the background noise

Happy August one and all! It's been a mostly sunny carefree month here. Sunshine, blue skies and a stillness to the air, true peak August vibes all said. So what better way to lean into the tail end of summer as the evenings gently grow darker and the temperature feels a touch cooler, than with another sample of my favourite game music. This time around it comes from a game I may have mentioned around these here parts previously: Hotline Miami, otherwise referred to by myself as  'T rippy Retro Ultra-Violent Hallucinogenic Slash Bang: The Game'. 

Quiet evening tonight, drinking tea and reading the comic based adventures of the Justice League. Could say its a quiet one then, which it is. Its New 52 Justice League too which I have yet to make up my mind upon. Long form storytelling aplenty that may or may not be building up for the pay-off in the long run. Things are getting super punched in the face in the name of justice at least so there's that.

Well I was going to do a recap of 2013 as channelled through my own peculiar mind but given work, play and a recent spike in alcohol intake that is unlikely to occur at this hour. Something for the new year perhaps when my brain is less addled and my typing fingers are more capable.

So with one momentous accomplishment done and done in Hotline Miami I find myself ever closer to its prized platinum trophy. That'll be the trophy you get when you get all other trophies in the game. Doesn't happen very often and until I recently I wasn't going for it here but I'm so close now damn it. Just got to get an A+ grade for every level, this is going about as well as you'd expect.

Just got back from two hours watching a film starring a special effect purporting to be Orlando Bloom and a charismatic dragon who just wants to be left in peace to enjoy his bling. So yet another startling day of zero gaming accomplishment you could say.

The PlayStation Network's store made another raid on my wallet this evening after reeling me in with an enticing offer for the 'director's cut' of Lone Survivor . A self-consciously retro Silent Hill lost in an alternate dimension of ambient terror rendered in the sweet graphics of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As initial impressions go then, its good.

As you may know I temporarily lost my mind to insanity whilst purchasing my PS4 and in my moment of fleeting madness I found myself purchasing a PlayStation Vita as well. Presumably I was acting on some latent urge to own one but that's probably rationalising my thought process to an absurd degree, assuming of course there was a thought process involved and not a mindless impulse to own more stuff. After owning one for the past few weeks I think I can now form my thoughts about it into an easy to digest blog format. Here goes.

Hotline Miami , an ambiguous weird super-violent trip into the neon haze of the 1980's. Originally released last year it came to PS3 a few months back and it is glorious. Twitchy, super-fast arcade gameplay married to a plot and tone both surreal and sinister. Picture it in your head as the kind of ultraviolent NES game that never was because thats the aesthetic on offer and it fits the game like a glove rendered in 16 bits or less.