Shaun!

Funny, then stupid, then funny again. I don’t know why.

Cracked says …

Heavy Rain is an ambitious, complicated and tense murder mystery, which is exactly the sort of game that’s begging for glitches to interrupt the drama like a drunken clown stumbling into a funeral. In the heady emotional climax, protagonist Ethan has found his missing son, Shaun, just in time to stop a serial killer from serial killing him. You’re prompted to hit a button to howl Shaun’s name to the heavens in sheer joy, but what’s supposed to be a touching moment of fatherly love instead turns into a bizarre fit of familial Tourette’s.

Sometimes the prompt to shout “Shaun” shows up and refuses to leave. You can scream it anytime: Ethan yells it at his girlfriend for no reason; he interrupts the villain’s evil monologue with “SHAUN”; he hollers his son’s name in response to getting shot. Later, as Ethan’s lady friend is running from the killer, he keeps screaming “Shaun!” with the voice of a demigod that carries for miles. Eventually, Ethan recovers from his wound, confronts the killer, and blows him away on top of a construction crane. In the pouring rain, he delivers his badass one-liner. It is, of course, “SHAUN!!!”

How Bruce Thomas Came Up With That Glorious Bass Riff

As Thomas tells The Peverett Phile blargh …

The riff wasn’t totally spontaneous, it was sort of contrived [from riffs] I’d been listening to at the time. It’s kind of weird. If you listen to “The Price of Love” by the Everly Brothers, you’ll get the rhythmic pattern.

And if you listen to “You Gotta Lose” by Richard Hell & The Voidoids, you put those notes to the riff you get “Pump It Up.” It’s a hybrid riff.

Then I was left with a half a bar so I added “You Really Got Me,” which was one of the best songs ever written. So, that was it.

I love this shit. Everybody rips off somebody – some are just more creative about it than others.

Holy Shit, This Game Looks Good

I returned to console gaming last year after acquiring my son’s never-used PS4. I’m pretty picky about what I play, but I quickly realized that anything Naughty Dog releases will be top notch. I bought The Last of Us Remastered at Target on a whim and I couldn’t put it down. After that, it was The Last of Us: Left Behind, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and then Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

Rumor has is that The Last of Us Part II is coming sometime next year.

Can’t. Wait.