- dragonwarlock77
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The Poet and The Pendulum
Suicide is man's way of telling God, "You can't fire me, I quit!"
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character,
give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
Stopped listening to music from the US in 2007.
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22Oct 08
Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially announced today, only an hour and a half ago.
Rest well, KotOR, among gaming's most defiled. This is a sad day for gamers everywhere.
- Posted Oct 22, 2008 1:23 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 2 Comments
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8Sep 08
x1000
It finally happened. After laughing at everyone else get the RROD, it finally came back and bit me in the ass while at the shore this weekend.
- Posted Sep 8, 2008 5:11 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 2 Comments
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20Aug 08
At long last, Heavy Rain has returned in the form of a new trailer at Leipzig GC '08. Alas, once again the new demo does not have any relation to the actual game, but now that they have shown the gameplay, I am more excited than ever.
The demo depicts a woman named Madison riding her motorcycle into an unnamed town. She pulls into a standard suburban neighborhood, arriving at the dingy house of a taxadermist who has become a prime suspect in the case of the origami killer. Madison is an investigative journalist who has taken it upon herself to find evidence on whether or not this man is the killer or not. Madison makes her way into the house through the kitchen window, which was left ajar. She looks throughout the house, in which you can interact with almost everything. Making her way upstairs, what else does Madison find but...the corpse of a woman in the bathtub, and two woman in another room who have apparently been stuffed...by a taxidermist! Just then, the taxidermist decides to arrive at home. Here's where things get interesting for me. In the demo, Madison is discovered by the taxidermist, which results in a QTE of Madison trying to escape the house with the taxidermist hot on her heels with a knife. BUT, that is only one possible scenario of what could happen. According to David Cage, writer and director behind Heavy Rain, there are many different ways in which that scene can turn out. Madison can escape the house without alerting the taxidermist, or she can hide from him in around 30 hiding places. She can also be killed, and the story will still go on. In Heavy Rain, says Cage, there are no game overs. Sounds intriguing...
If only they would release that demo on PSN!
- Posted Aug 20, 2008 6:47 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 4 Comments
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16Aug 08
Fable II Pub Games was released a few days ago, and I must admit, it is addicting. I much prefer it to the frustrating turd Braid (no offense to those who rotted their brains completing that piece of crap.) I just wish I'd known beforehand just how easy it is to get so far into debt.
It's simple, clever, and enjoyable. Too bad there's no multiplayer. Nonetheless, it gets me even more excited for Fable II's release. Speaking of which, I don't even know when that is!
Aside from that, Nemesis has been giving me a hell of a time in RE3. STOP STALKING ME ALREADY!!! I started reading The Call of Cthulhu just in time for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth to ship from GameFly. H.P. Lovecraft is a genius. Reading his stories really makes me regret selling Eternal Darkness however long ago. My favorites so far include The Rats in the Walls (those who played Eternal Darkness know will love this story, as one level was based on it), Pickman's Model, and In The Vault (which actually had me nervous to go to sleep).
- Posted Aug 16, 2008 7:02 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 0 Comments
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7Aug 08
It's unlikely that you've ever heard of a little-known Xbox exclusive called Breakdown. It was extremely overlooked and underrated. The sad part is, many attribute the curret advances in first-person gaming to games like Condemned 2 and Half-Life 2. Unh-unh. Breakdown did it first.
So what is Breakdown about? Well, it was kind of confusing, but what I do know is that you play as Derrick Cole, a man who just reawakened from a coma. You are trapped in a research laboratory until the military decides to kill everyone within. Including you. That almost happens until Alex Hendrickson, a beautiful femme fatale, slaughters them. The two of you escape from lab, part of the Carter Science Center, until you discover what was also being researched at the CSC. The T'lan. T'lan are, from what I can tell, some bastardization between human and something else. Their skins are covered in some kind of crystal or metal, and they have innate shields which deflect bullets and fists directed at them. For a while, you have no method of fighting them, until you discover your own innate abilities: lightning crackles down you forearm, you can suddenly harm the T'lan, as well as deflect bullets directed at you. Derrick and Alex rendezvous with Glen Ogawa, a scientist who works at the CSC. The T'lan are controlled by a supercomputer (for lack of a better word) called Nexus. It's up to you to find it and destroy it. Only thing is, both the T'lan and the military want to destroy you first. Along the way you are pursued by a T'lan entity known as Solus, who bears a striking resemblance to Sephiroth.
