the-soak

Holly Springs, North Carolina, UNITED STATES


Joined May 8th 2011

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About Me
I am a Media Soak. I am a moderate cinephile, love good music, read a lot of comic books, and play a tremendous amount of video games. I have a wonderful girlfriend, because she loves me and we can play video games together, so that's rad. Also, I am an ECU Pirate studying biology.

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For You Download: Art Style: CUBELLO

March 24th 2012 16:17
Really Long Link

No, the first part of this game's title has absolutely nothing to do with my last post. I got this game for being a Club Nintendo member and just finished playing it a little while ago.
Review: At first glance this game would appear to be nothing short of simplicity, but then you wouldn't be too far off base by thinking that. CUBELLO is a 3-D block puzzle game, that goes the minimalist route to provide us with unique gameplay and such a high sheen of polish that it is more welcome than an intrusion. The premise of the game is to connect four of the same blocks together in some way, and because this is a 3-D puzzle game it can be in any direction. To add a block to the puzzle it is simply point-and-click where you want it to go.
Like a Rubik's cube that losses blocks as you solve it
So far as options are concerned, you have two, with one of them being not to dissimilar to the second. Option one has you playing through a series of levels, each with three different ways that the levels are set up. Option two has you playing survival, but playing through option one is basically the same thing, except that option one eventually ends.

Like I sated earlier about it being a point-and-click game, I wasn't joking. this game is played exclusively with the single Wii-mote. All you do is line up your shot and then place your block, but it can't be that simple right? Also, where you place your block matters, because that changes the rotation of the puzzle. Yes, the puzzle is always rotating, and when a block is placed it can change how fast and which way the entire puzzle is rotating. Also, the puzzle is always inching ever closer to you as you play, and if it hits you, you loose a block to shoot at the puzzle, which is very bad.
AHHHH, its getting closer! Stay away from the corners!
My major complaints for this game are how short it is, but that is solved because the first option has three different options for the puzzle, and the survival mode is non-stop. My biggest complaint comes from one of the game mechanics itself, where every time you complete a set of four or more a slot-like machine pops up and if it matches up you get a bonus, but there is absolutely no way of knowing when it will pop up or what colour it will give you to work with. The bonus creates a central game-play mechanic but because of how quickly it can change the tide of the puzzle it becomes relied upon. This is a complaint, but not one that breaks the game, however.

In Conclusion
: Should you get this game? Yes. It is an excellently executed puzzle game, and a fantastic Wii-ware game to have. I would recommend it to anyone. My favourite part is the robot voice that talks to you throughout the game. At the price of 600 Wii points, or at about $6US I think it is well worth the time and money. This game gets my recommendation, go and check it out.
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Despite the title's nod to Haddaway, this is a real problem with games, epically now that everything looks so clean and beautiful. The question stated goes: Are video-games art? Most of this question doesn't have to do too much with games at all, but rather asks just a part of the larger question being asked: What is art? This is such a difficult question to ask in the modern era that we are in now. At what point does something become art, or rather who is to judge what art is or is not?
Art?
I am no art historian, hell, I have a hard time finding art that I really like in the first place, but I do know a little about art and art history. Art was generally considered something that was neither a crafted skill, like farming, or a science, such as chemistry. Now, however, the tide has shifted a little and almost anything that can be experienced is art. This notion was brought about with the modern art era, which states simply: What is art? Now, you may find this redundant, considering it is one of my first sentences, but that is what modern art asks/states. Who is the judge of what art is or is not, and what makes something art? This notion is relatively new, about the 20th century, considering that art has been around since the dawn of man. These questions, however, do set the tone for how we need to look at games, because it directly plays into the modern philosophy of what art is, or can be.
Art?
Now that all of the back story is out of the way, lets take a look at the reason you are here, video-games. Like I stated earlier, with the modern art philosophy now in the forefront, who is to judge what art is or is not? The philosophy breaks down to say: if someone thinks it's "pretty," or art, then it is art. So, does that make games art? Based on the definition of art, so long as some one thinks it looks nice, then it is art. Does the argument stop there? God no, it couldn't be that simple. There are those that think video-games are just that, games and nothing more. Equivalent to a figurine with a fancy paint job, they are just toys made to look pretty. This thought can undermine games as a whole and discount the hard work so many people have put into it, but it is a valid point too. So if the visual art aspect is under attack than we have to broaden the scope of what games cover.

