Gone Home (PC Game Review)
Originally published on http://www.gameyaks.com/gone-home/
Originally published on http://www.gameyaks.com/gone-home/
There’s a maxim film critic Roger Ebert was fond of that informed nearly all of his reviews: it’s not what it’s about but how it’s about it that matters. I usually find myself agreeing with that statement but sometimes you find yourself liking something not because of the way it was told but because it’s speaking directly to you.
While it may have the appearance of a rote FPS, Gone Home by The Fullbright Company is less a video game in the traditional sense and more a first person point and click adventure. It’s ostensibly made up of the more banal elements found in most contemporary video games, namely finding audio logs and in-game notes that otherwise fill in the blanks left untouched by a game’s central plot and makes finding each note substantial and revealing in its own way.
To be certain, Gone Home is not for everyone. Eschewing a traditional narrative and gaming tropes in favor of exploration and discovery, the game’s story basically revolves around a young girl returning home from a yearlong trip abroad to her family’s new house. Without sounding too reductive or revealing too much, that’s about it as far as setup is concerned. There is, of course, much more to the game but revealing anymore would be a disservice to anyone that has yet to play it.
I spent about two and a half hours playing Gone Home, broken up over two sessions in a single day although your mileage may vary. Because every plot point, every peak into this family’s life reveals itself at your own pace there’s a sense of discovery and surprise that makes those two to three hours feel more meaningful than the average ten hour campaign found in most triple A games.
There’s a lot of people who have labeled Gone Home as a game with artistic ambitions, thereby either dismissing it or hoping to heap praise upon the the title. I’m not fond of referring to games, or any media for that matter, as art; after all a coffee table can be art. I think it’s much more worthwhile to discuss the way a movie, song or, in Gone Home’s case, video game affects you personally. For better or for worse, we each bring our own baggage to every game we play. Certain things will stand out to some while being glossed over by others. Gone Home is the kind of game that’s made up of all those things that might otherwise be ignored by most players.
Taking place in 1995, Gone Home revels in the mundane details that made up teenage suburban life in the mid-nineties; riot grrrl mix tapes, X-Files episodes and random movies taped from TV, SNES games strewn about a bedroom floor and old bric-a-brac occupy the house where all of Gone Home’s exploration takes place. Everything in this house tells a story, this family’s story. It’s a rare feat Gone Home manages to pull off: making the intensely personal wholly universal. Rarer still in a medium that is dominated by generic ideals of heroism and epic storytelling.
The small, dedicated team at The Fullbright Company have created a truly special game here, the kind that loves its characters and invites players to learn more about the family that inhabits this house and it’s something I doubt I’ll ever forget.
Album Review: Metric - "Fantasies"
Metric fans rejoice. After a nearly four year wait since the Canadian indie quartet's last studio release the band has returned with the polished and impressive "Fantasies." From the killer opening track to the near euphoric finale, Metric's fourth official album is everything its last three have promised and, without sounding too much like a corporate lackey, may represent the band's best shot at wide commercial acceptance yet.
It's easy to hail the new album a triumph but for the uninitiated much is lost when merely listening to the tracks on this album without the context of the band's history. "Fantasies" is more than just another stellar entry in the cannon of a distinguished combo that has earned its reputation through tireless touring and a devoted fan base. It represents a real turning point for Haines and company's songwriting abilities and a further development of just what Metric is and can be.
Not content to muddle about with sharp left turns mid song and tangential French-language asides spoken in a hush tone, Metric has seemingly found the focus that it has occasionally lacked in past outings. Gone is the sometimes shrill straining of singer Emily Haines' vocal abilities beyond her range in favor of a star vocalist that knows what she wants to say and how she wants to say it. While some may deem such tailoring as a lack of ambition on the band's part, the truth couldn't be further from. The songs on "Fantasies" all showcase a satisfying structure and consistency that is indicative of a band confident in its own voice and vision.
The tracks move from one to the next with effortless grace, a feat made all the more impressive considering the loud, hard charging nature of many of "Fantasies" cuts. Nothing on this album feels out of place and you may be hard pressed to pick a single song that embodies the album as a whole. Just when you think you've found a favorite, the band surprises you yet again with another gem. While the album washed over me on the first play through, subsequent listenings revealed greater personal resonance with "Front Row," "Help I'm Alive," "Stadium Love," "Gimme Sympathy" and "Collect Call" being standouts. Your mileage may vary but the fact that I've named over half the album as highlights should tell you something of the quality to be mined here. No one ever said making a great album was easy, harder still is the album that actually improves with time.
There's never been much doubt in my mind that Metric has always been bound for great things. Ever since I heard "Combat Baby" from the band's first released long player I've been hooked and now it's time for the rest of the world to join in. "Fantasies" confirms what I've long felt. It's everything I've ever wanted out of the band and one of the best albums I've heard so far this year.
