#February2016
Comedy Central’s ‘Review’ ending after shortened third season
Andy Daly’s Review is too odd, and too wonderfully uncomfortable to even exist. So I suppose it is a blessing that the show has lasted even two season, let alone that is being given a third, shortened one.
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Monday Morning Commute: Creation-that is the great redemption from suffering
It’s Monday! Which means a Morning Commute. How did mine go? Well — I was rear ended for the third time in two years as I drove on I-93 South towards UMass Boston. People! Look up from your fucking phones. I beg you. My spaghetti-brain begs you. My consistently whiplash’d neck begs you. I hope, I pray to the Old Ones, that your commute was better than mine. The only perk? The Immediate Migraine and Sore Neck meant I got to go home. Though after thinking about it, a day of lost wages and suffering doesn’t seem like fair trade for a Monday on the couch. Eh. Whatever!
Chew your own face off: It’s Resident Evil 6
Whether it be good or bad, Resident Evil 6 is getting written about and talked about a whole lot. Every gaming website seems to be running a ‘best bit of a bad game feature’ or a condescending guide on how you’re playing it wrong, all just to keep that sweet advertising revenue rolling in and make sure they avoid another Jeff Gerstmann situation. That said, review scores have hardly been kind to the latest installment of the Resident Evil series and it isn’t hard to see why. Read the rest of this entry »
Flashback to 1986 with Deadlight
I’ve seen so much of the zombie apocalypse that I now feel suitably numb to the whole scenario; numb enough, at least, to be able to deal with it calmly and with a level of effortless cool, should it actually come to pass. Appropriately enough, it seems that Deadlight’s ‘hero’ – Randal Wayne- has had just about enough of the undead, too. He stumbles through the game with a gruff bravado and a longing for his possibly-dead-by-now wife: barely even batting an eyelid to the swathes of zombies that surround him. Apathy, it seems, is infectious.
The Dark Knight Rises – It Rises, It Rises, It’s Risen, It’s Here
[Caff note: spoilers abound in the post-article comments area. You were warned. As well, Omega-Level sends out love, thoughts and best-wishes to everyone grappling with the DKR midnight shooting tragedy in Colorado]
How is anything supposed to follow The Dark Knight? Nolan’s trilogy ender will reap enormous numbers of attendees and box office dollars solely based on people wanting another TDK. Another round of dark, violent and unpredictable chaos in Gotham. Another villain as jarringly memorable as Ledger’s Joker. And another story that transcends comic roots and becomes lovingly embraced by the mainstream as a ‘crime saga’.
This might hurt your appreciation of Rises as it nearly did mine. In so many ways, this film feels like a direct sequel to Batman Begins. It notably takes the few elements it needs from the trilogy’s second chapter – Harvey Dent’s ‘legacy’, Rachel’s death and Bruce’s need to pass the mantle on – and forgets about the others, rejoining the stream Begins established seven years ago.
It’s awesome that the film feels like a much more appropriate bookend to Nolan’s trilogy in that regard. My fear was that the runaway success and rampant permeation of the Joker and TDK into popular culture would mean that everything about Rises would follow from, and be influenced by TDK, and only TDK. Not so. Not so at all. I’m definitely still a little dizzy off the high of the midnight venture to see this, and I’m sure I missed many more vital connections to TDK, so take his all as a sleep-deprived first gut reaction.
Bad Guys win and Heroes fall in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
The ferocity with which some fans yearn for ‘traditional’ survival horror from the Resident Evil series often blinds us to just how diverse a series it has managed to become. Throughout its history we have seen it shift to a more contemporary, action-centric pace with Resident Evil 5, have seen it re-interpreted as a lightgun shooter with Darkside Chronicles and now, we see Operation Raccoon City recalling the often forgotten co-op experience of Resident Evil: Outbreak. At first, the idea of setting a team-based, 3rd person tactical shooter within the Resident Evil universe may seem a little jarring, but when you consider the breadth of the series so far, it doesn’t seem that odd after all.
Review: Binary Domain
It’s difficult to review Binary Domain without getting caught up in the history of third-person cover shooters and how they are typically defined by western developers. Just for you though, I’ll refrain. After all, why would you want to hear my ramblings over how lackluster Gears of War 3 was, or how Quantum Theory is one of the worst games ever spawned from Satan’s shitty asshole? All you need to know is that Binary Domain is one of the most surprisingly entertaining and rewarding games I’ve played in years.
Review: Batman Arkham City
Icarus, Jesus, Rocksteady Games. What do these three entities have in common. It’s not an affinity for sandals, or a desire to get closer to God, no: they are all victims of their own success. If I was in charge of Rocksteady Games I would have packed it in right after Arkham Asylum because crappy boss fights aside, that game was pure perfection.
Review: RAGE (XBOX 360)
You know, there’s some sort of unwritten rule amongst games bloggers/reviewers/writers. I’ve heard it mentioned before that you should never review a game without finishing it: it smacks of a lack of professionalism, a lack of commitment and, most importantly, it doesn’t seem fair to call a race before it finishes.
Fuck that. When I drop forty bucks on a game I want it to entertain the shit out of me: at least keep me interested until the end. If your product fails to even meet that basic requirement then this is what you get: a bile-filled rant on how your game cheated me out my hard-earned money. Simply put: me seeing Rage through until its end would be like finishing a meal of dog shit and ass hair because it came served on a plate. There are principles and then there’s stupidity.
Review – Bastion (XBLA)
Stories are wonderful, aren’t they? Especially when the storytellers get it right: weaving tales of intrigue, fantasy and human nature. If it weren’t for our ability to tell stories, then we would know hardly anything about ourselves. Bastion is a game that knows this all too well: building on narrative foundations rather than mechanical ones. This isn’t a story within a game, so much as it is a game within a story.
