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Feature: Another Story
‘I hate repeating a trick’ – the writer of Telling Lies on going back to the desktop thriller
When Sam Barlow released murder mystery game Her Story in 2015, he probably didn’t expect to get a two-page spread in Le Monde about this three-hour FMV game. Her Story worked because it was simple. You had a fictional desktop and a search engine that would bring up videos of an ongoing police interview. When you typed in “dead” or “argument”, you’d get a video…
Telling Lies asks players to untangle one big truth from four sets of FMV fibs
Her Story was an interesting experiment in FMV sleuthing, and writer Sam Barlow's followup Telling Lies looks like the next step for the format. Players are asked to pick through four people's lives through stolen and secretly recorded videos, and unravel the truth behind a "shocking incident" linking them all, plus an oddly specific "96 small lies" along the way. Developers Furious Bee have roped…
Feature: #interactiveTV #betterthanbandersnatch
Before Bandersnatch, there was Sam 'Her Story' Barlow's #WarGames. You may well have never heard of the latter, as this interactive TV-like-game came out rather quietly early last year and didn't have the big ho-ha of being on Netflix or associated with one of the biggest TV shows on the planet. But if you thought Bandersnatch was the pinnacle of modern interactive entertainment, I'd argue…
Feature: We can utilise a zeitgeist as well as anyone else
If you’ve choosed-and-adventured through Bandersnatch, the recent Black Mirror thing on Netflix, and aren’t already a fan of experimental interactive fiction: I envy you. It means you’re able to play actually good examples of interactive fiction for the first time. Sure, Bandersnatch has funny lines, surprises and scene stealing performances from Will Poulter doing a “pretty much exactly how I, the writer, talk in real…
Sam Barlow, once lead designer on the Silent Hill series, has now made his name exploring the lines between film and gaming with 2015's Her Story. While we're still waiting for that games' spiritual sequel, Telling Lies, he's just announced the release date for #WarGames, an interactive six-part programme where the viewer controls the video feeds, which will, apparently, influence your experience of the series…
I make references to old movies, because I am an old man who only thinks about the past. In this case, the reference is to 80s 'teen hacker almost accidentally nukes the world' thriller Wargames. Y'know, the one that no-one remembers anything about other than "shall we play a game?" But don't we all feel like best friends when we quote it together? We already…
Oh no, is that headline libellous? Let me check my big copy of McNae’s. Actually, no, let’s live dangerously. Sam Barlow, the creator of crime thriller Her Story is caught up in Telling Lies! By that I mean he is making a new interactive video story called Telling Lies, and teaming up with a big ol’ film production company to do so. We don’t know…
"Hello," said Graham, strolling into the RPS Treehouse. "Here's a link to a seven-thousand word article which was interesting and has information about Her Story creator Sam Barlow's interactive film project. BYE!" And off he went, out of the window, diving into a leaf pile and disturbing the local hedgehogs. It was a New Yorker piece by Raffi Khatchadourian about interactive films and is a…
With Her Story [official site] sweeping up 3 awards at GDC, more than any other game, you may be wondering what Sam Barlow is going to do next. (You could almost say: what his story is going to be.) He teased Her Story 2 in the past, in a wonderfully tantalizing tweet, but he has also decided to join Interlude as Executive Creative Director. If…
Feature:
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. I am late to the Her Story party, because I was determined that I was going to play it with my partner. That's what I did two weekends ago, and it was as good as I'd hoped.
Most of Team RPS spent the end of June hunched over screens, looking confused and tapping away at their keyboards hoping that eventually something would make sense. Wait for it. And in the game. Thank you, thank you. FMV crime mystery Her Story [official site], which has players watching old police interview footage and trying to figure out what happened, ended up one of our…
Feature: 2015's best FMV game.
What is the best FMV game of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today's door is... Her Story!
Feature: Perfect Crime
Videogames spilling out of closets. Videogames stuffed under your bed. Videogames in your hair, and in your eyes, nose and mouth. Shrunken videogames clogging your pores, marching through your arteries. Videogames like rocks in your stomach. Oh, hello. Are you suffering from too many videogames? That's why doctors* created Game of the Month. Take just one videogame monthly and you can fight the ill effects…
Feature: Our Stories
Now that Her Story [official site] is available, Adam, John and Pip have gathered to discuss the structure and plot of the extraordinary FMV crime game. There are spoilers throughout and as much of the game revolves around the secrets and lies surrounding a criminal case, please don't read on if you haven't already played. Our spoiler-free review and interview should help you to decide…
Feature: Just one more thing
A camera records the statements that a woman makes to the police in relation to her missing husband. Years later, you sit at a computer and search through a video database by typing in keywords. The computer searches for the keywords in transcripts of the statements and returns up to five results. To dig deeper, you'll have to make connections, combine words, play detective. Her…
Sam Barlow continues to stake his claim on the coveted title Basically Gaming's Soderbergh as he meanders between mainstream and indie culture. He's gone from writing a XYZZY Award winning interactive fiction game called Aisle in the late '90s to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, AKA that Wii game wot was quite good, and is now a few weeks away from releasing one of the most interesting looking narrative experiments I've…
Feature: Serial, True Detective And Alan Bennett
Sam Barlow has one of the most impressive CVs in gaming. By my reckoning, he only has six releases to his name but two of those games are comfortably inside my list of all-time favourites - the experimental interactive fiction of Aisle and the masterful Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The latter might never come to PC but hopefully it'll arrive in digital download form on…
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. Aisle is one of my favourite games. It's a snapshot of a life in progress that unfolds into a complex character study that you can guide toward tragedy, farce, drama, thriller or romance. The confines within which it operates - a text adventure…
