Saturday 14 June 2008

Event Horizon

So the title for this entry is probably more dramatic than it should be. The fact is that as a gamer you sometimes end up with some specimen that you cannot seem to stop playing no matter how hard you try. In this instance it is Mass Effect.

The plain fact is that I do not have to say a single word about it, because review sights all over the world are right now queuing to praise it to Heaven. Although of course there will be some ignorant people who refuse to see its brilliance and will try to brutally pull it down from its throne of glory out of jealousy and spite. Though I'll say that apart from a few inconsistensies and signs of negligence, it is, in two words, bloody awesome. I felt a bit disturbed that some insectoid aliens I was fighting were carrying enough cash to collectively buy out Bill Gates. Now I have come to assume that they are all EA stock holders.

________

While I never actually managed to watch Citizen Kane in one go, I started poking at some Alfred Hitchcock movies - Rear Window and Vertigo. Though both movies had issues with believability, they were very interesting and provided me with a perspective I had not previously explored. Granted, many modern movies have drawn inspiration from earlier decades, so I can easily recognise many of the themes, and both features definitely cannot hide their age. Nevertheless both of them are intriguing even today; as statements about human psychology and as a looking glass that allows the mind to explore the past. /exit preteniousness

Always a pleasure to discover that there is a lot of brilliant stuff just waiting to be examined.

Thursday 5 June 2008

...

Not entirely tired. No. Just a slight hint of fatigue as impersonal as a brief acquaintance; there is no attempt to bond with the sensation because it will be leaving shortly... It is liberating to be filled with that kind of apathy, but even more liberating to know that the apathy will soon be gone.
But it moves with the speed of light and will be there long before I arrive at my new destination, and I know that it will envelop me once again. For each moment it touches me it slowly becomes part of the way I think, and though it is heavy the weigh seems to be a comfort rather than a burden; not because I like its presence, but because I have grown numb and cannot truly feel it anymore.
Where I saw the dancing colours there is now a sense of grey that wishes its own place among them, as a spectator. It does not want to participate because it feels uncertain of its own abilities.

A thick liquid moves across the floor, almost seeming to grab it as if the liquid itself possessed muscles. It is far easier to watch it indifferently when it teaches my feet and gnaws at my shoes, but it is not numbness that makes me ignore it. It is rather something I thought I saw, something I glimpsed outside. But not long enough.

I am not sure if I woke up.

Monday 2 June 2008

Rock me hard but softly


The heat's in my eyes and in my throat so deep I feel like I'm going to choke on it any minute now. The preliminary stages of allergy are slowly announcing their arrival; my eyes are occasionally itching like hell and I know it is only going to get worse. Naturally I have also caught a Summer cold while I am at it.

And a road sign decided to ambush me the other day when something made me lose control of my bicycle, learning me some tasty bruises. The sense of pain was however overshadowed by the chance to play Rock Band which was, indeed, bloody awesome. Apart from the fact that their plastic replica of a Fender Stratocaster feels like something of an abomination to play.
Nearly endless customisation options for your own individual rocker ensures that people who are so inclined can waste hours pimping up their appearance.
I made a huge, bearded muscular motherfucker called Lister Twister, which most of all sounds like the name of a hardcore pornstar. You might argue that lots of stage lights and bling is pretty superfluous when they have no effect on the gameplay, but they certainly added to the general feel of the game. The small awards that each band member can achieve after a song were also cause for much hilarity, like when our bassist got the award "Unconcious", while I could feel the comfortable sense of ego inflation that comes with getting the "Legendary Solo" award in a difficult song.



Hey dudes, it's 12 Angry Men, not 11 Surprised Morons!

As a continuation of my little nostalgia trip I have watched "12 Angry Men", a cinematic gem unknown to most people from my generation. It is about a jury of 12 men whose task is to decide whether or not an 18-year-old guy killed his father. A few things may be outdated, but to me the sum total of the movie is a great deal of character acting that adds a lot of depth to the 12 main characters even though we only know them for about an hour and a half. The fact that we only know the men by their behaviour and professions (which are revealed throughout the movie) and not by any names ensures that we are not too distracted, and the real-time approach makes the entire experience more authentic.

Next up on my nostalgia list is Citizen Kane.