June 2011 – Page 2 – Pages of Fun

Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space on Nintendo Wii (8/10)

Posted on Jun. 3, 2011 - 2:40 pmOct. 13, 2020 - 5:08 pm

Season two is more of the same point-and-click adventuring that was done so well in Season one. The puzzles are definitely a little less straightforward and found myself relying on the built in hinting system more than last time around. The humor and storytelling are still intact though. Most of the characters from season one reappear and are as strange as ever. There are quite a few new faces as well including a foppish German vampire, a gun toting Santa and even the dark lord Satan himself.

The main problem with this game is in its implementation on the Wii platform. The loading times are unbearable and the animation is jerky. I was hoping that these problems would have been addressed in this version but I guess Tell Tale didn’t put any effort into this port. I can live with dumbed down graphics, just get the thing to run smoothly fellas. Next time around I am going to be playing season three on my PC instead.

The Future and its Enemies by Virginia Postrel (8/10)

Posted on Jun. 2, 2011 - 1:36 pmOct. 13, 2020 - 9:57 pm

Postrel makes the case for decentralized, dynamic systems. The obvious application of this is in free-market versus command-style economies, but she goes beyond these standard libertarian talking points to show how dynamic systems can create a better future in everything from urban planning to hair styling. Standing against the dynamists are the enemies of the future, the stasists: change fearing reactionaries and rule obsessed technocrats. These two flavors of stasists are often from opposite sides of the traditional political spectrum, but their shared belief that controlling outcomes only serves to stifle innovation and growth. This book is more than a decade old and yet it seems as fresh and vital as ever. A lot of what is advocated here I think comes from Hayek’s ideas of spontaneous order which I read about in his book The Fatal Conceit. That book was a difficult read for me, The Future and its Enemies was much more user-friendly and understandable. Highly recommended.