I spent fifteen years in IT management understanding that sometimes the best systems are the ones that respect user agency completely. Fable is a game that respects player agency in ways that were genuinely innovative for 2004. Your character’s appearance changes based on your actions. NPCs react to…

I came to Burnout 3 expecting a competent arcade racer. What I found was a complete philosophy shift about what racing games could be. Coming from construction, I understand something about breaking things down and rebuilding better. Burnout 3 took racing game conventions and completely rebuilt them around…

Here’s something I teach in my history classes – sometimes the best adaptations of existing franchises come from developers who aren’t afraid to ignore the source material’s most famous characters. Knights of the Old Republic proves this perfectly. BioWare made a Star Wars game that’s excellent not because…

I’ve been analyzing action game design since the arcade era, which means I understand when difficulty is punishing and when it’s fair. Ninja Gaiden by Team Ninja achieves the rare balance where extreme difficulty feels earned and fair. Ryu Hayabusa is a ninja fighting impossible odds with grace…