Shadows, Shadows Everywhere

You might ask why I'm posting a TwoFury battle between Doctor Who shirts. Look more closely at Shadow of the Dalek for a second. See it? The glowing blue star? Remind you of something? Yup, I didn't realize the Shadow of the Colossus reference even though I've played and enjoyed it and recently watched Adam Sessler talk about it on Rev3's Spoiled Games. Anyway, both of these are beautiful designs for any Doctor Who, Shadow of the Colossus, or The Time Machine fans. But you only have until the end of the day to get these for just $11 each with shipping starting at $3. After that they go to the Gallery and may still be available for $18 if proven popular enough. Sizes go up to 3XL for men and women.

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Columbia: Impressions of a Floating Madhouse, or My Time With Bioshock Infinite

For the past year, I have kept my iPad by my side whenever I played a game and took constant notes. I kept meaning to post them, but something always got in the way. I've decided to change this, and it's about time. I felt like keeping the dates I played, because I will be doing this out of order and I'd like to remember. This isn't a walkthrough, and it's far from comprehensive. What you'll see here is basically a video game stream of consciousness. It's more like a diary that's been left unlocked and out in the open. I can't promise this will be spoiler free. It's not a review. But I will keep the ending to myself.

8/12/13

Alrighty, now on to BioShock Infinite. Yeah, the whole world has played it already, but I don't get paid to play. I have to make my "living" elsewhere, so I'm perpetually behind. Plus, it takes longer when I have to stop every few minutes to write this stuff.

So far, a few minutes in, the style and music totally puts me in the Bioshock mood.

I ring a three-bell combo five times and apparently call Columbia. Holy crap, that would be scary. The sky lights up red and a giant horn sounds, like an enormous ship in the night. Made me think of Unheilig. Best listened to with the speakers loud enough for the neighbors to complain.

If you don't have Spotify, please download it here. That link gets me a free month of Premium Spotify ($10/month) for every five people who sign up, but you can choose Free or Unlimited ($5/month).

Oh, sure, I'll get into the glass capsule, which I assume shoots me up to my destination, like the Wonkavator. Looks like a terrifying ride. Speaking of terrifying (yet terrific and funny) ride, I saw The Wolverine yesterday. Always loved that character and what Hugh Jackman brought to the role, but this was my favorite, in no small part due to the bullet train sequence.

Yay! 5G just for starting the game. Ha!

A short time passes and...ah, well, thank you for drowning me at my baptism. So that's how this is going to go. Don't feel very welcome here.

Some guy is knocking on the door in my dream (memory?) wanting me to pay my debts. So what do I do? Ah, yes, I'll just dance on my desk here. "That idiot priest needs to learn the difference between baptising a man and drowning one." Oh, Dewitt, I'm sure that was on purpose.

Wow, there's a lot of water here. These people mus be very pruney. You guys are praying to the Father Washington statue - sword bearer, freedom fighter - not Father Comstock. Get your facts straight. Seems they were put in front of the wrong statue. "Our prophet fills our lungs with water so they may better love the air." My lungs love the air perfectly fine, thank you.

Thought there was a glitch already. A bird was floating in the air instead of flying. Nope, that was a hummingbird. Aww, he's cute. Love the detail.

"What is Columbia, if not another Ark for another time?" Well, that sounds ominous. Seems like they're not just preparing for disaster but bringing it about.  Ooh, especially when the say something like "The seed of the prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the mountains of man." I've seen that lovely message twice now.

Overheard: "Damn inconvenient when buildings don't dock on time." Scary thought that buildings are docking at all. I really don't want to see where this leads in the end. I kinda don't want to fall thousands of feet to my death.

Why do I try to jump over railings? At least respawn was really quick. And that paper boy didn't even try to stop me! WTF?! Little asshole. If I lived here, I really would want the railings to be higher.

Hmm, I wonder if I'm The False Shepherd.

The Grocery Store is on the honor system, so I left the money in the basket. Felt wrong. Yes, I know it's a game. Taking it from everyone else, though. Why not? These "lambs" I'm sure will all turn against me soon.

Love these posters for Vigors. Love that they aren't just snake oil like they would be in real life. Now reminiscing about Bioshock's Plasmids.

Is that the best place to spin yourselves dizzy, kids? The railing may be tall enough, but you could fall right through the wide gap. I have a feeling some mothers are going to be losing children.

Songbird, the protector of the lamb. Creepy that there are Songbird dolls, since he would most certainly rip apart anyone that got close. Ooh, a chocolate bar. Now I have a craving. Got to get to a checkpoint. Need to stop for the day.

Yup, there it is. I have the mark of the false shepherd. Might want to hide that for now.

Ooh, time for a raffle... Really, Dewitt?! #77?! The mysterious note said not to pick that number. Well, that turned ugly real fast. No way was I going to throw the ball at the people being held prisoner. Great raffle.

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Available at Amazon for XBox 360
BioShock Infinite - Xbox 360 | Bioshock Infinite: Premium Edition -Xbox 360 |
Bioshock Infinite: Ultimate Songbird Edition - Xbox 360

For Playstation 3
BioShock Infinite - Playstation 3 | Bioshock Infinite: Premium Edition - Playstation 3 |
Bioshock Infinite: Ultimate Songbird Edition - Playstation 3

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Back in My Day

Finally another shirt that forces me to take action here. I keep getting sidetracked with work, Reinbeast.com, ShinyDangerousThings, and Reinbeast Expanded. I've been writing for this one, but I never get a chance to finish my posts. That has to change. I'll start with this. There have been quite a few gaming-related shirts since the last one, but they just haven't dazzled me. Mostly they are Zelda shirts. I'm sorry, I know I should have played at least one of those games over the years. I just never had the chance. While I watched my brother enjoy Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker, I only ever got through half of Ocarina before something distracted me and I never got back to it, moving onto a new game probably. One day maybe I'll have the money to take a year off and play all the games I never finished or even started. Hmm, actually I may need two years for that.

