Jay Castello
Jay is a freelance games writer specialising in intersectional feminist critique, how to improve games and use them to improve the world, and cute dogs. She loves inhabiting digital spaces in all their forms, and being constantly surprised by just how weird and wonderful games can be.
Assassin’s Creed: Origin’s Discovery Tour Mode is Great
I’ve been excited for Assassin’s Creed: Origin’s Discovery Tour mode since it was first announced. Origin’s sprawling map of Ptolemaic Egypt is gorgeous, and...
Celeste’s Assist Mode Brings Welcome Accessibility Options
Celeste was designed to be a challenging game.
So states part of the game’s “Assist Mode.” It’s clear about developer Matt Makes Games’s intent: “difficulty...
Overwatch Finally Sent Me A Notification About an Abuse Report
Overwatch finally sent me a notification telling me that my reports led to some action taken against a player.
It’s been 20 months since the...
‘Borders’ Shows the Struggles of Mexican Immigrants
Borders opens with your player character alone in a desert cluttered with equal amounts of hardy plants and human trash. Cacti and bushes might...
Self Care Jam 2 Brings Brilliant, Stress Free Creations
Self Care Jam 2 wrapped up this week, bringing in over fifty entries covering everything from phone backgrounds to novellas to poetry. And of...
It’s Time For Gabe Newell to Fix Steam’s Abuse Problem
It’s incredibly easy to use Steam to abuse people. Curation groups with homophobic and racist slurs in their names; antisemitic foundations; or outright white...
There’s No Escaping Stardew Valley’s Capitalist Hamster Wheel
The premise of Stardew Valley is simple: quit your desk job at the soulless Joja Corp., move to the beautiful coast, take up a...
What Can We Do About Dev Crunch?
Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan recently made a forum post talking about the dedication of the Overwatch team. Most read it (correctly) as a statement of...
Overwatch’s Play Nice, Play Fair Update Misses the Point
Recently, Blizzard released a developer update titled Play Nice, Play Fair, which attempted to address Overwatch’s fundamental problems with toxicity.
Game developer Jeff Kaplan described...
Mercy’s Rework is a Bad Direction for Overwatch
In a recent developer update, Overwatch’s game director Jeff Kaplan announced a substantial rework of the playstyle of healer Mercy. In between repeatedly telling...
Tacoma is Hopeful, and That’s Important
Tacoma opens with an empty space station; deserted by its crew in mysterious circumstances. Yet it doesn’t feel isolated. Protagonist Amy rarely speaks, but...
“No Skill” Heroes: Ableism With a Side of Misogyny in Overwatch
Overwatch is full of heroes with a variety of abilities, including those who don’t require traditional first person shooter skills like aiming and twitch reflexes...
Summer Games Done Quick Champions Accessibility
Summer Games Done Quick is running all of this week; a 24/7 marathon of speedruns raising money for Doctors Without Borders. And this time...
E3 Presentations Featured Just 8 Female-Led Games
You might have noticed during my Gender at E3 series that I wasn’t exactly blown away by any of the press conferences when it...
The Price of Life is Strange: Before The Storm Devs Crossing...
When Life is Strange: Before the Storm was announced, many were surprised that fan favourite Ashly Burch wouldn’t be reprising her role as Chloe...
Gender at E3: Nintendo
The Nintendo E3 press conference opened with a reel showing a diverse cast playing a bunch of Switch games, from Arms to Rocket League....