Monday 27 July 2009

Gamespotting 030 - Andrew Ryan or John Galt????

The main thing that I have been doing over the summer (apart from going down to the pub for a few too many drinks and playing games) is reading. I love to read and I have had a lot of reading material to do over the summer.

At the moment; I am reading Friends Like These by Danny Wallace which is a great book about revisiting your past, but also for my Dissertation but not an official reference piece that is is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Now this book is huge; it has as many pages as the bible and twice the amount of words (Thanks Wikipedia)and I am enjoying it at the moment, but while reading it; it does bring me back to my Xbox for one reason, Bioshock.

Now; Bioshock is obviously inspired by this book. The utopian image of the future that Ayn Rand puts forward are clearly seen within the game; but also this draws more attention to the games main "Antagonist" Andrew Ryan. Now within Atlas Shrugged; the antagonist put forward to the reader at the beginning of the book is John Galt. This mysterious figure that can be heard everywhere; but not seen until half way through the book, when the pages get into triple figures and towards the end of the book is finally shown to be the hero of the book helping the world into a better future.

Now when comparing to Bioshock; Andrew Ryan is portrayed within the same image. He is considered the bad guy sending splicers, security droids and big daddys but in my opinion; he is the same character as John Galt. In his opinion when building Rapture he wanted to escape the crippling power of authority and rules from the rest of the world and where is the only place where they cant reach you; under the sea god knows how many levels under sea level. But he is portrayed as the bad guy in the same way as the book and the only thing he is trying to do is escape and be free.

I love it when I can compare a game to another form of media on such a deep level like this and Atlas Shrugged; but I think that when Bioshock two comes out; Andrew Ryan will be avenged and the purpose of Rapture will finally come true rather than becoming a huge battlefield for your plasma powered hand and the splicers

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Hidden Level 06 - A Tender Moment while listening to Tracey Jacks

Well; I have not had a chance to go to a festival this year due to having no money and not being able to get the holidays of work. But to compensate for this; I have been watcing all the festival coverage of this years festivals on the BBC.

Glastonbury was good; but my favurite festival of this year was T in the Park; a festival up in scotland. There was a lot of acts that I rearly wanted to see such as the Pet Shop Boys; Seasick Steve but imparticular one of my favourite bands Blur. Now putting the whole Blur Vs Oasis thing to one side, I love Blur and I have always wanted to see them live; which is the main reason why I am annoyed that I could not make it down there.

But while watching the footage of the gig on the BBC; Lead singer Damon Albarn stated that It was to be their final gig. But is it their finalgig for ever or is it their final gig of the summer; But I hope it isn't because watching them live was absolutly fantastic and reviews from Glastonbury were amazing too with some of them saying that Blur was the best act to play there in years.

I ust hope that it was not their final gig as I want to be there with the crowd singing along to Tender and Girls and Boys for years to come; and not just for a brief while

Saturday 4 July 2009

Gamespotting 029 - Jumping On The Bandwagon (Once Again)

Well; the time has come for the next step of the blog and that is the accompaning podcast; Now I have never recorded a podcast in my life so this will be my first time so ultimatly it is rubbish, but practice of perfect.

I have now put the first "episode" up on a podcast service called ClickCaster and was recorded on my trusty G1 phone using its built in voice recorder. So I hope you enjoy it and see what you think.

The link to the podcast is at the following address:-

http://www.clickcaster.com/gamespotting

Thursday 2 July 2009

Gamespotting 028 - Happy 100th Episode One Life Left

Monday will mark a special day of the summer for me and something that I have been looking forward to since January; the 100 episode of One Life Left.

One Life Left is a video games related radio show that it is released as a Podcast every week on Itunes and I have been listening since episode 40 which was a long time ago now and they have finally got to their 100th episode.

So just wanted to say happy 100th episode and hope everybody can listen to it.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Gamespotting 027 - Spending Each Night In Rapture

Well; it is official. I do love the Xbox 360 platform. I did have one during the first months of its initial release and I was dissapointed. The thing was extreamly loud and I had the Red Ring of Death seven times on four different consoles.

Now originally; I got my new Xbox 360 to play and create some XNA titles and possibly release them on the marketplace for the third year project; but that went out of the window when I got Mass Effect and Bioshock for the bargin price of £10.

Now I have played through Mass Effect twice now and I have seen pretty much everything about the game and unlocked both good and bad endings; in preperation for the next title so it was time I moved on to Bioshock.

Now this was the first time I have played the game; but I have heard nothing but good things about it and it has got to be said; I love this game, the storyline and moral choice system are very well crafted and my first Big Daddy fight with the bouncer type scared the crap out of me when it put its drill directly into my face.

But I do have one major problem with this title and that I have seen it all before just because it is basically a remade version of System Shock 2 (One of my favourite games ever) with some art deco style and a dash of Ayn Rand for good measure, not that I am copying the zero punctuation review, I just agree with it.

Not I can't say that this is a bad thing because in my opinion it is only building on perfection because I still don't think that there is a better made PC game than System Shock 2, but adding the big daddy and little sister element to the game is perfect for a game like this and I felt was missing from System Shock 2; the gameplay mechanic that gives the player some sort of moral choice.

Overall; I am looking forward to Bioshock 2 and see what has happened to Rapture after the events of the first one; I just hope it doesnt come out at the same time as Mass Effect 2; as I do not want to make a real life moral choice and choose between the two games that I rearly like.