I feel required to preface this review with this: I have never seen a silent film before. The Artist makes me want to see more.
The Artist is a silent film. That is 90% of its shtick. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that it’s a silent film about the end of the era of silent films. And that’s OK, because it is so incredibly well-executed that you won’t care that they’re not talking.
Want to know whether or not to buy SSX? I’ve written 3 reviews for you to choose from, ordered by increasing length. Read about what I thought in as few or as many words as you like.
The Oatmeal's latest comic explains why people pirate things. It also shows why Valve is right to not worry about piracy.
Earlier today I was reading The Penny Arcade Report’s interview with Gabe Newell. It made me think about Valve’s philosophy of making purchases as easy as possible for the customer. That’s great! The comic I linked to above illustrates how TV networks, among other content providers, are doing the complete opposite. They’re doing it wrong.
Habitual pirates are a rare breed. Most people want to do the right thing: pay for their content. But when that content is hidden behind pay walls and requires bundled subscriptions, even the most virtuous customer may decide to pirate it or simply give up. Either way, the company doesn't get paid, and the customer either feels guilty for pirating or disappointed at not getting to watch/listen to/play the thing they wanted to pay for.
This philosophy of pay walls and bundled subscription services does not work. Valve’s philosophy, on the other hand, works INCREDIBLY well. Want proof? I bought 15 games on Steam today because I had a couple of coupons, which I earned by buying and playing games on Steam. Buying games on Steam makes me want to buy more games on Steam. It’s a company’s greatest dream come true, and the customer isn’t complaining.
Dear TV networks/music labels/game publishers: shut up about piracy. Just make it easy to buy your crap, and we will.
In the past I've taken a couple approaches to New Year's resolutions: the denial approach and the private approach. The denial approach is best illustrated by Calvin and Hobbes:
Denial of the need for New Year's resolutions is a silly thing though, because we all have something we'd like to improve about ourselves. The private approach is almost equally silly, because when you only make resolutions to yourself, there's nothing but a slight disappointment when you break them that's easily gotten over. Which is why this year I'll be stating a few concrete resolutions, and I'll be making them public for motivation.
To be specific, I'll be making both resolutions and goals. There are things I want to be doing on a regular basis this year, and other things that I just want to get out of the way. Learning to drive isn't a resolution, it's a goal, because once I know how I can decide whether or not to put that skill to use. Exercising more isn't a goal, it's a resolution, because doing it once doesn't help much.
Now, to the lists:
2012 RESOLUTIONS:
My resolutions are specific and based on time frames. I'll be thinking of them and doing my best to uphold them on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Some of them might seem frivolous, like finishing 2 video games every month, but if I want to stand a chance at my dream job as a video game journalist I've got to whittle down my backlog of games and be experienced in writing about them!
2012 GOALS:
My goals are less specific, especially time-wise, except for the Eagle Scout one which MUST be done before I turn 18. They are things that I know I will benefit from as long as I make an effort. Even if when 2013 rolls around I've only got a driver's permit and my job was only over the summer, I'll be glad to have made progress.
So, this has been a list of my resolutions and major goals for 2012. I guess we'll find out how much putting these things out there really helps!
After spending a lot of time with two of the latest and greatest games of 2011, Uncharted 3 and Batman: Arkham City, I've come to a conclusion. The real difference between a good and a bad game is how the difficulty feels.
Let me explain. While playing Uncharted 3, there were many, many occasions when I was encountered with a scripted fight that seemed unbeatable. I was forced to throw every bullet I had at the thugs sent my direction, and I still died. Repeatedly. It rarely took less than 5 tries to successfully pass any given fight, adding up to hours spent cursing the game for its outrageous difficulty.
Sure, I eventually found a way to take everyone out, but it didn't feel like a success. It didn't feel like a victory. By the time I'd won, I'd usually spent so many lives learning the weaponry and patterns of every person in the room it just felt like going through the motions. Sneak up on this guy, throw a grenade over there, tackle this guy and take his gun, use it to mow down those three thugs who are about to jump over that wall, duck behind cover before the lumbering moron with a shotgun comes around that corner, and so on and so forth. I never felt like I was winning because of my superior skill, because there's no skill involved when you know exactly how everything will turn out and it's just a matter of taking the path you've learned through trial and error. All the scripted set-piece gunfights Naughty Dog threw in were fun to watch, sure, but not to play.
In stark contrast, there's Batman: Arkham City. Now, the immediate difference between these two games is that while Nathan Drake is very much an underdog character, Batman is not. Batman has a reputation that strikes fear in the hearts of his opponents.
But when he gets into a brawl, that works against him, because Batman has to deal with opponents who are so afraid of him they'll do anything they can to take him down. Fear is a very powerful motivator. Drake deals with opponents who aren't afraid of him, just determined to kill him because their boss told them to. Batman's opponents taunt him to hide their fear. Drake's enemies never back off and take every opportunity to laugh over his corpse. When you take down a horde of thugs as Batman, you feel empowered and ready to deliver vigilante justice to the next sucker you cross paths with. You're probably already thinking about what sort of strategy you'll use, which gadgets you'll utilize. When you do the same as Drake, you're just thankful it's over so you can move on to the next crowd of jerks queued up to beat on you. You're dreading the next room where you'll be forced to scramble for the biggest gun available before you're mowed down.
