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A simplified action-packed design that delivers on a much more dense story.
After two months of work, I've finally completed my video review of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
It took a long time to complete and a lot of sifting through recorded footage, but I finally managed to complete my review of Sega and Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. The overall impression: not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, but not really worth anyone’s time to go through and play. The story, meanwhile, is pretty damn terrible.
I’ll be honest, one of the reasons it took me so long to finish this video was because I became less and less pleased with it as time progressed. It doesn’t help that it was also so long, and what little progress I could make in a single night seemed like hardly a dent. As a result, I will not make a video longer than fifteen minutes in the future. If I have a topic that needs more time to discuss, I’ll separate it into segments and create multiple videos for it.
I have already begun work on the next video, however, which should be available a lot sooner.
Finally, my thoughts on Remember Me and upcoming co-op indie game Mercenary Kings are jotted down on the Internet for all to see.
In episode 8 of Downloathable Content I'm joined by a plethora of people to discuss random games we've been playing recently.
A trip down Wonderful 101, the MOGA Gamepad for Android devices, and God Factory
An analysis of the film and what it means to me personally.
The Last of Us is impressive, but if Capcom wants to sell Lost Planet 3 they're going to have to start bringing out some big boy guns.
The first video of Anita Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is out, and it... well, it has a point. It just doesn't do a good job of illustrating it.
The latest podcast examines and discusses Sony's announcement of the Playstation 4.
An easy game to get stuck on until you get caught up in sticky momentum breaking situations.
In episode two of RamblePak64, I take a look at games that teach you how to play without telling you how directly.
Not as much to say about this one. I learned a few more technical lessons in creating a video, and I feel the audio is a lot better than the first. In fact, with the exception of a few awkward sentences I didn’t catch during rewrites, I’d say everything about this video is superior to the first.
Okay, well, maybe not everything. I’m still cringing at some of my attempts at humor.
A fresh Japanese Role-Playing Game that, just for once, could use a bit more length.
Better in almost every way from its predecessor, yet you wouldn't know it based on the focus on long, repetitive side quests.
The premiere of new video series RamblePak 64, as well as a look into the lessons learned while developing it.
After two months of effort I have completed the first entry in my new video series. I introduce to you RamblePak64.
It is a lesson I learn repeatedly, but it is a good one to constantly be reminded of. Even a terrible product can have a lot of hard work and effort put into it. While I do not think the video I made is terrible, it is flawed in many ways. The technical aspects of it are an easy fix, such as wearing the microphone headset properly next time or rendering the video at the same frame rate that I captured the footage in.
Yet the argument itself seems flawed to me. It is obvious I wrote the script in a single draft, and while I made a few edits here and there while recording, it didn’t give me the chance to see all the large problems. My argument is not properly structured to support the thesis. I promise to return to a point that I forget all about. Most of all, I open up the opportunity to destroy my credibility with a poorly written conclusion.
Aside from “delightful feeling hooks” being one of the worst things I’ve ever spoken, let alone written, the very statement “games aren’t supposed to be immersive” is the sort that gets crowds on the Internet fully of fury and fire.
On the plus side, embellishing on my meaning would make for an excellent episode, giving me another idea to jot down for a future date.
I learned many lessons with this first experiment. Don’t try too hard to be funny, always write multiple drafts before recording, render at the same frame rate you recorded, and so on. Yet the most important one to keep in mind, especially if I’m going to criticize the work of others, is to remember how much effort goes into it. It’s easy to demand that someone else respect my time as a consumer, but I should also respect the greater time they spent creating something.
The power of interactive story-telling in a gripping, depressing package.
