“…and where the hell have YOU been?”

So where the hell have I been the last 11 months? Aside from a brief opinion I posted in February I haven’t posted an update to this blog since July of last year. That’s my fault I suppose. I still intend to continue this blog, as I hope this post and the renewal of the sites domain name suggests. There’ve been so many good games in the last year I don’t know where to start, so I’m supposing I’ll pick up where I left off… Sword & Sworcery. I daresay I blame this game for so much of my procrastination over the past year. It’s a simple barebones presentation, but much like Journey there’s a nuance to S&S that is so powerful yet so hard to accurately describe without sounding like you’re coming up short. I suppose this is the trial of new bloggers everywhere though, so I’m biting the bullet so I can move on to what I hope to be more frequent posts in the near future.

Along with the hopeful reinvigoration of the site, I’ll be experimenting with new approaches to the presentation of the reviews and blog posts, critical opinions are appreciated, but in the end it’s my blog. So enjoy it or go fuck yourself. Thank you.
-GH

Wintory’s Journey to the Grammy’s

A few months ago it was announced that Austin Wintory’s soundtrack for the spectacular game Journey for the PSN has been nominated for the Grammy for “best soundtrack for a visual media.”

Now I know this is old news, it was announced as long ago as November, but I’d like to touch on just how big a deal this is for not only Mr. Wintory himself but for the video game medium as a whole.

Humble Bundle V: Revamp Your Hipster Cred between now and June 14th!

Humble Bundle Inc has just released their fifth collection of video games and it is a dizzying collection.

LIMBO, Bastion, Sword & Sworcery, Psyconaughts, and Amnesia: The Dark Decent, PLUS all 5 soundtracks all available to you for the total price of…. you choose.

That’s right, keeping with tradition, Humble Bundle allows you to set the price you pay for all 5 games (though in order to access Bastion you need to pay more than the average customer, currently less than $8). Did I mention you even get to choose what percentage goes to the developers, to Humble Bundle Inc, and to the charities EFF and Child’s Play?

Buy it for yourself, buy it for a friend, you’ve not had a chance to get hipster cred this cheaply since you found that collage of 90s movie posters at goodwill. Just click the link here.

Oh, and hurry, the sale ends June 14th

thatgamecompany’s lead designer speaks on PS3 owners’ desire for artistic games.

Here’s a link to an interesting article by Venture Beat in an interview with one of the creators of Journey, Jenova Chen, claiming that PS3 owners seek out more artistic forms of gaming.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/07/ps3-owners-interested-in-art

Journey Delayed for Spring 2012

 

So now we know why there hasn’t been much news on the upcoming release of Journey. It’s because there IS NO UPCOMING RELEASE. Journey has been delayed until Spring 2012, a bittersweet opportunity to play the other dozen or so great games coming out. I still can’t wait, but now perhaps the delay will enable me to give it the proper attention it deserves.

Upcoming Reviews

In case you’re wondering what to expect, here’s a rundown of all the reviews I have planned through the end of the year and a snippit of what I’m expecting.

From Dust – PS3 Release Date Announced.

Ubisoft has officially announced that From Dust, the visually striking sandbox god game already out on the XBox and PC will be released on the PS3 Tuesday the 27th of September. Expect an analysis of the game to be up a week or two after it’s release, I personally can’t wait. If you happen to be a Europe gamer, you can get your hands on it this coming week on the 14th, you lucky bastard.

Two Free Downloadable Games on the PS3!

Right now for what I imagine to be a very limited time Sony is giving away the first episodes for “Back to the Future” and “Blue Toad Murder Files” for free to all Playstation users. This hasn’t been widely advertised so be sure to at least “purchase” the game which will unlock it for download even if they later go back to full price. Be sure to tell your friends to do the same!

Limbo Analysis: Death is the Road to Awe.

Limbo has been out over a year now so there’s little reason to review it for its entertainment value. Besides, there are plenty of websites that’ll give you a score or grade for you to evaluate if that’s what you’re looking for. Instead, I’m going to try and explore what Limbo seems to say from a creative standpoint. You’ll never see a number or letter judging a game here so if that’s all you’re interested in you best try elsewhere. This is the exploration of gaming as an art form, so if that interests you read on. However, in order to be able to fully explore Limbo, I need to be able to discuss portions of it uncensored. So consider this your spoiler warning.

Welcome to prime time bitch, FREDDY’S BACK!

Wow, it’s amazing what kinds of mash-ups you can come up with when you own apparently every IP known to man. Warner bros, in some kind of epileptic stroke of genius, has unveiled the final character to be released for Mortal Kombat.