You also meet up with a military commander by the name of Gianni De Luca, who disobeys his orders and helps you instead of pursuing you, and Stephania Wojinski, a researcher at Terminus 4, the place where the T'lan, and T'langen, the substance which gives both you and the T'lan the powers you have, were researched. Your objective: travel to Site Zero, where Nexus is located. Site Zero is apparently where the T'lan came from. Making your way there, you battle both the T'lan and the military (who's it is, I don't know). As you make your way through Site Zero, you watch everyone who helped you die. First, you watch Stephania thrown to her death, then Gianni, who is overwhelmed when you are not able to reach him in time. Then you witness the T'lan invade Earth. Then, Alex, who was kidnapped by Solus. When you find her, you get into this pretty awesome duel with Solus. Suffice to say, you lose. Alex tries to defend you, and is killed in doing so. Just then, the military decides to pull their final trump card on the T'lan: nuke Site Zero. Before Solus can finish you off though, a nuke lands right in the same room with you...and goes off right in your face.
You think, that can't really be the end, can it? Well, no, the game's far from over. Apparently, thanks to the nuke, you 'time-slipped' and was sent to the future. You wake up inside a machine called the Memscan, which was sorting all your memories into chronological order after suffering from amnesia. Turns out all 7 hours you just played was nothing but stuff the happened 15 years prior to current events. Since you failed to defeat Solus, the world was overran by T'lan and humanity was enslaved. Right after you wake up, T'lan invade Terminus 4, which was thought to be a safehouse. Most people are killed while you try to escape. You meet up again with Alex...only she doesn't know you. You meet up with Glen again, now much older, who gives you the Ultra Accelerator, which really turns you into a badass. After protecting Glen and Alex, you are affected by the Pendulum Effect, which is the result of being time-slipped too long. To be short, you're returning to your own time.
Before you can protest, Alex joins you in the Pendulum Effect. She gets sent to the time when you first met her, you get sent to right after Solus kidnaps Alex. Yeah, you get to replay the last two hours. Only now, with your new powers, you can save everyone who died. First Stephania, then Gianni, and finally, Alex. The duel with Solus drags on too long for my liking, but what can you do. When he finally dies, you continue on to destroy Nexus. With some annoying design choices, you finally do. In the end, the four of you escape from Site Zero as it is collapsing. This time, Derrick saved the world. T'lan were eliminated and everyone makes it out. Before you can celebrate though, Alex is affected by the Pendulum Effect. Here's where you choose which ending you get. Either walk to her and join her in the Pendulum Effect for the good ending, or stay in the helicoptor for the not-so-good ending. Since I prefer good endings, I went with her. Well, sure that timeline is saved, but the other one where the T'lan rule over earth, is not. So naturally, it's a cliffhanger of sorts. All I can say is...GET ME A SEQUEL! NAO!
The story may be excellent, but the a lot of the design choices...not so much. Yes, the melee system was way ahead of its time (I was still finding new moves near the end of the game), but the execution is not quite there. Gunfights are pretty much just tacked in there, as there are only 5 weapons, including grenades. Sometimes, there are just too large gaps between checkpoints, making even easy, well, not so easy. The developers just made some stupid decisions from a design standpoint. But through it all, for me, at least, the story keeps you going. To be short, the game's innovation was way ahead of its time, and is not given credit for what it did before others. It's just that the execution is not quite there.
Final Rating: 8.3/10 for a great concept and story, but flawed gameplay and level design.
Now, for Heavy Rain.
