I’ve been in Tokyo for 2 weeks now, and I think that being on a speeding train for 3 hours is a good enough time to jot down some thoughts. I especially want to make sure I can keep separate thoughts about Tokyo from Kyoto.
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Author: David
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Saints Row The Third
It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to something. One minute I’ve decided that I need to pull finger and finish Saints Row The Third and the next, I’m staring at the closing credits. Admittedly, it’s not a long game, but I also find it difficult to push myself through any “entertainment” I’m not enjoying. There’s nothing deep and meaningful here: SR3 continues to succeed in its predecessor’s goal to escalate the levels of parody and hilarity and generally succeeds.
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Reflections on social networking
With the rise of Google+ as my preferred social network, I’ve had some opportunity to reflect on how my online interactions with my friends have changed.
Way back when I was an Internet geekling, I used email and ICQ (remember them? Uh-oh!) I ran a website, but that was mostly a playground for some very… Immature web design experimentation - also teen angst.
Eventually the website became this blog, and though I moved from ICQ to MSN, I stopped using chat a whole lot. I got on to LiveJournal, and that was a great way to stay in touch with friends. Most of my circle were on LJ, whether in Australia, or older school friends that I wanted to stay up to date with.
Then Facebook came. Some people will talk about MySpace, Friendster or Twitter, but Facebook got the formula right for me. LJ is largely a ghost town because the long form that LJ encourages is comparatively a lot more work. Add to that a virtually nonexistent mobile platform and you’ve got a recipe for untended journals and silent Friend pages.
I’ll admit my own guilt. I can’t remember the last time I wrote an LJ post. I was addicted to Facebook, checking it constantly. That’s mostly because FB was very vibrant. Everybody was on it, so conversations were always in progress, and it made communication so effortless.
But in the last year, I’ve lost the free time at work that helped sustain my addiction. Facebook’s repeatedly inept handling of privacy issues has made me reluctant to share very much through the site as well. As a result, I’ve more than halved my “Friends” list, and spend no more than a couple minutes a week glancing over it.
And now Google+ is here its been a great chance to  rethink everything about how I interact with people. Things are changing. I’m taking my time to come up with a, well ‘strategy’ is such a corporate word, but it’s apt. I need to think about status updates, photos, blog posts, publishing, walking the public/private line and more. Time for that in another post.
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Portal 2 – Bigger, badder, bloated
It seems to me that Valve saw the pop culture success of the original Portal and played to that. Great for marketing, fantastic for sales, but great for making a sequel? I don’t think so.
The main attraction to the game seems to be the storyline, which makes up the majority of the game. There are interminably long parts of the game that are death by expositional voiceover. All about the founding and original work performed at Aperture Science. It even provides two-by-four sized hints about the origins of GLaDOS, and explains her motivation for constant testing.
All that left me asking but one question: why did I need that? The best stories are the ones that leave things unsaid. Fill in the blanks, and let your audience make things up. As Yahtzee puts it:
Portal 1 was as tight as a walnet corset; not an inch of it was wasted… Portal 2 is a sightseeing tour that begrudgingly has a puzzle game in it.
I may be in the minority, but I found that despite the increased length (I finished Portal 2 in twelve hours, compared to the 4-or-so flash in the pan that was the first game), the levels flew by. I was genuinely stumped only once, at that was only two or three puzzles from the end. Call me rhetorical, but what’s the point of a puzzle game that doesn’t puzzle you?
I have to say that I’m astounded by the Metacritic score for the game. 95 is far too high for something that begins with what critics and fans agree is a perfect game and makes it longer, less funny and less challenging to the point of being laughable. The best writers know the value of a good editor lies in their ability to find things to cut out. Valve obviously hasn’t figured that out yet.
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Of Power and Ballads
I was recently told by a colleague that he doesn’t like rock music, but he likes… the “slow songs”. After drawing exactly what he meant by “slow” out of him (and mocking him briefly because he spends all day streaming ABC Classic, which isn’t that bad, but it is a sign of his advanced age), I suggested that I look for ten great power ballads to add to his collection, accompanied by a song by the same artist that is a little less… “slow”.
Foreigner – I Want to Know What Love Is / Hot Blooded
Apparently I can’t get the official video for “I Want to Know What Love Is”, so I’m going to have to leave this one at that.
Scorpions – Wind of Change / No One Like You
There were alternatives to “Wind of Change” but they were even more turgid. “No One Like You” on the other hand
Warrant – Heaven / Cherry Pie
Ah Warrant… If ever I need to lower the tone of a party, I put on “Cherry Pie”.
Europe – Carrie / Final Countdown
Poison – Every Rose Has its Thorn / Nothin’ But a Good Time
I have fond memories of “Nothin’ But a Good Time”, and now that I work for a living, it seems more apt every day 😉