Dead Space³ - The good, the bad and the ugly
Main single-player completed 2nd March. Not tried co-op at this time.
The good
The bad
The Ugly
‘San Pedro’ by Mogwai is my new jam.
[video]
BBC News - Zero Dark Thirty attacked by 9/11 family -
It’s Oscar night and much back-slapping is currently being lined up over the pond. The above news story caught my eye because I have been having a difficult time deciding whether I should watch the Oscar nominated Zero Dark Thirty or not.
My reasons are personal but may not be unique; the movie feels like it could be profiteering out of disaster and terror. Making money from recent historical misery. I also question whether the story of a man-hunt for a known terrorist really needed producing?
You’ve seen Zero Dark Thirty? Great let me know if I’m wrong to be thinking this way.
Not seen it? Do you share my concerns?
[video]
‘Tape Song’ by The Kills is my new jam.
[video]
The all bells'n'whistles raptr 2012 summary -
I don’t need stats or a nice graphically enhanced summary to tell me that 2012 was a rather dull gaming year. 43 games played in one year is indicative of buying far too many games that turn out to be what I had expected - turkeys. I should know better, especially when I only managed to complete 4 single-player campaigns in the whole year.
One stat that really jumps out from raptr’s summary is the 29hrs played of Assassin’s Creed 3. Not only is it a game I felt mixed emotions over, it is also one I haven’t completed and doubt I want to go back to do so.
I do have to agree with the concern shown by Emily regarding how the averages were worked out. The figures do seem a little on the low side for averages if you consider the average number of games played(12) doesn’t seem to discern between new and older games played.
Sometimes less is indeed more. When I experience a well conceived world, be it in a book, movie or game, I appreciate it that much more when;
Current entertainment can reflect our busy modern lives far too eagerly. There’s a rush to bombard the senses with a depth of information which can be a real turn-off. It’s almost unheard of not to hear a news piece regurgitated to death by the media. Many a videogame will douse the player in flippant back-story and uninspiring character interaction via aimless cut-scenes that the ‘skip’ option has become the norm.
In these recent entertainment examples below, I’ve been left wanting more or at left thinking about the experience long after the credits roll or the final page has been read;
What links these three separate forms of entertainment is the sparseness of information to which their individual worlds are given over to the viewer/reader. Time is taken to build your belief into these worlds. Rather than bang you over the head with the story, we instead get a paced narrative that gives over the time to digest what is happening and what has gone on before.

Surprisingly the recent announcement from Bungie of further details for their next IP, Destiny has whetted my appetite. I’ll be very curious to know if this world (where console gamers can interact together rather than just shooting each other in the face) will succeed in bringing engaging stories with meaningful mission types to a persistent world. It’s a very ambitious task and definitely not one for the faint of heart. Bungie will best heed the mistakes made by other developers else we see a repeat failure on the scale of DCUO.
The ever-winding road where it takes us nobody knows.