My Ten Favorite Video Games Ever #6 Bioshock

Bioshock

Bioshock is truly something special. It was one of the few games I've ever played that I didn't care about how much fun I was having, but more about where its wicked, disturbing, roller-coaster of a plot was going to take me next. It's this plot, the one that gripped my tightly from start to finish, is what made the game so spectacular and made it stand out from many other first person shooters. The same exact thing happened to Half-Life 1 and 2.

Throughout the game, you have little sense of who your main character is. All you know is that his name is Jack, and he's crashed in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, somehow surviving the terrible plane crash. He's the only one alive, and he finds a lighthouse. A few (extremely horrifying) moments later, you're in the underwater utopia of Rapture, one of the most iconic places in all of gaming history. There's reason for such a statement as this. Rapture is beautiful in every sense of the word. Or was. It's now a decaying Eden, filled with addicted men and woman with super genetic powers, and little girls who steal peoples "ADAM" followed by hulking and nearly indestructible Big Daddies. Sound disturbing? Indeed it is. 

As you progress through the game, you earn loads of different abilities and weapons, giving you limitless options of how you want to annihilate your foes. This is what sets Bioshock apart from other first-person shooters aside from its incredible story. It lets you play any way you want, giving you full control over any situation without making the game any less difficult. It also strays from Metroid style gameplay by letting you choose what plasmid or weapon you want, when you want it. Bioshock's combat stands tall above others in its genre.

Then there's the characters. Oh the characters of Bioshock. Many memorable moments from video games stem from Bioshock. Atlas, your buddy, your pal, the one you never meet in person until the very end, is a sob story of a loving father who asks you to say his wife and child. His story also unravels to reveal one of the greatest plot twists in all of story history. This plot twist involves one of my favorite characters (of any story medium), Andrew Ryan. There are many things I love about Andrew Ryan. He is so fully realized in the universe of Bioshock and all that inhabit it. He's in self denial, but also full of prospect, hope, and ambition. He set out to create a world that lived fully free, and he did it. No other person in any story I've read took his personal wealth and made an underwater world where the economic and social aspects of life could be run freely and without loopholes and tons of rules. I don't want to divulge any more details about one of the greatest characters ever, so read the game's epic prologue, Rapture, and then play the game. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Though Andrew Ryan takes most of the story credit in Bioshock, one of the most interesting encounters I've had in any video game is with the savant Sander Cohen. He loves his art. And no matter what form it's in, he still loves it. You go around this level taking pictures for the madman, and hanging them on a portrait made up of frozen splicers. It's haunting, and I still think about some of it's moments to this day. Sander Cohen is like Arkham Asylum's Scarecrow, he's not the main event, but he's one heck of an opener.

Another thing that sets Bioshock above and beyond most stories (notice how I didn't say games) is it's sense of atmosphere. A deep, tense, dark, horrifying, twisted atmosphere. The underwater once-utopia is stunning to look at, and it's six years old now! Each character is uniquely dressed, but really it's hard to notice when you're too busy not dying. Rapture is a dark, glorious masterpiece, and remains as one of the best story universes ever.

Bioshock redefined the first person shooter, and the world has been better off for it. If you haven't played it, do so immediately. It deserves this spot on my list.

Tasty Jam of the Day: Happy by Pharrell Williams

This song has become the new anthem for my life. Those who know me well know that I try my very best to be happy everyday, all the time, and it has done nothing but wonders for my life. Having a positive outlook in all matters of life does much more than most people think. Happiness is the truth. It seems that I'm not the only one who realized this. Pharrell Williams, best known lately for his compilations with Daft Punk and Robin Thicke, has released this song with the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. And it is just fabulous. A poppy back beat with some four part harmonies rounds out this head bopping, toe tapping, smile extravaganza. Take a listen. I guarantee you'll feel better.

Flappy Bird Review

I spent about five minutes with Flappy Bird, and that's all you really need to be able to judge the full game. And what I found was not remotely interesting.

The image to the left fully describes the depth of Flappy Bird. In the game, you play as this odd, fish-like, thing with one wing, one eye, and some seriously puffy lips. All you have to do is tap the screen to keep Flappy Bird afloat. if you touch the pipes you die, and it asks you to play again. That's it. That is Flappy Bird. Many games are like this, but all of them have done it so much better than what's on display here. Flappy Bird has the WORST hit-boxes I have ever seen. That picture to the left? I've had several instances where I died in that position, literally directly in between the pipes. THERE'S NOTHING THERE FLAPPY BIRD WHY THE HECK DID I DIE. The game causes nothing more than sheer frustration. The graphics are 16-bit and bland, completely ripping off Mario's classic Warp Pipes without even trying to say that it wasn't his design. The only thing I can give Flappy Bird credit for is it's addictive nature. I will admit, dying at 5 point sucks, and you want to continue trying to beat that, when there is really no point. In the end, Flappy Bird is technically imbalanced, boring, monotonous, frustrating, and a terrible one trick pony. Flappy Bird was taken down today by it's developer, and the App Store/Google Play Store is better off without it.

