Journey Review

Ever since I played thatgamecompany's Journey back around April, I've been wanting to review it, but I'm not really sure how to approach it, since it's been reviewed many times, and they all basically say the same thing, but since I don't want my blog to die, I'll just sort of say whatever.

Visuals
One of the most critically applauded areas of the game is the visuals, and I can't disagree. They aren't quite realistic, but still are quite impressive - more like a painting than a photo. That being said, the distinct visual style doesn't take away from the immersion - in fact, it's executed so well that it really adds to the game. Particularly the ending scene (I won't spoil it, just take my word for it, or play the game if you haven't!). I think what gives it its distinct feel is the texturing, which is much more minimal than your average game. The only thing is, sometimes there are some wonky camera angles, like a nice view inside a block or something. But that doesn't happen if you don't try to put the camera there, I guess.

Audio

I'm sure you've heard before about how awesome the music is, and how it's really haunting and stuff. I don't want to reiterate, but it really is. There have been great video game soundtracks before, but I'd go as far as to say that this is the greatest video game soundtrack of all time. I mean, even the emotional ending of Puccini's La Boheme can't compare to the emotional ending of "Apotheosis".
One thing, however, that hasn't been mentioned are the sound effects themselves. There aren't an overwhelming amount, but they do their job nicely. They're convincing, and there are some memorable ones, certainly. I can't really complain in that regard, except maybe the player interaction noise gets annoying sometimes.

Story
I'm not really sure what exactly the story is, but that's a good thing, maybe. Obviously, you're trying to get to a mountain, but with all these ruins and cutscenes, it really hints at something deeper. It's not a huge narrative, but rather it implies that something huge and mysterious happened a long time ago. It really makes you think.

All that being said, I have missed one critical part, which is other characters. Remember, it is online, so you can encounter other people. In that regard, though, you might be a bit disappointed, because it seems quite rare now that I ever meet someone in-game, and even when I do, they leave fairly quickly. I guess I can't blame people, because with no new content, there's not really any reason to keep playing. For that reason, it kind of seems like thatgamecompany wanted to make an awesome online game, but they never really thought through the implications of doing so. "The curse of the online game", if you will.

Summary:
Awesome game, looks beautiful, great soundtrack, mysterious, a bit lonely, buy it now!

So I Guess I'll Start Reviewing Things Now

I don't really have much to talk about now, so I figure I'll start writing reviews about things 'n' stuff. Stay tuned, everybody!

Snow! Finally!

Well, not any real snow, but over at youtube, there's a very exciting virtual snowfall. Take a look:

Anyway, yep. If you haven't seen it yet, it's on display on channels and videos and stuff. I'm not aware of the specifics, but it can be seen! And by the way, I'm not putting in a link for youtube, because if you need the url for youtube, maybe you shouldn't be allowed to use the internet...

Anyway, on that note, I have one thing to say:

Blah

Don't feel like explaining this one. Just go here and sign their petition of whatever:
http://demandprogress.org/

Dear Cyclists, I Don't Like You Anymore

Today I went for a bike ride in central park with some people with whom I am affiliated. It's pretty nice; a nice big place, and seeing buildings in the background makes it both ironic and serene. But you know those hardcore cyclists, who are always wearing jerseys and these fancy bikes even though all they really do is ride around in parks? Well, these people demonstrated to me today that they are near-sighted jerks. First, a person I know known as Person A tried to ride across the road. Just then, this moronic cyclist who obviously saw Person A didn't stop, or, like, go around them, they decided to yell, "watch it watch it watch it WATCH IT", obviously expecting Person A to reverse time or something. At the last moment I guess they remembered they can turn, so they did, but as they continued on, they decided to shout, "HOLY SHIT!", for whatever reason. I mean, how can you possibly be so dumb?! I mean, there were young kids there, literally toddlers, and parents can thank him if they start saying "shit" around the house. And I might be able to forgive these people if it had been just the one. But it wasn't. Shortly afterwards, a completely different cyclist got cut off by a small child with whom I am also affiliated. When this happened, he proceeded to yell at the child (Person B), even though they were obviously close to tears, had a poor bike and was clearly inexperienced and uncomfortable. I mean, sure, it was a stupid move on Person B's part, but how can he possibly think he's so important that he can just make whatever little girl cry that he wants? This has demonstrated to me that cyclists are usually these ignorant jerks who think that just because they have a fancy shirt and an ostentatious bike, they can just do whatever they want. And these instances aren't the sole foundation of my opinion; it's more like the last straw. I can't count the number of times I've been in a car, going 20 km/h in an 80 zone because there were cyclists cutting the car off even though it's obviously there, it's perfectly easy to go single file and it's a no-passing zone. They just don't care. And that is why I am announcing, CYCLISTS, I DON'T LIKE YOU! I'm sure that not every showoff-y cyclist has the aura of a stereotypical ignorant American, I still hold that they're mostly total jerks.

