I kind of wanted to delve further into the world of Chronicle, but unfortunately the DVD isn’t exactly chock-full of extras. Beyond the film, it just provides some animatics from a few of the more sfx heavy scenes of the film and some early test footage (with different actors) of how the telekinetic powers would potentially appear in the final film. Other than that, we get a trailer and not much else. The Blu-Ray apparently has a Director’s Cut of the film (the screener Fox sent me just had the film and the extras listed here), so I’m thinking that and/or the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack might be the better option if you want more goodies when Chronicle hits stores on May 15th.

But as I said, don’t go looking for a Left 4 Dead free-for-all melee battle with a horde of zombies. This game is very much an RPG (role playing game) that leads you through the experiences of Lee Everett, who you control, making all of the big choices on his behalf. When the zombies do attack en masse, you are often stuck with the decision of who lives and who dies. And it’s never an easy, clear cut decision. The game puts you on a timer and doesn’t let you off the hook. If you don’t make a decision fast enough, you all die (one would guess, but I don’t know because I always made a choice). Do you save the little kid or the man who saved your life? It’s decisions like those that can shoot the story off into broadly arcing directions and will determine your fate, much like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Only in this case, a slow decision gets you eaten by the ravenous undead. Technically, regardless of whichever decision you make, you’ll survive. There are no real dead ends, except when you don’t react fast enough. I learned that the hard way during the first zombie I encountered. He attacked, I hesitated (actually, I wasn’t sure of the controls as there isn’t really a tutorial I was aware of… you kind of learn as you go), and I got bit, bled out, and died. Much of the non-attack moments are filled with cinematics that move the story along, searching for supplies, and chatting with your fellow survivors. This game leans a lot more toward story than action, but when it hits, you’re often left scrambling for safety as things go to hell rather quickly, especially when you least expect it (you should always be expecting it, by the way). Those moments spent sneaking around, dodging zombies when you’re pretty much defenseless are some of the more thrilling parts of the game.

For Walking Dead comic fans, you’ll get to see and interact with a few familiar faces from the books and you’ll discover what they were doing in the weeks following the catastrophe and just before they would meet Rick Grimes. I love the comic series, so it was fun more deeply exploring a world with which I was already familiar. However, since I knew their stories were going to go on, I didn’t fear for their safety as much when things were their most dire (kind of like watching Star Wars Episode 1 and not worrying about whether Obi-Wan or Anakin would make it to the end of the movie alive).

I think my only complaints about the game stem from the times when it became all too apparent that no matter who I had chosen to save in the previous scene, the same dialogue would have been spouted at me. Some of the characters are a little cliche, but I completely understand the need for conflict. Someone has to hate your guts or at least not trust your judgement. If everyone got a long, it would simply be another zombie hack-n-slash battle game (which I LOVE, by the way – Left 4 Dead 4 Evah!). And while I appreciated the richness and depth of the world, there were some items that were available to view that didn’t seem to serve any purpose whatsoever, even for aesthetic purposes. No, not everything has to be a “big clue”, but it would have been good if the news clips on the wall or the greeting card rack in the drug store would have been more detailed, rather than just being a trigger for Lee to mumble something to himself.

The controls for the PC worked perfectly fine for me, but as I said, no instructions for how to control your movements in the heat of the moment were available until you were neck deep in biter drool. Markers, if you choose to use them (I did), appear at specific moments that tell you where to point your mouse and click (SQUISH goes the zombie’s brains!). In all, I never ran into an issue with movement or interaction. How this gameplay translates to a console controller, I have no idea. That’s why I’m primarily a PC gamer. I like the precision it allows me.

The sound, music, and voices all worked for me, setting the tone for the story. And, yes, the SQUISH you get when you bash a zombie’s brains in with a hammer sound wonderfully grotesque. And god knows I got to hear it enough, because one or two hits just won’t do when it comes to putting down these walkers. The voice acting is superb, even if much of the dialogue in the beginning comes off as flat exposition as you try to get your bearings in these new surroundings among these new people who keep asking too many questions about your mysterious past and the little girl at your side, who, it quickly becomes apparent to them, is not yours.

