Ancient Logic

Yesterday, after three years of development, hype and disappointment chasing every footstep along the way, the video game No Man's Sky was released. Looming Planet by Morgan Crooks (2016 - taken from No Man's Sky) I first encountered this game while researching a short story based - in small part - on procedural generation. I was flabbergasted when I saw the trailer, imagining the possibilities of a universe entirely created by the application of complex algorithms - every planet, every mountain and valley, every plant and animal. If the trailer released at that point hadn't been so convincing and frankly awe-inspiring, I'm not sure I would have credited its existence. Now over a year later, I have it in my hands. Is this a good game? That's a tough question. If your idea of a game is something like Call of Duty, Madden Football or Dark Souls, than this isn't going to be a game for you. There are threats and a story that sort of pushes the player forward fr...

After two weeks of playing Fallout 4, I find myself increasingly doing missions so I can kill enough raiders to fuel my bottomless appetite for copper. This is by no means done but I think it gets the general idea across. View post on imgur.com

Despite some obvious flaws, Fallout 3 remains my favorite video game of all time. Never before or since have I spent nearly so much time in one world, drawn to exploring every nook and cranny of post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. Never before did every random side-quest, minor skirmish, and unopened door feel so integral to the story I was involved with. So to say that I’ve been eagerly anticipating Fallout 4 is to put my mood the past sixth months in the mildest possible terms. Having played about 12 hours (which seems like the barest scratch of the surface of this game), I can say that Fallout 4 has met my expectations. It has not exceeded them quite yet, but I am certainly playing the game that I thought I would be playing. To start off, the basic set-up of Fallout 4 is similar to most (though not all) of the previous post-apocalyptic sci fi epics. You start out exploring the wastelands after escaping from a Vaultec survival shelter. The twist here is that your protagonist is s...