Hey folks! I have a quick announcement about this blog. Which, admittedly, might seem a little “out of the blue” considering it’s been five years since my last post.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to be revamping the site. I’m changing the design and layout, but there’s also going to be a big shift in subject matter.
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Transistor is gorgeous to behold. Every visual element—from the city and its citizens to the cut scenes and menus—exhibits an impressive mastery of graphic design. The palette alone bears mentioning: In the same way that elaborately beautiful counterpoint in a fugue might motivate a person to take up music appreciation, Transistor fosters an inexplicable urge to study color theory.
All of which makes it the prettiest game I never care to play again.
I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of an amazing talent and a great artist. News sources are reporting today that composer James Horner has died in a plane crash in California.
The feels!
My family and I saw “Inside Out” yesterday. We don’t go to the movies often, but a Pixar film is a must-see for us.
On the surface, Inside Out is a simple story about a young girl, Riley Anderson, who struggles to adjust to her new life after her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. It’s a story that’s been told thousands of times before. This time, with Pixar’s Pete Docter at the helm, that plain tale is transformed into a wonderfully insightful and affecting tour of human emotions.
Fair warning: Bring a box of tissues.
For the past three years, every time E3 has rolled around, I’ve been sick and had to stay home from work.
…
No, I’m serious. It’s not what you think. I’ve simply had the good fortune to have had head colds and bronchitis at precisely the right time each year, allowing me to lounge about my living room for days watching live streams of all the latest AAA offerings.
Sadly, this year, I’m in good health. :/
That’s not to say I can’t still catch the occasional broadcast between meetings and after work. Last night, I watched Sony’s E3 Press Conference (most of it, anyway; see below). From what I saw, 2016 is shaping up to be an awesome year for the PS4.
Here are the top three PlayStation 4 titles I’ll be looking forward to…
Well, how cool is this? I’ve been nominated for a Liebster! Many thanks to YvoCaro over at A Lady and Gaming for the nomination, you made my day! :)
So what is a “Liebster”, you might ask? Read on to find out!
This game is taking much longer than I expected. There are too many writing topics piling up as I play. If I save them all until I’m done, I’m either going to write a 20,000-word blog post or walk away leaving many ideas unvoiced. I don’t much care for either option.
So let’s dig in, and let’s start with something that’s bothered me from the start:
Am I supposed to understand why Elizabeth is so fixated on Sally? And if I have to ask that question, isn’t that a sign of a flaw in the game?
CounterSpy is a fun little gem of a game from indie studio Dynamighty that draws on a rich stylistic history of espionage in 1960’s cinema. It starts with excellent graphic design inspired by the likes of Saul Bass, then layers on a cool, “spy jazz” soundtrack that would have made Mancini proud. Add some fun, light gameplay combining side-scrolling action with simple stealth mechanics and you have an experience that will have you longing for the simpler times of cold war espionage.
I finally sat down last week to start playing Burial at Sea Episode 2. Again. I’m starting on round three, now that I think of it, but this is it! Third time’s a charm! Definitely going to finish this time!
The reasons for my many restarts aren’t important. What matters to me is the perspective I’ve gained through this exercise in repetition. Developing a critical, objective eye is difficult. When you love a genre or series, you run this risk of letting enthusiasm blind you to its faults. Re-reading, re-watching, and re-playing all help to temper that enthusiasm with cool, dispassionate objectivity.
Playing through the opening to Episode 2 multiple times has done just that. My first time through I was too starry-eyed to see anything clearly. It was fun, but it was like being a fat little boy in a candy shop (and, for the record, I’ve actually been a fat little boy in a candy shop, so I speak from experience). I was thoroughly “engaged”, but it wasn’t, shall we say, “healthy”.
Burial at Sea Episode 2 is an enjoyable game, but so far, it’s not without significant flaws, one of which may be Elizabeth herself.
Take deep breath. Here we go. It’s the BioShock home stretch. Time to finally play BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode Two.
After all my preparation and build-up over the past months, what do I want out of this game?
In a word: Closure.