This is the difference between a good game and a bad one. Well-made games deliver challenging scenarios and make you feel as if you've really earned every victory. Poorly designed games overcompensate on the difficulty and force you to resort to cheap tactics or sheer luck to accomplish your goals. Developers, take note. If you want a game to get great reviews, never make the player feel helpless. There's no quicker way to make us stop playing than taking the my-way-or-the-highway approach to challenges.
E3 isn't over, but most of the biggest questions going into it have already been answered. The Big 3 have spoken, and now it’s time for the yearly judging of the victor. Here’s my take on each press conference in turn.
Microsoft:
Microsoft pushed Kinect, and they pushed it hard. 90% of their press conference featured games either designed for or compatible with Kinect, and frankly, it got annoying after a while. I’m sure I’m not the only one who started counting the number of times they described Kinect with words like “magical” and lost count.
This wouldn’t be an issue if the games were decent, but frankly, they weren’t. Even the game I considered the most promising going in, Star Wars Kinect, turned out to be an on-rails arm-flailer. Sure, it might be kind of cool to wave your hand and send a wave of the force crashing over droids, or flick your wrist to deflect a laser bolt with your lightsaber, but I’m not going to “feel like a Jedi” with no say over which way my feet take me. The best Kinect game ended up being Minecraft, which was merely announced for Kinect without any demonstration, and left me wondering how movement would be handled if both hands are busy breaking and placing blocks with gestures.
Something particularly puzzling occurred to me as I watched the various Kinect demos. When showing off shooters, the people on stage had to adopt silly poses and make exaggerated gestures just to fire a gun. Naturally, I assumed that holding your hands as if holding a gun and curling your finger as if pulling a trigger was simply too small of a movement for Kinect to detect. At least, that’s what I thought, until later on when a game was revealed where individual fingers can “paint” a 3D picture around people on screen. If it works for some silly art game, then why not for a first-person shooter?
Hardcore gamers were placated by Gears and MW3, but I imagine many are feeling as if Microsoft is leaving them behind considering that a virtual Disney tour and Sesame Street game got more screen time than most any shooter.
Probably the biggest surprise and single most redeeming factor came at the very end, when, surprise surprise, Halo 4 was teased! Personally, Halo has never been among my favorite franchises, and my hours with the series can be counted on one hand. But my fingers are crossed along with everyone else that Microsoft and 343 studios can pull off a quality shooter like Bungie did.
In the end, I found myself wondering if Microsoft knows their audience. The people watching E3 press conferences are generally not the people who will get excited about a Sesame Street Kinect game, even if Tim Schafer is on board.
Pros:
Cons:
Grade: C
Sony:
Right off the bat, Sony addressed the elephant in the room: the PSN problems. An apology was issued, and it was appropriately humble. Customers were reassured of Sony’s renewed commitment to security, and since we got free games out of it, I think it’s officially time to stop complaining.
With that out of the way, they jumped right into the pool of exclusive titles. Uncharted 3 looked gorgeous in action, Infamous 2 (out today) sounds great, HD 3D remakes of titles like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were announced, and Sly Cooper will be returning! Really, it’s a great lineup.
3D got pushed pretty hard, but not obnoxiously so, and they made sure to address the #1 complaint about it (the price) with a new PlayStation-branded entry-level 3D 24 inch monitor, bundled with Resistance 3 and a pair of 3D glasses. On top of that, new split-screen technology using 3D glasses got a round of applause from the audience because it fixes the age-old problems of limited screen size and screen-peeking.
But the most impressive things came later, when the NGP was revealed and renamed PlayStation Vita. We already knew the tech was impressive, but as game after game was revealed and the full extent of cross-platform play between Vita and PS3 was shown, it just got better and better. Naturally, all this made people a little nervous about the price. No worries! The Wi-Fi model will be $249 and the 3G model $299. That’s a match to the 3DS at the low end, and surprisingly reasonable at the high end. There was some audible dissent from the crowd when an exclusive deal with AT&T was revealed, but hey, at least it’s not an untested network Sony put together themselves.
Pros:
Cons:
Grade: A
Nintendo:
When it began, the impression I got from Nintendo’s press conference was that they were trying a bit too hard to be lighthearted. Miyamoto had some fun with the orchestra and made some silly gestures, and it took a while for things to get going. But once they did, it was pretty impressive.
There was quite a bit of talk about the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, including the announcement of a musical tour for the game’s soundtrack. If it comes to Minnesota, I might see about going to see it myself.
I’ve always thought Reggie Fils-Aime is a terrible speaker, and this press conference didn’t help that. There were repeated unusual analogies that didn’t really work, and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere until the new console was named: Wii U. Then the deliberate contradictions and unusual wordplay made a bit more sense, but it still seemed silly. Wii U is an even sillier name than Wii was, and Wii never stopped being a silly name, we just got used to it. Wii U is going to be harder, especially because I want to pronounce it “weeooo” for some reason and that makes me sound like a siren.
