Last updated on March 4, 2013
Welcome to Monday Update, where I ramble on about things I did that don’t fit anywhere else!
Batman: Arkham City, Harley Quinn’s Revenge – I’m not a major fan of downloadable content. Sure, they add things to a game you may or may not already love, but usually they become a horrible dissapointment. How many DLC packages really add something to the game, unless said game was already released in episodic content? I can’t think of any great ones off the top of my head. Bayonetta didn’t have any DLC because they jammed the game FULL of STUFF. Heck, my game clock is around forty-eight hours (you read that right – I’ve played a lot) and I haven’t even touched the highest difficulty level.
Arkham City, unlike Bayonetta, isn’t a game that grades you on score or has a significantly different difficulty levels (New Game Plus isn’t nearly as interesting as Bayonetta’s difficulty levels, which completely change strategies and mechanics). Harley Quinn’s Revenge, in that respect, is neither good nor bad; it’s merely a small extension onto the main game. Other than the slightly neat addition of playing as Robin, who has a different style than Batman, it’s a bunch of challenge maps (like in the original game) linked together by a single loose narrative thread in the original game. The writers of Arkham City weren’t even involved, and it shows; you learn absolutely nothing from this adventure that a player didn’t already know. You aren’t missing out if you don’t play it, either.
Given that Arkham City was quite a game, it’s disappointing to say the least. You fight things, you play predator mode, you do this a couple times, then it ends. Actually, I was surprised to find myself finishing within one hour exactly – frankly, for a 14.99 DLC package, you’d expect a bit more, but there’s really not much of note here. I am glad to have paid a few dollars for it, all said.
The Honorable Worm – I’m trying to think of some proper adjectives for this music. I can’t cover it on Saturdays (calling it “game music” would be an misnomer by any stretch), so here it is. I think I found about this through looking at similar artists to Jay Tholen, an apt comparison. The Honorable Worm, from what I can gather, is a music project by Chad Marine, a Christian musician who really likes folk music and shoegaze. That’s selling it short, I imagine, as multiple genres could easily be tagged onto these works. These aren’t usually my favored genres of music, but I can make exception if something strikes me the wrong way. Consider the description of The Royal Road, one of the more recent albums:
‘The Royal Road’ documents what Chad Marine and his wife have deemed their Year of Pilgrimage—a relatively short span of time which nonetheless included (among other things) getting married, walking the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain, relocating (by car) from Virginia to Oregon, and wandering the narrow streets of Old Jerusalem—all with camera and recorder in hand. It is only natural, then, that this new album should be one of overcoming distances: distances in space, time, and spirit. The song cycle may look short on paper, but don’t be fooled; the ground covered here is vast and ever-changing. In keeping with the nature of travel, these songs are joined not so much by a common “sound” (genres touched upon include psychedelic, folk, lo-fi, ambient, avant-pop, field recordings… and more!) as by the simple fact that they are all stops along the same road (i.e., the Royal one). All point to the same journey’s end, but each is also a destination in its own right. So, put on your listening shoes—that’s right…listening shoes—and hike a few miles up ‘The Royal Road.’
That’s not a bad description at all! Better to copy it from the original musician, right? It’s definitely not a “first listen” album that immediately catches your attention; it’s layered with unique sounds throughout and repeated lyrics that definitely have meaning. Bible references weave themselves into the music throughout these “song cycles” that necessitate careful listening. That meaning needs deciphering, obviously, but it’s a fun journey nonetheless. You may as well download all the albums; Consider the bees definitely goes for a droning vibe, while The Royal Road has more elements of folk with a bit of electronica for good measure. Haven’t listened to the new album yet, but I am going to try it, as should you!
Download them here at Bandcamp.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – I apologize, dear reader, from my current obsession with Assassin’s Creed, but I can’t wrest myself from these games. They are quite addicting, owing to my love of both history, obscure facts, and (apparently, as I recently found out) parkour. I’m also trying to get myself up to speed before Assassin’s Creed III comes out in later October, which looks as if it will happen at the rate that I am devouring Ubisoft’s franchise.
One thing I am noticing, having played through all the games in a row, is the Western proclivity for iterative design. Like Western culture’s best impulses, we come up with ideas, find out what’s flawed about those ideas, and continue to refine them in the fire of criticism. That seems to be the case with Assassin’s Creed. Each one improves the controls slightly with new abilities and mechanics. Each one introduces new features onto the existing framework to the point where “feature creep” isn’t that far from the truth. We’ve gone from simple assassinating to running a villa to rebuilding a whole city and managing an assassin’s guild! Uneccessarily complex? Absolutely! But it’s good that way; heck, the plot of Brotherhood picks up right at the end of the last game. Anyone coming into the series casually will have their hands full even understanding what’s going on, or how to play! It reminds me of overly complex JRPG systems; sure, it makes no sense why they should be that way, but figuring out the most efficient way to accomplish tasks is part of the fun.
I credit Ubisoft with making a series like this work in yearly installments; they trust the audience to retain information, even a year apart. That’s also a credit to how fun to play the game is, as well as my fascination with Ezio Auditore (which you’ll hear about this week, trust me). So yeah, play it!
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That’s it for this week’s Monday Update! Another entry from Patrick Gann’s in the pipeline, as well as some random topics from yours truly.
