Hey, been awhile, but I was musing on a subject which seems to be a bit of pop culture taboo…

That taboo is what is known as “emo” music. For those that do not know, “emo” music (emo = emotionally immense; full of overpowering emotion; inappropriate levels of sadness or angst aganist any particular person, group or object of interest) is a general term for music that is looked at and seen as such for being very adolenscent in nature- almost “angry teen” like? To make this clearer, emo music is usually built up of angsty and fustrated lyircs, with dark undertones and bluesy feel to them about the topic of the song- if there is one, that is. However, for a good long while now — over half a decade now, almost any song that has any one of these themes in them or are seen by a fairly large group of to have those themes, will undoubtedly be cast as part of them.

This is what I don’t get. Why label everything as “emo” that has some level of fustration or a tinge of “teenage” rock when there are perfectly good examples of more suitable ones from widely-regarded “metalhead” bands and artists. Emo means guys like Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Avenged Sevenfold, Theory of a Deadman, 12 Stones and other ones like them. “Proper”, “hard metal” artists like Slipknot, System of a Down, Bullet For My Valentine and Disturbed could easily been seen as bands that are also “emo” in nature, due to their common themes of anger and blues and hate and so on.

God forbid, bands like Default, Pearl Jam, Alter Bridge become labeled like this as well. Thing is, though, guys like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and Nirvana still remain relatively ok-ish while straight-to-the-point rock artists like Default are grouped into the “emo” cloud. It’s… astounding. It seems people really, really don’t know what emo acutally means? Does anyone know? Do I even know what “emo” is? Well, if any band who uses themes, styles or whatever that are attributed as being part of the mind boggle that is the “emo genre acutally makes songs that aren’t so much like what they’re made out to be, then they’ll still be made out to be like that anyway.

It’s just a thought, really, but there is a truth that anything that the majority doesn’t like will pretty much be outcasted as “alternative” or worse, “Radio Zero” (my own coinage- heh heh). A song might sound like it could be “emo”, especially if some annoying lay-about 14-15 yr old is listening to it on the bus, but not all songs are like that and not all bands can be classed as that. In fact, I’m gonna go listen to some rock now and it’s Default and it’s the song Throw It All Away- and if that’s “emo”, then I surely don’t want to know what isn’t “emo”…

I’m sure by now anyone who’s into zombie films, games or just zombies in general will be aware of this new film that has only just recently been released in the last week: Zombieland. Those very same people would have probably watched it in the first couple of days, but I only came about watching it due to going out with a friend. I’m not really a fan of zombie films, you see. However, I actually came away from this film with the sense of a good watch and definite answer of a “film you should definitely watch if you’re zombie fan and for anyone who likes a bit of action-comedy every so often.” So, why should you go to see this film then?

Image taken from http://dietrichthrall.files.wordpress.com/

Well, let’s start with the premise. There’s been a very generic — and frank p*ss-take — of an outbreak of a virus that is very dangerous and has made its way across the entire continent of North America and one which has turned practically everyone into ferocious, mind-broken, primal, flesh-eating hominid creatures. There’s hardly any people left unaffected by the virus and those that have are slowly dieing out. Strangely, the virus seems to have started out as a mutation of Mad Cow disease, which goes to show the amount of purposeful p*ss-takes the director and writers did for this film- and there’s even more to come. Back to film…

We enter the film after a lengthy introductory sequence which has given us the “411″ on the background of the film, which shows a montage of sorts of various gory, nasty, vicious, frantic and unashamedly humourous deaths that various people become the victim of during the last few weeks- the virus is a real people person, for sure. Anyway, we enter the film to find a young and slightly bewildered college student — possibly a freshman, but who knows? — that seems to have survived the devastation and is currently filling up their car. The student, who happens to be a nerdy guy, needs to go to the bathroom real bad. This turns out to be a big mistake and results in a frantic action sequence with him trying to escape an onslaught of zombies who are out for their next meal of the night.

Image taken from http://zombieslash.com/

Well, he manages to get away and afterwards we’re treated a scene of total desolation on a highway, in between Mid-Western forestland at midday with destruction all around and no people in sight at all. From here, there is a definite feeling of a sort of bareness throughout the traversable world in the movie and it propels the film forward all the way until the end. On this highway, travelling light — seeing as it is one of rules self-put in place for zombie apocalypse survival — is the same student, whose name happens to be Columbus, which is the name of the town that he’s making his way over too. Along the way, he receives a shock and out of nowhere comes the next survivor of the all the chaos and madness of the last few weeks.

