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Episode 8: Apocalyptic Bingo!
Spoilers... duh.
I
don't need the podcast to break down this one. Congratulations to
everyone that had cannibalism on your apocalyptic bingo cards! Game
players knew we would get here but it was a shocking awakening for
TV-only viewers. Episode 8 was an uncomfortable episode to watch, but
don't worry Joel is back so we're good.
I will have to admit that the show got the pacing and tension-building right in this episode (a top critique of mine for past episodes). This episode had a solid reveal going from a "something's not right here" to "oh sh!t!" in a slow, dreadful series of events. It is unfortunate it had to feature a miraculous recovery by Joel that required viewers to suspend disbelief yet again in a show that does nothing but expect viewers to suspend disbelief.
Also I am not sure if this is what the show was going
for, but in an episode starting out with bible reading isn't it cliche
our savior Joel rises from the dead. Anyone that thought Joel was ever
in any danger (or Ellie for that matter) has never played a video game
with side quests.
I do want to harp on the "sense of
danger". As uncomfortable as this episode was to watch it was more from
the creep factor than it was from any sense that something bad would
happen to our main characters Joel and Ellie. Like a video game its
just a case of finishing the side quest to get on with the main story.
Can we dispense with the cannibalism as well please? It is uncomfortable to watch and detracted from an otherwise great tension builder of the creepy preacher targeting a young girl. We could have gotten all of the drama of this episode without taking the cannibalism.
Anyways, Joel is back to a full healthbar so on to new adventures.
was the original victim of what I like to call the terrible 2s. 
shutdown on December 30, 2005 while the original 
still thrives to this day. AC2 never matched the original and in my opinion was actually a pretty good game. The list continues with Everquest 2 which never matched the original 
and was thoroughly trumped by the monster that is 
.
, out of all the 2s, should have been a right to print money. Everquest was the undisupted champion of the early graphical MMOGs and Everquest 2 was the expected front runner of the "next generation". How terribly wrong that general consensus was. World of Warcraft taught everyone that the Everquest "idea" was wrong and that Everquest never was "right".
(GW2), is set to fail.
went on sale this weekend via Steam for $8.50. It's a steal of a deal and I couldn't resist picking up a copy for myself. 
Torchlight
is a shining example of how to make a game. Developed on budget, by a small and dedicated team, it delivers everything one would want in a Diablo-clone. There are monsters, loot, and random dungeons galore. 
Cost: $13.39 
, but between a bugged out Big Daddy and failed game save backup forcing me to restart twice, I just didn't make any progress. By the time I turned around, April was over and I was scheduled to be out of town most of May. My poor laptop just couldn't manage Bioshock reliably enough to provide a good play experience. I've shelved the game for completion and commentary at a later date.
in April playing a few games.
