A Running Review of The Walking Dead: Volume 2

Ugh… No thats not a spurt of zombie non-sense, its exactly what I said when I opened Volume 2 of The Walking Dead. At this point Adlard had taken over and his characters are ugly. I'll try to avoid criticizing his work to much because I touched on it in the last review, and it is passable, but now we move away from greyscale to stark black and white contrast.

This contrast does not lend itself well to an already bleak world. We are left with characters who are almost unrecognizable and indistinguishable at times. Angles are often very awkward and there are even a few times when peoples eyes (not zombies) seem to wander in two different directions. Not a fan of this Adlard guy, but as I said before, I am here for Kirkman's story.

So Volume 2 picks up at Shane's funeral. We see Lori lingering behind and she spits on his grave. She's miffed because she gave into Shane and they made whoopee outside Atlanta. Also a big shocker comes in the form of Lori admitting that she's pregnant. Dun dun duuuun. Now that's a Jerry Springer episode right there: Lori's husband was in a coma and she had sex with his best friend, now her husband is out of the coma and the other man is now a zombie. Who's the father?

So Rick is happy, but also secretly upset because he wants to trust his wife but he has a nagging feeling (read: everyone in the camp told him) that maybe Lori wasn't quite so chaste in his absence.

Since Shane is dead Rick is made the official leader of the group and he decides to go with his gut instinct and leave the unprotected zombie infested outskirts of Atlanta, and mild intelligence perseveres. On the road we meet Tyrese, who ends up being a pretty awesome character, and his daughter and her boyfriend, who end up taking Shane's place as pants on head stupid (though there are many of those throughout TWD).

We get some vague foreshadowing of something wicked between Tyrees' daughter and her boyfriend, and let me tell you, this plot point develops in to a mecca cum laude of full lobotomy stupid. I guess Kirkman was going for a Romeo and Juliet thing, but honestly it falls completely flat. Though it will serve as a very dramatic realization, but more on that in the next volume.

So our rag tag group of head hackers find a lovely gated community. Everyone shacks up in one house to be safe with plans to clean out the neighborhood tomorrow. I always loved the scene that morning where the characters are all chatting with their significant other, one comments that its warming up and that the ice is melting off the window. The next panel shows the gate to the Wilshire Estates as snow drops from a sign that was covered, it reads "All Dead DO NOT ENTER".

Rick sees the sign just in time to yell about not firing a gun, when Alan fires his gun. Alan's wife has been an incredibly unlikeable character up to this point and Kirkman tried to make her turn around in an attempt to make her death more dramatic. Fail. In one of the most hilariously awkward scenes in the series she walks in on Dale and Andrea having pre-marital relations (of which she very vocally disapproves) but in this case she just shut the door and for two panels has the same disturbing little smirk. Not to harsh on Adlard anymore but it looks terrible.

So she gets chomped on, Alan loses it and basically shuts down, despite having two kids to care for. They flee the Wilshire Estates and make their way down the road. Feeling the urge to eat they decide to go hunting, while out Carl gets shot. Now I know what you're thinking "Oh snaps! Zombies with guns!?" nope. Carl was shot but the slightly lovable moron Otis, who is living at a farm nearby with a kindly old man who can patch Ricks kid up straight away.

So Carl survives and Rick and the gang make nice with the farm folk. That is until the farm folk reveal their pants on head stupid secret. They're keeping the zombies alive in a barn. Yes, thats right. They won't kill them because they think they're just sick. Honestly, a zombie they catch has NO SIDE, his ribs and everything are out. I can buy a guy not wanting to kill his son, who looked good and whole… but complete strangers…

Well of course everything goes wrong and the zombie funk hits the fan when the farmers other two kids get killed by the zombies he was housing. Rick is a pretty vocal guy by this point and basically tells him its his fault. They are forced to leave in a very "I quit, you're fired" way. The last image of this book hovers on a prison that Rick and company stumble across. With a few zombies visible in the yard Rick declares this to be their new home.

