I would like to honestly state that when I first read Neuromancer, I didn’t fully know what to expect. However from the vivid descriptions in the first chapter or so, the word came to me; Cityscape.
It is a term that is not often used, but is well received (well I believe it is). Within the earlier pages using descriptions such as “The rain kept up… falling on her pleaded jacket” (Pg.8 ) gave me the visual representation of a city that was dark and foreboding, centered in a the technological future with simmering conflict that was well hidden behind doors and walls of the outer city. The exact definition of Cityscape changes, but the general term would be described as a vision of the inner city from different angle. It’s more of a perceived image and mainly left up to interpretation, but my version is again the dark city lit up by multiple inner lights, but still keeps the depressing contrast offered up front. Aside the vivid imagery, there were a few terms that interested me. Such as “Yakitori” “Gaijin” and a few other terms that aren’t commonly known unless people are involved/study Asian culture. Even if they do, these are slang terms that may seem a bit brash for a majority of people. My question pertains to these two points relating upon, did the author choose to purposely leave these slang terms without much explanation? And did the author also do a good job on invoking your imagination of a cityscape?
Moving on to one more topics would be my thoughts on Valve’s game Portal. I have not played the game until recently, but have heard many things regarding it and from my perspective it was an interesting game due to the fact that there is a whole different concept compared to all the excessive first person shooter games. This game was considered more a universal likeable game that explored into the world of solving puzzles rather than blowing off limbs from enemies. As I was playing through a couple levels, this game reminded me of a game with similar aspects; although very different there were similarities. You might have heard of the game Catherine; a visually suspenseful game modeled by Atlus, where a young man named Vincent goes through relationship troubles and thus plagued by the “Women’s Wrath” nightmares that slowly attempt to claim his life. The Portal puzzles come to similarity with the nightmares from Catherine as each represents a puzzle. In Portal, opening and clearing obstacles with your portal gun, while climbing past obstacles in Catherine. Since not everyone is familiar with both games, I’ll keep this second question shallow. Why do you think that games like Portal and Catherine whilst having puzzles make it so that it keeps you much more engaged than a regular puzzle game?
(Note: On another minor comparison is that Valve never expected Portal to do well, and Atlus never intended to release Catherine to the U.S.)
