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SOMA is easily one of the best gaming experiences I've had, and I cannot overstate how harrowing, thoughtful, and encompassing I found the narrative. It is, of course, not perfect and not for everyone, but it comes with my personal highest recommendation.
If you want just the facts and none of the flavor, here goes;
SOMA is a first person narrative-driven game by Frictional Games, makers of the original Amnesia. It's out on PC and PS4, download only, for around $30. It has a hard, Sci-Fi theme with heavy psychological horror elements, and contains no combat, mild stealth gameplay, and a handful of fairly simple puzzles. It's a pretty easy game to complete by design, especially for the genre. There is thematic gore and (situationally appropriate) language.
SOMA is, by the end, more interested in the conversation it has with the player than it is about complex gameplay. There is more direct involvement than say, a typical visual novel, and more gameplay than purposefully limited exploratory narratives like Dear Esther or Gone Home, but everything is streamlined to the point of interaction-for-the-sake-of-exploring and world-building. It has obvious faults, including somewhat poorly implemented stealth and a jarring art style for character pictures and human models, which feel more like placeholders than artistic choices. Some have complained about the voice acting, but I found it to be very well done.
If you have the means and ANY interest whatsoever, please stop now, get the game, and slowly ingest it, preferably with no lights and excellent headphones. Take your time, as most of the story is in small bits scattered about. Done? Great. Breathe. Onward.
[MAJOR SPOILER TERRITORY FROM HERE ON, PLEASE ONLY READ IF YOU WILL NOT PLAY THE GAME OR HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED IT. LAST WARNING.]
Continue reading When a Game Asks Big Questions: Time With SOMA
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Good thing it told me. Source: Jeremysaid.com
Let's be honest here for a minute. You WHAT? I'm... sorry, I think I have to call the police.
Er, let's start over. If we're truly honest about it, people tend to be pretty picky, and that includes gamers being picky about their games. And that's fine! After all, we're dedicating our most valuable resource; time, and usually at least some of our income toward a leisure activity. It only makes sense that we are discerning about how and what we play, and cater our playtime to match our preferences, as we do most other things.
Continue reading Good Thing My Bias is the Right One
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So THIS is how you capture a bunch of gamers in a giant net. Photo from the official CCAG Facebook page.
If there is anything that annually rejuvenates my enjoyment of video games beyond our little basement 'o fun, it's Cleveland's own 'Classic Console and Arcade Game Show'. Sure, CORGS (a similar event in Columbus, Ohio) is awesome in its own right, but my beloved and I have been CCAGing for almost a decade, and there's still a sort of homegrown friendliness to the show that just resonates with us. Maybe it's the vendors, many of whom immediately recognize us every year with a happy wave and plenty of stories to exchange. Or the atmosphere, which is more laid back, friendly, and trusting than most larger conventions. Perhaps its the incredible deals, such as the CIB Aquarius (practically sealed) a friend picked up for $25, or the complete Wii system with Motion Plus that another friend nabbed for $11. It could also be the fascinating creativity some folks display, be it mods, custom arcade cabs, or handmade gaming items.
Continue reading CCAG 2015, as reviewed by a giddy fanboy
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The Rainbow apparently tastes like Master Sword and waaaay too much Green Apple. Bring back Lime.
Source: thatsnerdalicious.com, artist: mattmcmanis-d34vqd8
As Hobbes' young companion once noted, mothers are the necessity of invention. And in the gaming industry (and by industry I of course mean business), innovation means something fresh for the gamer and risk for the publisher. We gamers are known to clamor for something new, different, interesting, and creative. Ours is a tech-driven hobby, so naturally we want the newest, shiniest, most feature-packed thingee that's plowing ahead, breaking new ground, and showing us something we've never quite seen before. Right?
And it's all those suit-and-ties in board meetings that are stifling and ruining our business (and by business, I of course mean industry.) Their money-grubbing, tight-fisted pea-brains keep them from seeing the vision of artists, and instead they play it safe with brown-colored shooter release #57. So, we just keep getting rehashes and sequels, with the occasional off-chance (often from our here-to-save-the-industry/business from itself indie sector) of shaking things up and giving us a much needed breakthrough in a Minecraft or Angry Birds.
That's our reality, yes?
Continue reading Comfort Food
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Game System and cat hair not included. Source: Chicagoagent.net
So let me assure you, I don't want this to be another "oh, just Slackur going on about multiplayer games and how much fun they all have, blah blah." After reading previous comments and discussions, I want to emphasize that I enjoy writing about local co-op, not to brag about all the fun we have, but because I want to encourage others who would enjoy it. I hope to encourage readers to keep at the long-term work it requires to start up this type of gaming and keep it going, especially in our weird, modern, always-connected-yet-lonely world of adult responsibilities. I know I'm not the only one that misses human interaction as compared to social media.
Continue reading My Favorite Feature on Current-Gen Consoles is the Couch
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Oh well. Back to Words with Friends. (SlackurJes, if you ever want to play.) Pic source: lazygamer.net
Folks spend their money and time on what they want or what's important to them, gamers included. Ah, but it's never that simple, is it? There are as many stories about collections as there are collectors, and probably half as many assumptions about both that are mistaken for various reasons. In the same way that a person's income, background, religion, appearance, and other factors often lead to very inaccurate assumptions about an individual, often anyone who owns more than a few video games can be labeled quite incorrectly.
