Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:47:01
More Bioshock musings
First of all, Tim is brilliant with the gaming humor. Between him and Penny Arcade, everyone else should just stop writing gaming comics.
I’ve been playing C&C3 in order to decompress from the Bioshock experience. The story was so deep that I want to think about it before I play through again. Now, either I’m so brilliant, or the writing and design were that good, because virtually all the elements, motivations and themes discussed in this interview with Ken Levine (warning, massive spoilers) were things I either wrote about already, or definitely thought while playing.
I suspect it’s the creators and not my genius. Although, as you well know, I am a genius. At something. One day I might even find out what.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
SPOILERS BELOW!
Here’s something that I guess some players aren’t picking up on: You, the main character, are genetically engineered from Ryan. You have to be in order to make the Bathysphere keys and the bot shutdown systems work. Remember the lower wharf? Atlas told you that the system was keyed to Ryan, but anyone in his family could make it work. Until you get to the end, you can assume that you are just a distant relative or something, but once you know the secret, when Atlas/Fontaine spills the beans, you realize that Ryan, for all intents and purposes, is your father, and you just bashed his head in with a putter. And he damn well demanded that you do it.
That’s just one of the three bajillion layers of intriguing story this game contains. No, it’s not a revolutionary evolution of the first person shooter. It’s just well and truly written with depth...no pun intended. I hope that the success of Bioshock will make other game designers go out on a limb and try some real stories with a real narrative. I also appreciated that very limited use of cutscenes in Bioshock. You are teh story. You act out the story. Almost every moment is spent doing something, not just sitting back and watching a ten minute, badly-acted scene play out. Like...well, Command & Conquer 3. Grace Park and Jennifer Morrison may be nice to look at, but they certainly didn’t bother to act in the cutscenes. And Michael Ironside is simply horrible. I haven’t played the Nod side yet, so I don’t know how Tricia Helfer does, but I’m not expecting it to be very good.
Cutscenes suck. Bioshock has almost none. Good choice.
Posted by JimK at 02:47 PM on August 31, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment, Gaming, Xbox 360
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Comments:
#2 Posted by JimK 
on 09/01 at 03:26 AM -
You crazy. I’ll fight you! :) Tim is teh funneh. Yes, I know he essentially cloned PA, but since they only do three a week...there’s room for Tim.
#3 Posted by ErikTheRed on 09/01 at 03:37 AM -
And while we’re on the subject, I’ll go ahead and share my current list o’ web comics…
Schlock Mercenary - Updated daily (and I really mean daily) for several years now, consistently between amusing and laugh-out-loud, and family friendly to boot (but I like it anyway). I have a commissioned sketch by the author featuring myself, my wife, and Sargent Schlock. Only downside is it’s serial with long storylines - you have to invest some time to get into it.
Dilbert - Needs no introduction.
Sinfest - Inconsistent, but well above average. Author occasionally takes a hiatus. Many strips stand on their own, but there are the occasional week-or-two series.
User Friendly - Workers at a small, Canadian ISP. Lots of geek humor.
Diesel Sweeties - Pretty funny, and sometimes extremely fucked up. “My name is M.C. Menses and my flow be fresh!”
PVP Online Hit and miss, but funny enough to stay on my list.
The Joy of Tech - Mac Geek humor. Sometimes not funny.
Striptease - Humor about strippers - you know - people who draw comic strips. What? You were thinking something else? Updates are inconsistent.
Courting Disaster - Usually amusing comics about relationships.
Penny Arcade - You all read this already.
The Perry Bible Fellowship - Funny most of the time, and sometimes really fucked up.
-- Political Cartoonists --
Ok, the rest of you ... share now, dammit!
#4 Posted by Helo on 09/01 at 05:58 AM -
All of this makes me want to buy some video games. I haven’t owned a video game system since Sega Mega Drive (Japanese version, baby!)
#5 Posted by Judas 
on 09/01 at 03:59 PM -
Comic: Achewood. Can’t say enough good things about this one, and couldn’t begin to describe it. If you’ve never read it, start from the beginning and give it a chance, it develops into something so bizarre, unique and incredible that if you have even a slightly off-kilter sense of humor, it will hook you like crack.
And Bioshock is brilliant. I have 3 different games running (2 rescue with different battle styles, 1 harvest), and I haven’t finished any of them, because I literally don’t want it to end.
#6 Posted by JimK on 09/01 at 04:40 PM -
Man, why you gotta even say a thing? You know how I roll with the ache.
One day, I will win The Great Outdoor Fight.
#7 Posted by Drumwaster on 09/01 at 07:39 PM -
I dig Day by Day and Michael Ramirez.
#8 Posted by JimK on 09/01 at 10:00 PM -
Day by Day is *excellent*. Chris can boil down complicated issues to three panels like nobody else.
Who is Michael Ramirez? Got link?
Erik, I think I might make a post tomorrow with the list of webcomics I read. Sounds like a good topic.
#9 Posted by Drumwaster on 09/01 at 10:17 PM -
Michael Ramirez is a political cartoonist. He’s teh funnay.
He can say in one panel what it takes Chris Muir three to say…
So, there ! :-p
#10 Posted by supercore 
on 09/01 at 11:03 PM -
For video-game themed comics one of the best I’ve seen is The Last Days Of Foxhound, a take on Metal Gear Solid from the antagonist’s viewpoint. Brilliant and funny at the same time.
Also, If you’re not reading xkcd yet, start right now. Wonderfully understated art, nerdy, and always funny.
Perry Bible Fellowship is one of my favorites, except for the randomness that is the updating schedule. I’ve been jonesing for a new panel for weeks…
#11 Posted by supercore on 09/01 at 11:06 PM -
Oh yeah, Thought you’d like this XKCD strip especially much Jim… Captions
#12 Posted by Helo on 09/02 at 06:19 PM -
I really need to think about getting a video game system. My only hobby is golf. Have you seen how much a golf club is? $250 - $400 bucks for a decent club. How much is a video game? Like $40 bucks?
#13 Posted by Rann Aridorn on 09/03 at 04:46 AM -
Buckley does do decent game-related comics, when he can actually put aside his ego that makes him think the comic’s main story about his retarded self-insert character is actually any good. But overall I prefer to read stuff by comic artists who haven’t exposed themselves to young teenage girls. (Insert your own joke about having difficulty finding a comic.)
For my own favorite webcomic reads, there’s The Order of the Stick (D&D;humor), Sequential Art, Full Frontal Nerdity, Dresden Codak (very weird, very intellectual humor), Misfile, and Supermegatopia. I read a bunch more, but those are really my favorites.
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#1 Posted by ErikTheRed
on 08/31 at 11:39 PM -
Meh… Tim can stop drawing gaming comics too… Penny Arcade is ten times t3h funny.