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In 2022, the opening of The Last of Us: Part I depends on a landline phone. Sarah Miller answers the phone in her room. Her father’s cell phone is elsewhere in the house. Another technological relic. The landline—and to a…
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Hello! If you’re reading this, then you’ve reached the pinned post for No Escape, a bimonthly culture zine and occasional video game criticism website. You may be a follower of this page or a random passerby; regardless, you might be…
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One Month with the Steam Deck Let’s get all the stuff you’ve likely heard about the Valve Steam Deck out of the way: yes, it’s powerful – so far the device has handled games as disparate as Final Fantasy VII…
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On a brightly lit soundstage, two heavily made up drag queens look out at us, the audience outside the screen. They are bemused, observing without observing. Cognizant of the watchers they cannot see but just know will be there. “I’m…
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On Game Anthologies Like any type of media, video games are presented in the tried-and-true forms familiar to their audiences. Mini games, visual novels, and RPGs are as ubiquitous for games as short stories, chapbooks, and essay collections are for…
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Mini Metro was a pleasing, inoffensive game about creating a public train system. Its sequel, Mini Motorways, could easily be described as “the same, except it’s cars.” There is, however, a murkier underside to the follow-up title, which develops a…
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A short primer on Drakengard 3 and Xenofeminism (Spoilers for Hybrid Child and Drakengard 3 follow) One of Yoko Taro’s most lovingly cited sources of inspiration is the book Hybrid Child by Mariko Ohara. In this book, an immortal rogue…
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When I need to tamp down my intrusive thoughts, I usually browse the Steam store. There are at least three separate ways to filter and categorize on Steam, and using any of them is a Sisyphean chore. Clicking into the…
No Escape
Digital Culture and its Discontents