Skyfall

James Bond is a character that everyone knows, directly or not. Even those who haven't seen any of the films (and for those of you who haven't, how is living in a cave on Mars?) know the character archetype. Via cultural osmosis, the idea of intelligence officers being suave, smooth-talking gentlemen with fancy cars and high-tech gadgets has become a staple of pop culture. Even if they don't know why, most people will know how Bond likes his martinis.

As a sort of full disclosure, I grew up with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond - Golden Eye is still a personal favourite for the Bond series - but, of all the people to wear the 007 brand, I've liked Daniel Craig the most, for at least a few reasons. All the same, however, Skyfall was something of a miss for me. Leaving the theatre, while I knew what I'd seen was an attempt at storytelling, all I felt was shaken, not stirred.

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RAGE

 Herp derp

It's the Steam summer sale and I've picked up a few shiny little toys from their bargain bins. Stuff I'd never buy at full price, but thought it was worth a try at a reduced cost. One of those titles was a game I passed over, thanks to a description that made it sound like a racing game set in a Mad Max style wasteland. As someone who isn't a fan of racing games, this held little appeal.

As you might have guessed, that game is RAGE, and a chance experience to try it got my quite interested. What I saw when I played the first level impressed me. It was a gritty and grim post-apocalyptic game, where you fought Mad Max style raiders in genuinely nail-biting combat. The scenery was beautiful, the AIs were some of the best I'd ever seen, the premise was incredible, the gameplay was tense...

And as you might've guessed by my speaking in past tense, something went wrong. So what was it?

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I felt a need to write this post before I do any others, because, frankly, this was a good movie and the first that's left a good aftertaste on the mental tastebuds in some time. There's plenty of other films out there, plenty to write about, but, first, since this is my little blog, I'm going to indulge myself in something I enjoyed.

So, don your caps, light your pipes, and open your eyes, because the game, as they say, is afoot!

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Saints Row: The Third

There's something difficult about describing Saints Row: The Third. It's a game that lets you dress up in a pirate outfit and crash a jet-fighter into a skyscraper, then dive off said building to parachute onto a car, all the while blaring classical music. There really isn't a word for that level of surreality, nor is there one for the disappointment when you find that said surreality loses all meaning when there's nothing to play it straight against.

Fantastapressing? Deprediculous? Amazadening?

Saints Row: The Third. It is what it is.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

There are few games so worthy of attention as the original Deus Ex. This was not your run of the mill game; it was one of the first to not only give you choices, and give you consequences for them, it did so magnificently. While not as prone to the faffing-about style freedom as the open world games that would come later, it was a game with choices that mattered.

If nothing else, it warrants saying that this was a game you could beat without ever killing a single person or rush around like some vengeful angel of death, and never feel like you missed out for either option.

Sadly, the game's legacy didn't hold up. Its sequel, Invisible War, had an interesting story but never had the same level of complexity as its predecessor. It was an experiment, I appreciated it, and it was neat enough, but it doesn't compare even closely to its ancestor for story.

So, when another game in the line was announced, I was curious how it would be. Transhumanism, questions of humanity, variable gameplay and more were promised, so how could I resist? Then, when it finally came out, well...

Let's just say my vision is augmented.

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