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Andrew Lavigne is Strange Country.
A critic with an eye on video games and all other forms of fiction, you can keep a closer watch on him and his articles at Gone to Strange Country or follow him on Twitter.
When he isn't performing criticism, Andrew is writing fiction, improving his amatuer photography, and sampling whiskey.
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Member Blogs
Glitch Reading, Glitched Reading: Bethesda's "Broken" Worlds  |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Mon, 25 Mar 2013 05:52:00 EDT in
Console/PC,
Design
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| Glitches frustrate, but they also intrigue us. They are joined with our experience of the game. Stories spring out of them, told on forums, in articles, on playgrounds, in bars. I have told you stories and been told stories in return. |
| Read More... | 6 Comments |
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Open Claustrohobia: Architecture in Batman's Arkham City |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:05:00 EST in
Console/PC,
Design
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| While the original Batman: Arkham Asylum presented us with the titular locale's claustrophobic, Gothic environments its sequel presents a uniquely "open" claustrophobia that only a city could emit. |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
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Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword & Nintendo's Art Legacy |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:40:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC
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| Fujibayashi's "Skyward Sword" honors gameplay, reading, painting, and music instead of demeaning them, like Heavy Rain's crass blend of “interactive cinema.” Skyward Sword is all-inclusive, inviting the arts to do their parts and to do them together. |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
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2012: The Year of Dreaming Dangerously |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:22:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC
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| "...we witnessed (and participated in) a series of shattering
events...it was the year of dreaming dangerously, in both
directions: emancipatory dreams mobilizing protestors...and
obscure destructive dreams...." |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
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Heavy Rain: a heap of broken images |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Mon, 24 Dec 2012 01:43:00 EST in
Console/PC,
Design
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| How do art design and game mechanics collide in failure to make the most (un)sincere game in recent memory? |
| Read More... | 9 Comments |
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Shooting History: Black Ops, Film, and Reality |
| Posted by Andrew Lavigne on Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:24:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC
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| The entire concept of “Black Ops” acts as a rebuttal to Infinity Ward. Better, its usage of the numbers/the player himself is crucial in forming the narrative told through its high-octane gameplay. |
| Read More... | 1 Comments |
[More Andrew Lavigne Blogs]
Andrew Lavigne's Comments
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Comment In: Staying Creative in a Franchise World: The Darryl Principle [Blog - 02/14/2013 - 09:50]
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I think it 's worth ... I think it 's worth recalling that Scott 's Alien and Cameron 's Aliens are both fantastic films, despite being part of a franchise many comic artists like Frank Miller and Alan Moore have turned out fantastic stories using franchise/canon-laden characters, like Moore on his amazing Swamp-Thing run, written just ... |
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Comment In: Memories of Kenji Eno [Blog - 02/23/2013 - 11:03]
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I don 't really have ... I don 't really have words to add to this, as I 've only seen D1 and D2 played, but nice write up. When I saw that 1up review back in 2008, I was hoping he was going to hit the industry in a big way it looks like things ... |
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Comment In: The Inelegance of the Video Game Satire [Blog - 12/08/2012 - 05:09]
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This is what Hotline Miami ... This is what Hotline Miami does: r n r n The only way out is the way through. The only possible oppositional strategy is one of embracing these control technologies, generalizing them, and opening them up. This is the very strategy that Neveldine and Taylor adopt in Gamer, by fully ... |
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