Michael Thomsen

PAUSE: Michael Bay brings dustep and explosions to E3.

video The juxtapositions one finds at E3 are a marvel. On the one hand you have perfectly tame things like Micrsoft’s new music streaming service, and on the other hand there is an ocean of explosions, executions, and non-sequitur dustep. Jarosh Barkdale has done a fine job capturing this bizarrenes

E3: God of War: Ascension reveals the magic of creative destruction.

video Creative destruction has been an important idea in the U.S. presidential election, with Mitt Romney claiming the fecund growth that occurs after bankruptcy and mass layoffs is an essential part of the capitalism. The concept finds a surprising co-conspirator in God of War: Ascension, which wil

E3: ZombiU plays with the power of unconscious decision making.

video The last few years have brought a bounty of new evidence about how the subconscious guides our actions. Where this leaves the concept of free will is up for debate but we are discovering large parts of our lives run by the rote guidance of the unthinking mind. ZombiU dramatizes the stress betw

E3: Dishonored gives you a keyhole view into other people’s private lives.

video Like all games that support stealth, Dishonored can be played by silently watching other people from the shadowy wings. In playing through the E3 demo mission without killing anyone, you’ll need to trail behind guards, eavesdropping on idle conversation to learn who’s running the show, what ar