Here's a close-up: http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/gallery/heavy-rain-image-gallery/heavyrain-three.jpg
Here's a close-up: http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/gallery/heavy-rain-image-gallery/heavyrain-four.jpg
In case you want to see more, here's the base article: http://www.ripten.com/2008/08/06/new-heavy-rain-images-pour-in/
Just beautiful, Heavy Rain is unarguably the best looking game of this generation.
- Posted Aug 7, 2008 6:53 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 1 Comment
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2Aug 08
I'm a pretty frequent sufferer of Writer's Block. Obviously that's a major problem when you're trying to write a novel. In two years, I've came up with and subsequently scrapped three major ideas. Last night I watched an indie black comedy "Lady is a Vamp". A sort of half-serious vampire romance. It wasn't all that great, but I liked some aspects of it. I enjoyed the dark humor (for example, while they are trying to hide dead bodies, "Clean up your mess" from Barney starts playing). But what the movie did do for me is it gave me the idea for what I think might be my first legitimate book. I'll share more once I have a more solid story, but just for forewarning, I hope you like vampires, dark humor, and a focus on character relationships.
Oh yeah, I finally saw "Jacob's Ladder" because people have said it's one of the best horror movies evar. Well, this is why I don't listen to "true horror fans". I can stand weird-ass hallucinations, but that ending was bloody ridiculous. Not just in the sense that it was bad, but that it just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Suffice to say. the whole movie never really happened.
On the other hand, "The Professional" wasn't half bad. The ending I didn't particularly like though. I mean, I thought it would have been cooler if Leon survived and continued to teach Matilda to be a hitman, but that's just me. Ah, well...
As for stuff in theatres, I've seen "Hellboy II" and "The Dark Knight". You'll find that I'm different from a lot of people in that I hated "The Dark Knight", and loved "Hellboy II" to death. There are several reasons for this: "Hellboy II", I thought, is the perfect mix of action, comedy, and romance. "The Dark Knight" on the other hand, is not. It relied way too much Heath Ledger's insane (in a good way) performance. Close to no character development. Oh, and of course, the helpless f***ing female. The one woman in the cast, and she's about as useful as s***. I'm getting really tired of these cliches. And Maggie Gyllenhaal of all people! Whatever, I'm just different that way.- Posted Aug 2, 2008 11:37 am PT
- Category: Writing
- 2 Comments
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21Jul 08
So apparently Heavy Rain, of which I'm sure you know my obsession with, was shown at E3 2008, but behind closed doors. Meaning journalists who got into see it had to sign a waver to keep their mouths shut about what they saw. But, N'Gai Croal, General Editor of Technology for Newsweek, in case you're not familiar, gave a little blurb that he saw HR at E3 and that it will be shown at the Leipzig GDC. Yay!! (I think Zoe's (from Wraith) use of language is starting to rub off on me.)
- Posted Jul 21, 2008 7:36 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 3 Comments
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19Jul 08
Alright, Silent Hill 4: The Room is driving me insane, and not in the way Silent Hill usually does. So I'm at my 2nd visit to the Forest World, so for the 2nd half of the game, including this part, I have to protect Eileen Galvin (because I want the best ending!), while running away from the unkillable Walter Sullivan (who's got a pistol and a steel pipe, subsequently replaced by a motherf**kin' chainsaw!!), and run away from the unkillable Victim 17, Jasper, while avoiding attracting all the Twin Victims (Two huge arms, wearing a poncho of sorts, with two baby heads on top), Hummers (annoying bats), and Sniffer Dogs (I'm convinced that their charge attack is glitched because they'll zoom across whatever area I'm in. Completely missing me, and just looking really odd.) MEANWHILE, while all this is happening I have to find the parts of a doll scattered in the wells in the forest. To find these, I need the torch out and lit. I can't fight with the torch. If I put it away, it gets doused, meaning I probably have to pass by Walter (Remember: CHAINSAW!!) to light it. I can't take it anymore!!!! *tears out hair*
I like how the game is tied to Silent Hill 2, even if I didn't like 2. Meh, back to Valkyrie Profile 2.
