Category: Features and/or Ranting:

For when I just want to dig into a topic or issue I have with basically anything. Complaining about a casting, a trend in video games or my hot take on a hotter button issue. I also rant about various “fat cats” and “bottom lines”

Found my Breaking Point in movie remakes

When it come to the nostalgic classics of yesteryear, you know what doesn’t necessarily spring to mind as a movie that was in desperate need of remake for a fresh audience. If you guessed anything but Point Break; dude… what the hell. As I mentioned last week in my post about stupid naming conventions when it reboots, I’m seriously wondering why thought it was nessesery to bring back Point Break at all.

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While not a movie of the same caliber as Robocop, Terminator or Star Wars. Point Break was still a movie I personally really enjoy, as do Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg apparently. It’s one of those classic actions movies of that 90s era, but even going back and watching it recently it still holds up pretty well. It’s filled with character, charm and solid action scenes, as well as a number of pretty good performances. So maybe those are the reasons a studio decided to remake it, the sad reality is though, the remake simply lacked all of those positives that I listed about the original. In fact, the remake is almost aggressive in its mediocrity. Continue reading “Found my Breaking Point in movie remakes” →

Is Kickstarter still a viable alternative to publishers

I recently received a code for a game I backed on Kickstarter over two years ago, and for the life of me I don’t rmember why. The game looks fine, it’s a platformer that mixes up the gameplay elements by harking to the platformer titles of the 8-bit era, 16-bit era and modern interpretations of the genre. Switching between these modes allow for the game to progress, it’s a neat idea.

kickstarter-1 Continue reading “Is Kickstarter still a viable alternative to publishers” →

Life is Strange: How an Ending can Ruin a Game

There’s an old expression that goes “life isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey.” A lot of narrative fiction takes this same approach. We spend most of our time watching movies or playing games, traveling towards a final goal. But the ending; it’s only the bit at the end. The real bulk of the experience comes from all the juicy bits in the middle. It’s easy for me to say that when a narrative ties up in a nice, neat little bow. But when the ending to a story throws you for such a loop that it ends up leaving a bad taste in your mouth, then I’d argue that an ending can be just as important as the 20-100 hours that came before it.

lifeisstrangeheader Continue reading “Life is Strange: How an Ending can Ruin a Game” →