The End of Prey - SPOILERS

Here's the video version of this article, which is a tad different but has some funny bits:

The gaming community let out a little collective sigh when Bethesda announced a ‘reboot’ of the 2006 game Prey, which would have literally nothing to do with the previous franchise other than to fight aliens - raising eyebrows to whether this was a simple cash-grab on a vaguely recognizable game license. Fortunately the game has released and actually is really, very good. Although by no means perfect it is something interesting following in the footsteps of the System Shock and Bioshock series with some splatterings of Deus Ex with general nods to cyber punk as a genre.

Kingdom

Kingdom is a game that's main strengths all lie in its incredibly well executed simplicity. I've always been a big fan of rogue and rogue like games. I like my story given to me on a small drip feed or sometimes not at all. Give me the vague idea of a story, the skeleton of an arc, and let my brain create the flesh. Kingdom says very little beyond the opening and if you choose not to go through the tutorial, even less so. You have a simple goal, simple controls, virtually no dialogue and for the most part left to your own devices.

In what minimalism that exists with the story contrasts with just how nice the game looks. Although we now live through a faux retro pixel graphics age (whether this is a bad thing is debatable, getting to the point of  an over saturation of pixel games) it certainly looks really nice. The atmosphere of setting comes across, inspiring a fantasy medieval European setting as you roam across the 2D landscape. Things look lush yet there is a heaviness underneath, forbidding and an almost world-weariness in the movement of characters. The game is cosy but unsettling, like being wrapped up warm under some blankets but you're pretty sure there's a spider somewhere in there too.

Major Scarlett Johansson

Major Scarlett Johansson

Some kinda big news happened recently with Scarlett Johansson being cast in the main role as Major Mottoko Kusanagi in the live-action western adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Course this has been met with some, ehh, let's call it disgruntlement within the online anime community. Perhaps a little bewilderment. Maybe even anger?

lol

Ghost in the Shell takes place in the near future and is one of the mainstay representatives of cyberpunk as a genre. In a future where nearly everyone is technically a cyborg with electronic enhancements the question of 'what makes us human?' is sort of the main theme. Core ideas of the 'self', self-perception and how we define our conscious reality. Heavy philosophical ideas against the backdrop of technologically advanced fictional Japanese city 'Niihama' following the main characters of what is essentially an shadowy special operations team. Between action and moving the plot along we have the characters that will stop to discuss Descartes or quote passages from the bible. It's not as clunky as I'm making it sound here. Fact the strength of the franchise is how it seamlessly melds these themes and ideas together. Also it's a franchise with separate story arcs and cannon depending on whether you watch the film or the TV series or whatever else. For the sake of this piece of writing I'm gonna mostly be referencing the original film and it's direct sequel Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.

A Bazillion Things To Do In Scotland Before You Fall Into the Ever-Widening Abyss

Pure shite man.

Scottish? or visiting Scotland? Here's a list of shit you can do to froth into your eye-bits. 

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Waifu

 

Anime, Internet, Waifus and Amazon Reviews 

 

   

Me and Anime

 

So. If you know me you'll know I've been wandering back into the dark medium of Anime - Japanamation, Manga, Chinese Cartoons - whatever you want to call it. Why? Well it kills some time and as someone that more or less needs constant entertainment the millions upon millions of Anime episodes available cheaply on the internet cater to this. Also I'm incredibly lonely. 

Anime in the West much like video games have sort of grown up with the internet - speaking about either of these cultures they are linked to the internet be it memes or rather the communities online that create them - I remember back trying to get into anime when I was younger and paying like fifteen quid for a VHS with two episodes of some awful cringe worthy thing. I had nothing to go on but the back of the box and 12 year old me was taken for a fool. Thanks Forbidden Planet. 

A Haunting

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” 
― Stephen King

It's a cold, still night of mid September. It is almost too still. Although there is warmth in your bed the chill of harsh air rubs on your nose and cheeks. The house makes no noise; no creaking, no humming television from a distant room, no cars sleek in the street, no faucet drip. Just. Silence.

You turn to look at your window, normally your curtains are drawn but tonight they lie open. You are sure you shut them. You cannot find the energy nor the will to rise from your bed. Staring at the window you realise there is no need to close them; no light is coming in from the window. Like a black sheet pulled over the pane. Black oil from which no light emits and none escapes. 

Steam rises from your uneasy breath. 

You dare not close your eyes. You curse yourself every blink. Staring straight at the ceiling. You do not dare glance to the side. You couldn't if you tried.

You are frozen in place. 

You cannot move.

As if buried alive. Your limbs held tightly in place as something else shovels cold, damp dirt down onto and over body. Maybe it's just cold damp sweat sticking to your sheets, but you swear you can feel insects crawling over you. Your lungs becomes quick. Your heart palpitates. You try to move your neck but, again, you cannot. 

A dark shape appears in the corner of your vision. It is human. Maybe. It has, something else to it. Slightly out of shape. Slumped. Broken. 

It moves towards you. 

It does not take any breath itself, it is noiseless except for its slow, deliberate steps. A clump and drag as if lame - towards you. 

You try your best to move but to no avail. You are pinned down by some otherworldly force. Even to blink as the sweat drips from your forehead into your eyes takes such force that it hurts immensely. 

The creature stops by your bed and gets into it next to you. 

You can hear it breathing now. You can feel it ever so gently on the side of your neck. Cold breath, colder than the room, like ice. 

The creature's head moves next to yours. You can no longer see it. Only feel it.

It feels like an hour has passed. The creature is an inch away, if not less, from your ear. It parts its' lips, if they are indeed lips, slowly, like a stitched wound being torn open. It moves even closer. 

Touching your ear.

Another hour passes. 

And it speaks...

"I'm First Minister Alex Salmond and I want you to take this opportunity with both hands and vote Yes on the 18th of September."

The Bull

Work is a boring thing. Although we spend the majority of our lives slaving away to make money so we can buy things like shoes or food or Magic: The Gathering booster packs we mostly hate it. Most people would probably be happier if their brain could be removed from their body then plugged into a Minecraft server for all eternity. Sadly the technology just doesn't exist yet.

When you work a shitty job this creates an odd camaraderie where, for me, you mostly come up with stupid jokes that nobody else would appreciate or understand.