So, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Honestly, I blame Fallout: New Vegas. In fact, I blame it for anything else I haven't gotten done over the last couple of weeks. It's a pretty fantastic title.
My full review of the game went up, so you can see what I had to say about it. While you're at it, feel free to compare and contrast my view with Sparky Clarkson's writeup.
Also, for those who are interested, I will be posting full reviews for all of the DLC add-ons. At the moment, the first two are done, I'm halfway finished with the third, and I'm still playing the last. It shouldn't be too much longer now.
In other news, the GameCritics crew finished recording our year-end wrap-up looking back at 2011. It was a pretty chunky show, probably coming in somewhere near the three-hour mark.
Although I think it's a good episode overall, it's a shame that we ran out of time at the end. After we had voted to choose our overall game of the year, we had some pretty good discussion popping up that I would have loved to have gotten deeper into. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short, but I look forward to the reactions and comments… I think our pick will be a surprising one to a lot of people. In fact, I think it was fairly surprising to a few members of our own podcast!
While on the subject of wrap-ups, I'll be doing my own personal top ten shortly. I've played everything I felt like I needed to and the podcast is done, so all that's left is to sit down and actually do the writing. Soon, soon soon.
I've been reading a fair number of comics lately, some good, some not so good, but I wanted to give a special call-out to Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth from DC's Vertigo line. I remember flipping through the first issue when it came out, but it didn't grab me at the time. I think it was mostly the artwork that turned me off, but my local Comic Shop Guy (Hi Scott!) talked me into picking up the first collection despite my misgivings and he was right—it was a fantastic read.
The gist of the story is that a strange virus appears and causes babies to be born as half-human, half-animal. Much of "normal" humanity dies off, and the world is left in a pretty sorry post-apocalyptic state. The main character is an innocent half-deer boy who's been raised in isolation by his father. Upon the father's death, he's left to his own devices and soon becomes entangled in the mess of humanity that exists outside his secluded forest.
There is much, much more to it than that, but all that really needs to be said is that it's a gut-wrenching, emotional read that resonated with me on multiple levels. Although it's clear to see certain influences in the works, the writing is strong and speaks accurately about the human condition. If I had to compare it to anything, I think the closest parallel would be The Walking Dead in terms of bleak tone and focus on characters, not to mention the collapse of society.
In my book, that's pretty high praise.
The wife and I have still been working our way through Buffy, and just finished Season Three yesterday.
The season started off in a bizarre, everybody-hates-Buffy sort of way, but it ended well. I have to admit, I wanted to see a bit of a different ending for Faith, but I'm okay with where it ended up at the moment. If she never comes back on the show, that would be fine with me. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't seen the last of her.
Ugh. Not a fan.
We then moved on to Season Four. I was a little disappointed to see the same sort of Buffy-on-her-own thing done again, similar to the beginning of Season Three, but at least this time it didn't take several episodes before the gang got back together. Looking forward to see what trouble our heroine gets into now that she's in college.
After the first episode of BS4, we watched the first episode of Angel to find out what became of him. It was a little on the cheesy side for me, but it was nice to see Cordelia. I've heard that it spirals off into madness by the end of its run, but so far it seems like a good enough start and we're happy to see where it goes. It's a bit on the formulaic side, perhaps, but I'm reserving judgment for now.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.
- SVG 365: Strawberry Views Cow - December 4, 2023
- SVG 364: Temporarily Deluxe - November 26, 2023
- SVG 363: Turkeyhead - November 20, 2023
You may need to be patient through Season 4 of Buffy. It’s a transitional season and, save for a few fine standalone episodes, it’s just kind of there. The best thing I ever had to say about this show is that it has one of the best main character arcs I’ve seen on TV.
Angel’s first season is a bit on the boring side. It absolutely explodes from its second season on. It’s a more morally ambiguous show than Buffy. Whether this is good or bad, you’ll have to decide for yourself.
After watching and enjoying Firefly with my lady friend, we decided to give buffy a shot. I really just couldn’t get into it. Does Joss Whedon seriously believe teens ever talked like that? What’s the sitch!?!?