Author: Trey Sterling

The Whining Joke – Batgirl #41 Joker Variant “Scandal”

This week, the comic book world was buzzing about the upcoming Batgirl #41 – by which, of course, I mean #41 since the “New 52” relaunch in 2011; the character of Barbara Gordon first took up the moniker in 1967 for Detective Comics #359, “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl.” Of course, you can hardly talk about Batgirl without also talking about Yvonne Craig in the 60s television series, and I certainly perked up whenever Batgirl drove her motorcycle across the opening credits of the episode I was watching.

Since then, the character of Barbara Gordon has become a key element in the Batman franchise, first as Batgirl, and then as the indispensable “eye-in-the-sky” Oracle, providing Bruce and the others with vital information and tech support after a tragedy left her wheelchair bound. If you’re unaware of the specifics of the tragedy, I would highly suggest reading Alan Moore’s infamous 1988 story “[amazon_link id=”1401216676″ target=”_blank” ]The Killing Joke[/amazon_link].” For the sake of brevity, I’ll include the panels from the book that result in Barbara’s paralysis.

Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that I certainly find the previous panels upsetting, even disturbing in their implications. “The Killing Joke” is one of the darkest chapters in Batman history, arguably edging out “[amazon_link id=”1401232744″ target=”_blank” ]A Death in the Family[/amazon_link],” and is every bit as controversial. There have been more articles than I could readily address written on the subject, and I encourage anyone reading this to seek out viewpoints on both sides of the line. For our purposes, however, the only thing left to share is the cover image for “The Killing Joke,” which most comic fans should recognize instantly.

Fast-forward to this past week, when DC announced that June would be “Joker Month,” and part of the celebration would be variants for different comics highlighting the Clown Prince of Crime. Bear in mind that most of these variants have nothing to do with the content of the issues themselves, something which is common with even regular comic covers. I’ve provided a link to the page where the folks at Third-Eye Comics have listed the twenty-four Joker variants for June.

http://www.thirdeyecomics.com/third-eye-guide-to-dcs-joker-variants/

Pretty cool, right? Some of them are fun, some of them are creepy, and all of them showcase how different artists chose to work the Joker into a shot with the characters from each title. I’m a pretty big fan of the Superman #41 variant, myself.

However, up until last week, there were twenty-FIVE variants featuring the Joker; a keen eye might have noticed that there is not a listing for a variant cover of Batgirl #41. I don’t even know if the Joker will be featured within the pages of that issue – again, something that can be said for most of these variants – and the regular cover seems to indicate that the story will focus on Barbara’s interactions with the new robot/mechanical Bat-suit that is premiering soon.

Yes, that is Barbara Gordon in the Batgirl costume, definitely not paralyzed and back to fighting crime alongside her comrades. When DC kicked off the “New 52,” writer Gail Simone took over duties on Batgirl; in the new continuity, only three years have passed since Barbara was paralyzed, but she underwent experimental treatment that restored her mobility. Simone guided Batgirl from issue #1 to #34 in the new storyline, and frequently dealt with the after-effects of the Joker’s attack. Barbara suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which sometimes causes her to freeze up in situations involving gunfire; she also suffers from survivor’s guilt, as someone who has come back from an attack when so many others haven’t been able to. For thirty-odd issues, Barbara Gordon grew and developed into someone different than she had been before.

Then, for reasons that may never become sufficiently clear to the general public, Simone’s duties on Batgirl came to an end. This parting of the ways almost happened even earlier in the run when Gail was apparently fired from the book in December 2012 by the title’s incoming editor, Brian Cunningham; that decision was reversed almost immediately due to fan outcry. As of Batgirl #35, though the new creative team of Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher took over, and the change marked a significant tonal shift, probably best illuminated by the cover of their first issue.

I don’t think I would be out-of-line to say that this new direction received, um, “mixed reviews” from critics and fans alike. Some have praised the shift towards a more, optimistic, girl-power style of presenting Barbara as a young woman no longer defined by her past tragedies; other have found the new feel almost saccharine sweet, and object to Batgirl posing for bathroom selfies like some sort of pop princess.

Either way, when the ultra-talented Rafael Alberquerque was commissioned to do a Joker variant for issue #41, it certainly shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone that the end result involved an homage to “The Killing Joke.”

This, guys and gals, is the image that caused parts of the Internet and social media to lose their collective shit, snowballing into a campaign known as #ChangeTheCover. The basic thrust of the outrage seemed to be that showing Barbara in a situation like this with the man who crippled who was, at the very least, in poor taste; of course, some critics went a little further, and I have included a selection of articles from IGN and Bleeding Cool on the matter.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/03/14/so-how-inappropriate-is-the-batgirl-41-joker-variant-cover/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/17/dc-comics-pulls-controversial-batgirl-cover

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/03/17/the-batgirl-joker-variant-issue-goes-global-as-savethecover/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/20/between-the-panels-the-real-problem-with-dcs-batgirljoker-cover

I’m not going to address everything said in those posts, but there are two phrases in particular I do want to talk about. The first is from the initial Bleeding Cool article: “And the direction of the gun does give the whole thing a very disturbing sexual overtone.” The gun is pointing… down, the exact way a gun – or a beer bottle, or a microphone, etc. – would point if you have it in your hand while your arm is slung over someone’s shoulder. Unless you’re going to accuse gravity of being a sexual predator, the direction of that gun has jack-shit to do with implied sexual overtones. The second phrase comes from that last IGN piece: “The position of Joker’s pistol between her breasts can even be construed as phallic imagery.”

This, right here, is the kind of fake outage bullshit that threatens not only to ruin any hobby these kind of social justice hotheads get their claws into, but also serves to discredit situations where there is a genuine cause for concern over how a female character is being depicted. For instance, let’s look at the cover of Wonder Woman #41 that’s part of the Joker variant run.

Where’s the outrage here? The Joker has a bomb pressed up against the small of Diana’s back, in the place where a dance partner’s hand is supposed to normally go; I personally think forcing Diana to be pressed up against him in the intimate posture of dance partners is far more sexually charged than having his arm over Barbara’s shoulder. Plus, look at the curve of Diana’s buttocks, and the accent lines just above it; obviously the artist wants us to think about her crotch being pressed right up against the Joker’s. Hell, this is still a variant cover, which means someone can choose NOT to buy it and still get the monthly issue without being subjected to this sexual filth. What about Batman #39’s regular cover?!

Here the Joker has made a throne from himself out of victims of his toxin; I honestly can’t tell if they’re supposed to be alive or dead. What I can tell is that the person creating the “left armrest” portion of the chair is clearly female, and her shirt is sliding up her back, exposing her skin; furthermore, the Joker’s hand and forearm are clearly resting on her buttocks. Looking and the way his fingers are curled on his left hand, one can only imagine that he’s stroking her in a clearly sexually way. On top of that, this is the regular cover for the issue, so any innocent person just wanting to keep up with Batman would have to suffer past it.

Now, just for clarification, I don’t actually believe either of these covers represents any of the things I just espoused. I do think it’s telling that no one – so far, at least – has tried to rally the social justice war machine to get them pulled from shelves. I also haven’t heard anyone condemning the cover to the Batgirl: Endgame one-shot published recently.

How does that cover not conflict with the supposedly more upbeat, cheerful tone that the series has been known for in recent months? This particular image goes beyond just the cover; from what I hear, the actual issue might even involve Batgirl getting injured while fighting dangerous criminals as a masked vigilante! Why, from what my research shows, there have been decades’ worth of comics in the Batman franchise that feature women, children, teenagers, civil servants, police officers, and countless others being attacked, hurt, and even killed by the Joker and other criminals!

