Bioshock Infinite

No spoilers here.

It’s a strange setup for me to be honest, and I wasn’t expecting much. The original Bioshock was a game that I really struggled to like. The setting was amazing, and the sheer level of detail contained within the damp, dripping halls of Rapture was enough to send the literary munchkin in my head into spasms of glee. And yet, the actual game left me feeling blunted and somewhat miserable.

Would you kindly stop shooting/screaming at me for a moment? I’m trying to listen to this recording…

The Return (The Returning) Returns…

Hallo.

Well, it’s been almost five months since I last ranted incoherently on these not-so-hallowed pages, and in that time I’ve moved house. Twice. I also went a whole three months with no net – thanks, Sky Broadband! I also somehow managed to find myself living with some woman who claims to love me… it’s all a little strange and new. But she buys me cakes, so I think I love her too.

Of course, my writing (and gaming, and… er, other things) has been adversely effected by all this moving and rampant emotional upheaval, and for that I am truly sorry.

But, I’m back. And once again, words are fighting each other in my head, before spilling out on to… you know what? Screw the flowery nonsense. Here’s some of the stuff I wrote during my “break”.

OMG FTL FTW!

It’s probably something to do with my unhealthy fascination with Star Trek during my childhood, the prospect of captaining a fully-functioning star-ship always reduces me to a dribbling wreck of a geek. Artemis was a thing in my house a while back, until my increasingly garbled orders and over-stimulated monologues eventually started to disturb/scare my younger brothers.

None of them ever wanted to be “Captain”. I don’t blame them.   

Recent Work – August

This is how I feel right now.

It’s a strange thing; the less you actually do, the faster time seems to fly in. I turned 29 last month, and am currently preparing myself for the big three-oh next year. It’s been almost a decade since I turned twenty, and god – it feels like about a month.

Final Fantasy 7 Coming to PC (Again)

It has been announced recently that Final Fantasy 7 is to be re-released, and (shock) is PC bound. Of course, this has already been foretold - ever since the PS3 tech-demo featuring Aeris was shown to gob-smacked crowds at some presentation or something (I’m not big on the PS3), there has been a deep murmur in certain parts of the web that a remake may be in the works.

Shame then, that it isn’t.

Late Call – Wreck-It Ralph

I love Disney movies.

I hate gaming movies (excluding Scott Pilgrim, of course).

So imagine my surprise when browsing Rock Paper Shotgun this evening, to find a short post on an upcoming movie that not only looks like Disney’s most ambitious CGI movie for some time, it… well, just watch this.

Seriously, have you ever wanted to see a movie more in your life? I pretty much gave up on game tie-in movies after Uwe Boll decided the world was ready for… well, whatever crap convinced him to start making movies out of games. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was a pleasant surprise, despite it having a few comic-to-screen issues. It still held a little blocky candle up for all those games we once held so dear, and the soundtrack was actually not bad.

But this little gem could be the turning point. The movie that makes the film-makers of the world sit up and realise that gaming (both in hobby and in style) is an unplumbed source of beauty, inspiration and worth investing in. It’ll be like “The Spirits Within” never happened…

Then again, it might just be a groovy little yarn that makes us old timers smile. Either way, I’m really looking forward to this one. Wreck-It Ralph is due out in November, and I truly hope it’s as good as it looks.

 

Recent Work: I Hate My Job

Yeah, it’s been another one of those months. Overtime, an angry boss, and a deadly amount of Wotsits have all featured; but I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say, I’m knackered. Thanks for asking.

I’ve been a bit slow on the writing front, mostly due to the above. But also partly due to a little mod called DayZ.

If you haven’t played this monster of a survival horror, go play. Yes, it requires the Combined Operations version of ArmA 2. And yes, if you don’t own this already it will set you back about £25. But DayZ is probably the greatest zombie survival game of all time, formed within ArmA 2‘s monstrously detailed, country-sized war-simulator. It’s hard, brutal, but one of those games that you will play for a long time.

Long story short, it’s worth 25 quid. Still don’t believe? Read my long-winded and stupidly over-dramatized (yet almost totally accurate) account of an evening spent with a few friends here.

This month, I also started writing bits and bobs for a lovely multi-format site called The Recticule. So far, my only contribution has been a small news piece on Diablo 3‘s hacking issues, but I’m neck-deep in a review of Warlock: Master of the Arcane, so look out for that. I may try and nudge a few more news things in too – if I can avoid ranting incoherently, of course.

So that’s that. Back to DayZ…