Word Laces Review

 When Apple Arcade originally launched in September 2019, it had 71 games to download and play. When you open the app store today you can pull up the full list of games in their original release order. If you scroll to the VERY bottom of the list, you'll find Word Laces, which in my estimation makes this the first game released for the service.

It seems somewhat symbolic actually, that a casual, innocent, lighthearted little word game would be the first that Apple put on the list. It seems like it almost communicated the intent of the service itself. 
Apple launched their Arcade service at a time when mobile gaming had long since become a cesspool of micro-transactions and ads. If you look carefully, it almost seems like Word Laces was sort of designed to exist in that kind of world. The game as it exists now is beautiful, simplistic and minimalist...and it actually feels kind of weird. There are only two game modes here, one of them offers 1 puzzle per day in the form of a daily challenge, and the other is just the normal mode you'll play, going level by level, solving the word puzzles. No fluff. Once you complete a puzzle, there's no ads or stupid fake money to spend. You just go to the next puzzle.

To look at the gameplay, Word Laces sums itself up exactly. You combine words using shoe laces. You'll see a variety of letters on the screen and sometimes combinations of letters, and you tie them together, in a string, to produce a word that represents or describes the picture you see on the screen. Within five seconds you'll know EXACTLY how to play this game. 

The puzzles are short and sweet, normally lasting about a minute or two. and once you finish you'll earn stars based on how many hints you used, not necessarily how efficient you were. I really liked that the game didn't pressure or rush me. After completing a puzzle you can always go back and do it again, should you so desire, and to compliment the main 1200 puzzle campaign mode, there is a daily puzzle as well, which I found to be much trickier than any of the 50 puzzles I've completed in the main mode.
For being such a simple game, I have to admire its breadth. 1200 is a LOT of puzzles. I've been playing this game with some intensity for over a week. I feel like I've been mainlining it in my spare moments. Having completed 50 of the 1200 puzzles, I feel like I've done a lot, though in the grand design of the game I haven't even hit 10% That might seem like a low number to justify a review...but honestly, I feel like I've seen enough of this game to know what it is. That doesn't make it bad. But it does make it kind of basic. 

I don't want to sound harsh. This is a pleasant little puzzler. I'm legitimately going to keep this on my phone. It's one of the best games I've seen on Apple Arcade that will start up in ten seconds, and lets me complete a puzzle in a minute or two. Play sessions in Word Laces can be REALLY short if you want them to be. On a computer or a game console that might not seem attractive, but on a phone, its awesome. This is a GREAT toilet game.

The stars you earn can be used to earn shoe boxes. When you finally earn a shoe box, you'll be rewarded with a random shoe, which has a corresponding lace for you to wrap your words with, and it also slightly changes the color of the background to add some variety. Its essentially a little bonus to change the color scheme and style of the game board while you play. Its a cute addition, as it always feels good to be earning something, but it really doesn't amount to much, and it certainly won't be the primary motivator to your continued play experience. The reason you will start this game up is the pleasure you get out of the puzzles, and that alone. 

Its worth saying before we end this conversation that I started playing this game on my iPhone. The next day I downloaded it on my Mac to see if it played any differently. I expected to start over, but actually my save file was perfectly synced with my phone, without me doing anything, or really even knowing that it was happening. Heck, I didn’t even know that was a feature. But as soon as I started the game on my Mac, the game started on the exact same puzzle I had been working on on my iPhone. I’m not sure how many Apple Arcade games do this, but if this is a feature that is common, its a really fantastic quality of life feature. But I digress, lets get back to the review.

Word laces is a little treat, neatly wrapped and thoughtfully presented. It's not the greatest word game ever made, but it doesn't have to be. Its a bite-sized shoebox of clever fun, and if you're even a casual fan of puzzle games, this one is worth a download.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V is a game with weight and great significance. It has been, up to its release, a clear final hoorah from Kojima and team. It has been years since a game with such significance is accompanied by headlines of a parent company giving a big middle finger to their developers. But then you must consider that both sides are undoubtedly jaded. Konami has reportedly spent 5 years and 80 million dollars on the project, and Kojima and Team are working around the clock to deliver an experience that ultimately makes their mother company more money than it does them, while also trying to remove the credit of the game to whom it is due. Being so close to launch and the biggest project any of them have undertaken, its only natural that tensions would be high.