How is it that these comics have continued to be published and purchased each month, resulting in a multi-billion-dollar industry that extends beyond comics into movies, television, toys, and beyond? Could it be that actual fans of these characters aren’t really easily-offended and outraged by something like a heroine being menaced by a familiar villain on a themed variant cover [amazon_link id=”1401247598″ target=”_blank” ]celebrating the fact that said villain has been around for seventy-five years[/amazon_link] and has a critical history with said heroine? Why, if that was the case, then a well-respected industry artist just cancelled publication of an exceptional piece of artwork over the drummed-up outcry of people who don’t directly follow and monetarily support the industry to begin with, leaving actual fans of the property who wanted to own the artwork out in the cold for the sake of pandering to a group who probably weren’t going to buy the issue in the first place.

The Joker would probably think the whole thing was hilarious, a real fucking riot.

March 22, 2015
The Great Journey – Homeworld: Remastered Collection Preview

It occurs to me that I’m very excited about the upcoming Homeworld remastered collection, and have had it pre-ordered for almost a year, without really talking about what it is, or why our readers might want to check it out. I’ve been a fan of the series since its inception, and can’t wait to unbox my collector’s edition this upcoming Wednesday. The trek this series has taken over the years ironically mirrors the plot of the games in many ways, and yet there remains a core fan-base that has rarely wavered in hoping for a new entry.

Originally released in 1999, Homeworld completely revamped real-time strategy development at the time by utilizing features such as full three-dimensional space combat, branching campaign paths, and fleet persistence across the entire campaign. Homeworld: Cataclysm was originally developed as an expansion by an outside company, and then released in 2000 as a stand-alone title. Finally, fans got a true sequel, Homeworld 2, in 2003; that year, the source code for the original was also released to aid the mod community.

For more than a decade, though, there hasn’t been a new entry into the franchise, largely due to financial woes facing the various publishers who owned the IP. The two core games were developed by Relic – the same developers behind W40K: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes – for Sierra, but in 2004 the dev team was acquired by THQ. Sometime in 2007, THQ worked out a deal to acquire the rights to Homeworld from Sierra/Vivendi, but that same year saw many key Relic members leave to found Blackbird Interactive.

The trail goes cold there for nearly six years, up until THQ filed for bankruptcy in 2013, when both Relic and the Homeworld license went up for auction as the company’s assets were unloaded. Relic was acquired on January 22, 2013 by Sega. Many Homeworld fans were sad to see the series and the developer split up again, but it may have been for the best; Relic’s largest release since then has been Company of Heroes 2, which has been much-maligned due to a relatively short, full-priced base game followed up by exorbitant amounts of paid DLC.

April 15, 2013 was the final date for sales of THQ assets, and Homeworld fans had not been idle in their hopes to see the franchise live again. A Kickstarter campaign by indie devs Team Pixel raised $70,000 toward bidding on the IP, but that amount was dwarfed by the final winning bid of $1.35 million by Gearbox. This left many people, including myself, wondering just what exactly the house that Borderland built would do with our beloved series.

The answer came in July 2013, when Gearbox announced their plans for “HD remakes” of Homeworld and Homeworld 2; those have since been converted into the Homeworld Remastered Collection. The collection includes upgraded versions of both the original and the sequel, as well as optimized versions of the games as they were initially released. This last part is of great interest to fans, as it has become increasingly difficult to keep the titles compatible with newer operating systems and graphics cards.

Unfortunately, Homeworld: Cataclysm is currently absent from the collection, with reports that the original source code and assets for the game have been lost. The original developer, Barking Dog Studios, was acquired by Rockstar in 2002 and became Rockstar Vancouver, who brought us Bully and Max Payne 3. In 2012, the studio was merged with Rockstar Ontario, and somewhere in all those years and transitions the Cataclysm files apparently disappeared. Gearbox has stated they would certainly like to release an updated Cataclysm, but I personally would rather that time be invested in a new title at this point.

In the summer of 2000, I got the GOTY edition of Homeworld, which came with a special soundtrack CD (something I am still glad to own to this day). We had moved into a new house a few years earlier, and I finally had my own room, with my own PC that my dad and I were tailoring to be a gaming rig. I also distinctly remember that I had the game discs with me during my summer trip to spend time at my grandparents’ house, and was thrilled to discover that it could run on their computer.

That time period was highly influential for gaming in general, and for my own experience in particular; I rarely bought games at release, enjoying instead to wait until there was some sort of collected edition of the base title and its expansions. Notable examples of the trend include the Half-Life Platinum Edition, the Diablo II, StarCraft and Warcraft III “battle chests,” and MechCommander Gold. I also didn’t get games nearly as often, and invested more time into the titles I did have. I miss those days sometimes… but we’re getting off-track!

I said earlier that the series’ ups and downs mirror the plot of the games in some ways, and I guess the same can be said of my experience with the franchise. Homeworld opens on the desert world of Kharak, where for the past century previously warring clans have been united by the discovery of the “Guidestone,” a galactic map showing a path away from Kharak to a planet marked only with an ancient word: Hiigara, which means “home.” From that point forward, all effort was put into preparations for the seemingly impossible task of crossing the galaxy and returning to Hiigara. A massive mothership was constructed, and neuroscientist Karan S’jet allowed her nervous system to be joined with the ship’s computers, becoming its core.

I’m going to stop talking about the story at this point, because I really hope some of you pick up the remastered collection, and I don’t want to spoil anything. Suffice to say that I, much like the people of Kharak, had no idea what lay in store for me when I installed Homeworld. Rarely has a game affected me as deeply as this one, and listening to the soundtrack as I write this, certain music cues still bring a smile to my face or send a chill down my spine. I can still remember finishing the game and watching the ending cinematic play out, feeling simultaneously elated and forlorn, knowing that something unique was drawing to a close.

This sense of gravitas is largely imposed by the way the campaign is structured, and then further reinforced by the events of the story. Once the mothership departs Kharak, bearing 600,000 cryogenically frozen colonists across the galaxy, the game does an impressive job of making you feel very isolated. Although you encounter other beings and cultures over the journey, large amounts of time are spent surrounded only by the starry depths of space, watching your resource collectors mine asteroids or your scouts fly patrols, with only the excellent ambient music as accompaniment.

Homeworld also eschewed many current trends in terms of resource collection, base building, and unit management. Rather than hitting “reset” on your units and resources between missions like in StarCraft, Relic borrowed from games such as XCOM and utilized a persistent fleet from start to finish. This choice really drives home the import of your journey, and forces you to make hard choices when it comes to sacrificing or even abandoning units. The latter choice comes at the end of a few missions where you’re tasked with defending the mothership for a certain amount of time, and then jumping away before being overwhelmed. The mothership is stationary during the campaign, as it has no sub-light engines, only a hyperspace drive; if it gets destroyed, the campaign is over, end of story. Inversely, many smaller ships lack hyperspace drives, and must be docked on a larger ship to complete the jumps.

Remember the times on Battlestar Galactica when the fleet was ambushed, overwhelmed, or otherwise in jeopardy, but there will still Vipers and Raptors away from the ship, and jumping away would mean stranding those pilots? Or when the Rebel fleet was being picked apart by the second Death Star while the shield generators were still up, but the commanders knew they’d never have another chance to destroy it? Those are the choices Homeworld forces you to make on a regular basis. With limited resources added into the mix, making the wrong choice too often can and will make it impossible to beat the game without starting over.

Thankfully, the full-space 3D movement and balanced combat system allow for a wide variety of tactics, from hit-and-run blitzes to full-scale fleet engagements. The tactical map and movement controls are perfectly suited to the task, though there is a bit of a learning curve in effectively positioning ships; you’ll also simultaneously be learning the game’s rock-paper-scissors balancing system of fighters, corvettes, and capital ships. Once the system is well in hand, though, it’s extremely satisfying to strip an enemy patrol of their fighter escorts, and then have your corvettes outrun the bigger ships while your own fighters come in from above and below to pick them apart. This allows for people who are better tacticians than they are resource-managers – such as yours truly – to accomplish a lot with relatively small fleets.

