There are the harried umbrella characters, narrowly missing an eyeball here and a head there, walking without care towards a direction unknown. Struggling against the wind, they fight as their brollies are pulled back and they are showered with water. The remains of these broken brollies are left to die in rubbish bins, searching for a new home, a new life.
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I am the patron saint of mediocrity: Amadeus and Art
Thanks to the wonderful podcast Filmspotting I recently revisited the 1984 Oscar winner, Amadeus. I was inspired by their list of Top 5 movies about Art, referencing films not just about artists, but the process of creating art.
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Why Hardcore mode is soft: Fallout New Vegas
I had a post apocalyptic weekend, finishing Fallout: New Vegas and watching Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior in the space of 24 hours.
It’s obvious that the developers have drawn on Mad Max, in both the detail of the world and the relentless storylines of survival. But having played Fallout: New Vegas on hardcore mode, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t harder. When I tell my friends I played hardcore, I want it to be an actual achievement, rather than eating a packet of Yum Yum Devilled Eggs every 20 minutes.
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New Year’s Revolutions
I’m excited about 2011; there’s a lot of great things on the horizon. Late last year I finished writing my first novel The Memory of Blood, and now I start the scary process of approaching publishers and agents.
A Wizard of Earthsea: Review
Lately I decided to read Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea series, consisting of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. I’d tried to read the books while a young teenager, but never really got into them. Now as an adult, I’m really enjoying the style of writing. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes these books special. Certainly, they’re very well written and the world is fascinating (Earthsea is a series of islands in an archipelago).
Saw meets Se7en: a review of Heavy Rain
For many years game developers have tried to create narrative driven games with multiple outcomes on a limited scale. The 1997 Blade Runner game had a possible 13 endings depending on your interactions with characters and Final Fantasy X-2’s had three alternate endings, one for perfect completion of the game. With the release of Heavy Rain, finally a company has succeeded where others have failed. With a possible 18 endings (and counting!), this is a game about the consequences of choice.