A man, middle-aged and rugged, known by the name of Tallahassee — also named after his home town to avoid attachment between the two — rides up in a customised land machine of some sort- actually, it’s a customised 4×4, but “land machine” sounds much more post-apocalyptic. Columbus and Tallahassee share their stories of the past weeks — with some humour to be found, of course — and we find out that Columbus was quite a loner in his past life, while Tallahassee remains somewhat of a mystery but seems to be running away from something. However, Tallahassee is also on the lookout for Twinkies, which leads to a major sub-plot of the movie- with varying and comical results.

Image taken from http://cachestudio.net/

As the two travel along, killing zombies and trying to find Twinkies for Tallahassee, they stop off at a mall in search of the Twinkies once again. It is at this point that Tallahassee gets into his prime and some really well-done zombie — but quite gruesome — gruesome fighting scenes take place in the mall. After dealing with the zombies in the mall, the pair come across a young woman similar in age to Columbus, who is called Wichita, who then leads them to her kid sister Little Rock, who seems to have been bitten but hasn’t and… well, it goes pretty wrong for the two men after that.

With all four of them eventually together, though, there is a real group dynamic that shines throughout the movie and keeps the dialogue between the characters flowing right up until the end credits roll. They each implicitly trust each other, both for their mutual survival and the fact that they just seem to gel, even with their clashing personalities. Throughout the film, there are several parts where their fragile peace together becomes unstuck and at key point leads to strife between them — especially the sisters and the men –but always seems to work out in the end- leading to a bit of a good vibe which is always welcome.

Image taken from http://crashlanden.files.wordpress.com/

The environment of the United States, from the Mid-West to the West Coast, is far-reaching and distinctive, ranging from shadowy forestland to barren country roads and even derelict cities such as Los Anglaes- where there is also a guest appearance by a rather well-known actor, which provides some comic relief from the tense journey across the country. Each place visited feels different and provides a sense of bleak outlooks, the further the group go. And, of course, for each place the group visits, there are the legions of zombies waiting for them…

And boy do those zombies look convincing! The SFX team even managed to make a hot college chick look like a freak of nature at one point early on in the film. The zombies come thick and fast, never stopping and always a menace that has to be avoided by the group in order not be overun- even though they are all capable of handling weapons, even the young girl. The fights they provide are bloody and they are a gruesome and nasty sight, if there ever was one more ghastly than that. On many occasions, the group comes close to being taken down by them, but somehow, the whole groups prevails unscathed- which may upset some zombies genre fans with a nihilistic outlook on it all. They come in different shapes, sizes, ferocity and even costumers for some!

Image taken from http://callmefreckles.files.wordpress.com/

The music, sound and atmosphere of the film is well in key with the film and successfully keeps a sense of excitements and tension flowing through key fights and getaways. Adrenaline plays a big role in the film — I mean, it is a zombie comedy/action horror flick, of course — and engages you for the most part, with such well-done pieces such as the impact of weapons on the zombies and realistic sounding smashes and crashes and so on and so forth.

Overall, this film definitely hits the high mark for me. I may not be a zombie genre fan, but this film was quite warm and had some genuinely funny parts to it, with decent action scenes and some well-written dialogue between characters, which adds both a sense of sympathy at times for their plight but makes them seem Human, rather than just an odd assortment of survivors trying to make it. There’s nothing much bad to say about the film, except that it’s little too action-ny at parts and tends to cast the characters at part as soldiers with an unlimited supply of ammo and guns- but they’re only minor irritances, at any rate.

The film is that good that Mr. California Governator endorses it's goodiness. Image taken from http://verleih.polyfilm.at/

A definitive must-see for zombie fans, for those who like their action comedies, or those looking for a decent watch at the cinema with a friend or two.

Bit of a strange day today. Writing about computer games, most gamers would think, is pretty easy, no? Well, when you write on forums about it, then yes, I guess it is. Writing about the games coming out, your favourite way of playing, what’ll you’ll do in it and so on and so forth. When it comes to writing about it as a piece for your assignment for college, things tend to go a different way entirely…

That’s not to say writing about games isn’t fun or interesting- so don’t fret you budding young games journalists in the making, we need you! Writing about games in an informal sense can easily be described as a casual thing that you do on a forum or discussion board — or blog such as this — where everyone gets where your coming from. when writing a report on the matter, there is much more explanation to do and toning down the amount of “internal” knowledge you and other gamers might have but that lecturer or assessor of your work might not take so kindly to.

To you and me, that might seem like normal. A person on the outside won't know what the dickens it is, mind. Image taken from http://www.l4d.com/

Take this notion from a part of my report: “Arguably the most popular and common form of computer game around, the Action genre of games encompasses a wide variety of different game types with varying features and environments and dynamics.” Now, to me and possibly you the reader — especially the gamer-knowledgeable ones — that’s just common knowledge. Yeah, pretty much it is, but how you say it in gamer terms, usually goes along these lines: “u know bout mario and that hedgehog dude? man, jumpin platfrms an all that bit boring. need some proper games u knw? cant do this sh*t no more rarrrh need some cod man. that new one got proper right submachne guns you know p90 and mp5? I did some guy bad up with the ak no silencer or scope!”

