Venetica (2011) (XBOX360)

Produced by the German company DECK13 Interactive in 2009, Venetica was ported from the PC to the PS3 and XBOX360 early 2011, and for the most part, the game wasn't greeted with the most favourable reviews on the planet. Nevertheless, I was quite excited to see a preowned copy sitting on the shelf in a Glasgow GameStation for £12.99. £12.99 won't break the bank so I thought I might as well take a chance on it. The blurb on the back of the Venetica box makes the game sound not only exciting, but quite unique. The player controls Scarlett who is the daughter of Death, a necromancer, and rather attractive to boot. It's all very pop Gothic, and all very exciting.

Even though it was raining, I ventured home in the with a smile on my face, and my prize clutched close to my chest. I got home, and popped the disc in my console, but my smile quickly faded. After the initial company logos popped up, I was greeted with a close-up of Scarlett's in-game model standing against a sunset sea background with some non-descript music playing. This certainly didn't give me a good first impression of the game. Normally I'm not too fussed when it comes to graphics, but this one snippet of Scarlett not only reveals that they won't be of a particularly high standard, but they are somewhat rudimentary in terms of what is expected from the XBOX360.

Once the game is started, the player is then welcomed to the world of Venetica with a cringeworthy opening scene: assassins have set fire to the mountain village Scarlett calls home, and they are looking for someone. Whilst trying to fight off the attacks, Scarlett's lover Benedict is caught in the fray and slain (rather easily) by an enemy. Not only are the character models poor, but the lips are terribly out of sync with the voice, or barely move at times. I would be willing to give this some leeway if it had risen out of the transition of the original German to English, but it isn't; it's simply horrible or lazy animation. This leads me to my next point: the voice acting. The voice acting in this game is absolutely horrendous, but it's not horrendously funny like that in Koei's Kessen II. It's either very hammy, or sounds like they grabbed random people off the street to do it. Death and Scarlett are the only characters that are halfway decent, but even our heroine has her moments of vocal mediocrity.

Venetica, as the title suggests, takes place in some sort of medieval fantasy Venice; it's not a "here be dragons" fantasy, but more of an arcane, dark magic fantasy where skeletons can come to life, and little demons live the basement of your house. There is very little lore or established history given about this place called Venetica, and this makes the main story fall flat. The plot itself is fairly simple to understand, but it becomes very complicated very quickly. Like Lost, things that don't make sense aren't explained, or they are explained yet it still doesn't make any sense -- like the position of Death and how he gained it, for example. Perhaps the plot got lost in translation? If you have played the game in German, I'd be interested to know.

The game may only have path to tread, it does offer a little freedom in how the player traverses by allowing for some input into Scarlett's responses and reasons. Don't be fooled, though -- it is nowhere near as complicated as the Dragon Age games, for instance. Although I have only played the game by choosing the "douchy Scarlett" responses, I am pretty sure choosing the "nice Scarlett" options won't change much except alter the ending ever so slightly, so I'm not sure Venetica has much replay value in this sense.

As for the gameplay, Venetica plays like the Fable series; hit the A button, and Scarlett will let loose a chain of attacks. There are four weapons Scarlett can use: the Moonblade (a scythe), a sword, hammer/axe, and spear. There is, however, a problem with this. Abilities are mapped on the D-pad, and block is classed as a separate ability for each weapon, and the D-pad must be used for mapping magic, too. So, if you need to use the Moonblade to fight demons, who can only be defeated with this weapon, you must map the Moonblade abilities. If you then want to use the sword, you then need to map the sword abilities. It's a bit of farce, and very badly thought out. The battles for the most part are very easy, and if you find or buy the top weapon for the area, you can defeat enemies with one chain. The game puts a lot of emphasis on the forbidden art of Necromancy, but the non-story related spells are weak and not useful. Some of them are quite pop Gothic in their use of ravens. Scarlett can call a raven to show her the way, summon a group to attack a foe, or use one to see the world through its eyes. This, however, was just one very small plus to a game full of negatives.