Overall Volume 2 is good. There are a few zombie attacks that require the reader to suspend their disbelief but as I touched upon earlier, that is generally expected in any zombie book. Zombies are usually brushed off as only a threat in large numbers, and since every attack and death can't be perpetrated by a huge group, certain liberties must be taken. In most cases its just buying that a person is that slow, deaf, and dumb to get bitten by a zombie when their back is turned.

I remember closing Volume 2 the first time I read it and being very excited for what was to come. They were finally going to buckle down and do the intelligent thing. This prison stood to be home for them for a long time, a safe and secure place that they could clear out slowly over time, room by room. I was so happy that these characters were actually attempting to be smart.

So while this Volume had its share of stupid people, it ended on a good note. Of course, this is a long running series, so they can't stay at that prison forever right? Oh just wait and see what happens in the next major story arch… But that won't be here for at least 2 more volumes. So up next, Volume 3! How to be a good neighbor.

A Running Review of The Walking Dead: Volume 1

Yes, the title is clever and ironic. The Walking Dead is not your typical Zombie book. It's a sprawling epic and this will be a "running" review of the books. Upfront I will admit that I don't make it to my local Comic shop on a weekly basis anymore, so I won't be reviewing this issue by issue, but rather by volume. The nice thing about that is I'll be ale to write longer and more in depth reviews. Also, I'm going to SPOIL the hell out of this story, I've read up to a certain point so I may bring up future events to show how they reflect on characters actions and motives.

I think what I'll try to do is first do a brief spoiler free review and then a spoiler filled analysis. So with that out of the way lets get on with it!

The Walking Dead is Robert Kirkman's zombie vehicle. He begins with a brief description of the state of zombie books, why thinks they're good, where they fall short, and how his book is different. I'm not going to sum up the whole preface, but its worth a read if you pick up Volume 1. Essentially what he is saying, though, is that Zombie stories tend to stop just when the story is getting interesting. There's been an apocalypse, we follow several main characters through it, many die, then the story ends. But what happens to the survivors after the outbreak; days, weeks, months, even years. This is the story of Rick Grimes surviving in a harsh world, and it's a long story.

Tony Moore did the art for the first 6 issues (first volume) but was later replaced by Charlie Adlard at issue 7. Apparently this was due to schedule conflicts. Before I get into the story I will get this out of the way because when I started reading this was my biggest gripe, and the biggest among many fans I believe.

Moore was a huge talent and the first volume of TWD really shines. Characters and environments are detailed, the zombies look fantastic, the action moves fluidly. The art was the reason I was drawn to TWD, luckily the story is why I stayed. I can't express through words the disappointment I felt when I finally picked up volume 2. I was so excited to see what happened after the cliff hanger ending of V1.

Adlard's art compared to Moore's is terrible. Adlard uses heavy black, minimal detail, and uses odd and awkward positioning. While Moore had lovely greyscale, Adlard uses stark contrast. Where more had detailed and diverse characters, Adlard had eerily similar slates. To the day (Volume 10) I honestly still have trouble telling female characters apart.

Moore Vs. Adlard

I almost dropped TWD after the artist swap, but honestly by that point the story had me hooked. I knew this was going to be a long story and I wanted to get every detail of it, so I kept reading. At this point I can say Adlard's work is passable, I'm more interested in the story anyway. Also one good thing about the lesser detail is that the gore is majorly toned down. I know a lot of people will be bothered by this, but me, I'm not a fan of gore. This is extremely unfortunate because I love zombie stories.

Our story begins with officer Rick Grimes and his partner Shane in a shoot out with a crazy person. Rick makes a quip about not caring they opened a prison nearby, though he didn't expect their refuse. This is a delightful bit of foreshadowing I had completely forgotten about. Somewhere around Volume 5 or 6 our motley crew will hold up in a prison, but more on that later.

Unofrtunately for Rick he is better at talking during a shoot out then dodging bullets, and he takes one to the chest. This happens in one page, and when you turn it BAM Rick is in the hospital waking with a shock. He stumble around for a bit then comes across a zombie, runs away, comes across more zombies, runs. This continues until he runs into Morgan, a kindly man who has remained in the town along with his son.

