Memorial Day. The official kickoff to summer, right? Today is about the 3-Bs – Barbeques, beaches, and beer! Wait, make that 4-Bs. BIKINIS!! You know, fun in the sun. And the best thing about today? Not having to go to work!

Now, you might be shaking your head. “That’s not right, Lewis. Not right at all.” Maybe not. Maybe today isn’t about all that stuff. But give it a few years, and it will be. I mean, how many of you even know what Memorial Day is all about? If your answer is, “To honor the men and women who serve our country as a member of the Armed Forces.” Well…you’d be wrong. Today is about celebrating the lives of those treasured few who gave their lives in the defense of this nation. It’s about honoring their sacrifice.

It began after the Civil War, in 1868. 215,000 Americans slain. Back then it was called “Decoration Day” and was only something that the military and its veterans took part in. It happened in May because by then flowers were fully in bloom, and that was what they used to decorate the graves. In fact, it wasn’t until many years later, 1967 to be exact, that “Memorial Day” became the federally recognized holiday that we all enjoy. “Okay Lewis, enough with the history lesson.”

Right. Chances are, if you’re reading this blog post then you’re the type who already tries to remember those who died in war-time. You might fly a flag, attend a parade, or change your profile picture on Facebook. Some of you will put on a movie like “Heartbreak Ridge” or “Saving Private Ryan” or “Flags of our Fathers” so that you can get a feeling for what it was like to fight (and die) in battle against America’s enemies. For some of us, we need only to look back in our memories. Iraq. Afghanistan. Why, just this month we’ve lost 25 members of our Armed Forces. 25 families whose fathers/sons/brothers/uncles/cousins won’t get to crack open a beer and enjoy the summer, today, or any other day.






















I digress. It’s easy to get carried away, I guess. Because every day I see people living their lives – strangers, friends, family members – in complete ignorance of just how fortunate they really are. I watch my own children complain about the food on their plate and can’t help but think of the children all over the world who are too weak to move because they haven’t eaten in days, who will likely die before the week is through. Meanwhile, I feed the “good” scraps to my dogs and throw the rest in the trash. There I go again, off-tangent. See what I mean?

For many of us, and 99% of Americans, war is ancient history. Something that we’re just emotionally incapable of understanding. Especially for an entire generation (the Gen-Xers) who grew up without ever seeing a “real war” outside of a history book or movie. Then there are those, like myself, who have lived most or all of our lives under the shadow of 9/11. We knew that our military was over there in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting the “terrorists,” but for the most part were too busy living our lives to care.

There’s so many distractions, especially now-a-days. Who wants to think about those who have died, when we can obsess over why this person didn’t like our post or how come she’s taking so long to text me back? We don’t want to know the names of men and women who died before they got to enjoy many of the same things we ourselves have enjoyed. We don’t want to see the rows upon rows of white grave markers. We don’t want to hear their stories, or the heartbreak it caused the families to which they never returned. It’s too ugly, and sad. And ain’t nobody got time for that!

That’s what today’s about. Memorial Day. We have to remember. We have to see the ugliness, because without it you’ll never appreciate the beauty. We owe it to those 4,400 patriots who died during the American Revolution. To the 215,000 Americans who died in the Civil War. To the 53,000 who died in the First Great War AKA World War I. To the 292,000 members of the “greatest generation” who died in World War II. 33,667 in Korea. 47,393 in Vietnam. 148 in the Gulf War. 4,487 in Iraq. And finally, the 1,870 killed in Afghanistan.

It doesn’t matter if you agree with the leaders who sent us there. It is your duty to cherish their sacrifice, and to teach the youth of our nation to do the same. Not to glorify war, no, far from it. Make them understand. Make them remember. Let them see the horror — the lives lost. So that when the time comes, they choose the oft-less traveled path.

They are, after all, the future of our nation.

The short version: I really enjoyed this game. If you like video games then you should definitely pick this one up, even if you don’t care for first-person-shooters. It’s an ambitious and gruesomely fun game that examines the themes of imperialism and religious indoctrination and hey, you can order a flock of crows to attack somebody while setting them on fire. Winning!



That being said, I want to point out that nothing, and I mean nothing, that takes place in the 10 minute “game-play footage trailer” released back in 2011 actually happens in the game. The Skyhook/Skyrail system wasn’t nearly as cool or as expansive as it appeared, the enemies weren’t nearly as smart, and Elizabeth (your companion throughout the game, who is still awesome in her own right) wasn’t nearly as independent or useful. Not to mention the fact that the ominous Songbird that features so prominently in every bit of advertising for BS:I isn’t nearly as ominous it seems. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In spite of these shortcomings, Bioshock:Infinite still managed to rock my socks off. It’s very rarely that a game captures my imagination to the point that I can think of little else, but BS:I did so in a spectacular faction. Notice the lack of movement on I, Dark Lord‘s progress bar? Blame Kevin Levine and the other developers over at Irrational Games. From the stunning visuals of a city floating above the clouds, to the fanatical hybrid-religion that combines 1800s Christianity with the worship of our Founding Fathers; I just couldn’t get the story of Booker and Elizabeth out of my head. Who were those cryptic twins that kept appearing at odd moments? How did Elizabeth come by her power? Who was Booker working for exactly, and why did they want the girl?