When it comes to reading books or playing games, I go down with the sinking ship. I'll never abandon something unfinished no matter how bad it is, and I stuck with Venetica. The story is a good idea, and it sounds interesting, but it simply wasn't nurtured enough at the elementary stages to blossom into something good. I also think the gameplay is too basic, and the developers could have tried to bring something new to the table instead of mishmashing Fable battling with Dragon Age's levelling up system.

I'm sorry, Venetica, but the Court of Danielle has spoke, and we don't approve.

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (2008) (Nintendo DS)

The Jake Hunter series (Tantei Saburō Jingūji) may have celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007, and it may be the best-selling and longest standing adventure game in Japan, but the Nintendo DS compilation of remade episodes failed to make a splash in North America's already overflowing pond of visual/interactive novels. Jake Hunter's popularity in Japan, however, does leave me a little stumped. Published and released by Aksys, this title is actually a North American exclusive, and after hearing the game play was something along the lines of Cing's Hotel Dusk, I felt I might as well pick it up while I was browsing a Best Buy in Canada.

Unlike other interactive novels on the DS market, this title does not actually offer very much in the way of actual gameplay. After the player works their way through visual screeds of poorly localised and grammatically incorrect text, they are presented with some rather mundane options on an interface that vaguely resembles one from a point 'n' click, but in reality does very little. The top screen will usually show a frozen stock image of an office, or a landscape that has been subjected to a basic Photoshop filter with an equally frozen portrait picture of Jake or a character who is being questioned. By selecting the "Examine" tab with the stylus on the bottom screen, Jake will provide a brief description of certain aspects of the location and its inhabitants, and this is how the crimes are more or less solved: by examining and talking. There are no problems or puzzles in this game aside from using common sense to show someone a business card, or call 911 on Jake's cell phone. It is not possible to go down the wrong path, or miss a clue to get a game over because the game will not let the player leave an area if they haven't examined everything, or exercised all the conversation options, which erases all notion of challenge.

The gameplay, however, was not the only thing I had a severe beef with. The player, of course, controls Jake Hunter -- the owner and sole detective at the imaginatively titled Jake Hunter Detective agency. Sadly, there is actually nothing remotely interesting about this guy -- he's your typical chain-smoking, silent, and pretty handsome J-Hero who is almost completely devoid of a personality, or even a slight hint of a back story. The only character that the player is given a little insight on is his secretary Yulia Marks. Like Jake, Yulia's portrait picture is rather fetching, but she is yet another female character that sets the women's rights movement back at least twenty years. Yulia dotes on Jake, and her office duties mainly consist of making coffee, or cleaning the office, but when she is allowed out on a case, she is put in charge of the feelings department. Our private detective also has yet another cardboard cut-out companion in the form of an aged police chief nicknamed King that will every so often provide Jake with some inside information, or pull a few strings to aid his case. It's all very cliché.

Surprisingly the cases weren't as hackneyed as the characters. The first case is a basic murder mystery called "The Petty Murder of a Fragile Heart"; the second is a missing persons yarn called "Seaside City Conspiracy", and the best of the bunch is "Crash and Burn" -- a tale of corruption, murder, and intrigue in the world of motorcycle racing. The basic plots are decent, but they are let down by the poor localisation, which, at times, convolutes the motives and details behind the crimes. There are some fairly interesting twists and turns here and there in the episodes, but for the most part, are pretty standard examples of storytelling.

Sorry, Aksys, but I wouldn't recommend Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles to anyone. Not only does it have limited gameplay, cliché characters, and average writing, but the music is repetitive to the point of throwing your DS down the stairs in irritation, and this is coming from someone who listens to a lot of metal music. Considering that I play Harvest Moon, I'm not a difficult gamer to please, but this game really has very little going for it. Avoid unless you enjoy playing Bayonetta on the difficulty setting that plays itself.

half a danielle :(

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (2009)

It is probably safe to assume that the vast majority of Audrey Niffenegger's fans picked up 2009's Her Fearful Symmetry due to the roaring success and appreciation of The Time Traveller's Wife (2003), which not only sold 2.5 million copies in both the U.S and the U.K, but its major motion picture counterpart grossed $101,229,792 worldwide. The pressure really was on Niffenegger to produce something phenomenal, but from what I have seen on amazon.com and goodreads.com, Her Fearful Symmetry has been met with much criticism, and poor reviews on both websites.

