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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I broke down and got Gone home... and the Bureau.


I want to love this game as much as I love this poster.
So Gone Home is fascinating. I never thought it wouldn't be, but come on, $20? Ludicrous, but art needs it's patrons and make no mistake, Gone Home is a work of art. I'd love to explain how it's a work of art, but surprise is it's sharpest tool and if you see it's best bits coming it will leave you cold.

But I'll say this, the game has more than a passing resembalence to Clue and in the place in the house where that becomes obvious, you'll find a non liable board game. It's brilliant. If you want to show off how far interactive story telling has come to the non believers in your life, this is exactly what you've been waiting for.

In other splurging news, I said I'd wait for reviews to pick up The Bureau and the fact that the pre release day was embargoed was a very, very, bad sign. Destructiod and IGN confirmed my worst fears, but I don't care. I think there's good in here some are refusing to see.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Games for Windows Live Market Place is Dead.


Unknown artist.

On August 22, one of the most irritating aspects of pc gaming is taking it's first step into the grave. I have never been a fan. It has thrown identification and update conniption fits that had kept me out of playing it's games for hours. A mobius strip of "game needs to update" "update failed" "game needs to update" finally drove me away from Bioshock 2 for good.

And yes, it's multiplayer really wasn't that bad. So good riddance to bad rubbish, Microsoft's half hearted drm service has been falling a part for years and they honestly should have thrown in the towel a lot earlier.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Gone Home looks great for $10... but it's 20.


Gone Home is exactly what this industry needs right now. Grounded drama that couldn't exist in any other medium. The reviews are through the roof and I can't wait to play it once the market falls on it a bit.

I just picked up guacamelee for less than $15 and I'll run through that 7 hour game at least twice. So while Gone Home may stick with me for years as a breakthrough in interactive storytelling... I'm not entirely sure why it costs so much. There aren't any character models that I can figure from the trailer or reviews and it clocks in at around 3-5 hours.

Forgive my production naivete, but what does this game offer that a free source mod can't? It's the same reason I never bought Dear Ester, I'm sure it's great, but it just doesn't seem worth it. But when I do get around to Gone home I hope I eat those words.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Breaking Bad, Final Season Premiere Review...*sob*.


This is it folks, the home stretch. The end is nigh, the curtain's calling and the fat lady's singing. Breaking Bad is over now. It's all in the can and I'm sittin' here, wagging my tail patiently, for AMC to dole out the last few chapters of one my my favorite stories ever told on film.

I have a laundry list of burning questions about how this is gonna wind down. I've long since given up on predicting anything about where it's gonna go and I'd much rather be surprised than see all those questions answered in ways I'd always assumed they'd be. This is not Lost, BB has earned a difficult and ambiguous ending, but that doesn't mean they can't twist their ankle at the finish line. So these next few weeks are gonna be rough for me.

But enough about my personal feelings and tired ending metaphors, how was the premiere? For those who haven't seen it yet and you're just dipping your toe into general critical reception, it's good. Really... really good. But I'm looking to roll up my sleeves and spoil this whole thing, so catch up if you aren't and meet me back here in 45 minutes.


If not, this GIF's gonna ruin your whole day.




Not kidding around here...





 

...Wow. 6 whole years of tension, sprung in an instant. I've always loved how separate Hank's stories were from Walt's. It was never truly a "cat and mouse" thing. It would dabble in that occasionally, but for the most part they only tangentially effected each other. It was a gun that never needed to go off necessarily. Hank had done his job, he cracked the Fring case which (if it were a real case) would make him a nationally recognized hero along side Captain Sullenberger. 

In a way, a horrible way, Walt's homicidal ego gave Hank a career he could have never dreamed of. Everything would have been just fine at the end of last season (I know it's technically 5.2, but come on) but this was never gonna end happy. We don't want it to end happy. Sh*t, Mike's already dead by Walt's hand, how many more sacred cows... no, not Jessie!! Oh god, Gilligan don't do it! Unless it's brilliant. I think they can earn it, they've earned everything else.

So what was it that made Blood Money so special? I mean, besides the immediate reaction to the leaves of grass bombshell? Like most of the show, each episode is filled with competent, interesting, little scenes. And that's what most of this episode was, interesting insulation for the major bombshells. That was fine, there needed to be room to breath.

BB has always  secretly been a really funny show, and Badger's Star Trek spec script will go down as one of it's all time funniest scenes. I won't spoil it, but you've probably already seen it's animated version. Other than that, Walt's going nuts attempting to deal with the day to day of the car wash business, Hank's hunkered down in his garage building his case against Walt... and what else? Oh, in the future, the White home is condemned by the government and Walt still needs that ricin cigarette. Also a trunk full of automatic weapons.

But who cares about any of that? Hank punched out Walt in the same episode Hank makes the connection! It was genius, they could have built up to that for half the episodes left and none of us would have cared. Is the show boxing itself into a corner here? I'd like to think not, I believe they have more interesting things to deal with other than building to this episode's finale.

Personally I think they're gonna do it. They are going to stick the landing on my favorite show ever made. So fingers crossed Breaking Bad doesn't smash cut to the end credits in a Diner.
 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Guess Who's Back?



After a delightful 6 hour layover in Shannon IE and a complementary "we won't have a plane for you for twelve hours" hotel room, I'm finally back stateside. I'll start on the best performances tout suite, because I'm toally gonna finish it goddamn it, ate at me the whole time. Oh crap, Breaking Bad premiered already?! I've some catching up to do... thank you (the twelve of you) for your patience. Thanks for for giving me a break, it was a great week.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

The National Crackpot's European Vacation


I've got a vacation coming up for the next week and will not be able to update. Don't have a smart phone, and even if I did, I'm sure I'd get flayed alive with roaming charges if I tried.

I really would have loved to finish my best performances list... no excuse for that, I knew this trip was coming for months. Anywho,see you in a week.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Breaking Bad Season 5 is live on Netflix.


I'm still trying to iron out my best performance list, making sure I only have one example per game, so that's making it difficult. I also want to have as little of the usual suspects as possible, so this is gonna take longer than I thought, but good news! There's something good on Netflix right now.

I've begun to like this season more in retrospect than I did a year ago, I used to have it right under season 3. Remember when the writers couldn't decide what to do with Skylar and it brought the whole show down a little? Having it there made it the De-facto "worst" season for me. But calling any season of this show "worst" only makes sense when comparing it to itself... and maybe The Wire.

The pacing was wonky to me and it felt like they were throwing out all the grand ideas they had left to burn now that the show was ending. The fumigation tent, the giant magnet, the train robbery, and that kooky German food magnate all felt like great ideas on their own, but never seemed cohesive. After watching the first episode again, I enjoyed it much more having an idea where it was going, but forgetting the finer details.

I think it might be my favorite now, next to 4: