CLUSTERFUCK

Yeah, I got nothin today.  But if you click here, there is a cheap-assed excuse, and a picture of my kitty eating a grape freezer pop!

Read on, o ye faithful!

BIOSHOCK INFINITE

Sorry folks.  There was no Game Music Of The Week yesterday, nor will there be an X-Media Review this week.  Why?  Because one of my two most anticipated games of the year was released at midnight on March 26th (the other, GTA V, comes out in the fall), and it took priority over everything.  Like a man obsessed, I beat the game in two sittings, and while I'm still digesting it all, I think I'm ready to give my thoughts on it.

GAME-A-WEEK - DREAMKILLER

This week, I decided to take a look at a surreal indie first-person shooter, Dreamkiller.  Trailers for this one really caught my eye, and I really liked the concept of delving into people's dreams and combating their fears and nightmares on an ever-changing hypnagogic battlefield, inspired by each patient's individual phobias.  I just thought it was strange that I'd never really heard anything about it before...

PLANET EXPLORERS KICKSTARTER IS LIVE!

That's right folks, the Planet Explorers kickstarter is live as of today!   This is an absolutely incredible game that I've been playing for a few weeks now.  It's a huge open world voxel-based sci-fi action, crafting, building, exploring and everything under the sun kind of game.  Go check out their kickstarter for more information!

Planet Explorers Kickstarter

EDITORIAL - BIOSHOCK PRSD: POST-RAPTURE STRESS DISORDER

There are not many games that I claim to be a fanboy for.  I mean sure, there are plenty of games that I love and adore, but only some really strike that nerve that electrifies me.  Bioshock is one of those few, special games.  However, Bioshock 2 is quite possibly the greatest gaming disappointment I've ever experienced in my life.  And so with Bioshock: Infinite less than a week away, my excitement is reaching a fever pitch... but my fear and apprehension are lurking close by.

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - RATCHET & CLANK COMICS #1-6

It's been a long week here in the Cranky household, with car troubles, job interviews, and games to catch up on.  So for this week's X-Media Wednesday, I needed something light, something fun.  And so I turned to comics.  Specifically, comics based around one of my favorite action platforming series from the PS2 era, Ratchet & Clank.  I have loved almost all of the games (we don't like to talk about All4One around here...), so how did the comics measure up?

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 3/19/12

In honor of my friend Kaylei Bristol's birthday yesterday, I asked her what her favorite Mega Man (her favorite series) music track was.  This was what she picked, after much deliberation.   Happy birthday Kaylei!

GAME-A-WEEK - SIMCITY 4

In the wake of EA's huge debacle with the newest SimCity game, I thought it'd be a good idea to boot up the last official iteration (we're not counting SimCity Societies), which was 2003's SimCity 4.  For all of the complaints about the new game's always-on DRM, awful server issues, and small build areas, I thought it would be refreshing to go back and see where the series peaked.  In doing so, I learned one very valuable lesson:

I am fucking terrible at these games.  

REVIEW - SONIC & ALL-STARS RACING TRANSFORMED

I've never liked racing games, as a whole.  I enjoyed F-Zero on the SNES as a kid, but beyond that they've never had much appeal to me.  I had more disdain for the cutesy mascot kart racing games, like Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing.  So needless to say, when I played the original Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, I was shocked.  For some inexplicable reason, I loved it.  Loved.  I had so much fun with this silly little kart racer.  So when the sequel, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, came out, I KNEW I had to get my hands on it.

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - SILENT HILL: REVELATION

This week, I sat down and watched Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (though confession: I did not watch it in 3D).   I have been a fan of the early Silent Hill games since the first game, and I actually thought the first film was halfway decent.  It missed the mark in a lot of ways, but it managed to hit a lot of the right notes.  From the trailers, I had high hopes for Revelation, but the early reviews were not kind at all.  Still, I felt that I should formulate my opinion on it, and so I gave it a watch.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 3/12/13

Today's game music of the week comes from one of my favorite brutally hard indie games, The Binding Of Isaac. This is generally considered the theme of the game, and it's a big part of why I fell in love with it.  This music really sets the dark, disturbing tone of what's to come.

GAME-A-WEEK - SLEEPING DOGS

See?  Not ALL of the games I review are indie games, or older games from several years ago!  Today we have an actual AAA title that is less than 6 months old.  And a damn good one too!

I DIDN'T FORGET THE FRIDAY VIDEO!

I know I said I'd be doing a video on Fridays, and I haven't forgotten!  I've just been doing several videos.  I've fallen madly in love with Planet Explorers, the indie game that I did a video highlight of earlier this week, so in order to drum up some awareness, I've elected to do a Let's Play of the game.  I'm up to Part 3 as of this writing, and I'm not stopping anytime soon!

BREAKING FREE OF THE CONSOLE WARS

Since the dawn of home console video games, there has always been war.  Bitter rivals competing head to head for your living room space.  There were minor skirmishes early on, with Atari vs Commodore, and the NES stomped the Sega Master System into the ground.  The first real war erupted when the Super Nintendo went head-to-head with the Sega Genesis, and it was bloody.  Lines were drawn.  Friendships destroyed.  Controllers broken.  Blast processing overhyped.  In the end, the Genesis held on and fought the good fight, but the SNES eventually won.  Since then, every generation has had its console wars.  The past few years have mostly seen Sony and Microsoft in an embittered Cold War, with Nintendo ineffectually waggling its sticks around at them, menacingly. 

The problem is that we as gamers and consumers never really had options.  A console is a long term investment, a heavy chunk of change that would last you 5-7 years.  You could pick a side and become a raving fanboy (or girl), you could save up your money and buy multiple consoles, or you could just opt out, build a gaming rig, and become a PC gamer.  Either way, there was nothing in between.  There were very few alternatives to the mainstream, and those we had either flopped pathetically, or just became short-lived beloved oddities (We love you and miss you, Sega Dreamcast).  Even these oddities were an expensive investment.  We never had anything cheaper, smaller, or more convenient. 

Until now.   

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK (A LITTLE LATE)

Also, since it completely slipped my mind to post it yesterday, here's the Game Music Of The Week.  This song comes to us from the game Dishonored, and the song is freakin' amazing.  This song in the original trailer is what completely sold me on the game, more than even the gameplay itself.  It is haunting, powerful, and creepy.   Enjoy!

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - RAPTURE, BY JOHN SHIRLEY

It's no secret that Bioshock is one of my favorite games in the past decade.  Everything about the world of Rapture and the way it was slowly fed to us over the course of the game reeled me in.  But those who have played Bioshock know that the game takes place after the fall of Rapture.  We're handed small glimpses of what happened in the form of small audio diaries of the people that founded the underwater city, the people that lived through the fall.  But a lot of us have always wanted to actually see what happened, witness the fall of Rapture ourselves.  And that's what this novel is about: the rise and fall of Rapture, and that of Andrew Ryan.

GAME-A-WEEK - TOWNS

Have you ever played a game where you think to yourself, "Fuck I hate this game! Wait...why have I been hating this game for eight hours now and still can't put it down...?"