Browsing all articles by Jason Rice, Author at PIXELS OR DEATH.
Life Is Like A Box Of Candies
Jason Rice | Tuesday, May 14, 2013 
Life is like a box of candies, you never know what you’re going to get.
What might seem like a trite pop culture reference is the heart of Candy box!, a recently released online game that features only a slowly increasing counter and one button: eat all the candies. If you’ve …
A Closer Look At The New GTA V Character Trailer
Jason Rice | Thursday, May 2, 2013 For the entire time I’ve been teaching, there have been three video game series that come up time and time again among my students: Pokemon, Super Smash Bros., and the perennial favorite, Grand Theft Auto. Everybody has a GTA story, a tale of wanton destruction and abuse of prostitutes. Rockstar’s …
Into The Dark: A Review of Year Walk
Jason Rice | Wednesday, May 1, 2013 
I am one jaded motherfucker when it comes to scary games. I played Fatal Frame as a light snack, found myself yawning through Amnesia, and laugh in the face of Silent Hills and Resident Evils. Even the alarm clock in Dead Space 2 couldn’t get me. I’m a stone-cold, dead-eyed, unflappable …
Sufficiently Spooky: A Review of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
Jason Rice | Wednesday, April 24, 2013 
It’s been awhile since a game has made me smile quite as much as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. Everything about the game, from the way that Luigi hums along with the music to the fact that mission updates come at you through a launch Nintendo DS aptly titled the “Dual …
Who Needs Faces: Entrusting Players With Open-Ended Characters
Jason Rice | Tuesday, April 16, 2013 
Thomas Was Alone is about some squares on a quest up and to the right. That’s about it. There’s some storytelling going on in the background, something about an artificial intelligence developing sentience, but it’s limited to short bumpers before certain stages. It’s nothing special.
Despite this, Thomas Was Alone made me cry. …
The Mushroom Tyranny
Jason Rice | Friday, April 5, 2013 
We’ve all been duped. One of the few things that we can always rely on in video games, the endless conflict between Mario and Bowser over the freedom of Princess Peach, is a lie. It’s a construction, a fallacy, a tale that’s being told by the victors rather than the …
Some Advice For Playing Super Hexagon
Jason Rice | Tuesday, April 2, 2013 
1. You will die.
Accept this. Life is fleeting and, no matter what, it will end. It will end quickly, brutally, and most of the time you won’t see it coming.
Sometimes it will seem completely unfair, and often it actually will be. Other times you’ll know exactly what you did wrong. …
Infinity Blade II Helped Me Accept iOS Gaming
Jason Rice | Wednesday, March 20, 2013 
It started as little more than bleak clouds on the horizon and the distant rumble of thunder. “One day,” people would say, “we’ll play all our games on devices we’ll carry with us, things that will be our phones and organizers.” I’d point up at the brilliant sunshine over our …
Five Great In Medias Res Opening Stages
Jason Rice | Monday, March 18, 2013 
There are certain games I’ll never play again. Games that, no matter how amazing they were, I just can’t drudge up the desire to amble through their opening sequences for a second time. Dragon Quest VII is easily the worst offender, with multiple hours going by before the first battle. …
The End: A Review of Mass Effect 3 Citadel
Jason Rice | Tuesday, March 12, 2013 
No matter how you play it, there’s only one person in the galaxy that understands Shepard. It’s not Liara, Garrus, Tali, or even Miranda. It’s not Jack or Zaeed or even Kaiden / Ashley. It’s not the person you’ve romanced, nor is it one of the many people whose lives …
