And here's what we got:
I’m not an Apple fanboy. Truly I’m not. Now that said, I have a macbook, an iPad, and an iPhone that I have through my current workplace. By all accounts, one would think that I am a total fanboy. I mean, I own pretty much one of their everything. I’ll even go on to say that I really, really enjoy their products; I like the iPhone/iPad interactions, I enjoy the iterations of their OS, and I appreciate the aesthetic of their products.
I have never been a total fan though. At the end of the day, they are tools that I use to get things done throughout my day. I don’t hold them in any higher regard than the PCs that I use at my workplace (or grew up with). I’ve had my issues with their products as well and I’ll be the first to point them out. I will also be the first in line to point out that Apple has ‘screwing their clientele’ down to a high art. I mean, they have a release schedule and setup that makes sure that everyone that purchases their wares will be jealous of those who purchase the next iteration. They can really be dicks like that. They engineer demand so well that there should be a degree in it available to higher education locales.
But as of Thursday, July 7th, 2011, I can say that I am now a loyal customer of Apple. Still not a fanboy, but they’ve secured my loyalty. And all it took was an email.
I am not a fan of Rockstar Games, generally. Not to say that they don’t do good work, but their usual fare just isn’t something that I can enjoy for more than about 10 minutes. Grand Theft Auto 3 and onwards always felt tedious (regardless of how much you can personally achieve in it), and Red Dead Redemption just seemed like the same thing, but with cowboys.
The whole ‘open world, do what you want, oh by the way there’s some actual story here if you wanna play it’ model never really did much for me. It’s neat and all, I get the appeal, but I never really got into it.
So then they start talking about L.A. Noire, and my first thought was “oh good, GTA in the 1940′s but this time you’re a cop and will get shot at by bad guys instead of the other way around. Yawwwwn” and promptly ignored it. But then they started releasing the trailers for L.A. Noire, and I watched them. And then I watched some more. And then I started reading about what L.A. Noire was really going to be. A detective game, but with chases, shakedowns, shooting, and moral implications.
Then I got excited.
I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
Pretty much everyone who played the first Portal has been chomping at the bit for a sequel of sorts to come around. That being said, Portal was a bit of a sleeper hit (and meme generator). It took a while for it to become popular. It took even longer for for it to become popular to release on its own. It did, of course, and I’ve been the proud owner of Portal: Still Alive (the XBox 360 release) for a good while now.
So when I heard about a Portal 2 coming out, I became very excited (along with a good portion of the Internet). What’s interesting is Portal came out in 2007. There is a 4 year gap between the two games, which is a long time in the game industry. With that kind of gap, people are going to be expecting a lot from this release.
So the question is: does it stand up?
Yeup.
Oh look, another Professor Layton. I don’t think I need to outline once again how every Professor Layton game holds me firmly in its thrall. I’ve lost sleep with each game. Basically as long as Level 5 keep coming out with these games, they will keep taking the money I throw at them.
That said, the new Professor Layton came with a veritable feast of new mini-games, new puzzles, and one of the best story-lines in a game I’ve played in the last while. As a result, the newest addition to the series (Professor Layton and the Unwound Future) ends up being the best of the series (thus far).
Let us pretend for the sake of this review that it’s 2007; people are getting shot at Virginia Tech, Bob Barker airs his last episode of The Price is Right, some intense earthquakes happen, and countries are revoting against their respective leaders. I’d list them here, but seriously, there were a lot of revolts that year. You could say it was…. insane? Hah, you totally though I was going to say ‘revolting’ but I didn’t and I totally got you. You should see the look on your face.
Anyways.
On top of all of this, Bioshock hits the market and ends up getting a whole slew of reviews and press. No solid reviews have come out beyond the wank-fests of the big game rags, and he Internet waits for the independent reviews to start coming in.
That’s where this review comes in. For those that don’t want to play along, yes this is a review for a game that I only just got around to playing about 3 years later. I was a busy man, probably.
To the review-mobile!
I’m a huge fan of stories. I really am. I read my first book before I was in school. I read my first novel by grade 2. I was reading Tolkien by grade 4. I have a book shelf that I bought because my original one was two books deep on every shelf. I’ve become a huge fan of Podcasts like The Moth and The Wayward Irregular due to the magic that comes from them. I will listen to any and everyone that has a story to tell. All the more when they’ve got a flair for “the telling.”
I think it’s save to say that I love stories.
Hell I’ve even tried my own hand at writing a couple of my own. I admit that they’re not Pulitzer-level or anything, but I like to think that someone out there will enjoy them. Regardless, I’ve recently decided that I’d like to be told more stories. Lots more stories. What’s more, I’d like others to have the same opportunity. There are other sites out there that do what I’ve decided to do, but I’ve opted to do something a little different…
I’ve never really been let down by Pixar. There is a reason why their movies do so well: Quality. Every Pixar movie I’ve seen I have enjoyed. Last year I watched Wall-E, though I didn’t have time to write about it. Had I, I would have given it a solid 10/10 because there was nothing Wall-E did less than amazing.
UP sits right under Wall-E on the awesome scale. It’s not as epically beautiful, nor is it quite as artistically stunning, but it’s pretty damned close.
This post is coming to you at least two three months late, but hey, for at least one of those months I was rather busy with school. I don’t really have an excuse for the latter, but that’s just how it is.
Anyways, back in March, I was given a fantastic opportunity to visit Japan via a friend of mine. Given that it was a trip to frikkin’ Japan, I couldn’t possibly have said no. Had I known how long the flight was actually going to feel, I might have reconsidered. Going there took somewhere around 18 hours and coming back took almost 24. There’s nothing quite like an 8 hour layover to make you consider killing yourself and/or those around you.
Thankfully the Detroit International Airport has a fantastic massage parlor. Best 30 dollars I have ever spent.
I will also apologize in advance for the load of this page. I’ve got a bunch of photos in this one, so if it takes a while to load… well you’ll have to wait i guess! I’m going to note the numbers of the photos from my flickr just so you can sort of follow along.
In case you are too lazy to visit my flickr set, you can jump to the end of the post, where I have a lovely flash dohickey that will rotate through all of my photos.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve played any real arcade-style games. Last time I picked up a controller to play any sort of side-scrolling, button-bashing, streets-of-fury style game I was a much younger person. With SNES controller in hand, my friend and I playing the likes of TNMT: Turtles in Time, Contra III or Battletoads & Double Dragon.
See the problems with my playing these sorts of games are:
Well I now have a console, so I have no excuse as to whether I could try to play them or not. Turns out I still suck at them, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. The forearm muscle is a slow process, and I’ve already given myself muscle strain resulting in a fantastic carpel tunnel attack. You just don’t feel like a man until you’ve got to ice your forearm because of extreme button mashing.
Or is it “You just can’t feel like a man when you have to ice your forearm because of extreme button mashing”?
Either way, it hasn’t stopped me from playing Castle Crashers with extreme vigor.