MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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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
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
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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