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261

10/30/2017

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Best Scary Games - Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Aliens vs. Predator -1999

Half-Life 2 does so many things right. It is a fantastic action game that tells most of it’s story though the environment. The set pieces are satisfying and seem to have a purpose in the world. It can make you feel fragile and powerful all at once. It’s really just a great example of what can be done in the first person shooter genre. It is also terrifying. There is a discomfort woven into the fabric of Half-Life 2 that gnaws at you long after you shut it down. There are areas of flat out, jack in the box jump scares, but when the adrenaline stops pumping, you are left with a sense of crushing dread and hopelessness that few games are able to match. Sure a leaping, spider like, headcrab is immediately terrifying, but the implications of wretched stalkers, humans reduced to barely living automatons, is truly the stuff of nightmares.
Then there was Doom 3, a game that’s mechanics are honed to a fine edge, but is probably best known for its unrelenting tension. For something like 15 hours this game just never lets up. At every turn monsters lunge at you from the dark. Doom 3, somewhat fairly, is often criticized for leaning too hard on monster closets. Small rooms and dark corridors that exist for no other reason than to house leaping ghouls. Eventually it became fatiguing, but no game before or since has had me as constantly on edge.
One time, with all the lights out and headphones on, I played the Human campaign of the 1999 Aliens vs. Predator. I was roughly half way through the game and had already been scared several times. I had wandered into a lab with one exit when suddenly all hell broke loose. Aliens started attacking from the doorway, the ceiling, and the floor all at once. I tore through all of my ammo and ran like a panicked rabbit in a white knuckle battle, finally coming out on top. Severely injured, but alive. I was just beginning to catch my breath and started heading for the door, when a face hugger dropped from the roof and finished me off. In a flash of terror, I shut down the game, uninstalled it, took out the disc and put it in a drawer. This was the first and only game that literally scared the ‘play’ out of me.
You might notice that all of these games are shooters, and not the go to for horror games, survival horror. I played Amnesia and something about the movement and camera angle made me motion sick. I couldn’t really play it in a darkened room, or for long stretches so it never had the opportunity to sink it’s scary hooks into me. Also, I’m sort of a weakling and not really into repetitive jump scares. I also don’t really find the concept of ghosts very frightening, so most of the atmosphere of those games doesn’t work on me like it is supposed to. Someday I’ll get around to playing Alien Isolation and I will probably be very scared. Maybe next year I can add some more to the Best Scary Games list.
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260

10/23/2017

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Transcript

Page

GC

Hello Caller. You’re on the air. What’s your name and what’s your question?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

Yeah hi. Glenn, hi. I’m Tom. Uh, I have a Haswing trolling motor and I keep having it cut out on me. I’m -

GC

Hey Tom.

Caller(m)

(Tom)

I’m- Yeah?

GC

Let me ask you this Tom. This is one of those little guys. Little fresh water units. You been using this motor in salt water or estuary environments Tom?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

I- Sometimes, yeah.

GC

These little chinese motors Tom. They just aren’t made to keep out the salt water. What happens is the salt just gets in there and eats at the contacts. Have you checked the contacts Tom?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

Yeah- I- no.

GC

I suggest checking those contacts, even up at the battery enclosure. Salt water gets in there and just eats away at it. You can probably clean it up gently with some vinegar and get it running smooth again but you’re gonna want to look into getting an aftermarket seal or a bit beefier motor that has protection against salt water. Okay Tom?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

Yeah- um- okay. Thanks Glenn. I’ll check that out.

GC

No Problem. Thanks for calling.(disconnection) Alright, before we take our next caller, I just want to remind everyone that Linda is home sick today, so I’m running the lines myself. If I don’t get to your question I apologize. Also I’m not going to be able to hear your questions ahead of time, so when I pick up you will be live on the air. Please don’t make me regret it (laughter). Also please try to have your questions ready and let me know who you are. You know how we like to keep it friendly over here. Alright. Let's take our next question. (connection) Hello caller you are on the air. Who’s calling and what’s your question?

Caller(f)

(-)

We have left room for you.

GC

Sorry I didn’t catch that. Caller, you are on the air, What’s your question and what’s your name?

Caller(f)

(-)

(dead air)

GC

(disconnection) Alright. Let’s try another one. (connection) Caller, you are on the air. What’s your name and question? Make it a good one.

Caller(m)

(Ross)

Hi. This is Ross from burlington. Hi. Yeah.

GC

Hi Ross. What’s your question?

Caller(m)

(Ross)

Hi. Yeah. I was wondering what you thought about- you know this new tax on licenses right. This tax proposed on licenses and the catch limits right. I was wondering what you thought about that?

GC

I do have some thoughts on that. Thanks for your question Ross.

Caller(m)

(Ross)

Yeah thanks right.

GC

(disconnection) Okay. Alright. We are going to get into this more in the next segment but I’m going to give you all a little preview. I’ll just be straight with you. I don’t like it. This smells like a money grab plain and simple. I will have Kenny Lake from Kenny’s Lakes tuesdays on the Great Wide Open Network here with me to close out the hour. We’ll both get into it then and really shake this one out. I know this though. I don’t like it. But like I said we can cover that later when I have Kenny on the phone. Right now we have to pay some bills.

Station ID

Commercial break

GC

Hello. We are back and I am taking your calls. Linda is out today and we really have a flu or some sort of bug ripping through the studio right now so it’s just me at the desk. If I get you on the air try not to say anything that would get the feds after you. Or me. (laughter) I know our listeners are all great folks. So Let’s get back to it. (Connection) Caller you are live on the air. Who are you and what’s your question?

Caller(m)

(-)

We have room for you.

GC

Caller you are live. What’s your question?

