Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

While I finished Castlevania: Lords of Shadow a few weeks ago, I've had yet to write up my official review of the game.  So here goes.

Lords is an action game, through and through, and leaves you little time to rest easy during its intense, and lengthy campaign.  You play as Gabriel Belmont, and orphan who was inducted into the Brotherhood from a very young age, and your mission is simple.  Find out what is upsetting the balance of the world.  Things get more complicated as you realize that Gabriel's wife was killed only a couple of days ago and that he burns with vengeance, anger, sorrow, and other not so happy-feely emotions.  Soon enough, you discover that the Lords of Shadow are the cause for all of the baddies coming out of the woodwork and it becomes your goal to kill them all.  That's pretty much the premise of the game, although I will say that the story gets much more interesting and Gabriel is a great character who evolves with his actions.  Also, Patrick Stewart voices one of the main characters, which is just awesome.

Lords is also one of the most beautiful games I have ever played, with highly detailed character models and environments that change consistently throughout the game.  Never did I feel wearied by the settings, which was a relief after a few previous iterations of 3-D Castlevania games came to disappoint in that department.  Sweeping landscapes and ominous ruins expand the world of Castlevania beyond the mere castle-crawl, and reminded me of some of my favorite elements from Super Castlevania IV.  The music and sound effects are of top-notch quality as well, with new soaring anthems that have left the traditional Castlevania scores in the dust.  That's not to say that there aren't elements from some of the songs we know and love from the past, but they are hardly recognizable in the fully orchestrated symphony that blesses your ears.

In a way, Castlevania returns to some of its roots in action gameplay.  Leveling and inventory, which have been so popular since Symphony of the Night, have been stripped away.  Instead, a greater focus is lent to fighting enemies using your combat cross and an array of secondary weapons and skills.  The pace is more linear, with less wandering and more swinging, climbing, jumping, and beast-riding.  The camera cannot be controlled by the player, but it does an excellent job of showing you where you can go while maintaining a cinematic perspective.  I read several reviews complaining about the play controls, but I'm a bit baffled by them.  They reported issues with repeatedly falling off of cliffs, but if run to the edge of a cliff you cannot fall off until you press jump, and while hanging from walls Gabriel tends to look at where he will be jumping to.

In conclusion, I loved Castlevania.  The game was challenging without being frustrating (with the exception of one particular stage with some re-animated coffin creatures and no room to fight in). It provided me with around 20 hours of gameplay, and I am still meaning to return to it to play through on Paladin difficulty and unlock all of the hidden items, so it is truly a generous package.  I can't wait for the next one in the series and hope you find this review helpful in making your decisions.

Consumer to Creation

It's been bothering me for some time now that I've been pretty much exclusively a consumer in life, having contributed little to my community or society as a whole.  I think of all the authors, games, movies, and music that I love, and have realized that I would like to contribute something back.

So far, I have attempted to write and rewrite the same novel for nearly ten years now, and although progress has been slow, I think I've improved somewhat, but what I really need to do is sit down and develop a strict regimen.  Distractions are always too tempting, or it's too easy to feel discouraged from pushing ahead.  I have to set those doubts aside, pick up the metaphorical pen, and write, draw, and imagine again.

To anyone reading this post; most likely my wife and no one else, thanks!

Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta Impressions

Been a while since I posted on my blog, but figured I would give it a go. I am also writing from within Word and posting to Blogger, so we'll see if this actually works!

I figured since I have been putting some time into trying out the open beta for Final Fantasy XIV, I would leave a few of my impressions before the retail game goes live.

If you didn't already know, Final Fantasy XIV is the second MMO in the series, the first being Final Fantasy XI. While I tried out XI a couple of times, I could never really get into it. The game seemed too punishing for casual players or people who like to do lots of solo content while looking for friends (or strangers) to play with. XIV does much to alleviate that problem with the guildleve system, which is basically a quest hub that allows you to specify the number of players that will be participating in a given quest, and the challenge is adjusted accordingly. After a leve is initiated, the player is pointed in the direction of his/her objectives and must perform various tasks, such as defeating monsters, protecting individuals, or acquire materials for crafting within a thirty minute period of time.