Morgan proceeds to fill Rick in on how the world has gone to hell. I want to take a break and explain exactly how great this opening sequence is. Kirkman has TWD planned as a long, long story. So he easily could have spent an entire issue building up to Rick getting shot and the whole zombie apocalypse. Nope, we get literally just one page before we're in zombie town. Simply put, this is perfect. We don't need back story and exposition, we don't need to establish Rick's relationship with his wife and son. You can see it instantly because the first thing he does is go for them.

Back to the story, Rick heads from his humble little town to Atlanta where he is sure his wife Lori would have taken his son. He gets about 50 feet into the city (on horse no less) when he suddenly realizes going into this incredibly deserted, quite and destroyed "Government Safe Zone" was perhaps a bit rash. Of course he realizes this to late, his horse gets eaten and he gets rescued by Glenn.

Glenn proceeds to tell Rick about how the governments safe zone ended up being an all you can eat buffet for the recently deceased. Rick loses it at this point, thinking Lori and his son Carl are dead, but Glenn tries cheering him up by telling him about a group of survivors. In a bit of a cliche on the next page we find that, surprise! Lori and Carl are among the handful of survivors, along with Shane, Ricks partner who was with him the day he got shot.

The rag tag group of survivors are living off of supplies that Glenn snatches from the city. They only have two guns, and no perimeter fences. Rick, being the not "pants on head stupid" guy that he is suggests they find a better location for camp. Shane doesn't approve because he believes that, wait for it, rescue is coming and the best place to be is by a city.

Rick doesn't quite agree but he's not dense and notices that Shane may be starting to lose it. Plus he was previously warned by another survivor the Shane has the hots for Lori. One gripe I did have was after a busy day of getting guns and teaching people to shoot the group is all sitting around a campfire sharing stories and staying warm. One of the girls, Amy I think (doesn't matter, zombie fodder anyway) gets up to go to the bathroom and BAM, bitten by zombie.

I know, I know, successful zombie attacks are usually a stretch but this was ridiculous. She was at the trailer door in the first panel with a zombie at the other end, then in the next panel the zombie is playing her neck like a harmonica. It was just a bit much to swallow (I bet that's what the Zombie said! Hey-oh!). The obligatory night attack scene follows and when the dust settles one more member is left wounded. I can't recall his name, but he seriously tries to play the bite off as a scratch. His bone is showing, and I mean flesh and all completely stripped away. But no no, its just a flesh wound. He starts to turn and asks to be abandoned, so they leave him near the city.

After this Shane is even more edgy because if they had listened to Rick, the smart non-insane one, Amy and guy 1 would have been just fine. Rick decides the best thing to do is go hunting alone with his mentally unstable former friend (oh Rick… You had been doing so well). Of course as soon as they're out of earshot of the camp Shane points the gun at Rick and threatens to kill him. Luckily for Rick he had insisted his son carl learn how to use a gun and carry with him. From out of left field Carl shoots shane in the throat. Father and son hug, and Shane is left to bleed out.

That's the end of volume 1. It has its moments, but it really serves to set up the world they are in. It begins this slow evolution over time that the zombies are not the real threat, its other people, in later volumes its even Ricks own mind (but more on that later). There's no underlying message about consumerism, though most zombie stories, this included, have that aspect. This is honestly just a narrative. It's a great start and got me hooked on the series.

There are a few facepalm moments, but those are to be expected in any zombie books. Thats really one of the key ways to make tension. Between the awesome art and engaging story Volume 1 gets a must read from me. Do yourself a favor and pick it up… If you like Zombies, can handle gore, and don't mind an early artist swap. At least you're getting warned about it! Next time, the jarring change. Will Volume 2 be able to hold up with the dramatic change in art? Tune in to find out.

Dark Void: A Counter Review (Also, I don't hate Uncharted)

I recently picked up Dark Void for $10 brand new at a GameStop sale (If I buy from GS I at least try to make sure I'm buying new, not used thank you very much). IGN gave it a whopping 5/10 and it didn't do much better on cumulative press scores. I had played the demo and found it passable so I picked it up despite media ridicule, and I'm glad I did.

