"BILLY!" you're saying to yourself right now, "YOU'RE SO CLEVER!" Yes, yes, I know this very well. After all, I rip lines out of Office Space and use them as blog titles as only the best pop culture commentators can. But for all the self-deprecating chatter wasting precious screen space here, there is actually a purpose behind my use of that phrase beyond the fact that today is Monday. You see, Peter Gibbons, the central character of Office Space, attained a degree of success and renown in his office by breaking out of the traditional routine and doing things his own way. Likewise, I'm shirking the prescribed format (when I started writing the Weekly Glance Back column, it required a wall of boring factual background before I was able to get to the good stuff, and no one wants to sit through all that) in favor of something that will, hopefully, interest you much more.
Today, I bring to you, oh dear reader, something I stumbled on over the weekend: a flash game called The Company of Myself.
In this game, you play as an unnamed man who, for some reason, has become a hermit, and so must solve his problems entirely on his own esteem. In order to complete the levels, you take certain actions in each level and then, by hitting the space bar, replicate the actions you just took in the form of a ghost man who does everything exactly as you just did it, leaving you free to do other things. In this manner, you can use yourself to get a boost up to a higher ledge, carry yourself across a bridge, and so on. In some levels you can only replicate yourself once; in others, you can replicate yourself an infinite number of times. This type of gameplay creates a number of interesting possibilities, and makes you take a different approach to virtually every level, so the game never gets stale.
While the gameplay is certainly novel and challenging in its own right, there's a level of depth behind this game that you don't usually see in such offerings. If you do choose to play it (and I strongly recommend that you do), don't just skip the intro sequence, because it lays the foundation for the intriguing story of the game. In fact, the game itself is, as the narrator describes it, an allegory for the story that he is telling, and as you play through each level, he gives you insights into what he thinks and feels. While graphically sparse, the music is superbly atmospheric, at times whimsical and at others almost sinister. If you start playing this game, please, PLEASE play it through to the end, and sit through the end credits (they're not very long)... it's worth the time and effort to see the haunting conclusion of this tale.
If you start the game and have trouble at any point, I'm including a video walkthrough, but I'd advise you not to watch it unless you really need it... that said, enjoy the game.
By now you probably have figured out that I'm an avid fan of the Playstation 3. As such I consider it my sworn duty to educate the general public about the goings on in the PS3 world.
Heavy Rain is currently in development and slated for a February 2010 release. It is developed by French studio Quantic Dream, makers of Omikron and Indigo Prophecy. Quantic Dream specializes in rather abnormal games, and Heavy Rain is no different. The story is based on the pursuit of a serial killer and set in a small city. There are four playable characters each interwoven into the story. Don't expect a shooter, this game appears to be a mystery suspense game. It looks similar in feel to the Silent Hill series, however, the story remains grounded in reality and shies away from the supernatural.
The game also alters traditional movement, using the PS3 triggers to control movement speed. This will be an interesting use for the "squishy" triggers of the PS3, and we will look expectantly to see how the system performs.
The gameplay will focus on the search for clues and pursuit of the killer, and the themes are supposed to comment on the price and value of love and how far someone is willing to go for love. There also will be included a system where the player can bring up potential thoughts of the character and follow the lines of thought in a certain way. Using certain lines of thought at wrong times will lead the character down a dark and dangerous path, and ultimately will result in action scenes which will rely heavily on quick time events to resolve, so if you aren't a fan of quick time events, you may want to steer clear. However, unlike shooters which throw random quick time events in just to mess with you, here the events seem to fit with the suspense and reaction, the system looks fairly fluid and apparently there is some sort of timer system to guide you. However, there is no second chance for messing up.
One of the unique things about this game is the progression of the game. You begin by playing as one character, if your choices and actions lead you to an untimely death, there is no red screen of blood and the the words "loading", rather, the game continues and you assume control of a different character, and the story adapts based upon the death. If all four characters wind up dying, the story resolves and the game ends. It present a fluidity and continuity to the game that has rarely if ever been seen before. No doubt this will exasperate many gamers who simply want to rush a bunker and blow away the bad guys, but if you are the type who enjoys the more psychological thrillers, Heavy Rain seems like one of the more interesting games to come along in a long time.
As always folks, enjoy your Monday if you can, and check back in with us tomorrow.
Well folks, I was going to get this up on Friday, which is our usual schedule, but the holiday busyness just had me too tired, so its going up now.
