Mass Effect 3's new ending expanded on the original ending,
giving me new joy to see the galaxy rebuild and return and then break new
heights. The idea that my Shepard is responsible and remembered millennium
after she has gone is inspiring. I chose Synthesis, I always chose Synthesis, I
can’t imagine the world I’ve played and built over the last few years being
anything different.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Director's Cut
I just finished playing the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut and
I am so pleased. When the whole controversy started I was so adamantly opposed
to the whole concept, Mass Effect has always had a very special place in my
heart. The idea that someone's whining or a lot of someone's whining could in
any way shape or form change that was alarming to say the least. And yet after
playing the last couple missions again I can safely say one thing to those
dissenters; thank you.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
The Realistic Truth
There has been a recent uptick in the way the industry looks
at violence in video games, a few recent media darlings have come under fire
for being ultra-violent and taking real issues lightly. The argument has been
made that they are sensationalizing real life issues, from the implying of
sexual assault to a young Lara Croft to the apocalyptic violence of the Last of
Us, game writers, developers, and gamers themselves have started to ask the
question is it too much?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Song in the Void
On unbroken feet I walk, crushed and
alone/ The lies they told me have turned the world grey.
But oh, that you still breathe and
live, / Is a song in this void, that gives me life again.
-
The Old Republic
, Kalas and Fiana as told by Nadia Grell
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Where Art Thou, My Game Manual
Where art thou, my game manual? I know, I know, game guides
are paper eating waste of spaces, they have no real use and they’re not
environmentally friendly. So what? No one is advocating the end of books are
we? End all homework assignments… well maybe homework. It used to be that one
of the pleasures of buying a new game was reading and smelling that freshly
printed manual. I bought Gravity Rush for the Vita a couple days ago and it’s a
fantastic game, I’m sure I’ll write about it later, but it has no manual. My
freshly minted first Vita game and it has no manual. I have such found memories
of my most treasured games and the manuals that came with them. Knights of the
Old Republic, Final Fantasy VI, Halo, in the time before the game guides and
the FAQS on the internet, manuals were the link between the game maker and you.
They were the treasure trove of the ‘I didn’t know you could do that’ moments
and I’m sad to see them leave. This is the digital age, in a decade or two most
everything we do will be electronic, no more paper for most anything. And I
know that’s progress, but no matter how much I welcome change the memories of
reading a good book on the sofa is unlikely to be superseded by reading the
kindle or iPad on the couch; some things just don’t translate. It’s the small pleasures
in life; I leave you with a paraphrase from the 1985 John Cusack movie Better Off Dead ‘manual, manual, I want
my manual’.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
The E Strikes Back?
I was going to call this post The Return of the E, in
honor of the final installment of Star Wars. It’s my favorite of the bunch, but
after taking in all Electronic Entertainment Expo had to offer, I’m wondering if
The Empire Strikes Back, is a better movie title to replicate.
The Empire Strikes Back is the second movie in the
original trilogy and tells the tale of the aftermath of the Resistances victory
against the Galactic Empire. The Emperor and the Empire he founded do not intend
to go quietly into the night. In Star Wars, history is told by the thousands of
years and is an eternal struggle to see if Man or more accurately thinking
beings will rule themselves or be ruled; it’s a cosmic battle between Republic
and Empire.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
To Be Amazed
I love Law and Order: Criminal Intent. It was one of my
favorite detective shows, Goren and Eames are a dynamite duo and just a lot of
fun. I’ve watched a lot of detective shows, or procedurals as they’re called
now, over the years and the truth be told I’m rarely surprised by the bad guy.
Which isn’t to say that I’m any kind of savant; these shows run like clockwork. If there is fifteen minutes left the guy the
cops are questioning is unlikely to be the bad guy; I’m rarely amazed by a show
anymore. In some ways the same could be said about when I play video games.
Every now and then though, I find something so amazing or shockingly good that
it simply makes my day.
Payne on Fire
Man on Fire is one of my favorite movies. Denzel Washington
and a young Dakota Fanning; throw in Christopher Walken and a few quality
international actors and you have quite a film. Set in Mexico City with that
beautiful Spanish music; it’s an incredible movie about love and the things we
do to redeem our past transgressions.
After a decade long hiatus RockStar decided to release the
third installment of the Max Payne story. Set sometime after the second game
and the demise of Mona Sax, Max Payne is a story of a man who has all but died
and is waiting for the end. After the loss of his wife and child in a brutal
murder Payne has seen the ugly side of humanity and he wishes to look no
further. So when someone gives Max a reason to see light in the darkness of his
life, when sometime good is taken away to be snuffed out for selfish reasons,
Payne is out for blood. His is a common archetype, The Dark Knight, the black
knight tilting at windmills, the anti-hero; and we love them. They strike a chord
in us the way the story of the hero never does. We find the hero unreachable,
the Boy Scout, the sacrifice for the greater good; but the anti-hero is
different. In the anti-hero we see ourselves, in the anti-hero we can see our
past missteps and misdeeds forgiven.
Max Payne is a man who even by his own reckoning doesn’t
walk with the angels and yet his deeds speak louder than his words. Whether he
is breaking skulls with his fists or cutting down gangsters, corrupt police
officers, or soulless brothers; he is on fire and what a sight it is to see.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
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