I was happy to see that this quest system has departed a bit from the formula that has been well formulated since the inception of World of Warcraft, and during the course of a leve the music amps up and gives a feeling of some urgency to the game, which is a nice touch.

Speaking of music, and graphics as well, Final Fantasy XIV is gorgeous. While it will bring most computers to their metaphorical knees on high settings, even the lower settings still appeal to the eye and imagination. A bit of forum research has revealed that the game should run better on retail release, but we'll have to wait and find out.

Aside from leves, there are main storyline quests, which are the best I have seen in an MMO. At least in the beginning of the game, you are presented with glorious voice-acted motion-captured in-game cutscenes in which your newly made character partakes. Whether Hyur, Taru, or one of the game's three other races, you have a choice of three starting areas to choose from, and any combination of classes is made available to you from the get-go. The class system is entirely dependent on what you are holding in your main hand, so if you are holding a bow you will be working on the archer class, if you are holding a blacksmithing hammer you will be able to craft armor and weapons, or if you possess a staff you can dabble in the arts of magic. Anything is possible for a single character in this game, which is a great idea.

I do have a couple of gripes with the game, but mostly it revolves around bugs and interface issues that remain to be ironed out. For someone who traditionally uses the mouse/keyboard format for any PC games, myself included, FFXIV has yet to include hardware mouse support, and the user interface forces the player to go through layers of menus to get to their journals and inventory screens. Additionally, the UI is a bit laggy, but even that has improved over the past week or so. Square-Enix has promised hardware mouse support, and I hope they will grant the user more keybinding options so that things can be done like binding the "j" key to the journal pane and the "c" key to the character pane, etc.

Despite the problems, I found myself really enjoying Final Fantasy XIV when I wasn't expecting too. I had to give it time and pay attention to what was going on in order to understand what the hell I was doing, but that is a nice change of pace from the commonplace MMO dynamic. I may not purchase the game on launch (since I need a job), but I think it will be a pretty solid experience a couple of months in.

Rest in Peace

I just learned today from one of my former geology 211 students that another student of mine from the same quarter got into a fatal car accident near Spokane over spring break.  The least I can do is acknowledge that he was a bright student, and a great person.

Rest in peace, Sammy Alurfali.

A Game of Thrones and a Clash of Kings Review

When I first hear about the A Song of Ice and Fire Saga I felt little to no interest in George R.R. Martin's epic series.  But, of course, that was before I actually read any of the books, and now I have been sucked into the world of political intrigue, betrayal, heroism, and subtle mysticism.  Not only that, but I also had to pick of the LCG (living card game) based on the series, but I'll get to that in a future review.

I have already powered my way through the first two novels, which could be aptly labeled as tomes for their size.  A Game of Thrones, the first novel, focuses primarily on the various members of the Stark family, a hard, honest people who inhabit the keep and lands of Winterfell in the north of Westeros, the small continent which is the primary setting for the novels.  Each chapter is told from a different character's perspective, which is an excellent story-telling device and I can't imagine these books any other way.  From the start the six children of Eddard (the lord of Winterfell) Stark find a direwolf mother dead, having been locked in a deathly embrace with a stag.  They discover six pups, which they adopt and remain loyal to their children throughout the course of the books.

Soon enough, Lord Eddard's king and old friend, Robert Baratheon, arrive at Winterfell to ask Eddard to become the Hand of the King, who basically does all the hard work, which Eddard is forced to begrudgingly accept.  A secondary storyline focuses on Daenerys, the daughter of the old king who was rebelled against by Robert and friends, who has been exiled overseas with her brother on a vast, arid continent.  As the book progresses, the importance of her role continues to grow, and although her storyline often felt almost jarring in its difference from the events in Westeros, it was still a welcome dialogue with interesting occurrences.