Having never read The Time Traveller's Wife, I was able to approach the novel without expectations; at the time, all I knew was that it was a ghost story, and I was a little curious at how Niffenegger would engage with it -- would she manage to bring something new to the supernatural table? I have read so much fiction from many periods on ghosts and haunting, so I was rather surprised to find that the author had actually managed to do something a little different with the stalwart spectre. The ghost of this text does not actually haunt physical space; the true haunting exists within the mind of Robert. We only meet the ghost during life through Robert's memories, and of course, these memories are more than likely viewed through rose tinted lenses -- to use a cliche. The most problematic aspect of the ghost is the simple fact that the twins Valentina and Julia, and Robert just instantly accept that they are being haunted; there is very little fear, terror and next to no disbelief exhibited by the characters. The only character that found communicating with the ghost slightly troubling was Julia, yet the others deemed her reaction abnormal. The ghost is almost like a siren that weaves her spell over Robert and Valentina, but this could have been executed much more effectively.

The novel's flaws, however, don't just begin and end with the ghost; the entire thing is peppered with questionable plot holes, and just general moments that are so nonsensical and pointless that leave you wondering who was in charge of the editing. Niffenegger is often praised for her use of prose, but I find her writing dull and uninspiring. Niffenegger's London, which is where the majority of the novel is set, could be any city set anywhere, but I really don't think this was the intention. Twin protagonists Julia and Valentina are American, and their arrival in their inherited home in London is portrayed as the fledgling journey to adulthood -- albeit the twins are doing it at the age of 21. The London of this text is little more than a flimsy shell of the metropolis, and does not conjure up feelings of claustrophobia and a hectic lifestyle. The twins' apartment is beside Highgate Cemetery, and while Niffenegger does provide a colossal amount of detail of the famous graveyard, it left me feeling like I wanted to skim read, or just skip those pages.

None of the characters in this story are remotely likable with the exception of the estranged married couple Martin and Marijke; as a chronic OCD sufferer, Martin's mental illness drives his Dutch wife back to her homeland. Watching his struggles unfold is quite possibly the most poignant and beautiful aspect of the text; the end result is satisfying and very touching, but sadly, this can't be said for anything of the relationships. Admittedly, Niffenegger initially does do quite a good job in her depiction of life as a twin, but as the novel goes, it feels rushed and borderline ridiculous. Secondly, Valentina's relationship with Robert could have been brilliant if tackled correctly, but again, it falls flat before it even manages to take off.

After I went on a mini-rant to my supervisor, she thought 'chick lit Gothic' would a good category for Her Fearful Symmetry, and I certainly think that would be a good place to hide it. All in all, I just wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It's a skipper, but if you are a fan of Niffenegger's work, I would wait until her next title is released. Considering how badly it has done in terms of reviews and the bestsellers list, I have a feeling that her publishers will force her to up her game.

Pokémon Black/White (2011) (Nintendo DS)

Seeing as I haven't played a Pokémon game since Gold and Silver some time back in the early noughties, I really don't know what possessed me to buy both Pokémon Black and White this year. Now in its fifth showcasing of a new generation of creatures that walk the PokéWorld, the overall Pokémon package remains more or less the same: catch Pokémon, battle Pokémon, get gym badges, beat the Elite Four, save the day from the evil organisation, and become the Champion -- but let's not forget that you would be a fool for thinking otherwise. In saying that, White/Black does treat the player to a few exciting -- albeit small -- surprises.

First of all, this isn't the typical PokéTale of player vs. rival, but a tale of three friends and their journey to fill their Pokédexes, and challenge the Elite Four. Sadly, the player's best friends Cheren and Bianca are not only annoying, but there is very little chemistry or interaction between them. There is actually a storyline in this game; Team Plasma plans to find the legendary Pokémon to convince people to set their beloved Pokémon free, but as the game progresses, the reasoning behind this becomes convoluted and nonsensical. Considering the Pokémon games have never been about storyline, is this a valid criticism to make? I think the answer is yes. At the end of the day, Pokémon is an RPG, and its plot should be watertight enough to please both the seven year old players and the nostalgic twenty-four year olds alike.

