JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology
Slim pickings
An ominous dark cloud has descended over the video games industry in 2024 still, SCOTT ALSWORTH finds a handful of silver linings
Helldivers 2
[Arrowhead Game Studios]
MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones
JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system
MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star
MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
THERE’S an expression doing the rounds in the videogame industry right now; survive till ‘25. And that’s not an age thing. This year’s seen more studio closures and mass layoffs than the last.
To add that those of us in the biz are getting angry is something of an understatement. And yet, our anger’s failing to hold capitalism to account in the games we’re creating.
A glance at this month’s Game Awards says it all. The latest cash grab of overly ludocentric games, centring on cutesy robots and infantile, male fantasies, apparently developed for the likes of undiscerning shut-ins, aren’t really doing it for me.
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