Still, it takes pressure to make diamonds. Metal Gear Solid 5 has escaped development and has been released with celebration and accolades. There has never been a stealth or action game like it. What it accomplishes in its presentation and in its moment to moment gameplay isn’t just an achievement. It is a milestone for storytelling and for gaming in general. In a few years time September 2015 will be remembered by gamers and the industry as a turning point in the PS4 and Xbox One life cycle, not just for the benchmarks in next generation technology, but for a new standard of greatness in videogames. It is a game that suggests conversation now, as well as a few years from now, when we can fully understand its impact on the medium. Already, MGS5 has soiled the experience of what would otherwise be considered fantastic AAA titles of the holiday season, because there just isn’t any way this experience is going to be topped.

Afghanistan, the game’s first setting, is a beautiful country. For Veteran MGS players, it presents a battlefield that has never been fought on. For newcomers, it's recognizable and accessible. But no matter where you’re coming from, it feels fresh.The mountains block off wide open areas, every one subtly leading to a choke point that becomes an enemy check point or base. No matter where you’re going in Afghanistan, you’re always headed toward action. That’s one of the great accomplishments in MGSV’s design: there is always something happening right in front of you and everything you take away from the enemy becomes something that you can use against them. I can steal a jeep from them and move around the countryside ala GTA. But once I’m done in Afghanistan I can also ship that jeep out and use it back at my base, and then when I return to the field of battle I can re-deploy it.

The last couple of years have been filled with open world games. And here we have yet another. But what MGSV does different is how the open world continuously directs you and then frees you to play the game how you want. As you travel, you will inevitably travel toward the enemy. The game almost MAKES you infiltrate bases. When you arrive at the base, however, the cuffs come off and you’re free to do as you please, whether you want to play this game like a shooter or a stealth/action thriller is entirely up to you, and both choices are going to work out pretty well for you. Perhaps the finest topping on the cake is that the decision to go loud or quiet is often made on the fly, and can change multiple times throughout the mission. What makes that fun is that the game doesn’t punish you for it, it just asks you to improvise.

When you do improvise, you will find a deep, glorious bucket of variety; the kind you can sink your teeth into. Its very reasonable to expect to do every mission in the game two or three times. And since the missions are varied, with wildly different objectives, all taking place at different bases with different variables and obstacles, the gameplay is a virtuous cycle of creativity, improvisation and fun.

There are kinks in the armor. It should be brought up that the game’s portrayal of the “main” female character is adolescent and unamusing. At every chance, the camera focuses on her feminine body, and has a poor excuse for making her walk around in a slim bikini. For a soldier, she has an awful lot of swing in her hips, and the scenes she stars in limit her to being a caged pole dancer. On the battlefield, she is a worthy foe. Off the battlefield, she is a sex symbol. I really wish that in 2015 we could get passed something as simple as this. But every time she comes up, it is a scene with missed potential. For a game that is so skilled at discussing adult topics, seeing Quiet onscreen just brings me back to high school, when my friends and I gawped at anything that had legs.

The disappointment that the character Quiet carries is a similar downer that you’ll encounter when your expectations for the game’s story are dropped into a mud pit. It begins with Hollywood bravado and then evolves into a sort of nuclear-soup; a by-product of something that was supposed to be powerful and threatening but now just takes up space in a warehouse. Sickening as the thought is, Metal Gear Solid 5 won’t be remembered for it’s story, yet it may be remembered as the greatest Metal Gear Solid game.