Pokémon is now on its fifth reincarnation, and has added another 156 creatures to its already crammed bestiary. A number of reviewers, both on the web and in magazines, have not hesitated in pointing out that the design of the new additions leaves a lot to be desired. While Pidove may be reminiscent of Pidgey, it sadly just comes across as a lazy reskinning of its predecessor. The inclusion of the odd Trubbish, which is basically just a bag of trash with eyes, is just laughable if not a little sad for the design team. The List of Pokémon that Will Cause the Player to Raise their Eyebrows is a lengthy one that will make you long for the days of Charmander and even Koffing. In saying that, the animation during the battles is quite lovely; your chosen battler will blink, wiggle, and even close its eyes if sleep is inflicted. A nice touch, indeed.

The general graphics will also dazzle and surprise you. The towns change with the seasons, and there is even a lovely 3D moment as you approach the large Castelia City, which is a metropolis occupied by towering skyscrapers. While the villages are often the sleepy affairs we are so accustomed to from the previous instalments, this particular locale is constantly bustling with NCPs at all times of the day. There is also some wonderful music in the game; I had a penchant for Driftveil's theme tune, but there's no need to despair because you will be greeted by the familiar Pokémon Centre sound effects and battle music that we all know and love.

As much as I love all the sub-genres over RPGs, there's nothing like a good turn-based, and the ante has really been upped with this one. Pokémon tend to have a mix of attributes, such as the dark and fire Litwick, or the flying and water Pokémon Swanna, and this encourages the player to think extra carefully about the team's strengths and weaknesses when faced with a gym battle. Perhaps it's because I'm a seasoned RPGer, but I really didn't find the game challenging in the slightest. As always, if you are considering delving into the Japanese RPG genre, the Pokémon games are great starting point on your handheld.

All in all, I spent just over a hundred hours on Pokémon White, and in this time, I managed to level up a fair few of my catches, complete the game, and also the post-game mode, so you are guaranteed a lot of bang for your buck. Sadly, the completion of a Pokémon game never leaves me satisfied, but empty and a little sad that I wasted so much time playing it for little to no reward or closure. These games have zero re-playability value for me, and have therefore been traded in. I will probably play another Pokémon game, but you're going have to wait another ten years before you see another review on this blog, I'm afraid.

Final Fantasy XIII (2010) (XBOX360)

Had I not brought my brother back a bottle of whisky from the Canadian duty-free, I probably wouldn't be writing this review. Even though my teenage years consisted of equal parts skateboarding and playing the Final Fantasy series, I just wasn't fussed about buying the latest addition Final Fantasy XIII. Not only did I not even bother to complete Final Fantasy XII, the final offering on the PlayStation 2, but my attitude towards the franchise began to sour after numerous sub-par Final Fantasy VII spin-offs. After becoming deeply enthralled with RPG titles such as Fallout, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, the personal impact of the numerous delays surrounding the ever-impending release of the thirteenth Final Fantasy instalment lessened and lessened until one day I saw it for £7.99 on the used shelves in most gaming shops. I still didn't pick it up. Why? Well, I have skirted around the real reason: I heard it really, really sucked. I heard this not just from trusted friends, but also from trusted gaming sites.

Considering I have portrayed this game as being shrouded in preconceived notions of negativity, how did the first of the three discs actually end up in my console? Maybe I was delirious from having little sleep and travelling halfway across the world, but I decided to give it a whirl, and I, readers, am so glad I did.