I didn’t ever play multiplayer against anyone online with the original Homeworld, although I did enjoy skirmishes against the AI; I preferred to simply play through the campaign multiple times, and the same can be said of Cataclysm. When the full sequel was released, though, I was living in a dorm with a phenomenal internet connection and a very active LAN community. To be honest, I never completed the Homeworld 2 campaign – something that I’m excited to rectify with this new release! – because it was more fun to play with everyone else. The sequel introduced some new mechanics, such as deeper research trees, ship upgrades, and unique unit types; the balance had been purposely adjusted to have more multiplayer appeal, and it paid off.

Over the years, I have done my best to keep working copies of Homeworld on my system, but the aforementioned difficulties with newer tech are starting to catch up. The core fan-base has remained even more dedicated than myself, with an extensive mod community; in fact, one of the mods for HW 2, known as “Homeworld 2 Complex,” is so popular that many people are waiting until it is available for the remastered version before they pick up the collection. That’s one of the reasons Gearbox decided to include the original versions of the games, and I imagine they’ll sway a considerable number of “purists” by doing so.

Gearbox is also working with the Blackbird Interactive team – those who originally left Relic – on their new project, “Shipbreakers.” Always intended as a spiritual successor to Homeworld, the game is now an official part of the IP, and is set to take place before the events of the first game. Between this development and the remastered collection, the hope for most fans is that Gearbox is trying to reinvigorate the franchise and get people on-board in anticipation of a genuine sequel. The work that has obviously gone into this new collection can be observed in the videos linked below, and I for one am very happy with how things are finally shaping up for the Hiigarans, Karan S’jet, and all of us who have journeyed with them these fifteen years.

The Homeworld: Remastered Collection will be released on Steam on Wednesday, February 25.

February 23, 2015
Daredevil Netflix Series: The Only Question that Matters

Am I excited about the new Daredevil series from Netflix?

Yes.

Oh. Mother. @^*#. YES.

February 4, 2015
Keep Smiling!: A Day With Scott Snyder

As some of you may know, my rekindled interest in comics began about seven years ago, thanks to the awesome folks at Third-Eye Comics in Annapolis. The store has grown by leaps and bounds, moving into bigger locations twice, and hosting increasingly cool release events and creator signings. A few months ago, the owner Steve and his team made a HUGE announcement: On Saturday, January 17, current Batman writer and all-around kick-ass guy Scott Snyder would be at the store.

I immediately sent word out to the far corners of the Earth, and received immediate response from Erich: 850+ miles would not keep him from this momentous occasion. My friend Adam would also be joining us on this quest; you don’t know him, but he’s totally cool. Plus he also lives in Maryland, like right down the road from me, so transportation would not be an issue for him.

Skip forward to the 17th, when after many weeks, miles, logistical arrangements, and delicious hamburgers the night before, we were in line at 8 am chatting with other fans. The hope was to be part of the “first fifty,” who had been promised some sort of prize. Alas, we were literally the 52nd and 53rd people in line. Still, we had tasty bagel sandwiches, delicious Doc Brown’s cream soda, and could actually stand in the sunlight to feel slightly less frozen.

On a side-note, Erich got to put some line-skipping jerk in his place. We were right at the corner of the building – hence why we could step out of the shadows into warmth – and the line had started to kind of loosen up. We had all gotten to know the people near us, though, so one of the guys (Mr. Hat) behind us noticed when this douche just kind of appeared near Erich and me. I had mentioned Adam would be joining us later, but this keen observer noticed that our new addition didn’t seem to be talking to us at all.

“Hey, is this guy with you two?” The Question himself (or herself, New 52!) couldn’t have posed the inquiry better. We turned, saw Sir-Line-Skips-A-Lot, and shook our heads at Mr. Hat. “No,” I replied, “we don’t know this guy. Our friend isn’t here yet.” The die had been cast, and for a moment there was just silence as we waited to see how our shared antagonist would react. Mr. Hat and I both then explained that the end of the line was several hundred people back, which is when things got interesting.

“I drove from another state to get here,” said the anthropomorphic anus in the expected asinine tone, “It took hours, and so I thin-“ Nope. Not going to happen, prick. Enter Erich, in all his glory, while this jerk is still mid-whine: “I flew in from Alabama for this last night, and that didn’t keep us from being in line at 8 am.” Boom! Headshot! The guy deflated instantly, and limped towards the end of the line as it tapered off into the sunrise.

Adam got there shortly, met Erich, and we were chatting geekily when the next awesome thing happened: Scott Snyder drove by the line waving to everyone. Apparently he was running a little late because it was his freaking birthday, and he had been at breakfast with his family. We failed to get a picture of this, unfortunately, mainly because we were all flipping our collective shit. The store was about to open, Snyder was there; it was all about to go down!

The event was scheduled to start at 11 am, and I have no idea how long we spent in line inside the store, but it flew by. Third-Eye is overflowing with cool shit, and fairly overwhelming at times, so we were enjoying having time to look around the stuff in our immediate vicinity as we got closer to the table. The signing limit was five items that you brought with you, plus as many things as you wanted to buy and get signed. We were all three a little conservative at first, selecting just a few things for ourselves and friends, then realized “Wait, when are we ever going to have this chance again?” I personally snagged Batman #37, Wytches #1, Batman: The Black Mirror, and Swamp Thing: Raise Them Bones.

Then, while talking to Scott (Mr. Snyder? Scotty?) I handed over my Batman and Joker “Death of the Family” trades, mentioning that they were my two personal items. “Awesome! Do you want these personalized, then? How do you spell your name?” Yes, yes, Mr. Snyder. I want you to personalize my freaking Batman comics! He signed them “To Trey: Thanks from Gotham” and “To Trey: Keep Smiling!” I could have died of joy.

All told, the three of us probably chatted with him for ten minutes while he signed our stuff, and he was engaged and friendly the entire time. I mentioned that we had recently watched the “Necessary Evil” documentary about DC villains, which he’s featured in, and he lit up and told us the following anecdote (which I ashamedly didn’t get on camera):

“That interview was a ton of fun to do, but I was actually really nervous, and I think I sound kind of dorky. You see, they filmed a bunch of us all at once, and when I got there Geoff Johns was doing his piece. I listened to him speak really eloquently about everything, and then realized they expected me to go after him. He patted my shoulder as he left and said ‘Your turn, Scotty.’ So yeah, comparatively I feel like my bit came out sounding a bit dull. ‘I like Batman… the Joker is a mean guy.’ That sort of thing.”

So no one feels left out, Geoff Johns has written numerous defining stories in the DC Universe over the past fifteen years, basically re-innovating characters like the Flash and Green Lantern from the ground up, and arguably saving part of the industry in the process. Scott Snyder is no slouch, and I don’t think he had reason to be nervous. Still, I’d be nervous if I was expected to talk about storytelling in games right after listening to Hideo Kojima chat about it.

As if that wasn’t enough, when it was Adam’s turn, he showed Scott his wedding band, which his wife Judy awesomely had etched with the Batman symbol. To our utter surprise and joy, Snyder revealed that his own wife had also given him a secret Batman ring! Again, I was too busy being a huge nerd to remember my camera, but I’m glad I got to witness that shared moment of appreciation for the Caped Crusader.

