Second random thing and I got me a XYZ work. I use XYZ a lot in my classes, but sometimes I need four variables, so I go to the HIJK option. And on a completely related note, Elephant is one of my favorite Gus Van Sant movies.

East Grove Hills by XYZ

So the game starts and I'm thinking Beverly Hills, followed by a big number, which probably represents all the cute and dumb who watch it in the state of California. But the kid is telling me he is a social wreck and the world is about to end in five minutes and a school-Powerpoint-presentation has to happen before it ends.

Spoiler fun after this nice rose.
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This is one of those games I would be better off not reviewing. It has some good stuff in it, like the pace, some of the changes to the parser errors, the time jumps - although such time jumps tell me right from the start I won't be able to change much – and the overall open-honest-heart feeling of it all. It's about a Columbine kind-of-affair, about a guy who looses a sister in a school shooting, bullets, blood, and at some point a revelation:

(...) I tried to make an interactive fiction game. Inform 7 was harder to work with than I thought. Still, I managed to get a basic framework done. Despite being failtasticly bad, it was barely playable, and had a semblance of a plot which had nothing to do with the book. I never did finish it in time for the presentation. After what happened, I turned back to my failure of a game. Jenny and Yue were going to be in it. I was going to be in it, too. It's the game you're playing now.

So, what now? A story with so many things to slap around and it turns out to be a homage to your sister?, a memoir to those departed in a tragic event? How am I suppose to badmouth it and sleep at night? Tell me, for pig's sake! Am I suppose to just point out this isn't interactive at all, since it felt like pressing ENTER the whole time?, to bluntly nag about how the dialog options are very similar and overall inconsequential?, to coldly tell the world how annoying it gets to read line after line that you're socially off-stage?, to cruelly inform you in a blog post that being awkward isn't the only thought inside an awkward skull?

I would never do such for respect, but I do feel manipulated, and I would like it to be registered. The prosecution rests.



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