And that’s where the difference lies. Not so much as the context or the general scope of what is being talked about. It’s more to do with the explanation rather than that of the assumed. This is probably all obvious to someone and you’re probably thinking, “yeah man, why are you talking about this? I know this stuff already, man”. You’d most likely be right- but that’s for the nasty, have-no-social-life forumites to decide. Writing informal-like is pretty easy, it’s when you have to apply that knowledge and explain it to someone else that it becomes more of a struggle. It ain’t entirely an easy ride writing what you know out in a formal way, as anyone who has done a similar assignment in uni/college will attest to.

Domain of the gamer, unknown to the outsider. Image taken from http://ec.mashable.com/

It’s not to say it’s hard, no far from it! It’s more of an “expansion” on what you already know and how to articulate so that a less knowledgeable person is going to be able to understand you. I can use “l33t spek” and “LOLs” all I like. One question: how the heck is that lecture going to understand what the heck you’re saying? More likely, it’ll be you saying: “within the gamer world, there are various abbreviations and slang words attributed to different expressions of feelings and statures”, or “certain levels or features in a game can be found to be humourous to the player if written, timed and used well.” I guess, in the end, what I’m trying to say is that when writing and talking about games gets academic, then well… it certainly won’t be all sponge cake and milkshake- in a manner of speaking.

What is this thing with the whole American thing and the spirit that encompasses the lazy, chilled lie-downs in the parks, a picnic with a few good friends and some baseball match going on at the field. The green trees slowly turning orange and yellow — with some turning a lovely, verivous red — and then a breeze in the air coolling you down to a summer lounge in the beat of some Soft Rock echoing gently from the stereo you or a friend brought along to the glorious day of sunshine that you find becomes so peaceful and envirgorating that you just end up like jelly to the good vibe of it all.

Image taken from http://willow-weep-for-me.typepad.com/

It’s some seriously good stuff. Now, I know there’ll be people that’ll be thinking, “well, this ain’t the OC, man” and “that stuff only happens in fantasy”. Well, the latter is partially right. I haven’t been to the park with friends recently, so I might organise that at some point — which would be lovely, but that is besides the point. The point is that there’s a certain “feeling” to the Orange County, summer breeze, easy chilling way of it all that is quite… well, pleasant to be honest. And frankly, I think that’s just grand.

Listening to the American 90′s classics in rock like Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life” (even though the lyrics are really dirty), Matchbox Twenty’s “3 A.M.”, Sugar Ray’s “Fly”, 3 Doors Down’s “Be Like That” and maybe even Barenaked Ladies’s (lovely name, don’t you think?) “One Week”- with that last being the one everyone remembers for being the “chickty chici, chinese chicken” song. It’s all a bit too bright and sunny for the generally grey and overcast days that normally show up, but when the sun’s out and it’s all good music with a few choice tunes, then it’s all good pretty much.

Image taken from http://img2.travelblog.org/

Food. Drink. And treats, too. Three of the necessary things — although those on a “just don’t eat anything filling” diet can omit the latter — for a good, if not great picnic as well. If you’re lazy, then maybe something at the cafe in the park. Either way, though, you want yourself a vairety of foods, Chicken wings, salad, flatbread, some fruit, scotch eggs and whatever else stuffs you silly. Drink: for sure some lemonade and some cola and maybe a jigger of the old “Irish Water” for keeps, you see- heh heh. And dessert would be whatever you would have, but I’d defintely see if I could get some Fudge Cake with some slightly melted Ice Cream stored in a very chilled ice bag.

All this stuff. It all makes up a wonderful, sunny day with much fun and whimsy for those who want to make it so. Maybe it’s all that music, or the kind of feel of seeing the parks with all types of people in them? Maybe it’s the whole college/university thing about it that makes it so appealing? Or it could simply be that a good day is a good day. It’s all-American and none of the American imitation stuff, neither. The sun beaming down on you, keeping you bronze and healthy-looking. The clear, vanilla blue sky, with wispy puffs of water formed into clouds. Excellent stuff. Good for the heart, mind, body and soul. Definitely, this thing is an American thing.