SCORE: 2.0
+ Pointlessly Addictive
- Technically Imbalanced
- Boring
- Monotonous
- COMPLETELY frustrating (may cause phone throwing)

The Sonnet Requiem

This is a sonnet I wrote, my first ever attempt.

The Sonnet Requiem

As I gaze in to her eyes

I cannot help but feel pain

My heart forevermore tries

To stray from feeling feign

One day, she will die

The terribly sad truth

The only thing I can ask is why

As I sit, alone in a restaurant booth

These thoughts drive me insane

I try to clear them from close memory

Though they never really leave my brain

And effect all my emotions, sensory

Love of mine, someday you will die

And fear not, for I’ll be close behind

The Five Best Live Performances I've Ever Seen (In Person)

If you haven't already figured this out by reading my previous posts, I like lists. It helps me sort out what I truly like and what I just kind of enjoy. Here's another one, this one was hard because I've seen many live performances but these take the cake.

5. RED- Winter Jam 2012
I went to Winter Jam of 2012 on a whim, and expecting no more than a good time with some great Christian artists, I was stunned by the quality of performance the heavy rock group RED put on for us. A steam-punk themed, fire blasting, head banging set-list, RED left nothing behind. Toting heavy pyrotechnics, the band played with mass amounts of ridiculous fire, making it a sight to behold. I'm usually not a fan of metal bands, Christian or not, but RED turned me in to a believer, and definitely made for some of the best time I'd had in years.

4. The Taming of the Shrew- The Shakespeare Theater 2013
In Mrs. Nolan's English, during the 2012-2013 school year, we had a unit on poetry and Shakespeare including the ever-classic Macbeth. Our class took a trip during the school day to go see this done live in a very intimate theater with excellent acoustics. Thanks to Mrs. Nolan's teaching, I understood nearly every word when spoken in old English, and I enjoyed every last bit of it. I laughed hysterically, I held my breath in tense moments, and the actors did an excellent job at portraying the characters they played. It gave me a new appreciation for Shakespeare's work after that excellent day.

3. Kayla Nicosia- The White Witch- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe- 2013
Narnia was full of excellent actors, and included in all that was one of the best experiences I'd ever had. But there was one person who stuck out to me the most throughout the whole show, and that was Kayla. I've seen the White Witch played quite a few times, and none quite compared to this unorthodox version of the character. The only thing I can compare the performance to is Heath Ledger's Joker, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Masterful in every sense of the word, as well as chilling to the bone. In rehearsals, I would always try to get a glimpse of the artist at work, completely straying from her normal kind-hearted self. The best way I've heard it described was by our own choreographer, "When she looked at me, I truly thought I was going to die."
Well said Rachel. Well said.

2. Bye Bye Birdie- Spotlight Northwest Cook- 2013
I could not stop laughing. That's pretty much all I have to say about the show and you should still know that it was incredible. And not just that it was funny, but also very well done. In most shows I've seen, there's usually that weak link that you kind of just point out later, but this was not the case with Bye Bye Birdie. Each and every actor displayed true and utter joy on stage, and it shone brilliantly through excellent choreography, stellar voice work, and brilliantly conveyed jokes. To this day, it remains the best Spotlight show I've seen, and it will be a very hard one to top.

1. River Shierdan- Marius- Empty Chairs and Empty Tables- Les Miserables- Spotlight Rockford- 2013
While the show was great, I wasn't in love with all of it. In fact, I was bored at times by some of the more mediocre performances and numbers. While he was excellent throughout the entire show, a true standout over the entire cast, it was Empty Chairs and Empty Tables that held my attention, heart, and soul captive for an incredible amount of time, and I never wanted it to end. River and I had just recently become friends at that point, so it's not like I had any really close attachment to him (we've become much better friends since then, but that's not the point), and that is also what helped make the performance so masterful. Throughout the show I saw Marius as River, until this song came along, then I saw him as a whole different entity. As he hobbled across the stage, full of injury from battle, examining the place where he once sat with his friends he loved so dearly, you could feel the passion in his voice, even before the song began to pick up. By this point I was all in, engaged and ready to be wowed. He did not disappoint. Marius belted his feelings out in a display of vocal prowess, and as his friends' corpses rose and haunted him, you couldn't help but feel his pain. Marius's friend's had left him, in body and spirit, and he collapsed. His knees bashed the floor, creating a sickening thud. He screamed, "My friends, my friends!", crying, painting his emotion over the audience. Marius's feeble body tried to rise, hurting from injury, he continued, leaving everything on the stage. By the end I was a complete wreck. I have never once cried during a live show, and I was not afraid to show it now.
And then I realized, Marius isn't real. This is a man playing Marius.