Unsophisticated Irony

I've developed a lazy habit of capitalising words within sentences for dramatic effect. Used sparingly in a text message or handwritten note I think it's *sort of* okay, but in truth it's probably only crap writing that needs capitals or italics to indicate to the reader where they should put the emphasis. Yep, it's a habit I REALLY hope I can outgrow. Eventually.

Image stolen from the unfailingly distracting Ask A Urinal

It's almost as annoying as the difficulty I have with the difference between "may" and "might", which sometimes my brain will fail to notice until I've re-read what I've written three or four times, and even then it'll take me twenty seconds of deliberation to be confident I've got it right. I reckon there are plenty of readers who may get annoyed by that sort of mistake.

As someone who day-dreams about earning a living from putting words onto a page or a screen, it's terrifying to realise there are common words which I've never properly understood the meaning of, and have been using carelessly for years. "I may" if someone's given permission. "I might" if I'm uncertain. It should be simple. Yet somehow...

Ah yes, the "..."

It's like the "get out of jail free" card for writing. I can imply that I want to say more, but I'm not going to. Is the thing I'm not saying important? Who knows? Certainly not the reader, and probably not the writer either...

Let's not even get started on exclamation marks!

Oh dear, this whole thing is eating itself. Quick! Go read Saturday's Guardian piece where a bunch of people talk about their rules for writing (fiction), or more worthily, read Mark Twain's take on the subject.

What am I still playing at?

A post that’s just a list of games I’ve played recently (with a couple of sentences about each), that's perhaps even less interesting than this article about a new model of Barbie.

PERHAPS!

The Internet's ideal woman: computer engineer Barbie

Let’s take a look.

Doom & Gloom

To its harshest critics, the Sunday Papers on hip PC games blog Rock Paper Shotgun is just a clique-ish list of articles from the pens of Kieron Gillen's mates. I reckon that sort of criticism is pretty unfair and untrue, and I suspect those who suggest such things are mostly just envious of Gillen's massive influence over the nature and direction of videogame debate. (But y'know, OBVIOUSLY now that I've defended him on these trend-making pages, I'll be pretty outraged if he doesn't link to something of mine in the next couple of weeks.)

Ahem.

Doom

I'm in a funny mood. As anyone who read my painfully self-conscious previous blog post might have noticed, I was unusually pleased with the last couple of "proper" articles I wrote- one on Arkham Asylum and the other on Mass Effect 2. Yet now a few days have passed and my poor fragile ego has taken a battering from the ZERO total comments posted on them both. Every article I've ever written for A. N. Other game site has, until this point, ALWAYS received at least one comment. Even this dull review of an even duller game I did ages ago. Then I go write a couple of the best pieces I've ever written and no-one seems to give a damn.

What's that about?

Gloom

Mass Effect 2 & Arkham Asylum

Rightly or wrongly (and the answer is almost certainly, "wrongly"), I've always found it easier to write about games that aren't so well known. This is partly because if you're going to bother inflicting your words on the world it's important to try to say something original, and that's a lot harder if millions of people have already discussed the thing that you're writing about. But there's also the less noble reason that if your reader has existing knowledge of the thing you're talking about, you're more likely to get called out for factual errors.

So I'm fairly pleased to have had two things published this week about a couple of "big hitters", and I hope that in both of them I've managed to write combinations of words that aren't totally obvious or boring. On Resolution I've got a piece about Arkham Asylum where I talk about the game in relation to the graphic novel. Re-reading it now I think it's maybe a little slow to get going, and the point I'm making is maybe a little too obscure, but I feel mostly satisfied with how things worked out on the second page.

I think my review of Mass Effect 2 (that's gone up on good ol' reliable Savy Gamer) is a bit more successful. To me it feels like there's a consistency in tone that my writing often lacks. I might almost call it the best review I've ever written.

But jeez, look at the boring writer write about boring writing. You should probably have hit those links already. (Or just the 'close tab' button in your browser.)

What am I playing at?

I play quite a lot of videogames, especially when I have a broken foot and even more time to laze around than usual. I decided today that perhaps I should try to keep better track of what they all are. Who knows? This might even become one of those "regular" features I do a couple of times and then give up on.

In no particularly order, let's start with a lucky thirteen that have occupied varying amounts of my time since 1st January 2010:

Batman: Arkham Asylum (360): Mostly went back to it in preparation for a feature I wrote that should appear on Resolution any day now, but also because I wanted to see what it was like on Hard mode. "Challenging but not overwhelmingly so" is the answer for as far as I've got, although I bet some of the later boss fights will be massively frustrating.

Canis Canem Edit [aka "Bully"] (PS2): I got two thirds of the way through it toward the end of 2009 before getting distracted by something else. Managed to polish it off a couple of weeks ago, and despite being slightly underwhelmed by the ending, it's among my favourite games of that console generation.

Bully: really very smart and very funny.

Mass Effect 2 (360): I bought it on the day of release, loved it, and completed it in a little over 35 hours over the course of four days. You don't have to be a world class mathematician to realise those four days consisted of pretty intensive play. My review should appear on Savy Gamer soon.

Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 (PC): I never played it first time round, so it was only ever going to be a matter of time before I succumbed to that irresistable impulse-buy price of £3 on Steam. I've enjoyed the start of the Marine campaign so far -really very tense- although it has served as a reminder of how much modern games hold your hand compared to the oldies. Also: perhaps the worst voice acting I've ever heard from the marine commander.

Tales of Monkey Island (PC): As already reported, a bit of a chore.

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC): Still hasn't grabbed me like the first one did. I'm just not convinced that any of the additions to the game bring any significant improvement to how it plays. Not blown away by the new maps either. All feels like, "more of the same but slightly different," which is fine, but I'd hoped for more.

Super Mario Sunshine (GC): The lukewarm reviews it received when it was released always put me off trying it out sooner, and after giving it an hour or so I couldn't find any good reason to keep playing. A dull Mario game is pretty unforgivable.

Super Mario All Stars (SNES): After the disappointment of Sunshine I decided to touch base with the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. The invention on display in both games is still remarkable, and it's almost a ritual for me to check in on them every couple of years and make sure I can still find "the zone" and hold my own.

I'm nearly at the point where I can complete this game's first level with my eyes shut

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES): My flatmate told me how the only time he ever played this was on a Virgin Atlantic flight when he was very young, and he never even made it into Hyrule castle. His tale of woe inspired me to take a second look, and with two out of three pendents collected I'm really enjoying playing it through again. It's also nice to have half-way challenging boss fights- something the newer games have fairly consistently overlooked.

Football Manager 2009 (PC): In my fifth season after starting the game unemployed, and managing Huddersfield in the Championship. I'm now getting to the point where I realise my total play time is out of proportion with the amount of joy the game is bringing me, and so will probably swear off it for a bit.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS): I picked this up shortly after it was released and then neglected it. I found it all a bit fiddly at the time. Reading about the recent iPhone release made me think I should go back to it, and I'm glad I did, although it does all get a bit hectic on the small screen. I dread to think how busy it must feel on the iPhone with your fingers obscuring the action.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl  (PC): A seminal classic which my PC was incapable of running at the time it was released. Since upgrading last summer I've been playing using the "Complete" mod, which makes everything look much prettier, fixes nearly all the bugs, and even adds a few helpful tutorial boxes. Love the atmosphere, but wonder if the environment is just a little too harsh at times.

Civilization 4 (PC): There's a very good reason I called this the greatest game of the past decade, and one day I'll get around to writing something a little more in-depth explaining exactly why. Sadly there's still no news on when to expect Civ 5.

More later this week. Probably.