Apologies for not posting more frequently, but due to my work schedule and the time I have between this blog and it’s sister blog Post-Apocolyptia, college work, modding and general stuff so I won’t be posting much until the weekends. If you want a quick look at my current thoughts, head over here

However, between Saturday to Monday, I will most definitely be posting up an article. I guess you could call it your 1 or 2 a week, if you want. And yes, I still have ideas about the posts, so don’t you worry- they didn’t invent paper for nothing, you know. (I still write down notes, yes and I’m aware that this is the “information” age…)

Some of you who read more of Xercies articles might have noticed that they’ve not been posting much recently. That’s due to their slightly weepy, but still great-to-see-them-succeed move over to university to study, what I believe is something to do with computer modelling and computer animation- but hopefully soon, they’ll be able fill you in on that, if they choose to do so. But yes, eventually, Xercies may post something up, so don’t worry too much for those who liked his real good article on the plight of the movie industry and indie films.

So yes, don’t worry, this blog is not dead, but because of time constraints, it’s now going to be more a 1 or 2 days week thing at the weekends than every other day-ish. Right, I’m off and I’d quickly like to thank those who have read our blog and we hope you had fairly cool read at it all and maybe a laugh or two? But yeah, thanks guys and we’ll see ya at the weekends

Regards,
DexJackson

P.S Also worth of note are the amount of readers seemed to jump from the usual number range to quite a large spike on account of the men who are already taken so they get more women post. Heh heh, I wonder why that could be, eh?

Image taken from http://www.uis.edu/

Ok, ok. So, “Facebook” is a bit of silly name. I mean, you’re not going to literally put your face in a book- although considering the kinds of people who use these soc-nets, I wouldn’t be surprised. Anyhow, yesterday I was in the process of writing up some more of an assignment handed to me during the lecture, when I saw an acquaintance in the lecture sitting next to me log on onto Facebook. Now, I know full well that this is normal to hundreds of thousands of young teenagers to those “classed” as young adults and that it’s all too common. Except, this person next to me – who I had a good laugh about it with – logged on and stayed on ever single lesson.

Now, I know that it’s important to network in many forms. From simple talking to a heated forum discussion; hitting the town to get some numbers and contacts, even as far as to ignore requests from a fellow transatlantic ally to discuss matters and then simply have a “walk ‘n’ talk” in the kitchen and out into the garden. However, I’ve never really understood soc-nets as being a tool for networking with others, simply because in the end – at least, to me – they are a waste of your time. Even Bill Gates backs this up with Facebook and the like- unfortunately, having no previous knowledge “at all” about their sponsorship of Facebook in the first place.

When I look at it, stripped down to its bare parts, all I see is really an online poster board with a few add-ons like an IM feature and mini-game thingys. I really don’t see the appeal in continually updating something like that- although with this blog, that’s an entirely different matter anyhow. You’re only really just saying what you’re doing in the last or even next five minutes, anyway. It also interferes with your work quite badly too and I’m sure any new Uni students this year will be having to shed that behaviour rapidly. But in any case, I think there can be times where someone can have a bit too much Facebook and all that. If you really want to continually update complete strangers on the web of your status, then I think it’s time to let it go a bit.

I found this to be not so much surprising as more common, scientific sense- then anything else. Reading that article, those professors – both women, coincidentally – seem to have pretty much speculated the “right stuff”. Now, I could turn this into a metaphor, which I will in a moment. Let’s tell you a bit about the experiment that they did first. Now, what those two women did was to round up some university students, one half made up of females and the other of males. They then asked the males and females, one by one – who were all heterosexual, it seems – a few questions on their personality; and then, after finishing that, they presented them with a picture of their “dream woman/man”. Standard practise for a normal dating firm, right?

This might not actually be the "real deal" for jealousy and attraction with the sexes. Image taken from http://www.modernmanliving.com/

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. For every man and woman who were used as part of this experiment, they were told that they had the “right stuff” – told you I use it – for the man/woman shown to them and that they’d be great as a couple. It gets even more interesting. That very same man/woman was actually just one man and one woman! The same for all of them. Here’s where it really, really gets interesting. For both groups, the males and females, one half was told that the man/woman shown was single and the other half was shown that they were already taken. Then the members of the two groups were, again, individually asked whether or not they found that man/woman shown attractive.

If you've got a woman already interested in you - or even in a relationship with you, there'll be others looking to take her place. Image taken from http://fruitfly.files.wordpress.com/

You’d think that it wouldn’t matter, wouldn’t you? Think again. After tallying up the results of the experiment; it was found that the with the male group, whether or not their “dream woman” was single or taken, they found the same woman roughly equally attractive no matter their status. However, when they looked at the women’s results, they found a sharp contrast between the statues. They found that “Fifty-nine per cent
of women offered a single man were interested in pursuing a relationship.” Contrast with “When the man was attached, 90 per cent said they were up for the chase.” Now how about that?

