picked up this game
bastion off of xbla. as far as non-studio, mostly indie games go, it's pretty good stuff. found it to be the sort of game that i liked a bit more while i was playing it than i did in retrospect, but it did a lot with very little and had some worthwhile moments. can't say i regret dropping $15 on it, really.
i guess the noteworthy thing about the game is the story, really, as it was a pretty major factor of the game and brought everything together pretty well. i wouldn't call it earth-shattering stuff, but it was generally a good way of presenting the story dynamically and was mostly well-written. doesn't get too repetitive, which was a pleasant surprise. kinda over-the-top with some dude doing his best ron perlman WAR NEVER CHANGES, but it's a lot better than it probably should be considering the actor was just some dude they knew apparently. still, i can't get over the feeling that the way this method of storytelling physically works in this game is really a novelty more than anything else. it felt like an overwhelming amount of the dialogue is really purely game-centric stuff, the narrator talking about the stuff the player character is doing rather than making a real shot at storytelling. granted, it legitimizes the game part and makes it part of the story in a way, but i don't think it really adds to the story itself most of the time. MOST OF THE TIME is the key part of that sentence, as there are some very brief moments where it adds considerably to the depth of the experience, giving greater meaning to the otherwise unimportant things you're doing, but i don't think they did enough of that. i guess that's why i'm quick to call it a novelty more than a purely effective method of storytelling. the sheer content is pretty matter-of-fact and doesn't really add in any real way to the drama of what's happening most of the time. talking more about the types of birds you're killing, dropping lines of uninteresting backstory, or making some smug remark when you fall off a ledge rather than trying to further dramatic elements that were present in the story and what the character was doing. disappointing choice, really. while it's a good method of game storytelling, i don't think they've come anywhere close to getting the most out of it.
being a little picky here i guess, but the game is a little pretentious like that. pretty good experience on the whole, though, particularly if you have a tolerance/interest in a gravelly narrator in the ron perlman/tom waits mold, and possess the ability to listen to and enjoy it for south of a dozen hours. the rest of the game is standard fare stuff, more or less. comes together well, but i can't say i was singularly blown away by anything in it. i like seeing games(particularly indie games) with a major story emphasis, and that's really the biggest thing i can say about it.