Recent content by Robert Rath

Forget Realism, We Need Truth Robert tackles the military games genre and says that if you want to depict war, you need to talk about the material in a way that resonates with the audience. Read Full Article

Why We Need To Recast Indiana Jones Robert makes a case for why it is time to move on from Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, and embrace Chris Pratt - or whoever else dons the fedora and bullwhip - as the next archaeological action hero. Read Full Article

Dangerous Words in Telltale's Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice Dissecting the characters and relationships in Telltale's Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice. Read Full Article

Yes, Women in Dragon Age Could Use Longswords Recently a topic keeps rearing its obnoxious head: the idea that it?s ?unrealistic? for women in games to wield longswords. Women, the argument goes, don?t have the strength to wield heavy blades. These claims are total nonsense. Read Full Article

Old Business: Three Stories Critical Intel Missed in 2014 A look back at some of the more interesting stories that this column missed last year for various reasons. Read Full Article

Highlighting the Critical Games of 2014 Robert compiles his list of noteworthy games for 2014, but it isn't a "best of" group. It is more to highlight one extraordinary aspect of a game, then explain why it worked. Read Full Article

Totally Selfish Post-Holiday Self Gifting Guide Rob Rath lists what books to buy to learn more about the historical and cultural context of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty or Far Cry 4. Read Full Article

Fact and Fiction - The Culture and Politics of Kyrat Rob Rath discusses what Far Cry 4 got right, as well as what it got entirely wrong. Read Full Article

Hi BloodBrain. I'll be dealing with these issues in next week's column, and believe me I share a lot of your concerns. This week's column was exclusively about the physical environment and landscape--next week will critique the cultural, religious and political depictions which -- as you said...

How Far Cry 4 Nailed the Himalayas The team at Ubisoft went to great lengths to depict the Himalayas in Far Cry 4. Having been to Nepal and that region, Robert thinks they did an excellent job. Read Full Article

Pikachu and Pepper Spray: Hong Kong's Geeky Protest Art Protests in Hong Kong are escalating over the bid for democratic elections, and icons not usually associated with politics have joined the "umbrella movement." Pikachu and other geek characters have joined the fray. Read Full Article

Assassin's Creed Unity: The Good, The Bad And The Déplaisant There are many things Assassin's Creed: Unity gets right, but there are also many things it gets wrong. And there are a couple things it just completely screws up on. Here's the big ones. Read Full Article

Thanks for pointing those out. Not sure how they got past editing. I'll have them fixed! Unfortunately, it's the Christmas rush season and I'm marathoning a 30+ hour game each week to write about them while they're timely. Even if you're well-prepared and writing as you play, that often leads...

How Assassin's Creed: Unity Fails As Historical Fiction Another Assassin's Creed game has been released, which means it is time for Robert to yet again look at how accurate the game is from an historical aspect. Read Full Article

You Have to Earn Your Apocalypse Critical Intel takes a deep dive on what it means to be apocalyptic, and why so much of contemporary gaming uses the idea of an apocalypse wrong. Read Full Article