The graphics are grim and moody, even in the daylight, with heavily drawn lines around some characters and objects, to give it a very faithful connection to the comics the game is based on. The characters aren’t “real life”, but they aren’t cartoony either. It felt like I was playing the comic and, to me, that’s alright.

The story isn’t all that elaborate or innovative, but where can you actually go in a zombie apocalypse without making it into non-stop horror or exhaustingly campy. Thankfully, it doesn’t get close to either of those extremes. How fast the story unfolds depends on how quickly you can make it through the series of questions you’ll need to ask and answer throughout your journey to save yourself and the little girl that has trusted you to take care of her until you find her parents (what are the odds THAT will happen?). What becomes glaringly obvious soon after you’ve met up with a ragtag group of survivors is that the game isn’t just about making hard decisions or playing the role of the main character… it’s a puzzle game. It all comes down to the order in which you execute each of your tasks to achieve the singular result. In those situations, it becomes very clear that there is only one path to success, which allows you to know how it will end even if all of the pieces aren’t readily available to put into place to make it happen. Considering the type of game it is and its episodic nature, I’m not sure if I should be satisfied or frustrated that it took me less than 2 hours to make it through the first chapter. Yes, I’m sure many people got through it much faster, but I like to dig, explore, and touch everything I can. And although I don’t regret my who lives/who dies decisions, part of me wanted to go back and see what would have happened had I chose someone else or clicked on a door available to me that wasn’t any longer. What if we had ventured off at night rather than during the day? It’s these questions that make me think that there’s a lot of replay value in this game, even though I’m sure I’ll zip through a number of scenes that I know how they’ll play out. Of course, I’m also considering playing again and being a complete dick to everyone I talk to, just to see what happens.

In all, the first chapter of the Walking Dead game is a fun, sometimes harrowing experience. It’s got plenty of suspense and human drama. If you’d rather be flipping through a selection of melee and range weapons as you cut your way through the bloodthirsty masses searching for healthpaks, then this game isn’t for you. It’s all about balancing out the right and wrong or the big patch of gray area smack dab in between them every time you’re forced to make a decision that you know will end at least one person’s life. I do hope that now that the main character origin has run its course, the story will be able to go in more visceral directions, balancing selflessness versus a drive to survive against those who are struggling with the same issues. I’ve imagined what kind of game this would turn into if it could somehow go the multiplayer route, but I imagine it would devolve into madness pretty quickly.

If you’re a fan of the comics and how the living, breathing characters are truly the most dangerous creatures in the book, and you’ve always wondered what you’d do in Rick’s shoes (or someone in a situation much like his), here’s your chance to find out. Don’t expect hugs or stars or gold coins or 1-ups whenever you make a “right” decision, because there is no such thing as a “right” decision. But in the real world with the undead walking the Earth, having ANY choice to make about your fate in this new world is the best you can hope for.

The Walking Dead is rated ‘M’ (Mature) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language by the ESRB.

To say I’ve been anticipating this movie is a bit of an understatement. With that anticipation comes some pretty big expectations. I know I’m not alone in this regard. With that in mind, Marvel, Disney, and Paramount don’t have to worry about making their money back on this little film. That was never a concern. Of course, when you have a film this big, a studio can’t afford to simply get their money back. They have to knock it out of the park. They have to break records. They have to pull people out of their homes and into the multiplexes and get them to don 3D glasses and not wait until it comes out on DVD. To do that, they have to make a great movie and have the confidence to show it to the movie’s most ardent fans well before the official launch date on May 4th, just to get a reaction that they could put on film and show the rest of the world the enthusiasm surrounding this epic piece of cinematic history.

