Call it friction, frustration or flow gone awry, the pace and ease of progress in games is always an important topic of discussion. The first two pieces here focus on smooth, high-speed movement ever forwards, and the last two look at the things that trip us up on the way.
- What I talk about when I talk about endless running | ZAM
Joel MacGregor catches up with a genre that games criticism has often seemed to care little about. - Home - Cameron Bryce
Speaking of running, Cameron Bryce looks at a poorly-designed chase sequence and considers how it could be done better. - Fixing The Bugs | Brendan Vance
Brendan Vance argues that we should care for a game's bugs, and for the people whose work is their habitat. - Errant Signal - Dark Souls III Pt 2 (Boss/Story Spoilers) - YouTube (subtitled)
The latest Errant Signal is a collection of short and sweet essays on Dark Souls III, beginning with that question: why should we care if other people are good at the game or not?
"[Git Gud is] an obnoxious silencing catch phrase that's permeated the games community. I always found that odd because the rest of the game is so indifferent to whether you're good or not: there is no scoring system, or built-in speedrun mechanics, or leaderboards, or combo system. There's just the singular challenge of finishing the game, and the game's world doesn't seem overly concerned with whether you do it or not."
Critical Distance is community-supported. You can pitch in with Patreon or Paypal. Got suggestions about some pieces we should feature next week? Send them through Twitter or by email.