I’d like to tell you about a book. Wait, don’t leave. Its about a man who wants to be a cyborg. Sounds good, right? It’s the story of a scientist who, after chopping off his own leg in a freak accident involving a huge bit of industrial machinery, decides to build himself a new one. He quickly realises the benefits of technology over biology and delves into a journey of self-discovery, voluntary amputation and a bit of love.
Charlie Neumann is a loner. Like most nerds, his exceptional technical skills come at the cost of being socially awkward, at best. He is a research scientist at a large corporation called Better Future, with access to the most cutting-edge technology in the world. It is in one of his labs carrying out an experiment with an industrial clamp where his initial accident occurs. After meeting an intriguing prosthetist Lola Shanks, and being considerably unimpressed with the prosthetic leg she offers him, he is inspired to use this potentially life-changing setback as an opportunity to quite literally improve himself, taking full advantage of the super-advanced equipment available to him.
It’s written by Max Barry, an Australian author who created the web game Nationstates. Originally written in 2009 as an online ‘serial’, Barry would write a single page a day, and email it out to anyone who had signed up to read it. A bit like a newsletter, except actually interesting. It was only sent on weekdays, and there were often cliffhangers on a Friday, meaning you had to wait the whole weekend to find out what happens next. I looked forward to receiving my page each day, some of which were only a few sentences, but that’s what kept it so engrossing. The story moves along at a lightning pace, and it was fascinating to see it evolve on the fly. Barry was literally writing it as he went along, even implementing ideas from commenters, but it never loses its way – he had a goal in mind, and was bringing us along for the ride.
It’s been 2 years since the live feed ended, but you can still read it online here, which I revisited with Paul recently and enjoyed it just as much the second time. However, Barry has since greatly expanded the story and fleshed everything out, and Machine Man is now available as an actual novel. I’m about halfway through it, and so far its been nothing less than superb. Barry’s writing style is very approachable, and has been in all his previous stories, but deceivingly clever. He’s an expert at marketing, which is a commonly used theme throughout his books, most entertainingly applied to vilify cold-blooded corporate types with self-serving agendas.
Try the serial. It’s free for the first 40 pages so you can see what its like. From this gamer with a fondness for quirky sci-fi, it comes highly recommended.
I recently played through Cult of the Lamb, a satirical take on the concept of running a demonic cult. It turns horrific things like sacrificial rituals, cannibalism and straight up gaslighting abuse into hilarious amusements by filtering everything through its cartoonish lens. You are a sheep, after all, and all your followers are sycophantic anthropomorphic […]
Hello, world! This post marks the moment in time and space when BangClickReload got a little redesign and was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Every post before this point is rather old and might not look right, and unless I decide to go through them all to fix them, they’re going to […]
I’ve been pretty absent from PC gaming for some time, since moving to Canada in early 2017, because I haven’t had a proper computer to play games on. That has recently changed, since I got myself set up with a new gaming rig that can handle pretty much anything that’s out at the moment. I […]
For 6 years, the Californian government has been trying to pass a law which would essentially make it a criminal offense to sell adult games to minors. It would have had far-reaching implications and would have cost the games industry a massive blow to its creativity and way of thinking. Needless to say, its not the idea of keeping kids away from adult games we disagree with, merely the absurd notion that blanket-banning everything is the correct way of dealing with the issue – something most anti-gaming politicians seem to want. Luckily, common sense and justice has prevailed because the Supreme Court overturned the proposed law yesterday and we can carry on shooting zombies in peace.
The next instalment of Alan Wake’s tale is on its way, and there’s a new trailer for it below. After the relatively short (but free for most people who had bought the game) first bit of DLC, The Signal, I’m hoping this new one will be considerably longer and have a bit more to it, especially since it’s gonna cost 560 MS points. It’s out on October 12th, apparantly. Check out our other Alan Wake related ramblings here.
Dead Island is out in the UK tomorrow. It was released in America a few days ago in what can only be described as a major balls-up whereby the developers unfinished test build was released for anyone who ordered it on Steam. Oops. Hopefully, the day one patch which came along shortly after has fixed all of those shenanigans and we’ll be able to play the game the way it was meant to be played. I was mostly curious to find out if it contained even a hint of the emotional heartbreak shown in that infamous trailer, but after the slew of hugely varied reviews, it certainly seems unlikely. The game does allow you to chop off zombie’s individual arms though.
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