The infinite subReddit is interesting in discussing these matters. I do think it's a bit more complex than suggesting cause and effect don't matter. They do in the way the ending is rendered.
Beyond that it's up to the gamer to determine how strong this framework is - but I personally bought and understood (I think!) the ending.

The only danger here is if the writers felt they were doing a Lost on us and encouraging people to riff on the original material into areas that were never really fleshed out.

I'm playing again and having a whale of a time with the combat. I made a mistake of just upgrading my health the first time around. Now I'm evenly levelling health, shield and salts and trying my best to find every infusion.

The criticisms I would make are around using the X button (on the 360) to hang a lot of actions on. In the middle of combat this is annoying and it's not the only game to abuse the X button.

The writing and dialogue actions are sometimes awkward. In one scene Booker is being blunt with Elizabeth and she doesn't react. Which was odd. Then they have the same scene again and now she's upset.

Or she's in the middle of talking and you can make her interrupt herself to pick a lock. Here the characters should take precedence over the gameplay because it breaks the spell of this otherwise beautifully crafted world.

transcript:

Dear Benny, hi, how are ya? Love the hat by the way.

You may not have noticed but I've been absent for awhile,
I wanted to tell you why and how I've been finding my own style.
A new way of looking at the world beyond the errors of the past.
You see I've read all of your teachings and cant see how they'll last.
Where angels feared to tread has now become the beaten track
but for every step that we took forward, the church took two steps back.

It took you four hundred years just to pardon Galileo,
while the murderer of Hypatia still enjoys his saintly halo.
It was these hypocrisies of the church, that drove me from the flock
though I still clung to the ideas and kept some belief in stock
that Jesus really loved me and god was close at hand
and the day was fast approaching when we'd find the promised land.

When people could stand together and colour wouldn't mean a thing
but i slowly began to realise, thats not the message that god brings.
He constantly plays favourites setting nations against each other
tearing apart families, pitting brother against brother.
The jew and the gentile, the muslim and infidel,
the terrorist gaining heaven while their victims go to hell.

This god isn't worth my worship or the thanks that he demands,
and things have gotten so much better now the powers in our own hands.
Life expectancy has tripled, smallpox has been made extinct.
Our eyes pierced the veil of heaven and what was hazy is now distinct.
A cacophony of symphonies all composed in mathematics,
a ballet of matter and energy performing cosmic acrobatics.

Why didn't your book tell me I was born of a supernova.
Instead demanding belief in what an ancient madman told ya.
Houses can't catch leprosy, epilepsy's not possession
and when it comes to sex what the fucks with your obsession
with what grown men and women do in the privacy of their own home.
Why do you care where they put it? You've got problems of your own.

You let suffer the little children while the paedophiles protected,
the people wanted a shepard but its a wolf that was elected.
You spread disease and misery with every denial of tested science
so people remain upon their knees out of terror and compliance
so please excuse my harshness after breaking religions spell,
and if by chance your god is real, I'll save you a seat in hell.

I hate to break the spell for you but Mel Gibson is not Mad Max.

Unappetizing as it may be, projecting an image as a director/producer is a pretty big deal and he ought to have his shit together because I'm sure it isn't just his money riding on it.

You forgot to add this to the *effectiveuseofeyes channel.


I'm glad she looks away sometimes. Breaks the spell. Lets me breathe.

Cage for us...
Cage for us...
Cage for us...
Cage for us...

Shivering
In a cage,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Petrified
In my dreams,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Immobile prisoner,
survivor of passions,
impossible progression,
Enclosed for ever...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...

Drop by drop,
pouring out,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Dying life,
break the spell,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...

Cage for us...
Cage for us...
Cage for us...
Cage for us...

Shivering
In a cage,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Petrified
In my dreams,
waiting for you,
waiting for you

Immobile prisoner,
survivor of passions,
impossible progression,
Enclosed for ever...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed...
Enclosed for ever and closed..

2) I don't believe in evolution. OK, I agree in general, but does it explain what it aims to accurately and completely? I very much doubt it. In fact I'd be amazed if the original work wasn't mostly discredited by now, just like much of Newton's work, Einstein's work and so on. Darwin's work was certainly a big step in the evolution of knowledge

Why wonder when you can know? I would bet dollars to donuts you don't even understand how evolution works. Reading a wikipedia article on evolution and believing you understand the theory is like.....reading a wikipedia article on quantum mechanics and believing you understand the theory. And no, high school biology does not give a sufficient explanation of the theory...

Atheist attack pack:
How evolution began: "Richard Dawkins: The Blind Watchmaker"
How evolution proceeded, in theory: "Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene"
How evolution proceeded, with empirical examples: "Richard Dawkins: Ancestor's Tale"
Why you don't have to be afraid of evolution: "Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion"
How religion began, and proceeded: "Daniel Dennett: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon"
Why you shouldn't believe in religion: "Sam Harris: Letter to a Christian Nation"

If your religion/current beliefs on evolution can survive that reading list......hats off to your level of conviction/faith/denial.

Nice post.

These are out takes from a documentary called "Breaking the Spell".

Full documentary: http://www.videosift.com/video/Breaking-the-Spell

I'll agree with you on most points Prospero, except your first. imho, when you are surrounded by 4 guys, who are (by the looks of it) talking shit; it's open season. The muscle dude is a hothead, but I think what he did was well within limits (notice he stepped away and cooled off the minute another guys stepped in to stop one of the original antagonists from continuing). As far as I'm concerned he was defending himself. Could those guys have done him any harm? Well, maybe not given what we saw here, but maybe they could have. How was he to know before the action started? Just an idle threat from 4 unknowns.

Spin your first sentence around: *why* were 4 skinny preppy boys who were no match for a muscular badass hassling a muscular badass? My answer: they thought they had him because of sheer numbers. Any one of them could have walked away and stopped being an asshole, but they presisted. Why? Ego? What does that mean about their state of mind? Borderline mob mentality? How far are they willing to go to ride it out?

Having been there myself: when you have 4 guys hassling you (I don't care who you are), your options shrink pretty damn fast and yes, simple demonstrating your *will* to use quick and brutal violence, can break the spell and get you out of trouble.

Hate to say, it, but I side with the meathead on this one.

I'm currently reading 'Breaking the Spell', and I would definitely reccomend it. I don't agree with everything Dennett says, and I think that reductionism and materialism can only explain so much, but it's very interesting and I support Dennett's call for the unfettered scientific study of religion - as should other theists.

gwaan: Just curious, have you actually read The God Delusion? You'll have to excuse me for suspecting a little "divide and conquer" tactics against the atheists here

I havent read Breaking the Spell by Dennett yet, but I am going to, he has some extremely interesting things to say. I think his hesitation towards directly criticizing religion is due to the fact that he thinks there are better ways of moderating it, and that moderation is the only hope there is. And I can definately see thats a valid point, but I feel that part of that moderation process is that religion needs to accept criticism on any verbal level. Its not Dawkins intent to convert die-hard believers, its to give criticism of die-hard belief a well-deserved voice. I think both Dennett and Dawkins are important in the fight against unreason and dogma.