A Wrinkle In Time

But all that has changed in the last decade or so. Through advances in both technology and game design, developers are slowly beginning to utilize the passage of time in creative new ways. Sometimes it’s in the service of realism; in others, it’s a way to offer entirely new gameplay possibilities. It can be as simple as a variation in scenery or as complex as Braid‘s mind-bending causality. And yes, it can get pretty abstract, but it can also be as simple as watching the sun rise over Stranglethorn Vale. It doesn’t really serve much of a purpose, but it sure is nice to look at. In this week’s issue of The Escapist, we look at what videogames have to say about the passage of time. Robert Buerkle compares Mirror’s Edge‘s death-defying gameplay with Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day; Graeme Virtue relives his most precious gaming moments in reverse a la F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button; I take another look at Max Payne and the ascendancy of Bullet Time; and Dan Squire charts a timeline of videogame representations of time itself from Super Mario Bros. to Burnout Paradise. (Whew!) Enjoy!