Monday, October 28, 2013

Weekend Review: Oct 26th & 27th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Gravity
I've never had a fear of space before. It is such a foreign concept, so abstract when presented through the lens of a book or television, that it never really occurred to me. Gravity is a fictional take on space that presents story first, but also uses visual effects and sound to make the vast emptiness of space tangible. Bullock and Clooney do a great job in their roles, but the third character is outer space. We saw the film in 3D and for the first time I felt like it actually added something. More stunning spectacle than zero calorie novelty. It was amazing and deserving of the stellar reviews it has received.

The Stanley Parable
What this is, is hard to describe. It's a game for the PC that spawned from a source mod in 2011. That much is easy enough. What the game actually does though is much harder. It is not a puzzle game, as much as it is a mind fuck. Most "gamers" have played enough to know the tropes, language and mechanics of a modern video game. This one turns all of that on it's ear. It constantly breaks the fourth wall and does so in clever and humorous ways. You explore the ins and outs a world that is masterfully narrated and never what you expect it to be. You should play it and will love it when you do. Very much like portal, but not like it at all, it's strange and wonderful.

Boson X
I've spent a surprising amount of time with the endless runner genre. Almost exclusively on mobile devices. Subway Surfers has been my on again off again sweetheart for a year now. So when a new kid shows up on the block I'm willing take a look. Boson X sets you running down the center of a particle accelerator, represented by swirling polygonal shapes. You jump left and right to keep moving and collecting enough research ("collisions") to discover a new particle and finish the level. It is harder than most runners and very akin to Super Hexagon in it's pace and sometimes brutal difficulty.

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Books Read

Recently Finished:

The Wise Man's Fear
Dynasty of Evil
100 Bullets Vol. 07: Samurai
Batman: Batman and Son
100 Bullets Vol. 06: Six Feet Under the Gun
100 Bullets Vol. 05: The Counterfifth Detective
100 Bullets Vol. 04: A Foregone Tomorrow
100 Bullets Vol. 03: Hang Up on the Hang Low
100 Bullets Vol. 02: Split Second Chance
30 Days of Night
100 Bullets Vol. 01: First Shot, Last Call
Transmetropolitan Vol. 1: Back on the Street
Uzumaki, Volume 1
Runaways vol. 1: Pride and Joy
The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 2: Dallas
The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite
Batman: Hush, Vol. 2
Atomic Robo Vol. 4: Other Strangeness
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