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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
Game journalist. Senior writer at
@Gamesradar
. Previously on
@pcgamer
,
@ign
,
@rockpapershot
,
@eurogamer
. Emails: austin.wood@futurenet.com
Atlanta, GAJoined July 2014
1,280 Following
1,167 Followers

Austin Wood’s Tweets

Austin Wood Retweeted
Emma Kent
@GoneEFK
Elden Ring is up for Best Narrative at #TheGameAwards tonight, so I felt now was the time to dig into why its story is so fractured - and therefore great. Elden Ring is a deliberately unsolvable mystery: or in other words, a postmodern detective story
gamesradar.com
Elden Ring is an impossible mystery that absolutely deserves to be recognized for its narrative
Postmodern literature can help us understand why Elden Ring's story is so fragmented - and why it's so brilliant.
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
No! You're setting and achieving goals of your own design in a video game! Play until YOU feel done. For my money, that's one of the most important forms of play, for lack of a better term, right up there with solving puzzles and overcoming challenges (not mutually exclusive!).
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
Another interesting topic: she was explaining why she's still playing New Pokemon Snap long after beating it. She wants to get/max out/perfect all the things, basically. And she's like, is that dumb? Should I just put it down and play something new?
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
This process has also made me appreciate approachable difficulty modes in yet more ways. There are games I think she'd enjoy, but would really be a struggle for her for a variety of reasons, and the ones that offer a God Mode of some kind are much more realistic and appealing.
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
And if you can play Pokemon Snap, technically a very literal first-person shooter, you can probably play Portal, right? Interested to see how she takes to it. Her husband and I set her up with tons of demos for other games too. (Demos are good!)
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
First of all, what a treat it is to be able to recommend the original Portal to someone with no knowledge of its plot or reputation here in the year of our lord 2022. It's like suggesting ice cream to someone who's never had or even heard of it. Yeah, it's pretty good!
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
One example. She's on Switch, is hooked on New Pokemon Snap, and loves puzzle games. The newly released Portal Switch bundle came to my mind as a recommendation. It's not too demanding reflex-wise, and Portal 1 is arguably one of the few perfect games in existence.
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
Been getting my sister into games lately, and it's prompted some fascinating and challenging questions about how and why people play games, how to convey the appeal of games to somebody with no genre knowledge or jargon vocab, and how to curate without discouraging exploration.
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Austin Wood
@austinwoodmedia
Really enjoying God of War: Ragnarok so far. I do think it suffers from the Ghost of Tsushima problem of unlocking some key attacks too late in the game because combat is just immensely better with them, but it feels good to play.
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