Monthly Archives: January 2015
Life is Strange, Episode One Review
"It was a dark and stormy night." So wrote novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, creating the writing cliche to end all cliches, and inadvertently describing Life is Strange's opening scene. There's also a lighthouse in this scene, that old signaler of melodrama to come, rising above you amid the falling rain. The torrential imagery bookends the first episode of this five-part adventure, but most of the drama is of the teenage type. There are snotty girls to contend with, and privileged jocks accustomed to people bending to their will. Students fuss passive-aggressively on social media, and older adults are either mentors or bullies. This is the world seen through a young adult's eyes, a world in which every sight, sound, and whisper is full of life-ending, life-making meaning.
The particular young adult you play is Max Caulfield--no relation to The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield it would seem, though Life is Strange’s references are not subtle, so I presume that Max’s similarities to her namesake are not accidental. Like Holden, Max attends a private school, though her primary interest is photography and not football or fencing. She’s back in her Oregon hometown to attend school after spending the last several years in Seattle, where life wasn’t quite what she had imagined. "When we would play pirates in our room and in the woods, it seemed like Seattle was that fabled faraway island of treasure and adventure that we were always seeking. With coffee shops," writes Max in her diary. "But Seattle wasn't like a fable."
As it turns out, life at Blackwell Academy isn't idyllic, either. After a stern lecture by her photography professor, Max wanders through the school’s halls to the bathroom. She’s out of sorts: she had what seemed to be a nightmare in class--that dark-and-stormy-night scenario that began the game, and which showed a tornado roaring towards the town. As Max, you walk past blue lockers covered with posters that admonish students not to text and drive, and comment silently to yourself about the classmates you pass. When Max plugs earbuds into her ears, you hear the light indie-rock you imagine an angsty teen from the Pacific Northwest might listen to--the kind that plays when you enter a Starbucks. This may not be your reality, but it is easy to believe is it Max's. The themes and characters are familiar, in any case: the aloof school principal, the quiet religious girl, and the anxiety of being called on in class when you don’t know the answer.
Well, there is one aspect that is decidedly unreal: you can rewind time. You discover your special skill during your restroom visit, when a heated confrontation between a psychopathic rich kid and the girl that confronts him ends with a bullet in the young woman’s abdomen. In that moment, you reach out to help and time quickly zips back to minutes before, when you are still in class. Now you know the answers when Prof. Jefferson asks you. Now you can tell him what he wants to hear about the photography contest he wants you to enter. And now you have a chance to save an old friend's life.
Time reversal is Life is Strange's most unique element, but also its most problematic. The game is rooted in the adventure formula that has made Telltale Games's Walking Dead series so popular. You walk around the environments, interacting with people and objects, and making choices during dialogue that turn the story in a particular direction. "This action will have consequences," the game tells you, and you then wonder about the potential consequences, and mentally note them when they occur. After a single episode, it is hard to tell how intervening when a security officer is harassing a student will shift the future, but should you not like the immediate reaction, you just rewind a bit and do it over again. It's a nifty effect at first, but the rewind as a whole undermines one of the formula's most treasured elements: ownership of your decisions.
Granted, there are limitations, so you can’t return to the moment of truth when a consequence becomes apparent hours later. But undoing a line of dialogue because a classmate reacts poorly to you diminishes the choice's power. I rarely sweated my decisions, because I could just try again until I landed on the one I liked best. I suspect that I may come to regret seemingly easy choices when more episodes are released and the repercussions play out. For now, however, I don't feel much ownership of Max; In The Wolf Among Us, it was clear that I was playing my Bigby, but after a single episode of Life is Strange, Max isn't my Max--she's just Max.
The rewind mechanic also allows for a few light puzzles. When you rewind time you keep what you have recently picked up, and of course, you have new information you didn’t have before. As a result, you might be able to perform new actions and have new conversations. Rewinding only affects the people and events surrounding you; you remain in place, with any items you may carry, while time retreats everywhere else. In this sense, rewinding your surroundings is like fast-forwarding your own body. You can avoid falling objects, for instance, by rewinding time, moving forward, and resetting time with you further ahead than when you started. Annoyingly, however, Life is Strange breaks its own time-bending rules when it suits the narrative. When you first discover your skill, for instance, you are moved back into your classroom seat, and do not remain in the bathroom. Developer Dontnod has its cake, and eats it too.
Inconsistencies of time reversal aside, Life is Strange is an involving slice of life that works because its situations eloquently capture a peculiar early-college state of mind. Some of the characterizations are too on-the-nose: of course Max’s rebellious friend Chloe smokes weed and talks back to her stepfather, because that’s what rebellious teens do, and of course that stepfather is an ex-military authoritarian with a buzzcut and a bad temper. This is storytelling shorthand, but much of it rings beautifully true. When Max is reunited with Chloe, the tension chokes the air: Chloe feels abandoned and angry at being left behind when Max moved, and at being ignored when Max returned to town. Max doesn’t necessarily have answers for all of her choices, only apologies. These interactions can break your heart specifically because you might have had such conversations yourself. The performances, especially those of the actresses that play Max and Chloe, amplify the laughs, the groans, and the tears in equal measure, even when the dialogue takes a clumsy turn. (As it does, for instance, when you meet Blackwell's creepy janitor.)