For many gamers, the opening of Final Fantasy VII is iconic; you play as Cloud Strife, and are immediately thrust into the action by planting a bomb for terrorist group AVALANCHE. In my opinion Square(-Enix) have never managed to surpass or produce something tantamount to this epic beginning, and they really did try with XIII. After some stunning FMVs, you gain control of the (extremely attractive) protagonist Lightning who is being followed by some guy called Sazh that looks like Lando Calrissian from Star Wars. For the first couple of hours in-game terminology is haphazardly thrown around: Cocoon, Pulse, Purge, L'Cie, Fal'Cie, Focus, Cie'th. It's like you are crouched in a dark, mechanical place while an unknown enemy is assailing you from all directions with lexiconical and narrative grenades. This, dear readers, is simply terrible storytelling. If Peter Jackson could sum the basic context of the first Lord of the Rings book into a neat little five minute package, then surely Square-Enix could incorporate some lucid definitions into the storyline. Instead, there is a Datalog in which you can access, amongst many things, a bestiary, tutorials, lore... and a summary of the story! Fantastic. Thanks to this feature, I had a minimal to moderate understanding of Square-Enix's latest world.

Thankfully, I have extrapolated to the full my main criticism of Final Fantasy XIII, and I promise that things definitely get better after the first ten hours or so of the game. This is a point that a lot of reviewers seemed to agree on. Even though the main story (or lack of) meanders along to the tune of "pretty pointless", there is some beautiful, touching, and endearing character interaction that makes the game sort of worthwhile. It's probably ridiculous that this game sold itself to me on the basis I found the gorgeous Lightning "personality of a toilet seat" Farron's stupidity charming, and was immersed in Fang's kavorka.

As I have said earlier, this game is visually stunning, but just because it's pretty, I'm not going ignore the strange design choices that often left me confused. Lightning, Fang, and Sazh were the only characters that looked great. Physically, everything about Snow was just unappealing to me; from his consuming bandanna to his blonde stubble to his gloves to his baggy sweatpants, it really did nothing for me. Hope also irked me; I wouldn't be surprised if I went into the Kingdom Hearts design team office, and found his design crumpled up in the waste basket. He screamed Kingdom Hearts reject to me. I did really like the strange mechanical nature of the fal'cie, but the fact that eidolons turned into modes of transport was just too far into the realm of nonsense for me to take them seriously (or use them in battle).

Speaking of battle, I absolutely adored the battle system in this game. It's fast-paced, it's fun, and it can be quite challenging at times. Contrary to other reviews, I didn't find this Final Fantasy difficult in the slightest; I would say this one is the easiest I've played -- with XII being the most difficult. Seeing that XIII has something resembling X's sphere grid levelling up system, I was kind of hoping that Square-Enix would give me a little bit more freedom to customise my characters, but alas, that wasn't to be, either. Square-Enix has claimed that Final Fantasy XIII-2 will exceed its predecessor in all forms. I'm looking forward to seeing that battle system.

The soundtrack for this game is nothing to write home about; I own many Final Fantasy soundtracks because many of the themes work well intrinsically. Sadly, this is not the case for this game; not only were the renditions of the main theme were just irritating and downright corny, but nothing else is particularly memorable. I'm not even going to get into how Leona Lewis' song Hands or whatever spoiled an otherwise acceptable ending that did, admittedly, make me cry.

This post may seem like an unrelenting fist of criticism, but I genuinely love this game. I can't put my finger on why. I'm going to go with: it's so bad that it's good. I use the same reasoning for my disturbing love for Konami's Suikoden IV. Final Fantasy XIII is a game that must be experienced to be believed. Am I going to be waiting for the midnight launch of XIII-2 outside a Scottish GameStation or Canadian GameShack posing next to a cardboard cut out of Lightning? Probably.

4 Danielles out of 5. You'd better believe it.

Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (2007) (Nintendo DS)

Unless I'm talking to someone who is very cool, charming, or attractive, I will openly admit that I love playing Natsume's Harvest Moon series. There is just something very enjoyable about ploughing fields, watching those little seedlings grow into plump juicy tomatoes, and following the path of chivalry when it comes to wooing women. In fact, I love Harvest Moon so much that I'm actually a special guest on RPGamer.com's Harvest Moon backtrack episode 33. It's true; I love farming simulators, I love RPGs, and I also love fantasy. The thing is: I'm not the only one that loves these three things. Yoshifumi Hashimoto of Natsume does too, and this is why he decided to go ahead and produce Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon.