The console alone would be something to talk about, but the games! Apparently all Nintendo needed to get 3rd-parties on board was some modern hardware, because just about everyone is rushing to port their games to the Wii U. Their 1st-party lineup is already looking amazing too. Personally, all I needed to hear was “Super Smash Bros.,” but I’m a fanboy like that.
Obviously the 3DS was featured as well, but there wasn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said. Games were teased, but I don’t think any of them were news, and the only surprise title was Super Smash Bros., which will apparently be coming to both 3DS and Wii U. Whether you can play between the two platforms was not confirmed.
Pros:
Cons:
Grade: B+
After reviewing their press conferences, I personally have to conclude that Sony “won” E3 this year. They showed the most impressive games and backed them up with some solid hardware. Nintendo was close behind, but the games (while impressive) were almost entirely previously-confirmed titles, and there wasn’t enough info on the Wii U hardware. Microsoft simply bombed their showing through sheer volume of Kinect promos.
Note: Obviously this blog reflects my own opinions, and you’re free to disagree with them. In fact, as long as you’re not going to be a blatant fanboy, I encourage you to express your own opinion in the comments. Let me know what you think.
Hey! So it turns out blogging on a schedule requires EFFORT and TIME, and I possess low reserves of both at the moment thanks to this new college semester. Therefore my original weekly post plan is already off to a terrible start. Instead, I'm just going to aim for posting blogs "whenever" until I learn some time management skills and get on a proper schedule.
Today I finished a book! It was good, so I wrote about it, and now I will shut up so you can read what I wrote.
I read Machine of Death edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, & David Malki ! (David adds an exclamation point to his own name as an honorific, like Jr., and I wish I had thought of that first so I could add an interrobang to my name without being accused of copycatting. OH WELL.)
Machine of Death is exactly what it says on the tin. Well, sort of. It's a collection of short stories by a whole lot of people (which is why I put "edited by" instead of just "by" after the title to save your finger from some strenuous scrolling (you’re welcome)) about a machine that can predict how you will die. The whole thing was inspired by this Dinosaur Comic:
Dinosaur Comics is fun times and you should read it, by the way!
It’s a deceptively simple premise. You let the machine prick your finger, it analyzes your blood sample, and then you know how your life will end in advance. The problem is these predictions tend to be either frustratingly vague or frighteningly specific. Possessing the knowledge of the circumstances of your demise turns out to be a seriously heavy burden. You can’t plan for it, but it will happen. Trying to avoid it might make things worse. This is what the characters in each story must try to cope with.
What really makes it a good read is that each story is so different from the last. The writers were free to go wherever they wanted with the story as long as it centered on the machine in some respect. Some chose to write social commentaries about how the machine changed the world (or failed to). Others focused on an individual and their own struggle to accept or avoid their inevitable demise. Several deviate into mature themes (fair warning) and are all the more effective at sending a message because of it.
It's not just a deluge of words either. Each story is accompanied by a piece of art related to it, created by a pool of very talented artists to complement the pool of very talented writers. There are even a few doubly talented artists AND writers who have included their work in both categories wherein.
The stories were chosen for quality from a huge number of submissions collected in early 2007. Unfortunately, it's apparently really hard to publish a book written by so many people collectively, so this wonderful anthology was unavailable until the editors finally took it into their own hands and self-published it on October 26th 2010. It didn't take long to reach #1 on Amazon's Bestseller list. Then some guy named Glenn Beck got really mad at them for having the nerve to launch the book on the same day as his and beat it. Suddenly this little side project from a bunch of random internet acquaintances was getting some major publicity!
Long story short, it made headlines like a corduroy pillow, and for good reason. This is an excellent book. Every story in it, from the longest to the shortest (only 5 words!) is worth reading. It made me laugh, it made me ponder my own existence, it made me ponder the existence of the universe. This book is simultaneously lighthearted and deep.
Have I convinced you yet? Well here's the kicker: You can read it now, for free. Legally no less. Just download the free PDF version here. Personally, I make a habit of checking out every book I can for free first (usually at the library) and buying it if I really loved it. You can bet I intend to buy Machine of Death.
Hello internet! My name is Levi King, and this is my first real blog.
Why'd I start this blog? Three reasons:
Now that introductions have been made, let me tell you a little bit about myself: I'm 16 years old and just starting my second semester at Normandale Community College in Minnesota. Despite my age, I have no interest in learning to drive, which a lot of people find surprising. I'm also a Boy Scout of Life rank, aiming for Eagle well before the deadline of 18 years old.
So you know who I am, and why I blog. But what will I blog about? Well, anything that interests me! I enjoy science fiction and fantasy literature, magazines, camping, video games of all kinds, Star Wars, various other geeky things and the occasional internet meme. If you, too, like some or all of the above, then stick around. We'll find something in common to chat about.
And now, without further ado, I shall publish this post that took far too long to write thanks to the presence of Minecraft in another tab. (if you like games that allow boundless creativity, beware, for that link leads to a time-suck like no other)
~Levi King
I'm a teenage writer, reader, gamer and general consumer of media. This is where I put my opinions on all that stuff once I'm done.