Book Review: Leonard Cohen Hallelujah, A New Biography by Tim Footman
Few artists have enjoyed the career resurgence that Leonard Cohen has seen over the past two years. That the man is also well into his seventies and still able to sell out arenas (arenas!) all around the world is something remarkable indeed for a man that has never been especially popular with the mainstream. But as more and more contemporary artists cover his songs and his own work finds its way into pop culture perhaps it's no surprise that a reintroduction not just to the man's work but the man himself would be necessary.
Tim Footman's new biography, Leonard Cohen Hallelujah, portends to be just that for a whole new generation that's just becoming acquainted with the man who "was born with the gift of a golden voice." The title of course refers to Cohen's most popular and signature song. It's a little uninspired for the title of a book about the man and as musician biographies go, so too is the book. Using various sources, though nothing particularly new or revealing, Footman adequately constructs a timeline charting Cohen's career, starting with his childhood & early years and arriving at his current success as a touring act and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Being that Hallelujah is an (implicitly) unauthorized biography, author Footman culls from various sources for his biography and this lack of first hand accounts and interviews is evident throughout. The book lacks true insight to Cohen's inner workings as a songwriter and person and is fairly dry in recounting the details of his life. Footman does editorialize from time to time and some of the better moments in this otherwise routine read come in the form of appendices which delve into the topic of Cohen's longevity & appeal, comparisons with Bob Dylan and personal favorite works.
Cohen may have shied away from the spotlight at points in his career but he's never entirely been a Garbo-esque recluse of whom only whispers are heard. The man's put his life on record and in book, albeit in narrative, poetic or lyrical fashion. In this sense you cold say Cohen has already written his own autobiography and continues to add to it with each performance and new song he crafts (even if they have yet to be recorded). There seems to be more mystique than mystery surrounding the man. Hallelujah doesn't do much to dispel this mystique, and that's a good thing, but it also doesn't offer anything that can't be gleamed from a quick search on Wikipedia. That said, it is nice to have one, consolidated bookshelf source to reference from time to time.
For all its redundancy, those late to the party will find Leonard Cohen Hallelujah to be a comprehensive look at one of our most important, fascinating and vital songwriters. Footman is an affable writer and I'm sure readers will be able to dive right in to this relatively quick read. Longtime admirers, however, are best served by other resources. Whichever direction you go, all roads lead back to Leonard.
Album Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
"We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're hear to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!"
A lot of the pre-release hype surrounding the summer release of the latest Michael Cera starrer, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, revolved around its geek appeal and barrage of video game, comic book and anime references throughout. While the film itself certainly obliges in this department, it also had a hip indie rock sensibility that went unnoticed by its own marketing campaign but may have served the film well had it been highlighted. So a soundtrack this good to a film so nerdy only makes sense considering the flick itself is less about a vapid, self-obsessed geek with no game but rather a vapid, self-obsessed geek who fancies himself a rock musician in a tiny, little indie band no one has heard of called Sex Bob-Omb.
It's now late September and the movie itself has come and gone without much noise, destined to be one of those movies people discover on DVD. But what of its soundtrack? The names assembled for this CD are impressive: Frank Black, Beck, Broken Social Scene; even tried and true staples The Rolling Stones and T-Rex make appearances via classic tunes "Under My Thumb" and "Teenage Dream," respectively. However, the one true, undeniable gem of the soundtrack has to be Metric's "Black Sheep," a song which the band has been working on and performing live for a couple of years now but has finally found a most welcoming home on this killer collection. Fans of the film will no doubt recognize the tune from its performance by faux band (and real life NES game) Clash at Demonhead. Here, though, we have the original version recorded by one of the better bands to emerge from the indie scene over the last decade or so - and boy is it a treat.
I won't lie: I absolutely loved Scott Pilgrim vs the World. As of this review, I've seen the film about a dozen times in theaters and eagerly await its eventual Blu-ray release. I feel like I'm intimately familiar with Edgar Wright's movie and was more than a little surprised to notice that as I listened to the soundtrack, every song is basically presented as it appeared in the film, working as something like an audio travelogue through Wright's world. Having collected movie soundtracks in the past, I know it's not uncommon for a film's score to be presented sequentially, but for what's ostensibly a collection of pop songs, this attention to detail is much appreciated and also shows just how well the music works together painting the emotions and grounding this very exaggerated world. I should mention, however, that none of Nigel Godrich's original score for the film appears on this soundtrack but is available as a separate recording.
This album itself is as personal as the film it supports and I suspect will appeal to music snobs just as the film has won the hearts of geeks, nerds and the like. However, in this age of iTunes, can a soundtrack still be valid? By and large many of the songs on their own are quite good and can be purchased individually online. This soundtrack, on the other hand, the complete collection, is the absolutely perfect souvenir for those who loved this movie and want to bask in its glow long after the lights have gone up and the screen has faded.
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