The entire experience proved without a doubt that Scott Snyder is an exceptionally down-to-Earth, nerdy guy in addition to being a phenomenal writer. Both he and the staff told us to come back at 2 pm, and we might be able to take more pictures and talk with him for a little longer. We were hungry and had been planning on coming back any way, so we headed over to the PA Dutch market in Annapolis for cheesy pretzel dogs, ribs, and delicious candy. Feeling satiated and still excited, we headed back up to Third-Eye…

…to find that the line was still wrapped around the building, and showed no signs of slowing down. Keep in mind, the original signing event was scheduled to end at 1 pm, and it was already getting close to 2. We ended up still going to the store again, and came back a third time the next day; on this last visit, they told us that he had stayed until 6 pm. That’s a full five extra hours, on his OWN @($*ING BIRTHDAY, to make sure everyone got taken care of. It was at that moment that I decided it was time to get my hands on trades of his entire Batman run, plus all of his side projects, despite the fact that I have all of those titles via… other means.

Anyone who kicks that much ass gets the full support of my wallet; he’s joining the ranks of the Foo Fighters, the Coen brothers, Justified, Stephen King, Pixar, The Lonely Island, Alan Moore, Hideo Kojima, Game of Thrones, and others on the list of “things I buy with real, actual money.”

Even though we didn’t get any more time with Scott, the two subsequent trips back to Third-Eye netted us some sweet, astonishingly nerdy gear.

Of course, the nerdgasm extended all the way through the long weekend. After out last trip to the store on Sunday, Erich and I binge watched three DC animated films – Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox, Justice League: War, and Superman / Batman: Apocalypse – then wrapped the evening up with Akira. Monday afternoon was spent admiring our new acquisitions, and we rounded the trip out with a viewing of Watchmen, which neither of us had seen in several years. It’s still excellent, in case you were curious, and immediately kindled a desire to read the graphic novel again. After I catch up on Batman, of course.

February 4, 2015
Don’t Try To Dig What We All Say: Trey’s Games Of The Generation Pt. 2

Check out Part 1 of the list here.

Metro 2033 (Xbox 360)

While working for GameStop, one upshot was that we sometimes came across titles that might have gone unnoticed. A few examples include Demon’s Souls, The Saboteur, and Metro 2033. Erich gets full credit for checking it out initially, but he quickly brought me into the fold. Metro takes the Eastern post-apoc sensibilities of games like STALKER and streamlines the experience into something more akin to Resistance. The atmosphere is unbelievable, and the story managed a unique twist: There’s a “moral choice” system, but the game literally never offers an explanation on what choices affect the outcome, or even lets on that there are alternate endings.

Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360)

I’m not going to defend this game against its detractors anymore; it had flaws, and certain gameplay mechanics that made is completely impossible for some gamers to enjoy. For my money, though, few games have ever brought the same rush that comes with getting all the moves on a big run exactly right or reacting on pure instinct during the chase sequences. I’m very excited for the sequel, though my fingers are crossed that the developers will keep firearms far, far away from Faith.

Portal 2 (Xbox 360)

“Oh hi, how are you holding up? …because I’m a potato.”

“*Clap, clap, clap*… oh good, my slow-clap processor made it into this thing. At least we have that.”

“Ha! I like your style; you make up your own rules just like me. Bean-counter said I couldn’t fire a man just for being in a wheelchair – did it anyway. Ramps are expensive!”

“Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I’ve got some good news and some bad news: bad news is we’re postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we’ve got a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You’ll know when the test starts.”

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)

If Grand Theft Auto is Rockstar’s bread-and-butter, then Red Dead is the five-course meal they were preparing that bread as an appetizer for: It is graphically beautiful, exceptionally well-written, with nearly flawless gameplay, and set in an unbelievably detailed world nearly overflowing with features. On top of all that, there’s a free-roam multiplayer mode that to this day is more entertaining than GTA Online. Plus, Red Dead actually had co-op missions at launch!

Rock Band (Xbox 360)

When my friend Adam got his 360 two months ago, one of the first things I did was bust out my Rock Band instruments and haul them over to his place, immediately installed all of the songs from Rock Band onto the drive to play in Rock Band 2, and finally bought a half-dozen of our favorite songs from the marketplace. That game is seven years old at this point, Adam actually plays bass, we’re both South Park fans (you know which episode, don’t even pretend), and yet to this day kicking on the star-power hitting a perfect solo in “Everlong” still feels bad-ass.

Shadow Complex (Xbox 360)

Beth gets all the credit for this one; she downloaded it while I was at work one day, and had it mostly beaten by the time I got back. It’s a Metroid-style 2D explorer, so there were still countless items and upgrades to collect, and secrets to find, and multiple playthroughs to be had. Owing to some fantastic mechanics and genuine graphical prowess, Shadow Complex helped establish that the Xbox Live Arcade was something to be taken seriously.

‘Splosion Man (Xbox 360)

Apparently, my going to work enticed Beth to find all sorts of awesome things on the Live Arcade that summer, as ‘Splosion Man followed right after Shadow Complex. The single-player was challenging and fresh, but it was the seizure-inducing mayhem of co-op that really made this a stand-out title. It’s rare that a game where you and your friends fail so frequently – and often because of each other – only gets more fun as the body count stacks up. Plus, everybody loves doughnuts!

Thomas Was Alone (PC)

I doubt anyone is surprised to see my 2013 Game of the Year on this list, considering how much I raved about the title in two separate articles already. The fact remains that in a generation where annual releases became the norm, “resolution” and “frame-rate” were discussed ad nauseam, and publishers slapped “HD remake” on everything within arm’s reach, Thomas and his friends captured my heart with impeccable gameplay, an incredible soundtrack, and the best narration this side of Bastion.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PlayStation 3)

Uncharted 2 is the single best game I have ever played on my PlayStation 3, and that includes Metal Gear Solid 4. It is inarguably the single best action-adventure title I have ever encountered, and is one of my top ten games ever, period. From the breathtaking opening – dangling off a cliff, clinging to a crashed train car – to the touching ending as Nate comes to grips with his love for Elena and his fear of clowns, Among Thieves delivers the greatest Naughty Dog title to date. Yeah, it’s way better than The Last of Us. Deal with it.

The Walking Dead: Season One (Xbox 360)

My review should tell you all you need to know if you still haven’t experienced Telltale’s masterwork adventure game for yourself; luckily for everyone, it’s also now available on next-Gen consoles! Similar to Thomas Was Alone, The Walking Dead made player-driven storytelling a priority over everything else, and delivered that story through genuinely emotional voice work and a visually arresting art style. Never has there been a character I’d rather look in the eye and shake hands with than Lee, or one I’d rather give a hug to than Clementine.

Wii Sports (Wii)

Who knew that a single disc, packaged in a simple cardboard sleeve, could lead to the sale of more than One Hundred Million Wii consoles worldwide over the last decade? I realized that Nintendo has the best first-party lineup of any existing console manufacturer, but the fact of the matter remains that Zelda isn’t the reason my grandmother briefly knew how to use a Wii remote. From weekly living-room bowling leagues to some of the most intense doubles tennis matches ever experienced, Wii Sports inserted itself into the social consciousness in a way most AAA titles can only dream of.

Damn, the past eight years have been pretty fantastic for games, and I genuinely hope things only get better from here. If you’re interested in what this new generation has to offer, I highly suggest checking out each contributor’s Game of the Year 2014 picks here on the site. Of course, you could also use this as a checklist and see if there’s anything big you’ve missed; most of these titles should be available for bargain prices. You could also just play Thomas Was Alone.

January 21, 2015
Don’t Try To Dig What We All Say: Trey’s Games Of The Generation Pt. 1

A little over a year ago, the powers-that-be in gaming decided that the time had come, and released the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, bringing to a close the longest console “generation” in gaming history: Seven years for the PlayStation 3, eight for the Xbox 360. This nearly decade-long era saw major shifts in the video game industry and its consumer base: Microsoft rose to new heights thanks to great first-party titles and Xbox Live; Sony handily won the new optical media fight as Blu-ray rose to prominence over HD-DVD; and Nintendo opted to fight on their own terms by releasing the Wii on unsuspecting consumers worldwide.

