Sunday, March 26, 2017

A painful memento

Welcome, welcome!:)

At the beginning I would like to apologize that it was no post last sunday. It is not that I simply brushed it off, absolutely not, I was pretty busy with my personal duties and I didn't have much time to collect my thoughts concerning an idea, which had appeared in my mind, and share them with you. I promise I will compensate you, my readers, for my negligence and I will make one extra post in the near future, to repair the messed up schedule.

So today I want to pay your attention to another, beautifully created, heartbreaking game which undoubtedly constitues a pearl among the others. It breaks all those outdated stereotypes spreaded by people who are convinced that this particular category of entertainment cannot be used to lofty aims, that it does not represent any value as its functionning is reduced to some thoughtless clicking. That dragon, cancer denies, with such ease, this awful theory. Why? The game is a collection of memories of Ryan and Amy Green, the parents whose 5-years-old son called Joel died due to cancer, who was diagnosed scarcely 12 months after his birth. It is a personal diary which lets you immerse into a heartaching struggle of two people who tried their best to, at least a little bit, sweeten the short, marked by pain, life of their lovely child. In the game you are put into different places where you interact with objects and Joel to reconstruct the memory while you are listenning to the parents interiour dilemmas and slowly meeting their personal thoughts, experiencing the emotions and fears they were forced to face, practically everyday. It is a sentimental journey where you can come across lots of touching letters, cards and voicemails dedicated to the Greens in which people, who'd been in the same or similar situation, show their support to the suffering family. The saddest, most overwhelming scenes are the ones where pain, sorrow and helplessness, the loyal companions of the parents, are presented in a pretty metaphorical way. There is a scene in which a doctor informs Ryan and Amy that the medical treatement did not bring the results they hoped for and it is, as they called it, a tragedy. After the horrible announcement, you can see the water slowly pouring through the windows into the room and you can hear the echo of the words which broke the parents hearts into pieces. In one moment, their world crashed, making them drown in their own tears. In the Internet you can easily find interviews where Ryan and Amy explain that the game was a part of long, healing process and that they hope it will help other parents in similiar situations cope with the pain and grief. 

In my opinion it is one of the most beautiful and touching games I have ever seen which does not need any recommondation. If you are interested, please go and check it, it is worth to be seen. That's all for today! Bye!;)

Sunday, March 12, 2017

A train of philosophical thoughts

Hello again guys!:)

Today's post might be a little bit odd to you as it does not resemble the previous ones as much. I hope that it will be as interesting to you as the others (my modesty is showing, isn't it? *shameful sigh*) and it will simply push you to share your own opinions and observations or some personal experience you've collected so far.
This post is going to be a set of interior, philosophical questions, most of which I leave without any answers given as I am looking for them myself. Those personal sentiments, which I would like to share with you, concern love and hatred, undoubtedly ones of the strongest feelings we, human beings, have ever experienced in our lives. The power which is hidden in their names is horrifying. Isn't it scary how many of us have subordinated to it obediently, without uttering a word of protest, carelessly, thoughtlessly? Isn't it scary how many of us have let them, consciously, snuck to our hearts and order us around? At the beginning of my monologue, I would like to pay your attention only to love as it is, unquestionally, a positive sensation lots of people crave for. I believe you all have noticed how quickly it resuscitates a broken heart after a dissapointement, how easily it persuades people to sacrifice, without a single thought, for their loved ones. Maybe you have witnessed how suddenly it made people fearless when the life of a person they loved were put at risk. It does it so naturally and no one can resist it. How is that possible that in one second it can chase away all your hesitations and give you the strength to fight like a lion, against all the odds, just to make that one person safe and sound? Love, the queen among the feelings. Nevertheless, there is something pretty worrying when it comes to love. A line which separates it from hatred, its opposition. 'A thin line' people say but is it really possible that in one minute love can turn into burning hatred? Is it possible to suddenly hate a person you loved with all your heart, just a moment ago? Or maybe it is people who mistake it with anger, which immediately sets everything on fire, erases all the precious memories, silences love and then lets hatred devour the heart. It is scary how it invades our mind, it is scary how quickly it stoles the keys, kept so carefully by love, and opens a cage to free our inner beast which wants nothing but destroy. People believe that only love can pit itself against hatred, only love can defeat it. I believe in that too. I guess only love can truly relieve the pain and heal a wounded heart. The question is how it actually does it? Oh, I guess it will always be a mistery for human beings.
That's all for today, I hope my personal thoughts have awaken your inner sentiments you would like to share with me!;) Bye!;)        

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Husk and its wise message about life

A warm hello to all of my dear, patient readers!;)

Without any unnecessary introductions, I would love to present you a game which in my opinion involves a pretty important issue and breaks an old, prevalent stereotype, made and spread thoughtlessly by our society. Husk is a new creation of a polish studio called UndeadScout, the people who were partially responsable for Kholat (which I highly recommend for those of you who love unconventional horror games with a gripping plot). So let's look attentively at the storyline which is hidden behind the title Husk. It concentrates on the man who sinks into a coma after a horrible rail accident. He is locked in a world crafted by his own mind, in a place which used to be his hometown. It is based on his childhood recollections, accompanied by monsters which symbolise his personal fears. During his journey, the man comes across objects and visits places constituting mementos which awake painful memories slowly revealing his sad past. It turns out that the father of our main character was an alcoholic and he mistreated him and his mother. We, the observers, are given a picture of a man who caused nothing but pain, who abused of his loved ones and, what's worse, he blamed them for his behaviour. Later, the man uncovers his own sins as the ghosts of the past and remorse are getting stronger. We see that even though he deeply hated his father for what he had done to him and his mom, he repeated his mistakes. He was, himself, an alcoholic who hit his wife, the women he loved with all his heart. As the story comes slowly to its end, the man recovers consciousness and finds out that his wife, after months of visiting him, decided to move on and leave him. While being in a coma and wandering around the world from the darkest nightmares he heard a chunks of long monologues his beloved said as she was sitting next to his hospital bed. She claimed that even though he had mistreated her she loved him but she is exhausted of it and wanted to free herself from him. In the last scene, the man admits that he truly deserved it and that it was his own choice to do exactly the same what he father did. 
I believe it is an important lesson. I love that producers show that our past, other people, tragic events influence us but they do not determine us. Against the common belief, it is us who decide to what degree we permit our environement and particular events to modify our true self, to change our personality or attitude towards others. In the end of the day it is our choice which path we will choose to follow and what people we will become. The creators of the storyline should be praised for proving that statements like this one: 'I drink because my father drank' don't make sense because it is you who willingly inherited your parent's bad habit, it is you who willingly repeated your parent's mistakes. It is such a great, wise message about life which we should keep in our minds.

I highly recommend this game for those of you who love this kind of entertainment. The graphic is really pretty, maybe it is not a masterpiece but it truly deserves to be seen at least because of the incredible message it carries. That's all for today, if you have other opinion or want to add something new, please do it!;) Bye!;)