The Good, the Fad and the Ugly: Distance

Writer’s Note: This was written the week of 9/11/16. At this point the game was still in its Early Access format. Because of this, information below may or may not remain relevant in the future. Saw blades, large cylindrical grinders, Pumpkins and Lasers. These may sound like standard sci-fi and horror film props, but would you be surprised to find them in a racing title? In this GFA review, I present Refract Studio’s Distance. A Survival Racer. One that pits you against the hazards of the track in addition to the traditional clock. There are no laps, nor items. It’s you, and the track. The aforementioned hazards are all standard obstacles that will stand in your way, minus Pumpkins. They’re ready to slice, dice and completely destroy your car. However, you have the advantage of a rocket-boosting-self-repairing car. That last part can only be done at specific Checkpoint/regeneration rings however. …

I Tune, Do You?

iTunes. The software and store that killed the Record Star. Among several other things. With the most recent update, I myself am not so certain as to how much longer I’ll be using the program. I understand the purpose behind the shifts, but I do question how much thought went into these changes. Some of my albums contain several dozen pieces, and now, instead of a multiple column list, I have a large, single column to scroll through. Enough about my little gripes, my main concern is that my copy of iTunes is sentient, somewhat. I’m not writing one of those crazed “Sweden doesn’t exist” kind of things. It’s just that more times than I can count, the shuffle feature has somehow managed to time music to real world, unpredictable events. Or I think about a piece and it begins to play. Call it hidden Apple AI or (preferably) Divine …

No Man’s Sky Indeed

“‘The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he, ‘promised impossibilities, and performed nothing.. The modern masters promise very little…”  That would be a line from Mary Shelly’s 1818 classic, Frankenstein. Even though the words are nearly two hundred years old, and refer to ancient and 17th century scientists, they ring true today. No, not in terms of some major scientific revolution. More in terms of a major hypekill. I speak of course of the truthfully named No Man’s Sky. The game that promised impossibilities, and yet performed nothing. Now, it’s lost 90% of it’s playerbase (as of Aug 29th, 2016) and has caused sellers to begin giving refunds left and right. Through all this, the Developer, Hello Games has remained silent. To be honest, I’ve just been a spectator to this whole debacle. I figured I’d let the reviews come out for this title and then consider purchasing it. After being somewhat burned with …

I need a break.

Along with some time to rework and reset a few things with this site. Follow my Twitter for updates. I’ll be back before you know it!

Customer Support?

During that massive trip I took, something unexpected happened. I had made a warranty claim on a PC controller that broke well within the three years of the warranty. Needless to say, getting a reminder of it in the middle of the trip was poor planning on my part. I probably wouldn’t have minded it so much if I wasn’t sent an obviously pre-written message asking me (rather coldly, I may add) to mercilessly destroy the defective device. Now, this makes sense, coming from a company as large as Logitech. It’s a way to minimize false claims, but the way it was sent. That was the real kicker. I had started with an actual human being on the other side of the emails, but with the same candy-colored background to each one. After a series of 12 emails over the course of 20 days, a resolution was finally reached. I’m …