The “console wars” raged on… sort of. As people who grew up playing games got older, started families, and began earning “grown-up” amounts of money, it became commonplace to have more than just one console in the house. Hell, I can’t think of a single friend with even a passing interest in games who didn’t own at least two systems, and most households had all three present. Exclusives still exist, but the majority of titles (including many of those on this list) are now cross-platform at launch, or “timed exclusives” that eventually ended up on every platform.

Thanks to that, this list is not limited to just one system from the past generation, though I did tend to play more things on the 360. This list is in no way meant to be “comprehensive;” there will be things missing that you might have included, or things I included that you might have hated. I’m not claiming these are the best games from the past generation, or even that these are my absolute favorites. When I think about the last eight years, though, these are the titles that stand out most sharply.

Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360)

No, I don’t mean the entire franchise, though the Ezio trilogy is certainly one for the ages; I mean Assassin’s Creed, the much-maligned, admittedly imperfect first entry in the series. Many people may have forgotten that this blockbuster gaming giant started off as a PS3 exclusive, and after the reveal trailer, I was ready and willing to spend $500 at launch. The mission structure got a little repetitive, but watching Altair go from a real asshole to a real assassin was genuinely moving, and the open-ended free-running inspired greatness in later titles such as Infamous and Sleeping Dogs.

Battlefield: Cad Company 2 (Xbox 360)

Of all the games on that list, I don’t know that any approach the return-on-investment provided by “Bad Co 2.” We played the single-map beta for this game all night, every night while it was active; the full game consumed weeks’ worth of our lives over the next year; and the Vietnam expansion pulled us back in well after the fun should have run out. For me, this game is the standard by which all other multiplayer shooters are judged, and found wanting. Find me another game where “ram the objective building with a tank until it collapses” is a legitimate strategy, and then we’ll talk.

BioShock Infinite (PC)

I struggled at every turn with which BioShock game to put on this list, and it wasn’t until I was writing these blurbs that Infinite cinched the win. I still think the original has better atmosphere, the supporting characters are stronger, and Rapture still kicks Columbia’s ass in terms of environment. As a representation of this past generation, though, I think Infinite stands above its predecessor, because when you get right down to it, it is a better game. The relationship between Booker and Elizabeth maintains perfection from start to finish, and in my opinion is far more worthy of accolades than the title’s admittedly muddled metaphysical elements.

Borderlands (Xbox 360)

Erich literally had to trick me into playing this; after nearly a week of bugging me about it, he came over under some pretense, installed it on my 360, and shoved a controller in my hands. Six (maybe eight?) hours later, he finally managed to get the disc and leave for home, despite my protestations. For weeks after that, it was almost impossible to get a copy in Tuscaloosa, as anyone with a friend and a console snatched them up. I know the sequel is seen by many as some sort of co-op mecca, but for me Borderlands will always come back to fighting Nine Toes (he also has three balls) in split-screen at 4 am.

Dead Space (Xbox 360)

I have one word: Fear. Few pieces of entertainment have ever instilled in me the fear that the first Dead Space managed. Playing it became a catch-22, trying to balance my desire to keep going with the almost physical dread that came with being in Isaac’s boots. The next two iterations were greeted with mixed feelings and open hostility, respectively, but I don’t think anyone would deny that the original helped break new ground in horror. On some level, games like Amnesia and Outlast owe their success to Dead Space, just as Dead Space built from the foundation established by Resident Evil 4.

Fallout 3 (PC)

I own the collector’s edition of Fallout 3 on the 360, lunchbox, bobble head and all; I even used a friend’s GOTY edition disc to install all of the extra content. It wasn’t until I picked it up this past summer on a Steam sale, though, that I really took the time to appropriately explore the Capitol Wasteland. The game is still captivating: The landscape is simultaneously beautiful and desolate; the characters are appropriately realized; the sheer amount of content is staggering; and finally, the number of nods, homages, and references to all things sci-fi warmed my insides. The moment that still sticks with me the most is when I snuck up behind a feral ghoul sitting near a fire, took him out, and searched him to discover that his only possession was a teddy bear. It was heartbreaking.

Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360)

Beth and I received Far Cry 3 as a very generous gift from her parents, but it came at a cost. After we each unwrapped ours on Christmas morning, her mom sat us down and pointed out that the cover prominently features a man holding a gun, a person buried in the sand, and dead bodies hanging in the trees; she then read the laundry-list of reasons the game is rated Mature by the ESRB. After acknowledging that we were adults, and could make our own choices about what to play, she politely wrapped up with, “I don’t know if there will ever be a ‘Far Cry 4,’ but I can guarantee you it won’t be under this tree.”

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

I knew I would have to buy an Xbox 360 after playing the first Gears of War at a LAN / System Link party in my dorm; I had to be physically restrained from going to Wal-Mart that very instant after my first chainsaw kills. Gears of War 2 only improved upon that formula, with Horde mode being the best inclusion by far. Few cooperative experiences match the thrill getting everyone settled into the right location and rhythm during the early waves, only to have everything fall apart at the claws of a well-placed ticker. It only gets better when one person, alone and out of ammo, manages to finish the wave using nothing but the stock of their shotgun.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

There is not a game on this list I am more ambivalent about at times, or one I have said more terrible things about in the heat of the moment. I picked Halo 3 up at midnight, played some multiplayer, and then finished the campaign in one sitting after everyone else had logged off and gone to bed. I hate the story, yet have played the campaign multiple times, and some of the set-pieces still get my heart pumping. The multiplayer options opened up by Forge are staggering, and we still played custom games (Said the Liar!) for hours at a time years after release.

Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

I had no interest in Mass Effect when it came out. Our friend Oz got a copy the first day, then convinced Erich to play it, and several months after the fact I borrowed it and decided to give it a chance at their insistence. I play for six hours, and the next day was overjoyed to discover that a store nearby still had a collector’s edition in stock. To this day, I feel the Mass Effect series is the closest we’ve gotten to games that genuinely capture the spirit of something like Star Trek, and the vast galaxy exploration still impresses with its sheer size.

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PlayStation 3)

I bought a PlayStation 3 to play this game; in fact, I bought the system bundle that included the game. I’ll admit that the cutscenes can get both tedious and extraordinarily silly, but the core gameplay and story remain true to the excellence that is Metal Gear Solid. I could write pages about this game, but all that needs to be said is that the opening moments of your return to Shadow Moses brought tears to my eyes. Those tears evaporated shortly thereafter, of course, when I found myself using *(@^ing Metal Gear Rex to fight Metal Gear Ray as building crumbled around us.

January 14, 2015
Demons, Dragons And Dropships: Trey’s Game Of The Year 2014

It is, of course, that time of year again, when we look at the hours upon hours of time spent in front of our TVs and monitors and try to sift through it all and proclaim “These fourteen hours! These fourteen arbitrary hours were the best!” I played an astonishingly small number of games to completion in the past year, and yet have an admittedly huge slate of things waiting in the wings already this year.

There are games missing from this list that may surprise you, especially since the absence of a few surprised me. South Park: The Stick of Truth captivated me, and I spent a solid twelve hours playing it one Sunday so I could finish it before the weekend was over. Yet I completely forgot about it until I saw it on Scott’s list. MGS V: Ground Zeroes was basically Hideo Kojima inviting me to look into the future and see what true next-Gen games have the potential of being, given the right guidance. No matter how much I love it, though, I can’t in good conscience list it here.