The Metal Gear Series has always excelled at storytelling-off the wall as they all may have been. Yet in telling their stories, they also sacrificed good design. After all, people may remember MGS2 fondly, but the fact of the matter is that you couldn’t play the game for ten minutes in any capacity before coming across a cut scene that led to an urgent and mandatory objective. Metal Gear Solid 3 forced a stealthy slog through the forest, transitioning to a pause screen where you equipped some new clothing so you could cross a river and then repeat the process after you’ve crossed said river. Metal Gear Solid 4, as much of a masterpiece as that was, was a movie. Period. They were all excellent games, but  They were games that pushed you forward. In doing so, they each killed all the motivation of returning to the story for multiple play-throughs.

The Phantom Pain takes a left turn that no one suspected; it finally embraced that fans weren’t interested in watching Snake anymore-they just wanted to play as him. It comes as perhaps the simplest of all video game design decisions, yet the impact that it has had on this game is astonishing. It’s finally fun to PLAY metal gear. “Play” is the perfect word for it too, because once the story is completed and you’re left with nothing but the ambition for growth, the game becomes a playground that you want to return to every Saturday. You know those monkey bars that you swung on all the time? It was fun to just go across them the way they were intended, but on the second week you started skipping bars. On the third week you were hanging upside down, and on the fourth week you started jumping off of them.

Each base in The Phantom Pain will be revisited multiple times, but each time you come back you’re going to do things just a little bit different-just to shake things up. When you do, you’ll find that the gameplay continues to become deeper and more creative than you originally gave it credit for, even 100 hours in.

The good far outweighs the bad. Mostly because the way fans will remember this game as the best in the series has very little to do with the story. It is the finest culmination of the ideas and gameplay innovations that has characterized Metal Gear Solid in the last 30 years. It is the ultimate realization of the tactical/espionage/action gameplay. Maybe it wasn’t what I wanted; But I think what I wanted wasn’t really what I needed. After all, the real story of the Metal Gear Solid saga ended with 4. We all knew it. When the fifth entry was announced, the last thing on our minds was the story. So it was before we ever played it, and so it will be long after we put it down-but that gameplay-man, that was something special.

The Real Value of PS Plus

You've been told to put your money where your mouth is. So you do, and before you know it, you're investing your life savings in renewable diapers.

Seriously though, crappy jokes are one thing, but there is a lot of merit to the idea of "putting money" where one's pie hole is. Behind the saying is the idea that if you REALLY believe in something, or you REALLY want something to happen, you'll actually throw money at it. That's significant because money is the one thing most people have a hard time giving up.

And the value of money, while different for everyone, is also significant to everyone. So when someone tells you that something is "free" your ears are of course going to perk up. Everyone's ears perk up at the idea of getting something for free.

Playstation Plus gives players free games. Sony very cleverly shrouded PS Plus by first providing it as a perk for loyal customers, but then eventually made it mandatory for playing online. Most gamers aren't worried about the idea, because Sony butters up the situation with some legitimately good games every month at no charge.

Most of my Playstation library is made up of PS Plus games because I'm one of those guys who works a retail job and barely has any expendable income to pay for a full priced retail title. To me, PS Plus is a great opportunity to have fresh games coming in all year that can keep me playing, interested, and challenged for less than the cost of a full priced game. It's almost the only way I can get new games under the income bracket I live on. Even when I come across more money, I put it toward real things that matter-like working on a broken car or buying necessary things for my wife and children.

As it happens, as much as I enjoy games on PS Plus, I also don't play them that much any more. I have had to think long and hard about how I love Spelunky so much, and admire the storytelling of Ether One, and love the gameplay mechanics of Rocket League, and appreciate the efforts of Never Alone. Truth is, when I have a couple hours to enjoy a game, I don't want to play any of those. The only reason I can come up with as to why I'm not interested in picking them up is because I actually invested nothing in them in the first place. I got all of those games for free. Because of that, enjoying them or getting something out of them doesn't create any consequence.