Before we go any farther, I’d like to take a moment to talk about Elizabeth. She is, after all, the glue that binds the whole thing together. She’s your co-star throughout, and provides a nice emotional counterpoint to the jaded gun-for-hire that is you (Booker DeWitt). Now, speaking from experience, having a companion in a game generally equates to them being boring, dumb, and repetitive. They constantly get in the way, repeat the same inane comments over and over, and often force you to abandon whatever you’re doing so you can make sure they don’t get killed. Annoying, right?

Not so with Elizabeth. Although she falls short of being the strong female companion I hoped she’d be (and was led to believe she’d be, in that deceiving game-play trailer…DEVIL!) in the sense that she is only as useful as you tell her to be, I never felt that she took away from my experience. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I found her expressions and (somewhat naive) reactions to the unfolding story quite endearing, and her penchant for tossing me ammo just as I was starting to run out definitely pulled me out of many a tight spot. Given the game’s limitations, she is quite well-designed, and I daresay the only relationship between video-game characters that even comes close is that of Master Chief and Cortana.

And then there’s this…which is probably one of the most beautifully scripted moments I’ve ever experienced in a video-game:

(And yes, that’s the actual voice actor of Booker playing the guitar and the actress playing Elizabeth that sings)

Combat in BS:I left something to be desired. Although it was fun to experiment with various combinations of the Vigors (akin to Plasmids in the original Bioshock..and magic powers in other games), the weapons were your standard run of the mill – pistol, shotgun, machine gun, rifle, rocket launcher – and you could only carry two at a time. They even added a “quantum” shield that recharged in cover or after the end of the fight. And unlike in the original, when you never actually knew if you killed the last enemy in an area, here it was noted by a nice “chime” and shield recharge. No more anxiety over whether or not another deranged splicer was hiding just around the corner. Mostly because there were no splicers to worry about.

The enemies of Columbia consisted mostly of policemen and rebels, and every now-and-again you’d come up against a special class like a “Fireman” or “Zealot,” who used the “Devil’s Kiss (fireball)” and “Murder of Crows” powers, respectively. Never once did I encounter an enemy who liked to use “Shock Jockey” or “Bucking Bronco” or any of the other powers, which is actually rather strange given the amount of Vigor bottles I found lying around the city. Not a very smart bunch, unfortunately, and I found playing the game on “Normal” mode to be way way way too easy.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!

The last 30 minutes of the game are probably some of the most confusing 30 minutes of my life. Even now, two days later, I’m still not exactly sure what happened. Since I don’t want to give anything anyway, I’ll just say that it involves quantum mechanics and parallel universes and they don’t really drop any of this on you until the end. Throughout the game it’s all about finding Elizabeth and getting out of the city. They drop some hints with her ability to open Tears (in reality) and everything, but it does nothing to prepare you for the mind-grenade that takes place there at the end.

And when it was all said and done and the credits started to roll, I wasn’t sure if I should be happy or sad. Now that I’ve had some time to process it, however, I’m leaning towards both. Stick around after the credits (much like in Marvel’s movies) and you’ll see why. It doesn’t hurt that they show a video of the actor/actress behind Booker and Elizabeth recording the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” while the credits scroll, because who wants to pay attention to that anyway? The game’s soundtrack does deserves a mention. After all, where else are you going to hear a barbershop quartet rendition of “Tainted Love?”

In summary: Buy this game by clicking on the image to the right. Play it. And if you don’t love it, let me know in the comments. Or by email. Or by posting a giant billboard in the city that reads “DAMN YOU LEWIS DIX.” That is all.

I normally don’t do “Sorry.” Just ask my wife. Hi, honey! But in this instance, I do feel as though I owe you (all five or six of you) an apology. Why? Because it’s been twenty-eight days since I last posted here. TWENTY EIGHT!! Do you know how long that is? No? Let me put it this way.

28 days.
4 weeks.
672 hours.
40,320 minutes.
2,419,200 seconds.

As a brand spanking new author, particularly a self-published one, I should be posting once or twice a week minimum. I’ve got to establish an identity. Build a brand. Keep my readers engaged and exited. Etc blah blah. Know what I’ve been doing instead? Reading books, playing video games, annoying my wife, working on the sequel, and endlessly refreshing my Amazon sales data. (IS THAT A NEW SALE? IS IT? YAAAAAAAYA….AH NO. DERP DERP)

But better late than never, right? RIGHT!!!!!!

So how are things going with I, Minion, you ask? Things are going quite well! We’ve sold over a hundred copies to date, and a couple of fantasy book review blogs have been generous enough to add it to their lineup! The first scheduled feature that I know of is June 12th. When that happens, or if another one comes sooner, I’ll definitely let you know here.

On top of that, the giant box of paperback copies that I ordered arrived today! Which means that I’ll be sending out the signed copies to our contest winners here very soon (tomorrow, most like). It also means that if you’re so inclined, you can order a signed copy right here from my website (under the My Books tab) via PayPal, and as soon as the payment clears I’ll get it out the door and into your hands! Exciting times, people!

And just because I’m in a information-sharing mood: Know that I’m planning to release I, Dark Lord on June 30th (my oldest son’s birthday), and close out the trilogy on September 4th (the day my sister pushed her way into this world…literally! Ha!) with I, Savior. But don’t worry, I won’t wait until then to make another blog post.