The end result is a list that I genuinely put time and consideration into, and games which arguably belong if for no other reason than they made a big enough impression – good or bad – to stand out against 365 days’ worth of gaming, reading, watching, listening, and living. On a side note, Thomas Was Alone is out for next-Gen consoles now. No, the rectangles don’t look any different. Yes, you should play through it again.

…Scott put Skyrim on his list. Was I allowed to put Fallout 3 on mine last year? Nope. Am I bitter? A little. Should he check under his car for homemade bottlecap mines before leaving the house? *Shrug*

Game of the Year

Titanfall (Xbox One)

If I were making a list of games that are the polar opposite of my 2013 Game of the Year (Thomas Was Alone), Titanfall would be pretty high up there. With the second-biggest hype train this year – the first belongs to a game appearing later on the list – this AAA, story-barren, multiplayer-only, glossy-graphics FPS won me over from the very first beta match I played. The wall-running and jetpacking mechanics have changed mobility in shooters for good, and this pilot still hasn’t gotten tired of hearing “Standby for Titanfall,” and then watching several tons of death plummet down from orbit.

I will admit that the longevity of Titanfall has slipped a bit in these later months, though that is in no way the fault of the team at Respawn. The monthly free content updates have brought excellent new features and play-modes, even if the promise of new titans remains unfulfilled. Interestingly enough, I have hated most of the new maps I paid for with the season pass, but don’t consider it a waste of money, because each new release at least got us playing Titanfall again for a while.

Runner-Up #1

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition (Xbox One)

Diablo III has been a flashpoint for gamers over the past few years, largely due to PC-specific issues such as Blizzard requiring an internet connection at all times, the real-world-money auction house, and the genuine lack of endgame content at launch. Constant patches, updates, and the Reaper of Souls expansion have alleviated some of those concerns, none of which were ever a problem with the next-Gen console re-re-release I played.

Diablo III: UEE joins the ranks of Borderlands, Castle Crashers, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance as being a game where the co-op is so well-executed that it’s an integral part of the experience for me; I only played a few brief hours alone, usually just to grind out one more level before logging off, and rarely enjoyed it. If you have two or three friends and an itch for some classic dungeon-crawling, loot-grabbing, “oh shit, this new ability does what?!” action, this is the game for you.

Runner-Up #2

Dragon Age: Inquisition (Xbox One)

For years now, Erich and I have mocked people who tried to sway us toward Final Fantasy XIII with the promise of “If you just get past the first thirty hours, it gets really good!” I am sitting at the twenty-hour mark of DA: Inquisition and have loved every minute of it so far, but I’ll be damned if everyone I trust on games won’t shut up about how “the real game doesn’t even start until the twenty-five-hour mark.” The game offers a staggering amount of content, most of which is well-balanced and evenly-paced by having you participate in side activities as a prerequisite to unlocking main quest missions.

Inquisition manages to do what so many open-world RPGs – looking at you, Elder Scrolls – either can’t or won’t do, in that it never sacrifices “scale” in the name of “scope.” When you decided whether or not to go hunt ten rams in order to help feed and clothe refugees, the end result has a genuine impact on the greater narrative; to the same end, the large-scale, world-changing decisions you make generate real reactions and even consequences within your party, and leave you wondering if saving the world is worth losing a friend.

Biggest Surprise

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Xbox One)

My interest in The New Order was zero from the first trailer, and all the consecutive marketing leading up to launch did little but somehow make me less interested. When Beth told me she was going to pick it up, only our friendship kept me from being overly negative about it. I happened to be off that day, so she brought it over to see if my mind could be changed. The answer was simple: Yes. It could be changed.

The New Order doesn’t do anything particularly new or flashy; instead, it takes mechanics from a generation of solid shooters – Resistance, Half-Life 2, BioShock, Call of Duty, Rage – throws chest-high cover and health regeneration out the window, wraps it all up in a story that’s way better than I could have ever guessed, and loads it into an incredibly detailed double-barrel shotgun for maximum impact. Oh, and you get to shoot lasers at Nazis on the moon, which makes me wonder why you’re even still reading this.

Biggest Disappointment

Destiny (Xbox One)

Remember how I said I didn’t feel the Titanfall season pass was a waste of money, because at least it kept us playing Titanfall for a while? Yeah, the $30 I spent on the Destiny season pass might as well have been lit on fire as a sacrifice to Bungie. What fun I had with Destiny was only managed with my friends, and none of them picked up the pass; Hell, several of them don’t even own the game anymore! Those who haven’t traded it in aren’t really chomping at the bit to sacrifice money of their own, and I can hardly blame them.

Out of all the possible complaints, the best example of why Destiny is an abject failure in my mind comes from the fabled “loot cave” that dominated the servers for several weeks. All of the things that Destiny was supposed to deliver – tight shooter mechanics, cool gear, social participation with random strangers, big public events that pulled in everyone on the map – were realized in that small corner of the Cosmodrome for a few genuinely memorable nights. Then, as best any of us can tell, Bungie heard people were having fun, yelled “Hey you kids, get off our lawn!” and turned on the sprinklers.

Honorable Mention

Saints Row IV (Xbox One)

Yeah, yeah, Saints Row IV was on my list last year. You know how many shits I give? Z.E.R.O. You know why? Because it’s getting re-released on next-Gen in three weeks! With new content! So guess what that means, kids?! There’s a really good chance that Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is on my 2015 GOTY list, too! Murder time, fun time!!! FOUR MORE YEARS!!

Dishonorable Mention

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Xbox One)

…*sigh.* This game is on here specifically so that my own, personal shame can be made known. It was 100% my idea to pick it up, and after the disappointment of Destiny, there were several weeks when my mantra was “It’s ok, we’ll have a new Borderlands soon!” It’s not that The Pre-Sequel is a bad game, truthfully. Rather, it’s just… not Borderlands, or even Borderlands 2 (which I thought was inferior to the first one.) We managed… four play sessions? It may have only been three. I don’t care. I’m literally bored from thinking about it.

January 6, 2015
Nerd Is As Nerd Does – The Pagemaster

As a child, one of my favorite movies in the whole world was The Pagemaster, for a variety of reasons: I loved books, the voice cast was beyond my wildest dreams, I bore a striking resemblance to Macaulay Culkin in glasses, dragons are awesome, bullies were also a problem for me, and Christopher Lloyd is a personal hero of mine. The character of Richard Tyler did frustrate me to no end, however, as he did not seem properly appreciative of being sucked into an animated world of adventure, and I was jealous of the fact that my own books were not anthropomorphic.

I still adore that film, as well as the beautifully-illustrated hardback version of the book my parents bought me, and “look to the books” is essentially the driving force behind my interests and goals, be they academic, personal, and professional. I actively avoid thinking about the fact that there are books that I won’t ever get to read, because the concept makes me dizzy. I have been known to buy books instead of food – ramen and PB&J are sustenance, but hardly food – and I am always in need of at least two more bookshelves than I actually own or have space for.

Over the past few years, however, I found myself slowly reading fewer and fewer full works; I keep track of anything new I finish every year, and so this decline was tracked in real-time. By the end of 2012, when I realized that I didn’t even average one book a month, I decided to start making an active change in how I spent my free time. The dry spell levelled out a bit in 2013, and I managed to get a dozen titles read, though that is hardly noteworthy; 2014 has been significantly better, and I am already at twelve titles, and that will probably be fifteen or sixteen by the end of July.

As a quick point of clarification, I count comics and graphic novels separately from books, and so the amount of reading I am doing is still more than the average person. Considering that I gravitate toward titles by the likes of Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and Mike Mignola, it’s rarely a case that I’m reading comics because they are “easier” than books. Hell, the two books I most recently finished are genre fluff compared to something like League, but reading a book is distinctive from reading a comic in ways that I don’t have the right degrees to articulate.

