Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: the protagonist of ‘Bloodborne’ falls to their knees in witness of a Lovecraftian nightmare The question of video games as art is one that, as someone who somewhat stopped playing games regularly once I left my teen years, I often struggle to reconcile with my other pretentious English Lit student leanings, and my […]
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Image description: A promo photo for Assassin’s Creed II, picturing Ezio striking a Venusian guard from above. Picture this: it’s March 2021, I sit down in front of my TV, overly excited to have finally been able to acquire a PS5 (after being scammed out of money on my first try, don’t worry, I got it […]
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Image description: A convention of people all playing Hearthstone on PCs Video games have the potential to produce the most varied and revolutionary experiences of all media. Through programming, one can create complex games that require a player to think in new and interesting ways that other media such as films and books cannot facilitate. […]
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Image description: black pawn chess piece surrounded by fallen white chess pieces Lockdown has seemed to me to be an era of the brief in entertainment and gaming trends: we had little to do but consume online media, and so new fads entered and left the online psyche at breakneck speed, the sudden and inexplicable […]
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TW: discussions about addiction and mental health conditions. Links at the bottom of the article for more information on the help available. Image description: A person wearing headphones faces a computer screen. Often upon a school night, and even, I confess, since coming to university, I have had the accusation levelled at me by my […]
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Image description: A black and white photo of the bottom half of a Nintendo DS, a dog is lying down on the screen When I was younger, I was an expert owner of virtual pets, from Tamagotchis to Moshi Monsters. But the best game of them all was always Nintendogs. Looking back on it, Nintendogs […]
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Image description: A cartoon illustration of a person in a swimming pool with a thought bubble of a ladder CW: death The Sims has taken on something of a special role in people’s lives during the pandemic. As much of the world is shut down, we can but reminisce about a time when we had […]
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Image description: a green and blue skateboard lying face down diagonally on the side of a pavement There is no shortage of amazing games in the market right now. From captivating narratives like The Last of Us, to immersive RPGs like Fallout, to indie feats like Hades, and even to love-them-or-hate-thems like Cyberpunk 2077. It […]
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Image Description: The Mario brothers in karts Mario Kart Wii is almost everyone’s (not so) guilty pleasure. Yes, it has caused many an intense argument between siblings over who gets to play as who and many a toddler tantrum over being hit by that dreaded spiked blue shell. You cannot argue that it was not […]
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Image Description: An Xbox Series S and Controller Launched in 2017, Xbox Game Pass is certainly not the first video game subscription service, but has the potential to be the most important for the future of the industry. For a monthly fee, Game Pass allows you access to its wide array of games, available to […]
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Image Description: Lara Croft swinging on a rope in some ruins. She’s gaming’s bestselling heroine, holds 5 World Records, and with over 1300 covers she is on more magazines than any supermodel. For someone who began as a sexed-up Indiana Jones fantasy, Lara Croft has come a long way. When I was young, I idolised […]
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Image Description: Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Only 18% of the computer games announced at E3 in 2020 had a female protagonist. Yes, this is a dramatic increase from the 2% in 2016 but the number is still woefully low, particularly when Savanta has proven the gaming industry to […]
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Applications to join the Editorial team of the Oxford Student are now open! All applications consist of a written application and following this you may be called to an interview with the new Editors in Chief for Trinity term 2021, Isaac and Natasha. News Team applicants may also be required to send in an example […]
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Image Description: Screenshot of the opening to Hollow Knight The release of big-budget open-world games like Grand Theft Auto V garners as much media attention as blockbuster cinema nowadays. Massive price tags get sweeping headline coverage: whether it be for the billion-dollar Avatar sequels or Cyberpunk 2077’s comparably modest $135,000,000, eye-watering expenditure is enough to let the […]
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Image Description: Geralt fights a griffin in-game Released in 2015, The Witcher 3 is the latest instalment in The Witcher franchise from CD Projekt Red. Many consider this game to be the definitive RPG experience, and it will almost always make the top five in any ‘Best Games of the Last Generation’ list, if not […]
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Image Description: Scattered maps on a table Of all the moving parts that come together to make a successful game – the graphics, the mechanics, the characters, the music, the plot – you’d be forgiven for thinking that the map is an unimportant detail, a technical feature of little interest to players. In most games […]
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Image Description: Promotional image for Cyberpunk 2077, showing the protagonist and the city Announced 30th May 2012, Cyberpunk 2077 was not always presented as a behemoth of majestic stature. It was teased by a small Polish company known as CD Projekt Red, based on a 1988 tabletop game. The experience was defined to be one for […]
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It’s that time of the decade again, the Olympics of the video game marketing world. Every six or seven years, Tech forums and Discord servers go ablaze over the anticipation of the next-generation consoles from their favourite brands. This year, though, in what is usually a three-pony race for supremacy, almost all of the hype […]
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Applications to join the Editorial team of the Oxford Student are now open. All applications consist of a written application and following this you may be called to an interview with the new Editors in Chief for Hilary Term, 2021, Robert and Issy. News Team applicants may also be required to send in an example […]
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