Review: The Batman

We saw The Batman yesterday, the new Robert Pattinson Batman, and I have to say I really liked it. It's got a bit of the same vibe to me that last year's Suicide Squad did, though, in the sense that this movie very accurately captured the elements of the current Batman comics in a way which will be very exciting for DC/Batman fans, but for which I have no idea if general audiences will care. If your image of Batman is rooted in 1989, this version might or might not work for you. It has some funny moments, a couple anyway, but its really more of  serious crime drama in which one of the detectives dresses up like a bat before kicking the crap out of thugs who, of course, are really asking for it.

Also, the movie was PG-13, mainly for the violence, and as a result there was nothing in this film my kid was going to have to hide his eyes from or result in awkward family conversations. It was nice to see a DC movie that didn't go gratuitously over the top with R rated content.   

If I have to summarize this movie in a nutshell, it boils down to this:

--Pattinson made a great Batman, a young take on the character which draws heavily on the Batman Year Zero and Year One storylines to craft a surprisingly faithful vision of Gotham

--The actor who played the Riddler gave me some initial strong "Batman meets the movie Seven" vibes but by the end of the movie this was very much the modern comic iteration of the Riddler in cinematic form, and in my opinion a much better take on the character than the older campy version from Batman Forever.

--Catwoman was also surprisingly well done though it would have been nice to see her engaging in a heist or two to earn the rep more; as it stands her integration in to the story was intriguing, and without spoiling anything I sincerely hope she makes a return if this movie turns in to a series.

--The Penguin not only more closely resembled the character from the comics (and is almost spot on how the Penguin appears in the comics recently) but the actor (Colin Farrell!) was amazing. 

--Jeffrey Wright as Detective Jim Gordon (remember, this is a Year Zero/Year One timeline in the movie) was spot on, and the fact that the film had no problem leaning in to a close look at how he and Batman work together was nothing short of amazing; he's very much the #2 character in this film, even ahead of Catwoman.

The film is a gritty crime procedural, and it has lots of "slow" spots that a comic book audience won't be used to, but which fans of crime dramas will be quite comfortable with. This film's dedication to reflecting the "Detective" element of Batman as much as his more heroic aspects was laudable and I think they pulled it off. Solid A+ for me, and I plan to see it again. I suspect it will be a bit of a hit and a miss for some film goers who have a reverence for prior versions of the Batman (nostalgia for 1989's "serious but still campy" version of Batman will likely have mixed feelings about this movie) but if you're very much in to Batman both from the comics, graphic novels and films this is a version you will very much likely enjoy.

What the Heck, Comics? Why Dark Nights Metal Was Just Too Much

Warning: I'm about to rant with spoilers and madness about a recent comic tie-in crossover event. If you haven't read it, don't care about it, or DO care about it and have read it and thought it was awesome, you have been warned!

I finally finished DC Comics' insane Metal super crossover event. For readers of most regular comics there were only a handful of mostly ignorable crossovers; most of the series was contained in a 6 issue mini-series and a bunch of special one shots, all priced at $4.99 and attached to metallic covers that were designed to scream "collectible!" as much as possible. And yes, I got all of it.

Here's the best summary I can get for those interested: Batman, in an old story arc from the trippy Grant Morrison days, was apparently killed but really went back in time. A demon bat named Barbatos got sort of obsessed with him and "created" a multi-thousand year long event in which dozens of seemingly unrelated events in history and story are all tied in to this thing by which Batman's nightmares manifest in a very real "dark universe," come to life, are united, and seek to subsume the light universe in to the dark universe using something called the Ninth Metal (that's really the Nth Metal) and a lot of stuff happens in the course of this process. If you thought the comic book physics of the DC Universe was already stretched thin by Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and the Crisis on Infinite Earths then you ain't seen nothing yet.

Preamble: I am a huge DC fan. They rarely ever disappoint, and usually its only on rare occasion I don't immensely enjoy DC comics in general. I regularly pick up a fair number of DC titles every month, and I love what they've been doing for the last few years. I was a New 52 fan and I liked their efforts to make it distinct, although I also feel like the Rebirth era has been even better.

Okay, that's out of the way. Now....for the odd exception.