Take note: these kinds of women may not be at all out of reach if you've already been taken. Image taken from http://static.thefrisky.com/

I suppose this isn’t really a surprise to anyone, as I think – with relative life experience – that we all knew this to some extent- especially the ladies, heh heh. I’ve noticed this myself when I’m out with a girl friend, that anytime I’m paying attention to her or just generally “walking ‘n’ talking”, that virtually every other young woman of a round-about similar age – of which there are a fair few – seem to give me the longer “eye up” rather than most other guys around me- and we’re just friends as well! As it says in the article: “single women may be more drawn to attached men because they’ve been “pre-screened” by other women and found to be satisfactory as a mate”. So, women really do want the fellas who’ve been taken, eh? Well, if experiences like mine are anything to judge by, I’d put my money right on that being true, for sure…

Something got me thinking a bit today. Well, duh, this is WiseAss Thinkers, so I’m always thinking. However, what piqued my interest today was not so much the fact of some humorous encounter, nor was it the fact of a story or amusing anecdote I might have heard. No… well, it was something I heard, but it wasn’t funny. Actually, it wasn’t even something to smile at. It was a little disturbing and quite odd to hear on a public bus ride while I was on my commute. And that thing was: Sex Armbands.

No, I’m probably quite late to this whole new fad- in fact, I’m fairly sure I am. Thing is, I’ve never actually heard of anything quite this weird in a while. I mean, I’m the Prince of Madness and xercies – the other guy on this blog – is the Acolyte of Oddity, but come on! Now, maybe I should explain what this whole thing is. Essentially, from what I heard on the bus ride, you take a full selection of armbands – like the ones you get from the charities – which are of different colours: ranging from red, green, dark blue, pink and then some more. Now, you might think what do charity-like looking bands have to do with the “sex” part in the title? Well, for every band there is, there is sex move or record you have to have done or hold successfully, respective of both. Now, here’s the catch: these were 10-12 yr olds speaking about this like it was a normal thing!

Now, I’m not a neo-conservative, bible-wielding, chastity-encouraging, uptight son of gun; but at some point, isn’t there a line where kids should and should not know about certain things in life? Particularly where some of the things they were talking about are technically illegal- and to make a very nasty joke, would send a “certain child-liking” type of person over the moon to hear. I don’t want to sound prudish here – which I suppose I am, but anyway – and I know that the time that kids learn the stuff of life and how the bits and bobs work is pretty much always becoming ever younger. Even so, some of the stuff those kids said, bear in mind that this was “broadcasted” over the bus for all to hear, was pretty shocking- if I’m going to be honest. I mean, I’ve all well and learned much of the stuff they were talking about at pretty much around my later years in High School, but these kids know about it at bloody 11! I can’t imagine what kind of stuff they’ve seen at that very fragile age.

Again, I stress that I am not saying that this entirely a bad thing- although I would say it does merit that statement. However, when you have kids learning about the stuff like “rimjobs” and “gagging” at an age such as that: you know there is something deeply wrong with the world. A preteen’s brain is neither equipped nor mature enough to understand these things and we know it as truth. I know that pretty much all of my generation learned about the stuff we know through porn websites and all that- which is not really the best way to learn it at all. The thing is: how is a kid going to know the difference between a video or picture of acted rape porn and acted consensual porn?

In the end, though, we all learn about this stuff at some point. Some at, unfortunately, at really early ages – we’re talking 4-8 or so here – and others at what would be considered more appropriate ages of around 14-16. Even so, kids aren’t just learning this stuff; they’re carrying it out too. Look at the case of the 13 yr old who’s now fathering a child with a girl two years his senior, or the 6 yr old girl in India who was rapped by a boy her same age (no link to the news story- apologies). It’s an unfortunate side-effect of this ever increasingly sexualised world we live in. Even the most liberal or people would find cases like the above discouraging. Still, the more screwed up in the heads the newest crop of budding, young teens are: the more likely that we’ll learn from out mistakes to stop this happening to newer generations to come- if we can at all by then…

Author: Xercies

WiseAss Thinkers

Ever since the success of consoles like the Xbox and Xbox 360 with their action games like Halo and Gears of War I have noticed something changing to the Gaming Industry pretty much everywhere in the way games are advertised and play now a days. It kind of disturbs me and that change is that a lot of stuff is mostly singling on action and killing people. There is pretty much no room for slower or strategic games in this marketplace any more it seems. That saddens me.

What led me up to this thought is the recent Dragon Age trailers which are horrible in every sense; it features a horrible rock song backing made by Marilyn Manson, focuses on sex and action, and has horrible blood splatters. What makes me curious is that from hearing previews this sounds like a hardcore RPG not the action and sex crazed from the trailers, it seems hardcore RPGs can’t be advertised as they used to be you know on their hardcore RPG merits but they have to get the sex and blood guys in it because that’s the only thing that sells. But it doesn’t just stop at Dragon Age a lot of RPGs have changed to more of an Action RPG feel instead of an actual RPG feel, Bioware who used to make the Hardcore RPG series Baldurs Gate now makes the RPG lite Gun heavy Mass Effect. Obsedian another “Hardcore RPG” Maker is now making Alpha Protocol which seems to be heavy on the action. It seems RPGs as they used to be are pretty much dead and must go through to be Action games with light RPG elements.

