Journey

CHICAGO – “Journey” is a gentle breeze. It approaches gradually – alighting your skin and igniting your thoughts with its poetic brilliance. It’s as much a game as it is an exercise in interpretive storytelling and emotional art design, and everybody – gamer and non-gamer alike – should play it.

CHICAGO – At their very foundation, all games are journeys. Whether it’s a massive one like the “Mass Effect” trilogy or as simple as Mario climbing to save a girl in “Donkey Kong,” games are built on getting from point A to point B. What is commonly placed on that foundation is action-based but ThatGameCompany has dared to suggest that our expectations of what we get when we press Start are limiting.

CHICAGO – Last week, we gave you a list of the top ten video games of 2011. With a list that included “Arkham City,” “Dead Space 2,” “Portal 2,” “Skyrim,” and “Uncarted 3” 2011 definitely had some highlights, but, as mentioned in the previous article, 2011 will not go down as one of the greatest years in game history. There were some very fine games, but overall, games seemed to be lacking a bit…at least compared to 2010.

CHICAGO – “I wanted to explore deep, thoughtful theatre,” deadpans a giddily vitriolic narrator, played here in a last minute swap-out by Mitchell Jarvis, during the eleventh hour of “Rock of Ages”. Although referring to any aspect of this rollicking, trenchantly self-aware jukebox ride in classical terms may either be mawkishly generous or downright offensive to its recalcitrant intent.