation.

https://t.co/RPtRL2G2pt

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

I don’t believe in Game of the Year lists. I’m almost always behind the curve on playing new games.

Billy's Top 6 Games of 2022 (That May or May Not Have Come Out in 2022)—Billy Dent checks the rearview mirror for unexpectedly close videogames.

https://t.co/FKAwmUhjRu

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Slow Damage rejects plain condemnation of violence in favor of more nuanced examinations of the role it plays in the characters’ lives.

Let's Play a Love Game: 'Slow Damage' and the Intimacies of Violence—Eric Cline gets close and personal with violence.

https://t.co/IGFtnb9D6G

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Perhaps most crucially, Obey Me!'s text messaging is a distinct mode of gameplay unto itself and not just brief interludes within the main story.

Let's Play a Love Game: The Devil's in the DMs—Eric Cline slides into the DMs.

https://t.co/Qm1cUuadp4

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Amnesia obfuscates details of characters’ pasts so that they may resurface for dramatic impact. How would you react if a stranger told you they were your partner?

Let's Play a Love Game: Love is (Not) a Choice—Eric Cline makes the only choice available.

https://t.co/loonAgBhk1

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Fairy tales are among the most basic narratives societies have. One tool for subverting them is another of humanity’s oldest forms of entertainment: porn.

Let's Play a Love Game: Cycles of hunger—Eric Cline follows bread crumbs wherever they may lead.

https://t.co/RQyW4eB3nC

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

How does one pursue the undesirable without stripping it of all grit and substance in some sort of paranormal smol-beanification?

Let's Play a Love Game: Depths (and Shallows) of Monstrosity—Eric Cline embraces the monster inside.

https://t.co/lWcENrK1EK

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

The most fun with any open world game was when I first booted it up, when they're most interesting: before you're in them.

Breath of the Wild, My Neighbor Totoro, and the Miraculous Healing Power of the Korok—Harry Mackin sees the forest for the trees.

https://t.co/8WaRLCTM4R

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

To know that the world does not care about you makes your continued existence its own reward.

To Feel Small and Know Your Worth: The Long Dark’s Vision of Survival—Wyeth Leslie has miles to go before he sleeps.

https://t.co/g8X02Q7kT4

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Midnight Club 3’s tangled relationship with Black artists, hip-hop music, and videogame culture marks it as a singular artifact of its time.

Racing Line: The Bling Era—Miguel Penabella ups every rim size to 24”.

https://t.co/EIk0F6Oha3

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

This column is centered around one question: what makes dating sims work? The unspoken extension of that is an inverse question: when do dating sims fail?

Let's Play a Love Game: The problem with parody—Eric Cline ponders the limits of satire.

https://t.co/0ocwI3rJ0y

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Many dating sims deliver sentimental slice-of-life stories. Some, however, are attention-grabbing and even batshit ridiculous.

Let's Play a Love Game: Loaded questions—Eric Cline ponders the violence of the body.

https://t.co/AcNdWbv7jl

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Dating sims attract players with their open sense of possibility. So how does love bloom when you impose rigid confinements?

Star-crossed love: Navigating confinement in Starfighter: Eclipse—Eric Cline finds love in a hopeless place.

https://t.co/uV3nJM1njN

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

How did I get started down the road to adultery? Joseph showed up at my doorstep to welcome me to the neighborhood.

Let's Play a Love Game: Adultery and empathy—Eric Cline dreams of daddies and happily ever afters.

https://t.co/YlVv3NhrM0

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Forza Horizon 2 represents one of the more effective commentaries that a videogame has made about a generation of millennials, influencers, and wayward youth seeking meaningful experiences.

Racing Line: Your Dream Life—Miguel Penabella

https://t.co/tcf9ksQv4H

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Even one bite can turn most people, but protagonists can experience multiple bites before death. Why?

Immune, Superior Protagonists in Zombie Videogames—B.G.M. Muggeridge puts zombie game protagonists under the microscope.

https://t.co/EoTOh8Mhch

[Haywire Magazine @haywiremag]

Here's an analysis of how viral outbreaks are portrayed in videogames: they usually create an infected "other" that it's OK to shoot at. A little messed up, maybe?

Video Game Viruses and Dehumanization — B.G.M. Muggeridge on the symptoms of the illness.

https://t.co/4LOwaTHHEW