Simone de Rochefort
polygon.com
New York, NY, United States
Contact Simone
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Simone:
Video games keep complicating JFK’s death
Games that cover JFK’s assassination, from Call of Duty to Mafia, often make it a conspiracy. That can color the way we see history, but is that a bad thing? → Read More
These developers want you to steal The Great Gatsby
In 2021 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby left copyright. A group of game developers celebrated with a game jam on itch.io, turning the Great American Novel into a series of playful tabletop and video games. → Read More
We challenged ProZD to a card game
Battle Spirits Saga is coming out soon, so we challenged Sungwon “ProZD” Cho to a tournament. Watch him play Bandai Namco’s latest trading card game against Polygon video, mastering each deck in turn. → Read More
How the most ambitious cult game of the ’90s got made
Polygon is producing a documentary about Spycraft, a 1996 FMV that starred William Colby and Oleg Kalugin — an ex-CIA director and a former KGB Major General respectively. The film explores the history of this cult game and its role in the lives of two titans of espionage. → Read More
We built the ultimate racing rig
We built a powerful gaming PC, kitted it out with a bunch of accessories like a wheel and a racing chair, and then took some great racing games for a spin. Watch Simone and Pat play F1 22 and Dirt live on Twitch. → Read More
We’re streaming New State Mobile this week
Polygon is streaming New State Mobile at 3 p.m. EDT, Oct. 27, on our Twitch channel. The video crew will be playing in-person in our studio for the event, and it’s going to be a lot of fun! → Read More
Tune in to our Monopoly Enjoyment Stream
Polygon video is streaming Monopoly, live on Twitch on Thursday, Sept. 22! Tune in at 1 p.m. EDT to watch the gang play Hasbro’s classic board game. Enjoyment will be enforced during the stream. → Read More
Why video game horses are so hard to animate
Horses, like other quadrupeds, are quite a pain to animate in a video game. Developer Alice Ruppert illuminates what makes horses such a challenge for video game designers to present. → Read More
Leave me alone, Elden Ring dogs
All of Elden Ring’s dogs have an unsettling, erratic moveset that reliably makes me freak out and lose all my runes, even 150 hours into the game. Here’s four reasons why Elden Ring’s canines pose such a challenge to the player. → Read More
Polygon is hosting a charity livestream for Trans Lifeline!
Polygonathon is a 24-hour charity livestream for Trans Lifeline. We’ll be going live on Twitch on June 9 at 12 pm EDT, and having a GAMING GOOD TIME to raise money for a great organization! → Read More
BioShock Infinite’s viral Bread Boy, explained by its creator
BioShock Infinite’s Bread Boy went viral in February, but he’s just one example of the strange, specific challenges that developers like Gwen Frey face. In her next game, Lab Rat, she’s ready to make people laugh on purpose. → Read More
Celebrate Polygon’s Who Would Win Week on Twitch this Tuesday with Tier Pressure
We’re ranking all the things on Polygon’s Twitch channel. Join us on March 22 at 3 p.m. EDT for Tier Pressure, a tier list stream to end all tier list streams. → Read More
How video games help you play better
Hints and nudge lines are like developers reaching out to guide the player’s hand, even when the game is finished. Psychonauts 2 is notable because its characters are almost constantly reminding you how to play. It can be great — but it can also be frustrating. → Read More
Assassin’s Creed Unity can’t help rebuild Notre-Dame, and that’s OK
Assassin’s Creed Unity’s version of Notre-Dame was hailed as being incredibly accurate — so accurate that people expected it to help in the restoration of the real Notre-Dame after the devastating fire in 2019. But there are lots of good reasons Ubisoft’s cathedral is technically useless in a historical restoration. → Read More
Dinotopia is the best dinosaur game, and it’s got puppets
The 1996 Dinotopia game was a full motion video game, with huge animatronic puppets designed by SFX artist Andre Freitas. It’s wacky, amazing, and worth your time. → Read More
French games used to be weird
France is the second-biggest producer of video games in the world. Franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Dishonored, Life is Strange, and … whatever the hell David Cage is doing, come from French-based companies. So France has had a huge influence on gaming, globally. But what you might not know is how weird and counter-cultural some of France’s early games are. → Read More
Watch Xbox, Ubisoft, and more with Polygon on Twitch
We’re streaming and watching along with all the big showcases at E3 2021. Join us on our Twitch channel to watch Xbox, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital, Gearbox, and Nintendo’s showcases. → Read More
What’s the future of Neopets?
The Neopets Team is juggling a site-wide conversion, a black market pet scandal, a new cartoon, and now ... bringing back unconverted pets, which has been a hot commodity to players for years. How does all this affect the future of Neopets? → Read More
The real architecture behind FF7 Remake’s Midgar
Square Enix’s complete redesign of Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 remake is thoughtful and intricate. They borrow architectural elements from all over the world so that Midgar tells a story through its design. Watch Simone de Rochefort explore the architecture of Final Fantasy’s famous city. → Read More
Why the bottles in Half-Life: Alyx look so dang good
Half-Life 2’s VR prequel, Half-Life: Alyx, got rave reviews when it came out — and a May patch that added the appearance of liquid to in-game bottles lit the internet on fire. We talked to VFX developer Matt Wilde to find out how he made the game’s talked-about liquid shader. → Read More