But therein lies the huge risk they took. A movie this big is almost guaranteed to fail from a “living up to expectations” standpoint, especially when it comes to an audience like this. The primary audience for the Avengers is the comic book geeks who have been following their beloved heroes for almost 50 years. And geeks are anything but quiet about sharing their opinions. If the Avengers didn’t live up to the expectations of these nitpicky nerds, the world was going to hear about it. Even worse, if the film just generated a collective “meh”, it could be the death-knell for the future of superhero movies, good or bad. Nobody likes a “meh” movie. “Meh” is death. But as we learned last Saturday morning after less than a hour’s sleep the night before, the Avengers is anything but a “meh” movie.

I’ve been to a lot of advance screenings. There’s always a bit of a tweaked rah-rah attitude to the proceedings, considering that such an audience is thrilled to get the first look of something they’ve waited years to see, but I have never experienced the degree of unadulterated enthusiasm as I witnessed during this Avengers screening. There were moments when the entire room exploded in reaction to what was happening on screen. I was among the people lurching forward in their seats, shouting profanity into my hands covering my mouth, almost jumping to my feet, followed by shouts, screams, and raucus applause. And there are more than a few moments when the audience gets to applaud and cheer on our heroes and not hold back. It felt like a sporting event. The Avengers smacked us around (in a good way) from beginning to end with its action, its humor, and the characters we love. And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Here’s some footage from the screening events held in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Houston last weekend. We in LA were lucky enough to have director/writer Joss Whedon, producer Kevin Feige, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill), and Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) in attendance at our screening, which made that Saturday 9:30am screening all the more special, or as Clark Gregg put it “an astonishing tsunami of fanboy energy”…

Here’s a few nuggets of what I enjoyed most about the film:

That Bastard Loki – He really is a mean S.O.B. in this movie. Hiddleston is scarily sly and menacing while at times simply a guy who is in way over his head, but too proud to admit it.

It Has Joss’ Voice – Love it or hate it, director/writer Joss Whedon is the invisible character in this film. Fans of his previous work know of his love of off-kilter, grandiose speechifying and how he loves to make little moments into something surpisingly huge and turn big moments into unexpected character explorations with just the turn of a phrase or two. He often does it with humor, but there are lines in this film that will shock you, even when it’s coming from the mouth of a villain.

You Won’t See the Best Moments Coming – More than once, Whedon takes a scene you think is going one direction and suddenly turns it on its head without the slightest warning. His fans know that he’s good at that. But you won’t mind at all. You will learn to use the term “blindside” more often when talking about this film.

It’s More Complex Than it Looks (but not too much) – It’s not just about Loki invading the Earth. It’s not just about Nick Fury assembling heroes to do his bidding. There were some surprising twists that were important to the motivation of the characters to come together despite everything they were experiencing that would make them not want to work together at all. Let’s just say it’s not as simple as Nick saying, “hey, guys, let’s team up!”

Black Widow and Hawkeye BFFs – They aren’t just filling in spots in the roster. They have important roles at the beginning all the way through the end, even if they are completely outclassed when it comes to an alien invasion. They serve a purpose and they steal pretty much all of the scenes they’re in, especially in the final battle.

Everyone Gets to Fight (Each Other) – There are more great match ups in this movie and they don’t come off as screentime diversions. More than once, I had to say aloud “I can’t believe I’m seeing this!” As we’ve seen in the trailers, the heroes fight each other, but thankfully those moments barely scratch the surface of what the film gives us. You want a Hulk vs Thor fight? Oh boy, you’ve got one! Of course, put the Hulk in a fight against anyone, and it’s going to be fun.

Who is the Alien Army? – Their name is revealed in the first 5 seconds of the film. And Marvel fans have heard the name before, though it bares no consequence to the story. It’s the Chitauri from the Ultimates comic series, but don’t expect these alternate reality versions of the Skrulls to do any shapeshifting. They are simply warriors allied with Loki to overtake the Earth (or are they?). Also, their enormous power makes it easy for our heroes to justify completely cutting loose on their asses.

