Segment 6 (Cont)

Time was erroneous. It was manipulative and embryonic in the hands of mankind.

Static needles ranging from enormous to infinitesimal hovered over their lilliputian brains gauging the arcing rifts that tore through the rather dilapidated segments of atmosphere contained so carelessly in the many interwoven submerged consciousness of perceived life. These "tears" continued down the peripheral border overlapping my unnatural jumps throughout the conscious body of this interval present.

A pause, blink, or cough triggers the trapdoor beneath my feet causing my inert vessel to fall and savagely flail alongside the bridged old and new epoch. The sight of failure corkscrews amidst the twisting colorless vortex that I've found myself caught within as previously severed gateways signal my descent through the course of internal perdition. One in particular amongst many caused me greater displeasure then the rest.

 "Corporal, a moment please" A voice beckoned from beyond the open doorway's metallic structure.

      The sterile detention cell where I spoke from held no windows save the for the centered two way mirror and the single door where the summoned man had just exited from. Inside said barren hell only contained a single waist high table with two impossibly uncomfortable chairs aggressively bolted to the textured flooring.

"It's come to my attention son that you've acquired a young child from the area closest to the impact sight. Is this correct?"

"Yes sir" the voice of both men leaked through the steely barriers and hit my ears as if both currently stood just across from me.

"And would it be correct to assume you've found no traces of radiation on our subject?"

"That would be correct sir"

 "Well then, we have only one solution to our little predicament"

The dismantled shards of compressed heat and sand quickly reformed back into their destined shape. A sheet of three eighth inch thick glass slid back through hollowed arch as father strode in, backwards and without a clearly defined tune. His mumble squeaked out, scrabbled from the back-end of our noisy vocabulary.

"Nos ny zah fut"

"Then it is decided corporal..."

"Sir... I do believe that will become a prob-"

Dad's rigid shoulders bulged underneath his milk white smock. The cracked smile tore over the bottom half of his weathered face as he began to peer towards my general direction.

"I ever tell you the story about my father Jericho?"

Mindlessly I shook my head in ignorance.

"It was... So very long ago now that he held out his here hand and showed me this" inside father's rugged fingers gently lay a small darkened matte gray marble no larger then a dime. "He told me that this tiny ball was supposed to change everything..."

"Think before you say what you're thinking young man! I am the one in charge here not Alvarez. If you think for one moment that I'll let you inform the captain of my intentions..."

"But it was the smooth bore musket that caused this little lead ball to rattle inside the barrel as it traveled to and from. A very bad thing to occur indeed. Likewise accuracy was more of a rarity then not. Even so" Father took the ball in hand and squeezed the tiny object until it's visible evidence was entirely covered by four bloodless fingers and a thumb. "It changed the way we thought about any given conflict"


 - continued shortly (hopefully)

Segment 6 (Pirouette)

"With the press of a button, flip of the switch or scolding glare from across the room, the world as we know it can vanish before our very eyes. All life will shudder in the face of the great mighty mushroom cloud as it's glorious incinerating wave of intense plasma glasses over our fair cities, our fair parks, our fair lives. 

And I ask you... For what? So we may rid ourselves of ourselves? Or do we find these differences in each other so demanding, so large and intrusive we must obliterate the very soil beneath thy feet? No I said to the man in largest house on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. No I said to the man residing inside the largest country. No I said to the man that demands satisfaction. We must not tailor our inevitablities to our prejudices. We must not falter in the face of discrimination nor in the eyes of unsolicited malice. We must face our elephants and our muskrats, we must stand and fight against the injustice that simply is thrown against any given plight and we must say NO GOT DANG MORE!"

My father had a way with words. Those that despised his obsession had a way to turn said words into bolts of strewn muck. For every attempt to dissuade modern society, they had another way to scare their flock into submission. For every attempt to disable the monster, they had many faux projects or lot of lackey proxies to merely sweep the disrupted rubble beneath the nearest shag carpet.

