Welcome again to We Have Always Lived in the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Here in the Notes we’ll show you this week’s posting schedule, but first, a little Seafood for Thought.
Let’s bring this to a proper end.
This Tuesday will see the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and presumably bring to a close one of the most important gaming franchises (at least as far as the original creative team in concern). For better or worse, the Uncharted franchise has been one of the backbones of the Playstation over the years. The storytelling in this game has been top notch, and especially as the series has gone on, the games have sought to take more and more advantage of the graphical capabilities of Sony’s consoles. This being the first of the series to be launched on the PS4, the graphics should be at another level altogether. Of course, these games aren’t perfect. Naughty Dog has continually taken its cinematic approach a bit too far in terms of making the games too streamlined, to the point where they feel less like games and more like arbitrary movement between quicktime or cut scene events. This became especially true in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which, while good, definitely pushed how little control you really felt you had playing the game. That’s why it was wise for Naughty Dog to take time off from the franchise. It allowed for people to actually want more Uncharted again, and created a wave of excitement that this game wouldn’t have had if it had come out soon after Uncharted 3. The series seems primed to go out with a bang, and that is quite exciting. This upcoming game seems ready to take a look at the franchise as a whole, and examine what a lot of it has meant, which should allow the already amazing storytelling to jump to another new level. Uncharted deserves a good send-off, so let’s hope that all the hype for the upcoming game is well-placed, and that this great franchise gets the grand farewell it deserves.
David Robertson
From the depths of the Kraken, here is what we are bringing you this week.
Monday: Nothing new today. The Kraken is currently engaged in a game of cat and mouse with the Men in Black, and neither seems to realize which is truly the cat. (Hint: it’s the giant monster.)
Tuesday: Kyu brings another installment of The Loaded Die, and this time the die is loaded up with party games! With The Resistance: Avalon, Bananagrams, and Pit, you’ll be ready to amuse four to eight friends all night long.
Wednesday: Amy Atomika is back for another Atomika vs… with her hot take on the world’s hatred for the new Ghostbusters trailer. This is going to be good.
Thursday: Nothing to see here today. New content is taking a break so that we can take the Kraken to the doctor. Those sneezes just aren’t going away, and there’s no kleenex in the world that can catch a tsunami.
Friday: Game of Thrones‘ third episode has happened, and the denizens of the Kraken are here to talk about it in our third episode of the Life in the Kraken Podcast: Westeros Edition. Join David, Kyu, Sam, and Matt Morris as they discuss Season 6, Episode 3, “Oathbreaker.”
Saturday:
- Baturdays are back, as we delve deeper into the third issue of Batman with “The Batman vs The Cat-Woman.” This begs the question, does everybody in Gotham have a fursona?
- TV Roulette is back again as David takes a look at NBC’s The Blacklist. This episode is supposed to serve as the backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off, but it’s also the penultimate episode for the season. This could be anything at this point, so buckle up.
Catch of the Week:
Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? This is your… Catch of the Week.
Kyu: When the world seems to like something, it’s hard not to resent that thing, to not fall into the trap of ignoring something that’s potential awesome out of the need to be different and special. But the smart move is to give it a shot. Yeah, the people obsessed with Hamilton, the new Broadway show that uses diverse casting and innovative music to tell the story of founding father (what’s your name, man?) Alexander Hamilton, can get pretty annoying. But having listened to the soundtrack album, you know, they’re not wrong. This is an excellent show, well-written and performed. Besides the greatness of the casting and style, it’s also just very classically great at weaving the various songs and events of Hamilton’s life into a powerful, complex statement on life, history, honor, and legacy. Plus, it’s catchy as hell. Do yourself a favor: if, like me, you’ve been resisting, give in. This time it’s worth joining the crowd.
David: Sequels can be hard to jump into, but in the case of Bravely Second it is worth it. Taking a lot of the flaws of the previous game, Bravely Default, and fixing and fine tuning them to create an even more enjoyable game, Bravely Second is a highly addictive JRPG that combines nostalgia and new mechanics for a rewarding experience. The storytelling continues to be excellent and headed in a great direction. So while playing Bravely Default first is still awesome, and will make Bravely Second a more enriching experience, Bravely Second is more than good enough to hold up on its own.
That’s it for this week. If you find any lightning bugs during your stay here in the Kraken, be sure to catch them–we need their bioluminescence to power the turbines.