From this point forward the plot twists and turns in intriguing and sometimes unexpected directions, bringing the reader to truly care about the fate of the plethora of characters, regardless of whether they are good, evil, or somewhere in between. I don't really want to give away too much more of the plot because I feel it would spoil a lot of the surprises for a first-time reader.  I absolutely recommend reading A Game of Thrones.  I think it is one of the most fantastic and well-written pieces of literature I have ever read, which nearly anyone could find some part to enjoy.  If you like intrigue, action, love, hate, and everything else in a book, this is the series for you!

I would also like to make a few comments on A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin's series.  This novel introduces a couple of new perspectives from which the narrative is driven, those being the characters Davos and Theon.  Davos is an old corsair turned loyalist who brings into focus the events surrounding Stannis Baratheon, Robert Baratheon's brother.  Theon Greyjoy is a young man of age with the eldest Stark, Robb, who is also a ward of the Starks, and his narrative focuses on his return to his father on the island of Pyke.

I also managed to plow through A Clash of Kings quickly, but I found the plot twists to be a little less intriguing than in the first novel, but it had more than enough interesting parts to carry on a fantastic storyline, and I was definitely left eager for the next novel,  A Storm of Swords, which I am already several hundred pages in.

I love these books and I just wanted to give a shout out to my graduate student compatriot, Joe, for introducing me to the series!

Quick Review: Stranger in a Strange Land

My interest in Robert A. Heinlein really began with reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which I thoroughly enjoyed for its creative voice and interesting, relatively conflict-free plot. Stranger in a Strange Land is very similar, and yet very different. The plot is a sort of coming-of-age story, but told in a very different way. Michael Valentine Smith, or Mike, was the first and only human born on Mars and raised by Martians. After being brought to Earth, he must learn what it is to be human, and at the same time humans must learn what it means to be Martian.

One of the most important concepts, grokking, seems very simple at the beginning of the story, and yet has endless layers of complexity by the end. By grokking something, one has a complete understanding of it, but there is all so much more to it. With only a set of Martian morals and understanding, Mike begins to grok the world, friendships, and love, evolving from a seemingly child-like adult to a courteous and charismatic leader.

Despite his state, the reader can always empathize with Mike and the people he cares about, and I felt as though I were with them in the story, listening to their casual, witty banter, and going through all of the hard growing pains that each individual experiences. In a way, reading Stranger in a Strange Land made me see things differently and I wish that everyone would do the same. Robert A. Heinlein crafted an optimistic, yet bitter-sweet tale that speaks to the heart of what it means to be human, which is the best and worst thing that can happen to all of us.

It isn't so much the plot that makes this book special, but the underlying messages it conveys. Some of the dialogue doesn't necessarily hold up with today's conventions, dating the story a bit, but the heart of it holds up to modern society relatively well for a book that is over 40 years young.

With that, I look forward to reading more by Robert A. Heinlein in the future, with my next stop being Starship Troopers.

Quick Review: Carrion Comfort

About a month ago I finished Carrion Comfort, by Dan Simmons, which was quite an enjoyable read. Since then, I have read two other books, hence the "quick review" part of the title.

I've always loved Dan Simmons as an author, and my favorite of his works are by far the Hyperion saga and The Terror, two very different settings and genres. Carrion Comfort is much closer to the The Terror, genre-wise, in that it is a suspenseful and sometimes horrific novel. All similarity ends there, though, as Carrion Comfort takes place in a contemporary setting, well, 1980's, and centers on a group of people who have a powerful influence on the minds of others, essentially feeding off of turmoil, and those who fight against them. The book coins the term "mind vampires" for the depraved villains of the story.

I found the book to be quite gripping and well-written, but at times I felt my interest waning in certain plot points, with the middle part of the book in particular. The central portion takes place mainly in an area of Philadelphia known as Germantown and I found some of the character interaction to be a little artificial, and felt that this act dragged on for a little too long. The opening and closing acts of the story were hard to put down with a rapidly moving plot forcing characters into situations that were hard to get out of. Saul, a holocaust survivor, has a particularly interesting story in his never-ending quest to find the Oberst, a Nazi who had forced control over him when he was in Chelmno, an extermination camp during WWII.

