Comments on: The Extraordinary Saga Of Left Behind

By: bear912

bear912 — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:33:59 +0000

I’ve long held that a game based on the Old Testament would be pretty hilarious. It would almost certainly come across as ludicrously irreverent and offend EVERYONE EVER, but a level based on the 2 Kings passage where Elisha is mocked by some young’ins would be delightfully inane. For those not familiar with the passage, Elisha proceeds to curse the youths, and suddenly two bears appear out of the woods, and maul all 42 of them. This would naturally lend itself to two-player co-op bear mauling, which, obviously, is simply priceless.

… And I’m one of those church-going, Jesus-loving, God-botherers as well.

By: Thranx

Thranx — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:05:08 +0000

I’m a follower of the Big Guy Upstairs… but attempts a PR wrangling for a HORRIBLE game make me sick. I read a few of the books until they just started milking the fans for money by taking what was supposed to be a 3 book series and covering a weeks worth of time in one book to extend it to a like 18 book series (exaggeration… I stopped counting at 7).

The game was SO bad. Just… bad. Christians need to quit trying to make games. Brothers, it just isn’t our landscape… try gaming ministries like server hosting or something, because a game about coverting people is just lame.

By: Fumarole

Fumarole — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:57:13 +0000

“Pfeh! I prefer my games about more realistic topics like Space Marines or Kobolds.”

Best comment I’ve seen on RPS, which says a lot. Congratulations – right now my coworkers are possibly wondering why I am grinning like an idiot.

By: bonuswavepilot

bonuswavepilot — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:36:41 +0000

@Mssrs Circus & Walker: I must beg to differ on the quality of Nathan Barley. Perhaps it helps to be down here in the colonies, so that the stereotype is less familiar to me? I found some of the detail quite entertaining (Ashcroft’s ear-hurtingly nasty ringtone, Barley’s description of himself as a “self-actualised media-node” and so forth), and the terribly pre-destined nature of the winning of ‘The Idiots’ to make for lovely black comedy (particularly the ‘Preacher Man’ episode where Dan’s protestations against the spectacle he has been dragged into being mixed seamlessly into it) as well. As someone with a lit degree though, I know from bitter experience that these arguments cannot be won. In any case, I agree wholeheartedly about Brass Eye and The Day Today.

By: phil

phil — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:46:38 +0000

The board is so popular we’ve been hit by bots – surely a mark of success.

Also, @John W, “outdated” stereotypes in Nathan Barley? Hardly, half of Old Street use the series as ironic inspiration, the other half just dive into the £20 racks at Beyond Retro, wear whatever sticks to them, then come out looking like a series extra anyway.

By: Hypocee

Hypocee — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:48:17 +0000

Note: Not saying that all or most ‘Christian music’ is any adjective aside from the mysterious one.

Anecdotes!
At one point in University, I drove across the state – five hours one way – on a roughly fortnightly basis. This resulted in a lot of driving into and out of a wide variety of radio stations’ areas as my creaky radios hunted for signals. One incident really stands out in my mind – a couple of minutes after one station had faded out to static I got bored and hit scan. I caught the next song on the new station right at the beginning. After a few seconds of silence, I heard six drumbeats and one guitar chord and my brain lit up – ‘this is a Christian rock song!’ And it was right; this particular song eventually attempted to make a peppy bridge out of the line ‘O Lord, I am worthless without you.’ To this day I wonder just what it is that permeates the genre so thoroughly that before vocals or even a melody or rhythm came in, I could so surely identify an example. Maybe they all use one kind of amp, or something.

My cow in Black and White was a wonderful cow. It spent every minute of all its days planting and harvesting wood, entertaining the children of my villages, casting non-violent miracle spells for the less enlightened and pooing in and watering my people’s fields. It stated that it was happy and loved me and my 80% or whatever good rating. It was also hunched and covered with smoke which wavered before its malevolent glowing eyes, since it was rated as 95% evil.

By: Muzman

Muzman — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:44:46 +0000

Heliocentric says:
I remember reading that most art in nearly every medium is about sex and death. I assume that religion is a close third.
As ham handed as it was, the (apparently butchered) Ayn Rand objectivism in Bioshock was something I’d never before heard of.

Most Freud fans would file religion under death (with some overlap in sex, how much depending on the religion). Religion is just one big repressive matrix yasee.
And I reckon Bioshock took Rand to task quite well (not that I’m particularly well versed). To please Rand fans you could not portray it in any way that could be construed as negative. They’re quite religious like that, a lot of the time (it is mainly a riff on Atlas Shrugged though, and that’s not the whole story).
The problem is mainly that its telling criticisms of the Atlas Shrugged mentality and idealism in general are all between-the-lines in the backstory. The main narrative only really deals with the aftermath.

Incidentally, pointing out Christian parallels in much of storytelling is a little ‘well duh’ given its place in western history (some said this way up above there).
A Christian game is elusive because games have a certain component of will to them. I’d say evangelical types only really understand mantras and discipline. They couldn’t easily concieve of ways to spread the word without holding your hand and making sure you get it ‘right’.
However, the themes of ritual, repetition and social understanding of invisible forces as well as individuals following thin threads of clues through inference and hermenutics to an elusive life changing “truth” that are fairly common in religious… stuff, the place for religious gaming is clearly MMOs and ARGs.

By: Dorsch

Dorsch — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:24:53 +0000

nah son rap owns

By: TCM

TCM — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:13:47 +0000

It’s almost impossible to make out and out bad music, unless you’re deliberately trying, or a rapper.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:49:04 +0000

I should point out that -of course- there are games out there that are explicitly or implicitly influenced by Christian themes and/or mythology, just like there are for many other religions. But there’s “has religious themes/storylines” (Xenogears, for a sadly console-centric example), and then there’s “Christian Game”. One thinks religion makes an interesting story element. The other is presenting The Truth. With caps. I don’t see the latter kind ever succeeding as a game, because the game bit is inevitably a far second or third place to The Truth-pushing. And I don’t see them having much success convincing people, either, because a) they’re awful, and b) they usually lack any real skill with argumentation.

Same goes for Christian Fiction (as opposed to fiction written by Christians).

Weirdly enough there’s some okay Christian Music out there. Very little of any genuine -excellence-, but a far cry better than things like Zoo Race or Left Behind. I wonder what the difference is.

By: Funky Badger

Funky Badger — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:11:55 +0000

It’s well weapon.

By: mrrobsa

mrrobsa — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:04:23 +0000

John Walker:

Surely the phone thing was more of an attack on those who would see their phones as a status symbol, and upgrade them every 6 months to stay fashionable. And using the scratch decks and jabbering away in public just shows these people’s disregard for civility and others.
Plus I think ‘having a massive ’5′ button ‘cos it’s the most commonly used number’ is genuinely funny.