Boxcar

The whole thing is that everyone feels beleaguered at some point, I mean that the universal truth of punk is that you are going to feel that in whatever role you’re living that everyone’s against you at some point.

John Darnielle

American Psycho

Some lovely editing by Demi Adejuyigbe. I’m not usually a fan of posting funny videos like this, but couldn’t resist sharing this somewhere. And posting here seems easier than actually talking to people.

Senna

An absolutely fantastic documentary.

Moreso than anything else, I think Senna could be a film that I could use to try to convey why I follow Formula 1 to people who know little about it, or don’t care for it at all. It covers all the bases that I love: the speed, the skill, the rivalries, the danger, the personalities. And it helps that Ayrton was a charismatic, friendly guy.

And you should know that by being a racing driver, you are under risks all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver, because we are competing. We are competing to win, and the main motivation to all of us is to compete for victory; it’s not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th.

Ayrton Senna

To The Moon

I’m not sure if any game has had so much of an effect on me as To The Moon.

If you’re at all interested in video games with stories, and don’t have the trappings of what you would expect from a game, I heartily recommend buying it and devoting an afternoon to playing through it. Seriously.

To leave on a quote from Rock Paper Shotgun:

I can think of two games that have ever made me cry, and have a nagging suspicion that there’s a third I’m forgetting. In 30 years of playing games, it’s not a common factor for me. But add another to the list. I sobbed twice during To The Moon. And then a third time when I told my wife why.

John Walker, Rock Paper Shotgun

Double Fine Adventure

So the latest episode of the Double Fine Adventure documentary came out. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Double Fine had a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign to create a old-school point and click adventure game. As part of the $400k they were asking for, $100k was to be used to create a documentary chronicling the creation of the game. Every month or so another episode appears.

So I have to say, the documentary has so far been fantastic. I’d love to recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in games, but as it is only available to people who backed the Kickstarter. Which is a bit of a shame.

EDIT: Disregard that, you can still preorder DFA and get access to the documentary. LINK

The latest episode focussed mainly on the game’s art, and is the first one where there seems some tension within the team, and the first episode where I stopped thinking that working in a team like those at Double Fine would be the perfect job. When you have multiple people with amazing talent and distinct visions, and a finite amount of time and resources to create a game, how can you proceed without compromising? Can you?

I’m sure the game will be great. I’m sure the problems will be sorted out. But the whole thing leaves me a bit… uneasy.

But the documentary is very well filmed, beautifully shot, and well produced. In this period where we’ve seen Liquid Rising and Indie Game: The Movie released to either mixed or overwhelmingly positive reviews, it’s nice to see that this genre can accommodate some more entries. Especially now I remember that Sons of Starcraft is still in production.