Overall, Carrion Comfort provided an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a well-written horror book, but I would still hand The Terror to someone first.

The Verdict

Well, I decided to pick up Final Fantasy XIII. I realized that I haven't gotten ahold of a good old fashioned RPG in a long time and that I was quite eager to see how this newest installment turns out. This isn't a full game review, since I only got it a few days ago and it will probably take me a few months to explore all of the newest installment in the Final Fantasy franchise, but I wanted to leave a few brief impressions.

At about eight hours into Final Fantasy XIII, a mere scratch on the surface, I have really enjoyed what I have seen and played. It is one of the most beautiful games to date, with characters so detailed that you'll be wondering the entire time whether they have been pre-rendered or are in-game. In fact, the game does quite a good job of blending the two seamlessly. Gone are the days of beautiful cutscenes outshining crappy in-game graphics, ala Final Fantasy VII, and we have at last achieved a point where every moment of dialogue is astonishing to look at.

The dialogue itself can be a bit questionable, but so far the story has progressed interestingly enough. The character that sets me the most on edge is the upbeat, high-voiced, semi-Australian accented Vanille, but I have grown used to her character and even smile or laugh at her comments from time to time. My favorite character so far has to be Sazh, the big-haired gun-totting badass who has been dragged along with the main protagonist, Lightning, in her effort to rescue her sister Serah from a cursed life. Serah's fiancee, Snow, is another rather fun character who has some potential for growth in his feud with Lightning. And let's not forget Hope, the coming-of-age kid who has become Lightning's protege.

I have yet to see all of the party members in action, and the story has really just begun. Without giving too much away, the plot has done an excellent job of blurring the line on what forces are good or evil, although I have the niggling feeling that the guys who looks like pope Ratzinger-Palpatine may be of the villainous disposition.

What I really wanted to mention is the battle system. So far it has steadily evolved and grown in complexity, introducing concepts both old and new to the series in a turn-based/real-time blend of action. While I enjoyed the real-time elements in XII, I feel like there's a lot more strategy and control to be had here. The Paradigm system is an interesting concept that allows you to shift your party's class in the midst of battle, whether you want someone to heal, protect, or wail on your opponents. From what I have seen so far, you only control the leader of your party, but the action is so fast and intense this is a welcome aspect. The further I have gotten, the more strategy I have had to use between choosing the skills I want to do and swapping paradigms. And finally, the chain system from Final Fantasy XII is expanded on, allowing you to "stagger" an enemy, which becomes an essential strategy for beating battles quickly and efficiently. If I were to put a score on the battle system, I'd give it two thumbs, 4 stars, or whatever else you can imagine.

I've read that alot of people are troubled by the linear progression in the first chunk of the game, but it really hasn't bothered me. While you don't get much choice in where to go you still get choices in what skills to work towards and what weapons you want to upgrade. The steady introduction of new concepts prevents the game from getting too confusing or stale, and has really forced me to look at things I rarely did in previous Final Fantasy installments, such as certain spells and debuffs.

With so much to go, such as acquiring the full party, all of the summonables (Eidolons), exploring the cavernous world of Cocoon and its feared sister world, Pulse, I eagerly await the coming dozens of hours with relish.

March Game Madness

When looking at the roster of games coming out this month I have to ask... REALLY!? All of these games are coming out THIS month? To name a few we have:

Final Fantasy XIII
God of War III
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising
Dragon Age: Awakening

The other question I have to ask is... which one should I get? Obviously my pockets are not filled with money. Nor are they made of them.

The Dreaming Void Review

Following hot on the heels of reading the Night's Dawn trilogy, I began reading The Dreaming Void, Peter F. Hamilton's first of three epic space opera-ing books set in the distant future.

In 3584 AD humankind has expanded far beyond the sphere of earth into the vast expanse of our galaxy, encountering and making peace with the various sentient races that checker the stars, some almost as ancient as the stars themselves. While many species are mentioned, only the Raiel take the center stage throughout the first book since they are concerned with the next Devourment, a massive star-engulfing event in which the Void, a mysterious gateway to another dimension through which no one can seem to pass at the center of the galaxy, expands at a horrifying scale.