Music is also an art, and once again it follows the same rules as the visual art; so long as someone thinks that it is art, then it is art. Whether it be dub-step, classical, opera, or rock and roll music is art and music is found in games. Music is even harder to judge as an art, because there are preferences one way or another and these preferences can create biases. The biases created by preferences, can effectively have some rule out one genera of music as being considered art to them; yet, I digress. Because many games out there actually create original soundtracks it is very easy to see why they can be considered art. The games have to orchestrate, write, edit, and place the right sounds and music in the right places to create the game world.

To further my point, and essentially beat a dead horse to a pulp, let's take a look at one more art that is neither visual or auditory. The last thing to look at is story. Yes, even the written and spoken word is art, so long as it is for entertainment and not scholarly work. Games tell stories; be they about a young boy who must go and save a princess, or a faceless solider saving the universe from a fanatical alien alliance, or an English archeologist who discovers dark secrets in ruins. Some of these stories are amazing and keep us thinking back to them year after year, and others are sprawling epics that require more than one look at them. The point being that almost all games tell a story, not all of them good mind you, but a story all the same. The stories capture the imagination the same way a novel can, or a film, and can show us the inner workings of the human condition.

Okay, so the overall point that I have here is that games are art, but some, are more artistic than others. The game can be more artistic by being prettier, having better music than the average game, by telling an amazing story, or all of the above. Games, much like film, can be more or less artistic than others. So when it comes right down to it, it all depends on if someone thinks that it is art does it make it art. All games may be art, but making a game specifically for the purpose of being artsy is something different all together, and something to be covered...next time.
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Hey Hey, I ain't dead yet!

March 15th 2012 01:54
I have had such a week weeks month. I won't bog any of my loyal fans with too many details; but I will mention that I have not had time to play, or really, view anything aside from studious endeavors. I also would of posted on spring break, but I was punching in every morning and punch out every night so I could eat this week. In other words, I have had basically no time to just relax. Really, I shouldn't be even doing this, as I still have two more tests this week alone. I promise that I will put at least two updates this weekend. One will certainly be a For Your Download, and another will be A Problem with Video-Games post.

I do know that I shouldn't complain about my shit, as I really am just adding to the noise out there, but I feel so bad about disappointing everyone who came here looking for something to read. I don't want my postings to slow down to a trickle or even a dripping pace, so I will try my very best to keep this stuff regular. I hope to have a schedule by the end of the month in which I can follow easily, and anyone can come to expect what will be here on which days.

Thank you for your patience, and your continued loyalty.
I hope that this funny llama makes up for my delay.
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Chroncile Review

February 11th 2012 22:31
I know that it came out last week, and it has been a long while since I did a post and so far nothing has really gotten at me too badly that I want to dedicate a whole post on it. Furthermore, I have been particularly preoccupied with finding a place to live and other college-like stuff; what I am able to offer to you now is a review of the film Chronicle.
Review: The film starts out easy enough, loner/loser, named Andrew, comes from a broken home and to "protect" himself from his father and put up some sort of barrier between him and reality he begins to document his entire life. Andrew has a terrible time at his public Seattle school, where his one "friend" is his cousin, Matt, who is a pretensions philosophical stoner and overall jerk. All of that begins to change after they both go to a rave party where Andrew meets Steve, the cool and popular guy, who convinces Andrew to go and film what he and Matt found in the woods. While there they get hit with some sort of extraterrestrial radiation and gain telekinetic powers. The trio with there new found powers become friends and use the powers for stupid pranks and just to see how far they can make themselves go. I won't spoil anything, but things take a big, if not unsurprising, turn when one of the trio dies because of one of the others. Also, without saying too much about "key" plot points, the third act is well worth the wait and really shows off what many have come to see from this film in the first place.

Okay, now that we got the story out of the way, lets talk about everything else. I am not too sure if I am a fan of found footage films or not; I don't think I despise them, but I can't really find the appeal of seeing an entire story play-out in first person (save for maybe Half-life). With this genera, also, you also run into the problem of having a reason to have someone hold a camera, which this film does a really piss-poor job of explaining. I understand that Andrew has a camera, but I would think that he would have enough sense to not keep it on all the time, but perhaps that's the point. Also, with the found footage thing you run into the problem of poor cinematography because of it always being in first person, but the "cleverness" of Andrew side-steps this problem by having him float the camera around with his powers giving us well placed shots where they need to be


[ Click here to read more ]
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Staying connected.

