American McGee is the genius who made American McGee's Alice, Alice: Madness Returns, and American McGee's Grimm. From the Alice games alone, this guy is one of my favourite people in the video game industry today.
Apparently, his game development studio, Spicy Horse, needs help finishing up Akaneiro: Demon Hunters. They need $200,000 to complete this free-to-play ARPG MMO, and they have a Kickstarter where you can support them. As of writing, they have hit $12,974 with 29 days to go. Apparently, the bulk of development is already done and they are in closed beta. The last of the development is for final touches to make it the best it can be. You can learn more about the game at the official website. Considering that they aren't asking for money for a product is still an just idea in someone's head, I'd say there is very little risk in this project blowing up and becoming vaporware like Sadness. So if you have some extra cash laying around, go donate it to a game deserving of it. I'm not a huge fan of every visionary begging for money for their ideas, but at least this comes from an individual well known in his industry, who already has games under his belt that have a huge fan base, and it's almost done.
I
don't want to do a whole review for this. Quite frankly, I like it a lot. Yes,
we all saw the end coming. I think it's more pertinent to make Alex realize the truth, and the player
needs to find out why Alex can’t see
it like we can. The graphics are great, I liked the interaction with The Order,
and I liked the story with Shepherd’s Glen. I’m tired of people exclaiming, “OMG YOU LIKED THIS GAME?!” Yes, I do. It’s
why I got all the achievements for it. It’s why I’ll play it a billion more
times before I die.
There are a few things I'd like to post though. You know who my favourite character is? This guy:
Curtis Ackers
People
cite him as one of the main antagonists, second to Judge Halloway.
I don’t really consider him a main, more like a mini-boss, and I’m not
convinced he’s always been evil. I don’t think he was part of The Order until
after you find his shop all locked up. I think they took him then and he
converted.
What
I find intriguing about him is his focus on fixing
and maintaining. He runs the scrap
yard/repair shop and he sees how people can neglect their possessions. With The
Order, he “finds clarity.” I’ve been wondering what his clarity is. He isn’t
part of the four families of Shepherd’s Glen, so I am uncertain if he was part
of that religion too. His clarity might have been religion. And since he seems
to be a grumpy guy who prefers to be alone, perhaps he found the people of
religion to be of his social taste. And they gave him a new job-to fix...broken
people. With a circular saw.
You
know who I hate? This lady:
I'm busy looking for my son. Oh, wait..no I'm not.
Totally useless. Yes, I get her emotional
trauma. She had to pick one son, but she gave birth to both. She’s mentally
unstable now, but you know how short/different the game would be if she was
like, “Oh, hey, about your brother...you know [insert plot reveal], right?
Remember? Oh yeah, I guess you’ve forgotten [other big plot reveal]. Guess you
have to go to Silent Hill now instead of meandering all over this town. Bye!”
There Be Spoilers Ahead!
Silent Hill Downpour has been out since March 2012, and I intended to do a review around that time. There were some lag issues and Vatra promised to patch that. And because I love the Silent Hill franchise that much, and because I strive to be a fair person, I decided to wait on the patch. I didn't think that it would arrive only a few weeks ago, about eight months later. Last night I got all the achievements for the game, which is huge for me. I usually don't bother. I did it for Alice: Madness Returns on the old account that I once used, and that's it. Until now.
Patch
The patch was designed to fix the framerate issues, save issues, and bugs concerning the "Homeless" mission and the subway system. I've only had a save issue happen once, and since the patch, it has not happened again. I didn't do the Homeless mission or use the subways before. However, I did post-patch and I noticed that passages that were supposed to be open in the subway were not. If I found locked doors and I had to leave the area and come back on the reload and the door would be opened. That was annoying.
The above issues are minor annoyances, considering the frequency of occurrence. My concern is the framerate issues. The patch didn't eliminate them all, no. But it lessened the degree of lag. There still is lag. It's not the end of the world though. I didn't consider the pre-patch game unplayable, and less lag is still better. Although, I might have to remind the world about why I hate the way the gaming industry relies on patches instead of making a functioning game to begin with.
Praise
I do have to say that I did enjoy the game. Downpour gets a lot of unnecessary hate, especially from old fans. And I am an old fan (from about 2001) and I enjoyed it enough to play through it multiple times for the achievements, and I am not an achievement whore.
I am a cult enthusiast. Cults fascinate me. Especially magic cults. If someone invited me to a cult that claimed they could do magic, I'd totally hop right into the sketchy van. Yet, I do like how Downpour did a story set in Silent Hill, a town basically run by old gods and the cult that follows it, without the cult element. Yes, DJ Ricks alludes to it when he says that they are always listening. Though he could be alluding to the monsters in general, or the old gods. But no where in the story does anyone stop Murphy and say, The Order is behind this. Mostly because, I think, they aren't. Yes, the old gods have deemed it necessary for Murphy and Anne to figure out their issues. The Order is busy doing other stupid shit. I like to think that they aren't concerned with Murphy and his troubles.
