Here's another story through FiftyWordStories.com, this one has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it. As always, please read and rate on the site.
http://fiftywordstories.com/2013/10/17/chris-griglack-homesick/
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Bioshock Infinite
I know I'm a little behind with this review as the game came out at the end of August, but I finally had the chance to play through Bioshock Infinite this weekend, and it is hands down my favorite shooter of the year. I loved the previous two installments of Bioshock for their gritty sci-fi/horror take on first person shooters, but this one blew the others out of the water in terms of story, depth, and gameplay.
Bioshock Infinite takes place in 1912 in the city of Columbia, which is the Heaven to Rapture's (the underwater city of the first two games) Hellish nightmare city. Columbia floats high above the clouds while Rapture is sunk deep beneath the ocean, and the society of Columbia is a virtual utopia founded on American patriotism and a cult-like sect of Christianity. While the first two installments had you fighting zombie-like junkies with guns and genetically modified powers you inject into yourself, in Infinite you'll be fighting more or less normal humans with twisted ambitions. You no longer inject yourself with plasmids to grant powers either, Columbia's technology allows you to drink a tonic which uses the salts in your character's body to power the genetic enhancements. The overall feel of Columbia is that it's a city which managed to pull off the utopia that Rapture was aiming for, but after spending about 5 minutes walking through its streets you'll get the feeling that the society is far too good to be true, even if you haven't played the other games.
The image of perfection shatters when you attend the Founder's Day raffle and are greeted with some old fashioned racism like a slap in the face, and when I say that I mean they don't slowly build up to it, the way it's introduced will make you say "Woah," when you get to it. At this point things turn sour very quickly for the main character, Booker DeWitt. He's labeled as the "False Prophet," the equivalent of "Enemy of the State" in this brainwashed community. From here you evade and kill the people coming after you until you meet up with Elizabeth, and things really start getting interesting. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Elizabeth may be the coolest support character ever to appear in a shooter game. She will find you money, open locked doors and safes, throw you health packs and salt when you are running low, and toss you fully loaded guns when you are running low on ammo, replenishing your ammo stock and removing the need for reload time every once in a while. You don't need to protect her from being killed, she's not just thrown in as fan service or eye candy, and she has some really cool abilities which I won't go into because they tie into the central story and I'm trying to avoid spoilers.
The actual gameplay is very similar to the previous Bioshock installments, but with the added bonus of a shield which recharges after taking cover for a few seconds, gear which adds abilities (don't worry no RPG type stats to manage) and the addition of Elizabeth which, as already mentioned, is awesome. All your weapons and powers are upgradable through the currency system used in Columbia: Silver Eagles, and your health, shield, and salt levels are upgraded by drinking Infusions found throughout the game, usually in the more secretive areas. Instead of farming Big Daddies and Little Sisters for ADAM the optional content of this game is found through exploring locked rooms which Elizabeth opens for you, code books and ciphers which she also decodes, and locked chests that you need to find keys for. There's enough optional content in the game to keep you entertained, and it's arranged in such a way that you won't need to backtrack for half an hour to get back to the actual mission.
The highlight of Bioshock Infinite is the amazingly beautiful and complex world through which the story is presented. Like its predecessors, Infinite is built on a world of duality which harkens back to the olden days of the early 20th century: men and women wear hats, the music is all done in styles which the majority of gamers are not going to hear anywhere except in games like this and Fallout (listen closely for some fantastic anachronistic versions of songs like "Tainted Love" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), and nobody walks around staring at a handheld device. At the same time though, this is a flying city with automated "Patriots" and a giant mechanical bird to protect it, and they've developed a tonic that allows you to do things like shoot fire or lightning out of your hands or summon a flock of crows to attack. It's a world which appears to be a utopia, yet just a scratch at the surface shows the atrocities it's built upon, and the propaganda used to keep the people believing.
And if I can just go back to the music for a moment. Except in combat scenes, the music in this game is not at all background music. Every time you encounter a radio, phonograph, or the few "live" musical scenes it's a captivating event that reminds you just how similar this world is to our own. I know I just put a lot of time into telling you how different and unique the world of Infinite is, but when you stop to listen to the beautiful rendition of "Shake Sugaree" sung in Shantytown or this haunting version of "Fortunate Son" sung while a war rages all around, it gives you the feeling that the people of this world are not so different from those of our own. They have the same ambitions of greed, revenge, redemption, longing for freedom, love, and hope. (Video may have minor spoilers but if you haven't played through the game it's almost certainly not what you think)
Bioshock Infinite is an all-around stunning game, easily the best of the Bioshock games and easily the most original and entertaining shooter of the year. I recently bought it used for about half price, but I wish I had purchased it on release for full price because I was missing out. I highly recommend picking up a copy of your own, this is a game I definitely won't be trading in anytime soon.