Issue #6, the grand finale of the mini-series Dark Nights: Metal is out and having finished it I really have to say...I love comics (especially DC comics) for all their comic-ness, all their tropes, and -isms and so forth, but good grief.....this is the first time in a very long time that I felt I'd just read something that no one wrote to even attempt some form of coherent narrative. There is a narrative....sort of.....but exactly what that narrative is, why it should make any sense at all, or even why I should have cared to follow this entire run is, in the end, beyond me. Indeed, the series ends with an ominous warning that in saving the universe our heroes may have changed it, and that in doing so the universe may have been blown wide open....leading to greater, more inconceivable threats to come. Threats, presumably, more monumental than an entire negative-universe comprised of Batman's worst fears about himself come to life, which was the core guiding point of the series at first.

My understanding of this series is that Scott Snyder had been planning it a long time, and it was based on some fairly obscure derivations of old Batman comics  (the bat demon Barbatos, specifically) as well as the trippy and (some might argue) unpleasantly bizarre death of Batman sequence turning in to a trip through time that Grant Morrison wrote years ago. I feel like maybe yes, this is entirely true that Scott was given a blank check to do this......and thanks to DC being pretty lax about direction these days on its narrative arcs to its creators, maybe no one stopped to look too closely at the overall narrative arc on this tale, which at various time managed (in early issues) to serve as a fascinating concept but somehow just got too big, too wildly self-referential, supremely immersed in the sort of Dumb Ass Metaphysics only comics can conceive of, and in so doing added what started to feel like infinite layers of nonsense to the already heavy and weird canon of the DC metaverse, a metaverse that desperately needs someone to step in and tone it down a bit, not do the opposite.

Sometimes, the ideas just seem.....like, WAT

Examples:

Ninth metal is actually Nth metal, which of course is what Hawkman and Hawkwoman have long been associated with, but now plenty of other objects are as well (Wonder Woman's bracelets for example, and Plastic Man who spends most of this series inexplicably in an egg shape). Batman has Ninth Metal in him thanks to his "resurrection" tale some issues back during the whole close of the old New 52 pre-Rebirth reboot. And so does Joker, weee!

The Dark Universe is alternatively a nightmare universe, an anti-matter universe, a universe which can literally "flow up" or "slide down" and subsume the "normal" or "light universe." It is the place where Batman's nightmares specifically formed out of the 52 universes in situations where Batman went Very Very Bad in various ways. And apparently specifically Batman alone more or less thanks to Barbatos's time-long obsession with him. Or something like that. It's really not explained very well at any point in what passes for a narrative arc in this tale.

The House of the Bird and the House of the Bat are in eternal war because Sure Why Not, and maybe I didn't read the right Morrison collections from the past ,and then the entire Court of Owls was just one long part of this because "owlssssss" but isn't that a bird and not a bat??? and Oh My God this is what happens when you try too hard to make Everything Tie In To Everything Else.  Sometimes it is possible to know the esoteric lore and canon of a series too well, and in so doing damage it a bit by trying too hard to make it all tie in together.

I liked the Court of Owls when they were just a secret society of ancient families in Gotham who tried to control the city's direction behind the scenes with semi-immortal assassins.

Tenth Metal. Jesus Effin What the WHY

All those one-shots did set up fascinating "alternate reality" nightmare Batmans. But their end pay-off was obscured by what amounted to a bizarrely incoherent final few issues in which who the hell knows what was going on because it felt like plot twists and deus ex machina moments were being yanked out of the nightmarish corners of the writer's ass. See also: Tenth Metal. Only "Evil Batman-Flash" gets proper closure through a noted death. The rest just sort of.....um....die or go away in the endless panels of random shit that the last few issues throw at the page.

The final "It's super dark here so Tenth Metal doesn't work," metal ex machina moment. Honestly it felt to me like someone forgot to tell the artist for those panels about Shiny Batman Tenth Metal Suit and so the dialogue hamfistedly explained it away like this. Or even worse, they just wanted to make sure Batman didn't look too silly in his silver armor while he and the Joker beat up the Batman who Laughs, and they really, really, really wanted this scene in but couldn't justify it until the Tenth Metal sequence, so.....sigh....fine, whatever....

And the almost insanely nonsensical writing of the last few issues with a prosaic style that felt to me closer to the way Penny Arcade mocks this stuff than some sort of writing which was even attempting to explain an interesting story.

Dragon Joker Thing. Why. Just.....why. It was like there purely to be drawn, commented on, and than Whatever.

