Chefelf.com Night Life: Sylv - Viewing Profile

Christ man, what is wrong with you?

I'm glad other people feel the same way about good ol' Indigo Prophecy, although I thought IP's supernatural explanation was disappointing but tolerable until the final act where I wondered if they'd shot the writer. I know that once you tinge something with supernatural horror it becomes difficult to write a satisfying explanation and conclusion to the story, but it was just awful.

Anyhow, I liked the demo of Condemned 2 but I never played Condemned 1. Originally I thought that if I played C2 I'd be missing out on a lot of backstory but maybe it's not the impediment I thought it was. (Mystic cults? I never played the original so why not! Someone tell me if that black goop hanging around the city spitting monsters made of tar at you is from the first game or a new addition though) Yahtzee's review makes it sound like a rental and I can spare $5 bucks to try the first half of the game at least.

Speaking of the review, good times. And it reminded me that I've always wanted to watch Session 9. I'm learning all sorts of important stuff from ZP here.

G'aaaaaaawww. What a cute little guy.

It reminded me a lot of Charle's Stross' Atrocity Archives. Are we still using spoiler bars? Just in case...

It just struck me as a fun, lightweight comeback piece and I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that. My biggest problem was the exposition-to-story ratio. It felt like there was too much time spent on explanations of how the mind-body-soul trinity or how the Ministry functioned compared to how much story we had. I understand that Yahtzee might want to set the stage for readers new to the universe but at the same time it sacrificed narrative flow. I'm not saying they should be cut entirely but economizing info-dumps is crucial in a story of this size. In a shorter piece of fiction, it's better to concentrate on hitting character notes and pacing and to use exposition only when necessary.

Speaking of character notes, I loved Claire and her interaction with everyone else. She was a treat, and I hope we'll see more of her. Greg was utterly one dimensional but I think that worked in the story's context because he was a perfectly fine foil. (I thought one reason for that shallowness might be that Greg wasn't really Greg, just whatever bits of Greg were strong enough not to be sloughed off into the ether. It seems like that would smooth out some nuances in anyone's character)

Anyhow, I like this the concept of more stories in Trilby's universe and I hope we see more of 'em.

I think he should ditch the hat. Yahtzee looks much better without the hat. Then again, I think most people do, and that hats are evil necessities to block out the sun and nothing more. The moustache isn't bad oh god what have I become.



YES, PLEASE.



Really? It's not exactly obscure, I mean it was made by Naughty Dog who are the same guys who did Jack & Daxter. Maybe this is because I have a PS3 but I've been hearing about it for a while. I have a friend who went nuts over it. He showed me a few cutscenes and some gameplay and it left me lukewarm, maybe because if I'm shooting people in a game I prefer them to be aliens or robots or vampire nazis or something equally nerdy. I'm not too keen on being a cheeky action hero who happily guns down people without a moral qualm in the world, which is what Uncharted looked all about.

The words "Indiana Jones as written by Joss Whedon" have effectively killed any lingering desire on my part to even rent this thing anyhow.