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Stolen Pixels #36:
You Only Hurt the Ones Who Love You
I have launched my latest rhetorical / satirical volley at the juggernaut that is EA. I’m sure they will crumble under the power of my arguments any second now. While we’re waiting for that, you can read today’s comic. You can read on here for an earlier version of the joke: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #36:
You Only Hurt the Ones Who Love You”
Silent Hill Origins Part 6: Cult of Travis
In earlier posts I was careful to mark spoilers, but since this is the end of the game nearly everything will be spoilers. You can go here to skip to the conclusion without reading the rest of the story if you treasure your ignorance.
How to make a really scary monster: Take an existing scary monster and make it bigger! Of course, if the original monster wasn't all that scary to begin with...
Throughout the game, there have been two plot threads: One is personal to Travis, where he lets a few of his skeletons out of his closet and gets to know them. The second is the plot where Travis is gathering up these mysterious magical gnib-nabs for the spooky little girl. The former is just tacked on – Travis is sort of working out his issues by running into his past by accident. The latter is a largish retcon where the writers are trying to add a new character and new events to the origin of Silent Hill.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Silent Hill Origins Part 6: Cult of Travis”
Michael Crichton, Farewell
Michael Crichton, creator of Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and ER, has died at 66.
So long Crichton, thanks for all the great yarns. Especially that dinosaur thing.
Interactive Fiction:
Feedback Parser
Playing Phantom of the Arcade within the context of a web page has me thinking about the new things we could be doing with interactive fiction that simply weren’t possible in the heyday of text adventures.
IF is an interesting game type. They player isn’t just working to complete the story, but to experiment with the gameworld and read what the author has to say. Being stuck in IF can be just as rewarding as moving forward, provided the game has interesting things to say about it.
For example: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Interactive Fiction:
Feedback Parser”
Silent Hill Origins Part 5: At The Movies
Our hero, Travis Grady, has just escaped the horrors of the Silent Hill sanitarium. He leaves now, probably in search of even worse ones. That’s just the kind of guy he is. (Dumb.)
A working car? Hmmmm. Nope. Can't think of how that could be useful. Oh well.
Outside the sanitarium Travis finds a car with the engine running. He quickly realizes that using a car would be the coward’s way of getting around a city of lurching abominations. And we’ve already established that Travis is a magnificent dummy and not a coward. He won’t even try the door or make up some excuse about it being locked. Time for another hike across town.
(Also: Travis has quite a collection of tire irons tucked away in whatever dimensional pocket he keeps his inventory. The hospital and the sanitarium each had a rather perplexing number of them laying about. Strangely, there isn’t a tire iron in the trunk of this car.)
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Silent Hill Origins Part 5: At The Movies”
Stolen Pixels #35:
Total Rewind 2
The story of our time-manipulating prince has now been extended via a sequel. In a perfect world I would have made this a three-parter, but it worked best as two strips. Director’s commentary (punchline spoilers) follow:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #35:
Total Rewind 2″
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