Oh and thanks to Reasons the entire Metal Event apparently caused new superhumans to manifest for purposes that felt a lot less like "this was a plot thing we totally conceived of" and a lot more like "and then someone in marketing said we should tie in the eight new titles DC wants to release in 2018 to the end of Metal so like yeah they really want this in here."

Hawkman and literally his entire "journey/arc" in this series. WTF

Did this series sell well?* Someone needs to think harder about this crap, and think about how they could actually have tried to construct a tighter and more focused tale out of this comic-spew-word-garbage insanity.

I love DC comics, but.....please, let's avoid something as awful and nonsensical as this again for a while. Please!!!!! Or....well....maybe try and think about what you're actually writing, and why you're doing it, and how there could be so many better, more interesting ways to actually try and tell a story than this.

*#1 sold like hotcakes.....sigh.....

New Batman V. Superman Trailer

This trailer is much better, and sheds more light on what the film will be about....



So...The Zuckerberg Luthor is okay, I can live with that. Zod as a reanimated Doomsday? Interesting. Wonder Woman's surprise appearance: amazing. Still keen to see what the new Aquaman is going to be like. (Also still wishing they tied all of this to the Flash/Arrow continuity....sigh)

It's starting to look like 2016 really will be a great year for DC fans!

Batman...or Bat God? The Batman as a Mayan Deity Figure

This art project is all about merging the Batman motif with the traditional iconography of Mayan myth, specifically the iconography of Camazotz, the Death Bat of Quiche Mayan folklore (and earlier) and one of the key Xibalban demons of the Popol Vuh.

The Mexican Museum of Design with artist Kimbal is posting amazing pics....I have to say, I definitely approve of this look:

Methinks a carefully crafted Elseworlds tale could spring from this design....

Review - Batman, Inc. Vol. 1

Let me preface this by saying this is a review of the first compilation of the pre-New 52 Batman, Inc. so it is entirely possible that the post New 52 Batman, Inc. plays out differently. With that said...let me discuss for a moment just what a tragic and poorly conceived tale this book wove. I generally regard myself as a Grant Morrison fan, albeit one who remembers him mainly from older works such as the remarkable run he had on Doom Patrol many years back. The idea of Morrison writing Batman intrigued me, and perhaps...in situ....this book might make more sense. Alas, I jumped on the DC bandwagon only recently, post New 52, so whatever the hell was going on in the DC Universe just before New 52 came around? Yeah, if it was anything like Batman, Inc. I can see why they realized they needed a reboot.

The premise of the story is Bruce Wayne, deciding to throw the might of his corporate empire behind financing a global war on crime in the form of a funded vigilante PMC (private military corporation, which is what this works out to be even if the book does a terrible job of realizing it). The tales in this volume weave around several threads, none fully realized or properly focused on, creating a disjointed narrative that suggests one of two things: either Morrison just wanted to write his usual crazy and couldn't figure out how to do it in a Batman venue, or that there are a lot of crossovers and references to other comic titles at the time that are hopelessly impossible to figure out without the proper context.

As an example of how disjointed this story is, let me point out a few of the dozens of oddities that clearly lack proper context without who knows how many other sources from this period:

Who Are These Batmen?: There are multiple Batmen in the book, only one being Bruce Wayne. One might be Dick Grayson during the period he played Batman (which I know from reading the remarkable "The Black Mirror") but it's actually not clear from any context as to which one he is. Part of the problem? None of these Batmen act like Batman. They act like hapless pawns in Morrison's convoluted tale, a common trope in his writing that I felt worked well for a team like Doom Patrol, but works miserably for a book about a control freak who dresses like a Bat and keeps tabs on the entire DC Universe, just in case. This is not that Batman....none of them are.

Spewing Vigilantes: Was there a non Barbara Gordon Batgirl pre New 52? Was there another Batgirl who gets all of two panels midway in the book? Was this Batwoman a lesbian pre New 52? She doesn't act like the Batwoman of other titles....Why does Gaucho betray Batman when he does, even though he was really on his side? How did he thwart the mind control of whatever it was that possessed him in the first place? What the hell is any character in this book doing? They all come off as violent, foolish crazy characters who are easily dispatched, thwarted or otherwise overcome at times by Leviathan, the super-secret Not-Smersh/Not-Hydra organization specifically invented just to serve as a foil to the plot, which is sprinkled with two unmemorable villains that proceed to engage in ridiculous, poorly explained and badly conceived plots. Note that I really felt to a certain extent that Morrison' style was faltering badly here....he was writing a Batman book that ignored Batman, making him a bit character in his own tale, while simultaneously hinting at moments of greatness but not even bothering to slow down and explain it. The book could have used a serious editorial review and rewrite. There were several tales going on here, and none of them got the justice or time they deserved, in the name of confusion, poorly represented versions of the main protagonist, and an array of nonsensical events that--while characteristically Morrison--just didn't seem to work in the context of the Batman's corner of the DC Universe.

