[Update: After reading the Steve Jobs biography, I think I now know why the heck Apple is so popular. Check out what I have to say about that here.] Today [...]
There are plenty of books on writing out there, mostly by writers you have never heard of and probably never will. Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft [...]
Thanks to the dozens of readers who expressed their disbelief that it did not make my most rewatchable movies list (and that I had never seen it), I finally went [...]
I love a good toasted sandwich or panini, and Toasteria Cafe reportedly has the best there is to offer in Taipei. Owned by an Israeli dude who lived in New York [...]
A quick one. I just got back from our nation’s capital (Canberra) as part of a surprisingly good short vacation. Contrary to popular belief, there is actually a lot to do there! So some exciting posts will be coming shortly. But I’ve still got a few China posts left, which I might try and finish off first.
I also watched the final Harry Potter movie today, so I have to give my two cents on that too. In short, a fitting finale for a wonderful franchise, and a pretty good film in the grand scheme of things.
Lastly, some great news. Got a great grade for my masters project (the best possible grade), which gives me a load of confidence moving forward. I still have to finish the darn thing though, amongst other things. A lot of big changes coming up in my life. Not sure if I am ready to tackle them all head on just yet but I don’t really have much of a choice! I do perform my best under extreme pressure, so maybe it will do me some good.
Sorry if things have been a little slow lately. Have some family visiting and it’s been craaaazy.
Anyway, I’m reaching out to see if anyone can recommend a good page-turner for me. Actually, not just a good one, a great one. An all-time best.
For whatever reason I haven’t been getting into books as much as I should be recently. When I had been working on my major writing project I had to read stacks of books and articles to help me with my writing — and while they were helpful I didn’t necessarily enjoy them. Nevertheless, I had to churn through them for the sake of my writing.
Now that I’m done with all of that, I feel like I need a ripper of a book to get me back in the groove of reading for pure pleasure.
I started reading Peter Temple’s Truth (winner of the 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award) on the iPad recently but haven’t been able to really get into it yet. Temple has a unique style that almost feels like he’s cutting corners with words to make his prose punchier, and it takes a while to get used to. And so far the progression of the plot and dialogue reminds me of one of those classy Hollywood detective movies where you don’t really understand what the heck they’re talking about (at least at the start) but you know it’s good dialogue.
I also started reading my fourth John Grisham novel (after The Innocent Man, The Associate and The Firm), A Time to Kill, his debut work. After I expressed my disappointment in The Associate some recommended that I check out his earlier stuff (before crap like ‘Theodore Boone — Child Lawyer!!’). I’ve never seen the film with Samuel ‘Maryland Farmer’ L Jackson and Matthew ‘I have good genes!’ McConaughey, so I’m finding it quite an enjoyable read thus far, but as Grisham admitted in the intro, he does ramble on a fair bit. Thus I would call it a good page-turner but not a great one — something that could keep me occupied on a train but nothing that would keep me up late at night.
A third book I barely started is Everyone’s Pretty by Lydia Millet, a dark comedy about the porn industry. This was one of the books recommended to help with my writing but I thought it would be an interesting read too. A few pages in and I’m somewhat intrigued, but haven’t gone back for more in days.
Not sure if have time to finish all these books in the short term as I have another book review to do for a trade publication. It’s called Lives and Letters by Robert Gottlieb, a series of profiles on fascinating public figures, artists and entertainers including Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, and so forth. Being a published profile writer myself (ahem), I’m looking forward to this one, though the fact that I have to read it dampens my enthusiasm somewhat.
Am I just too picky here? Some might say these are all perfectly good page-turners, but I’m not satisfied. I need something to blow me away. I’m not necessarily talking about a wonderfully written book (from a technical perspective — I mean, Madame Bovary is supposed be to ‘technically’ perfect but her ‘bovaries’ kept putting me to sleep). I have pretty pedestrian tastes, after all. I just want a read that will make me want to tear through it in a couple of days and inspire me to read more.
Thanks to the dozens of readers who expressed their disbelief that it did not make my most rewatchable movies list (and that I had never seen it), I finally went out and obtained myself a copy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
It’s not easy watching a film as beloved as Ferris for the first time. When everyone you know (and don’t know) rave about it, it’s natural to have inflated, unrealistic expectations. So I did my best to keep an open mind and approach it from a neutral position.
