Infamous
It’s no secret to my friends and family that I’m a gamer. I never really stick to one genre -Shooters, Strategy, Fighters, Racers, Brawlers… If the game is good, then I enjoy it, and I have a good time. I think, though, my favorite games are those that provide a truly memorable experience. I mean, back in the days of arcades, I used to spend hours at the Tekken machines, taking on a line of people and dropping them one at a time. That provided, for me, a worthwhile gaming experience. The face to face, the knowledge that no, there was nothing that the other person could say. You couldn’t just curse them out because the other person was standing right there. Gaming was truly a social experience.
When the arcades in America started to turn into simply ticket-prize galleries, the console market truly exploded. Now, here I am in my twenties, and I find myself still constantly amazed at the experiences that are uniquely provided by this powerful storytelling tool. Whereas a film or TV show only allows you to watch, a video game really puts you into the action, often allowing you to truly effect the outcomes of the story that you’re playing. Do your actions help those around you? Are you willing to sacrifice one life over another? When you’re handed great power, what exactly are you going to do with it?
My most recent “experience” has been with the PS3 exclusive, Infamous. While I was already excited about this game, it wasn’t until I actually played it that I realized the sheer amount of awesomeness that comprises this game. I honestly played for nine-and-a-half hours straight, which was just insane. Every time that I thought, “Okay, here’s a good stopping point,” I would see something else that was just plain unbelievable that would pull me back in again for “just a couple more minutes.” Finally, the end was well worth the playing time, especially after taking the time to go through every side mission on the good side. Now, I’m starting on the evil track, and I’m happy to report that it’s got a wonderfully different spin on it.
In Infamous, you play as Cole, a deliveryman who has inadvertantly been gifted with powers of electricity. While at first, he doesn’t exactly understand why, the explanations begin to unfold over time. With a number of subtle twists and turns, alliances and betrayals, you utilize your powers to discover exactly what has happened to you, unravelling the web of deciet that you’ve been unwittingly cast into the middle of. The fictional Empire City is almost another character as you watch the citizens and even the structures react to the choices that you make for yourself. Should you choose to do good, helping the citizens around you, they will respond in kind, using your inspiration to take the city back from the gangs that have taken over. But if you choose evil, then they will shun you just as they do the others, even causing riots to take you down.
The gameplay is top-notch, with a very third-person shooter feel as Cole uses his powers to destroy his foes. As he becomes more and more adept with his powers, he becomes stronger, and more able to cause mass destruction, demolishing his enemies in his wake. All in all, the game is just plain fun.
I know that there’s plenty of reviews available for this game, and I just wanted to throw in my own two cents. If you have any interest in gaming at all, then you should play this game.
- Karratti
who made the sky the limit?
I remember, early on in college, having counselors and professors ask me “What is your focus?” When I finally did decide that I wanted to pursue film, more questions started to come. Did I want to work in pre, production, or post? What do you want to do in film? Do you want to write? Run the camera? Set the lights? Do you want to act? Or maybe want to do art design? The props, the costuming? There were just so many different things to do when it came to “film” that it seemed almost impossible to actually sit down and make a decision unless I was informed on where each path may take me.
So I did some writing. I did some acting. I did some directing. I gripped a little, setting up lights. I did some art design. Each time that I tried something, I seemed to gain a knack for it with some thought, some study, and a lot of hard work and long hours. I’m not exactly a pro at everything – far from it. To be honest, if you were to put me on a set with real-world professionals, they’d probably dust me. But I like to think of myself as something of a jack of all trades, someone who can be thrown into most any environment with at least a moderate assurance that somehow things are going to work out alright.
So far, things have turned out well, one way or another. Despite any hardships, or struggles, or unexpected obstacles, somehow we work through them.
I’ve heard people tell me that I can’t be the best at everything, and though my rational mind may see the logic in it, I don’t like to dwell on that idea. Instead, I choose to believe that I can, in fact, be the best at everything, and aim for that. Enter the cliché – “It’s better to shoot for the stars and miss than to aim for the manure pile and get bull’s eye.”
I choose to see the world as something that I can personally conquer. Putting a limit on myself seems counter-productive. In a world where we’ve been to the moon, where we have vehicles that can break the speed of sound, where a cell phone in Japan can reach another one in the States, there resides little room in my mind for doubt to creep in. This is a reality of possibilities, and I choose to take full advantage.
- Karratti