- Posted Jul 19, 2008 12:02 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 3 Comments
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11Jul 08
It's funny that at around the same time one of their greatest sequels is coming out (Soulcalibur IV), Namco Bandai also completely f**ks with the sequel to what I consider the greatest JRPG out there. Tales of Symphonia.
Tales of Symphonia 2: Dawn of the New World (Knight of Ratatosk sounded cooler if you ask me) has completely failed in my eyes. 'Why is that, Tyler?' you ask me. Well, to start off it looks like they hired whole new artist, because the new characters definitely do not looke like they were created by Kosuke Fujishima. They look more like they belong in the .hack series. But that is a small gripe compared to what else annoys me. Apparently your band of characters from the first game are now the bad guys... Why, I don't care to find out, because I'm sure the lazy plot twist is that they're not bad guys after all. Keep in mind that ToS was a 60-80 hour game and I completed it a total of 18 times (yes, I kept track). The game not being about them drives me up a f**king wall, after spending that much time with them. Oh, but wait, the best is yet to come. So in case you didn't play ToS or just didn't know, near the end there was a point that decided which ending you got. One ending path was about Zelos, the other about Kratos. Zelos is pink-wearing, chatty, perverted little b1tch. There are no good things to say about him, other than that he exactly copies Kratos's fighting sty1e (meaning he's a pathetic filler character) only with a stupid Maxi-esque dance to it. Kratos, on the other hand, Kratos is GOD (no, not the God of War...). For one thing, he's much more important to the story (*SPOILER* being the main character's father). He's voiced by Cam Clarke, making him badass by default. Suffice to say, Kratos is a helluva lot cooler and important than Zelos is. Which ending you get affects who lives and who dies. Zelos ending, Kratos dies. Kratos ending, Zelos dies (my favorite part
) But wait, what is this, according to ToS2 MOTHERF**KING ZELOS'S ENDING IS CANON. It's not Kratos I see in the trailers, but that little s**t-for-brains Zelos. F**k you, Namco Bandai. Next boardroom meeting, don't get stoned out of your minds. As far as I'm concerned, ToS2 has not been made, and never will be. I'm more content with that than a bulls**t "sequel" like this. Seriously, is it really a sequel if it's not about the SAME GODDAMNED CHARACTERS!!! But you might say, well yeah, it takes place in the same world. NO, NO, and NO! This is more goddamn disappointing than KotOR 2's lack of an ending./end rant
- Posted Jul 11, 2008 7:43 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 8 Comments
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9Jul 08
...And I've been completely blown away by one of the coolest duos in recent history...
Onimusha is a very well thought-out trilogy. As I've said before, Onimusha rides the middle ground between Resident Evil and Devil May Cry. Although, as the series evolved it drifted more towards on deepening the combat and not the puzzles. (You won't see my crying.) The ending for Onimusha: Warlords was rather questionable...until 3 starts up. Right from the beginning you're given an amazing CG intro that has Samanosuke slicing up hordes of Genma (demons), resulting in an epic duel with a Genma general (I can't recall his name). Needless to say, when Jacques comes into the story, Jean Reno is just awesome. The intro when Genma invade Paris is surprisingly one of the goriest scenes I have ever seen in any medium.
While it was disappointing to learn there was no Japanese voiceovers, it was cool to have all the French characters, well, speak French. Of course, when Ako (a sort of Japanese Tinkerbell, if you will) arrives, she dissolves the language barrier, effectively eliminating the great French VOs. Though on the flipside, when that happens, the always amazing Jennifer Hale takes on the role of Michelle Aubert, Jacque's fiancee.
So far, the gameplay is almost too deep for the game. With 4 fighting sty1es on each character, all with special attacks, plus ranged weapons, throws, criticals, deflect criticals, etc, etc, it all starts to become a little much. That said, it is extremely fluid combat. (Also, as a partner, Michelle is extremely rigged, equipped with a FAMAS and grenades, she's a frickin' female Rambo. She throws grenades like they're candy.)