I mean...maybe the pre New 52 DC Universe was going completely nuts, but somehow I think, in the end, this is Morrison showing that his range of writing is limited to a certain roaming area, and his inability to incorporate Batman into his style ends up making the entire run feel like he shoehorned the Bat into his own limited mold. A real shame.....but I have the first post New 52 volume in this series, will be curious to see if it manages to get more focused and actually try and tell a story that can be followed without referencing dozens of obscure events and characters of the source material.

D+. I'll give it the + because Batman, Inc. had some great moments (I liked Catwoman's appearance, one of the few coherent moments of storytelling in the book), sadly hidden behind the hip tale that is so laden in self-referential material that making sense of it without countless other now out of print books is all but impossible.

Morrison's version of Batman: stricken of common sense due to some time travel plot, with way too much money and a dearth of the trademark paranoia and detective skills other, better and more timeless Batman tales have exhibited. Also, bat-bots that show up for like two pages and then nada.

Batman: Arkham Origins - A True Bat Fan's Game

It could be just me, but as #3 in a trilogy of titles that do a fantastic job of encapsulating the Batman genre in a sandbox Arkham environment, I really get the sense that Arkham Origins hit it on the nose better than the other two games did. The presentation, the lead-in, the lack of any overly contrived reasons for why criminals roam the streets and make constant mayhem. Sorry, I am still having a hard time buying whatever passed for an explanation on the whole Arkham City detention walls dealie...even in the DC Universe's particularly turgid and wackiest moments the idea of walling off an entire section of a major metropolitan downtown area just seems....crazy extreme, even for a universe where no one can figure out Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Okay, despite all that, I think the plot of Arkham Origins has a strong "classic Batman" vibe going for it. This isn't a review really, since I've only begun playing the game, but more of an assertion that it has the right feel, the right mesh of exotic and previously underplayed villains (Deathstroke, Deadshot, Copperhead and more), and an excellent pacing. The plot is simple: mad crime lord Black Mask has it out for Batman, who is yet new to this city; it's a "Batman Year One" setting and we're only now about to see a Commissioner Gordon get promoted. Black Mask, in the midst of his reign of terror on the city, has hired eight deadly assassins to dispatch the Bat. Naturally somewhere in the midst of all this the Joker shows up, and things really take off then.

Anyway, more discussion soon I am sure as I play more...this game definitely grabbed me in a way Arkham City didn't, probably because everything so far feels like a plot and style ripped from a very well done Batman comic. For now, here's my tentative glowing thumbs up to the PC version of the first few hours of Arkham Origins.

Not sure how much blogging I'll get in this week, what with Xmas and all that.....but we shall see!

Deadshot

Deathstroke

Copperhead - now a lady

Black Mask

Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection

When it comes to the comic reviews (as I get around to them) you may notice a trend: I have a fondness for the old Wildstorm characters, and the broader Batman Mini-Universe that DC likes to keep expanding on. It's getting hefty with costumed vigilantes, from old staples like Batman himself and Nightwing to the new younger Robin, Red Hood, Batwoman and...after roughly 24 years' absence (or presence, as Oracle) the return of Batgirl.

Barbara Gordon's stint as Batgirl ended in 1988 with the landmark The Killing Joke, DC's first effort at wedding the vile Joker seen from the Dark Knight Returns with the then-current era Batman comics, making Joker something more menacing and psychopathic than he had really been portrayed as, previously. Not that Joker wasn't psychotic, evil and demented already, mind you; but The Killing Joke was his first real damaging tale of villainy against the Bat-family, in which Barbara Gordon, alias Batgirl and daughter of Comissioner Jim Gordon, is shot by the Joker in a calculated act of violence. If I recall the Joker did it primarily to get at Gordon and his family, and was unaware of Barbara's role as Batgirl.