When he finally turned to violence, they proceeded his attacks with a handful of bullets and buckets of arson. Our two previous houses were nothing more then forgotten memories long past. Our third lay not even atop the ground. Instead it belonged to the earth, a swaying heap of dust simply brushed away under a storm of ember and smoke.


The world knew what he had intended. He himself knew what they had planned. In the end, both were as right as they were forever wrong. The aftermath of that mistake being the ultimate consequence one which took not only our swell rural town in it's sweaty rugged palm but also their global economies, their entrenched work... their entire god damn cities.


All to be plucked one by one, the nations sat and watched, fazed and battered by the resulting effect. It was as they... It was as father once said. Fire for effect.

Beyond the sea (Bioshock Review)

1960

A turbine engine listlessly shudders beyond the steel iron hull. The image of family - your loved ones - glances momentarily towards your present location. Another moment passes before the shrill screams of passengers deafen the watcher’s ears as all vision recedes to black.

Light reemerges with a title. Bioshock.

Originally unearthed for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms in 2007 the game quickly garnered not only the gaming worlds respect but one of it’s most prestigious honor: Game of the Year. In 2008 the game finally found it’s way to the Sony PS3 console with the all important “Extra features”.

As the actual game begins and the player takes the rein of our unknown player, he finds himself in quite a pickle. Surviving the plane crash “somewhere in the pacific” quickly turns out to be the simplest thing on his schedule.

A lighthouse hangs ominously over the darkened water. It being the only refuge from a watery grave, our hero sets foot on the concrete behemoth instantly bringing to life a dead structure. After the short introductory phase by one “Andrew Ryan” our protagonist is quickly unleashed to the world of Rapture – a dystopian world perpetually stuck in 1959.

Bound to progression the man hastily enters the first grisly room to finally be confronted by the resident drug/elephant in the room: plasmids. Once the two of you have been acquainted the floodgates to splicing your genes open up, each with a chemically altered characteristic. But what is a plasmid and how did it get here?

The short story: Andrew Ryan, the curator, created Rapture in the eyes of not land dwelling ideologies. In this same vein, he and other like minded individuals created gene-splicing or plasmids. Their cost? A pinch of Adam; this being their genetic wireframe holding all the little pieces together.

These “powers” work exactly the same as the firearms and act similar to how magic would in any given RPG style game. This being, of course, a first person shooter (FPS) you’ll have access to both styles of play.

And whether you decide to wield the power of electricity or set the world ablaze, remember, too much of a good thing will drain your eve (natural plasmid energy reserve) and leave you defenseless while seeking another injection. So remember, a smart splicer is a happy splicer!

When you awaken the uninviting world of Rapture is waiting. Genetically mutated freaks known as “splicers” roam the city searching for the next hit of adam. The carriers of said miracle science are itty bitty little girls covered in death’s skin wearing the torn remnants of their innocence. But to attack one of these “Little sisters” would be to anger their guardian the “Big Daddy” which has quite the temper when startled.

Once you’ve dealt with one of these colossal tin cans you’ll finally be allowed to taste the venom of Adam but only if you decide the fate of the little sister first.

But in a world where the fabrics of morality lay in tatters and the only certainty is the need for self preservation; can you heed the painful warning that Rapture cries, attempting to thwart the darkness and be their savior or will you fall forever to the alluring corruption of greed and inflated self importance?

Besides all that intoxicating game play, the main attraction to the world of Rapture (the city itself notwithstanding) is the excellently written storyline; one that contains more twists, bumps and heart then most games readily produced. The steadfast attention to detail is simply amazing. The working of every little nuisance inside the city creates such a world full of life, death, and destruction that it takes repeated viewing to fully explore the length of yarn on display. It also helps that it’s being told solely through the eyes and ears of our intrepid captive creates a much more riveting standard for video interaction narrative.

To say anymore would be telling.