Caller(m)

(-)

There is a place for you here.

GC

(disconnection)(silence)

GC

Alright. Let’s take a real question. (connection) Caller you are live on the air. What’s your question?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

Hello Glenn. This is Tom again.

GC

Hi Tom. What’s your question. Have you already got the Haswing humming? (laughter)

Caller(m)

(Tom)

Glenn There is a place for you here.

GC

What?- I- What?

Caller(m)

(Tom)

We have room for you Glenn.

GC

(disconnection)I- (laughter) Okay alright okay. You got me. Good one folks. You sort of messed me up there for a second. (laughter) Good stuff. Okay. The lines are full. Alright (connection) Hello caller, you are live on the air. What’s your question?

Caller(f)

(-)

We have a place for you here Glenn.

GC

(Disconnection)

Station ID

Commercial break

Silence

GC

(laughter) Okay. Alright. You got me. There’s no one here. It’s just me. In- The station is empty. This is a pretty good prank. (laughter) You really got me. We still have all of our lines lit up. I’m gonna take a few more questions before I get TV’s Kenny Lake on to talk about that new tax proposal and license restrictions. I really can’t tell you all how much I love all these great people I work with. They really went all out on this one. Good job folks, but someone has to get back to work around here. (connection) Hello caller. Who are you and what is your question?

Caller(m)

(-)

We are all here Glenn. We have a place for you too.

(silence)(indistinct sounds)

GC

I just looked- I went and looked out the window. There’s no one one the street out there. Nothing. No cars. What’s going on? (connection)

Caller(m)

(-)

We left room for you. We are all here. (disconnect)

GC

I’m going to c- Hello folks. I’m going to call Kenny Lake a little early and hopefully he will be up to disc-(indistinct) discuss this new tax grab. I’m- (connection) Hello Kenny-

Guest(f)

(-)

We are all here Glenn. We have room for you here.

(indistinct)

Silence

Automated

Station ID

Silence

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259

10/16/2017

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A short little story. October is the month for scary things, so I thought this little idea that I had been playing with might fit. 

From crevasses and the dim crooks of tree roots we creep. From behind loose mounds of soil. From between the gaps of interlocked stones, careful not to disturb their delicate balance. For now. With dainty weaves and rolls we edge forward. And down. An unseen trickle beneath cover and shadow. Then a grain of sand is pressed free. Inertia broken. We add it to our unending crawl. New mass to unstick others from their place. Soon there is a rivulet of grit dragging against the base of pebbles and stones. The stones are lifted by our motion, buoyed upon countess crystalline teeth. We reverberate with the soft low hum of grinding silica. In time, more stones are joined to our effort. The hum becomes a growl. Our growl grows strong and vulgar. Grasses and flowers that we were once compelled to mince around, are now brought down and consumed by our accumulated bulk. We add cellulose fiber and oily paste to our own relentless flow. Now saplings and shrubs are bent and buried and torn from their purchase. Chunks of surface sedimentary and metamorphic begin to scrape and shift answering our call. They are grappled and devoured, augment to our unceasing motion. Our growl has become a roar. Deep and angry and hungry. We claw and tear at the trunks of mountain pines, stripping their bark and pummeling the bare wood until they finally acquiesces and tip to our will. The widespread roots we sheltered beneath are wrenched from the stoic rock bringing volumes of dirt and stone with them. With unstoppable power we scream downward, demanding that everything in our path surrender to us. To become us. Many tons matter are we. Blood and bone mingle with our tide of stone. Small darting things that flee our onslaught are destroyed. Far too slowly they move. Ground down to component materials. Lubricant to savage machinery. It is not with malice but resolution that we close on structures of wood and metal and glass. Small things flow from them silent compared to our rising timbre. Still compared to our deluge of movement. They become us. Hastened and absorbed. Embraced. We continue forward. No obstacles impede us. Nothing can slow our persistence. On we march to flatten mountains and displace lakes. Continents and oceans will relent to our force and only the morning will remain to witness what we have done.


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258

10/9/2017

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Best Books - The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin

When I started doing Best Games posts, it was in an effort to advocate for good things. There so very many folks who like nothing more than to hate on stuff and, in the sphere of video games, the bad review has, and continues to be, a source of joy for that crowd. Don’t get me wrong. I have enjoyed some bad reviews. One of my favorite reviews ever compares FMV submarine adventure game Silent Steel unfavorably to the small pleasures of playing with a dry roasted peanut. It wasn’t the hate that made me like that bit of writing. It was the humour and the subtly implied acceptance that reviewing video games is, at heart, a silly profession. Being funny, playfully funny, isn’t simple. It takes work, practice, and a true love of the subject matter you are lampooning. Hating on a bad game isn’t funny. It isn’t fun. Regardless of the quality of the game, people put time and effort into it. Someone loved that concept enough to make it real. Just hating it is lazy. When faced with the product of someone else’s creative work, hate is insufficient. At least try to be clever.
I chose when I started Best Games to only champion things I thought that other people might love. I never intended to write reviews, or make value judgement. I only ever meant to describe things that I love and the reasons why I loved them, in the hope that you would find a way to love those things too.
I suppose I should say something about these books too.
So The Broken Earth series is the X-Men and The Road and maybe The Notebook. It’s comic books and video games and Sci-fi wrapped in the horrors and triumphs of all human history. The characters are all deeply, messily, human and constantly contradict themselves mid-thought. The writing is beautiful and terrifying and immediate.
Just go read it. Just go read all of it and share the love of good things.


​
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257

10/2/2017

0 Comments

 
a cycle ceaseless
build, test, rebuild, test anew
dev feeds one master

​
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Owen McManus
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