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Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch: A Visual Examination.

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My Journey

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Journey

I don’t feel envious of consumer games journalists very often, but my what a joy it would be to be paid to write about Journey.

I’m a self-confessed thatgamecompany fan, and to see it grow through its games in the way that it has makes me grateful I’m here for this generation. Flow was great. Flower was amazing. Journey is just something else, yet still a clear evolution of Jenova Chen’s visionary approach.

There are many common themes throughout the trio. Evolution and growth, obviously. The experience of travel, too, and the evocative nature of change. The journey. But the one thing that ties them the strongest is the notion of power.

In all three games you start as something small. Powerless, relatively speaking. A single cell organism. A petal. A lone traveller.

In Flow, the game was about the evolution of power and growth enabling you to conquer what just minutes ago you feared. And Flower’s climax, which saw the player overcome weakness and fragility to become a world-changing, life-giving power, dominating all in its path.

I hate the word empowerment. It makes me feel like I’m in an executive-level content meeting. But empowerment really is the magic from which thatgamecompany draws its strength.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Although the growth of power is an obvious theme right from the start of Journey, it’s only in the final act that Chen once again prepares the ground and executes his master stroke.

It begins, almost predictably (though delightfully so) with the loss of power, with weakening. The final traverse up the snowy mountain, where the player must endure first a loss of magical power and then a lessening of physical power, is heart-wrenching. Seeing your once graceful protagonist at last seemingly defeated by the elements is a difficult experience.

The physicality, too, of that simple character (whom incidentally conveys it all without the gift of arms or facial expression). You feel the strain being placed on legs, you sense the lessening momentum and diminishing of will. And how that struggle is so masterfully conducted, until you’re pressing the stick in hope that a movement you can no longer see, preying for some sign of life.

And then.

Life returns. And at last your full potential is afforded. You’re soaring. Soaring without any restrictions. The world has forgiven you, is feeding you. That majestic sweep through the blue skies and the sun is so meaningful purely because of the struggle that preceded it.

And it’s beautiful. My god, it’s beautiful. No-one wants another “are games art?” debate but please, if you ever ask yourself that question then just play Journey. To convey the emotions of determination and sacrifice that Journey does oh so successfully can only ever be achieved like this. With a video game. It’s what we can do when we get it right.

What a very, very special experience.

TO BE USED IN WAKE OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

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BBC TRANSCRIPT TO BE USED IN WAKE OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own homes.

Remember there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away. By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger.

If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection. Radioactive fall-out, which follows a nuclear explosion, is many times more dangerous if you are directly exposed to it in the open. Roofs and walls offer substantial protection. The safest place is indoors.

Make sure gas and other fuel supplies are turned off and that all fires are extinguished. If mains water is available, this can be used for fire-fighting.

You should also refill all your containers for drinking water after the fires have been put out, because the mains water supply may not be available for very long. Water must not be used for flushing lavatories: until you are told that lavatories may be used again, other toilet arrangements must be made. Use your water only for essential drinking and cooking purposes. Water means life. Don’t waste it.

Make your food stocks last: ration your supply, because it may have to last for 14 days or more. If you have fresh food in the house, use this first to avoid wasting it: food in tins will keep.

If you live in an area where a fall-out warning has been given, stay in your fall-out room until you are told it is safe to come out. When the immediate danger has passed the sirens will sound a steady note. The “all clear” message will also be given on this wavelength. If you leave the fall-out room to go to the lavatory or replenish food or water supplies, do not remain outside the room for a minute longer than is necessary.

Do not, in any circumstances, go outside the house. Radioactive fall-out can kill. You cannot see it or feel it, but it is there. If you go outside, you will bring danger to your family and you may die. Stay in your fall-out room until you are told it is safe to come out or you hear the “all clear” on the sirens.

Here are the main points again:

Stay in your own homes, and if you live in an area where a fall-out warning has been given stay in your fall-out room, until you are told it is safe to come out. The message that the immediate danger has passed will be given by the sirens and repeated on this wavelength. Make sure that the gas and all fuel supplies are turned off and that all fires are extinguished.

Water must be rationed, and used only for essential drinking and cooking purposes. It must not be used for flushing lavatories. Ration your food supply: it may have to last for 14 days or more.

We shall repeat this broadcast in two hours’ time. Stay tuned to this wavelength, but switch your radios off now to save your batteries until we come on the air again. That is the end of this broadcast.

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the-star-stuff:

SUPER SATURN 

Artist Ron Miller creates an artist’s conception of the newly discovered “Super Saturn”, whose four known rings extend for tens of millions of kilometres from the central object, the young, sun-like star 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6. Without knowing the mass of the central body, we can’t know what central object the ring orbits, but Miller opted for a gas planet.