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Fri Aug 21, 2015 7:01 pm 
"Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" was an interesting read. Seems to do a good job giving an impression of the game in a short review. Lack of interactivity while exploring environments tends to drive me nuts though, it wasn't clear whether you could actually examine items in the game. Was surprised that it was released on PS4, I see Dear Esther wasn't released on consoles. Typo: "Sometime, whether it's an alien life, the will of god, or a psychic disease, has begun striking down the people of Yaughton."
Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:30 pm
Thanks, fixed!
Interaction is very limited. You can pick up phones and turn on radios, both of which progress the story, but beyond that you can't really do anything other than flip light switches, open doors, and turn machines on and off. There are books, drawings, and debris scattered around that do fill in some details just by looking at them, but you can't pick them up or anything. That did get a little frustrating in some places (don't put a soccer ball near a net if I can't roll it in)
It sounds like they tried to raise financing to release this more widely but failed until Sony stepped in and backed it, which is why it ended up as a console title while Dear Esther's PC only. I'm not super clear on the details but it sounds like it had a tough production.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Interaction is very limited. You can pick up phones and turn on radios, both of which progress the story, but beyond that you can't really do anything other than flip light switches, open doors, and turn machines on and off. There are books, drawings, and debris scattered around that do fill in some details just by looking at them, but you can't pick them up or anything. That did get a little frustrating in some places (don't put a soccer ball near a net if I can't roll it in)
It sounds like they tried to raise financing to release this more widely but failed until Sony stepped in and backed it, which is why it ended up as a console title while Dear Esther's PC only. I'm not super clear on the details but it sounds like it had a tough production.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:26 am
OK, interesting. I don't really fault them too hard for the static environments, as it's a game simply about following a story, and that's what you can easily make in a 3D modelling program. Unlike all those games which are trying to depict living, malleable worlds and yet still have static 3D environments with invisible walls and nothing going on.
Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:11 am
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows
This is a free expansion for anyone who owns the original game. It's incredibly good!
I also wrote a bunch of Walking Dead episode reviews over on Sharkberg: http://sharkberg.com/category/3tvshows/horror-3tvshows/
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
This is a free expansion for anyone who owns the original game. It's incredibly good!
I also wrote a bunch of Walking Dead episode reviews over on Sharkberg: http://sharkberg.com/category/3tvshows/horror-3tvshows/
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:36 am
The Wobbler wrote:
This is a free expansion for anyone who owns the original game. It's incredibly good!
This is a free expansion for anyone who owns the original game. It's incredibly good!
I still want to buy a copy of the original. The game looks entirely like my jam.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:20 pm
Thu Oct 08, 2015 8:11 am
MGS V Spoilers For Serious:
I didn't play Peace Walker or Ground Zeroes (Or MGS2 or 4, I'm a horrible MGS fan) so I was a little lost in some of this. When I saw Skullface' mask, my first thought was The Lone Ranger. Number One to Cipher's Zero, a binary kind of symbolism. Your Zorro interpretation is even more interesting to me, a "bold renegade" looking to leave his mark on the world. To fight for freedom against an occupying power. California vs. Mexico tying better into the themes of language, revenge, and loss.
I read a little bit of the review before tonight, and was really glad I did. The Paz parts helped fill in some of the gaps I was missing and I would've totally missed 'em. Woulda spent a bunch of time too, trying to figure out why the story had ended after Episodes 45 and 46. It's weird to have the game end with Eli and Sahelanthropus still on the loose.. and weirder still if you consider that it makes Eli (and who he grows up to be) the most experienced Metal Gear pilot in the world.
I hope this turns out to be a good thing in the long run and that Kojima's got the freedom now to do whatever he wants. Silent Hills was gonna be so cool, though. And I'm sure Konami will try to continue Metal Gear without his vision. Great reviews!
