Various

For a while now, it's been clear that my Space Cat has been getting old, but he's always kept his kittenish charm and seemed full of life.

Over the weekend he took a sudden turn for the worse, and while travelling to the vet's this morning, curled up in a fluffy ball, he peacefully passed away.

He's been one of my best friends for over fifteen years now. Although his departure isn't unexpected at this point in his life, it leaves a big hole in my life.

I'll miss him.

A Squirrel

How ya doin', squirrel?

"Beautiful friend..."

2011: Adventures in Fiction

2011! A year in which I consumed media of various forms! Here's my triple-picks of each category of stuff...

--Of the movies I saw:

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Thriving on believable tensions among a cast of likeable characters, this film is by turns funny, bittersweet and heart-warming.

Monsters
Character-driven, atmospheric science fiction; an otherworldly road movie; eerily memorable.

District 13
A toss-up between this and Ip Man as the two great action films I saw for the first time this year. I found the damsel in distress in this movie less off-putting than the relentless nationalism of Ip Man (not helped by that of every other Chinese film these past few years, it seems), but your mileage may vary. A perfect collision of bold cinematography and incredible physical prowess.

--Of the books I read:

The City and the City - China Miéville
The greatest achievement of this astonishing book is not just the imaginatively Kafkaesque culture it fleshes out – but also that it manages to be a gripping thriller throughout.

Above the Snowline - Steph Swainston
Although this lacks many of the more imaginative elements of Swainston's other books in the same series, it doesn't suffer from it, and still shows an unflinching veracity that's quite rare in the fantasy genre.

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Despite embodying a fair few national stereotypes, this vision of a world in drastic decline kept me hooked both by teasing out the details of its bizarre future Thailand and with dramatic developments in its interweaving story threads.

--Comics and manga:

20th Century Boys - Naoki Urasawa
I imagine this will be here next year as well – an epic series that spans genres, decades and generations. Definitely a contender for my overall favourite thing on this list.

Pluto - Naoki Urasawa
The great detective Gesicht must find out who's systematically murdering the seven greatest robots in the world – not least because he's one of them. I read this series on the strength of how much I liked Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, and was not disappointed. Note-perfect storytelling frequently leads to deeply moving scenes.

Biomega - Tsutomu Nihei
Imaginative cyberpunk horror that envisions an almost unrecognisable future – and charts its utter transformation into something even stranger.

--Of the TV shows I watched:

Downton Abbey
Okay, the second series wasn't as solid as the first, but neither was it as appalling as many made out, and the Christmas special was a definite return to form. A beautifully realised period drama that embraces progress rather than fetishising the Good Old Days.

Avatar: The Last Airbender
The first season was pretty good, but the second and third tell an epic story full of likeable characters. For me, this lived up to the hype.

The Shadow Line
A show that was fantastically good only whenever it forgot that it knew it was fantastically good. Abundant with in-your-face symbolism and unnatural dialogue, and yet splendid all the same. Also possessed a perfect storm of acting talent in the form of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Eccleston and Rafe Spall.

--Of the games I played:

Red Dead Redemption
An open-world cowboy-stereotype simulator married to a character-driven shoot-em-up, this has gorgeous landscapes galore and the most unexpectedly likeable lead character.

Portal 2
Laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, head-scratching puzzles, understated poignancy. The last time I enjoyed the writing of a game this much was Grim Fandango.

Ghost Trick
A fiendish puzzle game that I found to be addictive and enjoyably challenging, but not so difficult that I needed to resort to a walkthrough. I probably wouldn't have been so sucked in, of course, if the gameplay wasn't so intricately entwined with exactly the kind of colourful characters and meticulously crafted, twisting-and-turning plot that you'd expect from Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi.

--That's all folks...

"So here it is..."

"Crazy Scene"

Aerialist Seanna Sharpe 285 Feet Over The Williamsburg Bridge from Ronen V on Vimeo.

Via the Wooster Collective.

"The moment you've all been waiting for..."

Almost Monday Movie: Aces High

A year after leaving Eton for the Royal Flying Corps, Major Gresham (Malcolm McDowell) finds that his squadron's much-needed reinforcements consist of a single young man: Croft, an old school-friend and the younger brother of his girlfriend. Although wide-eyed and enthusiastic at first, Croft quickly finds himself rudely introduced to a life where his life expectancy is measured in days.

Aces High is a gritty historical film of the kind you might expect from the late 70s, showing a relatively high degree of accuracy on its subject (especially compared to certain recent movies), perhaps no surprise given that it cites Cecil Lewis' Sagittarius Rising as a source. All in all, a pretty solid depiction of a broad spectrum of aspects of the era - from partying with a downed German pilot, to landing to ask for directions.

I got sneakier.

Sneakier than a... snow fox.

Success!

Getting up close to a fox has been one of my personal goals since I first saw one in Skyrim. Interestingly, sprinting turned out to be more useful than sneaking, even though my sneaky thief is sneakier than... well, apparently not sneakier than a fox.

Goal achieved, I can now resume stealing everything not nailed down.

Thursday Book

Terminal World - Alastair Reynolds

In one of the mid-level regions of Spearpoint - a city divided into societies of different technological levels - the pathologist Quillon is about to perform a post mortem on an "angel" that has fallen from the highest reaches. And then the subject turns out to be not quite dead. Fortunate, since it carries a terrible warning for Quillon, who is himself an infiltrator from another zone. It looks like his only option may be to flee Spearpoint altogether...

Terminal World is a heady cocktail of awesome ideas that never quite lives up to its potential. It seems rather similar to Reynolds' earlier Century Rain, but without the intensity or atmosphere. There are intimations that Reynolds might be setting up a new series of books here, but, although I enjoyed exploring this intriguing world, the story itself feels a lot like an author simply turning up to collect his pay cheque.

