News for Future THINGS AND STUFF 2013 Edition

Hey, everybody! I know there are a decent amount of people reading and/or looking at this blog, and I should probably mention that I certainly appreciate everybody giving this little blog their time. I spend a good deal of my time writing, either on the internet or for myself, and every comment, every view, every single person giving time and effort to the things I've written means a lot to me, even if there are disagreements. And there certainly are and will be disagreements.

But it's all cool. I give my honest opinions on things and stuff, and some of those opinions will be heavily and highly controversial. It happens, and I can take the criticisms as long as other people can understand that my opinions can't be wrong since they're opinions. I know my Homestuck reviews have blown up recently again, and the fact that people keep coming back to those always makes me happy. It almost means to me that my opinions can mean something to people, that my articulations, right, wrong, or otherwise, can have resonance. And it certainly has shown me that there seems to be every type of opinion in regards to that webcomic, and that it is incredibly important to so many people as it was to me before it became the butt of a joke. I think I may have even more I should and might write up about Homestuck, but that might be a while in the making. I have a lot of opinions of the recent stuff that I haven't touched upon as well as ideas that would probably come off as bitter. So, I really want to work on my tone, and make sure that I don't insult a single fan because they will go for the throat. (Addendum: I will probably insult fans, and no, I don't care. People should be able to take both jokes and opinions without getting haughty. I was called wrong about everything, my girlfriend was told that she should break up with me, and my writing was insulted because I deigned to criticize the literary masterpiece that is Homestuck. I know it means a lot to people, it meant a lot to me, but there are seriously a ton of things wrong with it. So, seriously, I'm going to say whatever I want, and if people take what I say the right or wrong way, then okay. No more pussyfooting around or trying to be a happy man to everybody. If you don't like what I'm writing, talk to me about it, don't just go and insult me where your opinion will be taken seriously and reinforced. That's just cowardly and infinitely amusing to me.)

Anyway, I haven't posted anything here for a little while, and I'm going to explain what I've been up to and what my plans for this blog are. While I haven't posted anything here since late March, I have been posting some reviews and criticisms on my other blog, which involves fanfiction analysis and criticism. I share that blog with my girlfriend, and we're planning on having about a review a week up there. We should be alternating on that front, so I'll only be writing two reviews a month on that blog. I also have some plans on maybe trying the podcast thing, but I simply have to find time to record and time to edit, which has been nearly impossible with my job.

Yeah, so one of the reasons this blog started slowing down with content is my job. I've been working a ton of overtime, making decent money, sure, but not having much time for anything but working, small morsels of writing, and a little video gaming on the side. I wish I had more time to write. I've been missing writing like crazy. I plan to have a BioShock Infinite review up very soon, probably by the end of the week. I've started writing it, but it has been slow-going so far. In a nutshell, I loved this game, and I'm hoping that I can grab someone else to give their opinions on the game as well. We'll see.

I'm hoping to put out about four (maybe three) reviews here a month (besides October when I want to put out 31 reviews, heaven help me), but I have to structure my time out accordingly. which has been difficult lately to say the least. I have some movies I've grabbed up recently that I've been dying to review including Calvaire, Apartment 143, Enter the Void, May, Paperhouse, The Brood, Mimic, and many, many more. So, content should be incoming shortly, just be patient. I'm hoping that by May (the month, not the movie) I can equalize myself, get used to the job, and be ready to pump out quality content.

I really, really want to start a few series reviews, including a review of the Goosebumps series, and maybe a few television series as well, episode-by-episode or book-by-book. I'd love to gauge how interested people would be in content like that, but at the same time, I want to do it regardless of interest.

I'm thrilled that Deadly Premonition has a director's cut coming out for the PS3. It is one of my favorite games of all time, and I'm seriously looking forward to better controls, since those awful game controls and fighting mechanics were easily the worst thing about the game. There seem to be some great games coming out this year. I'm really looking forward to The Last of Us, and Beyond: Two Souls, as well as Among the Sleep, and Dragon Age III. So, those will all probably have reviews up from me long after their relevancy has dimmed.

I also hope to have my ongoing series of Star Wars retrospectives continue, and there might even be another Harry Potter book review two years (or however long it's been) after the first one. I've been wanting to review a literal million of Junji Ito's works as well, so we'll see how that works out as well.

Uh, I guess I should plug a few other things as well. My Tumblr, which is terrible, but I sometimes do stupid things there. My Twitter, which I only update once every blue moon or so. And that should be it. Wait, no. If any of you have anything you'd like to request for me to review, just let me know. Comment on this or any random thing, and let me know.

