A Critical Reading Of “Stay The Night”, by Zedd ft. Hayley Williams

Fear of the unknown has always dogged us as a species, ever since we first crawled out of the primordial soup. It’s this fear that drives us not only to build, to achieve, to mark our territory with our urine, but also to seek comfort in others. In the dark of night, the loneliness of the mind envelops itself, and so naturally it is in these times that we turn to others for reassurance. In asking if we will stay the night, Williams is the one reaching out: to us, to another human, for comfort.

What dark terrors are running through her subconscious? Is her hedonistic life catching up with her? Are her friends whispering behind her back? We may never know. What we can see is a woman in need, crying out for help, reaching out a hand in the hope of finding another human soul in the endless void.

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BioShock Infinite and the Culture of Games Criticism

Spoilers for BioShock Infinite and Mass Effect follow.

BioShock Infinite must be one of the first games in recent memory where its Metacritic user score isn’t a disgusting dark mirror of its critical score. Not only has it bucked the usual trend of being a AAA release with a user rating of 1/10, but gamers are coming out of the woodwork in droves to say positive things, and leave positive comments. Can you imagine that?

Yet I can’t seem to open my Twitter feed or check my RSS without hearing, again, that BioShock Infinite is… well, it’s kinda shit. Apparently. Oh, you know, it does one or two things good, I guess. But man, it’s so over-hyped.

Is it?

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2012: It Certainly Was A Year

For somebody who spends probably over 50 hours a week writing things, you might think that I would shy away from writing outside of work. And you’d be right! And yet here I am, as we crest the hill of the new year, wind whipping our hair back in a most heroic fashion, fingers tapping away at the keyboard in a vague attempt to scribe the year’s main events. Let’s get stuck in, before I change my mind.

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A rant.

Yep, so I’m a bit of a flighty bird. You can tell, ’cause I never finished that last post on our honeymoon. Let this summarise the rest for you: It pretty much ruled.

Well, you know, I’m pretty busy with all the stuff I’ve got on. You know, just, like, such a go-getter. Honestly, between Tiny Tower and Tiny Village and my new Hatchi, I don’t know where I find the time to do anything else!

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