I remember playing the original Tomb Raider waaaaaaaaaay back in the 90s.  I was really young, and even then the character design had me rolling my eyes so hard I almost saw my brain.

Can I just say how much I love the redesigned Lara Croft?  Gone is the cone-breasted, lips-so-pouty-they-cover-half-her-face character purely designed for blokes to oggle and snicker as they play an otherwise badass woman.

Things this time around were much, much better.

They did a fantastic job, too, with the supporting cast; the key members of the crew of The Endurance​.  It was a brilliant cast of all sorts, without feeling forced or inorganic.

And my favourite member of the crew:

Needless to say, I really enjoyed having a cast of characters that looked like real people, not caricatures designed specifically for the male gaze.

I LOVED this story.  I LOVED it.  There was enough mystery, enough action, and enough heartache to make this well worth the telling.

Essentially, this is the telling of how Lara Croft went from typical young woman to dual-pistol wielding badass.  It is the story of a young woman who finds out precisely what she is made of (determination, brains and a whole lot of courage, in case you were wondering).  It's a rough lesson, costing her friends and loved ones along the way.

The characters were well crafted and acted.  Their relationships were touched on well enough that you felt the connections without devoting much-needed time from the urgent story unfolding before you.  And that is important because there are deaths in game that would not be nearly as impactful as they were without the establishing of those relationships.  It was done in such a smart way, too; through journal entries that you can find, and the reviewing of footage from the found camera of Samantha Nishimura.

The death that really got me was Roth's.  I do not mind admitting that I teared up.  I'm a little salty about it, but it does provide from some of the most poetic badassery in the game; gifted with Roth's twin pistols (a nice nod to the original character's weapons of choice), you get to use them to blast the fuck out of the bastard who killed him.

THAT WAS FOR ROTH, YOU MOTHER FUCKER!

Ahem.

Honestly, it was so satisfying to watch that guy tumble off the edge of a cliff full of my (formerly Roth's) bullets.  A wonderful piece of story-telling, and a very satisfying part of the game.

I really like how they handled Lara's character.  She's not just a tough badass.  She's also a normal young woman, with a curious mind and a great brain.  She reacts in completely understandable ways to the situation she finds herself in, which is to say, she's frightened.

Hell, I would be too.  And there's no way that I'd be able to keep going the way Lara does.

Treating the heroine this way makes everything she does so much more meaningful.  She is terrified, but she does it anyway.  Her defiantly shouting, "You're not going to stop me!" at the enemy as she's trying to save her friends means something.  That is courage.  Real courage.

It's meaningful.

Heroes that blast through enemies without fear are boring.  The stakes don't feel quite so high.  More, I can't really relate to people who don't actually feel fear.  Lara Croft was relatable and admirable.  She's a normal woman, who just happens to have ovaries of steel.  And she discovers her strength as we do.

Well done on the story.

I'm still salty about Roth, though.

With the protagonist of this game being a brilliant, tough, but otherwise normal young woman, I feel like I can safely say that this game does a good job of accurately representing women as full people instead of just cardboard cut-outs.

Strangely, this game does hold to the trope of a young, pretty useless woman (sorry, Samantha) that is in need of rescue... repeatedly.  However, it's another woman, Lara, who is doing the rescuing, and not because it's a love interest, but because they are friends, and you don't leave friends behind.  It was both an irritating and fantastic twist of a trope.

A good job was done here as well.

There were very few instances where wonky controls left me frustrated (there was one bit, in which across was mistaken for up, and vice versa) and almost all my deaths were down to my complete inability to play with any sort of skill.

I'm really not good at quicktime events, guys!

I loved this game.  Honestly.  The story was great.  The voice acting was great.  The game play was one of the smoothest I've had yet (Uncharted 4 was comparable).

My only gripe, and it's not that much of a gripe, because the pace helped with the urgent feel of the game, particularly in the final act, is that it was too short.

​A great game.  Well done.

Good morning, Readers!

Last night I streamed the 2013 Tomb Raider game.  It was the fourth stream of the game... and the last.

Turns out, I was closer to the end of the game than I thought.  It ended just shy of two hours into the stream.

I'm actually genuinely sad about having finished the game already, as I really liked it.  A full sassy review will be forthcoming.  Those take a while to write up, so I'll try and have it for you on Monday.

The next game I'm streaming is the new Assassin's Creed installment, Origins.  I figured after such a short game, something that is longer might be nice.  The roster following that is Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and Rise of the Tomb Raider, both of which are shorter games.  Then I have Far Cry Primal on the list.  That promises to be a long game.  Not Skyrim long (I've streamed enough to take me into February of next year and I'm nowhere near done), but long.

