A Game Review - Home (PC)

When I first booted up Home on Steam, I expected to be drawing a lot of comparisons to Lone Survivor, another 2D horror game that I already raved about. However, while Lone Survivor is a 16-Bit Silent Hill, Home has more in common with the last game I reviewed, Dear Esther. (I recommend you at least skim that before reading this one, since I reference it quite often.) As an indie horror game, Home builds atmosphere and creates a spooky experience, but shies away from traditional gameplay elements in a way that may turn off many gamers.

Home is a short game, meant to be completed in a single sitting (I clocked in at 66 minutes.) There are opportunities to change your path and make different decisions throughout, theoretically leading down a different road, but I'll get to that later. It is primarily narrative driven, putting the player right smack in the middle of a murder mystery.

The Best and Worst Parts of Every Game I Beat This Summer

My summer is almost over. Starting Monday, I will be getting up early again and heading off to that oh-so-enjoyable college that I just love so effing much. If you didn't catch the sarcasm, I'm not exactly looking forward to it. I wish I could say that I had a great summer, but the thing is, I really didn't. It started off okay, but it quickly simmered into the one of the most boring, uneventful vacations I can remember, before a bunch of bad stuff started happening in my personal life over the last few weeks. Going back to college is just one more even in a long string of disappointmens over the last few months.

But you didn't click on this to hear me rant about my personal life. Let's talk about games. One of th eperks of all the stuff I hae had to put up with over the last few weeks is that I've had plenty of time for gaming. And I mean a lot: I think I've beaten more games in the past three months than I did in the entire year leading up to this past May. In addition to buying a Playstation 3, I've also expanded both my Wii library and my Steam library with indie bundles and sales. So even though I had a relatively crappy summer personally, from a gaming standpoint, it was great.

I love Jesus

I really really love Jesus.

A Game Review - Dear Esther (PC)

 Dear Esther is an interesting piece of software. Some people have argued that it isn't even a game. I can see where they come from with that, as it does bear more resemblance to an interactive book than with a traditional game. Developed by thechineseroom, Dear Esther is an indie art game. You might know the type. The kind that some people rave and say are destroying games, the kind that some people call pretentious or arsy or bullshit. Other people go wild over them, studying them like classic literature. I'm sure you know the type, and Dear Esther easily fits that definition perfectly.

A Game Review - The Ball (PC)

 I first heard about The Ball a couple years ago through a preview on Destructoid. It caught my interest, and I kept and eye on it for a while, until finally taking the opportunity to nab it for a sweet price during the same indie bundle that I got Sideway: New York from. I had a pretty large backlog of games at the time, and have only been adding to it since, so it took a while for me to finally get The Ball rolling.

My Top 10 Favorite Guitar Solos

NOTE: This blog contains embedded YouTube videos. For some reason, they only show up about half the time when I view it. I don't know why, nor do I know how to fix it, so if they don't show up properly, I apologize in advance.

 If somebody asked me to sum up my ideal music in one word, it would be "guitar." I love the guitar. I enjoy looking at guitars, holding guitars, listening to guitars, and playing guitars (porrly, but I try.) The things that the guitar is capable of is astounding. It is the driving force behind multiple genres adn sub-genres of music. It has been weilded by many, mastered by some, and used to creat some of the most powerful music of all time.
I've been doing a lot of reviews on Indie games lately. I'm not getting vored of it, but I wanted to take a break to keep my blog fresh. I love music, especially the guitar. While riffs and chord progressions are fine, I believe the guitar truly shines when it blazes away a good lead composition. Something about the power, the wordless voice, the tones; when they mesh together the right way, the melody and emotion can be breathtaking. So in the interest of fun, I decided to put together a list of my favorite solos.

My Apology to the Grizzled Boor

 Dear Grizzled Boor,
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to beat you up. I didn't want to beat you up. I just had to, that's all. I mean, it was part of the game. Well okay, that's not true. It was an optional sidequest, but pretty much a necessity unless I wanted to cheat the game or wait a month. It's not my fault the developers made that specific sidequest so necessary for beating the game in a reasonable amount of time. You are such a cool guy, and I wanted you to know that kicking your butt was nothing personal, and I have felt terrible about it ever since.
*sigh* okay. That first paragraph was a little disjointed. Let me start from the beginning.