Suffice to say that reading a book engages my mind in a way that is palpably different, and I was missing that feeling. I was also finding that writing was becoming more difficult – again, something I’m sure a person with more education in cognitive processes could expound upon – and that simply wasn’t acceptable. Finally, all posturing aside, not reading even a book a month left a bad taste in my mouth, and was compounded by the shame past-me already felt toward present-me for taking a financially secure desk job with a steady schedule, instead of travelling the world and chronicling it.

For most of my youth, I was a voracious reader, to put it mildly; my parents and grandparents were very encouraging of this habit, but found themselves at an occasional loss as I burned through books with little regard for cost, often finishing titles the same day they had been purchased. In elementary school, our public library had a “bookmobile” that came around each month and allowed us to check out books; they allowed me to check out more than the maximum after only a few visits, and keep a few I particularly enjoyed beyond the due date.

There were several ongoing series that I read, Goosebumps being the most prominent among them, but as with most young readers I frequently just grabbed books that looked interesting, and often didn’t realize until later – if I realized at all – that they were part of a series. Some of my favorite books and authors were discovered in this haphazard fashion, and there was always a feeling of excitement and realizing there was something more to be read. Probably the best example of this was Harry Turtledove’s “The World at War” novels; I bought the first book, Into the Darkness, at an airport kiosk because it was long and had a picture of a dragon on the front. When I reached the end, it seemed kind of abrupt, but I shrugged it off as “Maybe the author is making the point that war doesn’t always wrap up neatly.”

Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when around a year later I came across the second book, Darkness Descending, this time at a grocery store. After finishing it, I used the Internet to discover that the third book was already available in hardcover, but decided to keep reading them as mass market paperbacks. For the next four years – there were six books total – I looked forward to May, the end of school, and the release of the next book. High school came and went, and I was a sophomore in college when the series wrapped up, with a fair amount of my own living and growing up done in between.

Over the course of my teens, this process repeated itself several times over: The Thousand Orcs, which the first book in its trilogy, is more than a dozen books into the Drizzt saga; Prophecy, the second book in the Symphony of the Ages, came home from the grocery store because it has a dragon on the cover; I bought the BattleTech novel Lethal Heritage because I loved the MechWarrior games, and it was years before I had copies of the next two in that trilogy; my dad was a big Anne Rice fan, and I read Memnoch the Devil before any of the other Lestat books, because he thought it stood well on its own.

The point is, there was a time when my desire to read overrode any thoughts about making sure to check and see if the book was part of a series, let alone trying to acquire all of the books in said series before proceeding with the first one. In addition to not having the disposable income to make that work, younger me wouldn’t have been able to resist just going ahead and reading the book that what right there is front of me. It meant I read a few stinkers, and there are probably a dozen or more series that I only finished part of, but it produced what most people would consider a very well-read individual.

Over the years, though, something changed that I can’t quite put my finger on, let alone identify exactly when it happened. I became focused on discerning if a book was part of a larger continuity, and wouldn’t read things unless I could get ahold of the “first” one; this was soon replaced by the drive to “catch ‘em all,” and books were put on the back-burner until I could buy the whole set, sometimes in one ill-advised and overly-expensive swoop. The end result – having a lot of books that don’t really get enough attention – is something I discuss to an extent in a previous article, but I want to focus on some different aspects here.

The thrill of discovery in a bookstore, or the book aisle of more general shops, has been all but eliminated. I have such a massive backlog of things to read that there is literally a plan in place for what I’m going to read ten or twelve books in advance. There are notable exceptions from over the past year, such as Stephen King’s Joyland and Owen King’s Double Feature, which I bought at release and put aside other things to make room for. Trips to the used bookstore 2nd & Charles have also yielded gems such as Neuromancer and The Quantum Thief, both of which had caught my interest years ago but I had never gotten around to reading.

There have been one-off casualties of my shift in reading tendencies, too, which I would be remiss to overlook. I pre-ordered Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, thinking it would fit in well with the other King family books from last year, but I wasn’t expecting the 700 page monstrosity that Amazon delivered. To use the most banal phrase imaginable when talking about reading, I simply hadn’t budgeted for the novel to be that long, and had other things on my plate. While the same length expectation wasn’t the case for Dan Simmons’ The Abominable – after Drood, I hardly expected something short – it has also been shelved until that magical day when I somehow have free time.

Enjoyment of a work right off the bat for its own sake has also been watered-down by the need to know if it is part of a larger universe, at which point I go all Ash Ketchum, as mentioned before. I was perusing Borders several years ago, well before they went out of business, and came across a novel called Matter, written by Iain M. Banks. I started to get it, but the inside cover revealed that there were other novels in his “Culture” setting, which I had never heard of, and none of which the store had on hand; I put it back and didn’t pick the series back up until last year.

I did something similar within the exact same time frame with the works of Stephen Baxter, whose novel Ring was given to me, along with numerous other books, when Beth’s parents were getting ready for a move. This time, the web informed me that the book was part of the “Xeelee sequence,” whatever that was. I now have almost all of that series – there are a couple of novellas that are fairly overpriced – but still haven’t read any of them. It actually took a bit of research to determine what books went in what order, because the associations between them are more lax than in a traditional, numbered series.

Multiple titles that connect to one another without formal structuring is actually a common practice, especially in sci-fi, that goes back longer than I care to appropriately research. In a way these books are designed for people to read exactly the way I used to, by picking up something that looks interesting and just diving in. I’m sure publishers appreciate this style, since it means they don’t have to worry about losing potential casual readers who see “Book 4” printed on the cover and move on to something else.

The final big shift in my reading habits has been more gradual, and didn’t really jump out at me until I signed up for an online reading site recently and was adding books to my collection. In the past few years, the books that I have purchased and read have been almost exclusively science fiction. A deep-seated love of sci-fi is nothing new, as it has always been my favorite genre, but it used to be interspersed with other genres as well.

Works in other genres have snuck in there, such as the offbeat pop-thriller Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning, and a few books in Henning Mankell’s excellent Kurt Wallander mystery series, but otherwise I’ve been reading about spaceships or artificial intelligence. I’m currently in the middle of three books – a hard copy of Cibola Burn at home, the eBook of Use of Weapons at work, and the Endymion audiobook while I’m driving – each them a variant of the same essential concept.

While this shift is the result of multiple factors, such as a predisposition toward sci-fi on the part of the friends who suggest what books I read, I think the biggest impact has been my increasing tendency to purchase books online. Basically, I buy more sci-fi books than anything else, which means the shopping sites suggest more sci-fi books than anything else. This loop is further reinforced when blurbs on the books I am reading make mention of other books in that same genre, and so on. I’m not complaining, especially since I think science fiction is arguably more interesting and more important than any other genre, but I’ve already decided that the next book I read won’t have any lasers or faster-than-light travel.

A sub-set of this narrowing in scope is that I have a few authors I follow, and even within the genre the rest fall by the wayside. I don’t have any qualms about picking up each new Dan Simmons or Stephen King book, obviously, and those writers often stray into new territory. Yet a lot of my shelves are filled by only a handful of writers, and I feel that is also negligent on my part as a reader. In the case of authors like Stephen Baxter, or Peter F. Hamilton, I have nearly a dozen books by each, yet have never actually read a work by either of them.

Looking back on The Pagemaster, I wonder if maybe I judged young Richard too harshly, and ponder if I could ever recapture that sense of being thrust headlong into worlds of horror, adventure and fantasy. Perhaps I am the mysterious and powerful librarian, preparing the way for some young, bright-eyed child to step into those worlds; my hope has always been that my collection will be a legacy worth leaving to my children. In the back of my mind, though, I can’t help but look at my shelves of unread treasure and see the hoard of some great dragon, carefully acquired and jealously guarded, serving no purpose other than to be hoarded and gazed upon.

