Closure: My Neat New Nemesis

Yet another Steam holiday sale. And yet another Indie Humble Bundle.  Is it actually possible to feel overwhelmed by video games? I was excited to get the e-mail telling me I could have Cave Story and The Basement Collection after I bought the 7th bundle, particularly since I was about to snap them up on Steam.

But the only game I’ve been playing is the PC version of Closure. (It’s part of the Bundle.) Okay, yes, I really do dig it (and it reminds me a lot of Limbo in its puzzle methodology (and the fact that it’s black and white, and driven by music) but it’s killing me. This may be a slight bit of hyperbole. The game’s main shtick is that it uses light to determine what is playable space. If a space turns dark it becomes nonexistent, which can be used to the player’s advantage or detriment depending on the level circumstances. Sometimes you have to bend the darkness in order to slip through and sometimes everything must be brought fully to the light. I enjoy games that play with elements other than dimensional space in order to create good gameplay. Braid did this with time back in 2009 (i.e. you manipulate time) and ever since I’ve been excited to find games where you can control different aspects of the game environment.

And yet, with Closure, I find that about every three levels I’m stuck, unable to determine what the solution is. Then I’ll determine the solution, only to realize that I was almost there the first time. Like, I was off by a tiny step, and this was enough to make the segment impossible to beat. That’s good for a puzzle but bad for my obsessive desire to win the game. All the same, I’ve only had Closure installed for three days, and have only played for two hours or so, so overall, I’m probably not doing that badly. I just get so competitive against myself.  In any case, though, it’s really fun and it has captivated me.

Closure

Still, there’s not nearly enough time in my week to devote to playing video games, and it makes me sad that I’m forced to choose between earning money to buy video games and actually being able to play said video games. (Along with the multitude of other life choices I feel forced to make.) Was that a downer? Not as much as playing one of these levels, figuring it out, and then realizing that you accidentally closed the game before it had a chance to auto-save. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Post-Holiday Dorking Bells

So, post holidays and I really have little to say despite a lot of TV because I’ve also had a lot of work. Thanks, work.

I enjoyed the Tor.com rewatch of “A Clockwork Nebari” (Farscape).  It’s probably because I actually only saw it for the first time earlier this year but that wonderful hideousness of the eyeballs is killer. Of course, that’s not actually the most effed up part of A Clockwork Orange but it was rather, shall we say, iconic?  Most of the rest of the dorkscape (of RSS feeds and all) has centered on The Hobbit (which I actually haven’t seen, due to scheduling conflicts and a general introvertedness) and Star Trek: Into Darkness, which I also haven’t seen since I’m not a time traveler or pirate.

Thanks to their finally being in stock, I am now the proud owner of the second series of the Futurama Tineez. And thanks to the awesomeness of one of my friends, also, Futurama Monopoly. This gift involved my unpacking every single piece and card and reading through everything. I don’t know whether it’s awesome or sad that there was not a single reference that I missed. I choose… awesome. Yes. Hint: It comes with Professorland Fun Bucks.

And allegedly, Zuko’s mom finally has her day in the Avatar comics.

Holy Humble Nintendo Upgrade Bundles, Bag(wo)man!

Don’t forget about the Humble Bundle. (I bought mine already even though I only really want about 3/4 of the games in there.)

Also, even though I’m really not that great at shooting things in PC games, I’ve been playing significantly more of them lately. I miss console gaming but it’s just so much easier to buy things on Steam. (Often much cheaper as well.)  Long live the disposable age, I guess.

It is time to buy a new Nintendo DS. Yesterday I had decided on the 3DS. Today I don’t know if that’s really what I want. I played with the XL version in the store a few days back and I actually think it’s too big and not especially necessary given the plethora of other mobile wi-fi enabled devices I have at my disposal. (Remember the promise of convergence? Whatever happened to that? Why am I carrying 80 electronics?) Believe it or not, my last Nintendo DS purchase was the original Nintendo DS way back in 2005. I liked that it was backward compatible and would play my Game Boy Advance games as well. I held onto it until it somehow got damaged at a party (drunk nerds?) and became unusable. I’ve actually been without a handheld system for nearly a year and I’d really like to hop back on the gamer train.

Strangely one of the things I most liked about my original DS was the fact that it had some weight to it. I know that’s a fairly unpopular opinion nowadays, since everything must be aerodynamic and light as a feather but I was happy to be holding onto a gaming devices that didn’t feel like my fingers were going to go straight through it. The 3DS shares that weight but it’s not the same. The only thing that holds me back from buying the current generation DS (instead of the 3DS) are the Netflix availability and 3D features (clearly) of the 3DS. That said, I don’t even know how much I honestly care about 3D gaming. I just kind of don’t want to be left behind by buying the bottom-end system and wanting to upgrade in six months.  And of course, there’s no longer a way to play Game Boy Advance games, which leaves me with just a twinge of sadness. (I feel like there’s an excuse here that Nintendo is just waiting to unveil… you can buy some new product they’re going to tell us all about in 2013, I’m sure. 3DS DLC for GBA cartridges, or the like.)