Pros:

• Superb narrative that never ceases to interrupt gameplay nor disappoint

• The world of Rapture is a monument to videogame excellence. It in and of itself could self contain a game with minimal exertion

• The ability to actively effect the environment to hurt thy enemy

• Ability to actively enhance your character with tonics, weapon upgrades and crafting offers RPG like augmentation

Cons:

• Prototypical gunplay can sometimes feel antiquated and dated

• A lot of the plasmids don’t really feel very polished

• Hacking

• Ending (cut scene)

Conclusion:

To say Bioshock is anything less then a crowning achievement would be an insult. The game easily bumps shoulders with the most renowned of video games inside their “hall of fame”. And while there are the occasional hiccups, most of which are issued directly to the hacking mini game, so much of the presentation – from the story to the gameplay to the graphical prowess – is fantastically delivered that any issue feels extremely minor and unimportant. The truest testament to the brilliance is the fact that I’ve been through Rapture three times and enjoyed it more with each consecutive play through.

Bioshock is an outstanding game not to be missed by any. If for some reason you’ve not enjoyed the fruits of Eden then you owe it to yourself to take a bite today.

Final score: 95/100

As always, if you enjoyed this review head over to my amazon link to your left (under reviews) and hit thumbs up. If you didn't well... I suppose there is always next time.

Segment 6 (It's been a long time coming)

In my eyes the gelatinous tears begin to build. Their salty concoction of mournful thoughts swell behind the cornea before the eruption bursts out across the pot mocks that riddle my cheeks. Each indentation slows the teardrop nearly bringing the melancholic stream to a dead stand still.


"Son!" Father exclaimed "Awake my son; the dogs have found us!"


 The crease in my lips folded back in time "How is this possible Papa?".


 "I do not know my child but do hurry. We haven't much time. The planes already burning fuel as we speak."


The face of my father vanishes back into the backdrops of my storied memory. His appearance of glee, pure and untouched happiness on the other hand never dissipated.


I watched as he took the necessary and unnecessary in hand before forcible plunging the inanimate inside his large soil tinted leather suitcase. The life up to this point was no longer relevant. The future - as he'd say with a boom and a thunder - had no time for such trivial matters.

"What in God's name were you doing out there kid?"

Lacerations of pain trickle in from left to right, then right to left until the concussive force eventually destroys the fabrics of my alluring dream. Fire engulfs the immediate environment beneath a wave of burnt orange. Pillars of thick charcoal gray smoke hangs ominously over my head.

       "What were you looking for?" 

The structure lay in tatters. It's many windows shattered intermittently peppering the ground a sprinkled concoction of many blades and daggers. My feet, stricken bare and naked to the touch, had yet to bleed.

"Look son" the man let out a long winded sigh "We can help you. All you must do in return is tell me what exactly you were doing out there." 

A gale of exasperated carbon monoxide brushes past the slick portion of my face. The cool frail wind freezes a fair piece of doused flesh before conceiting life backwards through the dull listless marbles lodged within the victim's eye socket.

"Damnit kid, just tell me why you were found trespassing on hollow ground. That field you carelessly stumbled through has been officially ruled as governmental property. For all intents and purposes I could have you arrested and jailed till you're of age."

The stirring of death's fable cauldron had been tasted. The ladle carefully sat aside the hot boiling dish awaiting one final ingredient.

"Did your father ever teach you the rules of responsibility? Do you even realize that for all of this" the young corporal waved his arms in one grand circular motion "All of this costs something. And for every cost, there is a debt. For every debt there is a payment owed"

A drip of hate, a bead of malice, and a crown of justifiable logic.


In my eyes the sun and crescent moon quickly melded into one shade of light. A cataclysmic eruption in the barrier of our inner atmosphere clouded the vermilion skies. The propulsion - a wave of incineration - rapidly ate and dissolved yard by yard of the dry field that I currently stood upon. The ground roared, the earth shuddered, and then the light of a hundred million candles blotted out the ever changing hues of our adventure.


The bright white illumination tore past my father's corpse, past the field's end, past the edge of the world I could readily see. It had engulfed everything. And when the moment had come to pass, I fell to my knees, skin burnt a crisp and bleeding my precious blood to feed a dying world.


But for when I turned to spot my father's grave, the one that had been there just a moment ago, for it was gone as was the dust. All of it was just gone.