Yeah, I'm playing on "Easy." Theoretically I could switch to "Novice," but I'm not quite there yet.

I think I've hit a wall with the Bioshock Collection. I'm so close to being finished, but Burial At Sea: Chapter Two has just about broken me. The stealth mechanics are irritating, and the storytelling is utter nonsense of the sort that you just _know_ will get worse as it goes.

I listened to the audiobook at work a few years ago, and even having read the book before, I had to sit down for a bit after the final minutes. And what makes it especially gut-wrenching (much as with Never Let Me Go) is that there's never any pretense that you'd get an ending that wasn't this one. Gah, it's getting…

No, he's right, it is—but it's also not pretending to be anything else, which is one of the reasons I love it.

I think it's off to mention Steve Martin in this as an over-sharer, as his book is practically the definition of "I don't usually do this." His comedy is as conceptual as Norm's is, and Born Standing Up is more an post-mortem than an effort to use pain as a narrative device. (Sorry, I just really, really love that…

There's a (minor) story here—I left it out because I've talked about it before, and it's not exactly relevant, but: when I was a kid, my dad would read Stephen King books ahead of me before deciding if I could read them. He let me read The Stand, and Misery, but he told me I wasn't ready for The Shining yet, and he…

Yeah, I pretty much stick to Possession and Murder of Crows. It's both unsettling _and_ satisfying.

Thanks to the week from hell (I'm in a show and we open tonight, but I got sick last weekend and ended up stuck at home for Monday and Tuesday—okay, those two ideas don't seem directly related, but trust me, they are), I've nearly finished working my way through the Bioshock Collection. Still dig the original, still…

Yeah, all I'm really asking for is a battle system that doesn't make me want to break the game disc in half after the first thirty minutes.

Hey, just a head's up: this is a dumb comment. I don't know if you understand why it's dumb, or if you're just trolling, or what, but you aren't adding anything to the conversation, and you should probably spend some time thinking before you say anything else. Have a good day!

Yeah, it's a pretty classic "Oh, I guess he's not so bad after BANG" moment.

JAWS

Okay, let's try that.

SPOILER (because I can't be bothered to do that totally cool grey highlight thing): Don't feature an escort mission in your game's climax. Just… don't.

I may (or may not) be getting the new Paper Mario to review this weekend, but if that doesn't happen, I'm almost at the end of the original Bioshock. I remembered it turned into a bit of a slog near the end (and the last boss is a drag), but I'd forgotten it was _this_ bad. After the big twist, it's like the designers…

Strap in. Next week, we're headed to Dimple Land.

I thought it was pretty effective at mood and tension when no one was talking. Unfortunately, there's a fair bit of talking.

I think I'm going to stick with publication order. Maybe someday I'll try it different.

Hadn't even considered it. I assume you mean from a narrative standpoint—which would place Bioshock 2 before Bioshock, I guess?

What's weird is that, for whatever reason, I _loved_ the combat. I have no idea why. The first Bioshock took me six or seven tries to get into, but BI, I fucking _torched_ that thing on my first attempt. Maybe because it was comparatively simple?