"Today, kids, we're going to dissect a frog."

I see.

"This is useful."

Played It: Gears of War 2

Game Central's review of the third game prompted me to pick up this budget re-release. It was, I must say, pretty much what I expected. A simplistic, macho shooty game, with satisfyingly meaty violence.

It also, in the planet of Sera, has some pretty interesting world-building - Old World architecture rubbing shoulders with chunky retro technology and subterranean monster civilisations. But for a game so interested in being cinematic, it actually doesn't place much stock in storytelling. Dom's quest for his wife is tacked on and ends questionably to say the least, while the main war story is rather haphazard and coincidental.

And yet for all that, the main surprise for me was how much I liked this thing. Shooting stuff in gorgeous environments is rather addictive when done this well.

Played It: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

As I played Castlenavia: Lords of Shadow, I kept comparing it, usually unfavourably, to the only other game I've played in this series: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Which isn't to say that this isn't a solid game. The mixture of platforming and brawling is very satisfying, the art design and environments are all lovely to behold, and the story, while weakly plotted, remains consistently interesting.

The first major problem is this: while keeping the player within the bounds of the level is obviously not a problem in the 2D Castlevanias, it requires considerable finesse in a 3D one. The developers here have hit upon the simplest and worst solution: invisible walls. You'll see a barrier you should easily be able to jump over, but it still blocks your progress. You'll see a raised platform and wonder what's on it – the answer will be that a mysterious force blocks you from actually mounting it. For a linear game this wouldn't be so bad, but as you'd expect from Castlevania, this game encourages and even requires exploration – exploration which inevitably devolves into butting up against those invisible walls to find the places where you're actually allowed through.

The other major problem is Patrick Stewart. Bringing his best “I'm in a video game” voice to the production (see also: the opening scenes of Oblivion), Stewart's character provides utterly bombastic narration over the loading screens. It's a neat idea, but badly executed, especially given that it interrupts Robert Carlyle's superb performance as the player character. To go from Carlyle's quietly simmering intensity to Stewart melodramatically overstating the obvious does both actors a disservice.

Apart from those two annoyances, though, this is a supremely classy game, and I found it quite addictive from start to finish.

Played It: Aliens Infestation

On the face of it merely a competent Metroidvania – unashamedly so, the developers were keen to remind us that the Metroid series has borrowed heavily from the Alien saga – Aliens Infestation demonstrates brilliantly how story elements can enhance gameplay.

From the first screen it's obvious that this is possibly the best recreation of the movies' atmosphere since Rebellion's 1999 Aliens versus Predator, complete with authentic sound effects, fan-pleasing elements of lore, suitably industrial architecture and cats bursting out of closets.

But the really notable thing WayForward Technologies have done here is to go back to the old concept of “lives” in a platform game, of which you can have at most four, and then to make each one a unique Colonial Marine with their own character artwork and cut-scene dialogue.

Keeping your favourite marine in reserve is no fun, but sending them into danger comes hand-in-hand with the risk of losing them forever (either instantly in a shower of acid blood, or John Hurt-style if they are captured and you take too long to rescue them). This, more than anything, creates an incredible sense of tension, especially when you're far from a save room and low on ammo when a xenomorph drops from the ceiling and starts mauling your beloved point man or woman.

This game's probably a must-have for Aliens fans, living up to its pedigree in a sea of rip-offs and risk-averse tie-ins. It's also an interesting and daring example of game design and writing, and a fitting parting shot for the Nintendo DS.

Played It: Red Dead Redemption

In my review, I described L.A. Noire as an important game, but not a masterpiece. And I think the opposite is true for Red Dead Redemption. The premise is as safe as it gets – Grand Theft Auto in the wild west. The execution, however, is sublime – not just in terms of the sprawling, detailed landscapes brimming with stereotypical cowboy activities, but in the careful characterisation of player character John Marston.

As a notorious outlaw, it still makes narrative sense for Marston to inevitably go on the odd GTA-style rampage. But the man's so dedicated to his family, so unfailingly polite, so damn sorry for every bad thing he's done and continues to do, that most players simply can't bring themselves to add to Marston's woes with even more bad deeds.

The atmosphere is mesmerising as well – not just the desolate desert ambience, the fantastic storm effects, and the lively towns, but the sense of the era of cowboys and gunslingers drawing to a close, with Marston both hoping for a more civilised future for his son and discovering first hand that society can be more about appearing to follow rules than actually doing what's best for people.

All that, and any game that gives me a button for tipping my hat and saying “Howdy ma'am” gets bonus points from me.

The Other Lady

Not to be confused with that rather horrific-looking film with Meryl Streep.

Monday Movie: Monsters

Six years after a NASA probe broke up on re-entry, seeding Mexico with giant tentacled monsters, photojournalist Andrew Kaulder is called upon to babysit his boss' daughter as she heads back to North America through the "infected" zone. Although local corruption, US militarism and extraterrestrial migration stand between them and home, their journey proves to be both eerie, illuminating and the start of a deeper bond.

Filmed on a shoe-string budget, featuring local non-actors improvising their lines and emphasising ambience over plot or genre trappings, Gareth Edwards' first feature film, Monsters, is, despite what trailers and blurbs may try to tell you, an alternate world travelogue. It may have its moments of action and tension, but predominantly I found this film to carry a mesmerising atmosphere of strange beauty. It's also, like all smart science fiction films, thematically intriguing - with obvious allegories to issues around immigration, environmental destruction, terrorism and military intervention.