As a bit of history Dark Void had the unpleasant luck of being released nigh about the same time as another small, obscure title: Uncharted 2. Due to the proximity in release dates and certain details of gameplay (3rd person cover shooter, main character voiced by Nolan North) they were unfairly compared.

Lucky for me I haven't played Uncharted to, so I have a clean pallet. Apparently when you you Play Uncharted 2 it will render your enjoyment of other "lesser" games null and void. I find that to be an unfortunate side effect and one that occurs all to often in mainstream reviews (which is why I try to avoid unfair comparison).

Common complaints for DV include average combat, poor flight mechanics, convoluted story telling, and an all around feeling of meh. I'll be fair to the reviewers, at this point in time they were probably all still playing another recently released 3rd person shooter. Blinded by either blatant or subconscious fanboy-ism they would have rather been playing that other game.

The mechanics of DV all work just fine. sometimes ariel combat can get a little rough, but it ended up working much better then I thought it would (it was far better in the full game than in the demo). So the reviewers cry "It's repetitive!". Repetition only becomes apparent when you are not having fun, thats all well and good but its not fair to a game when the only reason you're not having fun is because you're just a fanboy and there is another back-of-the-head you'd rather be starring at as you ducked into cover.

An example: I love Uncharted, I haven't played the sequel yet, but the original was amazing. That said, think about the combat. Enemies come at you, you shoot them from cover. You hopefully have enough time to pick up some dropped ammunition before (surprise!) another wave comes. After that there is probably a platforming "puzzle" (read as: find the right way up). lather, rinse, repeat. This game got over a 9/10 and game of the year! Did it deserve it? Well yes, it had excellent mechanics, and acting. But was it repetitive? You bet.

Everything in Dark Void works just fine, and thats the problem, because it doesn't take thing to a whole new level it gets slapped with a 5/10. If Uncharted 2 were to put out new DLC with no improvements what so ever the worst it'd get would be a slap on the hand, a brief mention perhaps of "nothing really new… but more Uncharted so you've got to love it!" with an 8/10.

I suppose this frustrates me on behalf of the small game developer, who doesn't have millions to invest an a triple A title. Making a good game is an accomplishment for a studio like that. For those people to then have their game trampled on because the cinematic story telling isn't up to "Hollywood Standards" now that's wrong.

Sadly the industry of reviews shows no sign of turning from its fanboy ways. Each year we see more sequels churned out, and more 9/10 handed to the dev's with deep pockets… I love a good big name game as much as the next guy., but come on… Give the little guy a fighting chance, they might surprise you.

Another complaint I heard a lot was that the story in DV was incoherent and hard to follow. My guess is that these are the same people that didn't know what was going on in Inception, and this game is far more simple in its approach to story telling then Chris Nolan's Magnum Opus. There are certain subtleties to the story that I really appreciated. For instance, you get aid from a scientist in the beginning, but they don't shove down your throat the fact that its Nikola "death ray" Tesla. I thought that was pretty neat. They only reference him by his first name, let you figure you it out so you get a nice shiny "Oooooh!" moment, then later they call him Tesla. Honestly, everything else is very thoroughly explained… even to much to a certain extent, you get random bits of information during the loading screen just in case you're having trouble keeping up!

The world and atmosphere in the game is fantastic. It has this great Lost World vibe. I really bought the setting and characters, and later in the game when you find the resistance. Pretty awesome stuff. There are some cliches here and there but over all the world feels great, the characters and motivations believable, and the struggle heavy.

I had a ton of fun playing Dark Void and would happily recommend it to the non-jaded gamer. But as for the media's opinion I remain humbly yours, the Worlds Worst Critic.

Comic-Con 2010

Note to self (and blog): Do not attempt Comic-Con in one day. Sure you can just hit the Show Floor running and find all sorts of amazing things, but the amount missed is monumental. This year I went to Comic-Con with my lovely Fiance Leeanne, my best friends Jeremy and Jessica and their cousin Travis. We were a rag tag team to be sure, with two NooBs among us (Lee and Travis).