Life is Strange sets the stage for later conflict, foreshadowing the storm to come and informing you of a young local woman gone missing. At the same time, the game makes everyone look like a guilty party. The rich frat boy with a gun, the smug school administrator, the stepdad in need of anger management skills--these and other characters have plenty to hide, though it’s impossible to guess what all their secrets might be. The looming tornado and the inconsistent time mechanic seem almost unnecessary as a result, for Life is Strange’s most important drama is the one developing in Max’s own mind.
Maybe Tony Stark Never Knew Edwin Jarvis
Warning: Some spoilers from the most recent Agent Carter episode follow...
For the last few years or so, most MCU fans knew J.A.R.V.I.S. as Iron Man's artificial intelligence system, voiced by Paul Bettany. However, Marvel's Agent Carter, which began airing on ABC earlier this month, showed us to the man behind the tech -- Edwin Jarvis -- played by the oh-so charming James D'Arcy. On the new show, Jarvis is Howard Stark's butler and Peggy Carter's partner in the hunt to clear Howard Stark's name -- although he and Peggy hit a rough patch in this week's episode.
Today, IGN got to speak with D'Arcy about his role on Agent Carter, as well as where his character could end up in the larger MCU. Plus, an interesting bit about Jarvis and Tony Stark...
Report: New StarCraft 2 Game to Release This Year
An Activision Blizzard insider has claimed the next StarCraft II game could release as soon as this year.
Talking to a Yahoo Finance Contributor, the unnamed source revealed some alleged information regarding the next StarCraft II game. According to this source, the game is already completed, and while developers have not settled on a release window, it is likely to release in the second quarter of 2015.
Speculation suggests this game could be Legacy of the Void, a standalone StarCraft II game announced earlier this year at BlizzCon 2014.
The Black Hood Lives Again
While Archie Comics may be best known for their titular, redheaded hero and their comics based on video game icons like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, the publisher also controls a superhero-themed imprint called Red Circle Comics. Other than a brief partnership with DC Comics, the heroes of Red Circle have lain mostly dormant in recent years. But that's changing in a big way in 2015. Archie is set to kick off a new line called Dark Circle Comics - one that re-imagines The Shield, The Fox, and Black Hood in a darker and more contemporary light.
Report: Blizzard’s Overwatch Still Considering F2P Model
The development team behind Blizzard's recently-announced Overwatch is reportedly still considering which pay model to implement in the team-based shooter.
This is according to an insider at Activision Blizzard, who spoke to a Yahoo Finance Contributor about Overwatch's development process. The insider claims that the decision between making Overwatch completely free-to-play or expansion-based has yet to be made, but emphasizes that players will be able to access the game for free regardless of the final pay model.
According to the report, developers are allegedly pushing for Overwatch to release this year, but senior executives are skeptical that it will release before 2016.
Report: New Hearthstone Expansion to Release This Spring
An alleged information leak has hinted at the release window of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's next expansion pack.
Speaking with an unnamed Activision Blizzard insider, a Yahoo Finance Contributor learned that the next Hearthstone expansion is expected to launch in April. According to the insider, the expansion will focus on Player vs. Environment (PvE) gameplay, and developers have also supposedly been tinkering with a 2 vs. 2 mode.
Additionally, the source claims Hearthstone's numbers are now "off the charts," having passed over 75 million players.
Watch the Super Bowl XLIX Movie Trailers
Hollywood's cranking out new trailers and TV spots for their upcoming movies to air during this Sunday's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX. You can watch what's been released so far below.
Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Ted 2, Terminator Genisys, and Kingsman: The Secret Service are just some of the hot movies expected to air spots. (You can also check out the new TV commercials and product ads for this year's Big Game here.)
We'll update this article with the final movie ads as they become available before, during and after the Super Bowl!
Why Smaller Conventions Are Better For Everyone
You might have read that PAX South 2015 broke some first-year attendance records, namely those of PAX East and PAX Australia. I can tell you from being there, that it certainly didn’t feel that way when I walked into the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio on day one to a tiny queue line that paled in comparison to those I’d seen at PAXs past. It was a concerning sight, but my concern melted away within a couple of hours on the show-floor. Now I want every convention to be PAX-South-sized, for your sake and for mine.
Regardless of its record-breaking attendance numbers, PAX South 2015 had the smallest show floor I’ve ever seen outside of QuakeCon. I could walk from one end to the other in two minutes or less at a leisurely stroll. Sure, it looks underwhelming compared to the spectacle of E3, but it’s a much better experience. How many times have you had 30 minutes to burn before your next panel and felt like you were already late? At PAX South, that’s enough time to walk the floor, find and play at least one cool thing you missed, and get to your panel with time to spare...where you won’t be waiting on a two-hour line for a seat.
Report: Ouya Receives $10 Million in Funding
Ouya, the Android-powered game console that smashed its Kickstarter goal in 2012, has received $10 million USD from Chinese investor Alibaba.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the matter" say the two companies are working together to incorporate Ouya's software and 1,000+ game library into Alibaba's set-top box.
We reached out to Ouya for confirmation, and a spokesperson declined to comment.
In 2012, Ouya closed out it's Kickstarter with nearly $8.6 million pledged -- well above its $950 thousand goal. Check out our Ouya review for more on the console we called "promising... but marred by design missteps."
Check Out New Tech That Could Change Virtual-Reality Gaming
New ways to game and interact with virtual worlds are popping up every day. Across the gaming industry, VR is making a huge impact on the way we experience games and entertainment, and it's just getting started.
Sony's Project Morpheus, Samsung's Gear VR, and of course, the Oculus Rift, are all pushing the limits of virtual reality and how we interact with the everyday world.