Sherlock: This Show is Amazing

Apologies to The Golden Eagle who recently also did a post about Sherlock.

I hadn't intended on talking about this show. I had no intentions of watching it either. For the longest time my sister Bree had been badgering me to watch BBC's Sherlock. But I had other shows to watch, games to play and so Sherlock was left on the backburner.

But one evening I decided on a whim to watch an episode and see what all the fuss was about. Just one episode before bed.

I ended up watching the entire first season in one sitting. And it took all my willpower not to start the second and go to sleep.

Unless you've lived under a rock your entire life you probably know of Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective with his assistant Dr. John Watson. They run around and solve mysteries. But the stories were originally from the 19th century. So, what if it took place in the 21st Century? The BBC series does just that, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in modern day London.

And together they solve crimes using both Holmes' incredible mind and modern technology.

First off, the characters are played by great actors. Sherlock is observant, inconsiderate, brilliant, cold, witty, and eccentric. There were speculations that Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock on individuals with Aspergers and BBC's Sherlock certainly has it. It's convincing and it feels real, not artificial and forced like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Basically, if upgraded Sheldon enough times, you would get Sherlock.

Watson is exasperated, loyal, and does an excellent straight man for all of Sherlock's antics. There are a lot of discussing online claiming that Watson and Holmes are gay. I don't see that at all. Just because two men hang around each other a lot, care for one another in times of danger, and live together in an apartment does not automatically mean they're gay.

Moriarty on the other hand is a completely different story but I'm not going to delve into that too much.

Each season only has 3 episodes but with each episode being an hour and a half long, each episode is like a mini movie. There is a lot of thought put into each episode, the writing is excellent, almost every joke presented required me to pause the show because I was laughing too hard to keep watching. I've never had a show force me to the edge of my seat in anticipation with what happens next. It's an amazing feeling.

Each crime is loosely based on the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. For example, A Study in Pink is based off of A Study in Scarlet. The crimes are also supposed to be solved in a similar way to the original. Apparently there are tons of little references to the books hidden in the show. This series was clearly made for fans, from fans. So fans of the original Sherlock Holmes story are going to pick up on these things. I didn't. I'm just going to use Wikipedia to find them.

I'm going to watch the second season with Theresa as soon as possible. And then we will sit and wait for the third one to come out. I highly recommend everyone else do the same.

Note: If anyone has things they want me to try and review go ahead and suggest it. Games, books, shows and even recipes. As long as you think I could do something interesting with it, I will try it.

Second note: If you think my reviews suck let me know. :(

Bastion: This Game is Glorious

It's been ages since I've done a review of anything but I've finally had a moment to dip into my backlog of books/games and decided to play Bastion.

I reviewed LIMBO many months ago and you might start noticing a trend. I'm generally only going to be reviewing Indie or uncommon games. I don't want to be discussing something like Battlefield, Diablo, or anything else that gets enough attention as it is.

I think this makes me a hipster though.

Nevermind, I only have 2 Xs on this thing. I'm still safe.

Bastion is the story of a boy know only as "The Kid" who wakes up, finds his entire world destroyed, torn up, and spat out by an event known as The Calamity. Guided only by a Stranger's voice he sets off to explore what's left of his world and find a way to start-up a structure called the Bastion. In doing so, hopefully the events of the Calamity can be reversed.

It's a 2D Adventure Role-Playing Game (or ARPG) with an isometric viewpoint. In other words, you control a character and make him do things in a 2D world that's made to look 3D. If you're confused by my description of how the world looks, take a look at the picture below. The world is done in this beautiful hand-drawn style and is a mix of both Steampunk and Fantasy.

But the visual presentation isn't what makes this game so wonderful, it's how everything else is presented.

Everything looks so pretty!

First, the story. A lot of games have trouble weaving a story with gameplay. Some games present massive blocks of texts, others have unskippable cutscenes, or wordy and boring dialogue sessions. All of these interrupt gameplay. Bastion gets around this by simply having the Stranger narrate chunks of the story as you play along.

For example, let's say you enter a new area. As you walk around, the Stranger will give a little bit of information, just a few sentences as you're running around. And then that's it. And he won't say anything else until you've done something worth saying. With this, you get a rich and unique narrative that's not overwhelming or intrusive.

Anything and everything you do can get a line from the Stranger. Doing well in a fight can get him to comment on how you breezed through, whereas nearly dying will prompt him to say how it was a hard fight, but you still did it. And this extends to the weapons you chose, the tasks you complete, the way you die, so on and so forth.

I know this sounds odd. But imagine if you could have Morgan Freeman follow you around for a day and give random commentary on everything you do, where you go, and give justification for why you did that. That is exactly what the narration feels like.

Every word this man says is liquid gold.

But this is also an action game so how does combat fare? Combat is also excellent. You are given a wide variety of upgradable weapons and skills to use so there is a large variety of customization. Nothing is better than the other, it all comes down to personal preference which is good. The enemies encountered are also unique and present their own challenges.

But there will be a point where you feel ridiculously overpowered and the game becomes too easy. Some people are going to like this but others are going to want a challenge. However, instead of a difficulty setting you eventually get access to a Shrine.

In Bastion, praying to the Gods will benefit your enemies, not you. Depending on who you pray to your enemies may gain increased defense, health regeneration, dropping explosives on death and many more. In return, you get an experience bonus which will help you level up faster if you can survive.

Why do the Gods hate us so much?!

Any problems with the game? Some of the challenges I found were very challenging unless certain upgrades were purchases which can be frustrating, but I guess that's what makes it a challenge. Another feature of the game is that the world pieces itself together as you explore it. A path will literally form in from empty space in front of you. This can be disorientating at times, running around, trying to find the trigger to activate the next chunk of world to form.

Other than that, I can't think of any other complaints.

The music is lovely, the art is lovely, the story could be considered cliched but the way it's presented should be applauded, and combat works great. The game is only $15 on Steam for PCs or 1200 Microsoft Points in the Xbox Live Arcade. You're looking at anywhere from 8 to 15 hours of gameplay depending on whether you do the challenges and/or the Story+ mode upon beating the game.

I highly recommend this game, one of the best I've played as of late. Trailer is down below:

And that's the voice of The Stranger in case you were wondering.

And I know this post is a few hours late. Still going to try and stick with my every third day posting schedule. Next post will be on Saturday.

NON-HOMESTUCK READERS DISREGARD.

GOOD GOD I HAVE SEEN THE EOA THANKS TO SOMEONE DOING A LIVESTREAM OF IT.

 THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE.

IT IS AMAZING. WELL WORTH THE DEATH OF NEWGROUNDS AND MEGAUPLOAD. I KNOW SOME OF YOU WERE NOT AS FORTUNATE BUT HAVE PATIENCE. IT IS WORTH WAITING ANOTHER 24 HOURS OR SO WHILE HUSSIE WORKS THIS OUT.

I WON'T SPOIL ANYTHING. BUT I'M STILL LAUGHING THAT WE CRASHED NEWGROUNDS IN 1 MINUTE. WELL DONE TEAM.

 H3H3H3H3

(I'll have a legitimate post later today, let me release all this tension right now...)

 Now if you'll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.