As Billy mentioned below, Christmas season seems to get earlier and earlier each year, but seeing as we are now past Thanksgiving, the Christmas holiday season has hit full steam. As such, you will start hearing Christmas music wherever you go, from your barber down the street, to the mall, to the radio station that has been playing hard rock the entire year.
With that in mind, we present our inaugural top 10 list. The top 10 Christmas songs of all time. For purposes of this list, we are steering clear of caroling classics like "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls". Instead we examine some of the best Christmastime classics from the distant and not so distant past.
10. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas- Perry Como One of the great voices of a generation, Como's classic is still heard everywhere during the holiday season, and for good reason. It remains one of the greatest Christmas songs ever.
9. Blue Christmas- Elvis Not as widely played as some of the others here, but Blue Christmas is still a classic, and that trademark croon has still managed to sneak its way into many a movie or commercial.
8. Let It Snow- Dean Martin One of the best voices ever, and a classic tune. I'm more than partial to Martin's version. Then again, I'm more than partial to anything that includes Martin, who remains one of the most talented people to ever walk the earth.
7. White Christmas- Bing Crosby For years, this was the King of Christmas music. Written of course by Irving Berlin for his movie of the same name, Crosby's version is held in the highest regard possible.
6. Baby It's Cold Outside- Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell The common mistake with this song is that the defining version is sung by Doris Day and Bing Crosby. Actually, it wasn't Bing and Doris, it was Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer. Regardless, I actually prefer the version from Elf, Deschanel's voice is perfect for the song, and Ferrell aint so bad himself.
5. I'll Be Home For Christmas- Michael Buble Lot's of different versions out there. The Carpenters version is likewise very solid, but Buble nailed this version in my opinion.
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas- Frank Sinatra You knew old blue eyes had to be on the list. Sinatra's version is classic and soulful. Great song.
3. The Christmas Song- Nat King Cole Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe help to make a season bright, if not, just let Nat tell you again, and again.
2. All I Want For Christmas is You- Mariah Carey While Billy will undoubtedly argue night and day for My Chemical Romance's version, Carey gets the nod here. Almost an instant classic when she released it, this song shows off her considerable vocal talent while also delivering a catchy modern pop classic, a rarity for Christmas songs.
1. Holly Jolly Christmas- Burl Ives In my mind, only one man could top this list. While Billy prefers the excellent Andy Williams, I don't consider it Christmas season until I hear Burl on my radio.
That's my list for the holidays, many of you may have different classics that get you in the spirit, let me know what you think.
If you're still foggy as to what this column is about after reading the title, this is where we set aside some time each week to gripe about stuff that bugs us in popular culture. The pet peeve of the week is, in contextually appropriate fashion, the ambiguity of the start of the Christmas season.
When does the Christmas season begin, exactly? That's a bit of a tough question to answer, due largely to what I like to call the "Christmas creep." Christmas creep is the amount of time every year (or period of years) that the season is extended into fall by the mass media. To demonstrate: when I was younger, about 9 years old or so, radio stations used to play Christmas music for about 48 hours, starting early on Christmas Eve and ending at midnight after Christmas Day. Then, when I was 14, one station started playing Christmas music 24 hours a day for an entire week before Christmas. Then, the next year, a different station started playing it 24/7 the day after Thanksgiving. This year, that same radio station started playing Christmas music nonstop on Veterans' Day. See how it works?
While I know that there can't really be a set date for the Christmas season to start, I wish people would start using their heads about this kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Grinch; I love Christmas as much as the next guy (or possibly more, if the next guy is in fact a Grinch), I just think the start of the season is being pushed to its limits. It seemed even more widespread this year than it has in years past, with many people admitting via Facebook status updates that they were getting into the spirit early this year. Again, there's nothing really wrong with that, I just don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to be chopping down trees and singing Christmas carols before Thanksgiving even comes.
It's an upside down tree. You know, to symbolize the error of starting the season too early. It works, right? Right?
To me, the arrival of Santa Claus at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is clearance for the season to officially begin. Even then, there's still Thanksgiving dinner to be had before you rush into all the Christmas festivities, but at least Santa has given you his blessing by that time. When you start getting all Christmas-y before you've even reached the halfway point of November, I think your priorities are a little out of whack. I mentioned how early the season was starting a while ago, and it was pointed out to me that it will never start before Halloween, because Halloween is such a big deal these days as well. That's true enough, but if you go to any major retail outlet the day after Halloween, the Christmas decorations are coming out. I know Thanksgiving isn't a big consumer holiday, and I suppose that's where the heart of it all lies, but it is still a national holiday, and I think we should abstain from Christmas related activities (barring shopping) until after it passes.
