LIES. Not a game is made without some use of smoke and/or mirror. Dave’s favourite lies come from Frog Fractions, which seems to be a child’s maths game. Brendan likes how enemies in shooters are programmed to miss. And Alice enjoys cheeky-but-friendly lies, such as the “chance to hit” something in XCOM.

We’ve also been playing games. Alice and Dave have been frowning at Anthem. But we’ve also been liking Ape Out.

Links:

A good Twitter thread about developer trickery: https://twitter.com/Gaohmee/status/903510060197744640

Frog Fractions might be the best game of all time: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/25/frog-fractions-might-be-the-greatest-game-of-all-time/

Never heard of Frog Fractions 2 but here’s a cool game called Glittermitten Grove: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/05/frog-fractions-2-review/

The Frog Fractions 2 ARG spnned 23 other indie games and lasted two years: https://kotaku.com/the-two-year-mystery-is-over-this-is-frog-fractions-2-1790505179

The “permadeath” of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was a fib: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-09-theres-more-to-hellblades-permadeath-than-meets-the-eye

The Station is a sci-fi mystery: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/21/the-station-is-a-first-person-alien-mystery-with-an-intriguing-premise/

The ridiculous 12-minute AI phone call of Metal Gear Solid 2: https://youtu.be/eKl6WjfDqYA

Alice’s Anthem review: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/02/25/anthem-review/

Nate’s Fallout 76 review has many other good lines: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/12/13/fallout-76-review/

Alice’s Ape Out review: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/02/28/ape-out-review/

Locked in a room in Fallout New Vegas with “Ron the Narrator”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJnWwli3Thg

Choice itself might be a lie according to brain scans, oh no: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23367-brain-imaging-spots-our-abstract-choices-before-we-do/