I started reviewing it tonight. If I had off tomorrow, I would just push myself to finish, but I've got to run an orientation for students that goes from 8am-4pm, so I'm headed to bed. I want to have this done by Sunday night.

The short version is that I'm giving it an 8/10, with potential for that to be a 9/10 before I'm done. It really is a fantastic game and an incredibly addictive multiplayer experience. My only problem comes from the overabundance of cutscenes (a disturbing trend in modern gaming) which too often breaks the flow of the amazing action.

I thought I'd crap out my thoughts on this game while they are still somewhat fresh. I hope that Journey lovers don't take this as a personal attack, because it's not.

I understand that my personal aesthetic may make me a poor candidate for appreciating games like Journey; indeed, I am so bored by this kind of stuff that I can't get far enough in the game to warrant writing a proper review.

But I have to ask to nobody in particular... what's the appeal? Bear in mind that I am the same hater of all things beautiful and stripped down who doesn't have much love for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus either.

But getting back to Journey: it's a very simplistic game. I may be wrong (again, I only passed 3 or 4 'levels') but here is a title where you can really make do with one button.

The good old Sonic the Hedgehog games only made use of one button function too. But those games offered some semblance of challenge and there was lots to see and do.

Not Journey though. This 'game' is a bland beige tour through a wasteland with cyclopean structures jutting out here and there, involving hopping about and riding carpets to no worthwhile end.

On some occasions, I can pierce the heavy veil of pretentious praise from supporters and see that they love the game because it offers something 'different and beautiful in its simplicity.'

I think back to Out of This World, which was a game that was different and offered a simple, yet beautifully told story of friendship. But that game also had sick puzzles and hard as hell shooting elements. That game killed you a lot.

I imagine OoTW in an alternate universe, where Lester and the big alien just hold hands and run and jump to the end. That would have been something else.

There's a new landing page for the site, which I know is always a surprise but I hope that you'll all find the new layout useful. It should more effectively highlight a variety of new content for people who visit the site for the first time, while the content that more regular users tend to enjoy most is right near the top of the page (or requires less scrolling to reach).

I've posted in more detail on the forums. You can view that topic right here.

In other news, I've taken additional steps to disable iframes on the forum, both in messages and in signatures, as they can serve as a security exploit. I know some people like to use things that include iframes, but there's no telling who might control the content on the other end, so it was an appropriate change. Have a great weekend, everyone!

It's months later, I know, but I'm finally setting the first words to paper in a review of this unique running game. I don't want to spill my opinion too soon, but it's one of the more conflicted opinions I've had about a "game." And yes, those quotes are intentional.

Hey, congrats! The kid sounds really cute. :)

It's a shame you put this in your blog. I don't think people read these anymore, so that's probably why you didn't get any responses. I'm glad I checked, though! I was wondering when this day would come.

Good luck with raising the little guy. If we happen to see any activity from you in the next few weeks / months, then great. But if not, that's fine, too. You have a whole new chapter in your life now, and I hope you enjoy it.

It's a round number, so I'm noting it as a milestone of sorts. Which gives me an excuse to celebrate heavily today. CHEERS!

I'm greatly disturbed by this.

It's a shame you're married.

It's worth every penny, but don't forget, you'll also have to pay for your own airfare and lodging! I'd maybe let you sleep on the floor in my front room, since you would have to come all that distance, but you seemed just a little too excited about the walk on the beach.

But I don't have a spare $2000 just lying around.

*sigh*

A man can dream, though. A man can dream.

Congrats on your win. That's gotta be gratifying!

Lol...you might be right. Since, while CC was a long review, it wasn't 350K words long.

I think you mean KB. MB would be a LOT of text.

I thought it'd take longer, honestly.

After playing various Sonic games for the past two decades and listening to various opinions on Sonic, whether they're from followers or just gamers, I've come to the conclusion that everyone is a Sonic fan. Whenever a new Sonic game comes out, there's always a "passionate" debate or conversation, 99% of the time when I'm not looking for one, about what each gamer's favorite Sonic game is.

Surprisingly, it's actually really different from one another. And they will stand by that game, defending it from disagreers, and dismissing the rest of the games in the series as crap, stating the series is dead and will never return to its former glory (i.e. their favorite Sonic game). This has been going on for nearly two decades, and I really doubt it's going to stop as long as more Sonic games are released.

Of course, this could apply to any other game franchise, but the Sonic fanbase seems disturbingly "faithful" in their beliefs. Downright creepy. I wish not to provide examples in order to keep my sanity.

I don't know if its just because I've had a lot to say about certain games like FF XIII and Chrono Cross, but I've been more in the 8-9 MB realm than the 5-6 MB realm recently. Might have to do a couple short-n-sweet reviews just in case I'm just getting overly verbose.

OD's Thought for the Day

I discovered that the links to posts from the Friends page were not always working as should (specifically, when people would try to click to read the original post that prompted any replies that now appear in the feed), so I fixed those links. It's just a minor tweak, all for the best because previously the page was not working as intended and now it is.

I just had a friend telling me I should get the MGS HD Collection, which seems like a decent way to go, but I wouldn't without playing the first game. But it's not like these games are going anywhere so I can wait.

Yeah. It's one of those that got quite a lot of mixed reviews but remained popular enough for Hideo Koshima to continue the franchise. Unlike Legend of Dragoon.

In any case, I gave the game an 8 after playing it for the first time ten years or so after it first came out, and I still thought it was pretty good. Not so confident about the other games in the series, but since I haven't played all of them yet (only played MGS2 so far), either.

Never really got into this series but I'm tempted to download the PSone classic onto my PS3. Looked at the reviews for MGS and there's a lot of 3/10's and 10/10's but not much in between.

I didn't realise the game was so divisive.