GRG's Miscellany

I started playing this recently, and it is so very satisfying. The first 'tutorial' town is dead easy. You go around blowing stuff up and shooting many people. Great fun. The second town, I found rock hard. Gangs of soldiers shoot back rather accurately, and despatch you without delay. They run for cover, and then advance ruthlessly - don't think they'll still be waiting in the same place when you've finished cowering. Also, it hurts when buildings fall on you - who knew? This was all very frustrating until I realised that my play strategy needed addressing. Had the game been 'Red Faction:One Man Tank' I would've been fine. However, I have now realised the value in running away and coming back later. It's still early days, but so far I've found it a fun but unusually tricky game where engaging your brain actually helps. So far, I'm impressed.

I have had my last day in a job that I've found increasingly oppressive over the last two years. It feels momentous that I no longer have to go back. I have my sights on being an indie game developer in a couple of years, and this is a considered step towards it. It feels so good. :)

Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco is a graphic novel which is far from an easy read. It tells the stories of people from the former Yugoslavia, and the atrocities they experienced. It is powerful, compelling, harrowing - but not enjoyable. I still haven't finished it because I simply can't take reading it for more than a short while at a time. I imagined a game designed to express the same harrowing stories. It would put the player into the situation, presenting them with the desperate decisions - trying to harvest fruit under sniper fire, or trying to slip through to the Red Cross post across the river, avoiding the soldiers executing civilians on the bridge. It was tastefully done - not comic - not fun. Developing it would be difficult to get right. Exposing enjoyment in the atrocities would turn the game into a sick joke. Joe Sacco managed to avoid this when producing his book. Graphic novels are all to often dismissed as mere comics, but he showed me they can sens...