For those who have been living under a rock since 1986 (like me), Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is the coolest kid in school whom everybody loves — except for his sister (Jennifer Grey) and the dean of students (Jeffrey Jones), who is out expose Ferris as a truant and a bad role model for other kids. The film takes place over a single, perfect day, as Ferris and his neglected best friend (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend (Mia Sara) skip school and go on a wacky adventure across Chicago, getting into all sorts of crazy mischief but somehow always managing to evade disaster at the last minute.
It’s the type of fun, joyful, carefree, sweet, heart-warming, coming-of-age comedy that John Hughes (RIP) is synonymous with, bursting with life, spirit and a truckload of heart. They don’t make movies like this any more (last year’s Easy A was a homage to Hughes’s 80s flicks and had several Ferris references — but it just wasn’t the same).
Having now watched it twice within a week, I can say without reservation that Ferrs is indeed an undoubted classic that is highly capable of and deserves multiple re-viewings. And watching the film for the first time 25 years after it was initially released, I also received plenty of unexpected surprises and shocks.
For starters, the Matthew Broderick I knew was the wimpy one married to Sarah Jessica Parker, but as Ferris Bueller he is utterly dashing, charming and affable. The Alan Ruck I knew was the Spin City head, but he’s never been better here as the baby-faced best friend who steals the show at various times. And Mia Sara? Jennifer Grey? Charlie freaking Sheen (as a drugged out delinquent, no less!)? I had a big smile on my face all throughout the 103-minute running time.
I’m a bit slow. Just about everyone is finishing off Infamous 2 on the PS3 and I’ve only recently played the original (purchased about 2 years ago when it first came out). I remember seeing previews for the game back in 2009, and they looked so cool that I just had to get it.
The premise was promising. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world and you are a mean-looking dude by the name of Cole McGrath, a bike messenger who may have started it all with a massive explosion. As a result of that explosion you have gained nasty superpowers, and it’s up to you how to want to use them. Save the world and become a hero, or destroy it and become infamous.
For whatever reason I didn’t get to play the game until now, but I’m glad I finally got around to it. If I were to summarise the essence of the game, I would say that it’s like Grand Theft Auto except your character is like an invincible, ass-kicking Jedi master.
Positives
There are several elements to Infamous that make it a whole lot of fun. The first is that it is a ‘sandbox’ game, which means there is a big open world (much like GTA) which allows you to run around and do whatever you want in it. The finely designed post-apocalyptic world is pretty big (3 districts) and there are train tracks, underground sewers, wharves, warehouses, industrial areas, police stations, hospitals and so forth. You can’t really go indoors but the outside world is big enough for you to explore for hours on end.
When I played GTA, I often wished I could just scale the walls, climb trees, jump from building to building, or even fly. In Infamous, you can do all of that and more. Cole McGrath is like Spiderman in that he can climb just about every object in the game, and he doesn’t even get hurt when he takes a massive fall. For me, this was the best aspect of the game, and kudos to the makers for creating such an interactive environment. The only downside is that Cole can’t drive (he’s one heck of a runner though).
Secondly, like GTA, Infamous has a variety of missions for Cole to tackle. There are the main plot missions, which are longer and more difficult, but progress the overarching story (I’ll get to that in a sec). Then there are the shorter side missions which help you clear specific areas (so they are safe from enemies), including the good/evil missions, the objective of which is either good (like helping the police) or evil (like blowing them up).
That brings me to the third element of Infamous, that is, the Karma meter. In the missions, Cole will often be faced with a decision where he can either choose to do good or do evil. During non-mission periods Cole can also do good or evil, such as healing injured pedestrians or killing them. The repercussions from his choices will push the Karma meter in one way or the other (between the extremes of ‘Hero’ and ‘Infamous’).
How is this relevant to the game (apart from influencing the ending)? That brings me to the fourth element of Infamous — the awesome superpowers. At various points Cole learns new superpowers which he can upgrade with experience points received throughout the game. However, the upgrades of a certain power may only be available if you reach a particular point on the Karma meter — the more extreme the Karma, the more powerful the superpower.
Cole’s superpowers are insanely cool. Some help his movement (such as being able to skid along wires and train tracks and being able to glide through the air), some are defensive (such as creating an electrical shield), but the majority of powers are offensive — from powerful electrical blasts, throwing electrical shock grenades, a sniper blast (for far away enemies), and even massive electrical storms. Collecting these new powers and knowing when and how to use them to your advantage is one of the most fun and rewarding aspects of the game. Most of these powers will use up Cole’s energy gauge, which he can recharge from n assortment of electrical items on the street (such as telephone booths and telegraph poles).
