While kayaking yesterday, my neighbor Jay and I decided that the designer of Half-Life 2 spent a lot of time around hydro-electric power plants.
Gaming
BioShock 2 looks… AWESOME!
I played BioShock and was completely enthralled with the entire game… the playability, the graphics, the interface, and most dramatically, the atmosphere. The creepy, art-deco look and echoing underwater sound was so immersive that the already-engaging storyline was transformed into what was, if you’ll pardon the cliché, an experience.
The trailer for BioShock 2 (which I have already pre-ordered) looks like the game will perfectly continue the legacy of it’s predecessor.
Surviving in a Post-Apocalyptic World
This report hits the nail on the head. Although I think that more education needs to occur than just what video games can provide, I couldn’t agree more with statements such as “playing video games all day, alone and friendless, is simply the best way that we have to prepare our children for a life of solitude in a barren wasteland.”
Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?
So many zombies. So little time.
Okay so maybe they’re technically not zombies, but they’re close enough. They’re more like infected zombie-like humanoids that voraciously attack you in swarms of blind, flesh-ripping rage. Yeah. Bring it on!
Thinning the horde is what’s been keeping me busy lately. Left 4 Dead is the game and the multiplayer aspect is just fantastic. Single player is fun, but just can’t compare to playing with a few other folks who talk and work together to survive and escape an area that’s been completely overrun with “zombies,” including some special ones with special powers that are disturbing, frightening, and fun all at the same time.
Ah… good times. Good times.
Vice-Presidential Debate Impressions
BioShock is creepy
Since I just got a computer that can handle the game, I’ve been playing BioShock for the past few days. For those of you who are familiar with the game, BioShock’s creepiness has already been well-established, but I’m revelling in it for the first time.
Little Sister and Big Brother
The atmosphere the developers created is just stunning; art deco designs, creepy evil-clown carnival music, constant leaking, dripping, pinging, echoing background sounds. Combine that with the crazed genetically twisted denizens of Rapture (the name of the underwater city), and the game very closely approaches the level of “disturbing.”
Nothing is more disturbing, however, than the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies. They roam Rapture together, the Little Sister using her giant syringe to harvest genetic goodness from the corpses lying around (mostly thanks to the player). She speaks to “Mr. Bubbles” in a little girl voice and he protects her with a vengeance against anyone or anything that comes too close to her or threatens her.
If you defeat the Big Daddy (which you really have to do), you have the (moral) dilemma of either “rescuing” the Little Sister or “harvesting” her. Rescuing her gives you a warm fuzzy feeling (sort of) and gives you a bit of genetic material that you can use to enhance your powers. Harvesting her gives you no such warm fuzzy, but a LOT of the genetic material. Depending upon which path you choose, the game has a different ending. I’m not there yet, but Mike (the “shoot it in the water” guy) has played it and he rescued all of the Little Sisters and got the “happy” ending. So I’m taking the other path and have harvested all but one.
I’m looking forward to see what sort of twisted ending I get.