Monthly Archives: April 2015
Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition Review
I can barely hear my car's radio over the storm. It's just a low buzz and a series of rhythmic thumps. I'm alone on the highway, flanked by rows of Nebraskan corn, driving in the shadow of the wind turbines in the distance, steadily spinning along in the rain. Dozens of wind turbines… or hundreds of them. Thousands maybe? They seem to stretch forever--or for at least as long as this awkward conversation with my father does.
Three Fourths Home is a short piece of interactive fiction that captures the feeling of late-night driving and millennial uncertainty. You play as Kelly Meyers, a 20-something who recently moved back in with her folks and who can't see a path forward for her or her troubled family. As the player, you're more concerned with the family's past: Across a main story, an epilogue, and a collection of interesting bonus content, you piece together (and even decide) who these people are and what happened to them.
Like all stressful conversations, there's no walking away from this one. You have to push through it.
In the game's main story, you spend about an hour driving through an intense storm while talking with your family members on the phone. On a screen of stark (and occasionally overwhelming) black, white, and gray, you pass through rural Nebraska while choosing dialogue options and taking in the scenery. You hold down the D key to drive forward while selecting dialogue with the up and down arrows. With a press of the F key, the camera zooms in to the silhouette of your car, and your speed shakes the screen. You can mess with your tape deck or flick your headlights on and off, but these mostly serve to occupy your hands (and take up your nervous energy). If it all sounds simple, it's because it is. But it's also effective.
Three Fourths Home again proves that interactive fiction can feel urgent, and it's a reminder that game makers working in the genre have more tools at their disposal than just their words. The droning ambient sounds and the high-contrast zine aesthetic create a tense atmosphere, and the game's control scheme supports this. In order to progress through conversations you need to continue to drive forward. The second you let go of that D key, everything decelerates into slow motion--the rain, the windmills, the bird that flies overhead--and your dialogue options vanish. Like all stressful conversations, there's no walking away from this one. You have to push through it, and you must do so with care: It's all too easy to choose the default response during conversation when you mean only to forward a conversation, due to the game's measured reveal of possible replies.
The droning ambient sounds and the high-contrast zine aesthetic create a tense atmosphere.
Of course, writer Zach Sanford's words contribute to the tension, too. Though much of the dialogue is humorous, the conversations you have with Kelly's mother, father, and brother always work their way back around to some recent trauma--yours or theirs. Games have a history of mishandling the traumatic, but Sanford manages to explore these ideas with restraint and insight. His natural writing sets Three Fourths Home apart from many other games which render personal suffering cartoonish. The Meyers, like real people, are careful but flawed. They know that there are topics you can only really talk about when you can look someone in the eye. But they can't quite manage their desires to talk about the tough stuff. So they hint at their pasts, talk around their personal tragedies, and occasionally brush close to their painful memories.
The game's epilogue subverts this structure. Still playing as Kelly, you are taken back into her memory of a time months before the main game's story. But unlike a linear flashback, this is memory reflects the doubt and regret that often comes with hindsight. You can choose to make the same dialogue choices that Kelly made all those months ago, or you can linger on the "what ifs." What if she had told her mother about her problems? What if she'd worked harder in school? What if she'd taken a different bus that day? You're not actually seeing alternate outcomes--you're just obsessing over them the way we all do.
The conversations you have with Kelly's mother, father, and brother always work their way back around to some recent trauma--yours or theirs.
The extras included in Three Fourths Home build on this. On top of being able to listen to the game's soundtrack, you're able to flip through one of Kelly's college photography projects and read a collection of her brother's short stories. The photos are flawed and the fiction flirts with cliché, but both are better for it. Central to Three Fourths Home is the notion that creative work helps us work through our trauma, and being able to see the art these characters made sells that. Since so much of Three Fourths Home is about understanding who these people are, this stuff isn't superficial bonus content. It's a true part of the experience.
In total, that whole experience only took about two hours of my day. But it left me winded. There is a real velocity to Three Fourths Home. It sneaks up on you, quietly at first, before suddenly becoming overwhelming. Its closest analogs aren't other games, but works like John Darnielle's novel Wolf in White Van or the haunting music of lo-fi artist Mount Eerie--art that rumbles and groans and then springs into action.
More than anything, though, Three Fourths Home reminded me of one of those nights where you look down to see that you're going ten… twenty… thirty miles over the speed limit. But you just can't bring yourself to lift your foot off the gas pedal. You've got somewhere to be.
Daredevil: 5 Reasons to Be Excited for the Netflix Series
The countdown is on for Friday, April 10th. Not only are we getting a brand new Netflix series, but it's freakin' Marvel's Daredevil! The first of Netflix/Marvel's "Defenders" shows - the darker "Street Level Heroes" stories that will also include AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist.