Barbara Gordon recovered, but was paralyzed from the waist down for the next twenty four odd years,* taking on the role of the shadowy Oracle, a behind-the-scenes information broker for the vigilantes of Gotham and sometimes beyond. It was a remarkable move on DC's part, because it kept her character interesting without ever retconning or negating The Killing Joke. Until now, that is...

There are two reasons to forgive the DC writers for fixing Barbara Gordon and letting her walk again. First: Barbara was the first but far from the last DC hero to get a broken back, she's just been unforunate enough not to get a lengthy plot arc for redemption and recovery (i.e. Batman). Second, her return in the hands of writer Gail Simone is extremely well done, and worth every moment; it's really nice to see the fragile but determined Batgirl return to action once more.

The Darkest Reflection is Volume I in the collected TPBs of the New 52 series featuring issues 1 to 6 of the new comic. It takes off right from the thick of it, with Batgirl's recovery something that happened previously (it may have been documented in another collection, not really sure). Batgirl starts off dealing with the Mirror, a fellow determined to kill those who have been fortunate enough to survive unpleasant fates under miraculous circumstances....including Barbara Gordon. Following the Mirror we have Gretel, a once good wannabe reporter turned victim, psychotic and psychic mind controller. Amidst this we get to see Batgirl reconnect with Nightwing (hint: it's awkward) and Batman himself (hint: it's rather touching). She deals with a new roommate as she moves out of her father's house (hard to sneak around as Batgirl when you're living with the Police Comissioner) and takes up room and board with a seemingly ordinary anarchist/professional cook, who also is happy to be her confidant...if Barbara wasn't consumed with the heroic secrecy bug, of course!

With great art, excellent writing and Simone's keen sense of meaningful dialogue it's a lot of fun to see Batgirl back in action. If you're addicted to Gotham vigilante stories Batgirl is well worth a look-see.

A+

*Fun fact: the first chapter in TGN establishes that The Killing Joke took place 3 years prior to issue 1 in the new 52 timeline, which means all of Oracle's activities over 24 years (minus retcons and "never happened" plots) were crammed into roughly 36 months....or about 1 year every 1.5 months.

The Many Days of Horror! - Batman: The Black Mirror

I wouldn't ordinarily suggest a costumed vigilante/superhero comic or graphic novel for a horror review, but the truth is that Batman: The Black Mirror is downright disturbing. Honestly, the fact that the protagonist is a capable crime fighter makes some of what goes on in the book even more horrific. Sometimes, the worst sort of evil hides way below the radar of costumed justice.

Batman, albeit apparently one Dick Grayson (former Robin turned Nightwing) filling in for a year while Bruce Wayne is off....doing....something? --it's not really explained in this GN-- is the lead for this adventure, a lengthy tale which spanned at least a dozen issues of the old Batman comic (pre New 52, I think). Written by Scott Snyder, this book apparently got accolades for his storyline, and it shows. The art style is distinct as well and fairly consistent, between "Jock" and Francesco Francavilla. I only read comics these days, I don't usually follow the personalities behind them anymore unless someone's work really stands out. Well guess what! Scott Snyder & co., their work stands out, and I will be looking for more of his writing in the future.

The plot in a nutshell: Bruce Wayne has taken off due to odd plot reasons typical of comic book continuity, and Dick Grayson has hung up his Nightwing garb to play Batman for a while. Meanwhile, a menagerie of more disturbing psychopaths and monstrosities have come to town to plague Gotham City, including The Dealer, who specializes in procuring the odd weaponized artifacts of other criminals for the black market. The worst of the lot by far is no less than Comissioner Jim Gordon's young son from his first marriage, James, who is a diagosed psychopath, and over whom lingers a disturbing reality: the criminals who don't get dressed up in costumes? They're the ones that most easily fly under the sonar of The Bat.

If you want a good read with excellent visuals, pick up The Black Mirror. It's one of the better Batman tales I've seen in a long while, and almost disappointing that Dick Grayson apparently didn't get to continue being Batman after Snyder's run as writer.

A+++

Yet Another Summer of Steam Sale Sickness

I like to think of it as "stocking up on entertainment" in case I get laid off, I suppose...but sure enough, the Steam Sale is underway this week and I have indulged mightily. I don't really think of it as "buying games I am going to then play" so much as "buying games I will one day think I might get to play." Either way, I own waaaay too many games on Steam thanks to these stupidly fun sales.

