The original was better.

I'm back. Sorry for the delay.
Let's get right to it.

Complaining about remixes. Highly popular these days. These part few decades electronic remixes of any kind of music, be it classical our classic rock, converted into dance, trance or dubstep, have become increasingly popular. A notorious example is the baker street remix. Some consider it butchery, others call it murder. Many, of course, don't consider it anything but good dance-music. As it is. There are two reasons one would remix a song. The first is to improve a song that isn't very good. The second is what I imagine happened to baker street. A song, no matter how good, will only have a limited audience. I do not believe there is a single universally loved song. But there are many people who love an original song, and realize its potential. This song could, with adjustments, be enjoyed by others than the original demographic. This is hardly murdering an existing masterpiece. If anything, it gives others a taste of a style of music they would otherwise not come into contact with. And of course those who love the original do not enjoy the remix. They aren't supposed to. The song was remixed for an audience that isn't them.

I fear I have few rabbits on this phone, so no pictures to round off this time.

Greetings

from Ireland. :)

Damn you Rockstar!

Look, I've complained about Rockstar before. Yes, I admit, the stupid kind of complaint, and the complaint I'm not really allowed to make: "Why do you guys keep making games this good?" I've told you people before how Red Dead Redemption was so good it made me cry, because it made me get attached to the characters. It made me care about the main character's plight so much, when the ending came, I was so incredibly moved. I explained this HERE.

However, their newest installment, L.A. Noire is completely different. The main Character, Cole Phelps, seen below, is someone completely unlike Marston. Marston's seen the true face of danger, was a dangerous criminal, and decided to leave that life, to become a family man, have a ranch. He's forced to become a lawman of sorts to hunt his old gangmates.

Phelps, on the other hand. Is a man with incredible ambition. He came from the war, where he was awarded medals for bravery. His friends hated him, however. Why that is, is only slowly revealed, but it was obvious his ambition was more important to him than anything.
When the war ended, he became a policeman, determined to become the most successful case-man L.A. had ever seen, in time having to hunt his old friends from the war.

The difference between Cole and Marston is that Marston wanted to escape the violence, and life his life happily. Phelps... It's not clear what he wants. He's stone-cold, like Mason, but more because of principle than because of his past. It's shown he was wound too tight before the war as well.

Then why is this game just as good RDR? Because of its story. RDR was a character-driven story. It made me want to continue for my own sake, because I, John Marston, wanted my wife and child back.

L.A. Noire is story-driven, but in such a way that the story fuels the emotions. After having seen the mutilated victims of a serial killer, you start hating him. Not as Cole Phelps, but as the player. And you're going to be the one to catch him, even if it kills you. And that gets stronger and stronger throughout the game, as Cole's character gets more and more 3-dimensional, so does the story. It's in the details. A house burnt down, with 5 people in it, and while searching through the wreckage, you find a family photo. An old baseball with just the slightest hint of a signature on it. And you just can't help but getting angry at whoever did this.

Another great game by rockstar. And they're working on the next Max Payne. I'm wondering how that will work out.

Dexter

Dexter, the new TV series, not the cartoon, is about a serial killer working as a bloodspatter analyst for the Miami Metropolitan Police Department. He grew up with a father who realized what he was, and taught him a code, so he'd never get caught, and would only kill killers.

Power and perspective.

Aside from the 'long depression' of 2008 and the devaluation of money in general, the early 21st century has seen another inflation: the inflation of the value of information. Information used to be power, but with the advent of the internet, information became less and less valuable as it became available to everyone.
Many pre-internet adults have not realized this shift, or find it too difficult to adjust to it. Teachers are still convinced they are somehow better than their students because they know many things their students don't, but aside from those in advanced fields, they don't. I can conjure up the same knowledge as a 4th grade geography teacher. Sure,not off.the top of my head,but the internet has become an extension if my knowlege.
I believe that, as of now, power no longer lies in what you know, but in the application of it. After all, it is almost impossible to posses knowledge noone else is privy to. So your uniqueness lies in your perspective. Lateral. Out of the box. As a little thought experiment: make, in as few words as possible, a connection between nihilism and plastic wrap. Or make a drawing, pictionary-style, of "self-deprecating". Or make up your own exercises.

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(There's no) satisfying the CoD crowd

If you've ever played a call of duty-like shooter, you will have noticed several things.
First, they seem to hate the game with a passion. They all agree that a previous one was better, but they all play the new one because everyone else is doing it.
Second, most of them are convinced that not only are they pretty good, they're better than their friends.
Third, many claim to have a sort of 'code of honour'. There's certain things they'll never do, except when they really want to or have to. Fourth, and the point of this post, is that they hate every other player who kills them. It disputes their belief in their own awesomeness. Those people,obviously inferior, must therefore have killed them in a way that doesn't count. Maybe there was lag, or maybe the other player broke the code (which, again,only applies to others). How do they break it?
1. Sprinting + firing from the hip. More effective than carefully aiming.
2. Running around with 2 shotguns/revolvers.
3. Staying in a single location, say, a building, securing it, and killing those who get close.
4. Staying on a rooftop, a while away, and sniping everybody to bits.
5. Quickscoping in close quarters.
6. Knifing.
7. Random grenades.
8. Aimed grenades.
9. Ditto flashbangs.
10. Rocket launchers, grenade launchers and claymores.
Basically, all you're allowed to do is hang around the frontline, while everyone else pretends not to use all of the above techniques to end you.
And I find the notion that you're not allowed to play the game the way it's written pretty silly.



Also, first post from my cellphone

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Dark

Morbid little poem. My blog, my morbid poetry. Oh, and in case you think I've gotten emo (lol), this was commissioned :D

Are you scared

of the dark, my friend?

You are, no need

to pretend, my friend.

You're unprepared

in the dark, my friend.

It will feed,

yes the dark, yes it will, my friend.

The darkness is alive, it's a thing.

It's old and strong and terrifying.

And it only wants you to sing,

my friend.
To sing and scream and plea,

my friend.

You are not prepared,

my friend.

and while the dark has got you scared,

my friend.... you're not nearly scared

enough.

The dark will fill your nose,

with ash and smoke, like a black perfume.

The dark will fill your mouth,

with tar and oil, like a final drink.

It will fill your lungs and cloud your eyes and seep into your ears.

It will wrap around your brain and clench it tight,

filling your mind and your eyes with tears

as it takes away the morning light.

And then it shows its teeth, in your mind,

black and twisted, bent like steel,

it will root and dig and grind and find,

a nightmare in your head and make it real.

Are you scared of the dark, my friend?

More ranting about time

You know, I've been wondering something. We perceive there to be this moment called the 'now', which is between "back then" and "in a sec". Everyone recognizes this, as it is the moment where shit goes down, where decisions are made (after all, you can't make a decision in the past).

But this "now" we speak of, are we sure it's universal? If you look at your life as a timeline, you can say that the now is something that moves forward, like a track on itunes. But that doesn't make any sense. What's the speed of that progress bar? One second per second? Infinite nows/hour?

Why Assassin's Creed is one of the saddest games I've ever played.

At first glance, Assassin's Creed is about people stabbing other people. However, there's more to it than that. Yes, the first two main characters that are introduced, Altair Ibn La Ahad and Desmond Miles are bland, so unidimensional you could say they're non-dimensional. But it's when Ezio Auditore da Firenze is introduced that, to me, the Assassin's Creed franchise not only picks up speed, but emotion and strength as well.

Duality Post

Double post, to make up for lost time and stuff. First off is a review of splice. I'm not going to give you any spoilers, don't worry.