Author: Ian Bryce Jones

The Haunted PS1 Aesthetic and Medium-Specific Noise

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

I’m making some plans for some all-new series of videos to start premiering in 2023. But since it’s been such a long gap, I wanted to make sure I posted at least one thing to YouTube in 2022, and Halloween gave me a nice external deadline.

The low-poly aesthetic in horror has been one I’ve been interested in for awhile, all the way back since Back in 1995 was released in 2016. 2022 was the year I devoted to finally diving into a scene that’s become quite deep and diverse in recent years, to coincide with the horror class I taught in the spring quarter, and am teaching again right at this moment.

Script below the jump.

Continue reading →

Alignment, Allegience, and Abby: A Last of Us Retrospective, Part 3

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

Flying by the seat of my pants on this series, really hope to time the fourth and final video to drop on June 19, which will be the one-year anniversary of the release of Last of Us Part II. Script below the jump!

Continue reading →

You Don’t Have to Do This: A Last of Us Retrospective, Part 2

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

It’s back to The Last of Us—this time, Part II. I’m trying my best to finish one entry in this series once every three weeks, even in the midst of my current teaching schedule. So far, so good! Script below the jump.

Continue reading →

A Last of Us Retrospective, Part 1

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

Well, I’ve inaugurated a new video series, and I’ve done so smack dab in the middle of an academic quarter. Perhaps inadvisedly! We’ll see if I can keep up a regular schedule for this series, which dives deep into the storytelling techniques of the Last of Us franchise.

Script below the jump.

Continue reading →

Rule of Rose and the Tidiness of Unreality

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

Whoops! I made sure to give myself enough time to finish this video by Halloween … but then I neglected to post the announcement here! Happy belated Halloween, everyone.

I really relished the opportunity to talk about Rule of Rose, one of my favorite odd little games that I’ve never written about in any fashion before. Unfortunately copies of the game have become real collector’s items over the years, and it’s sad to praise a piece of media that so few will have access to. But hey, I also write about experimental film, so I know the feeling.

Script below the jump.

Continue reading →

Return of the Obra Dinn Commentary and Critique

Ian Bryce Jones2 Comments

The slow march of my video series on detective games continues with this, its fifth entry. For awhile I was afraid there was no reason to do this one, as I wouldn’t be able to top my students’ posts and videos on this game after I taught it last spring. In the end, I went with sheer length as my own particular angle.

Script below the jump.

Continue reading →

“We Had a List of Rules”: An Analysis of HER STORY

Ian Bryce Jones2 Comments

A fourth entry in my video series on detective games. It’s not real surprise that this game would end up in this series: I’ve taught it twice now (including in one class this term), I’ve written about teaching it, I named it one of the games of the decade, and right before the term launched I published a full transcript of it. What I didn’t expect was for it to be quite this long—definitely among the longer analyses of a single game I’ve done, in any format.

Script below the jump.

Continue reading →