Its not just RPGs that seem to be changing in this new action focused gaming world, real time strategy games seem to be changing as well. You would think that with the name strategy in the title of its genre it would be safe but it seems not. A few RTS games are coming out completely changing what the Genre feels like and giving it a more action and a lot of companies seem to be following; games like World and Conflict which does away with making a base and just has you sending men at the enemy and replenishing them, and Dawn of War 2 which gives you a small squad to go through various missions and kill aliens. This has made even hardcore RTS series Command and Conquer change it up and follow these guys pretty much taking the strategy away from the genres title and putting a A instead denoting Action.

Also a lot of miscellaneous things like there are definitely more First Person and third person shooters coming out instead of other genres. The trailers of games are also changing focusing on the action more then anything else, it seems you can’t advertise anything else. You must advertise action otherwise your game doesn’t get sold. I fear that this will only continue and it will get even rarer to find a game not based on shooting people. I like shooting people sometimes but I also like doing other things.

Date: 13/09/09

Author: Xercies

WiseAss Thinkers

Ever since I was young I have been more fascinated by the villains in films, books, and TV series and this may make me a psychopath but I liked them more. They were always more complicated then the heroes who all seemed to be these pretty boys who could do no wrong, the villains on the other hand went down a dark path and now they want to kill people and you wonder what happened to them to make them see that as the right thing to do. Also a lot of times they usually say the truth even though the heroes don’t want to hear about it.

The more stereotype villains are the ones with white cats and want to take over the world, even them have a point sometimes. A lot of them want to take over the world because they want to make the world into a better place or they want to wipe out humanity and they’ve got a point as well. We have ruined this earth and made extinct so many animals, cut down rainforests, and killed each other over land. But there are certain villains that aren’t stereotypes that are uncannily correct in their assessment.

Lex Luthor is one that you wouldn’t think of, he seems to be a pure capitalist bad guy and just wants to kill Superman instead of using his brain to help people. But to him killing Superman is helping the people, because he fears that Superman is making people lazy not saving themselves and not even bothering going forward in technology because they have Superman to save them. Most technology is created because we have needed it the most. He also sees Superman as making us Humans feel small and insignificant but he believes that we can do great things. That is why he hates Superman so much and I have to agree with him.

The Joker is a famous example of someone who is so crazy but whenever he speaks you just can’t help but agree with his crazy ways. He feels that the Human values and rules are all false and that we are just still basically animals on the inside waiting to get out. He also says that anyone can be broken and be made a criminal if they get a bad day, basically saying that everyone is on a knife edge easily pushed off of it. The thing he does in The Dark Knight where he puts the detonators of the bombs on the boat, I feel that the people on the civilian boat would have no qualms killing the people on the prison boat.

As you can see even though they do terrible things some of these guys thought processes have seen the side of humans that we do not want to see and they are correct in their assessment. I think we should listen to these villains since they say something about us and they are usually ourselves. The Hero is to perfect to be us, we always fantasise about being the hero but to be honest we would always be the villain in the piece because we will never achieve that perfection and it might be destructive if we try.

Posted in Analysis, Opinion, Society, xercies Tagged: Batman, Book, Film, Hero, Lex Luthor, Psycopath, Superman, The Joker, TV, Villains ]]> http://wiseassthinkers.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/the-villains-are-always-right/feed/ 0 xercies http://wiseassthinkers.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/perspective-gangland/ http://wiseassthinkers.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/perspective-gangland/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:21:31 +0000 dexjackson http://wiseassthinkers.wordpress.com/?p=435 ]]> There was a computer game that came out awhile back called Gangland. It was – I would guess – one that we all knew wouln’t be that good but might at least provide a few hours of distraction for a little bit or maybe another couple of hours or so.

Thing is, it did for me and I really enjoyed it- bear in mind, that I was younger then when it came out in 2004 than I am now. Heh heh- I had [i]extremely[/i] bad taste, even though a lot of the games then that people liked sucked on dried eggs from what I remember…

A picturesque scene of a peaceful street, without a fight between mobs in sight...

It was a cool little mish-mash of RTS and lite-RPG and didn’t really have any real management oppurtunities or features like the devs said it had, but that’s to be expected and it was fun nonetheless.