Humankind has divided into three groups; regular people, who still manipulate themselves on a genetic level, Advancers, who are connected empathically by gaiamotes, and Highers, whose ultimate goal is to ascend beyond the physical condition into a greater existence. All of the above merely sets the backdrop for a story filled with mystery, espionage, sex, destruction, crazy cults, and interesting characters. Unfortunately a bit of apartment renovation is thrown in the mix, but the author can be forgiven quickly because it helps establish a pivotal character to the storyline.

Really, the book is two books, with one focusing on the future, while another takes us into the Void, where we follow Edeard through the early years of his life in a society which is technologically medieval. Edeard's story is brought to us by a series of dreams from Inigo, the first Dreamer in the future timeline who could see to the other side of the Void in his dreams, which has established a galaxy-spanning cult that desire only to enter the Void to become a part of Edeard's seemingly simpler society.

I won't give away any more of the plot, and considering that everything I mentioned is condensed into the first couple of chapters, I didn't spoil much. What I really enjoyed about this book were the numerous interesting characters, the enthralling storylines, and the excellent writing. Petter F. Hamilton has managed to condense his wild imagination into an understandable, readable, and exciting work, especially when compared to the expansive and often dragging Night's Dawn trilogy. I could always believe the actions and reactions of the characters and seldom felt pulled out of the universe of The Dreaming Void by dull or inconsequential sequences. There are still plenty of detailed sections describing the technology of the future, all of which are relevant and interesting. I felt that Peter F. Hamilton has also improved his ability to describe the ideas that must storm around in his imagination, bringing to life crystalline cities and outlandish alien cultures.

If you like sci-fi or fantasy or just a good book, please support an amazing author by picking up The Dreaming Void. I eagerly anticipate the next title, The Temporal Void, and can't wait to find out what happens next and how the two storylines converge.

Until then I will be reading Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons' second book, which was published during the same year as Hyperion, which has so far been a chilling and enthralling read. More on that one later.

EARTHQUAKES

Look! Earthquake data! So many to locate...




It's for the best though. After picking all of my P and S waves I will be able to find the hypocenters for all of the earthquakes from my data set and unearth the secrets of the Fraser swarm!!!

Check it out!

My short story from yesterday was posted on about.com! It even has a comment. *gasp!*

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/writingexercises/a/tolife.htm

Untitled Story Start

Alright, so I guess I'm feeling creative today. I pumped out a couple of pages inspired by fledgling industry society vs nature. This has been kicking around in my brain for a while, basically since I discovered a band called Midlake, which has many naturalistic overtones, a few years ago. Not sure where to go with it, but I'm sure it will involve some sort of adventuring, romance, and fantastical aspects, but not in the traditional big picture good vs evil stuff that is in so much of sci-fi and fantasy these days. Let me know what you think, all one person that might actually read this:

Gray are the days of this town. The men, the women, and its emaciated children. The earth gives little any longer. Our rape no longer brings satisfaction, just more work-weary days in the dark of low black smoke until dusk when the furnaces hiss to a halt and we all come home beaten and lost to our wives. Gray are our days and I fear they shall only turn darker, dark as the ore we so achingly crave. It is our lifeline, our profit, the umbilical to a larger world which could sooner be free of us and not notice.

Justice, not the ideal, but my wife, grows anxious with the times. She harasses me so, begging me to move the family to a new town and a new existence, but I resist, not entirely sure why. Perhaps it is because I have lived my whole life in this town, dredging through the nearby swamps and hiking through the looming, dark forests in my youth. I look to them, which are dreary to some, and my heart yearns to return to their carefree realm. Instead I labor and break and come home to a wife who I never wanted and never wanted me.

The children think me lazy and turn to books instead of the wild, dreading the day that they might become me. Our youngest, Edwin, is the only of our four that has any worship for me left. He still sees me as provider, hunter, father, and god. His bright-eyed blindness to my faults give me what little satisfaction I have left in life, but I am struck with the horror that any day he too will forsake me.