And since Daredevil's the most famous of the bunch, ol' Matt Murdock gets the honors of going first. 13 episodes of Hell's Kitchen chaos brought to us by genre maestros Drew Goddard (Buffy, Lost, The Cabin in the Woods) and Steven S. DeKnight (Buffy, Angel, Spartacus).
GOG Can Turn PC Game Keys into DRM-free Digital Copies
Online digital games retailer GOG is allowing users to convert some of their old physical PC game keys into DRM-free digital versions.
The feature is very limited right now - it currently only applies to six games - but GOG has plans to expand it in the future.
Right now, the following six games can be converted from physical DRM to digital DRM-free copies.
- Eador: Genesis
- Mount & Blade: Warband
- Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Bloodborne Beaten At Lowest Level
A Bloodborne player has completed the game without leveling a single time, and without using any firearms.
Those familiar with SL1 runs of Dark Souls – playthroughs completed without leveling your character even once – have probably been waiting for someone to achieve this with Bloodborne, and now it's here.
YouTuber BOYvsVIDEOGAME, known for completing similar challenge runs for several other games, uploaded the final part of his Bloodborne Waste of Skin run yesterday. It took him ten days to complete. (Video is NSFW: swearing.)
Waste of Skin is one of the nine origins you can choose from at the beginning of Bloodborne, a class that dictates your starting stats.
EA is Looking for Star Wars: Battlefront Playtesters
A number of people will have access to play Star Wars: Battlefront a week before its official reveal.
EA is seeking out volunteer playtesters to play 3-4 hours of DICE's upcoming shooter in their San Fransisco, CA and Vancouver, BC studios on April 10. Those who access the test will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and footage will not be released to the public.
Players who gain entry will be given two copies of select EA games as a thank you, as well as gain big bragging rights by playing Battlefront long before it's revealed to the world.
Visit EAC Playtester's Facebook page to learn more about how you can sign up to qualify for testing.
Spencer Says ‘It Would Be Cool’ to See Banjo in Smash Bros.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer seems to like the idea of Banjo showing up as a DLC character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
Responding to a fan's question on Twitter, Spencer said that he likes the idea of Banjo joining the fray in the Nintendo all-star fighting game. "I think it would be cool if Banjo was in the next
DLC," he said. "We've worked with Nintendo on Rare IP before, no issues."
Nintendo is currently taking suggestions from fans on which character should show up next in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U. There is a microsite where fans can submit entries, and presumably, quite a few people wouldn't mind seeing Banjo pop back up on a Nintendo platform.
Stealth Inc. 2 Now Available on Xbox One
Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones is now available on Xbox One, with releases also scheduled for PC and PlayStation platforms.
It's $14.99 USD / £12.99 / €14.99 on Xbox One, and will cost the same price upon its April 7 launch on PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. It is a cross-buy title that will enable access on any PlayStation platform.
Stealth Inc. 2 was initially released as a Wii U exclusive; developer Curve Studios said at the time that Microsoft's Xbox parity clause - which prevents developers from releasing games on Xbox One if they have already been released on other platforms - was a "shame." Luckily, this appears to have now been overcome by bringing Stealth Inc. 2 to Xbox One.
Vote Now: The Avengers vs. The Justice League
Welcome back to IGN's Super Team Tournament 64! With your help, we're just a few votes away from determining the greatest fictional team of all time.
To catch up all of the tournament's action, hit up the explosive opening, its brutal Round 2, the third round full of tough choices, and this week's Exalted Eight. Your votes knocked several beloved teams out of contention this week, including the X-Men, Jedi Masters, and the Sinister Six. But every team's loss is another's gain, and we're officially left with just the Fearsome Four: The Avengers, The Justice League, The Sith Lords, and the Suicide Squad.
Samsung Reveals Curved TV Price Range
Samsung revealed the price range for its line of curved SUHD TVs at an event on Thursday.
The curved 4K TVs, which were originally shown off at CES earlier this year, will begin at $950 for the 40-inch model and cost up to $10,000 for its 78-inch, according to Mashable.
Samsung also showed off four matching soundbars. The most affordable are the $500 HW-J6000 and the $550 HW-J6500, both 6.1 channel surround sound speakers meant for Samsung's 48 and 55-inch curved TVs.
The pricier $800 HW-J7500 soundbar comes with a wireless subwoofer and outputs 320-watt 8.1 channel stereophonic sound. It's a best fit for TVs 55 and 65-inches.
Paul Feig May Direct a Live-Action Play-Doh Movie
After the success of The LEGO Movie, Hasbro hopes to recreate some of that magic by partnering with 20th Century Fox to develop a live-action film based on their Play-Doh toy brand.
According to Deadline, the studio is negotiating with Paul Feig, who is currently working on the coming Ghostbusters reboot, to direct. Feig helped develop a take for the film, and then turned to Jason Micallef (Butter) to produce the script.
Unlike the animated LEGO feature, which is already poised to to spawn multiple sequels and spin-offs, the Play-Doh film will reportedly be live-action.