As I’ve grown older my love for the franchise has abated, and not because of the quality or lack there of with newer additions. I think I just don’t identify with the ethos. While I can certainly endorse the notion that there’s good and evil within all of us and the choices we make matter, the evil people in this galaxy are often sneeringly evil and inexplicably stupid. And in good stories I should be able to either identify with the antagonist or at least understand them. And that never happens here.
A full-motion video flash game released as a companion to the BBC show “Rome,” CDX is an episodic thriller that follows a prop man working on the show getting embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy. There are multiple paths and hundreds of videos, not to mention an historical education waiting the player.
Knowing that this game only took a few hours to complete and it won many accolades, I went into knowing virtually nothing. I’m confident just about anyone could do the same.
Arkangel is the first episode of Black Mirror to be directed by a woman (Jodie Foster) and focuses more on family than most. The set up is right in this show’s wheelhouse too. Unfortunately, the execution is lacking, focusing on the wrong themes.
A fifteen minute bit stretched out into a full episode, The Waldo Moment predicts Trump’s rise to power if Trump had a modicum of talent and was occasionally funny.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, we follow Stripe (pictured), a military grunt whose job is to hunt down mutant humans and exterminate them while arresting anyone harboring these dangerous beings. The new technology here are neural implants the soldiers use that not only enhance their senses (making them better killing machines) but also gives them incredibly realistic sex dreams. The sex dreams, of course, were added just in case the viewer wasn’t tipped off already (by the whole killing machine part) that this technology might not be altruistic. Or maybe Netflix just wanted to show some boobs.
Possibly the bleakest of all the Black Mirror episodes, Crocodile takes a suspect premise, forces it down our throats, then cuts open our stomachs to remove it and force it down our throats some more.
A fifth season is in the works, so over the next few weeks I’ll be counting down every episode of Black Mirror from worst to best. For those who haven’t seen Black Mirror, it’s basically a darker, more in-your-face Twilight Zone that relies on technology gone amok rather than the supernatural.
Developer: Sierra Publisher: Sierra Year: 1991 Platform: DOS, Mac, Amiga
Part of the wave of Sierra early 90’s remakes of the first games in all their popular series, Space Quest fared little better than the rest. Though receiving an “upgrade” in interface, sound, and graphics, I found this to be much less charming and enjoyable than the game it was supposed to be improving.
You must be logged in to post a comment.