Case in point: a Batman package with Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Gotham City Imposters. My first thought was, "I can buy Arkham City at last, and all the DLC." When you total up the sales cost it works out to $21 for the game plus all the DLC. But wait! There's a Batman bundle pack for only $25 available, which for $4 more includes the original Arkham Asylum along with Gotham City Imposters and all of the DLC released to date (and there's a lot of it). Sort of hard to resist...I mean, Gotham City Imposters was one of those "Hmmm, sounds fruity" sort of games, but for $4? Sure!*

And so it goes with Steam. So far I've snagged Max Payne 3, all the above mentioned Batman games, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Star Wars: the Force Unleashed 1 and 2 (I played 1 long ago, but that was before this "Sith Edition" so...yeah), Trine 1 and 2, Bastion, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, some small and poorly received (yet still tempting to me) game called Deep Black: Reloaded, and (last but not least) Ridge Racer: Unbounded, the only Steam sale game I was anticipating, as I love racing games** but hate paying full price for them. So I don't.

I also snagged Spec Ops: The Line at Amazon for $25 so I guess that ought to be included in this list. Oh, and of course Secret World at a discount on Green Man Gaming. Now to find some time play it...

When you count the last two, that totals about $170 in game purchases in the last week. Ugh! I've done worse, though. Remember, I had over 400 games on Steam before this ever started....

When will I find time to play all this stuff? Who knows. I predict the first time many get played will be far in the future, when my son will be playing all these "retro games" on dad's accounts in a decade or so. We shall see...



I grew up with tabletop RPGs side by side with computer gaming. I had an Atari 2600 ordered straight from the Sears catalog. I acquired a TRS 80 (Trash 80) and was programming games in Basic and feed-loading text games from tape casettes. Over the years, tabletop gaming has remained consistent, and while its hard to deny that art and production values have gotten better over time, the overall quality of game system design more or less peaked somewhere in the early 90's and has remained a consistent but subjectively engaging experience....all RPGs are worth playing on their own merits, even if specific tastes may run a certain way. There's really no objectively "better" way to play than another (though one can of course still design a bad RPG).

With computer and console games, the experience is decidedly different. Graphic and interface design is through the roof in terms of performance, value, immersiveness and general satisfaction. The good ol' bad ol' days of PC gaming in the 80's is a thing of the past for all but some GOG releases, and I am happy it remains that way. The industry has created its own problems, of course, with AAA titles costing so much that major studios and publishers can't afford to fail, thus limiting what we see each year in terms of top notch designs, but even so indie and smaller publishers/studios still manage to slide in and fill the void with games that still prove worth playing.

Anyway, I have always found it interesting the extent to which players on both sides of the gaming fence have some crossover (or lack thereof). Likewise, I've also found it interesting just how many people look back on the "good ol' days" of PC gaming or tabletop gaming with a rosy glint in their eye while looking disdainfully upon today's big budget, deluxe graphic-intensive space-marine laden productions. I can say this much: if tabletop gaming had stopped evolving sometime in the mid-80's I do feel I'd likely still be playing those games today (probably still playing Runequest, Dragonquest, DC Heroes and of course AD&D), but if buying old fond-memory games on GOG has taught me one lesson, it is that I can't say the same for PC gaming. If PC games had stagnated in the mid 80's, I'd be done with the medium, completely. On the other hand, that nostalgia vision does seem to be making some much-needed comebacks happen (such as Wasteland II), so I guess some good is coming out of all that "way back when it was better" sense of perspective.




*After first downloading I couldn't figure out how to find any games on Gotham City: Imposters. It seemed to have an active community but there was something wrong with its default pnp protocols, near as I can tell. Very annoying. That said, it finally started working (no idea how or what I did that worked) and this game which was a mere "rider" on another deal turns out to quite possibly be one of my top favorite surprises....seriously fun run'n'gun gameplay with a lot of humor and weirdness.

** I found out I was good at racing games two summers back when I was severely sunburned (couldn't even walk!) and was out of commission for two weeks, right during the Summer Steam Sale. I bought the Flatout Series, then quickly added Fuel, Dirt, Grid and others. It has since become a sickness. My personal all-time favorite game that does not involve space marines, zombies or elves is Burnout: Paradise, a game best described as "A tale of a haunted city terrorized by insanely suicidal cars that have no drivers, because they are all driven by crazed phantoms desperate to crash into just about anything and everything. So hide the children and lock up the cats, Paradise City is on the fast track to hell!"