As I write this, I sit alone at my desk illuminated beneath a candle so dim I can barely see the pages, and I wonder how much longer we can last. The veins of these mountains have all but dried to pitiful dust. I I have decided that once this town is gone it will be the end of me, my last hurrah before I return to the fantasies of my youth. I’ll live off the land and forget the family that has been my parasite since I was only sixteen. Hardly should I feel old at my age, but I have already found a dozen gray whiskers in my beard and more streaked throughout my air. My lungs feel stale with the rock dust I inhale every day deep below. My limbs are weak and without will.

Perhaps I’ll leave tomorrow. For now, I just wish to sleep beside my wife, who loathes me.

Edwin rested his father’s journal on his sidetable, carefully folding the book shut and fastening the tie about its cover. He must have been a toddler still when this last entry was written. Three or four, perhaps. Now, having just turned sixteen, the same age his father was when his oldest brother was born, Edwin felt the burden of responsibility closing around him. He could barely remember his father’s face, except for his sad, deep eyes. Edwin remembered his father’s coarse hands too, always there to comfort him and tuck him in to sleep after dark.

The coal mining town that he read of seemed a distant memory, a place both dreadful and mystical, but so much more exciting than the little farm they had lived in for much of his youth. He had read the journal time innumerable, as if it were a prayer book, and every word his father had scrawled were rules to guide his life by. This had been one of the final entries, after so much of his father’s vigor had been choked out by the beginnings of modern industry. He died in a tunnel collapse only a few days later, and after that, Justine, Edwin’s mother, moved the family to the countryside with her cousins where they raised livestock.

A soft wrapping of knuckles at his door made Edwin jump. “May I come in?” his mother’s voice requested. “Of course, mother,” he responded a little hoarsely. She glided in dressed in her white nightgown. Her black hair was streaked with gray now, her mouth drooped in a permanent frown. To say the least, the years since his father’s death hadn’t been kind to her. She eyed the journal resting on its pedestal beside Edwin and frowned further.

“He is gone, Edwin.”

He rolled his eyes, tired of this old argument, “I know, mother, I’m not an idiot.”

“Well why do you still pretend as if he’s alive. As if he reads to you every night. You need to grow up. You’re a man now, and you are the spitting image of him. It is an unfortunate truth, but it must be told if you are to learn from your father’s mistakes.”

“You always talk about him with such spite, but I’ve read his words a thousand time and I know he loved you with every bone in his body!” he felt a bit niggled by the last entry he had read, but his father had grown more delusional as he came unknowingly closer to the day of his death. Or maybe he did know. A sense of foreboding always filled Edwin while he read the final recordings.

Now it was his mother’s turn to roll her eyes, “You must stop living in this fantasy world of yours. Look around you. The world of science surrounds us now. There will be no mysteries left in the world with the enlightenment.”

He took her words literally and looked around him. The only things he could see outside under the moonlight were miles of endless pasture and the stout figures of a few roving bovines. He groaned to himself. Hardly enlightening.

“Now, listen,” she continued, bristling at his attitude, “I know that you are a young man and that the only thing that crosses your mind is where to sow your oats, but please be mindful of your family. We are depending on you. Since the death of your brother, Percival, heavens keep him, we’ve no head to the family. Your sisters and I rely on you, as the man of the house, to bring us to providence. Your aunt and uncle have nearly had it with us and would sooner boot us to the curb than accept another late deposit.”

“Yes, Mother,” Edwin droned helplessly.

“And another thing. You really must wake up earlier. You waste half the morning in bed when there is money to be made. The cows can’t just milk themselves. Not to mention clean the barns.

“Yes, Mother. Is that all? I need to rest if you want me to do all of these things tomorrow.”

Her nostrils flared. How his father had ever seen anything in her… Then her eyes began to glisten, “Of course, Edwin. Goodnight. You really are your father’s son.” She abruptly slammed the door behind her. Edwin listened to her footsteps recede down the hall, followed by the sound of her door creaking shut. Had he upset her? It almost sounded as though she were complementing him, but no, it was the usual digging insult, he was sure.

