The home of Brad Wiswall, one half of the Opinion Unlocked team.

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• 18Sep 09

  One of the Best Times of My Life...Followed By Tragedy

  OK, so it's been a while since I last posted on this blog, so let's summarize as quickly as possible the events that transpired:

  - Last blog, I spoke about CC, a person I met on Gamespot that I've since grown an ton of amount of love and affection for. Talking on the phone all the time, playing on XBL, we do a lot of stuff together when you aren't working. Problem? She lives in Texas, I live in NJ.

  So, after some 4 or 5 months of talking and having our feelings grow to such mammoth proportions, I did something incredibly uncharacteristic that shocked family and friends: In the last week of August, I took a plane ride (Well, two...stupid layovers) over to Texas to spend the week with CC.

  Even after spending 13 hours getting there (public transportation + subway + train + plane ride...seriously not fun), I was nervous and excited (and possibly delrious) about meeing this woman I've thought of for months.

  And man was I completely surprised. Even though I knew she was beautiful just looking at her photos, even though I already knew that she was a charming and sweet person; her beauty and sweet nature just completely knocked me out. Seeing her for the first time left me speechless with her cute smile, beautiful eyes and a knockout of a green dress she wore to come get me. This memory will forever been engraved in my brain.

  And the week spent was easily the most relaxing, enjoyable week of my life. We were together the entire time and spend our time with each other, just enjoying our company. Honestly, one of the best weeks of my life.

  The hardest thing, of course, was leaving. Watching her walk away as I stood in line at the security checkpoint in the airport was one of the hardest sights I had to endure. I can admit: I got real choked up and upset when it was time to leave her. The plane ride and the ride home was unbearable. But it motivates me to see her again, now that I know I have the perfect woman somewhere for me.

  So...why did it take me over 2 weeks to talk about this? Well, I never really got a day off of work after I got back, so I go home exhausted every night. But the real reason is this: Last week, my grandfather died of Heart Failure. It was a highly upsetting time that was hard to comprehend and deal with, so time to myself was necessary. Again, I was thankful to have CC on the phone and by my side throughout, so I was able to deal with the pain of losing someone I loved so much.

  Other than that, opinionunlocked.com is still doing great. The podcast went thruogh major changes and is now shorter and much more digestable, so check out iTunes or the site to download it. Hope to hear from you all soon! And I hope to see my angel in Texas real soon!

  • Posted Sep 18, 2009 9:15 am PT
  • Category: Relationships
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• 22Jul 09

  Love, Children, Writing and a 3rd PSP

  You know, I'm starting to figure this is where I'm going to do some personal B-Logging.

  Anyway, pretty eventful few...weeks?...since the last post I had talking about my impossibly beautiful and incredible sweetheart CC (And no, I don't know any other CC's lol). Not to get into details or anything, but it's a powerful feeling to find that all of the pain, frustration and heartache that the past brought was very well worth it when you finally find someone who you know cares about you and likes you for who you truly are...no matter how annoying, frustrating or downright puzzling I can get.

  Now if anyone has a Jet or a Helicopter I can borrow, it would be very much appreciated. :-)

  The little chitlin in my life is starting to scare me with how much he's grown. I had him for an extended weekend last weekend and aside from driving me crazy, it was actually a very fun weekend. His sense of humor surprises me every single time...either he gets it from me or something else, but I've never met a single person who can make me laugh and question my own material like he does.

  And he regularly kicks my ass in LittleBigPlanet.

  The website is going well, along with the podcast, even though I've been so busy with training at work. As such, my writing has suffered, but I hope to pick that up sooner than later.

  And finally, I bought a PSP for the 3rd time in my life. Ugh...

  Otherwise, everything is going okay. Just missing CC and counting the days until I see her. Missing her madly too

  Hope everyone is doing well!

  • Posted Jul 22, 2009 8:28 am PT
  • Category: Relationships
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• 21Jul 09

  I, Opinionate: Why Critics Are Important To A Growing Medium

  We've heard the various one-liners of "Opinions are like **** and "Everyone is a critic". As a film reviewer, I dealt with those caveats from a daily basis. The reason? Film critics simply don't hold the weight or respect they once had. Maybe critics of right now don't mesh well with the current generation of film-goers. Maybe film critics are considered irrelevant by this point. A sad and unfortunate lesson that was learned for anyone, like myself, who wants to write about films for a living: There wasn't much to write about in films that hasn't already been written. There really isn't anything new that can be said.

  Not so about games, which brings to the topic of this editoral: The importance of a game critic. Not a game writer. Not a game reviewer. A game critic.

  Few really know the difference of a true critic. A critic is someone who overs analysis, theory and subjective outlook on a piece of work, a place in time or anything that requires a deeper look. Few game reviewers can be considered critics of their craft, mainly because a reviewer tells you whether to play the game or not. A critic requires the reader and, most importantly, himself, to be of an open mind on all types of medium.

  A critic can't merely enjoy the piece they are analyzing: Some critics debate whether they can enjoy the work they analyze. It's hard to look a movie or game you enjoy and realize it's a rather poorly made game or to play a game you simply can't enjoy but realize it's actually a very well made, supremely crafted piece.

  This leads to a great question: Why aren't there any game critics, or why so few? There are many arguments to suggest that it's still a medium in its infacy and that there's simply no need for them, due to the fact that no one is really asking for criticism in games: Just tell me if they are good.

  But there is a growing contigency that is waiting for the day that is waiting for the same type of respect and celebration that movies, books and music have. And it will only get there with the evolution of what a game critic is and what he needs to do to represent his/her medium.

  Where am I coming from with this? A medium is only as good as its criticism, and with all due respect, there really aren't many, if any at all, that deserve praise for their use of game reviewing. I base this on the fact that, until the early 70's, movies were considered merely movies to a mass audience, with the exception of a few groups of people.

  That changed with the introduction of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, two critics that helped show different types of films to a mass audience. They dissected, analyzed and discussed in great length any and every film that their eyes peered on and they earned praise for not only their witty dialogue about films, but for helping move films forward faster than others could have possibly imagined.

  They made films serious. They showed that films could touch and move people and that some are worth the time and effort to search for. People started going to art houses to see rare foreign films. Tastes were more refined and as such, films started to refine as well.

  We need a Siskel and Ebert for games. Plain and simple. Especially since we can't identify with a creator and or a person who makes the games (exceptions are Hideo Kojima, Tim Schafer, Suda 51). We need reviewers to step up and show that games aren't merely just an experience that is controlled by a button and stick, that these games are far more than what they appear in face value.

  A gaming audience can greatly benefit from having a deeper thinking of its form of entertainment, aside from a review score and a few paragraphs on how the controls work. Until then, we will always be in the rut we've put our industry in.

  I'll be honest, for years I've hoped to become such a person, since gaming deservedly needs to be looked as an art and as a way to show different viewpoints and philosophies. Whether I will do it remains to question, but whether I make it or not, I hope someone does it.

  • Posted Jul 21, 2009 7:35 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
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