To nail this point down, I purchased Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition from Nintendo's Humble Bundle for $1.00 (I know, I'm a cheapskate. But I made sure every penny went to the developer.) I played it for an hour, enjoyed it and then set it down so that I could focus on beating Splinter Cell. One month later, the game came out on PS Plus. I downloaded it for free, and I never started it up. I never have any INTENTION of starting it up.

I like the game. I'm actually looking forward to playing it on my Wii U. But I still won't play it on my Playstation, even if the Playstation version allows me to earn trophies and play online with my friends. I don't care. I actually paid money for the Wii U version. I invested in it. I put my money into it. In my mind, the Wii U version is worth more.

I know that we are technically "paying" for PS Plus games because we pay for the membership and the games are part of a membership. I understand that. But the fact of the matter is that Sony actually just wants money to support their network and they use the games to sweeten the deal and keep people subscribed. If PS Plus money only went toward online play and data backup features, the majority of subscribers would drop their subscription for 6 months out of the year.

The truth is that with any game, or any item for that matter, we value things more when we actually pay for them. Free things might be cool, but they're also worthless, because you didn't assign any value to them in the first place.

I have always enjoyed Mario games. I loved Super Mario World and Super Mario Sunshine and the New Super Mario Bros on Wii and DS. More than any of those games, I've played and loved New Super Luigi U, and Mario 3D Land (on which I obtained 5 stars on my play file). The only reason I love those games more is because I paid for them. And I want to keep returning to them because, in a way, they are giving back to me what I put into them.

Playstation Plus is still cool, and I will still subscribe, but I don't really value the idea of free games like I used to. The fact is that I want to put my money in the things I REALLY want and REALLY believe in. And those are the games that I forked over money for.

Growing Up Slowly

I wouldn't call myself a baby Christian anymore. I've seen enough, heard enough and read enough to be well-versed in the Christian life.

That's what I want to think. It's what I want to believe.

Then, as I was driving home from work, I realized that I actually haven't lived an independent Christian life. Throughout my growing years I was always living with another Christian who was spiritually older then me. They were the ones who would remind me that Sunday was coming up and that I should go to church, or that it would be ideal to attend to Wednesday night prayer service.

When I was actually alone, with no other Christians to remind me of how Christian's ought to live, I would go back to my old ways and forget what day it was. I would forget to read my Bible and pray, I would forget about the Christian artists that I would listen to all the time around my Christians brothers and sisters. I would ALMOST act like I wasn't saved.

When I first realized how I had been living for the last 4 years since I've been out of college, I actually wondered if I was legitimately saved, but I remember so clearly the day I prayed and asked for salvation. Just as clearly, I remember a few times where I prayed the salvation prayer again, just in case I wasn't authentic the first time. I'm definitely saved. I think what I have been living is just a lack of personal accountability to my own self. It's a lack of spiritual maturity.

Punctuality is extremely important to me, especially when going to work or arriving at a meeting. That is a grown up feeling and a mature sense of responsibility. Strange then that I have always felt almost zero pressure to be at Sunday School on time, or to even attend at all. It's just a lack of maturity because, spiritually speaking, I've never seen the big deal about being late.

It only hit me because I just got done visiting my best friend Tim Cunningham. He has always been an old soul, but his spirituality is also far ahead of his physical age. Seeing the leadership and focus that he brought to his family was inspiring, especially since the full credit could be pointed to God before Tim even said anything. He has a career that would drive any woman insane, especially considering the time he puts into it, but his relationship with God seems to trump any negative aspects it could have on his relationship with his wife, Julie (also a dear friend to me).

I won't get into too much detail about Tim's life. If you want to know more you can visit his website at www.cunninghamfineart.com. But I say it all to say that everything that I lack in my life compared to Tim is entirely because Tim has a closer relationship with God than me. And the only reason Tim has a closer relationship with God than me is because, up until this point in my life, I never embraced my Christian walk as my own personal responsibility.

I hope I can turn this responsibility into a real relationship with God that is independent, self evident and real. I also hope God will unite my family and draw them closer to Him through my relationship with Him.

Here we go.

