A few things worth reading
Mar. 15th, 2012 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendi1. I haven't played any of the Mass Effect games yet (mostly because everything I've heard suggests that the biggest emotional reward comes from starting the series at the beginning, something I haven't had the time for), but I've been following some of the reviews of the latest chapter. There have been a lot of comments on the emotional impact of the storytelling, and some commentary on The Escapist podcast about the nature of choices made in gaming. But Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek has the best piece I've read on just how powerful the storytelling and characterization can be, and how much more powerful it is when you overcome the "save/try something/reload" mentality encouraged by the games that focus too much on action and not enough on character. Note that this piece has major Mass Effect 2 spoilers.
2. Over at Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall has a good piece on The Killing that discusses the Twitter/Blog breakdown of television, and how surprises and twists are a much different beast in this day and age. Spoilers for a few recent shows, most notably Dexter and Breaking Bad.
3. I mentioned this on Twitter, but really, there's no such thing as linking too often to a new-to-the-web short story by the late, wonderful Janet Kagan.
4. A involving featuring Warren Ellis and Idris Elba! What more do I need to say?
5. And finally, even as the two-month countdown to Diablo III begins, the shorter countdown to news about the next Baldur's Gate game has also begun.
2. Over at Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall has a good piece on The Killing that discusses the Twitter/Blog breakdown of television, and how surprises and twists are a much different beast in this day and age. Spoilers for a few recent shows, most notably Dexter and Breaking Bad.
3. I mentioned this on Twitter, but really, there's no such thing as linking too often to a new-to-the-web short story by the late, wonderful Janet Kagan.
4. A involving featuring Warren Ellis and Idris Elba! What more do I need to say?
5. And finally, even as the two-month countdown to Diablo III begins, the shorter countdown to news about the next Baldur's Gate game has also begun.