I don't mind that, because the first chunk of Broken Age is something special. The Kickstarter all but promised an adventure in the tradition of the old LucasArts point-and-click affairs that launched Double Fine founder Tim Schafer's career, yet the game doesn't rely on nostalgia. It follows two characters: Shay's a bored young man on a deep-space liner, and Vella's a wary young woman caught in a ceremony to appease a ravenous and destructive behemoth. Their stories connect eventually, and there's plenty to enjoy along the way. I like the soft colors and slightly bizarre designs. I like the clouded menace of Shay's story and how it contrasts with the preposterous and overt injustices of Vella's side. I like how it's all about privilege and gender roles without hammering that down. I like the family of bird cultists who live in a cloud colony.
The second part of Broken Age is coming in 2015, and I suspect it'll clear up many of the ideas hinted at in the first half. That'll be nice, but I find myself strangely content with that partial game. It says just enough to satisfy, and it makes a surprisingly complete point for such a short experience. Sometimes you need only half to see the whole picture.
This year brought about a lot of bickering over small and strange things. The greatest was Gamergate, a movement seemingly fomented over complaints of “social justice warriors
” controlling game journalism and colluding with developers. Gamergate was absurd and poorly substantiated when broken down to its base elements, but it was also serious: people were harassed, other people lost jobs, and companies pulled ads from websites (and, when it came to Intel, put them back). And it's still going on in some capacity.
I'm gonna be on again in like ten hours or so... So please, anyone... help me? 
! Sorry about that, I guess I was ranting like an idiot wasn't I?