The first Rune Factory was actually released in Japan back in 2006, and Europe didn't actually get the game until 2009, which I find pretty astounding. I was actually playing a Canadian copy, which hit the stores over there back in 2007. Why the three year gap in the release in Japan to Europe? I think it's something to do with the fact that Europeans tend to enjoy playing those Brain Training games that supposedly ward off the effects of dementia, which is actually impossible according to a psychologist-in-training friend of mine. You heard it here first on frolickingwithdaniellerousseau, folks, Brain Training is a crock.

Anyhow, since its release on the SNES back in 1996, Harvest Moon has manifested in many different guises with many different gimmicks over the years -- from collecting Sun Stones in Sunshine Islands to Harvest Moon DS Cute, which involved having a female farmer. Rune Factory, however, is a spin-off series set in its own world where there be monsters. You play as a young chap called Raguna who has amnesia; after randomly wandering into the village of Kardia, collapsing, and being cared for by (the) local (nutjob) Mist, Raguna decides to settle down to farm life for the time being.

Just like in Harvest Moon, you are armed with some tools and a plot of overgrown farmland, and it's your job to make you and the farm prosperous. Instead of having a stamina bar, there is an HP bar, and a Rune Points bar, which is essentially the stamina. Rune points are replenished either by sleeping, or by growing crops. Once the goods are ready to be harvested, little blue orbs appear to be collected by the player. To my surprise, Rune Factory actually has stats: vitality, strength, defence, speed, and more, which undoubtedly pushes this game even further into the realm of the RPG. The main story of the game is furthered by defeating the boss in each cave.

The combat in this game is pretty basic. Press B to attack, press X to defend, and most monsters are usually felled in a few hits. Run away from the monster, and it will shortly give up to return to its position. There are even magic spells available in the game, such as fire, poison, and cure. I completed the game without using any magic except escape and heal. Considering the simplicity of the combat, I found offensive spells pretty redundant -- even during boss battles. Despite the simplicity of the battles, there is actually a tactic required in this game. Rune points, and then health, deplete with each swing of the weapon. By leaving the dungeon to replenish Raguna, all defeated monsters regenerate, so the strategy is to plant crops in designated areas of the cave. Watering the crops and waiting for them to grow before progressing can begin to get rather tedious as the game goes on; dungeons soon become a rather time-consuming endeavour.

My biggest problem with this game is that it is so time consuming, and there is so much to do in order to feel like it has been satisfactorily completed. Akin to Harvest Moon, Rune Factory has the farming, the marriage option, befriending the locals, fishing, mining and cooking, but it also has the combat, levelling up, accessory making, weapon/tool making, and pharmacy. There is certainly a lot for the completionist player to achieve here in this game, but even for the average gamer, this can be provide quite a long stint on the DS, but as more and more dungeons are conquered Rune Factory begins to feel a little repetitive.

To be honest, there is very little to say about the story aspect: it's short, sweet, and simple. Although, I was initially mystified as to why the other villagers thought Mist was creepy and weird, but that was until I found her inside my house after I had spent the entire day out in the caves. Apart from this observation on Mist, there is very little to say about the other characters in the game because they are cut from the same sugary sweet cloth as the many Harvest Moon casts. When it comes to picking a bride, going for the cutest or the easiest to please is the only way to do it, really because none of the girls will otherwise stand out in terms of characterisation or personality.

In terms of graphics, Rune Factory is pretty and vibrant during all four seasons, but the less said about the sound the better. This game has some really sinister and creepy dialogue-based sound bites, but in particular, the shopkeepers. Seeing as I had to frequent those, I chose to mute my DS for the majority of the game. I would advise you follow my example.

All in all, I quite enjoyed Rune Factory; it may have some timing issues and some dodgy voice acting, but it's definitely worth picking up for all fans of the farming simulator, or even an RPG fan that fancies delving into something that little bit different. Forging weapons and tools was definitely a highlight for me, and became a bit of an obsession after a while. It was quite fun to return to the conquered dungeons to look for components to upgrade or create that super cool looking weapon. Mist also became the butt of many jokes between my other nerdy farming sim friends, but that's a story for another day. Quite possible a podcast, so watch this space.