February 4th 2012 18:48
Hello my loyal fans, I want to take this time to let you all know that I am going to create a Facebook fan page. If you love The Soak then give us a like. Also, while you are there let me know if there is anything you want me to look at that I haven't yet. I am also putting up links to my Steam page, as well as My Xbox live profile. I would love to hear form any of you.

The fan page
[ Click here to read more ]
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It has been a while since I did a downloadable title, so i think now is as good of a time as any to do one here, I have also been feeling kind of nostalgic so I wanted to do a game from the past too. So, what better way satisfy both than talk about a game that has been ported and updated for this generation's console? Lets jump in to Perfect Dark for the Xbox Live Arcade.
Pew pew pew...its a shooting game.
Lets sit and chat for a second, can we? I have to be entirely honest with you here, this is my very first time playing this game. I know what you are thinking "Man, this game is a classic, how could you miss this one?" and to be honest with you, I don't know how or why I missed it. I played GoldenEye till I got motion sick (true story), and clocked in so many hours on Time Splitters 2, I just never played this one. I have heard of the game before and some of my friends talk about how amazing it was when it was out for the N64, but we all just played GoldenEye instead because that was the game we were most familiar with. So, this is literally my first time playing this game, so none of those naggy feeling will get in the way of my brilliant, completely professional, judgment.
Review:The game starts off with a really interesting menu, I think this is worth mentioning because I have never seen something quite like it. You start off as Joanna Dark in the Institute and you select your option from stating to play the actual game, wander around the institute, or tweaking the games settings. Of course, I choose to wander the hallways of the institute and hear the NPCs praise me for being the goddamn best in the world. Also, in the institute you can do some training missions, go to the shooting range, and get story info. Thank goodness for that last part too, because I had almost no idea what was going on in the game the entire time I was playing it. Something about spies, aliens, and AI...whatever, I guess. The solo is, as you have guessed by now, separated into story missions, but also it has "combat simulator" missions in which you play the multi-player mode with a computer character to meet certain objectives. As far as the multi-player is concerned I wouldn't go giving it the highest of marks. True, there are some features that show so real innovation, the "Counter-operative" mode lets one player play as Johanna, and the other play as one of the drone guards. So your friend literally becomes your enemy. If you are feeling more cooperative than you can of course run through the game with a partner covering your back; it is just the campaign with two people running through the levels. Back on the competitive side there is the normal GoldenEye-esque matches, but with some game variants like King of the Hill and Capture the flag. The game can also be taken on to Xbox Live, but sadly it feels more like a ghost town than anything else, so the fact that there is Xbox Live support does nothing for the loneliness.
All by myself, don't wanna be...
As I said earlier, this is not a game for story. I had almost no clue what was going on, it just felt like a really disjointed spy/sci-fi film from some time ago. The game may lack on story, but some of the death groans and how the models move about in the same ways as their N64 days is certainly worth a chuckle. This game plays unlike the modern shooters; you can carry as many weapons as you want, and your health is set at a finite amount, so if you you die or fail an objective it is game over. Some mechanics seem to try and flex the N64;s muscles, but serve almost no purpose in the game today; things like shooting out lights, or deploying a "spy-cam" that hovers around in a fish-eye lens visuals. These things may have been fun back in the day, but here they are just a nuisance and unwelcome. You also move fast in this game, you are constantly running which is nice, if not unrealistic, but that is a very welcome addition to this generation's use of the sprint feature. Also, I don't know how people could play this on the N64 controller, it seems like the game uses ever button on the 360 controller, but perhaps it is because I am just used to this particular setup. Another thing that I find interesting that a good amount of games do not do any more is have two firing modes for almost every weapon, it can drastically change the game play and gives the game a bit more replayability because of the different combinations of wasting your enemies away.
And on this page we can see everyone Joanna killed in Chicago.
In Conclusion: I actually really enjoyed playing this game, being that it was my first time playing Perfect Dark. This game serves as a snapshot of the time, and is a great way to remember how things were in the GoldenEye era of shooters. The big question is: Has this game held up? The game has in a way held up, and in other ways not so much. I can't say that the enemies are very well done, because they are really stupid by today's standards. I can't say that the lack of a checkpoint system is a huge flaw, mostly because it is how the game is played and it was interesting to see how it was played back in the day. Like I said earlier, some of the mechanics seemed to try and flex the N64's abilities, but with our current hardware they become tiresome and aggravating to have being a focal point. The multi-player is still fun with a bunch of friends, but it is also a tough sell to get a bunch of people to go and play an older game together (See here). I do think that there are some missteps in the game, mostly the story arc throughout and the just plain stupid AI, but some of these scuffs don't destroy the overall quality of this game.