Edwin blew out his lantern, watching the white curls of smoke rise and letting the smell sting at his nose for a while. Then he turned to his side and closed his eyes to sleep with one last thought; he had to get out.

Short Story: Life and Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road

Just finished a short story this morning for a contest thing I found on about.com. Basically I just had to include "wedding cake in the middle of the road" in the context of the story, so I decided to very loosely base it on an experience the wife and I had. It's still very much fiction, but here it is.

Towering overhead, like some great tusked mammoth of millennia gone by, is the wedding cake in the middle of the road.

After more than seven years together, Nina turned to me from the passenger seat, clasping my right hand with slightly chilled fingers. I glanced over to her from the freeway for an instant to see her eyebrows crinkled together.

Her breath caught for an instant before the flood of words broke from her mouth, “You know we’ve been together for seven years. More really. I think we’ve known each other for ten. People are starting to wonder, you know, if we’re ever really going to be together. I’m not saying we’re not, but I think that’s what they’re thinking. You know what I mean, right?”

For a moment the words coalesced, thickening like a simmering sauce. “I suppose so, yeah.” I hesitated an instant, questioning my choice of words before brazenly pushing further, “So what?” Her grip on my hand slackened and her eyes darted to the dashboard. Tightening my grip on the steering wheel, I continued, “I mean to say, you don’t really care what they think, do you?”

The corner of her mouth twitched, “No, I’m not saying I do. People wonder all sorts of stupid stuff. It’s just that this time I’ve been thinking the same thing.” She sighed, taking me back in with her hazel eyes. I smiled at her sheepish grin, nodding slightly.

“Yeah, I’ll admit the thought has crossed my mind as well.”

“Really? I thought you might be weirded out or something. We’ve never really talked about it before.”

We hadn’t, I’d realized, “I guess not, but I always assumed it was there. It seems like you’ve been my whole life, so marriage wouldn’t really change things.”

“Probably not,” she shrugged, “but it could be fun to put it all together. To see everyone we love in one place dancing and throwing back a drink or ten. Let’s not forget my gown and everything underneath.”

The driver’s seat became a bit more uncomfortable for me at her last mention, which Nina noticed with a chuckle. “Alright,” I glowed in embarrassment, “those are all very valid points, but we both make crap wages. I know our families could help, but I’d rather not ask. We’ll have to pay for a venue, drinks, food, someone to marry us, the dress, suits, and, uh, the wedding cake.” Five cars passed us as I anxiously pushed along in my rather ill ’94 Volkswagen Jetta. I could feel the engine straining to match sixty, which always felt unnerving.

“Good points, all of them,” she nodded, not the least bit perturbed, “but we can find a way. We always find a way.” Her eyes suddenly widened, “Paul. Paul!” I snapped to face the road again. Tumbling toward us, breaking apart and flying into the air, was a six story wedding cake. A blue tarp flapped wildly behind it, and in front of that a silver truck spun and flipped, scraping on its side toward the ditch to our right. I pumped at the brakes, clutching white knuckled at the steering wheel, instinctively wanting to jump in front of Nina to protect her, but all I could do was watch the cake speed toward us, pink and white frosting writhing each time it impacted with the pavement.

Nina braced her arms against her door and the car began to swerve as I spun the wheel. The world spun in a sickening vertigo, blurring like smeared pastel. A scream escaped my throat, “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening! Oh shit, shit shit shitshitshit-“ the impact rattled through my bones. My head twisted one way as our car twisted the other, shuddering and screeching. The glass cracked in an instant, becoming a white network of tiny fractures. Panicked, I grabbed at Nina’s arm. Our hearts raced together. Then another impact hit. Airbags burst from their compartments, slamming with unbelievable velocity and punching the wind out from my chest.

I could steel feel the momentum of the car sliding, even after we stopped. Smoke began to pour from the console with a familiar, acrid sting to it. For a moment, I stared dazedly at the deflated airbag which had burst through the front of the steering wheel like the Xenomorph from Alien. In a flood of panic I reached out to Nina and ripped off my seatbelt.