You started – in the main story – as a young associate in an Italian Mafia crime syndicate in some fictional city called Paradise City- so far, very generic. From there, you earn the Don of the syndicate’s trust and proceed through from extorting businesses and imtimidating street punks to exterminating enemy mobsters and even killing off enenmy bosses.

Your character will have to start out small, making his own ends meet until he rises up to become boss himself

After that, in “mysterious” circumstance (rubbish twists that you don’t expect but they had some quasi-decent writing to it, unlike most mish-mashes) your uncle – the Don – disappears and you’re left to take over the reins of the syndicate and expand and grow it until it becomes the most powerful in all of the districts of Paradise City. Until you get to the final district where you meet the creme da le creme of syndicates to fight and conquer.

Along the way, you have to kill your three brothers who mudered your fourth in cold blood but it doesn’t affect you too much apart from some dramatic “death in the family” music. The music was pretty amaturish but – surprisingly – never got annoying and got you into the mood- though how a Heavy Metal soundtrack fits a Mafia game is beyond me…

When the battles really start getting heated, the odd-placed Heavy Metal music actually keeps the battles flowing...

The graphics, although not the best at the time, were functional and passable but still quite “cold”. The gameplay mainly consisted early on of doing main missions for your uncle and then once you had a bit of extra cash: going on raids, extorting and taking over more businesses and suppliers, upgrading the weaponry of your entourage (which turn out to be your entire “family”) and killing off enemy bosses until you controlled the district. You could even marry and have kids to keep the family booming once you ascended to Don and had to “manage” – i.e. choose who to kill and trade with first – with other bosses.

Eventaully you'll be managing these "female adult entertainers" rather than just protect them from enemy soldiers

Overall, it was an average game that didn’t quite hit the mark but was a recommended for anyone who liked the Gangster genre at the time or needed something different to play while they waited for whatever games were coming out in 2004. It was a weird little game and has a special place in the anals of my gaming history – due to nostalgia – and I occasionally dig it out to play every now and then. And if you could get past the weird, half-and-half mix of 1930′s and 1990′s decor, vehicles, enviroment, businesses, people and weapons, you were set for a nice little bit of afternoon gaming. Maybe even two or possibly three afternoons you lil’mobster, you…

Listening to the BBC News Online TV stream thingy and I keep hearing about the damm Libya thing every half-hour and how everyone is now saying, “yez, thz Governzment don’t carez aboutz it’s citizenz and theyz justz wantz oil stillz rollingz inz etc…” For christ sake, we’ve known this since he started coming into the media highlight after all these years!

They’re going mad about this and latching on to it like it was about the little-known-over-here-in-Britain Iran-Contra affair- and we all know how hilarious that was, right? If not, here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair . Of course, the damm Nu-Labor Government would make deals like this. I mean, no compenstation for us (the victims and families of the victims), that bomber released and welcome on a plane trip home with open arms…

Oh, and don’t forget the bit of oil we get to keep as a result- oh no, please don’t forget that…Has anyone not relised that the whole, recent Lockerbie debacle was over oil supllies and “diplomatic relations”? In fact, the BBC – more likey Government intervention – have gone so far as to ploy a way out of this by asking some rather defensive questions. Now how’s that for your morning news? Well, those are just my little irritated ramblings for now, but I may expand on this further later on.

As any man or older boy knows, shopping for clothes is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. For a woman – and this is NOT a generalisation – it’s an easier thing to do, by which they just oogle at the clothes on offer or display – whatever they may be – and then proceed to find the same one in a different colour or size. For a man, however, it can be more troubling. Instead of being able to oogle at it all, if we want to find something that is our style – and not that tracksuit and hoodie combination that we as men all hold dear when we can’t be bothered to dress properly, then we have look, no, track down something that will last us awhile- and not run us out of our greens. The problem is… why do all the clothes seems to have all these “bright” and “exciting” colours and that they’re never really what you’re looking for but you’ll but get them anyway?

From one end to another until the right fit has been found. Great...

I would imagine by the title, that about 4/5 of readers would have left by now in disgruntlement and an irritated state. Well, that’s what I kinda feel looking the right shirt for that little thing I have to go to, or that pair of very nice trousers to show off to all the others that I am the real James Bond- which, in fact, I’m not and will probably never will be. The thing I’ve found is that finding the right items of clothing can be a bit of a bugger. Oh sure, all those hip and trendy guys wearing all those trilby hats and 3/4 lengths back in the summer may look the part, but when it comes to a good, decent bit of cloth goods, they don’t last- and they certainly don’t look good on those 30-something yr olds trying hold back on to their youth. I end up having to trail the mall or high street looking something with a bit of a statement which doesn’t cost me a mint and will last me a good while before having to do the damm deed again. Huh; and the clothes I do end up picking up to have a look at are partially what I’m looking for are quite the fair bit of the orange notes- and they’re not even designer!