Now, as for how well I can recommend this game that is a different story. The game comes in at 800 Microsoft points ($10 US), so it is not just given away. What this really comes down to personal feelings that you may have had for this game and if you want to relive said feelings again. I did say that it has held up to today's standards, but if someone, like me, who doesn't have any experience with this title wants to see what the fuss is all about I would tell them to save their pennies. The addition of Xbox Live is greatly warranted and welcome to this game for multi-player, but right now it is devoid of humans, so I suppose the point is moot now. I would only tell someone it is worth their money if they really want to relive their memories in HD, and had a few friends who wanted to do the same. For the rest of us I think that it is just fine to leave it where it is. The game is good, but unless you already have some memories tethered to late nights fragging friends, or finding all of the cheese, I would not say that it is worth the 800 points.
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SEX! Got your attention? Good. Sex is the most powerful force, and truly (if you want to get all psychological) is the reason we do almost everything we do. Our lives are comprised of grooming ourselves for mating one way or another; be that taking a shower and brushing your teeth everyday, or getting a job to have some money to spend on the necessities to continue living. Sex is all around us, and like the force from Star Wars, is a strong power that pushes us to do a huge number of things. Also, living as adults we have stories filled with sexual themes and happenings. I am not just talking about pornographic films, but in a far less blunt sexual context too. In our books people have sex, as well as in our films, and also in out television programs, and there is always a positive and negative side to what happens. When sex is thought of by a young person it is seen as nothing but good or bad; Quagmire has sex and it is funny, but when two people have sex in Friday the 13th they both die a horrific death. In reality neither one of these is right, sex has its drawbacks and its rewards. Sex is a dynamic experience that we build most of our lives around, and should not be cheapened by shoddy interpretation of what it is to engage is such an act. Biologically, sex is the most important thing a person can do with their lives. It is the innermost desire of every breathing animal, and through our highly complex and abstract understanding of the world we can transcend it into something more than just an act in our art.
All around us.
I know what you are saying: "well, sir, that is all well and good, but what about the games?" Hold on, I'm getting there. So with the fact that sex is prevalent in everything we do it is only natural that it seeps into our art, and so it gets into games as well; sadly, not always in the best of ways. Sex in games has been boiled down to a cutscene as a token of congratulations, or just a mini-game for the hero to do to get a bonus. Neither of these go anywhere close to the impact that sex can have on a person and seem to be more of a diversion as opposed to an addition to a story arc. Adding sex cheaply or ham-handedly to a game does not make it any more adult, and ironically, the addition of this very adult theme just makes the game feel like the 4th grader who swears to seem more grown-up. Sex can drastically change a story or how a character responds to certain situations, and just putting it in there as just "something else you can do" completely overlooks the very human element that binds us all together.
What keeps every generation together.
Really, there are two different camps when it comes to sex in games: the "bonus" camp, and the "human" camp. Well first take a look at the "bonus" camp and what sorts of depictions will go there. However, if you have any semblance of deductive powers you would already be wagering a guess. Never the less, a game placed in the "bonus" camp will not add anything to the story or really anything at all. The sex in the game is just a, well, bonus that a player or character can get that doesn't change anything. A high speech skill and proper dialogue trees does not change how that person's relationship will be. It is really easy to tell what kind of games these are, they are the ones where you can pick up a prostitute for health or just for the pure hell of it but do not alter the story in anyway at all. It is cheaply added in to make the game seem more adult, when in actuality it does nothing but make the game seem immature. A great example of this is in the game series Fable. I already like the games, but the portrayal of sex and sexuality adds absolutely nothing to the game, which begs the question: "why even put it in in the first place?" Which that question comes up time and time again in games that belong to the "bonus" camp. I am not saying that just because the game has surface encounters doesn't mean that it is taking sex in an immature way, although that is usually the case, only that it didn't add anything to the story, or character, or overall quality of the game. Most of the time this "bonus" sex occurs because of an open-world feel that the game tries to provide to the player and so the sex is added as a side, but doesn't change how the story plays out. Basically, when a person is give a blank slate to work with the character cannot flesh out as much as if there is an already established personality.
You rolled right! Get on in there!
Now on the other side, the "human" camp, we find a much deeper and richer exploration of what it is like to just be alive. Admittedly the time when you will see a game in this camp is if it is much more narrative based, and have a much more linear path to it. These games are what should be looked at to further the medium in the public eye, mature looks at the human condition in relation to physical and emotional affairs. This camp holds games that deepen our understanding of the character and the story that is presented to us. Sex can be a "one and done" experience, but many times it is not; as I stated above, sex should not be cheapened by shoddy additions to lack-luster stories. Sex is not only physical but emotional, and it is because of this that our stories and themes as adults become even more relatable when we talk about how relationships work in the fictional universe. The games take on this is done superbly well in this camp because it is not just the physical once-and-then-off scenario of the "bonus" camp, but because it talks about the relationship build up and how sex changes how people behave in the story to one another. The addition of the relationships and how the people respond to one another, even if it is just romantically and not sexually, is more mature and a more adult way of looking at the human condition than any amount of nudity or swearing will ever be able to do. A perfect example of a game in this camp is Catherine, which is getting a game of the year medal for last year from me (I'm changing that after this post). It handles sex and relationships in a believable and heartfelt manner, it didn't cheapen how people act in the real world because of what is being covered and shows us all how a game can tell a very adult story almost perfectly.