3.5 Danielles out of 5

Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen (1966)

In 1890, Britain and Europe planted the seeds and bore the primitive fruits of modernism; as the years went past, the produce from the socially elitist modernists became odder, wackier, and more diverse. Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and the rest of that crowd toyed with almost every aspect of poetry and literature, but this innovative beast didn't make it across the northern most part of the pond until almost 70 years later.

Sometime during the 1960's, Leonard Cohen was probably tripping on some acid; he walked past a junk yard, saw the beat-up shell of Brit-Euro modernism, and thought, 'hey, I haven't seen something like this before! I'm going to do some more acid and fix this baby up!" And Canadian modernism was born.

Seriously though? I love Canada, and I am currently in the process in planning to immigrate there, but for me, in order to truly understand a country and its culture, I have to read its literature. Despite having incomprehensible chapters written with the first letter of every word capitalised, a finale defined by a sentient dildo, a section dedicated to querying the best way to get rid of warts, there is a lot to be learned about the relations between French Canada and English Canada, and also how these paradoxically divergent and similar parts of Canada define and treat Canada's Native population and their ancestors.

As someone who hasn't been formally educated in Canadian affairs, and hasn't spend enough time in this great country, I'm not going to pass any opinions or thoughts on how Cohen deals with these uniquely Canadian issues until I feel qualified to do so. I will then reread this text, and will probably understand it a lot better.

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King (1992)

First published in 1992, Dolores Claiborne is well-known in both academic circles and the Stephen King fandom as being one of his more experimental works. When I wrote a presentation on Lisey's Story a few years back, I remember reading a paper on how Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game, which were both written in 1992, were dubbed as King's attempt to write "authentic" women. Writing women in a way that doesn't set the women's rights movement back ten years apiece has proven a major challenge for King over the years -- or so I've read and heard. The bullied and abused teen girl of the eponymous Carrie (1976), the obsessive and unstable Annie Wilkes of Misery (1987), and the silenced DOA Jo Noonan from Bag of Bones (1998) are just three varied examples of the feminine in King's work spanning over two decades, which leads us to question how Dolores Claiborne fits into the mix.

Dolores Claiborne is actually Dolores St. George. St. George is her married name, but strangely, very few people actually refer to her in this manner. Dolores also views herself as Dolores Claiborne. I suppose this is King's most obvious foray into "correcting" his depiction of women. Is the more to Dolores keeping her own identity than meets the eye? The fact that her husband Joe St. George is a scumbag and absolutely everyone knows it seems that imply that their marriage has been nullified in the eyes of many from the get go. The evil, cheating woman trope has been reversed, and instead, we have the abusive father and husband. Nothing new under the sun here in terms of constructing a woman. She's strong, she's independent, she's a good mother, but flawed doesn't really do much for me in terms of "correcting" the feminine. Dolores Claiborne is, however, an innovative and intriguing text for its time, but not because of its protagonist.

First of all, from what I can tell from Goodreads, many people rated Dolores Claiborne rather lowly because of its format, which reads like a spoken monologue; mimicking a recorded police statement, there are no chapters, or breaks between sections. I admit that this was difficult to adapt to at the beginning, but it works. First of all, when Dolores finishes telling her story about the death of her elderly employer Vera Donovan and the death of husband, you feel like you were sitting in the smoky interrogation room with her, the stenographer, and the police chief for the entire duration. I've heard that the audio book replicates this feeling better, but I feel like the power of the imagination can't be bested when it comes to things like that.

Secondly, this is a thoroughly Gothic text. No, there are no real ghosties or spooks in it, but the narrative itself is more than enough to grant it Gothic status, I think. If you read Jerrold E. Hogle's 'The Ghost of the Counterfeit in the Genesis of the Gothic', it's possible to argue that not only is the counterfeit format treading on Gothic territory, but also Dolores' recreation of mental spooks for both herself and Vera -- the inner eye, the wires, and the dust bunnies to name a few. A lot could be said about how these things transcend the mind and manifest in Dolores' lived reality. Remember, we only get one perception of how all things occurred.