Difficulty and Replay Value
Another thing I should mention is that Infamous does run at a fairly good difficulty level. While the majority of missions are not particularly difficult, many do take more than one attempt, and the good thing about the game is that ‘dying’ has no real consequence, which significantly reduces frustration. One thing you learn quickly in this game is strategy matters — you can’t simply run into enemy territory and expect to blast everybody away. Taking cover and finding high ground are imperative if you want to be successful.
In terms of replay value, Infamous is also relatively decent. The game does take a little while to complete, and can be elongated if you enjoy exploring the city to look for ‘blast shards’ (which lengthen your electric gauage) or ‘dead drops’ (which are recordings of information that feed you bits and pieces of the back story), and try and perform one of the 20 ‘stunts’. And because of the way the game is designed, you must play through it twice if want to experience both endings (the good and the evil).
Negatives
That brings me to some of the shortcomings of the game. First of all, while the Karma meter idea is interesting, its design has a serious flaw — Cole is always better off being either really good or really evil and there is no point being anywhere in between.
Furthermore, being good or evil doesn’t have enough of a bearing on the game. The outcome of each mission is almost always the same regardless of which path you choose, and the only real impact is when doing good missions lock out evil missions, and vice versa.
A second complaint is that some of the missions get a little repetitive. To be fair, I think there is enough variety to keep you going, but several of the main missions are similar and quite a number of the side missions are basically identical.
My main gripe about Infamous, however, is the story itself. Honestly, it is not very well written at all. Despite the promising premise, the progression of the Cole’s story is convoluted, often confusing, and simply not very compelling at all. None of the key supporting characters are very interesting either. Villains suddenly appear and you get a long spiel about their background and life story, but it’s all too crammed and lacks conviction. I tuned out after a while and stopped trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
Some people might disagree, but I also didn’t like the way the cut scenes were designed. Infamous uses ‘comic’ style hand-drawn cut scenes rather than the traditional high quality videos you see in most PS3 games these days. I don’t have a problem with them per se, but they almost always try to tell too much of the story in one go. You might take half an hour to complete a single mission, then all of a sudden the cut scene crams three days of plot progression into thirty seconds. The disparity in pace was disorienting.
Conclusion
In short, notwithstanding a few flaws, Infamous is a very very good game. It looks good and sounds good. It combines many elements of other successful games and adds its own touch to it. There are some weaknesses and it certainly could have been better, but as the first iteration of a fairly fresh concept, you really can’t ask for too much more.
Will be looking forward to getting the sequel when the price comes down a bit more. Anyone know if it is a substantial upgrade on the original?
It seems I can never can anything done these days unless I have no choice. I might have a list of tasks I need to complete throughout the day, but for whatever reason I bludge it away and don’t get anything done. But if there is anything on the list that has a deadline or is something that must be done, I’ll blitz through it at the last minute and complete it with such amazing efficiency that I almost consider it superhuman. Tasks that would ordinarily take me an hour I would knock out of the park in 10 minutes — but only if I only have 10 minutes to do it. If I had 15 minutes it would take 15 minutes. But no matter what, I get it done, right at the last minute.
It’s like those people who lift burning cars to save babies. When there is no choice and the panic reaches boiling point, I morph into a superhero called the Last Minute Man. Unfortunately, I have not yet learned to harness this astonishing ability. I often wonder what my life would be like if I could be Last Minute Man all the time. I’d be like Bradley Cooper in Limitless. I would have finished my three books in the last three weeks, rather than biting my thumbs and staring at the wall. I would have churned this post out in two minutes rather than the 15 it is taking me.
And yes, I have tried to impose on myself superficial deadlines. But they ultimately don’t work because, well, they are superficial. When it’s not real life and death Last Minute Man refuses to show.
It’s a horrible power to have because relying on Last Minute Man becomes a habit. I always think I can leave things until the last minute because Last Minute Man will save me. I can sit there and stare at the clock, wondering how far I can push it and still get it done. And I always do.
I like to write about stuff. Books, film, food, travel, games, sport, whatever. Currently working on a few books. Hoping to finish one some day. Maybe.