Officer Anne Cunningham
After playing through this game over and over, a few things have become apparent to me. And as a disclaimer, you can disagree with me. The great thing about the SH universe is that most of it is unexplained spookiness. I tried to watch the first Silent Hill film with my friend and with all his questions about how the universe works, I had to give up. It's magic, ok? The normal laws of our world don't always apply. It has its own rules. And he was totally fine with that answer. Or at least he stopped asking questions.
Anyway, I've been thinking about the meat of the story. It is about revenge. Anne: "My father was a good man. He didn't believe in revenge. But I do."
Murphy also wants revenge. It's what got him in prison. His deal and development is super easy to see. What I've been thinking of is whosestory this actually is. Today I am feeling that it is really Anne's story and Murphy is tangled up in it, in his own way. That the gods of Silent Hill wanted to give the darkness festering in her heart the opportunity to get revenge, or forgive. She mentions the "sick" things she had to do to get Murphy under her watch. Murphy already got his revenge and he was probably going to rot in prison. Anne had yet to get hers, but she had to pay for it before she even got the opportunity. Yet he was already technically "paying" for his crimes, but it wasn't enough for her. As with the sequence of final scenes when Anne shoots Murphy in the showers, he is her Boogeyman. She is fighting her monsters. Murphy is fighting himself, running away from himself.
What would be really awesome is if Anne could get her own game, or at least some DLC for her story. It's alluded to that she hasn't just been frolicking in the streets until she runs into Murphy or DJ Ricks. Too bad this will probably never happen. This definitely sucks because the series needs more strong female leads. Old E3 Trailer
Does anyone else remember the old official E3 trailer from 2011? It's interesting to see the changes that they made. I remember first playing it and waiting for the kids to push me and run past me. I guess they were supposed to be the kids you keep seeing in the paintings? I thought it was dumb that they were never really given a mention, they just appear in the art all the time. They were probably supposed to be part of something and they were cut completely. I'd love to play a version of the game before the changes.
So what have I been up to? Watching The Mentalist. Season 4. BAM.
You'd think with the way season 3 ended that there couldn't be anymore episodes. That it would be dragging out a story that should die. I am pleased with how the story is continuing. Enthralling.
Patrick Jane is as awesome as ever. There is tea drinking, crime solving, tricky mentalist hijinks. Oh, and Lisbon's hair is going away from those bangs that I hated. Jane is in my top 10 fictional characters I would drop everything for to run away with. Beyond hawt and clever and he wears sexy suits. And he drinks tea and looks fine doing it. Ok I'm done.
This video is from swoozie06, who has lots of awesome videos and you should check him out!
The best part of this video is when she says "-Disarm the Metal Gear."
I'm not even going to confirm that I am, or am not, a girl. You probably couldn't handle the truth anyway. We are better in bed though. Obviously.
You know what sucks though? When you're a gamer girl and your boyfriend only plays sports games. Not only do I not have any interest in sports games, but I suck at them. I can look at him and be like, lets get Chinese food and Pringles, and play the Xbox until tomorrow morning, and we'll sleep in and play when we eventually get up. I can't play NHL or NFL or N-what-the-fuck-ever-L-or-A for all that time. Hey, let's play Halo. No. FEAR? No. COD? No. Metal Gear Solid? Deadly Premonition? Silent Hill? Deus Ex? The SNES or NES? I only have a bazillion games in my apartment. No. Frakk me.
Also, if a girl plays one or two video games only, she's not a gamer. No matter what you tell yourself, she's not. If she only plays games with you, she's not. You can dress her up to be one to show her off to your friends and family, but she's not. If you find a girl who has the same interests, who won't belittle you for playing games in your pjs for three days, eating nothing but chips and not leaving the house, she's a keeper. I hate meeting my male friends' new girlfriends and they say proudly, "She's a gamer." And since they want me to like her, I get some alone time with her and I start asking her what she likes to play. "Oh you know the one, where you shoot people. And you get grenades. And you can duck behind walls and stuff." Uh huh. What else? "I like the one where you can fight people. And the driving game! But my bf always wins heehee!" I want to throw them out a window. So then I hate the girlfriend. So, don't lie to yourself. I had a point in writing this and I've since forgotten. Now I want Chinese food and Pringles.
Ok, so the video does not show a thing. Except that it will be released only the PS3 and in 2013. Some internet sources random people are saying March 2013, but since I can't find a terribly reliable source I'm not going to say that we should even take March into consideration.
Publisher Rising Star told Eurogamer that it will be released 2013. That's some reliable info right there.
I know Japan got a PS3 release for this game, but we didn't. Which makes me kind of bitchy when it comes to the Director's Cut only being released on the PS3. You know why I played Deadly Premonition on the Xbox 360? Because I don't own a bloody PS3, damnit. I do know people who are more than willing to let me use theirs, but still. If the PS3 dramatically drops in price I'll pick one up. But nothing beats fucking over one console's user group over another.
Now, shut up while I listen to my imaginary friend tell me what letters are in my coffee...
