Playing the PlayStation 4 demo of Prey resulted in me quitting in anger, hurling my controller at the floor, and deleting the demo. Getting around to playing it on the PC, I have reached a point seventeen hours in where I encountered a bug that, though it didn’t prevent my progress, would result in a bunch of […]
The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home is a game with a very specific legacy. Beyond simply the referential filing cabinet code, this is a game that strongly evokes the storytelling techniques and style of Looking Glass Studios. Nearly twenty years ago System Shock was released, allowing players to explore and uncover the fate of Citadel Station and its […]
In order to promote my work on Groping The Map: Book 1, I have decided to release a .pdf sample of the first nine pages of the chapter on Nova Prospekt from Half-Life 2. Consider this a “vertical-slice” of the book, as you can see I have made some changes from the traditional format that […]
“Everything was clear an hour ago. Then, BOOM!” Annotated Walkthrough, 2: Stepping up the ramp from the South Dock, the first sight to meet you is likely the dead body of a UNATCO Trooper, lying on the path ignored by the patrolling NSF. Directly ahead there is a stone pillar of some sort, despite not […]
“Nobody was s’posed to reside down here long term – but when you’re broke in this town, you’re not exactly swimmin’ in alternatives.” Conclusion: As the fourth level in BioShock 2 Pauper’s Drop is at once the start of the core of the game and the end of its tutorial; from here onward everything is […]
“Nobody’s supposed to live down here, city pissing on us.” Life Below The Tracks: When things go wrong for you in Rapture the only way is down, if you sink far enough you will eventually find yourself here, the home both for those without a place in Ryan’s objectivist utopia, and those who have lost […]
“‘Survival of the fittest’ that’s the rule in the Drop, the only rule.” Combat in The Drop: One of the themes at the heart of BioShock 2 is that of regaining your place in the world. You are Subject Delta, the first successfully pair bonded Big Daddy. You were once an important figure in the […]
“Ol’ Andy rambles on about the Great Chain… I got people shellin’ out to pull it for me!” Annotated Walkthrough, 3: The concept of a crumbling apartment building is hardly a new one, Max Payne, Condemned 2: Bloodshot and BioShock have all included representations of such locations. They are familiar places, safe places, made explicitly […]
“… a whole city tuggin’ at the same dollar bill.” Annotated Walkthrough, 2: Officially designated simply ‘Pumps’ the area known to all as Skid Row, has become the Market district of Pauper’s Drop where what little it’s denizens have is bartered and traded for something just a little better. In order to gain access to […]
“There ain’t a side of the tracks more wrong than under ’em.” Annotated Walkthrough, 1: Stepping onto the platform at the start of the level one thing is immediately clear, this place is dirty. Compared to the luxuriant excess of the Adonis, or the manufactured joviality of Ryan Amusements, Pauper’s Drop feels old, decrepit. Designed […]