(no subject)
A couple of years ago, a friend had me play through Portal in an afternoon at his house. It was one of the most enjoyable games that I've ever played. Interesting, awesome villain and taxing puzzles. I suppose I like things that are sufficiently taxing, and Portal does kind of hit the spot. It's also an attractive game and it really does a lot with a very simple premise. Spoilers for Portal 2 under the cut:
Recently, the same friend had me play Portal 2 and the first difference is that it's very story based compared to the first game. The atmosphere it has is very like the first and tbhe old labs that you play through are pretty immersive. Those were pretty cool, too, although some of the tests/levels were a bit finicky and large, so that it's not as simple as working things out in the simple modern aperture. The expanded world is wonderful for me, though, fic-bunny that I am. The original Portal game already had a threatening atmosphere with the fantastically malevolent AI that is GLaDOS and the comparison between the clean test rooms and the background.
Portal 2 has this and expands on it with a kind of haunted quality with the old aparture labs and Cave Johnson's post-humous announcements. Knowing what GLaDOS's background is kind of cool and a little tragic, with the was-once-a-human thing. Wheatley is a pretty cool new addition to the cast, and it's weird-interesting to hear a voice I'm used to hearing in comedy in a video game. But Stephen Mertchant does do a good job as Wheatley, and he's so sweet in his core form that it is kinda a punch when he goes insane.
I've also recently played Braid, which is a strange little puzzle game that happens to be incredibly difficult. However, it's a really pretty game and the ending is just wonderful and really, really satisfying to get to. I won't share too much but I do recommend it.
Also recently consumed - my sister gave me a couple of manga volumes for Christmas and I've managed to read them both. It's kinda fun reading something somebody gave you like that, as it allows you to read things you might not have done.
1. Model (Lee So Young) - This is actually not manga, but Korean Manwha, as you can probably tell by the author's name. Instead of right-to-left, it read with the more Western left-to-right. It's about a Korean Art student called Jae living in Europe whose flatmate brings back a beautiful young man to their home. The man bites Jae during the night and it turns out that he's a vampire. He invites her to his castle to paint him. She's not that keen on him and there's obviously sexual tension. It's a little cliche and I'm not that interested in vampires, but it was a pretty fun read. Jae was in the vein of a plucky-girl type character, but I liked her, anyway. The art style is old and has that old school pointy-shoujo look, but I like the design of the females, since they have this cool angular look.
As for the males, I like the vampire's design, which is pretty nice, because he's long hair and limber looking. It's kind of awkward, otherwise, though, although it's quite pretty.
2. Petshop of Horrors (Matsuri Akino) - I'd heard of this and wasn't quite sure what it was about, other than a pet shop, obviously. The pet shop owner, Count D, sells a range of pets, from the ordinary to the very unusual. It's pretty much an episodic thing, so far, and is a lot darker that I thought it would be, especially the first chapter. I quite like the concept and I think I'm definitely going to continue this.
My mum also bought me some manga from the series DearS (a magical girlfriend series) and a couple of volumes of other series that looks similar. Not what I would usually read, but it'll be interesting.
Recently, the same friend had me play Portal 2 and the first difference is that it's very story based compared to the first game. The atmosphere it has is very like the first and tbhe old labs that you play through are pretty immersive. Those were pretty cool, too, although some of the tests/levels were a bit finicky and large, so that it's not as simple as working things out in the simple modern aperture. The expanded world is wonderful for me, though, fic-bunny that I am. The original Portal game already had a threatening atmosphere with the fantastically malevolent AI that is GLaDOS and the comparison between the clean test rooms and the background.
Portal 2 has this and expands on it with a kind of haunted quality with the old aparture labs and Cave Johnson's post-humous announcements. Knowing what GLaDOS's background is kind of cool and a little tragic, with the was-once-a-human thing. Wheatley is a pretty cool new addition to the cast, and it's weird-interesting to hear a voice I'm used to hearing in comedy in a video game. But Stephen Mertchant does do a good job as Wheatley, and he's so sweet in his core form that it is kinda a punch when he goes insane.
I've also recently played Braid, which is a strange little puzzle game that happens to be incredibly difficult. However, it's a really pretty game and the ending is just wonderful and really, really satisfying to get to. I won't share too much but I do recommend it.
Also recently consumed - my sister gave me a couple of manga volumes for Christmas and I've managed to read them both. It's kinda fun reading something somebody gave you like that, as it allows you to read things you might not have done.
1. Model (Lee So Young) - This is actually not manga, but Korean Manwha, as you can probably tell by the author's name. Instead of right-to-left, it read with the more Western left-to-right. It's about a Korean Art student called Jae living in Europe whose flatmate brings back a beautiful young man to their home. The man bites Jae during the night and it turns out that he's a vampire. He invites her to his castle to paint him. She's not that keen on him and there's obviously sexual tension. It's a little cliche and I'm not that interested in vampires, but it was a pretty fun read. Jae was in the vein of a plucky-girl type character, but I liked her, anyway. The art style is old and has that old school pointy-shoujo look, but I like the design of the females, since they have this cool angular look.
As for the males, I like the vampire's design, which is pretty nice, because he's long hair and limber looking. It's kind of awkward, otherwise, though, although it's quite pretty.
2. Petshop of Horrors (Matsuri Akino) - I'd heard of this and wasn't quite sure what it was about, other than a pet shop, obviously. The pet shop owner, Count D, sells a range of pets, from the ordinary to the very unusual. It's pretty much an episodic thing, so far, and is a lot darker that I thought it would be, especially the first chapter. I quite like the concept and I think I'm definitely going to continue this.
My mum also bought me some manga from the series DearS (a magical girlfriend series) and a couple of volumes of other series that looks similar. Not what I would usually read, but it'll be interesting.