A perfect example of how to do Sex in games right
Okay, so in conclusion: Sex in games needs to be looked at in a mature light and the proper addition of it can elevate a game from being just a game to being a monumental piece of story telling. If sex adds nothing though, why add it in the first place? The gaming universe is not only ready but craving more games that take a look at the much more human side of sexual interactions that people go through. Video-games, like any other form of entertainment, is ripe with great stories and the best way to tell deep stories is to engage an adult audience is with a mature subject handled with respect and maturity. Sex can be something snickered about by the 7th graders out there, but as adults we should demand more of a human side to the most basic of physical needs.
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Wow, has it really been 6 days?! My deepest apologize for the wait time, but I am back now and ready to tackle an issue that has been on my mind for a while. Where are the girls of gaming?
"Awww yea, this shit I can get into."
To start things off I think that it would be fair to state that I, myself, am what many my consider a "feminist." I think that a person should not be treated any differently because of how they are born;l be that race, sexuality, sex, social class, language, nationality, or anything else that you could not choose as you were conceived. It is just down right immoral to predetermine how to treat someone base on something that is entirely outside of their own control. So, by hitting this point about where it comes from I think that it may skew this logic a little bit. If you are indeed offended that I hold everyone to the same standards of everyone else, I apologize.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, Girls in games. I feel that women are not represented well in games today. This not only has to do with the backwards, rage fueled online community of gamers talking over very rational people, how games are perceived in the first place, but also with how women are precised in games. The latter seems to branch into a gigantically bigger category that also stirs my staples, so I will save it for next time.
Much much bigger
First off are the assholes who seem to make it their job to make gaming a "boys only" club. We have all run into them online, if you are a lady with a headset then I imagine that it is almost a daily occurrence, the-"OH MY GOD THERE IS A GIRL PLAYING GAMES"-fourteen-year-old. Usually sandwich jokes are tossed about and the child will ask if they can see naked pictures of the afore mentioned girl gamer. Admittedly, the sandwich and kitchen jokes can be funny when they are shot off cleverly and kept to a minimum. These are just jokes and should be used sparingly though. What I think what really crawls under my skin and others that want this to be a more accepting medium of entertainment is the initial response of the "OH MY GOD THERE IS A GIRL PLAYING GAMES," being that there is a preconceived notion that only males like to play video-games. The knee-jerk response of "OH MY GOD!" is like someone blowing a foghorn because they didn't realize their gum was winter-mint and not spearmint, it is just straight-up unnecessary. Boys, and I do mean boys, relax. Girls exist, and yes some do indeed play games; it's not that Earth-shattering. The point of the game is to have fun, no matter who you may be.
"Dude, I can't believe that she plays Unreal so brutally."
Next, lets take a look at our old enemy, the way games/gamers are perceived. It is safe to assume, being that you are here, you are level-headed and well adjusted member of this community of gamers; that doesn't mean that you are looked on by others that way though. When games and gamers are looked at by the vast majority of people out there we are looked at in the same light as the above mentioned fourteen-year-old, but that fourteen-year-old had to have a preconceived notion of what an average gamer is. In walks the sweaty and anti-social nerd stereotype, meek Asian geek stereotype, and eight-year-old shooter fan with a headset stereotype. All of these are in hyperbole, but the sad thing is that is what a great deal of people think of when they hear the word "gamer." (I have been over this once before...sorta) Because all of these stereotypes revolve around males it makes games seem like something a female should not do at all, if not it may make them feel unwelcome. Because the main target of games has been males it is now just preconceived that it is just for guys. That has been the case for a long while, but now some girls are getting back into the medium, and what do they have to look to for their fun? Sims, Pet simulators, Nancy Drew, and Super Princess Peach...anybody else see a small piece of the pie being cut out for the fairer sex? I understand targeting a market, but this seems a bit overkill. So, you can play games and not feel embarrassed or harassed if you are a little girl who loves cute things and playing house, but once you give up your dolls you have to give up your games too.
Take your time deciding
Maybe another reason why females don't get into games is because female leads are few and far between. I am not talking about the boobalicious ladies of Dead or Alive, or Soul Calibur, but rather I am talking about strong female leads that are dynamic and interesting. I don't mean to bash the hyper-stylized ladies of the pixilated world, because we have always idealized what perfect humans should look like. Rather, I am wondering why that is almost the only option for a female character. Sex/object of desire, or not in a game at all. Just recently some more females have been sprinkled into the mix, but that is not enough to really make a huge difference. Personally, I sometimes choose my character to be female in an RPG setting, not because I am dissatisfied with being a guy, but it gives the character another story altogether. Females have different experiences than males in the real-world, and people treat females differently altogether depending on the situation. So instead of the only female being the token reward after killing the dragon or a set piece to be knocked off to "deepen" the male counter. Why not have them be the hero in more than in a game that has been programmed enough to allow both a male and female to have basically the same ending?