Now to give you some background, I am a huge fan of conventions and expos. I've been to so many I honestly lost track. I just love the feeling of being around so many people with the same odd hobbies and social disorders. I didn't make it to Anime Expo this year, which was a bummer, but Comic-Con more than made up for it.

Everywhere you look there is something awesome: Independent artists and comics, figurines, games, cosplayers. So here are some highlights:

The most awesome starstruck moment was by far running into Sean Patrick Flannery. Thats right, Mr. Young Indiana Jones and my patron saint. As we were walking by an autograph booth, bummed beyond belief that Adam Baldwin (Casey on Chuck, Jayne on Firefly) had canceled his appearance we noticed that Sean Patrick Flannery was supposed to be there. We collectively noticed his absence and commented, wondering where he was. Then from behind us we heard "he had to go to the bathroom". We glanced back to see who our informant was ( I figured it was a rep) and lo and behold there stood the man himself! He was incredibly gracious and let us take several pictures with him! Awesome guy.

Some other starstruck moments included: Seeing (Read as: Walking past) the cast from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Guild. Leeanne and I also got some "face time" (pun intended) with the original Faceman himself Dirk Benedict. He was quite charming and told us several stories from the set of the A-Team.

Another "Geekgasm" moment I had was watching the trailer for the new Walking Dead series on AMC. This show looks fantastic! There were numerous lines of dialogue and set pieces ripped straight from the source material. This makes me wonder how close they will be able to get to the book however. It is on cable… but still… The book has some incredibly gory scenes, specifically one incident where a character is raped several times and then later is able to exact revenge. The entire issue was over the top with gore, perhaps I'll write a running review of Walking Dead some time soon. I absolutely love the series, but the arch around issue 7-8 is maddeningly stupid at points.

So yeah, back to Comic-Con. In the Video Game department there was the usual slew a top notch developers showing off their new stuff. Capcom had a dozen different games going, Harmonix had a full stage set up for Rock Band 3 (no keyboard though… disappointing to say the least), and THQ was pushing Red Faction: Armageddon. I'm a huge RF fan, I loved the first one, the sequel was a bit lackluster, but at least RF: Guerilla brought it back to mars. The THQ booth was awesome, and I got a picture in a giant robot, which was really fun. I'm looking forward to the new RF, at worst, it'll be like Guerilla meets Dead Space. I can think of worse combinations. Ultimately, though, I wish they would just put you back in the boots a miner on mars going up against the man in a first person shooter.

One thing thats always humorous (and sad to notice) are the Comic sections of the floor. Comic-Con used to be a comic book convention. There would be hundreds of comic book venders selling primarily comic books to nerds who greatly appreciated them. Now a days, however, the bulk of the crowd drawn to CC is generally that of modern media whores. This makes CC incredibly crowded, which is a point of contention for many true nerds in attendance. In the end though it is just people coming together to celebrate certain things nerdy. And one mans trash may be another mans treasure.

My Costume Identification was at an all time high this year I am proud to report! I had about a 95% success rate at knowing exactly who the Cosplayers were, including anime (at Anime Expo its generally around 50%…). Also the Sunday Swag was phenomenal. People were literally giving us fistfuls of free merch just to get rid of it! While early attendees (Thursday, Friday) generally get the better swag, Sunday folks get treated to the most!

That was my Comic-Con experience in a nutshell this year. No panels, no huge lines, no (live) shock announcements (because we didn't go to any panels). It was just pure show floor. Next year we are planning on getting at least a 3 day pass and a hotel room. The best part about CC is also its biggest weakness, its so big. Even if you have a 4 day pass with the preview night you will still have to make tough decisions, panels running at the same time, or leaving one early so you can go wait in line for 3 hours for the next one. Then on top of that squeezing in the show floor (which is always my favorite part of Cons). CC is a test of endurance, and one that should not be attempted in just one day.

Here's hoping that next year will be as epic as 2010. Marvel absolutely brought down the house.