Joss Loves a Longshot – If you’ve seen Joss’s previous works, you know how much he loves long, continuous, flowing shots. You get one in possibly the greatest action sequence in the film. In fact, you almost don’t even know it’s happening until you’re part of the way through it because your breathing and heartbeat come to a complete stop until its over. It’s a thing of beauty. It’s one of the things I can’t wait to see again.

Unlikely Heroes Step Up – Unfortunately, Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill doesn’t get to do much more than act as an expository dialogue foil in any scenes she shares with Nick Fury, shouting commands or providing sitreps (of course, looking great while doing it), but if she wasn’t there, Nick would look strange speaking much of his dialogue aloud to himself. But when it comes to the normally unflappable Agent Coulson, whom we’ve seen in both Iron Man films and Thor, we get to see another side of him that most won’t expect, but will thoroughly enjoy when they see it. Believe it or not, he’s got one of the best scenes and lines in the movie.

The Helicarrier – It’s almost a character unto itself. It’s huge and cool as hell and acts as the centerpiece for one of the movie’s biggest conflicts. Thank god they didn’t introduce it just to make it a fancy background. It’s actually integral to the action in more ways than one.

The Brothers Squabble – The big 3 heroes in the Avengers have always been Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor (head, heart, and hand, respectively). Their interaction gives the movie its spark. Tony is always ready with a snarky quip even when it’s not appropriate, because he’s too smart for his own good, even though he’s rarely, if ever, wrong. Steve wants to just follow orders and play soldier as a way of dealing with the fact that 2012 is a mostly alien world to him. And Thor feels he alone is qualified to deal with the threat his half-brother poses. Not only do they come to blows physically, as seen in the trailers, but also verbally and philosophically, adding a few layers of tension to the film that make you wonder whether they’re going to get over themselves soon enough to fight the real battle (okay, sure, you know they will, but still…).

The Hulk – I never thought I’d say this, but we need another Hulk movie – NOW! If they can capture what they brought to the screen in the Avengers and distill it into another solo film, they could take the least popular Marvel movie franchise and turn it into the best. Like the shark in Jaws, they take their time putting him in front of the camera until they absolutely have to, but when they do, the effect is explosive and at times terrifying. And once the Hulk is getting into the groove of smashing, he’s at once breathtaking to watch and hilarious in other moments when you least expect it.

The Credits – Be sure you stick around DURING the credits. Even though your average moviegoer will wonder what just happened, longtime Marvel fans will walk away with a very big grin on their faces. Also, since there is word that they shot at least one more scene last week after the red carpet premiere in Hollywood, there’s a good chance we’ll get another scene tacked onto the end after the credits (there wasn’t one at the screening I saw) just in time for the May 4th premiere.

Expectations SMASHED! – I thought there was no way this movie could have lived up to the expectations put upon it by the fans (most importantly, by me), but somehow it did that and more. It went far, far beyond what I wanted it to do. All props go to Joss Whedon, the cast, and the crew who somehow figured out how to do it right and not just make a two hour and twenty minute Hasbro toy and Slurpee commercial. When the lights came up after the movie, fans were still sitting in their seats stunned, laughing and recounting their favorite scenes and marveling at the fact that they were absolutely blown away by it all! That didn’t happen after the Star Wars prequels, not after the Lord of the Rings movies, or any other recent super hero movie that I can recall, even the Marvel ones. This movie literally fired on every cylinder until the ride was over. I know the roller coaster metaphor is overused, but let me toss it out there like this: It wasn’t a roller coaster in the way of describing the ups and downs of the film, but rather the fact that it had the crowd shouting and screaming and gasping at every hill, every drop, every turn the movie made. Sure, maybe that’s the case with the whole-heartedly invested geeks that filled the 400+ seats, but tell me you won’t experience the same thing when you see it in theaters on May 4th!