I didn't play Peace Walker or Ground Zeroes (Or MGS2 or 4, I'm a horrible MGS fan) so I was a little lost in some of this. When I saw Skullface' mask, my first thought was The Lone Ranger. Number One to Cipher's Zero, a binary kind of symbolism. Your Zorro interpretation is even more interesting to me, a "bold renegade" looking to leave his mark on the world. To fight for freedom against an occupying power. California vs. Mexico tying better into the themes of language, revenge, and loss.
I read a little bit of the review before tonight, and was really glad I did. The Paz parts helped fill in some of the gaps I was missing and I would've totally missed 'em. Woulda spent a bunch of time too, trying to figure out why the story had ended after Episodes 45 and 46. It's weird to have the game end with Eli and Sahelanthropus still on the loose.. and weirder still if you consider that it makes Eli (and who he grows up to be) the most experienced Metal Gear pilot in the world.
I hope this turns out to be a good thing in the long run and that Kojima's got the freedom now to do whatever he wants. Silent Hills was gonna be so cool, though. And I'm sure Konami will try to continue Metal Gear without his vision. Great reviews!
Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:47 pm
Thanks for reading! Something that really doesn't make sense to me is that Ground Zeroes includes a simple, well written summary of Big Boss's story up to that point, so you don't really even need to play 3 or Peace Walker. They could have literally copy and pasted it into an optional text file in Phantom Pain and added a line or two and it would have been very helpful to people who hadn't played them or had forgotten their stories.
Story-wise I think playing 2 and 4 AFTER playing 5 would be the most satisfying sequence of story, 4's whole final act ties up Big Boss and Zero's war about as well as it can. The only issue is 5's way more fun to play, so it's hard to go back to their dated controls and weird systems.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Story-wise I think playing 2 and 4 AFTER playing 5 would be the most satisfying sequence of story, 4's whole final act ties up Big Boss and Zero's war about as well as it can. The only issue is 5's way more fun to play, so it's hard to go back to their dated controls and weird systems.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:12 pm
Rock Band 4
Metal Gear Solid 5 is a good but incomplete game that's still the best game of the year. Rock Band 4 is a good but incomplete game that's the year's biggest let down.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Metal Gear Solid 5 is a good but incomplete game that's still the best game of the year. Rock Band 4 is a good but incomplete game that's the year's biggest let down.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Fri Oct 23, 2015 4:57 am
Here's a long piece I wrote about the online stuff in Metal Gear: Silence Speaks Volumes: Metal Gear Solid V's Invasion System and Elimination of Game/Story Dissonance
A friend of mine also wrote a really good, super-spoiler heavy Metal Gear analysis: Words That Kill: Language and Legacy in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
If anyone's a Walking Dead fan I've also written reviews of each episode of the spin-off show and the first two episodes of season 6: http://sharkberg.com/?s=walking+dead
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
A friend of mine also wrote a really good, super-spoiler heavy Metal Gear analysis: Words That Kill: Language and Legacy in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
If anyone's a Walking Dead fan I've also written reviews of each episode of the spin-off show and the first two episodes of season 6: http://sharkberg.com/?s=walking+dead
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:17 am
Sometimes I remember the past, hello, have a nice Christmas.
Fallout 4
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Fallout 4
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:49 am
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: A Look Back
Three movies, one post. Not my usual format.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Fri Dec 18, 2015 12:24 am
Really good stuff. I feel like a lot of fans overlooked the Jedi Council as the real villain of the first two movies due to the onscreen presence of an obviously-evil Sith lord. In that light, I wonder if the existence of Darth Maul in the first film wasn't a mistake. Qui-Gon has to die, but that's really the only purpose Maul serves.
Yoda namedropping Chewbacca is maybe the most jarring moment in the entire hexalogy to date.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Yoda namedropping Chewbacca is maybe the most jarring moment in the entire hexalogy to date.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Fri Dec 18, 2015 12:51 am
Liked a lot of your points, and to build off what Moogle's saying, that's the biggest problem with the Prequels (Mostly Phantom Menace): They're trying to tell a serious story about corruption and apathy and politics, but in the style of a children's movie. The main character is an 8 year old kid, the villain is, visually, as obvious a villain as you can possibly get, Jar Jar's antics, etc. Not to harp on a certain OHR Game, but Lucas might as well have told the story with Kirby.
