Emmys 2017 Takeaway


The Black Mirror episode San Junipero won two Emmys last night, an honor which it couldn’t have earned more. It’s a shining example of good story telling. It set’s up a world that’s unique and pulls the viewer into the feelings of the characters. It tells a story that moves the viewer (It makes  you cry like a baby). If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out on Netflix.

Some shows I hadn’t seen but caught my eye: Atlanta, Veep, Fargo, and Big Little Lies. I hadn’t seen any of these shows and decided to give Big Little Lies a chance and watched a couple episodes after the awards were over. It’s one of those weird shows that leaves me with no idea of what’s going on, why I should care, or why I feel the need to watch another episode. Hopefully this one leads to something interesting, unlike the last show I watched like this, The OA. I don’t have time for TV shows that are vague and void of meaning, no matter how interesting they might seem.

 

My thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness


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Finally saw Star Trek: Into Darkness this week. I really enjoyed the movie a lot. It was a fun action movie with well written dialogue and great interaction between the characters.

It felt like Star Trek, and it’s really nice to see them keep the essence of the original series alive. The characters are all true to who they are even though they are played by younger actors with a modern spin on their personalities. Kirk is a shameless asshole running around half-cocked sleeping with anyone willing, but he someone manages to do what he feels is right. Spock is distanced from his emotions and perplexed by human interactions. Bones is constantly questioning everything Kirk is doing and overreacting to what’s happening.

It had a lot of awesome references to the original Wrath of Kahn, and I really enjoyed that. It was connected in a really great way, and the interaction between the characters was filled with emotion because of the existing stories. I don’t think a new comer to the series would get as much out of Spock yelling “KAAAAHHHNNN!” after seeing his friend die, but I think it conveys enough meaning to get people to understand the overall sense of the connection between Kirk and Spock.

Anyway, that’s just my thoughts on it. Now I am looking forward to seeing Man of Steel. Hopefully soon.

Well Hello Again!


Hey folks! Sorry this blog has been so quiet lately! My efforts have been a little erratic as far as writing goes. I want to start this back up again, so here’s an update of where I am at right now.

Front Towards Gamer is going great for me. I went with the gang from their to PAX as press, and it was an amazing experience. I have been doing some experimenting with different style of writing to see what I enjoy doing, and what generates the most response. I’ve been doing PC news articles 3 times a week or so, and they average about 200 hits each. They are fairly easy to write, and once in awhile they get a couple thousand hits, which is really cool. I’m always reading the news, so it’s easy to write up a quick blurb about it and add some of my always fascinating comments.

Off the Beaten Path was an experiment in older games blogging. I mostly play games that are somewhat dated, and I wanted to find a way to talk about them. It’s evolving away from being like a review, and more towards the games unique features and how they could be applied in other games. Doing it weekly really isn’t gonna happen, but I would like to possibly do it monthly. FTG might not be a good fit for it either. They take quite awhile to put together and haven’t really gotten much response. For now, that will be a secondary project.

My reviews and previews seem to be doing really well. I really love the way my review on Dragon Age 2 turned out. I think I really have improved at reviewing over the last year. Look forward to more reviews coming out from me this year.

I want to branch out into movie and music reviews too. I’m not sure where they will go just yet, but it’s something else that will keep me writing daily.

I have penned a couple of short stories lately, which will be going up somewhere on the internet soon. I might start a tumblr for those. I also have a rough idea for a novel that I might start soon.

Oh, and I haven’t given up on game design either! “Caliburn” is still a thing, and it’s still secret. You’ll hear more about that over the summer.

So anyway, I just wanted to let you know that all is well with me.

Keep on gaming people!

Arcania: Gothic 4 Demo


This game has been through more name changes than Prince. When first announced, it was called Gothic 4: Genesis, and through its development cycle, it has been called Gothic 4: Arcania, Arcania: A Gothic Tale, and finally they settled on Arcania: Gothic 4. Whatever the game may be called, I am happy to inform you, my beloved reader, that the demo for this game is out now.

Read my impressions on FTG.

I was born to have a desk job


I was on vacation over this past week and during that time I stayed at home. I left my house only in search of food and coffee. I played video games, got caught up on some TV and movie watching, and just goofed around.

BUT! I did spend a good chunk of time looking for work. I currently work in retail and I hate it. I am not wired to deal with the general public. Most people are stupid, messy, idiots. So, to help better my cause of not working at a job I hate, I got together a resume of my skills and sent it out to a dozen people.

Putting together a resume is time consuming, and finding people to send it to takes even more time. But doing all that reinforced something that I already knew in the back of my mind: I was born to sit at a desk. I spent 90% of my week sitting in front of my computer, and a fair portion of that time was spent working. I never once grew tired of it. I never thought, “Oh, crap! I hate being stuck here! I want to go out and talk to people!”

My life is now dedicated to finding a good desk job.

Playlist: League of Legends and Max Payne 2


This week has not seen a lot of video game time for me. Work is boring and too long, and when I get home I fall asleep.

The time I have had has been spent playing mostly League of Legends with Instant Karma, Del, and Nico. The game is satisfyingly addictive. Last night’s sessions ended with Karma falling asleep and Nico being too drunk to understand anymore. Good times. I’ve been playing with Teemo a lot and I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of the character. Of course, just when I think I’m winning I get my ass handed to me on a silver platter, but I’m improving.

And I’m a third of the way into Max Payne 2, which so far is an enjoyable game. Max Payne is the best thing that Rockstar has published, and I wish GTA was more like it. The levels are well designed, the atmosphere is rich, the story is fun, and the comic style cut scenes are highly original and well voiced. I plan on finishing up tonight.

Keep on gaming people!

Tomb Raider in 3D


So this weekend I finished up Tomb Raider Underworld. It was a fun game. I won’t go into all kinds of crazy details since I have already written up a review for FTG. I’ll post a link once it’s up.

I just wanna say that I played the game in 3D and it added something to the game. I picked up a pair of blue/red glasses at a comic book store and set up my Nvidia drivers on Saturday. It’s really neat and I recommend that people give it a shot. It does flatten out the colours so I won’t play every game with it, but I will be using them a lot. It’s cheaper then getting the fancy setup with the polarized lenses and crap, so for now I’ll stick with cheap.

Keep on gaming people!