The story is actually something to be reckoned with. In Warlords, it feels a little incomplete. That's because they were waiting for Demon Siege to finish it. I've yet to finish it just yet. But dang, this series you HAVE to play!
- Posted Jul 9, 2008 11:18 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 5 Comments
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7Jul 08
Forgive me for going all AWOL, but I recently finished up with moving to a new house. Thankfully, the new house was only right down the street, but it's still a bi-otch packing things nonetheless. Just in case you were wondering where the hell I went.
I have A LOT of game to review!
New Games:
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Alone In The Dark
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Beyond Good And Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X
Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
and, well, give my thoughts on Siren.
For my friends in the US, hope you had a good 4th of July.
- Posted Jul 7, 2008 10:46 pm PT
- Category: Other
- 5 Comments
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23Jun 08
As you may well know by now, the legendary George Carlin died of heart failure this past weekend at the age of 71. The world has lost one of its greatest.
This is particularly shocking to me as I saw him perform barely two weeks ago. I loved that Carlin was never afraid to speak his mind and basically said "**** you" to all our cultures' taboos. He shall be honored for many years to come by all his fans. Comedy will never be the same without him.
I'm sure he's giving God a good talking-to.
- Posted Jun 23, 2008 11:39 am PT
- Category: People
- 3 Comments
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11Jun 08
From time to time, I take a quick buzz through IMDb to see what my favorite actors are currently doing. Well, I discovered two awesome movies coming out: 'Alice', and 'Lincoln'.
Lincoln - (2009/2010)
By the title you can tell the movie is about who I believe to be the greatest US president: Abraham Lincoln. With the legendary Steven Spielberg behind the helm, you've got a solid foundation right there. But wait, guess who's playing Lincoln: the man himself, Liam Neeson. The only other actors I know of right now are Sally Field and Harrison Ford, who play Mrs. Lincoln and Lincoln's VP, respectively.
[American McGee's] Alice - (2009)
Well, I suppose this would be the fricking time to get my hands on the game, wouldn't it? Yes, American McGee's adaptation/sequel to Lewis Carroll's famous novels, formerly a cult hit game, is now on the way to the silver screen, after 8 years of delays and setbacks. Unlike most VG movies, the man responsible for the game is also responsible for the movie. (And besides, how many cult games get their own movies?) But now that they finally have a script in place and casting has begun, guess who got the leading role! None other than Sarah Michelle Gellar herself! We'll see if anyone else of interest joins the cast.
(Also, there have been a few rumors going around, some even from the actors themselves, that Serenity 2 is on its way to production!)
- Posted Jun 11, 2008 4:59 pm PT
- Category: Movies
- 0 Comments
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10Jun 08
In a recent e-mail I recieved from Free Press (otherwise known for its Stop Big Media and Save The Internet campaigns) introduced me to a little schpiel the infamously stupid Bill O'Reilly went on. And here I quote the e-mail:
"Last night, Rupert Murdoch launched a laughable attack against you, the media reform movement, and journalism itself.
His on-air bully Bill O'Reilly called us "crazy" and "fascist" --- you, me, and the millions of others who want media reform. These people are "doing a lot of damage to America," O'Reilly yelled. Our crime? Calling for journalism that's more honest, just and accountable to the public."
You gotta love conservative sensationalism... Apparently its a sin to not want your media (in this case, TV news) censored. Well, it's not like anyone cares what O'Reilly has to say! That's why he's on Fox "News"!
Of course, then there's the blundering Glenn Beck on CNN and so on and so forth, but that's another fool for another day...
- Posted Jun 10, 2008 6:11 pm PT
- Category: TV
- 1 Comment
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1Jun 08
C WAT I DID THAR!?