[ Click here to read more ]
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The films to watch this year!

January 12th 2012 01:36
I cannot remember being this excited for films coming out this year. There are some of my favourite superheros of all time getting another film this year and some truly interesting pieces of work that I am also excited about. I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for films, and i can hardly wait.

The following is a list of films that I am very excited to see this year, they are in no particular order and I will provide a blurb to describe each one best as I can


[ Click here to read more ]
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Very qucily think about something you do when you first wake up; be it a piss and a stretch, or a stumble to turn off your alarm, or answering a phone call much earlier than you were hoping. Keep that thought in mind and try to picture your whole day as an interactive experience. Is your day fun? Chances are that it is not as interesting as fiction, with the only exception being that you are some kind of shark tamer.
Pulled this out of my sternum...just another Thursday afternoon.
People play games, read certain books, and watch movies because they want to escape from their lives for just a little while. However, I cannot think of a person who wants to escape entirely, always do they want to be rooted in some form of familiar reality. In example: Call of Duty MW3 you play as soldiers firing real guns at people from real countries on this planet, but this is not a real conflict/ it is fiction (bad Right Wing nationalist fan-fiction, but fiction all the same). The fantasy is rooted in reality. Star Wars is also rooted in reality, soldiers and knights fighting for what they believe in/ are told to do, humanoid creatures walking around, people firing guns, an evil crime boss, ect. ect.. When things get to foreign from our own experiences we no longer find them appealing and and steer clear of that particular form of escapism.
Pictured above is a discount card that you control through the reaches of an opthamascope. You must collect all the tear gas in time behind you that is absorbed by a backwards nickle. (doesn't make sense, does it?)
For games there has to be a healthy middle ground; not too far away from home, but not too similar as the player would be bored to tears. If a person played my game from above with the discount card they would have no idea what was going on, because there is basically no point of reference, so there would be little to no fun. On the other hand if a person played a pizza delivery boy who obeyed all of the traffic rules, was tipped fairly, and was always on time because of a helpful GPS then the player would also have no fun. Now that both extremes have been identified, it gives everyone the range in which to design and enjoy games. A game about a person's day will only be interesting if that person has an extraordinary life/job like a detective or professional football player. Or if they have a normal life and something takes a strange for the weird, games like Alan Wake and Heavy Rain do this very well, even if they weren't the best games they still were about normal people in extraordinary circumstances.
Game about a club promoter who uncovers the necranomica
Now that we have that out of the way lets get to the real issue at hand. This was first brought to my attention after I had been playing Call of Duty for a few hours. I was playing and I continued to get stuck over and over again at crucial moments. I was stuck at a point and continued dying while my comrades continued to fight and even "died" but never got hurt. This is not the only instance in this game or any other game, these happen more often than should be allowed. These realism fracture comes when a person is taken completely out of the experience and are reminded what they are actually doing. The rules stated earlier are still followed and everything like that, but because of these fractures a game losses a big amount of points. Game makers should also spend extra time getting rid of glitches that will also cause these fractures. The fractures do not ruin a game, only that they should be polished up and be less drastic so as to keep the player fully enveloped in the game being played. If games want to take a more serious role in the market then the game must be a more immerse experience. Video games are placed at a very precarious position because it is the only true form of media that is entirely immersive. These fractures destroy the immersion and the illusion of being entirely enveloped by a game. In other words: these "reality fractures" can destroy a gaming experience as much as someone pouring ice down your shirt.
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Recent Comments

