Eddie Knows [Review: Anachronox]

K'Conrad Khk: "All roads lead to Eddie. It was a pleasure, detective."
Sly Boots: "Likewise, shoeshine. What's your secret?"
K'Conrad Khk: "You would be surprised how rarely people look up."

Classic role-playing game Anachronox is reviewed over at the Wertzone, reminding me of how much I loved that game, and why: the memorable dialogue and characters, the levels each with their own mood and different shades of humour, and particularly the beautiful environment design and attention to detail. For many of the locations, particularly the mechanically shifting, multicultural city of Anachronox itself, there is pleasure just in exploring. And while K'Conrad's quote above could be a philosophy for life, it also applies to the level design - look up in Anachronox and more likely than not, thanks to some interesting local gravity effects, there will be something going on.

Gunpowder Plot

Fellow sci-fi blogger (and apparently a fellow Colcestrian too) Adam Whitehead has been busy with a fascinating and well-written series on the history of the plot arc in sci-fi drama. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of "Arc of Truth" can be read over at the Wertzone and I look forward to Part 4.

Personally I like a good plot arc - I was particularly impressed with the way this was done in the first of the re-launched Doctor Who series: the way the characters returned to the same locations, and the whole series explored the idea that the Doctor's interventions had consequences that played out in the long term after the Tardis had departed.

I've struggled however with the new wave of slow-burning plots - Lost, Invasion, Heroes - with only a trickle-feed of exposition interspersed with hints and tense atmospherics. They can make you feel that, if you miss one episode, you might miss the single key revelation that explains the whole series. I tried with Invasion, I really did - it was such a good first episode I wanted to get into it but it was just too slow.