On Being Evil

I am getting married in a little over a month and I could not be happier. However, there is one unfortunate side effect of my pre marital bliss, saving money. I know what you're thinking, "but Matt you handsome rogue, saving money is a good thing" and you would be right. The problem lies within the fact that the only thing I could really cut back on was buying games. I can only hope my future wife appreciates the magnitude of the sacrifice I've made here.

So with my new games flow reduced to zero I've been forced to play some titles on my back catalogue. These are games I've been meaning to replay either because they were just plain awesome or had something else to offer I hadn't tried yet. First on my list was Infamous, and yes, I aim to misbehave.

For the uninitiated, Infamous is a PS3 exclusive super hero sand box game developed by Sucker Punch, the folks behind the awesome and sometimes over looked Sly Cooper games for the PS2. It looks good, runs smooth, and was overall a killer app for the PS3 circa 2009. You play as Cole, a rough and tough courier who delivers a package that explodes, destroying several city blocks. Somehow you survive and develop the ability to shoot, throw, drain, and travel with electricity. No, you don't ever get some sweet Superhero name, a missed opportunity in my opinion.

The City is put under quarantine because of a plague and crime jumps through the roof. I mean, talk about not being able to see the best in people. Every other person in Empire City must've been a raving lunatic. The characters and developments over the course of the game are great. Sure there are redundant side quests, but the gameplay itself is so fun and engaging qualms can be easily overlooked.

On my first play through I did what I always do in games with "morality", I played the savior. It just comes natural to me, I don't care that its just a game, I have to do what is right. In Infamous playing the morally upright character isn't easy. You have to carefully aim every bolt, grenade and explosion to make sure you don't accidentally take out an innocent bystander.

That said, playing through on Evil isn't exactly easy, sure you can fire at anything that moves, but its the morality that makes the difference. One thing I really loved about Infamous were the "Karma Moments". This is essentially Cole just doing some inner-monologging. He generally offers up some valid reason to be evil. For instance: The first Karma Moment you come across is at the very beginning of the game. The army just dropped off some medical supplies and when you get to the scene Reapers arrive (Think Reavers in Hoodies with AKs… and not quite so horrifying). You fight off the Reapers then the Karma moment starts. You can either let the crowd of people rush in and take most the supplies you worked for, or you can zap one of the people so they back off, and you and your friends live a few extra days with the supplies.

Now obviously there is a good and a bad decision there, I mean, its not rocket science. That did make me take a step back in hindsight though, what if it were my fiance? What if we were starving and I had this power… It actually made me stop and think about it. There is another point later in the game, and I won't spoil it, but I made an evil decision unknowingly, simply because I was attached to the characters, now thats power in story telling.

As for my evil play through, I've found the logic slowly diminishing over time. I don't have a problem with this because the simple fact of the matter is with each bad decision I'm making Cole more and more evil. He doesn't need to justify why he does something, he's more powerful than anything and he can do what he wants.

While I can accept this here its something I couldn't quite swallow as the silent pro/antagonist of Fallout 3. I felt as though I was cartoonishly evil, there was no point to it, it just made life easier. No matter what you did it all led to the same place with the same terrible ending. Don't get me wrong, I think Fallout 3 is a great game and I will get New Vegas, even if it is just an overpriced expansion. The difference lies in motivation.

Infamous puts you kind of a slippery slope, being evil can get addicting in that game. Sometimes while I was playing my Fiance would ask why I did something (usually because it was very mean) and I'd almost always have an explanation to lend to the development of Cole. However, when asked the same while playing games like Bioshock and Fallout 3, all I could come up with was "well… because I'm bad".

That just doesn't cut it for me. As an inherently good person I want motivation and reason if I'm going to play through as a bad guy. Ultimately thats what most games are lacking. Sure there is the overused "antihero" but to be a bad guy there needs to be more substance than just to feed sadistic gamers there half. Until these decision engines evolve though, all we're going to get is Shining Holy Savior, Middle man, and Mustache Twirling Evil. We need the equivalent of the Watchmen but for video games, and I'm thats a long way off.

