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The Room

9 Oct

Fireproof Games has hit a home run with their debut game for the iPad (version 2 and up). The reviews I have seen are generally praising it as original, and I suppose it must seem so in a market crowded with ports of popular board and arcade games, and different styles of puzzle games; but The Room reminds me of a great point and click puzzle game of yesteryear, Myst. Being an iPad game, it also takes advantage of controls like tilting, tapping, and gestures.

So, while it may not be altogether original to people over 40, The Room is nonetheless a remarkable game to experience. You play an unnamed protagonist investigating the disappearance of a scientist who has become obsessed with the idea of discovering a new element; one that may open a doorway to another world. He has hidden his findings in a series of puzzle-boxes, which you must decipher in order to read more of his findings. Each new puzzle box represents a level of the game; and each level is creepier and more sinister than the last, making very effective use of the game’s superior sound design and graphics. I felt like I had been immersed in an H.P. Lovecraft story as I played.

My only complaint about The Room is that I wish there had been more of it. Much like with Myst, the game is completely linear so there is not much replay potential once you know how to solve the puzzles. At $5.00, it costs a bit more than the average iOS game, but I certainly don’t begrudge the cost. At the game’s conclusion, the developers promise that there is more to come; hopefully that means more levels in a software update.

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Just Spitballing Here

13 Mar

I was just reading about how there is a fan movement to change the ending of the latest big-deal video game, Mass Effect 3, because some (many?) players did not like it. On one hand, as a writer and spoiler of all that is good, I want to say “tough shit, eat your darts and like it.” But then, this is an industry that has employed the player-determined ending (or at least the appearance thereof) to good effect, having multiple endings available depending on player choices. Some might feel that this makes games inferior somehow to the One Vision that we must deal with in a film or (most) books.

Thanks to today’s easy access to professional grade authoring tools, however, fans are creating their own versions of pretty big franchises, from the Jane Austen mashup novels to Topher Grace’s new edit of the Star Wars prequels. Which makes me wonder if perhaps I am looking at this all wrong. I should be looking at this as an opportunity to go back and improve some of the films and books that I can’t stand. For example, my version of The Notebook will end with Gena Rowlands looking James Garner dead in the eye, saying “I know exactly who you are, Duke, and I never loved you. Now fuck off.” Garner has a heart attack and dies as she gets out of bed, checks herself out of hospital, and gets into a waiting car. The driver is Ryan Gosling in a scorpion jacket.

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Games

5 Mar

Jack is watching Merlin and painting a model kit as I write. He’ll be 9 soon; it’s hard to believe sometimes. He’s excited because Lego Star Wars III (The Clone Wars) comes out later this month. Myself, I am still playing a lot of DC Universe Online. I had been hotly anticipating the new Final Fantasy MMO, but now I’m not so sure. I expect I will still pick it up, but will I play two MMOs at once? Hard to imagine.

We have been playing a lot of card games around here too; conventional deck games and specialized ones like Phase 10 and Scrabble Slam. I picked up a copy of Mille Bornes yesterday and we had fun learning to play it.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

25 Feb

Life is a blur these days. Rehearsals for Black Comedy, busy times at work, spending time with Jack and Nicole, and so on.

Nicole has been accepted to grad school at Queen’s, and is waiting to hear back from the others, so she’ll be deciding where to move in the fall soon. Hard to believe that I’ll be moving her somewhere in only six months, and going back to commuting. I’ll miss her of course, but I don’t mind the travel, and of course we have wedding plans in case things aren’t interesting enough.

As a result of this, I too plan on moving in the fall, to a smaller apartment hopefully somewhere uptown, with the hope that the money I save on rent will offset travel costs. I should also be done paying off a consolidation loan by then, so that will help. I like my apartment, have lived here a long time, but it’s really too much space for one guy and his son. The local Buddhist group that used to meet here weekly has grown over the last year to the point where “The Sitting Room” was getting cramped, so they have found a new space and I am back to sitting on my own most days. That’s cool; if there is one thing that Buddhism teaches, it is that life is impermanent. We are constantly changing, in subtle and not so subtle ways, every moment.

