Eugenia Woo reviews HAMLET: The Video Game, a brave attempt to bring together the disparate worlds of gaming and theatre. HAMLET: The Video Game – A Shakespearean Stage Show is a mouthful. It’s also got all the earnestness of a high school production, with none of the good-natured missteps or overbearing parents being idiots in the … Read more
If Bill Shakespeare was around today, the old huckster would probably have a crack at making a video game. A stage show currently playing in Auckland aims to construct what that might look like, complete with Angry Birds and live Tetris. Eugenia Woo talked to director Greg Copper. Auckland’s theatre scene is no slouch. With … Read more
There’s a new Chief Censor in town. David Shanks, a former director and deputy CEO for the Ministry of Social Development, has barely been in the job three months so we decided to throw Eugenia Woo at him. Pity the job of those they call censors. It used to be so easy when there … Read more
Nintendo fan Eugenia Woo talks to Jason Michael Paul, the mind behind The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, about producing a world-renowned video game music concert. In games, as in film, music is the great unseen signifier. The right soundtrack adds significance or emotion, contrasts themes, emphasises, diminishes, and even manipulates meaning – … Read more
The Stormblood expansion is finally open to travelers – get in before the trustafarians with our exclusive guided tour by Eugenia Woo. For the uninitiated, Final Fantasy XIV is Square Enix’s answer to the flood of MMORPGs out there. It had a bit of a rocky beginning; it was panned by critics and players alike … Read more
The hype train has left the station and E3 is over for another year. Eugenia Woo watched the whole bloody thing and now lets rip on which games she can’t wait to play – and which should be consigned to the dustbin of history. It’s been an insane few days for the games industry. In … Read more
Is the mainstream video game industry kidding itself and, by extension, us? Eugenia Woo unpacks the excuses often presented as reasons to avoid diversity. This essay was originally posted online on August 25, 2016. The issue of diversity in video games is polarising. BioWare’s Manveer Heir said it best – “there is a vocal crowd in … Read more
This week sees the launch of a nationwide eSports league featuring more than 50 teams from high schools around the country. But is this whole thing legit? Like, are they actually going to let kids play computer games as a sport? We sent Eugenia Woo to the High School League open night to find out. Parents … Read more
The 16th entry in the venerable Tales series of JRPGS has fans salivating. Eugenia Woo finally got her hands on a copy and found a beautifully designed game let down by stilted plotting. Ever since Tales of Phantasia in 1995, Bandi Namco (formerly Namco Tales Studio, formerly Wolf Team) have basically been operating an assembly line … Read more
For only the 7th time in New Zealand history, the Office of Film & Literature Classification has banned a video game: the highly sexualised Japanese game Gal*Gun. This week two of our writers examine and respond to the decision to ban the game in question and we ask the Chief Censor to expand and explain his … Read more
Eugenia Woo has a date with evil in a RPG that drops moral decisions on the player like a tonne of bricks. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. That’s Nietzsche. I remember someone trying to explain that to me ages ago using the tired example of … Read more
After going all the way down the rabbit hole, Eugenia Woo is back to talk about impossible comebacks and the victors of the 2016 League of Legends World Championships. This is it. I’ll admit, when the World Championships started about a month ago, I was contemplating giving the tournament a miss. Sure, maybe I’d keep … Read more
The LoL Worlds Semifinals has wrapped up and it’s safe to say it’s been dramatic. Worlds correspondent Eugenia Woo summarises the action for your eyeballs. (Eugenia’s previous weekly recaps can all be read here.) Worlds’ month-long run is slowly coming to a close – the Finals will be on the 30th of October and like … Read more
Orchestras around the world are desperately seeking new audiences. They’ve tried shorter concerts and even half-arse t-shirts, but one of the initiatives most successful at luring new concert goers is a series of shows with orchestras playing music from video games. Final Symphony, featuring the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the music of the Final Fantasy series, played recently … Read more
After barely surviving a week of upsets in the second round of worlds, Eugenia Woo regains her composure and sorts the gold from the silt in the chaotic quarterfinals of the 2016 League of Legends Worlds. I was pretty fragile coming into the Quarterfinals after trying and failing to recover from the Darkest Timeline of last week. … Read more
It’s week 2 of Worlds and who better to recap the action and rank the players than Eugenia Woo, The Spinoff’s own LoL correspondent. (If you’re new to LoL Worlds and need a steer, try Eugenia’s handy beginner’s guide.) This was a bit of a jam-packed week for Worlds because a bunch of things almost … Read more
This month planet Earth will shake as the League of Legends World Championships thunder across the globe. It’s the esports Superbowl and for the teams taking part there’s big cheddar to be made. Our LoL correspondent Eugenia Woo is covering the event all month with weekly round ups and standings, but first here’s a in-depth … Read more
Our LoL correspondent Eugenia Woo lists her teams to look out for after the first week of competition. If you’re new to the esport, have a look at her beginner’s guide to League of Legends. My standings are mostly based on the results from Week 1, but like any other sports fan I’ve got my … Read more