Anyway, no this is not my idea on a new strange mash-up. This is just two reviews crammed into one blog post.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (X360)
Condemned returns bloodier, more brutal, and a whole lot more polished than the first. The new fighting system, chock full of combos, finishing grabs, and environmental executions, is incredibly thrilling and smooth, but the auto lock on can mess you up a lot when a brawl turns into a straight-out cluster****. I'd say it is almost too deep for the gameplay. But whatever control issues you might encounter, few things relieve stress like putting a guy's skull inside an industry-strength presser and squeezing until it pops like a grape tomato (I don't know, I was plattering those yesterday...), except much bigger...and filled with bone and brain. The cut scenes, oh man, the cut scenes are BEAUTIFUL, there's just something about the lighting that make them look so damn appealing. So let's get to the story, since we all know that's most important part (contradict me, I dare you). The updated character models really help since Ethan and Rosa don't look ridiculously pudgy anymore. Ethan, though people have complaining he's now "just another stereotypical badass", he's really not. He went through hell and high water in the first game, and came out tougher and scarred because of it. The game deals with his inner demons, namely Alchohol and Acceptance, in a way that even impressed my mom, who used to be all up-in-arms just by looking at the title screen. Rosa, I must say, is likely the most dignified black character in gaming as of yet. The rest of the cast I was thoroughly impressed with. Even though, it's fairly obvious who the villain is by the second mission, I think Bloodshot's story was excellently written. Some have said it's completely ridiculous and doesn't make any sense. I enjoyed it very much, and I think it builds up quite nicely, with a great cliffhanger that has me all fidgety for Condemned 3. As Sam said, it's "just a lot to wrap your head around." The multiplayer offers plenty of stuff to fool around with, even though there's quite a case of "host advantage" and in Crime Scene mode, the balance is very, well, unbalanced.
Final Rating: 9.4
Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One (XBLA)
Ah, now here's a good RPG! And it's funny, imagine that. Well, no ****, it's Penny Arcade. The hilarious web comic-now-turned-video game executes it's transition flawlessly. With a slick (hehe, get it) design interface all the way through, and cool, albeit short, comic-sty1e cutscenes. The turn-based battle system is really more like the ATB system from some of the Final Fantasy games. All in all, the game is short, exciting, hilarious, offensive (in a good way), epic, and, oh did I mention hilarious, all the way through. It's a little pricey at $20 but it's worth it. Oh, yeah, it is.
Final Rating: 9.8
- Posted Jun 1, 2008 7:45 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 1 Comment
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26May 08
While attempting to dig up info on the 2nd Silent Hill movie, I came across a fantastic Silent Hill fan movie, titled: Silent Hill 2: Brookhaven
If you're not familiar with SH2, the movie covers the end of the Brookhaven Hospital level.
Brighter Quality video (10 min.)
- Posted May 26, 2008 4:20 pm PT
- Category: Games
- 0 Comments
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21May 08
Okay, so I'm an avid reader, mainly sci-fi/fantasy, throw in a little historical fiction, ya know, that kind of stuff. So lately I've been busy reading a LOT. Of course, some of it's been some crappy "required reading" for school. But, thankfully, there's been more than a fair amount of damn good series that you've probably never heard of...
Let's start off with the Cassandra Kresnov trilogy. I've been reading for a long, long time. And I can unhesitantly say these are the best books I have ever laid my eyes upon. The Cassandra Kresnov trilogy is author Joel Shepherd's debut novels. To put it simply, it's what you'd get if tossed the Bourne books, Mass Effect, and Blade Runner (or more appropriately Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) together.
The series consists of three books: Crossover, Breakaway, and Killswitch.
Anyways, so the story is about Cassandra Kresnov, and artificial human being created with a single purpose in mind: to fight. In a war between the two human superpowers, the Federation being the more powerful, conservative group that calls Earth the center of its government, and the League, a group of progressive thinking scientists and others unwilling to be restricted by the laws of the Federation any longer. (Think Andrew Ryan) Since the League consists of such a small population, around 500 million, (in contrast to the 11 billion of the Federation), they mass produced GIs, or androids if you must (but that's insulting). The problem was, GIs were notorious for having no capacity for lateral thinking. Cassandra, or Sandy, as she prefers, was created with the capacity for lateral thinking. So, for all things considered, she is human, just made in a different way. With the lateral thinking comes a conscience, with a conscience comes morality, with morality comes confusion, with confusion comes a choice: does she stay or does she defect? When her unit is murdered in a "training accident" Sandy decides to defect. Where does she go? To the Federation, of course.
