There is an assumption that it is always more desirable for a person, specifically a woman, to be working rather than collecting welfare. Ehrenreich explores what work options would be for a middle aged woman without significant education or work history. She takes work as a waitress, house cleaner, hotel maid and WalMart employee to examine what it might be like for a woman kicked off the welfare rolls.

She details what the experience of living on minimal earnings is like for her. It’s an entertaining read with many funny and cringe-worthy anecdotes. The book is obviously designed to appeal to the conscience of the more comfortably off in American society. I did feel moved by the plight of the author’s co-workers. I also felt angry at Ehrenreich. She was playacting at other people’s lives and while she heavily caveats her experiment, her privileged position is still achingly obvious in her narrative.

All that Ehrenreich experiences and more can be illustrated through traditional academic investigation; interviews, statistics and case studies of people trying to get by in difficult financial circumstances.  Her “under cover” work is a luxury , a sop to her conscience, and a hook to get people to be more interested in reading the book.  Can the upper class white woman survive a life we associate with lower class women? This false suspense just plays into the basic assumption that there are concrete differences between the economic classes of people besides their available capital. There is an us and a them and she is venturing into forbidden territory.  The truth is that Ehrenreich is free to leave at any point. She is never truly desperate or in real need, everything that happens to her she does to herself. She is not truly dealing with the full gamut of conditions that push a person into the position of needing to accept a pittance of a salary for back breaking work to keep body and soul together.

The conclusion of the book: it’s tough to get by on minimum wage. It’s really, really tough. There is not enough money for lodging and food and clothing much less emergency medical expenses and a car.  What it really comes down to and what Ehrenreich misses in her drive to demonize bosses and managers and the “system” is that people survive. All of the people she works with are surviving. They aren’t making money and they aren’t saving but they are getting by. This is what we are programmed to do, no matter how bad life gets you just have to keep going. She makes the people she meets out to be victims -which they are- but they also have agency. They are keeping going.. Rather than an argument in favor of the utility of welfare this book reads more like an argument for the establishment of a true living wage.

This book is a quick read. It is engagingly written and informative. If you ever feel like your life is tough, give it a read. Either your life is way better than you think or you could be in this book.

-fh

PAX Prime

Give us a shout if you will be there!

Because I’m nothing if not sensitive to the needs of our audience, I’ve taken a suggestion from the Baker and written a much shorter review than I did for Far Cry 2. However, because this is 50% my website and I ought to be able to indulge myself pretty much at will here, I’ve also written a much longer review, full of particulars that you don’t need to know about, and put it after the jump. I think everyone ought to be happy with this compromise.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Source: Retail
Paid: $20
Play Time: ~15 hours

Batman: Arkam Asylum is one of the best third-person action games I’ve ever played. It bashes up platforming, sneaking, and brawling in a something-for-everyone formula that almost never falters, especially in the “predator rooms” where Batman uses his speed and stealth to outmaneuver the Joker’s gunmen until they begin to panic at every shadow. The story and voice acting are top-notch, and the environment is varied, convincing and fun to navigate. Character models and textures are strangely exaggerated, but the game otherwise looks gorgeous.

The boss fights are probably the weakest segments, but they’re a small part of the overall game. Arkham Asylum is a must-play for Batman fans and those who enjoy action games generally; pretty much every gamer ought to at least try the demo.

Hit the jump for the long version.

Batman has captured the Joker (again) and returned him to Arkham Asylum (again), and everyone with the ability to add two and two is wondering why it’s better to leave the greasepainted Houdini alive for the sake of Batman’s paper-thin “I don’t kill people” moral system when he inevitably escapes (fucking again!) and kills dozens of people every few weeks. In a break from form, Joker escapes moments after Batman hands him over and rather than leaving locks down the whole joint, Batman and all, to turn it into a giant deathtrap. Batman must now fight his way past hundreds of the Joker’s psychotic goons as well as the super-powered inmates that are rampaging across the island, in order to discover and stop the arch-villain’s plan.

Leaving the Joker alive doesn't kill people; Batman kills people

The tale is surprisingly grim; maybe I was thrown off from hearing the voice talent of the G-rated cartoon, but Arkham Asylum abounds with electrocutions, devourings, and lethal face-bombings. The horror-heavy Scarecrow segments of the story in particular are surprisingly dark, even if they crib just a little too much from Hideo Kojima’s Psycho Mantis playbook. The final boss fight feels too little like Batman and too much like a video game obligation, but the ride is fun right up until then.

Arkham Asylum is a bit like a stew: it mixes brawling and stealth along with some mild platforming elements, then cooks them down so that the flavors of each wind up in the others. The result is a three-games-in-one feel that at its finest feels like a highlight reel of the best video games have to offer. This especially comes together in the “predator rooms” that trap a half-dozen gunmen in a room with Batman and task the player with using gadgets, vantage points, and hidden tunnels to pick each enemy off. I really got the sense of using fear as my weapon when the goons began to panic, turning on each other and wildly firing their guns into empty corners.

Arkham Asylum is too clever by half about re-using its few environments. There are only four main areas of the island, most with one or two sub-buildings, so backtracking is actually pretty frequent, but each time you pass through an area something has changed, be it a new enemy set or a path that has closed or opened. The careful emphasis on keeping the environments fresh is fortunate, because there aren’t actually very many unique enemies to fight. There are only around a half-dozen different bad guys (bosses excepted); the real variety comes in both the combinations and recombinations that you face (“Oh, you can handle the knife guys and the tazer guys? Let’s see you fight them while a sniper in a tower is taking potshots at you!”) and the environments in which you have to face them (“On an electrified floor!”). The boss fights are actually not all that fun compared to the rest of the game. Some have irritatingly gimmicky camera angles, and most are simple combat exercises that don’t dip into the intoxicating brew of genres that lends the regular gameplay such flavor. The 2.5D platforming of the Scarecrow levels is at least an amusing mix of stealth timing and grapple-jump acrobatics, but it still feels like it’s missing something that best predator rooms deliver better.

Of all of Batman’s many gadgets – explosive gels, remote-controlled batarangs, various flavors of grappling hooks and zip line launchers – the two most useful are available from the start of the game: the grapnel gun and detective vision. More on the grapnel gun later, but it needs to be said that detective vision is overpowered. It essentially color-codes the world to highlight usable objects such as vantage points and grates to open to reach tunnels AND shows you weak walls and floors that can be destroyed to find secrets or create new pathways AND lets you see enemies through walls, including telling you whether they’re armed or not. It’s too damned useful to ever leave off, and it means that a whole lot of texture work and environmental design ends up going to waste while Batman walks around in a blue and orange wonderland.

Arkham Asylum doles out a large variety of other gadgets through a two-pronged upgrade system. Many are granted to Batman through story progression. Some must be bought with XP that are earned by defeating enemies and grabbing collectibles. Enemies don’t respawn, and many collectibles can only be reached after certain story points gadgets have been acquired, with the end result being that it’s pretty much impossible to grind for gear. This has the double benefit of making the player’s choices among XP upgrades actually matter (since he can’t grind to get all of them at once) and keeping the emphasis on moving forward through the story rather than pumping up the gadget count. The pace of reward and new mechanics is kept steadily satisfying.

"Ah, see, your lymph nodes are a bit swollen. Probably a bit of a cold coming on. Take a day or two off and get some fluids."

In fact, the pacing is generally kept very brisk in Arkham Asylum, making it actually seem a bit longer than it is. The style of play is mixed up between exploration, puzzling, and fighting every few minutes. Batman’s next goal is always kept crystal clear with a combination of voice-overs, pause-screen banners, and a giant god-damned exclamation point on the map screen, all of which together feel a bit pedantic in a T-rated game, but certainly never leave you feeling adrift on the island. I ended up spending about 15 hours on my playthrough, but that included a lot of time spent back- and side-tracking to pick up collectibles.

Those 1000 points-worth of achievements that Microsoft has required every game include has forced many a desperate Lead Designer into including grinding collect-a-thons into their games, and Arkham Asylum includes its own. This one is at least appears to have had more though included than the low-water mark of such joyless slogs (the original Assassin’s Creed, if you were wondering). The Riddler has scattered 240 “riddles” about the environment. “Riddles” is in quotes there because most of them are actually just trophy objects that Batman can pick up if he stands on them, but every area includes several true riddles that merely hint at an object; the player has to figure out what the riddle refers to and then mark the answer to receive credit for solving it. The Riddler hunt is actually quite fun for completionist psychopaths such as myself, as it includes a great deal of voice work from the Riddler and many of the true riddles allude to franchise stalwarts such as Catwoman or the Penguin who are otherwise missing from the game.

Batman is easy to control in the exploration and stealth portions of the game, but Arkham Asylum doesn’t quite nail the hat trick of adding perfect combat controls into the mix. Fighting winds up being more button-mashy than I think was intended – Batman has a habit of darting over to enemies clear across the room in mid-combo, and this changes the feel of the combat from “I am in direct and skillful control of every strike” to “I am offering suggestions which the capey fellow on my TV may or may not choose to accept”. Also irritating, the onscreen indicator for the glide kick attack occasionally pops up when it oughtn’t, resulting in Batman silently swooping down to smash his foot into a doorframe or ladder and then dropping rather sheepishly to the ground next to an angry man with a rifle. Combat and movement are otherwise crisp and enjoyable.

As we discussed in our review of the the demo back in podcast #3, the grapnel launcher brings back some really fond memories of the original Tenchu game on the PS1. It just feels great to be able to zip up to tower roofs and gargoyles, cross ridiculous gaps, and generally go anywhere you can see. The grapnel will hook onto most ledges and projections, and the puzzle areas where it’s actually not usable have a different pace from the rest of the game, requiring a lot more looking about for potential handholds and leap-able gaps. I have to admit that as I’m now playing Assassin’s Creed 2 I find my self occasionally tapping the right bumper to make an easy grapnel shot up onto a building.

The camera in the game is generally positioned in the right spot, particularly when Batman sticks to a corner in order to keep an eye on enemies or spring out at them. It remains noticeably too close while Batman is gliding about with his cape spread, making it a little hard to see what you’re gliding towards. Additionally, certain mini-boss fights wrest camera control from the player to look at a nearby enemy, which can lead to cheap hits from other nearby foes.

If you can bring yourself to turn detective vision off, Arkham Asylum is a visual stunner. The various buildings that make up the asylum all have unique interior styles that set particular moods; once again, the Scarecrow’s creepy hospital section is a standout. The environments change gradually throughout the story but remain handsomely shadowed and vividly colored through each revision. The buildings, particularly the looming mansion, manage to be really gothic without dipping into the ridiculous tapering, hunched style that Tim Burton has slopped all over that word. Really, the island and asylum are the true stars of the game, with the characters supporting them with reasons to run around looking at stuff and climbing on it.

Harley's transformation from 2D to 3D; they grow up so fast

The Joker manages to duck a re-design, but the rest of the characters have been given a heavy coat of paint from the Image comics bucket. Harley Quinn’s “Busty Nurse” rework in particular is so egregious that if they hadn’t gotten the voice actress from the TV show I doubt anyone would have bought her as the same character, but Batman himself also suffers a noticeable and unnecessary roiding at the hands of the character designer. The designs aren’t really a big deal in the course of playing the game, but combined with the strange, rubbery sheen that some faces or clothes have they gives the characters a flavor that’s unique to Arkham Asylum‘s cutscenes, somewhere between that of action figures and pornography.

The voice performances are excellent and omnipresent – someone is talking almost all the time while you play the game and none of the actors are clunkers. Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn are recognizable from the cartoon series, and the rest of the cast stands up to their work. The only real complaint I have about the voices is that John “Bender” DiMaggio is too recognizable, and as he’s one of only two goon voices you’ll hear him a lot. It’s not a bad performance, just distractingly reminiscent of Futurama.

Arkham Asylum is a must-own at any price for Batman fans; the game’s affection for the universe oozes from every pixel. Those who enjoy both brawling and stealth games without preferring either – or requiring either to be very deep – would find this game a safe buy at around $30. For those harboring doubts, a demo that fairly represents most of the game’s mechanics is available for download from your platform’s online marketplace.