After this, I’m going to be complaining that I need a better way to organize and carry my electronics. Who’s going to invent the uber tech geek bag with specialized compartments for each device, fitted to the customization information you provide? Business venture, anyone? (Somebody with better knowledge of bag making and who actually has sewing skills of value please pick up on this. You will make money, I assure you. Even if it’s only from me.)  But when you factor in a laptop, a cell phone, a tablet, a camera, an MP3 player, an e-reader, and a game system, things are starting to get crowded in there. (Especially if you include the chargers, batteries, cables, cards, accessories, etc.)

Being a modern woman is fun!

Best Hyper-Trekkie Theories on Benedict Cumberbatch’s Character*

*I’m the Trekkie in question here. And I’m just being silly.

• Khan. Like the entire damn internet hasn’t been saying that for the last two years. I’m going to revisit this in my other writing.
• Neo. The poster gives him just enough of a Matrix feel that you could conceivably consider a universe crossing.
• Any Sith Lord. Oh wait, wrong franchise. (That said, Star Trek was Star Wars-y enough, wasn’t it?)
• Moriarty. If you haven’t watched the TNG episodes about Moriarty in a while, you should… not do it.  But there is a meta reference to Sherlock here that might fill you with nerd glee if you’re into such things. (I am.)
• Q. Come on, I know it doesn’t fit at all with what’s in the trailer. Nonetheless, when I picture Benedict Cumberbatch as a villain, I picture him as a Q being, not a Khan being.  Snark, wit, haberdashery, dramatics. Not just alternatively hot and cool passion. BC has the presence to pull this off in a way that would be very different from any Jon deLancie performance and yet would be just as enjoyably good. Take half of his personality from playing Sherlock and you’d still be able to pull out a good Q character.
• The new Borg King. (Different universe, different genders. Like every sci-fi show out there hasn’t done this, from Star Trek to Sliders. Yep. I referenced Sliders.) I don’t see why you couldn’t have a human looking Borg. The cybernetics are buried within a better layer of skin.
• The Holodeck. Yes. He’s just the Holodeck. (I stole this idea from Topless Robot’s 30 Greatest Star Trek Villains list.) Actually, so far, in the J.J. Abrams version of things, this is the idea I like the most. At least it’d be original.
• Any member of Species 8472. Seriously. They came from another dimension. They masquerade as human beings. They wreak destruction. It’s a better story than the boring Khan Revisited! plot line the internet seems to crave so much.
• Someone from the alien race responsible for the probe that was destroying Earth while in pursuit of humpback whales. See, you thought it was all resolved when a smiling Spock and company got drenched in the San Francisco bay. But no, really, those aliens didn’t want humpback whales at all. It was just a clever cover for destroying Earth. It failed. And ergo, you get an emissary (no, not THAT emissary) who returns to complete the destruction by commanding the loyalty of sea creatures. (There is, after all, a shot of a Federation starship [presumably the Enterprise] lifting off from water.) Also, Futurama reference.
• Data. He’s pale. Data’s dead. Data’s gone batshit. If you’re going to revisit characters, they might as well be good ones. Who doesn’t want to see an android on a killing spree? (The people behind the Voight-Kampff test, I guess…)
• William Decker. If you don’t remember who he is, perhaps it’s because you fell asleep during Star Trek: The Motion Picture, some time between the 30 minute pan shot of the Enterprise and the anticlimactic realization that V’Ger is actually Voyager, but you know, the satellite that humans launched into space, not the Delta Quadrant bound ship of the damned. I like the idea of his “returning” from his merging with Ilia and V’Ger. Then taking over with his angry, angry years of having been a boring satellite. (Side note, best thing about Star Trek: The Motion picture is the music and the metallic sound effects of V’Ger communications.  Not Ilia.)
• A Terminator. He’s after Kyle Reese, of course. By which I mean Anton Yelchin. META.
• Wesley Crusher. Wait, hear me out. This is the rebooted universe. It begins when a stupid Romulan who possesses the makings of a TIME MACHINE goes back in time to destroy a different planet rather than say, stop the destruction of his own. Wesley Crusher (though he was silently present for Deanna Troi and William Riker’s wedding) was last seen leaving Starfleet to hang out with The Traveler, who had previously informed Picard that Wesley was special. Wesley also realized he could manipulate time and space and would evolve to something beyond human capacity. “Enjoy these final moments of peace for I have returned to have my vengeance.” That’s one of the big Benedictine lines in the trailer. Wesley Crusher could be a time lord. Why not?  In the Japanese trailer, he also asks “Is there anything you would not do for your family?” So clearly, you know, he’s out to save his hot mom.