Nicole and I have been watching the entire series of Lost (first time for her) and are just starting the last season. I had forgotten how many great moments there were once the show found its momentum again at the end of Season 3. We should probably do Battlestar: Galactica next…

I’ve been spending most of my downtime playing DC Universe Online, reading Inspector Rebus novels, and working on “The Last Day.” I managed to fix my PS3 last weekend after it displayed the Yellow Light of Death; the solder needed reflowing under the processors. It’s nice to work with your hands sometimes, even if it’s with circuit boards.

A couple of housekeeping notes: I have added new links to some old comics on the “My Comics” page, added a new page of links to my plays, and have posted an interview I did for Here newspaper earlier this year over at The Last Day site. My cheeky webcomic, “Are We Not Batmen?” updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thanks for reading.

Lots Going On

9 Feb

Busy times around here for your humble servant. (That’s me.) My day job is going pretty well, I feel like I more or less know what I’m doing, so that’s good.

In my spare time I have been doing a bunch of things:

  • spending time with Jack and Nicole. Jack has had a couple of hockey tournaments in the last few weeks so I rented a car and went to Moncton and such to watch. We also drove up to Tidehead, a lonely stretch of country road outside of Campbellton, to visit some of Nicole’s family.
  • working on a graphic novel called The Last Day. There is a very early days website up for it here. Most of the work is done at home but I also draw every free Thursday night at Reads uptown.
  • I have started a new, silly mashup webcomic called Are We Not Batmen? It combines the lyrics of Devo with classic newspaper comics and the head of Batman as drawn by the late Marshall Rogers. It updates every Tuesday and Thursday from now on.
  • I was cast this week in the SJTC production of Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer, in a small but humourous role as a deaf German millionaire. Typecast again! The show runs March 17-19.
  • Gaming. I have been playing some Playstation Network titles like Square Enix’s Space Invaders game, plus finishing up Final Fantasy XIII before the new one comes out, plus Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii, and am really enjoying DC Universe Online on the PS3. The latter is a pleasant surprise; I got it mainly to play with some friends but am having a good time soloing and leveling up. It has given me an enthusiasm for that universe and those characters that the comics rarely do.

And so, back at it. Looking forward to a break at the end of March, heading to Cuba with some friends. I expect I’ll post once or twice here before then. ;)

Video Game Roundup

11 Sep

After a bit of a drought, I find myself doing a fair bit of gaming lately. Here’s what I play the most (and I recognize that many of these are hardly new):

Lego Harry Potter, Years 1-4 (PS3): As always, fun to play through a series of beloved films in Lego form. The cutscenes have some amusing comments on the story; for example, when Lucius drops Tom Riddle’s diary into Ginny’s cauldron, she shrugs and smiles.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3): I quite enjoy how this game works and I enjoy most of the characters, but as with many of the FF games, I find it hard to stay motivated during that long middle period where you level up for the final battle. Still, I think I will push through, and I am looking forward to the new online FF game.

Monopoly (iPhone): pretty much the board game. Fun though. You wind up doing a lot more auctioning than when you play against people.

Critter Crunch (PS3): fun and cute puzzle game with anime stylings available from PSN for just $6.99.

Scott Pilgrim (PS3): another PSN game, based on the comics and film, basically an 8-bit fighting game with some very cute touches. Very fun and well-made for a film tie-in.

Art Style: Cubello (Wii): this is not a new game at all but I still play it quite a bit and am approaching the last levels (I think). It’s a puzzle game where you try to remove groups of coloured cubes from a slowly rotating mass. Available through WiiWare. The other Art Style games, Rotohex and Orbient, are fun too.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (PS3): Jack is primarily burning through this one, a series of missions based on the Clone Wars cartoon where you alternate playing as a jedi or a clone trooper. Pretty well designed and not super hard for kids.

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