At least that version features a dragon and not a sentient spacecraft…

July 18, 2014
Nerd Is As Nerd Does- Writing On The Wall

I’ve been doing a lot of writing exercises lately, and the more I do – and the more I try to write on my creative pieces on the side – the more I realize that fiction may not be for me. It’s not that I don’t think I’m “talented” enough to write fiction, and there are certainly stories bouncing around in my head that I would like to tell. But the words flow most clearly when I’m analyzing, or just recording my thoughts on one thing or another. I know memoirs are big right now, but I’m not sure how well “Memoirs of a Twenty-Something Average Dude” would do on the shelves.

It’s why my mind turns frequently toward academia, but the whole system just leaves a bad taste in the back of my mouth. Yes, it would be awesome to be in a university environment again, and be surrounded by people who are dedicated to being huge nerds about things I am also interested in. I don’t know what field I would even look into, though; Literature seems like the obvious choice, but not until Lit departments can mentally shut the doors on dusty old libraries, where people apparently stopped writing sometime in the early twentieth century.

I have found a few programs that also allow for focus on outside materials, like comics or even movies and TV, but they rarely have the prestige of an actual Lit program. Also, after St. John’s and my “Liberal Arts” degree that no one seems to understand in conversation, I am hesitant to spend even more money on a degree that doesn’t necessarily have a field to go with it. Not that Lit is any better; the university system seems dead-set on hiring administrative staff over educators, to the point where all institutions are run like fucking corporations instead of places people learn.

Nerd Rating seemed to offer a good outlet for writing in the style that suits me, but the sheer lack of traffic and readership understandably discourages me. The number of comments on the site by people who aren’t also writers can be counted without even resorting to using toes; Hell, we can’t even get people to comment or share on Facebook. It’s to the point where I know for a fact that some friends hear about something through NR, then go share the damned Bleeding Cool or Kotaku article about it instead of ours.

I didn’t mean for this to turn so bitchy; my original thought was just to talk about how I prefer to write about things, rather than necessarily write things myself. All of this is inherently tied together, though, because I realize that I won’t ever really get to dig into all the books, movies, games, and whatnot out there unless I can land some magical job where I get to talk about those experiences. I realize that having a good job, starting a family, providing for them, and just enjoying the experiences I do have for what they are would be a very good life, and more than what most people could hope for.

I won’t ever really be happy with that, though. Not with my intellect, and my drive to dive into things, and constantly be thinking and growing and sharing. To rein it in a bit, I guess doing these exercises is a step in the right direction, so long as I keep up with them. “I wish someone would recognize my writing talent” sounds a bit flat when I don’t actually have any writing to shore up my claims. Hell, maybe I could get a piece out of this that I could shop around, or submit as a writing sample.

The only other struggle – First World Problems to the max! – that I have is balancing wanting new things with actually getting into the things I already have, while still making sure I’m actually having fun. I have stopped bothering to try and keep track of all the games, movies, and books I have that have never been used, or half-used and then finished; it was starting to wear on my nerves. Still, only a lack of funds keeps me from ordering more and more things from Amazon. I started a new sci-fi book series the other night – Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey – and the blurbs on the back mentioned the other great “space operas” this novel brings to mind. Hello eight new books on my “Sci-Fi Series” Amazon wishlist, which is now at sixty-three items; at the point where my lists are so genre-specific, you can imagine how many there are.

I’ve been doing my best to keep track of everything new I read, play, or watch each year, but what started out as a fun little memento has become something ominous; I feel driven to fill it more and more with each passing year. “I only read how many new books in 2013? Good Lord. And I call myself a scholar.” This creates tension when I put aside one thing to start something new, or want to play or watch something I have already seen. I honestly had to keep from feeling guilty when I watched Star Wars for “May the Fourth be with you,” and it is my favorite movie. I kept thinking about how I could use that two hours for something I didn’t memorize almost two decades ago.

Thankfully, I was able to just watch the movie and enjoy it once it started, but the thought was still there. I can’t tell you how much that part of my brain rebelled while I was reading The Lord of the Rings again this year; “More than 1200 pages worth of reading, and we can’t mark any of it down on the list.” Even worse, I realized that my memories of reading the trilogy from high school were almost nonexistent; how in Valinor did I forget THE LORD OF THE RINGS after barely ten years? I was genuinely bothered by how little I recalled, and it still bothers me if I focus on it too much.

The point I am hopefully working toward is being able to enjoy things, old or new, as they cross my path, or when I decide to seek them out. I shake my head when I think about college and grad school, when I had genuine days off that I spent sleeping until early afternoon, instead of consuming every piece of media possible. That’s a fatalistic approach, living in the past, and so going forward I just have to try harder not to take free time for granted. For instance, there’s new content out for Titanfall today, so we’re going to play tonight; while it’s true I “beat” Titanfall weeks ago, does that really make the time I spend with Erich and Tillman and Beth less worthwhile?

It’s been years since I watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I’ve already seen it, after all – but I really should watch it again if for no other reason to listen to Slartibartfast deliver some of my favorite lines in film history: “I think that the chances of finding out what’s actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, ‘Hang the sense of it,’ and keep yourself busy. I’d much rather be happy than right any day.”

July 2, 2014
Nerd Is As Nerd Does- Twitch TV

A while back Erich and I finally managed to get the Twitch.TV app for the Xbox One to work; the idea is that it allows players to broadcast their play sessions live, while other players can watch and participate via chat. I have openly mocked the idea of people who spend any significant amount of time watching live-streams of competitive gaming; I refuse to use the terms “eSports” because video gaming is not a fucking sport, and the players are not fucking athletes, and I could rage about that for days.

Last night, though, I did a broadcast of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes as Erich followed along, and the end result was actually fairly entertaining. Erich has tried to get into MGS before and been a little put off by the mechanics, but this one mixes things up enough that his interest has been renewed. We decided to try the broadcast feature out with me playing so he could see how a veteran MGS player gets things done.

The answer to that turned out to be “not half bad,” although toward the end I got too arrogant and got spotted because I was rushing along without any situational awareness. The biggest problem we encountered is that the stream isn’t actually “live;” there is a delay of at least a few minutes, which was further exacerbated by Twitch forcing Erich to watch random commercials in the middle of me playing, putting him even further behind. One commercial apparently involved skateboarding wookies, which angered me enough that I killed a guard without provocation in the middle of sneaking past him.

Both Microsoft and Sony made a big deal about live streaming when the new consoles were unveiled, and showed off as-yet-fictional features like picture-in-picture Skype chat while playing games, or one friend guiding another through a difficult section of a game by watching the live stream. Erich tried to guide me to a prisoner he had found but I had previously missed, but the lag meant that I had often passed by a turn I was supposed to take by the time he saw me getting to it.

I don’t know that I would ever broadcast just for the sake of broadcasting, like Todd has taken to doing; Todd has the kind of personality that lends itself to these things, though, and has been making gameplay videos for years. There’s the option to turn on the Kinect microphone and even the camera, so that viewers can watch and listen to your reactions, but that just doesn’t appeal to me. Since the broadcasts are public access, other viewers joined from time to time last night, and each time I couldn’t get over the feeling that my gameplay was being judged.

As it turns out, Twitch.TV is also available to stream from 360 and PC, and it seems like anyone logged in on one device should be able to watch games from another. That theoretically means I could broadcast something like Fallout 3 on PC while Erich and Tillman watch on the One, with all of us in a party so we can chat. Actually finding a broadcast and viewing it was a headache in and of itself, though, and adding in more people across different platforms might be more trouble than it is worth. All in all, I’d say that game streaming is a cool concept, but is still behind the curve of full functionality and accessibility.

June 30, 2014