Wow, I'm probably going to end up insulting a lot of people with this post...

Machinarium

Hello. I realize it's been a while since I've posted, and one reason for that is that I have a computer anew. But enough about that. Since it's what I often do, I'm just going to talk about some random application or game that I like. And today, it has nothing to do Myst or Riven!

So, about this game. It's a point and click style adventure about this robot thingy. You must save your friend who is also the opposite gender, because apparently robots still have sexual attraction. Anyway, the whole thing is hand-drawn, and it solves a lot of the annoyances of other point and click games such as King's Quest. To name a few, you can't make the game unwinnable, and the implausible holding enormous amounts of stuff in your pockets theory is fixed by the robot eating everything, because apparently he's hollow. It also has a lot of neat ambient music, and the puzzles are usually not arbitrary. However, there are certain times that it seems like they put in a puzzle just for the sake of having a puzzle, unlike Riven where the team spent months trying to make everything seem real. That's not to say I don't like this game. It is a good game, but I'm afraid I still don't like it as much as the Myst series. Although Myst 5 wasn't that great. Anyway, yeah. It is a good game. If you're interested, you can play a demo or buy the full version here:
http://machinarium.net/demo/

Ubuntu 11.10

Last night, I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10, and I've been using it for a while so I thought I'd write a little review about it.
First off, it uses a new "Unity 3d" interface, which is based on the "Unity" interface which, I believe, was originally introduced for Ubuntu Netbook edition but was slightly changed when it was merged with Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop Edition.
One of the main features of Unity and Unity 3d is the side panel thing. It is very similar to the dock on OSX, and generally serves exactly the same purpose:

Basically the main center for doing general stuff is the Dash Home. The Dash home essentially serves as hybrid between a search engine and a control center. Rather than try to explain how it works, I'll show you a few images:

As with the previous version, you can switch between windowed and full screen mode, but unlike the previous version it stays that way, and you can change it as much as you like.

In addition to the new size changing things, rather than several different dash homes, they're all morphed into one thing with different menus. You've seen the Main Menu, Applications, now Documents:

And , Music. I think this is really useful, because right from the Dash Home, you search and browse your entire music collection:

There are many other cool features that I'm not going to go into in great detail, but among them, there is a new on/off menu symbol, which is a cross between the on/off symbol and the settings gear symbol, a little pop sound which plays when you change the volume (finally!), and a cool new lock screen and home screen.

Included in this version is a new workspace switcher, which is slightly different from the previous one, but still pretty neat:

(for some reason my screenshot program screwed up and got its dialog box in the picture)

As shown above, if you click on an application with more than one window open, it shows you all the windows that program has open.
Also, the Ubuntu software center has a new look and a new logo.

I'm not sure if these have anything new or not, but take a look at the music player and photo manager:

And lastly, if you're wondering how it manages the closing/minimizing/enlarging options, you just roll over the top bar and see what happens:

So, in conclusion:
This is a great Operating System with a great interface. The previous version was very good as well, but this version also fixes many speed issues and glitches. I give this five out of five.

EDIT: I have also noticed as of posting this that the icons in the sidebar have loading bars if stuff is loading. And since it's completely free as always, go ahead and
Get Ubuntu now