After hopping a few planets, she winds up on Callay, in the capital city of Tanusha. And that's where the books start off.
Shepherd, for a first-time novelist especially, is amazingly gifted. He moulds some of the most interesting, realistic, sympathetic characters you will ever find. He has a knack for shifting between fast-paced action and tense political situations, with a side of deadpan humour. Shepherd's views of the future of politics is almost creepily realistic. China and India are the main superpowers on Earth, and as such, this universe is a very multiethnic one, unlike most sci-fi, which has a knack for being eurocentric.
In fact, Shepherd is writing a screenplay for the film adaptation of Crossover, so I'm frickin' excited!
So this is the first part of Read or Die! (Please, ...someone get the reference!)
- Posted May 21, 2008 7:28 pm PT
- Category: Writing
- 1 Comment
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11May 08
Games have brought us so much in terms of technology, and developers and gamers themselves alike have both begun to really explore storytelling in games, whilst no longer taking it for granted. But how far away are we really from reaching the level of intimacy that TV and books (I'm not even gonna bother with the movie argument) accomplished centuries ago.
There are many games where certain characters are so memorable for being extremely funny or doing amazing feats, there are few instances when games have actually brought us a character we can remember for being, well, human. One of the well-traveled peaks in this area would be your almost constant companion in Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance. It has been stated many times that Alyx's sly smiles and infrequent, deadpan humour has made her one of, if not the, most respected female leads of gaming to come along. The only thing to offset her character though, is the faceless, voiceless role of Gordon. The silent protaganist may be one manner of unfolding a story and focusing the events on others, but it does absolutely nothing to advance the case of intimacy in games if Gordon is incapable of expressing his joy, his sorrow, and the strength he must get from just sitting next to Alyx. Even topping that, is the scene "Lost Love" from Fahrenheit (or, Indigo Prophecy, if you must) in which Tiffany comes by Lucas's apartment to pick up some boxes she left behind after they split. Despite the fact that nowadays, the technology would seem almost pathetic in the magnitude of what it tries to do, it manages to accomplish, what I think, is one of the most beautiful and personable scenes throughout the history of games. And with the precognition of what is to befall the couple in later events of the game, it makes it all the more touching. When Theory Of A Deadman's "Santa Monica" cues in at just the right moment, I can't help but grin and tear up.
But even Fahrenheit, in all its magnificence, cannot compare to the most touching, beautiful, and tragic love stories of all time (and yes, I have the nerve to say this undisputedly), that of Buffy and Angel (I still tear up just at the thought of it), or even the more subtle, yet still equally troubled relationship of Sandy and Ari in Killswitch (by Joel Sheperd). So, I ask you, would it be worth the industry's time for game developers to take less time working on new game mechanics, and more time surpassing the bar of intimacy and relationships set by TV, books, and movies?
Becuase I have faith that video games are capable of doing so...
- Posted May 11, 2008 7:22 pm PT
- Category: Editorial
- 2 Comments
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23Apr 08
I just got emailed that the Nightwish concert I was attending on May 5 got cancelled!!!
Arrgh, I just can't get a ****ing break!!!
- Posted Apr 23, 2008 4:41 pm PT
- Category: Music
- 5 Comments
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27Mar 08
Nightwish's latest album, Dark Passion Play, finally arrived today, and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. They've yet to disappoint. You can bet I'll be making some AMV's of their songs.
And just now I booked tickets for their 5/5 concert here in NJ!
- Posted Mar 27, 2008 4:07 pm PT
- Category: Music
- 2 Comments