Video Game Assessment: The Binding of Isaac (2011)

"BLASPHEMY!" I did not yell about this game because that would be incredibly stupid. I have to roll my eyes about how people can be so sensitive about anything and everything in this age of information and knowledge. Everything can and probably is offensive in some way. Why do people have to take these things so personally. Look, I'll be offensive right now. I dislike most people and think that their opinions are more than likely wrong if they disagree with my own. Does that make me a bad person? Probably, but in my head I'm not bad at all. My friends think I'm okay. My family likes me well enough. My girlfriend doesn't abuse me that often... Look, my point here isn't that offensive material or potentially offensive material be blocked, but rather that it should be embraced. If you call me hurtful names, I'm going to brush it off, maybe even embrace those names because... why not? I'm pretty sure my taste in movies has been insulted too many times to count. I would rather watch 1408 than The Third Man, rather see 12 Monkeys  than The Matrix or Dark City. I prefer anything to Shutter Island. My point is that this rather offends some people despite that being my own personal opinion. I'm not wrong, but that doesn't make me right either. My point is that people should stop being sensitive and just shut up. If you're offended by The Binding of Isaac, don't play it. Simple as that. if you're offended by gay romances in Mass Effect 3, don't romance the gay characters. I mean... how difficult is it to avoid these things? Answer: Not very.

I start out with the controversy when I'm talking about this game because the religious or anti-religious content in this game is... well, it's barely there at all. The story is simple, barely touched upon at all. Yes, this game seems to make fun of hardcore evangelical Christianity, but why shouldn't that be allowed? It should and has to be allowed. It's a freedom of expression and speech. If a person is comfortable with their beliefs than why should this be blasphemous or dangerous or insidious or whatever else? It's a fun little game with a bunch of incredibly well done items that seem to critique the ideas of Christianity in some very silly ways. If it's taken seriously, then maybe some hardcore Christians should take a long, hard look at themselves, and if it's simply a parody of these beliefs, then why is it inflaming so many people?

I guess the fact that other "mainstream" systems that aren't Steam aren't accepting The Binding of Isaac into their game libraries peeves me off a little. It's unfair to this incredibly clever game. So should people be upset about this game? No. It's a game, people, a fun, enjoyable experience with some religious overtones. It has a not dissimilar feel to the novel Carrie by Stephen King. Why is that novel or the movie not screamed at and about? It's like people are afraid that children and other people who play this game may start to doubt beliefs... Hmmm. if a video game has the ability to steer people away from beliefs then I guess those beliefs are pretty shoddy, wouldn't you say? I kid to a point, but seriously, this game is ridiculous and strange and has no real bearing on anybody who is a normally religious person. It isn't subversive or angry about religion. It simply states a story, in my opinion, through the eyes of an extremely disturbed and abused child. His mother is "religious" and hear the voice of "God" telling her to kill her son, Isaac. That sounds like a suspiciously similar story to the actual binding of Isaac by Abraham in the Bible itself, a story that is pretty odd on its front too, trying to show that trust in God is more important than earthly anythings. Now, I'm not going to scream at the Bible or anything. It's a story. I doubt very many people hear the voice of God telling them to kill their children, and I think it's something that wouldn't happen today. A child is incredibly important, and as a parent, even if God tells you to kill that child, it is your responsibility to not do that. That would be really stupid on both God's part and the part of the parent. So, showing this religious mother attempting to kill her neglected, abused, and naked son is reprehensible and insane, and maybe a good way to show how the Bible can at times be absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic, which isn't a bad thing.

Anyway, the game itself is endless fun. Unlocking different items is always fun and different combinations of different items work differently and give each and every game a different feel. It's a game that I compare to the original Legend of Zelda, and it plays fairly similarly to that and has clear homages to it as well in terms of the item rooms and some of the bosses and enemies. You can play as six different characters in the game; all of them play differently and each (except the joke character) has a religious name like Isaac himself does: Magdalene, Judas, Cain, and Eve. Another character, Samson, is slated for the expansion The Wrath of the Lamb, which comes out at the end of the month.

The main enemy of the game seems to be Isaac's mom herself, but really, in the end, it seems to be Satan. In find that both comical and interesting. The game is incredibly fun.It's enjoyable to play at any time,but does have its own frustrations and difficulties. I've run into a few bugs, usually not terrible ones, but bugs nonetheless. Most of them have been character models disappearing or color palettes changing around at odd times. The game can be incredibly difficult at times and is often very luck based, which can be problematic for the harder to play characters like Eve and ???. If the right materials and items are not dropped, those characters will often fail to defeat the game. There are eleven different endings and the game ramps up the difficulty after you finish the game a certain amount of times. It's only available on Steam, which due to my owning an incredibly crappy computer, meant that to play it I had to install Steam. I did and the game works well, but I really would have rather not installed Steam if given the choice. I wish the game could have been on other platforms. It's rather sad that it isn't.

Anyway, this is an extremely enjoyable, almost addictive game, and should be played by everybody. I spent $4.99 on the game and it was worth every penny for the hours of gameplay and enjoyment I received from it. I also hope that I offend at least one person with this review and what I see herein. Or at least anger some people because of the assumed censorship going on. Man, I would love to have actually offended someone. That would make my day. This game isn't worth people getting up in arms about it. It's a fun experience that does not really need anybody outraged against it. Seriously, anybody outraged needs to reassess their lives and what actually really matters in those lives.

Anyhow, I recommend this game to anybody with a decent computer. It's fun, addictive, challenging, and altogether a really well put together game. It's made by Edmund McMillen, co-creator of Super Meat Boy, and it shows, with this game having a very similar art style and even some of the same characters from Super Meat Boy. Oh, I should probably mention that this game is considered in the Roguelike genre, despite the fact that I've never played Rogue.