I have a new little ditty over at Gamers With Glasses: “7 Games to Play for the Start of School.” I curated a short list of newish games, both digital and analog, to help celebrate the new academic year (and the tentative return to classes). I also pleasantly surprised my editors by including a White Noise quote:
Welcome to September, the seventh month, the much-anticipated or dreaded return of pumpkin spiced ubiquity, the first hints of fall especially around the edges of sugar maple leaves, the too-early stocking of Halloween candy, and the return to schools, carpools, campuses, and homework. This time of year always makes me think of the opening paragraphs of Don Delillo’s White Noise, which describes the quotidian drama of move-in weekend at a fictional pastoral university. As the narrator describes, “I’ve witnessed this spectacle every September for twenty-one years. It is a brilliant event, invariably. The students greet each other with comic cries and gestures of sodden collapse. Their summer has been bloated with criminal pleasures, as always. The parents stand sun-dazed near their automobiles, seeing images of themselves in every direction.” September is a time of anticipation and transition. Therefore, as the month gets underway and we settle into new routines, here are seven recent-ish games to help with the changes, trepidations, vicissitudes, experiences, even boredom of the first weeks of classes.
In particular, I am happy to signal boost Analgesic Production’s new game Sephonie: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1248840/Sephonie/, which is beautifully cool.