It's depressing to hear Alex talk about the written journalistic scene, especially when it looked like Giant Bomb was going to be a great scene for those types of writers. I know that's the way the world's headed, but it still sucks.
Every time I play a Wipeout game (Black and... Fusion, I think?), I kind of feel bad because it just makes me want to play F-Zero. I should like everything about Wipeout, but I guess it just never really clicked for me.
Anyways, good write-up. I'm old enough to remember the magazine ads for the original Wipeout, as well as its appearance (sort of?) in Hackers. That game looked bananas back in the day.
You think Yojimbo's more visually interesting than Anima? Huh. Dug the shit out of the latter and I don't remember a thing about hte former other than it's sure a Yojimbo.
Anyways, your assessment of the plot elements aligns pretty much with mine through and through this blog. Some great moments interspersed with some lackluster villains and villainous acts. Like I've said before, I think if the religious aspects been a bit more fleshed out or been a bigger focus (maybe even in a different game, ideally), it could have gone to some interesting places. As it is, I think it's one of the more interesting world-building choices for a Final Fantasy, but still kind of sub-par in terms of storytelling.
I loved everything up to and including Wizard and Glass. I mean it - loved. I must've read Wastelands at least twelve times. The characters were just so good, and their interplay and the action so lively that I was hooked over and over and over again.
I've never felt so downright saddened by the drop of quality in anything else in any medium. The first four books were varying degrees of good to great, but when King was on, he was electric. The gunslingers fighting a robot bear. The decaying world. The sheer sense that everything was coming apart and these heroes were the last ones left who could set it right when they were (almost) all so ordinary. It was enthralling and beautiful, and goddamn if it's not everything I love about modern literature.
And then the sickening conundrum. Even as I condemn those last few books - and they are dreadful - I know I'm not entitled as a reader to anything. Just because I have favorite characters doesn't mean I get to choose whether they live or die. My job - or not - is just to consume, to read, to follow the trail wherever it leads. The route Stephen King took with that series wasn't for the fans. It was to exorcise demons, to get some of the darkness behind him, and that's something I can respect, even if I don't actually want to read it. Sometimes you need to get something created for yourself and only yourself, and damn anyone else out there who wants it any other way.
There's this clear dichotomy of books that follow that series, ones you can tell he tried to write to please the fans and sell copies, and then there are personal or experimental novels that I think better define the realms he wants to explore post-accident, and those are batshit crazy good, because he's stopped trying to have it both ways. With those latter Gunslinger novels, he was both trying to appease fans and work out his own problems. With stuff like 11/22/63 and his Bill Hodges trilogy, it's King at his best saying, "Fuck it, here's something that's been on my mind, like it or don't." And that's always been his most interesting work, especially under the Bachman pseudonym. Sure, maybe it's not his best, fan-pleasing work, but I'm utterly fascinated by it.
Sorry, this got long and rambly. But no one's influenced me more as a writer or a reader than King, and I could talk for days about his novels if someone doesn't shut me up.
I'm not sure if Vinny was trying to put one on Dan or not, but I'd really appreciate his videos more if he let people finish their thoughts before firing off more questions. I hope that doesn't come off as crass, but it's been really noticeable lately, especially in videos with Dan or Abby.
Okay, played a couple hours of Yesterday Origins. It's still essentially an adventure game, just stripped down to its bare components. Kinda liking it so far, but it feels narrow and constricted.
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