I think I'll be posting the streams on my YouTube channel.  There are only four of them, after all.

I am surprised that the game was so short.  It really could have been a bit longer (but also not, I'll explain in my review).  I think The Last of Us hit the mark for game length.  Then again, I'm not sure it would have served the story and the driving feel of the game if it was longer.

As I'm getting more into the streaming stuff, I've created a new page just for gaming things.  If you're not all that interested in my writing career or my other activities but want to keep up with the gaming stuff, my Facebook page SMC Awkwardly Plays is the place for you.  If you're interested in it all, for some reason, The S.M. Carrière Facebook Café is the place to be.  That's the central hub for all of my stuff.

(Quick reminder: my Facebook activity is restricted only to professional stuff (my gaming, video podcasting and writing), so I won't be active on there save for my pages and the café)

Are there actually any gamers reading this?  I'm interested to know which games you've played and loved, and really wished was a little longer?  Let me know below!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This is a little late, as I had random other stuff to write about, but I will be places this month, and I'm telling you in case you want to drop by for a chat, buy a book, and/or get an autograph (I flatter myself).

Here are the details:

November 18
Ottawa ComicCon Holiday Edition
Where: E.Y. Centre, 4899 Uplands Dr. Ottawa, ON, K1V 2A6

The event is two days, but I'll only be there on the 18th.  You can find me at the Renaissance Press booth from 2pm - 6pm that day.  The best part? Admission is absolutely free! 
Details here.

Hope to see you there!

December 12
ChiSeries Ottawa Holiday Bash
Where: Patty Boland's Pub, 101 Clarence St. Ottawa, ON, K1N 5P5

Come join us for great books and fun times.  Unlike the other ChiSeries events, there will be no readings.  There will be, however, shenanigans!  I will be there the whole time (from 7pm - 9pm).
Details here.

I hope you'll drop by!  This is my first time, and I've heard great things about it.

So this is where I'll be in the near future.  I genuinely hope to see you at one or both of these events.  Not just for me, of course, but because they're great events that are really worth checking out.

​See you soon!

Good morning, Readers!

No, this isn't a post about an existential crisis I'm having.  It's actually about something that gave me a good giggle.

Yesterday, following my lunch break, I came back to a peculiar, pictographic message in my writer's page inbox.  It was 28 stickers, all posted just before my lunch break ended.

​It's like a modern day code, or hieroglyphic message.  I stared at it in confusion, and then I giggled.  Because it's random enough to be funny.

Here is the message I received in full:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

I have no idea.

Now, as there is obviously nothing malicious behind the message (OR IS THERE?!), I'm not sharing the name of the messenger.  I actually think this is pretty hilarious, and I enjoyed the message immensely, even if I have no idea what they were trying to say with it.

Honestly, though it does not succeed in communicating anything at all, this might be my favourite message to have received.  Thank you to the sender, and I hope you don't mind my making a blog post about it.  It honestly made me smile yesterday afternoon.

So I'm throwing it open to you.  What do you think they were trying to say?

I have a couple of ideas, my favourite being that this is somehow a pictographic book review.  For which book I have no idea.  Details.

Leave me your thoughts in the comments!

Ciao!

Edit:

It got a little creepier.  This photo was sent a few hours later:

I'm still confused, though.  Your best theories below!

Good morning, Readers!

This week was filled with work and not much fun.  I didn't get to training at all, because things were so busy and I had a lot of work to do.  It's my own fault.  This is what happens when I procrastinate too much (granted, a lot of that was all fatigue and mental health stuff, but still.  It makes my life harder).

Anyway, I did manage to see my kung fu brother Jon yesterday, and we gamed for a bit.  So now I have footage for more CoOpted episodes, making up for the stupidity of my losing four episodes worth of footage from the last time.  Those should be going up next week.  I have also been editing Nights at the Round Table stuff, stuff for Ottawa Reads and stuff for CanCon.  It's been a thing.

While things were rendering last night, and after I had a much needed chat with my mum (hi , Mum!), I did manage to get in a few hours of Skyrim.  Afterwards, I had a long think about the suspension of disbelief.

Part of the reason many books and games are so impactful for me is because I can an do very readily suspend my disbelief.  I mean, if you really think about it, a lot of stuff that is required to make games or books work is really silly.

For fantasy games, for example, you often find bits and pieces of armour laying about, in chests in dungeons or you can loot them from defeated foes.  If that armour proves better than the stuff you currently have, you can simply put it on.

This is particularly hilarious if the foe you just defeated is quite clearly much larger (or smaller) than you are.