Again, GO SEE THE AVENGERS ONLY IN THEATERS MAY 4th! Don’t be the one who waits for DVD (unless you have a noisy baby that you can’t leave at home with the babysitter).

Okay, enough tv genealogy. Season one of Bob’s Burgers is surprisingly strong for a new comedy and it shows in all 13 of the episodes included in the 2 DVD set available in stores and online today. Considering it’s a short season, it’s not surprising that there aren’t many extras to be found on the discs. But what is there is really good and a little disturbing. Also, uncensored. That should be pointed out, especially in regard to the audio outtakes from two of the episodes, where more than a few of the voice actors launch into vulgar but hilarious screaming tirades in character while improvising the scripts in front of them. You get that feeling a lot while watching the show. The show is definitely scripted, but you get the idea that much of what ends up in the final cut is largely improvised by its talented cast (Kristen Schaal as Louise, John Roberts as Linda, Eugene Mirman as Gene, and Dan Mintz as Tina, in addition to Benjamin). Yes, each of the family members, except Louise, are voiced by men. Even young, hormonally imbalanced Tina. One of my favorite extras is the original demo that was used to pitch the show to Fox, where the family was originally meant to be cannibals who run a burger joint. I imagine if Fox had approved that, it would have been a very different show.

That said, I couldn’t recommend Bob’s Burgers more, especially if you love good animated comedies and have yet to catch it when it airs or because you’re too lazy to DVR it. On any given Sunday, it’s often the funniest show in Fox’s Sunday night lineup. Season 1 is available now on DVD in stores and online, including Amazon (try the link above).

First, a history lesson, and then some recently released suggestions.

Come back with me – to the dawn of personal computer time – and you’ll find Andriod Nim; written for the Radio Shack TRS-80, this is one of the very first graphical games. Because the whole thing had to fit in a 16K footprint (not much larger than this article), it was based on a simple game played with wood pegs – in which the last player with a remaining “Nim” was the winner. So stop here and take some photos for posterity. Moving on…

One of the first arcade games for the Apple 2 was Choplifter, which had the rare distinction of being ported from the 1982 computer version to a real arcade game, and then ported back to untold computer remakes later. Most every other arcade game has taken the reverse trek, with a few more early exceptions – like Tetris.

Fast forward to the last years of computer “bulletin boards” (what our PC’s connected to – before the Internet), and you’ll find the very dawn of Id Software (RAGE, Quake, Doom). They made downloadable versions of very slick arcade games. These games stand up remarkably well, have been configured to run on today’s systems, and can be purchased from Steam. Every student of (arcade) gaming development or John Carmack should be forced to pony up the 5 bucks and play Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy!

Our last museum entry is a great little arcade gem called Lemmings. You get a collection of the little rodents, some can dig and others can float. Play their skills right and you can successfully lead the herd to safety. Get it wrong and… well, they’re Lemmings. Arcade affectionados can play a web-based mini version of the game here.

This concludes your history lesson, my list of some arcade gaming essentials. We leave the museum and turn our attention to the present now.
New arcade stuff is just pouring out daily for the mobile environment, but my PopCultureGeek purview is limited to traditional desktop gaming, so I’ve plucked out a few recent releases you may like. They all work well with a keyboard.

Two Tribes is a developer based in the Netherlands, with a history of producing games for dinky screens. But on Steam, you can buy a Two Tribes Pack – which contains 3 cool ways to totally waste time on your Mac or PC – for less than a stop at Starbucks. Each one is a great way to top off an evening when your brain has little power left for team play, or aiming, or even speech, considering where you’ve been.