Bioshock Infinite takes place in 1912 in the city of Columbia, which is the Heaven to Rapture's (the underwater city of the first two games) Hellish nightmare city. Columbia floats high above the clouds while Rapture is sunk deep beneath the ocean, and the society of Columbia is a virtual utopia founded on American patriotism and a cult-like sect of Christianity. While the first two installments had you fighting zombie-like junkies with guns and genetically modified powers you inject into yourself, in Infinite you'll be fighting more or less normal humans with twisted ambitions. You no longer inject yourself with plasmids to grant powers either, Columbia's technology allows you to drink a tonic which uses the salts in your character's body to power the genetic enhancements. The overall feel of Columbia is that it's a city which managed to pull off the utopia that Rapture was aiming for, but after spending about 5 minutes walking through its streets you'll get the feeling that the society is far too good to be true, even if you haven't played the other games.
The image of perfection shatters when you attend the Founder's Day raffle and are greeted with some old fashioned racism like a slap in the face, and when I say that I mean they don't slowly build up to it, the way it's introduced will make you say "Woah," when you get to it. At this point things turn sour very quickly for the main character, Booker DeWitt. He's labeled as the "False Prophet," the equivalent of "Enemy of the State" in this brainwashed community. From here you evade and kill the people coming after you until you meet up with Elizabeth, and things really start getting interesting. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Elizabeth may be the coolest support character ever to appear in a shooter game. She will find you money, open locked doors and safes, throw you health packs and salt when you are running low, and toss you fully loaded guns when you are running low on ammo, replenishing your ammo stock and removing the need for reload time every once in a while. You don't need to protect her from being killed, she's not just thrown in as fan service or eye candy, and she has some really cool abilities which I won't go into because they tie into the central story and I'm trying to avoid spoilers.
The actual gameplay is very similar to the previous Bioshock installments, but with the added bonus of a shield which recharges after taking cover for a few seconds, gear which adds abilities (don't worry no RPG type stats to manage) and the addition of Elizabeth which, as already mentioned, is awesome. All your weapons and powers are upgradable through the currency system used in Columbia: Silver Eagles, and your health, shield, and salt levels are upgraded by drinking Infusions found throughout the game, usually in the more secretive areas. Instead of farming Big Daddies and Little Sisters for ADAM the optional content of this game is found through exploring locked rooms which Elizabeth opens for you, code books and ciphers which she also decodes, and locked chests that you need to find keys for. There's enough optional content in the game to keep you entertained, and it's arranged in such a way that you won't need to backtrack for half an hour to get back to the actual mission.
The highlight of Bioshock Infinite is the amazingly beautiful and complex world through which the story is presented. Like its predecessors, Infinite is built on a world of duality which harkens back to the olden days of the early 20th century: men and women wear hats, the music is all done in styles which the majority of gamers are not going to hear anywhere except in games like this and Fallout (listen closely for some fantastic anachronistic versions of songs like "Tainted Love" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), and nobody walks around staring at a handheld device. At the same time though, this is a flying city with automated "Patriots" and a giant mechanical bird to protect it, and they've developed a tonic that allows you to do things like shoot fire or lightning out of your hands or summon a flock of crows to attack. It's a world which appears to be a utopia, yet just a scratch at the surface shows the atrocities it's built upon, and the propaganda used to keep the people believing.
And if I can just go back to the music for a moment. Except in combat scenes, the music in this game is not at all background music. Every time you encounter a radio, phonograph, or the few "live" musical scenes it's a captivating event that reminds you just how similar this world is to our own. I know I just put a lot of time into telling you how different and unique the world of Infinite is, but when you stop to listen to the beautiful rendition of "Shake Sugaree" sung in Shantytown or this haunting version of "Fortunate Son" sung while a war rages all around, it gives you the feeling that the people of this world are not so different from those of our own. They have the same ambitions of greed, revenge, redemption, longing for freedom, love, and hope. (Video may have minor spoilers but if you haven't played through the game it's almost certainly not what you think)
Bioshock Infinite is an all-around stunning game, easily the best of the Bioshock games and easily the most original and entertaining shooter of the year. I recently bought it used for about half price, but I wish I had purchased it on release for full price because I was missing out. I highly recommend picking up a copy of your own, this is a game I definitely won't be trading in anytime soon.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Shattered
New 50 word original fiction on FiftyWordStories.com entitled "Shattered." Feel free to read and rate using the stars below the story.
http://fiftywordstories.com/2013/10/02/chris-griglack-shattered/
http://fiftywordstories.com/2013/10/02/chris-griglack-shattered/
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