Alas, the Christmas creep just keeps on creeping, and since the media is such a powerful force in our lives, it's hard not to jump right in the first time we hear "Happy Holidays" by Andy Williams (I realize this isn't the most traditional of Christmas songs, but I play it every year to kick off the season, if only because I think the phrase "hoop dee doo and dickery dock" is hilarious). Personally, I'll hold off on the festivities until Black Friday. It only makes sense; Black Friday is the official start of the Christmas shopping season, and it's the day after the last major holiday before Christmas. If you do it that way, you don't encroach on any other holidays' turf, and you still get about a month's worth of Christmas cheer. Plus, you save me the annoyance of having to listen to Christmas music before I'm in the mood for it. It is, as Michael Scott would say, a win-win-win situation.
So there's your pet peeve for the week, the first of many to come, and in the future they'll arguably be much more vehement than this. Starting Christmas early does annoy me, but not nearly so much as a myriad of other things in pop culture, but since it's Black Friday, this seemed like a good time to showcase my views on the subject. Incidentally, since it is Black Friday, and the Christmas season has officially started, I will leave you with a treat:
Welcome friends to our inaugural installment of "Battle Royale Bad Call of the Week", where we will examine some of the more questionable choices made during the week.
I thought about using this space to give my thoughts on the Adam Lambert fiasco that is hot news around the town, but I decided against it due to the incessant commentary. (In a nutshell here are my thoughts: Obviously America doesn't have a huge problem with sexually diverse artists, see: Elton John, Freddie Mercury, but Lambert pushed the bounds of decency too far, he needs to realize he is an entertainer, and entertainers need fans. It's usually a good idea to build a good rep behind you before you go and start controversy. Lambert doesn't have the rep that say, Eminem does, he won't get the same groundswell of support if he continues to cross the line.)
So, rather than comment on Lambert, I decided to tackle a different pop star's questionable moves, Miley Cyrus.
Now, while Miley obviously has had her share of controversy (between the Annie Leibovitz photo shoot and her own personal photo shoots) she also hasn't been quite the train wreck that some previous young pop stars have been. She seems to have gotten through the controversy better than Vanessa Hudgens got through hers, and of course, there is always Lindsay Lohan there to make everyone else look better.
However, Miley has had a rough week. First, of course came the tragic accident that claimed the life of one of the tour drivers. A sad occurrence, and one that Miley obviously had nothing to do with. However, later came reports that Miley ripped into a fast food worker when he failed to recognize her when she placed her order. You can get away with saying "do you know who I am" when you are Jerry Seinfeld on Larry King, it doesn't go over so well when you are an underage pop princess who thinks she is important.
However, for the truly Bad Call of the Week. We turn to Miley's recently released comments about the Twilight series. In a Tuesday interview on Sirius Satellite Radio, Miley commented that she feels the Twilight craze is "a cult" and that "people get too into it".
As opposed to Hannah Montana...
Now, I'm not a Twilight fan, and It's tough for me to defend a film franchise that is vastly overrated, but Miley may want to rethink some things here. First of all, many people (myself included) could say: "excuse me, Miss Cyrus, but weren't you also the benefactor of a huge craze among young people, who viewed you and your brand with the same psychotic love that the Twilight series now generates?"
Hannah Montana was as much of a pointless craze as the current Twilight craze is, and seemingly Miley has forgotten this fact.
Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of throwing the word "cult" around about actors in a movie. There is a big difference between Rob Pattinson playing a Vampire in a movie, and the tragedies that were "Heaven's Gate" and Jim Jones and his Kool Aid. I may not be a big fan of the Twilight movies, but I realize that they are indeed just movies, and not some sort of nefarious scheme to take over the minds of teenage girls.
He drinks blood, not Kool Aid...
Overall, the last two incidents have made Miley come across as prissy, and self-important. Those qualities have a habit of leading to bad things in young female pop stars. Miley would do better to imitate the easy-going, down-to-earth style of Taylor Swift, rather than the self-important ways that plagued Britney, Paris, and Lindsay.
So, Miley Cyrus, you get the first Battle Royale Bad Call of the Week, here's hoping you manage to stay off the list in the future.
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