Now, I’m going on a rant.  The trailer itself is boring and the sound that is now most famously associated with Inception makes it seem sillier. Whatever. You could still work with that. Some of the best episodes of Star Trek were introduced with a “coming next week” preview that was cheesy and awful. It’s not a disqualification on its own. The best part of the whole trailer is the fact that only Benedict Cumberbatch speaks and nobody else has anything to say. I know they’re setting this up to make you think that he’s playing Khan. His quotes, his lines, though not specifically Khan quotes have the same resonance. I’ve watched the trailer about 15 times at this point, pausing it on still frames and looking for detail. (Also is the blond meant to be Nurse Chapel or Janice Rand? Carol Marcus? Unnecessary diversion. But she is wearing science/medical blue and not red…) The collar of his jacket when he bursts in is reminiscent of the fashion of Wrath of Khan. And since the Japanese trailer (find me a nerd who hasn’t seen that one too) has the so-called spoiler of showing a scene where two Starfleet uniformed persons touch hands through a glass window, it is really set up to make you think that it’s repeating the ending of Wrath of Khan where Spock, of course, dies.Klingons? Are those Klingons? Because that sets up the plot of Star Trek III too.  It’s too easy. It’s too clean. I hold out a lot of hope that it’s a trick. Then again, I held out a lot of hope that the Nero storyline was not what Star Trek would be about and alas, it was. I’m concerned that the Spock dying scene will be real but it will, in fact, be the demise of Leonard Nimoy Spock.

THE NEEDS OF THE ONE SPOCK OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE MANY SPOCKS.

So here’s my question. You have rebooted the universe. Why do you want to remake everything exactly as it was? Why not recreate thins? Do better mashups? Make better stuff?  Of course, Roberto Orci wrote Transformers so I hold very little hope that it will actually be good.

• What’s to stop the Borg from showing up 80 years earlier than expected? Turn Kirk into Locutus instead? Or you know, avoid that angle all together, and instead set the Borg up as a different sort of enemy.
• Use the Romulans well. They have been hideously underutilized in Star Trek, and they deserve so much more. You’ve already destroyed Vulcan. The Vulcans and the Romulans share common ancestry  Work in a plot about Spock trying to rebuild his  heritage, a la Unification, but less preachy and with fewer results.
• If you’re going to do Khan, do a better version of the story. “Space Seed” really wasn’t that exciting. Kirk didn’t really have much of a background with Khan before Khan pretty much decides to try to murder him. The part that’s the most intriguing is a line he says in that movie… “On Earth, two hundred years ago, I was a prince.” Yes. Because of the Eugenics Wars. Somebody please make a miniseries about the Eugenics Wars. In the rebooted canon, you can abandon the idea that they happened in the latter 20th century (so as to avoid audience cringing) and do it well. I know this can be done, Hollywood. You just have to find the right people.
• Use this as a fantastic opportunity to insert Section 31 or something similar into this version of the Federation. Dark Star Trek is good, and this reboot was clearly set up to be darker, if not also more action-oriented. So there’s hope for the subversive and clandestine therein. It’s mentioned in DS9 and Enterprise both. It’s supposedly been with the Federation since the beginning. Go with it. In fact, make an entire spy series of Star Trek out of Section 31. I’ve already got your theme song…
• Create new aliens. New races. New planets. New worlds. New technology. Oh yes, basically, just use this as a valid excuse to disrupt canon and make something that is new and interesting. Believe it or not, fans actually like this sort of thing.  If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be thousands and thousands upon thousands of pieces of fanfic out there. I don’t like it when Star Trek feels like one of the rejects of the “SyFy Original Series” lineup. And the J.J. Abrams version does seem to feel a little more like that than it should.

TLDR Version? Read the MTV article instead. 

Misfits Has Become Rather Misfitted

Okay, seriously, what is up with the fourth season of Misfits? Like, what’s the point, really?

The first season found its footing after a little bit of a struggle and it led to the really good second season which lead to the mostly good third season, which really should just have been the end of the series. Trying to continue into a fourth season with most of the likable and interesting characters all gone is pretty silly. (To put it mildly.) That show introduces too many new people I’m supposed to be interested in and care about and for no reason other than to show a revolving door of youthful people who get into trouble who somehow have more and more convenient excuses to roam the realm of superpower endowed people. I’m glad the show was made and I think it can still offer some small moments of interest but really, there’s no need to keep it going. Unfortunately, this is the problem of successful television. If it’s good, they find ways to keep it going because it makes money, even if it loses its sponsorship in the process. (To me this has always seemed like a needlessly neutral point of return delivery.)