What I think about: The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers

The Carpenter is my first experience of the Avett Brothers. It is far from their first album. At the time of this writing, it isn’t even their most recent, but my experience of this album comes as a complete surprise to me. I first heard of them at Best Buy as they played on the video loop. I tried the album out and found that I didn’t really care for more than a couple songs. For some reason, a year later, I returned to it and found that I liked almost every single song.

What stands out to me most in the collection is that that lyrics complement the melodies absolutely perfectly. The instruments create very exact feelings and the lyrics accompany them like its some kind of science, So much so that you could probably guess what the song is about before hearing a single word. In the best songs the lyrics are timeless. In most, they don’t stand above simply being clever. Still, each song is a distinct experience. For that, these guys deserve some kudos.

It seems clear though that these guys can only go so far in the composition of their lyrics. Impressively, they seem to know that. At key points in some songs, they will stop singing and simply let the instruments do the talking. Each time in happens through the album, the timing seems perfect. It’s clear that the songs written here came from the heart, but when they couldn’t find the right words for a topic, they just play the song and expect the listener to just get it from the melody. Luckily, they nail it.

The Once and Future Carpenter is the first song and so happens to be my favorite. It tells the long story of a wanderer, not really coming to any conclusions except “If I live the life I’m given, I won’t be scared to die.” The carpenter (the subject of the song) seems content with wandering, and has his mind made up about every possible scenario that could come. The melody carries the sense of conclusion, ongoing journey, and resignation. Its odd; as well as this song fits at the beginning of the album, it could just as easily fit at the end of it.

“And now I spend my days in search

of a woman we call ‘purpose’

and if I ever pass back through her town, I’ll stay.”

February Seven If a mysterious entry that seems to be about recovering from a variety of events. The chorus communicates a lesson learned, but its hard to tell what the conclusion of the song really is, leaving an absolutely beautifully written lyric wide open for interpretation, which is one of the things that make the song easy to return to.

“I found as I regained my feet

a wound across my memory

that no amount of stitches would repair

but I awoke, and you were standing there.”

A Father’s First Spring really hits home for me. The title says it all; a new father singing about his experience of becoming a parent. Being a new father myself, this song is coming to me at a perfect time. I can’t help but think of my little girl when it plays. The lyrics aren’t genius, but again the simple melody complements the subject so perfectly. It rouses emotions in me as much as it seems to the singer.

“The realist thing I ever felt
was the blood on the floor
and the love in your yell
I was a child before
the day that I met Elanor.”

The topics of the album bounce around wildly, seemingly covering way more than they should in a single effort. That’s a knock at them. But then on the other hand, it lends itself to astounding variety from song to song. The album will end before you feel like you’re done exploring it, and then you’ll start it over, realize you’re hooked and now you look like a sucker.

I liked 11 of the 12 songs, giving this album a 92%

What I think about: The Lumineers

The Lumineers exist in a genre that is tough to define. I suppose they are mostly folk. But then they take the stories from country and combine them with the simple melodies of a coffee house scene. In many songs, the band seems to hold back so much for the sake of being catchy, memorable and ultimately better; it is evidenced in short choruses, short songs and genius lyrics.  Being their first CD, the taste of their music is refreshing and exciting. Being as it borders on being overly simple, I wonder if they can carry the catchiness of their tunes into their second album, whenever they decide to release it. Oh well, let's get into the standout songs.

The album begins with "Flowers in Your Hair" a steady, slightly upbeat tune that contrasts childhood and adulthood. It explores memories and the emotions that they associate, coming to the chorus "Be in my eyes, be in my heart.” It repeats once and then moves to the next verse. The simplicity and short breadth demonstrates the restrained creativity that makes up the album.

“All the things we said, we were self assured.

Cause its a long road to wisdom, but a short one to being ignored.”

Classy Girls is a song rooted in country music, and opens to the sounds of a small town bar scene that continue to play through the first verse as he sings out the story of trying to pick up a girl from a bar who is continually rejecting him physically, but continues to spend the night hanging out with him. It starts out chill, then just turns into a cheerful comedy of sorts. The song is more humorous than it is anything else.

