Spectre Teaser: Family Bonds.

Yes. The score is just perfect. Structurally familiar but tonally revolutionary. Christoph Waltz is now absolutely Blofeld. And I'm absolutely stoked.

Absolutely.

Mr. White! How the hell are you?

The Sony PS4: Fist bump friendly.

I did not think I'd be this pleased with the PS4. Mainly because I was so late to the ps3 party my PC had long left it in the dust. Plus mainlining Uncharted 2, Resistance 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Infamous left a sour taste in my mouth. They should have been savored, except for Resistance 2 that was... weak tea by the time I played it. Anticipation and a staggered release schedule is really important to appreciating the medium, I realized.

But what I've got right now is a free download code for The Last of Us (bout' time I played that again) and Bloodborne. Sweet. Jesus. Lord, do I have Bloodborne. A killer-er app there never was. Hunting werewolves in a Victorian dystopia with a chain-whip cane-sword has never been more maddeningly addicting.

Yes. This game is worth $460.

But about the system itself? It was plugged in, updated, and ready to go in less than 20 minutes. Kudos. It seamlessly allows for wiki-diving during Bloodborne's egregious loading screens, double kudos. And finally, I noticed there was a headphone jack on the controller. Could it be? Was there a simple preference setting that could let me jack in without cold calling best buy for random adapters to ultimately achieve maximum neighborliness? Kudos upon kudos upon kudos.

This is going to work out great. Also, I'm never going to not fist bump the console's motion sensor to turn it on.

Ps4? This is gonna happen.

I better have to wear shades, though. Promise me.

Barring disastrous Bloodborne reviews, which does not seem remotely likely, I will have a brand new console come Tuesday. This is going to be the Bloodborne machine... possibly the Persona 4 device as well. Maybe even The Order contraption once that series gets off the ground in 2-4 years. My point is, if Micrsoft has a game worth selling it's going to hit PC. And despite SONY's financial troubles they still seem dead set on making... well, games.

For every Fable there's a Bloodborne and an Infamous. For every Halo there's a Persona and an Uncharted. If I had to get a console, there really isn't any contest.

Did I do it? Did I selfie? I don't care. Thanks, Redbubble!

Nice shower curtain, dingus. Bet it's got stratum upon stratum of mildew.

This new "body covering" is indeed, most "splendid." Kinda smells like bubble gum, though. Not sure if that's a problem either.

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 2 was worth it.

It's been twice the wait Tell Tale promised us, as I'm sure Troy Baker's dance card overfloweth, but Atlas Mugged is up and I finished it almost immediately. You should pick it up now while the price is down.What's here is easily worth $30 if you're a mild Borderlands fan.

Come on, Bloodborne, you're leaking all over the internet!

Guess what? Edge Magazine's review of Bloodborne leaked. As a Journalism minor I should drone on about the death of print media and the insult this adds to it's injuries... but this is BLOODBORNE. The purchase of a ps4 is riding on this verdict.

And I have to know.

Back to the Lighthouse: Thoughts on Bioshock Infinite after putting it down for a whole year.

There was a time I threatened to make Infinite my 2013 game of the year. I should have made a similar threat for 2014, but to be honest... nothing jumped out at me and the heavy hitters ultimately broke even. Inquisition was two good halves of one great game as the open world devoured half of it's story. Beyond Earth is at least one comprehensive expansion pack away from being anything special. And Dark Souls 2, while being a damn fine game in of itself sits in it's predecessor's shadow a bit too much; though it's subtle tweaks to the death formula and it's central town were wonderful.

Wait... what were we talking about?

Right!

I love Infinite. Too much, honestly. As I said before, I tried to give it my goty when no one else would. After the initial influx of perfect review scores the tide turned sharply. I wanted to link to the IGN review, but they walked it back to a 9.4. It was a 10 two years ago. That's how swift and angry the backlash was. People were furious. But when aren't gamers furious? After a couple weeks Infinite's place in history was set, cooled by months and months of contrarian cynicism. Do I sound bitter? I should. I'm insanely bitter.

I wanted to write an article that was confident. Something so sure of the game's merits that I wouldn't be bothered by the fact that this was the game people decided to complain about finding loot and food in trash cans. I believed Infinite became a symbolic target for things critics had tired of. My article kept devolving into mini tirades. I was jumping into the cheap seats and throwing punches.

Now that I've booted it all up again and enjoying it all again, I find myself picking at the old wounds.

Like how vigors felt tacked on to most folks. People thought they weren't integrated into the story enough. They were brand new! The story of vigors was the story of plasmids because they were literally the same thing stolen from Rapture. People didn't have time to get all tumory yet. And Colombia's implementation of shock jokeywas a hell of lot more sensible then what Rapture ever made of it.

But I concede the game has flaws. Many, in fact. But all sins are forgiven in my eyes because it manages to be so convincingly weird. With the right story and characters you can go anywhere and do anything. Even kill sky racists while traveling through time and space.  I especially love how well it treats faith. Not just zealotry. I believed the Colombians believe in Comstock. Their murmured prayers, the way they policed their friends, and their stunning monuments. The flooded church where Booker's rocket lands and the choral version of "will the circle be unbroken" gave me the closest thing to a religious experience a piece of entertainment ever will. No other game has captured the beauty and the horror of blind faith so powerfully.  Oh... I just got the symbolism of the blind baptizing priest. Christ, that took me long enough didn't it?

But one thing that bothered me the most was the twist surrounding Booker's identity.

Spoilerz.

As if ya'll don't even know.

I thought they cheated. Using a different voice actor, a cheap poly involving the Lutece field artificially aging Comstock, a general lack of evidence and foreshadowing. But I was wrong. It's actaully much better put together than the whole Atlas/Fontaine twist. If I was really paying attention the first time I could have figured it out!

For one, in the beginning Comstock knew everything about Booker. He knew about the mark on his hand, he knew he served at wounded knee, he knew about his daughter.

Two, at the hall of heroes it claims Comstock did everything Booker did at wounded knee. Comstock even brought Booker's old commander, Slate, along to Colombia.

Three, aside from the running theme of baptism and remaking ones' self you hear about in all of Comstock's audio logs; they totally set up the concept of the exact same person being two different people in different worlds. How?

Come on, Redbubble. This shirt's been in "manufacturing" for 5 days!!!"

It was all there... I'm so proud of you Bioshock! You know, Fitzroy's lack of evolution notwithstanding. But rendering your entire trip to Finkton with a hole in the universe was actually devastatingly cheap, for the record.