World of Goo

I was feeling quite philanthropic a while back, and decided to open my wallet for a good cause. Luckily, being the clever minx I am, I found a cause and reward. I am referring to the Humble Indie Bundle. This group of 6 independent games had a "pay what you want" price point and whatever you paid would be sent to a charity, or the developers (which is essentially a charity for starving artists), or split your funds down the middle. So I decided to give my money to the "real" charity, and give the developers my time.

I'd heard of World of Goo before, its around two years old, available and Wii Ware, and generated quite the buzz. Here's the thing, most people are selling this game short.

The concept of World of Goo (hence forth WOG) is a simple one. You grab little pieces of goo, and stack them with all the physics based puzzle action your brain can handle. But wait, you say, that sounds like pretty thin gameplay, won't it get *gasp* repetitive. Short answer is: no, it doesn't. The shorter answer is: no.

As for the actual physical nitty gritty down and dirty gameplay: You build towers, bridges, gadgets and gizmos to get the goo balls to a pipe that sucks them to the next level. The physics play a crucial part, obviously, as you watch your tower sway and frantically build to that just out of reach pipe. There were many moments where I was on the edge of my seat trying to help the little anthropomorphic blobs reach their goal.

There are different types of gooballs to mix things up a bit. These supply for new brain teasers as you try to find the quickest path while using as few gooballs as possible.

WOG takes an idea so simple and applies such wonderful personality, art, music, and variety that it transcends its own gameplay limitations. This is what happens when you get style and substance, and it feels good.

The world in World of Goo has an important role to play as well, and it unfolds in a beautiful way as you make your way through the game. The story is "narrated" by the mysterious sign painter, who leaves you signs with hints, facts, and love. The isn't much in terms of a traditional story here, but that brings me to my next point...

Another wonderful aspect of WOG is its approach to philosophy. It has a sense of humor yet still remains deep and quite thoughtful, very tongue in cheek stuff. I don't want to spoil anything for the uninitiated, but there is a sequence where you find out what powers the world, and it's rather profound. Mere moments after that sinks in. however, they turn it around into a poignant criticism on todays culture. Simply put, it's fantastic and got a hearty chuckle out of me.

One aspect of WOG I want to pause and give special mention to is the music. It is ear rockingly heart wrenchingly awesome. It's been a LONG time since I've played a game and actually stopped and said to myself "wow, this music is really, really good. The music helps build atmosphere and establish a mood. It fits perfectly in each level and scenario, and if you like Danny Elfman it will fit perfectly on your ipod (the soundtrack is available for FREE on World of Goo's website and I highly recommend it).

It's hard to believe this was put together by just two guys. This game really amped me up, I mean it is a serious accomplishment. It reminded me of why I wanted to get into the industry in the first place. So with that I bid you farewell, as I am off to start my own indie game studio.

Watch your step

-The always elusive Sign Painter

Concerning my title

You're probably wondering why I would choose such a name for myself and the answer is simple. I am deep and intelectual, but still a child at heart and ultimately that means I'm easily amused. I can have a blast playing just about any game, watching any movie, or reading any comic. Of course there are limitations to the but in the end I'm a genuinely happy person who has a great time doing the things I love.

This will no doubt lead to scrutiny among my peers, but an opinion is only that, an opinion. An example. Lets say a game gets a rating of 6/10 or somewhere around a C- Generally speaking I thrive on games like that. There are some that simply have one very week area (such as great story but weak combat, or awesome combat but sloppy camera). Then there are others that are brought down simply because it is in a certain genre (its a solid FPS, but its no COD4). I give fair, unbiased reviews based on how much fun I had playing it.

I think that is a huge difference between me and other critics. I still get that same joy that I got playing my NES and Sega. So in effect I am still playing as that innocent wide eyed youngster trying over and over to beat Wily's castle in Mega Man. Yes, I have played bad games, the difference is that I'm not jaded. I love Video Games, Movies, Comics, Manga, and Anime. This blog is just a piece of my mind, a mind which is considered odd by most standards.

Enjoy.