“I made her laugh, I made a pass, I showed her my half dollar ring, she said that's pretty cool. But classy girls don’t kiss in bars, you fool.”

Submarines is my standout favorite. it uses the piano as a percussion instrument, a guitar strum that is barely noticeable and a heavy drum that continually tries to outbang the piano. The lyrics, clever as always, tell the story of a boy who spots a submarine during wartime. The catchiest song of the album, this one continually changes. You won’t have the structure of the song down until you’ve listened to it a few times.

“ran back to town bar and I told the people how

I had seen a submarine and everyone laughed aloud.”


Though the majority of songs are upbeat, the album has its share of sadness. Dead Sea is a song with a story I haven’t quite figured out, but carries a tune that makes it worth listening to again and again. Stubborn Love has the common idea of a girl who continually hurts him, but he can’t let go because he loves her and its just that simple. They aren’t my favorites, but unlike most sad songs, they play very well in the background of a social event.

Flapper Girl somehow creates the sense of childhood with a simple piano melody that repeats and repeats, being carried by, again, the songs clever lyrics. The song stands out because of the imagery it creates. It tells multiple stories and in the chorus, asks the question “Would you call, would you write back baby?” It is the final joyful song in the album, being followed by the only song in the album I actually dislike, Morning Song, which lacks the characteristics of all other songs on the album, playing a bitter, darker melody that puts a sour final taste on the album.

“Local boy, local news

Power lines, hanging boots

firemen in the trucks cut loose

a local boys shoes.”



I like 10 of the 11 songs, giving this album a score of 90%

Being a New Dad

Parenting is one of the greatest mysteries of life. Both to a parent and non-parent, the scope of the differences between being a parent and not being one is as wide as the gap between men and women. I knew before my little girl was born that I was going to go through some changes in my life. I had no idea it would be this significant. Talking is a common mistake ignorant people make. Like most ignorant people, I did plenty before I was a dad, and I do plenty still. I remember making all kinds of claims about how I would be emotional but not that emotional, how I would do this or that and teach them this is that or make them do that one thing that I never got to do growing up. Its not wrong to make assumptions about your ideal self, but it can hit hard when you find how wrong you were. Besides all of my talk, I also had a lot of fears. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to love my child the way other parents loved theirs. I was worried I wouldn't connect with her, that I wouldn't be comfortable holding her or that I would be driven mad with her constant crying. Strange how all of those things are true about other people's babies, but not my own. I felt a part of my mind being unlocked: Like I gained access to a small portion of that supposedly untapped 90% of the brain everyone has.

Im still in the early stages of this new chapter, yet I am already discovering things about myself that I never knew I was capable of. I can feel myself growing out of bad habits that used to haunt me. I have even less interest than before in the ways of the world; the hip, modern, stylish and new. I care less about movements and the latest gossip. In contrast, I find myself more and more concerned about where our government is going, how our education is lacking, how the economy is doing, and where our nation as a whole is headed.

The person I want to be now for my little girl and for my wife is becoming an even more difficult goal, but again, there is a sense of urgency and resolve welling up inside me that simply didn't exist before Peighton was born.

Also, I never quite understood what it was for parents to "have joy" in their kids. Now it makes perfect sense. When an older person would tell me about the "joy of parenthood" it sounded like some intentionally vague description to avoid sounding like they hated it. I understand now that it is the most perfect way to describe it. Being a daddy just makes me happy.

It's still early to say definitively, but I now have a renewed zeal in Christ as well. There are plenty of things happening that could just as easily be attributed to this however. Nonetheless I am excited that I have a growing concern for the things of God, and I hope it becomes a bigger deal in my life as I continue to grow as a Christian, husband and parent. As I see some of my closest friends becoming or expecting to be fathers, I get happy for them. They're about to enter a whole new life. One that's grand, life-altering and ultimately happier than anything they've yet experienced.