The Swapper

I was looking forward to doing an indie review this week, and up until yesterday that review was going to be of Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dust was a great game, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of side-scrolling hack-and-slash. That review would be written now if I hadn’t picked up The Swapper in the exact same Humble Bundle.

The Swapper is a little on the obscure side. I’d started hearing about it a few months ago, and was surprised to discover it was actually released May last year. It’s made by Facepalm Games who, at time of writing, don’t have a Wikipedia page. In light of these revealing discoveries, I feel it’s probably a good idea for me to introduce it to you.

Saints Row IV

I started playing Saints Row IV a few days ago. I bought during on sale through the Humble Store, which granted me a Steam key. Part of the reason I bought the game so late was because I'd been hoping to find an overseas copy, unaltered by our out-of-touch government.

Of course, my Steam account identifies me as a fragile Australian, and I'd already read that the gifting-from-an-overseas-account exploit that was so popular during the Left 4 Dead 2 era didn't work for SR4. The sale was too tempting, though, and I resigned myself to an incomplete game. Much to my surprise, however, I found that the game I played contained all the content but for one weapon.

I didn't realise this until I actually reached the content that was supposed to be cut, roughly halfway through the game. I have no idea why I was this lucky; nothing I've read explains it. Though the content itself wasn't all that stand-out, I don't have to describe the satisfaction that comes with discovering something you were certain you'd lost. It was like finding a $50 note in my back pocket.

Obviously this very much a post release review, and that’s probably a pattern you’ll see a lot of. Unfortunately, I don’t do this professionally, and can afford neither the money or time required to do a review “the week of.” Hopefully the delays won’t bother many people, and my thoughts will still hold a modicum of value.

The Train

I submitted a few of my pieces to The Overland today. They were running an "emerging writers" edition, and midnight was the deadline. I doubt my pieces will be selected for publication (partly because of their tone, partly because of raw probability) but it's always kind of invigorating to actually submit something.

One of the pieces I chose is one I wrote a while ago. I'm kind of proud of it, so I thought I'd throw it up here. Hope you enjoy it.

Sex and Gender in the Mass Effect Series

I was thinking about Mass Effect the other day, and was considering the way it depicted women. It occurred to me that there was a lot of meat on that bone, so I thought I’d write up an analysis of the series with that in mind. Since my last post was a bit of fun, I also thought it might be good to do something with a bit more depth.

Before we begin, I should clarify that the Mass Effect series is a beautifully crafted, excellent series of games. Nothing I say here is designed to be a blanket decree that the series is evil, immoral or sexist. This is merely my take on some aspects of the series, and what that might communicate to certain players. The series explores many complex themes in an intelligent and meaningful way; the fact that Mass Effect can be seriously subjected to this level of analysis is in itself an achievement (though thankfully we're seeing this more often in gaming).

Now that’s over, let’s begin, shall we?

Jake and the Barrel

This is a short story I wrote a few weeks back about one of the characters in our D&D group. It was an attempt to emulate the voice of an Adamsian or Pratchettean narrator, and more generally to delve into comedy, which is something I don't do too often. Though comparing myself to the aforementioned authors borders on masochism, I was kind of happy with the finished piece.

The story is the lead-up to a new member of our D&D group joining the party. The titular character, Jake, was the player's first character. As is often the case with first characters, Jake is less "inspired" and more "inspired by," in a way that should be thoroughly transparent by the end of the piece.

Rowan of Rin

Over the summer break, I decided to re-read a bunch of Emily Rodda books that were lying around the house. I'm starting a Children's Literature unit at uni this semester, and thought it'd be useful to refresh my knowledge of a few of my favourites as a child.

I hadn't read any of these books in over ten years. I started with Deltora Quest, mainly because I'd only read it once, but also because I thought it'd be good fuel for D&D. I enjoyed quite thoroughly, and even continued into the second and third series, which I'd not read before. After that, I went back into the books that had introduced me to the author, starting with Rowan of Rin.

For those of you who haven't read the book, I recommend it. It'll take you less than two hours, and it's a good one to add to the "when I have kids" library. Spoilers will follow the jump, but I'll give you the premise, and you can decide if they really count as such.

Rowan is a small, fearful boy in the valley of Rin. The Rin people value strength and courage, and Rowan is considered to be fairly useless. The valley of Rin is fed by a single river flowing from the ominous Forbidden Mountain, said to be guarded by a fierce dragon. One day, the river mysteriously stops, and a group of the strongest villagers volunteer to travel into the perilous unknown and find the cause. A witch decides to help out, and gives them a map showing the dangers of the journey, which only Rowan can read. Rowan must accompany the party, who think him a burden, on a dangerous journey to save those he loves.

Spoilers follow

Welcome to The Hearth

Welcome the The Hearth, my first blog. That the intro follows the first post should give some indication as to how experienced I am in this medium. The Hearth is a simple experiment I'm running, testing nothing more than my own ability to write a blog.

The Hearth is going to be extremely unprofessional. Irregular, unscheduled updates will cover anything my thoughts fancy at the time, which is most often going to be impressions on games, film, books and other fluffy entertainment. As an (unpublished) writer, you may also see some of the less-horrible of my works pop up here. Trust that they will be carefully selected to make myself seem much more talented than I am.

So who the fuck am I? My name is David, and my life is about as interesting as my name. I'm studying writing at uni, which I fucking love, and before that I studied game design, which was okay. I enjoy everything a mid-twenties, middle-class Australian does, though a particular emphasis can be laid on games and film. I take part in a weekly D&D game with a small group of friends, and we suffer together under the tyrannical rule of our sadistic dungeon master.

So that's what you've got to look forward to. There may be some people out there who can stomach my incomparable self-indulgence, and hopefully you will find something of value here. To those who can't, I offer my heartfelt sympathies, and hope that the Rest Of The Internet will suffice.

Welcome to The Hearth.

Titanfall

The beta for Titanfall ended about an hour ago. This saddens me, because I was having a shit-tonne (metric) of fun with it.

Entry into the Beta was initially meant to be controlled, but logistical errors quickly saw the price of entry change to "an Xbox One." Of course, I've yet to part with the money required to own any next (now "current") gen console, and those of us on PC were still subject to the draw.

My brother was lucky enough to be selected for the beta, and I was lucky enough to be the nearest person with a computer that could handle it. Titanfall is the first game I've seen that requires a 64-bit operating system, though any of us with the technical understanding of what that means knew it was only a matter of time. He and I entered in to a fairly predictable agreement, splitting play time between us.

We sunk a little over 10 hours into the beta, and I'm sure the lion's share of it was mine. This is highly unusual for me; I've never been one for multi-player shooters. The only purely competitive game I've spent any real time in it League of Legends, and even other members of the MOBA arena weren't enough to hold my attention. In addition, betas don't generally sell me on games I wasn't planning on purchasing to begin with.

Titanfall is another matter entirely.