Back to basics

In recent months I've almost forgotten what it means to be a gamer: to simply play and enjoy what I'm playing without a care in the world other than the narrative of the game, or the other players I'm crushing online. Being several months, and in excess of a year, behind my fellow square eyed friends has actually lead to my re-entry into gaming. I've been playing Titanfall, which for most is ancient history, but for me has become the access point for my rebirth into FPS but also gaming.

Without going back into our older gaming catalogues, sometimes we forget how fortunate we are to be having so much scope and variation when it comes to our favourite pastime. However, I'm finding that the older I get the more I'm finding that this spoiled library that we've taken control of via Steam sales and cheap secondhand wares has made us complacent, and even worse, has caused us to lose our attention span as a collective. Instead of sticking to a game and religiously playing it I feel like maybe games are being appreciated for a fraction of the time that they should be. This is concerning when there is a hoard of games coming our way which could all individually cause us to accidentally hit our middle ages without realising. Way to go universe.

But going back to the beloved Titanfall, I am glad to see that this franchise isn't going to fall victim to the same ridiculous Call of Duty mentality that Activision has pushed upon the gaming world for the last decade: over saturating a corner of the market by releasing weak games and trickle feeding content with as much potential for add ons and DLC as possible. This just doesn't fly with me. Hell, if after playing Call of Duty 4 a single member of the Activision team had approached me, they would have had the next 5 games worth of content sorted without even having to think. It was a game that started a revolution regarding FPS, (and should be noted as my favourite game when it comes to playing against other gamers), and it had more potential then I care to list, because it would take me a while. This bad boy was set to stay and laid the first of the slates that have made contemporary gaming what it is for all of us today. Now I just feel old.

Without getting to gooey about the past and how my youth is slowly escaping me, I'll leave with a note that I'm finding very important personally at the moment: If you love something sometimes a step back and a deep breath is the way to keep striding towards something positive later on. So many games are coming out later this year and I plan on buying them all, hopefully a new PC to go with them will come to fruition sooner rather than later as well. I also plan on writing my socks off and enjoying myself every second I escape into the worlds that I have access to via the silver screen. A man who reads can live a thousand lives, but a man who games can live a thousand lives and also destroy tens of thousand digital lives whilst stuffing their brain with knowledge. (Take that society!) I simply can not wait for my next purchases, but I'm sure my wallet will be a very sad sight soon.

'1984' Re-invented.

The magnitude of the task that the Headlong Theatre set itself was well cut out when they took on George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984 on stage at The Playhouse Theatre. Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s reimagining of the heralded novel has set the bar extremely high in terms of my personal return to watching live theatre. Without a doubt they managed to stay true to the original novel without moving into tedium, but also allow themselves the spin that fans of the novel will appreciate as well as newcomers to the story.

We begin our 2015 version of 1984 in a reading group that seems to have intertwined with the psyche of our protagonist Winston. At first I was a little befuddled, questioning whether I remembered my favourite novel with complete accuracy. After a short while I accepted that this was not simply a clone of Winston’s tale, but a newer rendition embedded in a reality that has seen the fall of Big Brother and ‘The Party’. Obviously any divergence from the original story to true Orwellian addicts could come across as offensive, but as one of the more vocal fans of this particular work I can happily say that this was not the case.

In order to truly achieve a hellish vision of the past, and what seems to be our ever so raptly encroaching future, the visual and audio aspects of the play had to be very specific, and to my amazement they were terrifyingly apt. Blazing light accompanying shrieking pitches were used in the most punishing way to the audience, engaging us within  Winston’s fear but also intensifying the overarching situation that he was facing; the possible capture of his mind at the mercy of Big Brother was reflected in our own mercy to the audio engineers. The audio was almost foreboding Winston’s eventual torture with the audiences own personal torture, the high pitched ringing matching that of severe tinnitus, would be enough to drive even the most solid audience members to the edge of sanity. 

Visually the performance was relentless as well. One particular scene is repeated multiple times with fewer characters in each permutation, but retaining the movements of a full stage. This gave an unnerving visual performance as well as illustrating how well versed the actors are. The more gruesome scenes towards the conclusion of the play were also brilliantly conceived by our directors as they allowed severely brutal images with the highest realism, although I was disappointed in the audiences reactions, most of the adults giggling like nervous teenagers at the violence was frustrating when it was so well performed.

Furthermore, the visual aspects of the play regarding what I’ll call the “off-stage” scenes were brilliant. The rear of the stage had a projection of the rented room which our protagonists spend a great deal of the performance in. These projections were of the two actors in the room as scenes were acted out rather than an overlay simply projected onto the wall. The audience looking in on the actions highlighted how much of an escape this sanctuary is for the characters, the voyeuristic stance shared by the audience helped to illustrate the removal this tiny room allowed from ‘The Party’ and the all seeing eye of Big Brother. The use of projection also allowed for the claustrophobic existence that the characters held to be shown via the visual appendage of camera which I feel is rarely used with the stage, and may have caused issue for some, but was worked in well. 

The conclusion of the play was the only area that I found lacking, the diversion from the novel’s ending was well performed and integrated very well, but for me the ending of the novel is so disturbingly perfect that I was disappointed to have seen it altered from its original form. 

But with the magnitude of the task that is bringing such a magnanimous novel into the 21st century, I think it was achieved extremely well, and without a doubt will have a third run and will hopefully be the starting point of a positive personal relationship with the stage. 

Welcome to my world

Hello! Although I'm sure this post will gain little viewership, (if any), it's always nice to start how your intend to continue; so here I go.

My name is Michael, I'm an english literature graduate with a love for music, gaming, writing, reading and far too many other things to list without wasting words! I appreciate the smaller things in life and I intend to make this my place to talk about them and discuss everything I want to with others on a regular basis.

Sometimes it's very hard to achieve everything you want to, especially on a daily basis, but having something to keep you on track is always a good idea and I'm hoping that this is the beginning of that.

I don't have a goal for this blog other than using it as a way to share everything that I do in one place, whether that be my own music, or possibly even writing, to music videos that I help film professionally. I'm sure it will seem eclectic, if not all over the place, but that's only because I feel like I am when it comes to my appreciation of the world.

For now that's all I have, but I plan on writing every day from now on, even if it's only something small.