“Nina! Are you alright?” her hands gripped at my arms and then pulled me in to a tight hug. She started sobbing. I shook violently at her touch, adrenaline and relief flooding my veins. We held each other another moment, relishing in our warmth, her hair pressed against my cheek, tickling at my face.

The smell of the electrical burn had gotten stronger when the world came back into being. I tried pulling the keys out, but they were jammed. I cranked the parking brake into place and pushed out of the doorway. More smoke billowed out with me. Nina came out of her side of the car a moment later, and we just stared at the front of the car in disbelief. Wedding cake had splattered across the grill, which was now caved in, nearly to the windshield. Behind us more cars had spun out of control, flung from one side of the freeway to the other, while we had apparently slammed into the truck which had lost the cake in the first place. I cringed at the sound of bending metal and plastic as another collision occurred. Onlookers from the other side of the freeway slowly drove past, mouths agape, refusing to mind their own business and slowing things up for everyone behind them.

I embraced Nina again, asking, “Are you alright?” This time she nodded, with tears blurring her eyes. We stumbled to the side of the road, collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. For a while, we stared out at the destruction, Nina’s head on my shoulder, until the paramedics and police arrived.

After several accounts and hours we managed to get back home. The sturdy floors, solid doors, and warm air filled me with relief. I could only stew over the facts. Our only car was lost. We’d nearly died.

Nina put on the kettle, telling me not to worry. We would find a way. We always did. We were home, alive, and relatively uninjured, she had to remind me. A wrong turn, a slower reaction, and we’d have been smashed by a ginormous, barreling cake. I nodded forlornly, trying not to feel so self-centered and irresponsible.

A cup of tea later, she turned to me, wincing at the cuts across her brow. She held up her mug with a lopsided smile, “I’d still like for us to get married, you know. To life and wedding cakes in the middle of the road.”

Darksiders Review

I've decided to write some brief game reviews on some games I have played/completed from the holiday season. The first of these reviews is on Darksiders, a third-person action puzzler for the PS3 (as well as the XBOX 360):

Without giving much away, Darksiders is a fantastic blend of swordplay, platforming, and puzzling. You play as War, one of the four horsemen who has awaited the coming Apocalypse, only to be unleashed before his time for havoc has come. While the story is fairly simple and limited in scope, it establishes an interesting setting set in the distant future, long after the Third Kingdom, Man, has been destroyed in the war between Angel and Demonkind. The reasons for your premature release (you can laugh now), are unveiled over a course of well animated cutscenes with surprisingly well-performed dialogue. The only exception to the interesting cast of characters is War himself, who is given a laundry list of generic one liners and a standard gravelly, grumbling voice.

The graphics in Darksiders were particularly enjoyable for me, being a fan of comic-book artwork and diverse, colorful environments. I never bored of the settings, ranging from medieval/gothic cathedrals to flooded subways overgrown with plantlife. The amount of backtracking through the world, which opens up to larger landscapes as you progress, never became repetitive. The animations also complement the intricately designed characters, adding life where too many titles fail (sorry Bethesda, I love your games, but I've grown tired of watching people move around like they are hiding a turd in their pants).

The most important factor of any game is its gameplay. I spent seventeen and a half hours traversing the post-apocalyptic world of Darksiders, and enjoyed nearly every minute of it. The beginning of the game is truly the worst part with linear progression and limited combat and equipment. After an hour or so, the possibilities really begin to open up in the game as you unlock new combat moves, weapons, and tools for solving puzzles. It becomes apparent that Darksiders is not just an action game like God of War or Devil May Cry, but more akin to titles such as Okami and the Legend of Zelda. Everything a fan of Zelda could enjoy is in this game, including dungeons, creative gadgets, and even a horse.

After completing Darksiders, I was left wanting more, which is promised by the final moments, and I can only imagine what will happen once the creators are further able to spread their demonic wings into new territory. Darksiders is a beautiful game, filled with exhilarating moments, and the best parts of familiar titles. A year from now I'm sure to pick it up again for another play through, just like any good Zelda title.