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Showing posts from 2017

Second Wind Games Showcase 2026 - The Standout Games

If you’ve followed the story of independent media outlet Second Wind even a little, then the prospect of this organization reaching a point of security and confidence enough to even host a games showcase likely comes as an impressive feat, if not necessarily a surprise. After all, we’re talking about a talented assortment of folks known for their thoughtful, even-handed coverage and love of games as an artistic and entertainment medium, called upon to help restore the reputation of once-esteemed games media site The Escapist. Had the corporate owners holding The Escapist’s purse strings not overstepped by firing editor-in-chief Nick Calandra, driving much of the staff to resign in protest, who knows what the future of The Escapist might have been? That the ex-Escapist crew are now in a place, a few years down the line, where they can comfortably offer the stage to other creatives within the industry is a magnificent sight to behold. It doesn't hurt that the resulting showcase, publ...
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Talking 'Bout E3

Ah, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game industry's yearly tradition of indulgence in lengthy conferences, flashy trailers that might not be representative of the final games, and awkward pauses... lots of awkward pauses. If nothing else, it gives Internet writers like yours truly the opportunity to snark and gape in equal measure, while cherishing those rare moments where something genuinely good happens. I'm going to take a slightly different approach than my peers, though - rather than handing out "Best X" awards to specific games or talking about each conference in turn, we're instead going to celebrate the highs and lows of E3 as a whole ... byyyyyyyyy handing out "Best" and "Worst" awards. Same difference. BEST PRESENTER Winner: Janina Gavankar Electronic Arts' conference was defined in large part by discomfort and lack of effort. If the fixation on EA's new Game Changers  program didn't strike you as we...
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Blog Update for June of 2017

Big question time: what's kept Kurt preoccupied to such a degree that he's only posting at the END of June? Well, contract work that pays the bills, for one thing - got professional responsibilities that I need to put first. Also, within the last couple of days I've been hit with a cold, the specific details of which I'll spare you. And some taxing housework that cuts into my time but needs to get done... Basically, life, money and the limitations of the human body. So I'm a little behind on stuff and will be working to get caught up. For those interested, these are the pieces I've got in the pipelines: The (slightly) long-awaited Thoughts on... Mega Man X piece. I might get into it in the piece itself, but in short: on top of normal work stresses causing delays, I'm also not in love with the game and thus finding it difficult to motivate myself to write about it. Nevertheless, it'll get done. A review of Homefront: The Revolution An E3 roun...
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Thoughts on... Castlevania

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Complicated feelings abound for me when I think of my experiences with the original Castlevania . I find it enticing and alluring in its presentation. Its mechanics are at the bedrock of the action-platformer genre, deftly riding the line between challenging and accessible. The monster designs, the hero's design, the sound work, the colour scheme - all of it excels at what it sets out to do. BUT ! I'm very much in the camp of players who don't enjoy being deliberately screwed over by infuriating design decisions in otherwise excellent games. And it saddens me to declare Castlevania as one such game - it really does tread into the realm of unfair one too many times for my liking, despite the surrounding experience being so promising. For the uninitiated: Castlevania puts you into the boots of Simon Belmont, a monster killer who ventures into Dracula's castle to face off against the infamous vampire himself. Armed with only a whip (albeit on...
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Trailer Thoughts: The Castlevania Series on Netflix

Looks alright. Per the trailer, it appears we're getting an anime-esque variant of the usual "Belmont goes to face Dracula and his minions" narrative. Visually, it's certainly in line with the style and direction of the games post- Symphony of the Night as defined by long-time series artist Ayami Kojima. I'm a bit mixed on the look if I'm being honest. I appreciate how this particular take on dark fantasy iconography has come to define the Castlevania series (at least in part), and it's possible that in motion the style really works, but I'm more drawn to the classic "80s animation by way of Gothic and Universal horror" approach that was present in the earliest games' artwork. That style, after all, gave us the glorious beefcake barbarian badass that was Simon Belmont. Still, as a tease of things to come, it works. I'm intrigued to see what they're gonna do with the material, I get a sense that they really do care abou...
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Thoughts on... Mega Man 1 through 3

  I am not the world’s biggest Mega Man fan. Far from it; it took this past year and pain-staking effort on my part to even complete Mega Man 2, much less truly “get” the appeal. I grasp the fundamentals, I can appreciate the retro-futuristic aesthetic at play and the chiptune soundtracks are genuinely delightful. By all counts, I should have been onboard with the series AGES ago. And yet, it’s taken more than twelve months to become appreciative of the tense joys and thrills that Mega Man has to offer. Maybe it was the extreme difficulty that was typical of the era. Maybe it was the lack of in-game documentation on which Master Weapons affected which bosses. Or maybe it was that bullshit Yellow Devil boss in the first game. Nevertheless, here I am, having played through 2-and-three-quarters of the original 3 Mega Man games, ready to at last express my thoughts and feelings on them. (For reference: I played the 3DS version of the Mega Man Legacy Collection, which combines...
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Outlast Review

Thanks to my Patreon supporter and friend, Mark Aguirre, who is currently donating $5 to aid in the production of this and other written works by me. If you'd like to see more from the KURT OF CAMBRIDGE brand, please consider contributing to my Patreon yourself. I’ll be upfront in saying if someone came up and pitched Outlast to me, I’d be more than a little weary. See, while horror in gaming has seen years of experimentation and development enough to be given the benefit of the doubt, the idea of exploitative horror - i.e. horror stories predicated on using existing social issues or prejudices as an excuse to engage in wanton scenes of violence, bloodletting and other “extreme” concepts - is not as well-developed or as ingrained into game canon. Thus, a game where the core pitch seems to be “Let’s throw players into an asylum gone mad, sprinkle in some torture porn and inhumane experiments, and see what happens” is one that would catch me off-guard, to say the least. For...
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State of Affairs for the Blog

  Hello to all the fans I may or may not have! SO... it's been a fucking while, huh? Time, money, and personal issues made it less than convenient to keep up posts on this here blog, much as I wanted to expand into new and untested waters.  I wish it weren't the case, I'm sorry to have not kept up updates of some kind, but I hope that you'll still take the time to read this post (and, indeed, the forthcoming material which I'm about to discuss). I just put up a Patreon page that I urge you to consider checking out and maybe contributing to if at all possible - it helps ease my personal troubles AND enables me to do more with this blog and the KURT OF CAMBRIDGE brand as a whole.  Even if you aren't able to contribute, I'd ask that - should my material past and future resonate with you to any degree - you think about sharing said Patreon with your friends, family and assorted acquaintances.  Every little bit helps, after all. Regardless, I'm p...
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