A lot of people have talked about how racist Jar Jar and the Gungans felt, how anti-semitic Watto seemed and until I read your article I never thought that maybe they were intended to be the way: That's how the Old Republic looked at other races. Turns the whole thing into a weird nostalgia piece like.. a deconstruction of the Old Republic, the way later westerns deconstruct the idealized John Wayne version.
I thought Episode 1 was long with a few good parts and I thought Episode 2 was WAY too long with maybe one good part. I never watched Episode 3 and I'm not sure I'm going to see Episode 7. The trailers remind me of the trailers for like.. that Twilight movie where everyone was running around and turning into werewolves and punching people. It didn't feel like the Star Wars I remember.
A lot of people have talked about how racist Jar Jar and the Gungans felt, how anti-semitic Watto seemed and until I read your article I never thought that maybe they were intended to be the way: That's how the Old Republic looked at other races. Turns the whole thing into a weird nostalgia piece like.. a deconstruction of the Old Republic, the way later westerns deconstruct the idealized John Wayne version.
I thought Episode 1 was long with a few good parts and I thought Episode 2 was WAY too long with maybe one good part. I never watched Episode 3 and I'm not sure I'm going to see Episode 7. The trailers remind me of the trailers for like.. that Twilight movie where everyone was running around and turning into werewolves and punching people. It didn't feel like the Star Wars I remember.
Fri Dec 18, 2015 2:46 am
Thanks for reading bros.
Just hearing Yoda say "Chewbacca" out loud is jarring and weird. A lot of his dialogue really feels wrong, because his speech pattern in the originals was built with old wise mysticism in mind; it's weird as hell when the same pattern is used for issuing military commands. Which I guess does sell the point that he's doing something super wrong by even being involved in a war, but it's nonetheless really hard to get into.
It's definitely a weird disconnect between the weight of the story and the nature of the story's universe. I'm not expecting anything like that in the new movies. I assume they'll be much more straight-forward and tonally consistent, and there's nothing wrong with that. But Lucas's films are so strongly, obviously George Lucas films, for better or worse. I've got a ton of respect for how hard his signature is stamped all over these movies, even if it's sometimes not the best idea.
Same deal with Michael Bay. I dislike many of his films, but big respect for him making them 100% his own. They're often gross and stupid as hell, but they're Michael Bay to the core, and I salute the dude for that. Pain & Gain rules.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition
Just hearing Yoda say "Chewbacca" out loud is jarring and weird. A lot of his dialogue really feels wrong, because his speech pattern in the originals was built with old wise mysticism in mind; it's weird as hell when the same pattern is used for issuing military commands. Which I guess does sell the point that he's doing something super wrong by even being involved in a war, but it's nonetheless really hard to get into.
Gizmog wrote:
Liked a lot of your points, and to build off what Moogle's saying, that's the biggest problem with the Prequels (Mostly Phantom Menace): They're trying to tell a serious story about corruption and apathy and politics, but in the style of a children's movie. The main character is an 8 year old kid, the villain is, visually, as obvious a villain as you can possibly get, Jar Jar's antics, etc. Not to harp on a certain OHR Game, but Lucas might as well have told the story with Kirby.
It's definitely a weird disconnect between the weight of the story and the nature of the story's universe. I'm not expecting anything like that in the new movies. I assume they'll be much more straight-forward and tonally consistent, and there's nothing wrong with that. But Lucas's films are so strongly, obviously George Lucas films, for better or worse. I've got a ton of respect for how hard his signature is stamped all over these movies, even if it's sometimes not the best idea.
Same deal with Michael Bay. I dislike many of his films, but big respect for him making them 100% his own. They're often gross and stupid as hell, but they're Michael Bay to the core, and I salute the dude for that. Pain & Gain rules.
Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition