blogging the blurbs

Everybody's doing it!  A review of the blurbs, that is.  For the 2015 interactive fiction competition, that is.  I was too excited to just start playing to read and write about the blurbs.  But I guess I'm going to have to read through that entire list of 55 games at some point...so here are my impressions.

5 Minutes to Burn Something!   By Alex Butterfield.
It has become quite popular to insert exclamation points at the end of the game titles.  I'm not sure that is a good idea.  The urgency indicated by that punctuation raises my expectations to a level that the game may not be prepared to fulfill.  To be fair, I began playing on-line last night (only for half  minute, not long enough to judge) and I am sort of looking forward to this.

A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood.  My Michael Thomet.
Cover art is series of Tarot cards.  Blurb suggests a ghost story set in fictional Europe.  I don't know the author.  Hard to know what to expect.

Arcane Intern (Unpaid) by Astrid Dalmady
These stories about underemployed college graduates are often written by underemployed college graduates with a fair bit of time on their hands and an MFA in creative writing on the resume.  It could be good.

Birdland by Brendan Patrick Hennessy.
This I've already played and reviewed

Brain Guzzlers from Beyond by Steph Cherrywell.
The author's name is familiar, as someone experienced in her craft.  And yet I've just finished playing another game in which I roleplayed a teenager, and I'd rather not go through that experience again right away.

Cape, an interactive origin.  Bruno Dias
"Cape is a superhero origin story for the cyberpunk dystopia we're all living in."
That blurb just depresses me, and I don't like the superhero genre.  And its a Web Game.

Capsule II- The 11th Sandman.  By PaperBlurt.
If this story spawns two more sequels, will the final episode be called "Capsule II-The 11th Sandman-The third"?
PaperBlurt is another author whose name sounds familiar, but without the comforting positive associations I felt for Steph Cherrywell.  I wrote somewhere else recently that I didn't like stories set on space ships, or those where the first command is "get out of bed".  Should I regard a cryotube the same as a bed?

Cat Scratch.  Multiple authors.  No cover art.
The blurb reads like a journal abstract.  This is no way to sell a story.

Crossroads by Cat Manning
Dark cover art, dark blurb, possible depressive tragedy.  I wonder how this will compare with this year's "A figure met in a shaded woods"?

Darkiss- Chapter 1: the Awakening.  Marco Vallarino
This sounds like a modernist take on the Vampire legend, about the un-undead.  Z-code suggests a full parser.  I'll reserve my judgement until I play.

Duel by piato.
In 2009, there were two separate games that had "Duel" in the title.  Duels have become their own subgenre of interactive fiction.

Emily is Away.  Sign in Again.
A game about social networking, that wants me to download untested software in order to play.  I'll see what McAfee has to say about that.

Ether by Mathbrush
A little bit artsy... a little bit puzzly... a little bit pushing the envelope of Glulx.  I'll be interested to try this.

Final Exam by jack Whitham
Games starting out from a dream state, and those set in university, are already cliche.  I want to know what sets this one apart.

That's fourteen games.  Only a third of the total.  I'll have to come back and blog the rest later.  Maybe after playing a few more in the meantime.