Me, Uncharted 4, and the Uncanny Valley

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End took me to the edge of that state of mind known as The Uncanny Valley and left me there longer than any other video game has ever managed to do. This was a good thing. Dare I say, an excellent thing. An astonishingly immersive thing the likes of which I have never experienced before. 

Obtained from wikipedia, after I'd 
already typed up my definition... 

Before I explain why my experience was so sublime, I first need to ask: Do you know what The Uncany Valley is? It’s a chart. A line-graph, more specifically. On the one axis you have immersion, suspension of disbelief, whatever you want to call it; this is the measure of how

Sinkholes in Time

A sinkhole is the only term I can come up with when I think of why I haven't written anything in over a year. Just this gaping wide chasm, a parabola of the horizon's fading light skirting around the far edge, deep and dark as it gets. Can't see the bottom. Only my shadow way off against the far wall...

...Sorry. I got lost in that image for a sec. I should clarify: I've BEEN writing - throughout what remained of 2016 - but I just wasn't writing HERE, on this blog. This blog, as I mentioned, is like a sinkhole at the moment, and I gotta start filling it up with some content. I plan to do so at least once a month for the rest of 2017. In the meantime, let me at least catch us all up to speed with the writing that kept me busy for the rest of 2016.

I WROTE A NOVEL! Like, a WHOLE novel.

How I See Games

I’ve played a thousand games in my lifetime. I’m planning on playing a thousands more. Just like any consumer, the more time you invest in it, the more natural analysis starts to happen. Impressions, criticisms, opinions. I grew up reading multiple video game publications, and even though their review breakdowns were different (some were by stars, some number scales, some had criteria for replayability, etc.) they were fundamentally the same. There are ingredients that go into making a good game. I used to agonize over what those were, exactly. “What criteria does every great game need to nail dead-on in order to transcend to perfection, right?” What a waste of time.

Review - Bloodborne

It’s impossible for me to review my experience with From Software’s Bloodborne without constantly holding it up to my experiences with their Demon’s and Dark Souls games. Almost every moment of playing it, a thrill of being immersed back in that developer’s unique worlds and narratives was constantly buzzing in my head.

Review - TouchTone

 

TouchTone is an important game. In the post-9/11, whistleblower world in which we now live, there have been several attempts to communicate the immorality of the surveillance state. Every news story in print or on TV that follows in the wake of the latest release of classified documents by Edward Snowden chips a little more of the veneer away. Admittedly, I don’t follow the trail as far as I should, and I believe

Evolve (First Impressions)

IN THE JUNGLE, THE MIGHTY JUNGLE, THE MONSTER LURKS TONIGHT… MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EVOLVE.

"Hunger" (Short screenplay)

This wrote itself out of nowhere. I just wanted to fire up the old screenwriting software and see if I still got it. After a round or two of editing, I think I wound up with a pretty tight little story. Good characters, good conflict, good structure, good dialogue... Good ending? I'll let you be the judge.