1. EDGE – You’re given a single fricken cube to roll around the ever-changing play field with your arrow keys. Up and down stairs, or along a narrow bridge. Sure, it sounds easy enough… but occasionally you have to demonstrate a flash of coordination. That little shot of adrenalin can keep your conscious – so you can once again try just one more level…
2. RUSH – This is EDGE on steroids, and reminded me of Lemmings. Here’s a growing family of cubes with minds of their own. Your job is to corral them all to a safe finish. This one might require a slightly clearer head, but with each level you feel the sense of reward that might otherwise come from helping your drunk roommate find the bathroom.
3. TOKI TORI – This lush side-scroller – which features the Two Tribes’ mascot bird (a morbidly obese version of Tweety – to better appeal to today’s youth). Each level deals my bird a fixed hand of special power cards (transport, gun, bridge, etc) and a play field which seems to always require one more card than the ones I had. But surprisingly, I would always find the secret by the second or third try (especially if I go to the web site and watch the solution… but I digress).

And here’s two more for the road…

VVVVVV – That’s the title. A bunch of V’s – which are the pointy ASCII symbols that kill. The game by Terry Cavanagh is a celebration of the old-school arcade challenge like Id first made. Press the up key and your little guy falls UP. Press the down key and he falls like normal. Press other directional keys with spastic precision and you might get somewhere!

Vessel – This current release has all the elements of an arcade game: Side-scrolling, puzzle solving, etc. But the lush graphics and thoughtful premise stretch the boundaries of the definition. You are a handsome little dude with a magical gun that brings liquid to life, forming helpful beings that further your progress. Just stop reading, go to Steam and play the demo for a fitting conclusion to my little history lesson. See for yourself how the “arcade game” of today would make it’s parents proud.

Okay, with that out of the way, I need to urge you to see this movie in theaters ASAP! There are many that will see this movie and will not be able to shut up about it. They will ruin any number of the absolutely beautiful surprises that are peppered throughout this film, simply because they can’t contain themselves. These people are bad and you should stay away from them. Also, other than this site, you need to avoid the internet. No Facebook or Twitter until you’ve seen this movie. Your idiot friends are going to ruin it for you. I’m not kidding. You know how they are.

Although, as much as I am urging you to see this film, crammed full of humor, horror, and gore galore, I also want to avoid over-hyping it to you (too late), as that tends to set people up for disappointment when it doesn’t become the next step in sliced bread evolution. The film is not perfect, but you’ll be enjoying the ride too much to care. Depending on how far into the premise you’re willing to immerse yourself, you might wallow happily or you might find yourself thinking how cute they are getting off on their oh-so-clever idea (which it really is). Either way, you’re entertained.

Being that this is a film co-written by Joss Whedon (Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, and writer on nearly all of Whedon’s tv projects), you can expect as much laughs as fountains of blood. And, despite the fact that this comparison might turn people off as much as it might turn them on, this movie comes across as an exceptional Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode if said episode had a bigger effects budget and none of the characters from the show. Don’t even try to match up the main 5 characters in Cabin with the Scoobies. There just aren’t any exact parallels. Oh, and speaking of the Whedonverse, you’ll find more than a few familiar faces from any number of Joss’s shows, but I won’t ruin those surprises either. But for those of you who want to get an early look at what the God of Thunder would sound like reading words by Joss Whedon, this is your chance, because Chris Hemsworth, aka the Mighty Thor from the Avengers, has a significant role in the film, which was shot a little before he picked up his Uru hammer the first time. One more thing… Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins almost steal the movie (no, I can’t tell you their roles in the film, but they are the first people we see).

All I can say is that if you’re expecting your standard horror film, you’re on the wrong path. If you’re expecting a goofy comedy splatterfest, you’re not going to get that either. This movie has bigger things on its mind, but not in a pretentious, high-minded, “here’s a lesson you should learn” kind of way. But it does answer more than a few questions you didn’t realize you wondered about until you come face to face with them in this film. Surprises like that made me really enjoy the film on a level far beyond cool kill shots.