Anyone who knows this stuff knows that ill-fitting armour helps the wearer not one whit.  In games like Skyrim, armour is magic, whether is is enchanted or not.  It shrinks or grows to fit you perfectly.  Obviously, that's ludicrous, but it's barely a thought as you change up your armour sets.  You just take something from a chest of loot a body and it magically fits.

And we just accept that.

That's a game mechanic that probably wouldn't work in a book so much.  Probably.

Similarly, strange things happen in books that readers would have a lot of trouble accepting if it happened in real life.  I mean, if a tree just randomly started talking to you, you'd probably wonder what kind of psychosis you've suddenly contracted, or just what kind of mushrooms were in that Penne you had for lunch.  In a fantasy novel, however, it tends to just be accepted (by most readers, and if done well enough).

I wonder why.  What is it exactly that makes people able and willing to suspend their disbelief for the duration of a game or book (or film)?  It certainly doesn't work for every book or game.  For example, the game I'm currently recording with Jon for CoOpted is just silly.  There's so much in there that makes me want to roll my eyes.  I make fun of it quite a bit (when I'm not dying).  There have been books where, no matter how willing I was, I was simply unable to suspend my disbelief.

Thinking about this stuff, I realise that I have absolutely no idea what it is that makes people suspend their disbelief while reading/watching/gaming.  Part of it is a willingness to, obviously, but even that doesn't always guarantee it'll happen.

No doubt it is a mix of audience willingness, and the quality of the writing, the world-building, character creation and development, and, of course, how compelling the story is.

For Skyrim, for example, part of my suspension of disbelief is how fascinating the world you find yourself in is.  There are ruins that speak to a long history, filled with wars and intrigue.  You get hits of it in the landscape; the ruins of forts, the Dwemer ruins that were suddenly abandoned, left to the twisted Falmer.  You find it in mentions of ancient battles and heroes in books, and conversations with NPCs.  These mentions are never complete, leaving the player with a desire to learn more about it all.  At least, for myself, and largely because I'm such an ancient history/archaeology nerd.  Some of my favourite things to do in game is explore ruins.  Every time I come across the body of a scholar, whose notebook nearby reveals some mystery relating to ancient lore, I get stupidly excited.

Questions of what happened and why in world keep me up last night.  Like, for example, I am obsessed with the question of why the Dwemer blinded the Falmer.  Why?  Why did they demand that?  What was the purpose?  The result was that they ended up enslaving the Falmer, but was that the purpose?  Were the Dwemer really just that awful?  And surely there must have been some Dwemer that resisted the evil in their own ranks?  And then there's the question of where did they go?  The Dwemer and their Falmer slaves were at war when the Dwemer just suddenly upped and vanished.

I have a theory, given what I know of the Dwemer, but I have grave doubts about this theory because I simply do not know enough... and I need to know!  That's some exceptional world building, and that element of ancient history and the mysteries it presents is key to my complete engrossment when playing the game; enough that the things that make no sense (magical armour!) don't even register... until I think about it later.

What do you think?  What do you require for you to be able to suspend your disbelief enough that you can read/watch/game without pause?  I'm interested to know.  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

PS - My theory is that the Dwemer managed to open a portal to a new dimension and escaped there, thusly ending the war with the enemy they created for themselves (the Falmer).  That dimension? Oblivion.  The Dwemer became the Daedra.  I mean, if you think about it... the Daedra are just as awful as the Dwemer seemed to be.  Now this is just a stab in the dark, and probably very wrong, but that's my current theory.  It is subject to change.

Good morning, Readers!

Well, the three month deadline of 'if you don't hear from us, we're not interested' has passed on my last attempt to get Skylark in the hands of a publisher that could expand my reach.  I have not heard from them, so, they're not interested.  That deadline was Monday.

I gave myself a couple of days to look over the manuscript before sending it off to the final publisher I intended to submit to before self-publishing.  Chances are good they'll publish it... It's Renaissance Press, the same wonderful folks who published Daughters of Britain.  I wouldn't be mad, however, if they decide it's not really for them.  There are some pretty heavy scenes in the book.

I have self-publishing as an option, and I'll happily self-publish this one.  I decided about six months ago that this book will get published come hell or high water.  I'm not entirely fussy about how.

And that's all the news I have for you today.  To give you more time to procrastinate this morning, I have a current musical obsession, courtesy of the Outlander television series, which the amazing flatmate has started watching.  I've watched bits and pieces, but what really caught me was the music.  Good grief, it's stunning music.  Right now, I have this piece on repeat.  Enjoy!

Ciao!