Continue reading A Collection Story
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photo source: vg247.com
**Warning: light spoilers concerning the setting and philosophical implications of Bloodborne, and also some pics may be considered offensive to cat lovers.**
When it comes to Bloodborne, much digital and printed ink has been spilt in praising the game while warning the unaware about the intense challenge it unapologetically presents. As a result, I see no need to repeat this common narrative of which I happen to agree. If you've played any of director Hidetaka Miyazaki's games, you know what you're getting into, and Bloodborne is both familiar in this regard while being tweaked enough to have its own identity.
Continue reading The Blood That Bore Bloodborne
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Remember when it was immediately obvious, even before you saw a screenshot, how a video game would play?
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Because when I think of card games, I think of rainbow assaults to the face while 70's ghost woman haunts my Technicolor hand.
Continue reading Let The Game Be What It Wants To Be
When we were little kids tossing a football or shooting a basketball, we rarely stayed ourselves for long. Even if we didn't know any popular athlete's names, we were the star of the game; kicking the ball through the defense, knocking out the winning home run, slamming the puck into the net in our imagination. If we weren't pretending to be Michael Jordan or Arnold Palmer, we were a superior athletic version of ourselves, making all the right moves and showing off our skill to the crowd of our mind's eye.
Even for sports-challenged adults, such as I, a good book or movie takes us to a different place or time, our thoughts vicariously transporting us somewhere else for awhile. The potential benefits of such mental journeys extend well beyond escapism and can be informative, reflective, inspiring, even transforming.
Being the newest media on the block, video games embody much of the potential and problems of its siblings. As technology grows in leaps and bounds, so too grows our toolsets to create previously unheard-of experiences in the interactive entertainment realm. And yet, we can still use many of the same methods of examining our perspective as in other media.
Continue reading Gaming the Perspective
Suffice to say, even those who don't game online likely hoped for coal in the stockings of the grinches that took down XBox Live and PSN over Christmas of 2014. The DDoS attack created an outage that lasted a few days and kept owners of Sony and Microsoft's consoles from playing online, buying digital games and even locked out many single player experiences that required some online verification.
It's easy for us retro enthusiasts to roll our eyes, straighten our bifocals, and shake our canes as we brag about the obvious advantage of older consoles that weren't affected in the least. That doesn't change things for the many gaming youths who had just acquired a new toy and were unable to use it during their vacation time, or we older gamers who looked forward to unwinding through the holiday bustle by nabbing a few flags or finally getting in a raid.
We can prattle on about the obvious flaws of online-required gameplay and the lack of security and bandwidth in multi-billion dollar companies, or how it was a good thing that little Jimmy actually had to engage with the relatives instead of being glued to that headset, or how I assumed I was finished with Destiny and Plants Versus Zombies: Garden Warfare until forced withdrawal made the cravings start up again.
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In Bungie's defense, this offline multiplayer version of Destiny does have universal group chat. (Found these at https://www.etsy.com/list...ng?ref=shop_home_active_4)
Continue reading Gaming Unplugged
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Posted on Dec 19th 2014 at 01:39:52 PM by ( slackur) Posted under Bestises, paramount, superb, undisputed, greatest, most enjoyed, unbelieveable, incredible, undeniable, unparalleled, hyperbole |
As we all transition through arbitrary signposts on to another blocked-off sequence of events, I find it best to lift my hands up and feel the wind instead of grabbing for the emergency brake. Still, reflecting where we've been, gives context to where we're going. So as the cart methodically clicks on the track at the top of the hill, let's close our eyes and recall the latest part of the journey before speeding down to Whiplashville. Note that these titles weren't all released in the last year (or decade), but simply a slice of my best gaming experiences since I forgot to update the calendar twelve months ago. Onto the list!!
Continue reading Slackur's Unofficial Official Denary of '14 Gaming Experiences
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TWO buttons? Son, in my day we had a joystick with only one red button, and we did just fine.
I assume I was not the only kid who genuinely wanted video games to be more than just a niche hobby. As I would rant excitedly about my latest virtual experience, adults and often other kids would roll their eyes and shake their heads, as if I were trying to engage them in a heated debate over the color arrangements of my sock drawer or how fascinating was today's dryer lint. Aside from a handful of peers, nobody around me really cared, so video games felt like a lost treasure only a few friends and I could see. While it was lonely at times, these circumstances formed a gnostic cadre, forging bonds not unlike the secret club-house days of old. Every Nintendo Power or Game Players held delicious clues of future experiences, and instruction manuals whispered prologues of great adventures that lay ahead.
Continue reading The Usefulness of Ubiquity
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Um, negotiation? Harsh language?
*Sometime in 1989, my dad is flipping through channels while an 11-year-old me is puttering with the family Commodore 64. I glance up to the screen in time to see the coolest thing on wheels my young mind has yet absorbed: a giant rectangle bristling with weaponry, tires almost as tall as the vehicle is high, and a turret atop that is so huge, it slides on a rail from the top and down the back so the whole thing can fit through a huge industrial door.
"Woah, what is that?" I ask.
"A movie." My dad says nonchalantly.
"What movie?"
"Aliens."
From the kitchen, I hear my mom call out, "Ken, isn't that too scary for him?"
The wood-grain 25" console TV flickers to a different channel.
This was my first encounter with the legendary franchise. And a moment that dug deep grooves into my life from then on, including a love of sci-fi I would end up sharing with my dad.
Alien Isolation is the latest product in that universe, which by most accounts needed a palate cleanser after the failure-on-many-levels Colonial Marines (full disclosure, I did enjoy that one, though I agree with the critique.) That game, like most based on the series, was modeled as a guns-blazing action game with a touch of horror, which makes sense; Aliens is highly regarded as a fantastic action/sci-fi/horror-lite movie that was also key in developing the quintessential and now ubiquitous 'Space Marine' archetype.
Continue reading Death and Harvey: Time with Alien Isolation
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