Comment by the-soak
on (My) Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

January 22nd 2012 05:45
I could really only agree with the 3 Super-hero ones, Lincoln, and maybe the Great Gatsby. I think there will be a lot of great films to come out this year and I am very excited to see many of them. I just hope that I can afford all the ones I want to see in Theaters.

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Comment by the-soak
on Slashers: Texas Chain Saw Massacre

October 24th 2011 00:12
That is very true, it is not really a slasher in terms of the POV, but the body count is still there, and I would have to argue that the deaths are still creative here. Leatherface nicks off teens that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that sounds very familiar to me. I would not consider Psycho a slasher for the fact that He kills such a very small amount of people, I would be more inclined to include that film into more of a psychological thriller than anything else. I have heard the argument for Black Christmas, and I sometimes agree, but I would argue also that being the time is so far removed from its release to the copy-paste/shelling out of the more contemporary slashers that it did not truly kick off what many consider to the slasher genera. Same can be said for Twitch of the Death Nerve. Texas Chain Saw Massacre shares many of the same elements as the contemporary slashers, but doesn't follow the formula as I have seen it in other slashers.

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Comment by the-soak
on Need a Music Fix - Try This Site!

October 16th 2011 15:15
A good choice, also SoundCloud does wonders. I have found so much good stuff from there. Almost all of it is user generated too.

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Comment by the-soak
on Devil's bargains

October 13th 2011 03:12
I agree entirely with the comment above, choice is a total illusion.

However, there seems to be no choice here. Following the logic, the most utility comes from not choosing art. Furthermore, it is self-defeating to choose art if not a single person will enjoy it (I assume this means yourself as well), thus rendering the art as useless. Art is subjective, true, but its subjectivity comes directly from how much a person enjoys the art. If no one enjoys the art than it is not worthwhile to anyone. It is illogical to pick art given the circumstances.

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Comment by Anonymous
on Battlefield, 1.5 million, 3

September 25th 2011 16:47
I can't wait for Battlefield 3. I have been a long time fan of the series.

The numbers game with Call of Duty is silly. The quality of a game cannot be measured by ending (or beginning) sales numbers but by how dedicated the fans are. Case in point: Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 2, both released in 2005, have drastically different numbers of players on the servers, with Battlefield greatly eclipsing Call Of Duty.

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Comment by the-soak
on I Just Don't Get It: Portal

July 11th 2011 05:56
That is very true, but I do not see what is so funny. When I got to the end I saw the cake in the room full of computer things, but I didn't really get a chance to interact with it. I just want to know why Portal fans get such a laugh when a person mentions cake.

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Comment by the-soak
on Confucius Didn't Say

May 19th 2011 20:55
That was great! I think I laughed or at least snickered at everyone of those ones! LOL

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That seems very fair to say. However, the point that i am trying to raise is that trying to relive the past is going to be met with disappointment. You may want to relive those summer night sleepovers that you had so long ago, playing X, by playing it again. Your friends may not want to bother with X if X5:Final frontier is out. I do like the idea of the info necessary to thoroughly enjoy the game though, very interesting point.

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Comment by thesoak
on Retro Video Game Ads

May 13th 2011 00:29
These were pretty funny. I really liked the Gameboy kid's face when he had that Briefcase. Priceless! LOL

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