Technical aspects aside, I think Dolores Claiborne is a stunning piece of fiction. From my limited experience with Stephen King (which is growing as the days pass), I would say his late 80's to early 90's fiction is generally pretty good stuff. This story is definitely a stand out winner in this epoch of his writing. Once you get past the stylistic elements, this is a wonderful, engrossing, and heartbreaking story, which comes highly recommended from your local bloggogoth!

5 Danielles out of 5!

Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (Nintendo DS) (2010)

Sadly for you North Americans, the indirect sequel to Cing's Hotel Dusk: Room 215 will not be crossing pond -- mostly because Cing is now defunct, which also means that there will be no more adventures with Kyle Hyde. Last Window: The Secret of Cape West was released in Europe on September 17th 2010, so it's a fairly new release, and for the first time ever, I'm not the last one to catch the boat. I absolutely adored Hotel Dusk, which is slightly problematic -- simply because I switched on Last Window with very high expectations.

As I mentioned earlier, Last Window is not a direct sequel to Hotel Dusk. There are a few references here and there to the previous game, but this is a separate adventure for our detective protagonist Kyle Hyde. Aside from being set over the course of a week as opposed to Hotel Dusk's 24hr period, Last Window follows more or less the same format as its predecessor: interviewing tenants, picking up random items, and "putting the heat" on suspicious characters. Cing, however, have included a new feature to add to Kyle's repertoire. Very occasionally, an option to ignore or pursue very probing questions appears, and the player has to judge whether this will cause the resident to clam up or reveal more. This option actually appears within the first ten minutes or so of the game, but sadly it doesn't appear too often. The "interrupt or not to interrupt" with a question appears very frequently -- often with the consequence of a game over if the correct choice is not made.

The animation sequences when talking to the tenants has improved, but the new cast of characters didn't particularly excite me. A character similar to Hotel Dusk's Louie manifested as a down on his luck musician called Tony Wolf. His chemistry with Kyle would often cause a smile to cross my face -- mostly because standoffish Kyle would often reject the hand of friendship, which resulted in a melodramatic response from Tony. While the widowed Marie, the upbeat Betty, the odd Will White and the cranky elderly gent Frank were devoid of sparkle, Dylan and Mrs. Margaret "Mags" Patrice more than made up for their lack of presence. I was mostly in awe of Mags because she is a blonde and sophisticated MILF. Oh, yes.

The biggest problem with Last Window is that the story is very convoluted at times, and one of the main mysteries actually feels very obvious. The charm of Hotel Dusk was the simple fact that although I didn't expect the twists and turns, and the thicker the plot became, I wasn't confused by what was going on. Last Window's reveals and clues are not executed in an easily digestible manner, so the story becomes a bit of a tangled mess. I don't want to spoil the game for anyone, so I won't go into any specific issues with the pacing, or anything.

My other issue with this game was the development of Kyle Hyde because, at times, he seemed like a completely different character from the first game. Last Window's Kyle is quite emotional and is not afraid to voice his feelings. I liked my Kyle as the strong, arrogant, silent type that wasn't afraid to rub people up the wrong way. This Kyle also seems preoccupied with aiding damsels in distress. You could argue that the mystery surrounding his father's death made him soft. Discovering what happened to Bradley in the previous game was probably equally harrowing for him yet he dealt with it differently.

I actually found the puzzles in Last Window to be far more challenging than the ones in Hotel Dusk; there is mini-game that involves releasing a key from a music box, and this made me want to throw my DS out the window. If I hadn't been in a basement, this probably would have been done.

Despite its flaws, Last Window is a fairly decent game, but it just isn't of the same caliber as Hotel Dusk. It's undoubtedly a weak addition to a series of games that could have been fantastic. The failure of this game is that the scope was too large: an apartment building, set over a week with a fairly long plot. Last Window strays away from what made the Hotel Dusk experience so fascinating and exhilarating.



3 danielles out of 5.