This is normally where I would put the trailer, but I can’t do it this time. Don’t go looking for it either. If you’ve already seen it somewhere else, forget what you saw. My only big disappointment was the fact that the trailer gives up a considerably big plot twist (or two) that removed some of the surprise for me. But it didn’t ruin the movie for me by a long shot. You need to go into this movie cold. If you enjoy horror films and comedies, that’s all you need to know going into this to enjoy it. The true joy in seeing the Cabin in the Woods is discovering the twists and turns in this film as they unfold in front of you. Even if you can barely handle rated R blood and gore, slosh through it to get to some of the coolest moments in horror film. There is one kill shot that we’ve been waiting for our entire lives, but never knew how much we’ve wanted it until the Cabin in the Woods.

Don’t read any other reviews and don’t make plans to see any other movie this weekend. Just go see the Cabin in the Woods ASAP, before the masses on Facebook and Twitter and the general media ruin it for you. And for the love of god, DO NOT WAIT FOR DVD!!! By then all of the nonsensical troll backlash will have taken hold, every sweet surprise will be spoiled, and it just wouldn’t be as fun as discovering it in a theater full of people reacting to the madness all around you. It’s half the fun of the film.

So GO! Find 2 hours before you head back to work Monday and make this movie #1 at the box office this weekend. You won’t regret taking a one-way trip to the Cabin in the Woods!

Casa de mi Padre Official Trailer

For example, if you were one of those folks who – after hearing all the hype surrounding movies like Lost in Translation and The Royal Tenenbaums – felt cheated after falling asleep trying to actually watch them; then you might not want to plunk down the 10 bucks on Steam for this product. Despite all the gaming hype: It’s not a game. There’s no action or weapon, you can’t jump or crouch, and – I think I’m not giving too much away by saying – there’s no creature that jumps out and goes “Boo” here. You simply waft through a first-person world in an exploration of (to use the author’s original project description) “experimental game play and storytelling”. You can save your progress, but you’ll probably down this apéritif in a single evening.

In the words of the author: “Dear Esther is a poetic ghost story told using game technologies. You explore a deserted island, uncovering a tale of love, loss, grief and redemption…”. But if you came to shoot or see ghosts, or even fall in love, you’ll be disappointed. This is no tropical Far Cry island either, it’s obviously in the North Atlantic. You’ll wander the cold, rocky paths and trigger narrative installments – which reveal the anguish of someone who has tragically lost a love. The story culminates as one might expect, in a sequence where you can no longer control yourself – and are lost to a cut-scene that first felt like a rip-off – but ultimately gave me adequate redemption for my $9.99 investment.

So, having turned off traditional gamers to this “game”, I now give my endorsements: If you – like me – are into the art of game level design, then you should watch “Dear Esther”. If you like to traverse Valve game mods like “The Lost Coast” – with the developer commentary turned on – then you too should watch “Dear Esther”. If you love emotional journeys as much – or more – than BFG’s and health kits (ya know… like a girl), you’ll enjoy this little head trip.

The levels and visuals are spectacular. My Alienware M15X laptop has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M and Windows 7 64 – and I felt like I could reach out and touch the waving grass, or catch on my tongue the drips from stalactites. The caves were beautiful (I just love the way the Source engine renders water) and navigation within their tight spaces tended to confirm my suspicions that our character was perhaps not really embodied – a nod to Pinchbeck’s “experimental storytelling”. Jessica Curry‘s soundtrack is mesmerizing, and Nigel Carrington‘s narration is perfect. The ocean, wind and story all gave me chills.

It’s unfortunate that all the hype surrounding Dear Esther is coming from the gaming world though, because it’s not really a game. It’s just a great production.

Regardless, what matters is that they tell a good story and share a visually impressive adventure on the big screen. Did they succeed? Well, since they didn’t exactly blow out the box office this weekend, Luis is one of the few who knows the answer to that question. Check out his video review below…

NOTE: contains strong language