Oh, yeah, I was supposed to talk about the shirt. It made me think of my poor, old GameBoy, which I finally recycled this year. It hadn't worked right in years and finally died. And since I got my iPad two years ago, I've barely used my DS or PSP. Not because I play more on the iPad, but because I do so many other things now. Blogs and drawing take up the time that handheld gaming used to. I still play my PS3 and Xbox 360 as much as possible, though. I recently bought N+ for my PSP, though, so I have to get back to that. I love that the "iPhone" has a pear on it instead of an apple. If you love the design, it's available today for only $10.

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The Last Act is (Almost) Over

I was listening to Meat Loaf in the truck last Friday because the CD player wouldn't give it back to me the day before. It has to cool down before it will eject anything. I have an iPod and iPad and listen to most of my music ripped to my PC, streaming from Spotify, Pandora, MOG, and YouTube, but when I'm driving it's CDs. I don't have an iPod adapter. Don't really want one. I have ten times more music than I can fit on it anyway. So, lately I've taken to closing my eyes and picking any CD from the rack, because they're all choices I love. I've sold all the CDs I haven't cared about in years, from back when I was still trying to find my musical taste, so what's left is what I want to listen to for eternity. Guaranteed to always be in the mood for whatever I grab.

Wait, why did I come here? Oh yeah. So, The Very Best of Meat Loaf was stuck in the player and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" came on. It immediately brought up memories, as it does every time, of Virtua Racing on the Sega 32X. Yes, unfortunately we had one of those and maybe three games for it, but at least I played the crap out of Virtua Racing. Every day after school I would bring my CD player into the kitchen and play on the tiny 13" screen, always listening to Meat's Welcome to the Neighborhood. Wow, that was in 1995. It's been a while. That got me to thinking of the PS4 announcement and how I am so not ready for a new console. I never am. Not only because they're always too expensive and I never seem to save money for them, but that there are so many games to finish. I still have games from the Dreamcast I haven't started! Okay, new rule: When a new generation is coming, everyone stop making games for at least a year before so that I can catch up.

Adam mentions how there isn't much of a difference in graphical quality. That's not the factor in getting a new console for me, though. I don't expect leaps and bounds, never have. It has to be because everyone from gamers to developers to publishers are adopting it and there must be unmissable exclusives. If a sequel to a favorite game is only available on that console then I'll eventually get it. What I'm concerned with is it should have room to grow. The full potential should be reached at the end of the PS4's life years down the road, not months after it debuts.

I would love to be an early adopter for all consoles, since it always seems like the new generation comes so soon after I got into the last one, but that would break the bank. Hopefully, PS4 is a little cheaper. I don't know much about it yet, because I've been too busy to read up, but something Adam said about it being more accessible ("It's made for people to make games, to get those into the hands of the audience so they have more games to play.") makes me think it might be. It sounds as if they're not so adamant about power without regard for what it takes the developers to get a grasp on it. Though, I wouldn't expect games to be any more affordable.

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A Companion Cube for Valentine's Day

So far Portal is winning today's TeeFury battle. Yay! I'm finding I have a bit more free time after being stupidly busy for months, as evidenced in how little I contributed here. So, I thought now would be appropriate to start posting about video game shirts. Don't know why I never did before, because that might have kept me blogging. I used to do so quite a lot over at Reinbeast.com before Fringe took over.

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Glad to Have Revision 3 Games

No gamer should ever have to go without the Sess, so it's great that Revision 3 Games came along and Sessler's Soapbox returned in the form of Sessler's Something a little while ago. I was very disappointed when G4 cut him loose, but at least I could keep up to date on Twitter. And now that they've rid themselves of X-Play completely, meaning no more Morgan or Blair, I have no reason at all to watch that pathetic channel. X-Play was the only reason I came back after they cancelled Call for Help. That and the Quantum Leap marathons. Oh, well, nothing lasts forever. All I really need are Adam's opinions and reviews anyway. It doesn't really matter how I get them. Here's the latest...

I always dread a new console generation. I never have the money for it. I would love just once to be an early adopter, but I need to wait for some kind of deal or a price drop. Wouldn't mind if someone got me one as a gift, though. Hint, hint. ;) As for microtransactions, I don't usually care for them, but I don't go nuts because they're available. Of course, if a company makes microtransactions necessary to finish a game then I will certainly make a fuss. As always, Sessler is a level-headed source of gaming info. Probably why I've been a viewer for more than a decade.

Oh, and a little thing called Dead Space 3. Besides Halo, I have to say this is my favorite series. I played the first two much more than I should have. It never got boring and always had scream-for-mommy scares and creepiness to rival Silent Hill, even on my fourth play through. (I just can't stand being pursued by something that can kill me in seconds.) I try to always keep my hopes very low, especially with trilogies since the third installments can be let downs and ruin your opinion of the first two. That way I'm never disappointed. I'm either surprised or indifferent to the results. The only time I let expectations run rampant was with Fringe, and I was still amazed by the incredibly well done ending. So, with Dead Space 3, I went in expecting nothing and I'm very happy to see it's been getting some great reviews. It will be the next must buy game for me.

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