-ssr

Re-telling a classic tale is pretty much all Robin McKinley did for a while. Which is fine, go with what you know. Robin Hood is a myth. McKinley herself notes that his story reflects what his audience wants or needs to hear to reinforce their world view or a political position. The story has evolved based on the era in which it is being re-told. Marian didn’t even exist for the first couple of centuries that the Robin Hood myth was being re-told.

Most myths have a central character.  A personage who is not necessarily based on a real person but embodies virtues and flaws that make their adventures instructive. The basis for Outlaws is the idea that the Robin Hood myth could have been actively constructed at its origin point. The character of Robin Hood is actually constructed and reinforced by Much and Marian, Robin’s two best friends. Robin accidentally kills a forester’s son. Robin is a Saxon and the forester is a Norman thus, Robin is fucked and must run for his life.  Robin is going to flee Sherwood and Nottingham for good but Much, and Marian – his two best friends –  convince him to stay. They want to use his case as a rallying point for the local, oppressed Saxons and they want to build him into the figure head of a resistance to the Normal overlords.  Robin is resistant but as an outlaw he doesn’t have a whole lot of options for survival.

Much and Marian let it be known that those seeking to escape unjust Norma practices and judgments can find a home with Robin Hood in Sherwood forest. The merry band assembles and McKinley makes sure that we understand that living off the land in a forest with no real buildings to shelter in is not an easy life. Robin is wracked by doubts and uneasy at his position as leader of this group. Much and Marin, and later Little John and Will Scarlet, keep the band running as smoothly as possible.  Matters are brought to a head when the last Saxon landowner is the Nottingham environs is going to be evicted. Robin’s people decide to intervene and pay off his defaulted mortgage to keep a Saxon landowner in power and to tweak the nose of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

It is tweaked indeed and the Sheriff hires Guy of Gisborne to hunt Robin and his people down in Sherwood. The climactic battle is realistic without being overly cruel. McKinley is quote good at making sure that the reader knows that just because someone is a beloved character it doesn’t make them sword or arrow proof.  At the same time she doesn’t kill off you favorite character just for kicks.

The eventual and inevitable confrontation with Richard the Lionheart is one of the best ever. As if the king would come back and just forgive a group of people who have been blatantly breaking the law for several months to a couple of years. McKinley’s proposed solution is pretty darn neat as well being quite historical. It’s a little too feminist at points but she pulls it out at the very end.

I read this a couple of weeks before that gawdawful Russel Crowe movie came out this year. If you also watched and hated that piece of crap, McKinley’s book will wash the taste of out of your mouth and leave a crisp and light aftertaste of slightly too good to be true but overall deeply satisfying English mythology.

-fh

Thanks!

-F&S

SonicRob: business chimp?

FyreHaar: A chimp you is in business

SonicRob: like an ape in a suit?

FyreHaar: yeah

FyreHaar: have you seen it

SonicRob: neeope

FyreHaar: http://www.pajiba.com/trailers/to-fight-the-horde-sing-and-cry-valhalla-i-am-coming-thor-trailer.php

FyreHaar: watch and discuss

SonicRob: wait wait wait

FyreHaar: ??

SonicRob: this is directed by who now?

SonicRob: Iron Man was directed by Jon Favreau

SonicRob: the guy who did fucking “Elf”

SonicRob: Spider-Man? Sam Raimi.

SonicRob: You’re giving Thor to Kenneth “people will watch Shakespeare if Denzel is in it” Branagh?

FyreHaar: dude

FyreHaar:  Denzel was good

SonicRob: and Keanu?

FyreHaar: and Branagh can do that Shakespearen style of family drama

FyreHaar: that works when the family is gods

FyreHaar: I liked his “Hamlet”

FyreHaar: Dude, Keanu was a risk and a failure

FyreHaar: but brother was trying

FyreHaar: and Denzel was the bomb

FyreHaar: 90% of that movie was the bomb

FyreHaar: I can forgive the Keanu

SonicRob: is that Cap’s shield hitting the ground, or a SHIELD logo?

