C.K. Burch's Blog, page 239
December 21, 2014
chadmichaelward:
Want to stay up to date with all my 2015...
Want to stay up to date with all my 2015 photo, art and film adventures?
I’ve started a mailing list/newsletter to keep everyone updated on upcoming gallery shows, new image releases, book and music video announcements and info on my upcoming Kickstarter campaign for a darkly beautiful film collaboration with Michael Rosner (whose work can be seen in the above shot).
Added a new widget to my site to make it easier for people to sign up. Just click on the link below!
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Holy crow!
Films I saw in 2014 (listed in order of release, not when I actually saw them):
The Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box
I, Frankenstein
The LEGO Movie
RoboCop
Pompeii
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Need for Speed
Noah
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Transcendence
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Godzilla
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Maleficent
Edge of Tomorrow
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Transformers: Age of Extinction
The Rover
Guardians of the Galaxy
Into the Storm
Gone Girl
Birdman
Interstellar
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
I did go and see Her in theaters, but because it was technically released in 2013, I did not include it on this list.
I saw a lot of films this year, more than normal. Now that I’ve compiled this list, I’ll have to make a list of the top five and bottom five that I saw. Huh. This is a fun experiment. Thank god for the internet being able to help me remember what I saw this year.
December 20, 2014
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the Biggest Disappointment of 2014
There are broken games, there are buggy games, and then there are games that, for all intents and purposes, work just fine and play just fine and display a high production value, but sweet good god damn does it just let you down.
For me, this year’s biggest disappointment is Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.
Not gonna lie: when Crystal Dynamics made their Tomb Raider announcements earlier this year, I had my fingers crossed for a sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. It was a surprisingly entertaining, well-crafted, and overall FUN game starring everyone’s favorite Tomb Raider, and seeing as how I had hated the TR reboot, I wanted more LC. We got it. It’s here now. It’s supposed to be bigger, better, bustling with fantastic action-adventure and brain-busting puzzles. It is; it also is a huge misstep. For two big reasons: the controls have a very strange, very frustrating input lag, and the dialogue is awful and constantly talking.
I rage quit the game last night in a fit of anger over attempting a puzzle for the seventh time, after attempting to get Ms. Croft to go in the direction I wanted her to go in for the hundredth time, to properly time the placement of a bomb and set it off — it was too much. And I’m not the only one to encounter this strange input lag. Whenever I told Croft to go left, she would — a split second later. Whenever I told her to drop a bomb, or to roll, or to jump, she would — a split second later. In a game that relies so much on timing and precision in controls, this is an absolute nightmare. I got to the point where I wanted to throw my controller across the room. Luckily, I didn’t, but I came damn close. The problem isn’t exclusive to gamepads, either: the keyboard lags as well, where a press of the WASD keys results in the same split-second lag between command and action. Too many times I died because I tried to get Lara Croft to juke left, but she continued to move right because a split second ago the controls had been telling her to go that way. Then I would try to jump, but miss the mark because I didn’t time it right. Or I would try to time the jump button early to account for the lag, but I ended up jumping TOO early. It absolutely ruined what is, for all intents and purposes, a clever, beautiful, action-packed adventure game that SHOULD be my personal game of the year, simply for anticipation and my love of the genre. I ignored the input lag as best I could, but in the end, the controls marred the experience to the point where I quickly turned the game off and uninstalled it.
Underlining the control problems is the constant, cheesy dialogue. Having four-player co-op means four main characters in the game itself. This is all well and good, but Crystal Dynamics made the poor choice to constantly have them talking to each other, often with lines that are merely meant to fill space, sometimes with conversation that gives direct hints as to how to complete puzzles. In the Guardian of Light game, there were two characters, but in that game the designers wisely had each character go their separate ways if the co-op wasn’t being utilized. In Temple of Osiris, the group of four travel together, and they just won’t. Shut. The fuck. Up. Coupled with the broken controls, I didn’t have the motivation to continue seeing the threadbare story to its conclusion, which is a shame, because the setup is so delightfully absurd that it creates grandiose situations for Croft and Co. to leap, shoot, and puzzle through.
On a scale of 10, this game gets a 4. For all the beautiful graphics, for all the fantastic setup, for every thing this game does right, it is sullied by the horrible control decisions and the constant, gnawing dialogue that whittle what should have been a thrilled, light-hearted adventure into a bothersome annoyance that I can’t even finish. Which is a dreadful shame because I wanted to like this. I didn’t even have hopes that it would be bad; I figured it would be a shoo-in for my favorite game of the year. Alas, this is not so, and as such I cannot recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Ms. Croft, or adventure games in general.
thecaliforniakings:
Welcome to the first part of Cry of Fear!...
Welcome to the first part of Cry of Fear! In this episode, the Kings take our first few baby steps into the unknown world of scary s**t. Technical issues happen, but future episodes will find us fixing said issues. Kind of. Mostly.
thecaliforniakings:
The dangers of the Unterzee are many and...
The dangers of the Unterzee are many and plenty indeed. Take, for example, the Zee-bats: one or two might not be such a terrifying thing, but a whole damn flock of them will f**k your s**t up faster than a bloody goddamn Lifeberg if you’re not careful enough to be careful around a stupid flock of goddamn Zee-bats, and —
Captain Chris had a hard time.
December 19, 2014
December 18, 2014
Adventure Princess - Kindle edition by CK Burch, Grace Burch. Children Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Hey everyone! My latest book is finished, uploaded and nearly here — it releases Christmas Eve for Amazon Kindle and Kindle App. It’s a children’s book titled ADVENTURE PRINCESS. From the description:
ADVENTURE PRINCESS is the story of a self-rescuing princess who loves adventure and exploring, and as she journeys to save Adventureland from a chilly chill, she meets new friends and places. A short but sweet tale involving puppies, bears, and the World’s Smallest Snake, ADVENTURE PRINCESS features words by CK Burch, illustrations by his daughter Grace Burch, and a cover by artist Casey Burch.
ADVENTURE PRINCESS is multiple things: a daddy/daughter book, a children’s adventure with whimsical characters, a princess story, a humorous jaunt. ADVENTURE PRINCESS has something for every reader, and we hope you will enjoy it, whether you are a child or an adult.
It’s $2.99 to preorder/purchase, and if you have a young girl, or a child, or you simply enjoy children’s fiction with illustrations, please give this a look. Happy Holidays!
December 17, 2014
Looking to waste a little time this morning while eating bagels?...
Looking to waste a little time this morning while eating bagels? Check out My Geek Review of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception! We discuss sequels, “threequelitis,” and why story is necessary. Spoilers abound!