FyreHaar: SHIELD logo

FyreHaar: caps shield is round

FyreHaar: and in Tony Stark’s lab

SonicRob: oh God, I keep forgetting how terrible Natalie Portman is

FyreHaar: I like her

FyreHaar: and how can you tell, you see her for about 8 seconds

FyreHaar: It looks comic booky in the vein of Iron Man

SonicRob: she is the worst part of this trailer

SonicRob: what I liked about Iron Man was watching the characters interact

SonicRob: the whiz-bang stuff was really mostly fun because I got to watch Downey play off it

SonicRob: everyone in trailer seems so serious

SonicRob: but as you say, it’s just a trailer

FyreHaar: also

FyreHaar: the humans will be the comic relief

FyreHaar: for the super serious asgardians

FyreHaar: and we will get to watch Thor learn about human stuff

FyreHaar: also, he is delicious

FyreHaar: I mean, yeah, shirt off = good

FyreHaar: rawr

FyreHaar: he’s no RDJ

FyreHaar: but he’s no slouch

FyreHaar: although Ruffalo instad of Norton = ROBBED!!

FyreHaar: have they not seen American History X? The man can put on the hot

FyreHaar: He was so good looking in that movie I felt guilty

FyreHaar: for liking a nazi that much

SonicRob: uhhh

SonicRob: tangent

FyreHaar: ??

SonicRob: you have changed the topic from the trailer to sexy nazis

FyreHaar: oh

SonicRob: anyway, Norton wanted the movie to be about Bruce Banner, Marvel wanted more Hulkyness

FyreHaar: sigh

FyreHaar: I’m just saying

FyreHaar: I feel like we got traded down

SonicRob: if he wanted that much control he should have directed the thing

FyreHaar: he was gracious about it

SonicRob: it just sounds like he was difficult

FyreHaar: did you finish the trailer?

SonicRob: ayurp

FyreHaar: also he is notorious for that

FyreHaar: impressions?

FyreHaar: are we a yes

FyreHaar: a second weekend

FyreHaar: a matinee?

FyreHaar: or is Portman a deal breaker

FyreHaar: ?

SonicRob: I would hit it up first weekend, but I don’t think I’d brave opening night

SonicRob: there is room for it to be an Iron-Man style surprise

SonicRob: but it is not a lock

FyreHaar: yeah

FyreHaar: That is how I feel

FyreHaar: I will lower my expectations

FyreHaar: to - lots of explosions and fighting

FyreHaar: -some cheeky bits

SonicRob: I am afraid there will be much ponderous pontificating and nobody on screen will be having fun

FyreHaar: that would suck

SonicRob: I like action movies where the characters enjoy themselves

SonicRob: I empathize, and thus have fun myself

FyreHaar: even in the Batman reboot there is fun amongst the gothic drama

SonicRob: yeh

Sonic Rob: WAAAGHHHH!!!
FyreHaar: the comments are amazing
FyreHaar: 90% of them are “yay Ork in a pirate hat, yay!”
FyreHaar: and the others are all “DOWII sucks”
Sonic Rob: looks like a Freebooterz Kaptin
Sonic Rob: fucking SC2 nubs
Sonic Rob: fuck off
Sonic Rob: I’m sorry you can’t win a match without turtling up in a base
FyreHaar: they all complain that it’s too fast or that you have to get strategic points
Sonic Rob: DOW makes you get out there and fucking fight!
FyreHaar: exactly!!!
Sonic Rob: CnB was talking about playing SC2 last night
Sonic Rob: apparently a lot of people put together a single rush
Sonic Rob: if it doesn’t work, they sit there and wait to die
FyreHaar: damn
FyreHaar: this dude is talking shit about the story line of DOW II
FyreHaar: and how he has nothing in common with a space marine
FyreHaar: of course you don’t you stupid fucker
FyreHaar: jesus
Sonic Rob: wtf?
Sonic Rob: you wanna play a RTS where the units are all fat gamers?

I think I’m gonna pass.

-ssr

FyreHaar: long weekends are the way to go

FyreHaar: there is a lake right?

SonicRob: there is

FyreHaar: for swimmin?

SonicRob: it should be survivably warm, yeah

FyreHaar: I have a wetsuit

SonicRob: it’s glacier runoff

FyreHaar: wet suit it is!