Having to search for 10-15 mins for a good piece can be "face-scrunching"...

And the even bigger worry, that haunts all men inside – and no, you can’t deny this, is the chance that the piece of clothing you want, be it a shirt, coat, cardigan or trousers, does not fit your rather fitting waist. But, your body was one of an Adonis, surely? Well, tell that to the server, next time you’re out and decide to have large slice of Chocolate Fudge Cake- mmmm, maybe one more size up won’t hurt. Okay, so this all goes a long way to making the point that I “don’t” like clothes shopping that much. When I’ve managed to pick up a few items, however, then I do like it- and I’m sure it’s like that for a fair few other guys as well. In the end, it’s all well and good- otherwise, you’d have no shirt on your back at all! Sometimes, however, it can take forever to find a good jacket that looks good and fits. Oh well, at least I got a nice Bomber/Leather Jacket out of it last time I went on the damm excursion- which, incidentally, was today…

Date: 02/09/09

WiseAss Thinkers

So a new beta or demo(there pretty much the same now a days to be quite honest) and this time its a little bit different this is an online City Building game in the vein of Sim City but you can interact with other people by trading with them or just chatting with them. The name of the Game is Cities XL and I’ll be posting my thoughts here.

The link to the demo so you can try it out is here:

http://www.gamershell.com/news_83174.html

The first thing you have to do is the whole registration thing which is quite a pain but as soon as you done that you can get into the game. Unless you can’t. My problem was that I had a problem getting into the game because maybe I have a 64 bit machine its not clear what makes the warning pop up and i still don’t know, but I had to do some weird things to get in like put the exe capatibility to XP and the other exe to Windows 98 which is very weird. Anyway once you get in there you get to a familar site for an MMO: The Character creator.

A very familar site

One of the things that confuses me is why the hell this is in here. It is a city builder which means you aren’t going to be usuing an avatar but I’ve seen that there is apprantly a capital city that you can use your avatar in and socialize with people, but I don’t see really anyone taking the time to do it when there is cities to build. But anyway its pretty much like any other character creator you just don’t get many options to tweak and its much better to make something random then really taking the time to do it since it isn’t that important to the game.

Randomising the charactor creator is the best option

After that task I’m in a screen that says do I want to do tutorials or just get on with it, if your a first timer i implore you to do the tutorials because they say so much and if you don’t you’ll defenetly  get lost on what to do and pretty much give up before even making one thing.

The tutorial will tell you what you need to know genrally

One thing I have to say is that the perfomance of this game is absulutly terrible, on my genrally great machine I’m struggling on low and very low let alone medium and high. I have no idea why its going so slow, but it is and it makes the game suck since making anything means scrolling and if its going 1fps you are going to get annoyed very easily. I wouldn’t even try this on a more lower spec machine, you will definitly not get anywhere.

It slows down a lot when there is many things on the screen

The tutorial basically tells you a lot of things you need to know basically and to be honest the gameplay is quite like Sim City, you build houses genrally in lots, don’t place industries to near residential houses and try to keep shops near. The complicated stuff gets into trying to make your residents happy. But after you do the tutorials your ready to get to the main city building. First you choose a world which is pretty much like a server and pick your plot of land to build your city.

The world map where you choose plots of land to build cities

The prblem is is that its quite difficult to know which ones are available and which ones are owned, you get a very zoomed out view which doesn’t show much and it could leave you confused what you have to do, but you’ll evntually get there and pick a plot of land to build your city. i went for a volcano.

Naming your city and seeing what resources it has

Now what I haven’t told you is how the multiplayer aspect works in this game. You see each plot of land has some resources and not others and soem buildings need certain resources to build and run. So you have to trade with the other players to get these resources with your own resources, you can also go to other players cities and see whats happening there. Its pretty basic stuff and to be honest I didn’t really have much of a play with it since I was to focused on building my own city.

Then first time you go in you have a big plot of land that you can build your city in and a set of money to build the roads and other services. The first thing you have to do is connect it to the other cities by placing a road at a certain part of the map connecting to where your city is going to be and then building a town hall.

All that space to build a city

The first things you will build is residential homes, industry and shops and constantly building as each one needs more things You can also build food and oil but these need to be placed in certain areas which means its quite hard to get to your city. The thing is, theres a lot of stuff the tutorials don’t tell you which comes up frequently and you just don’t know how to deal with it. Business need so much at the beginning and they go bankrupt very quickly even when your trying to do the stuff it tells you. Even with my small city it was just so overwhealming

It can get hectic pretty quickly

Also you get problems that you just you have no idea how to deal with since theres nothing really saying how yo can change soemthing. The shops I owned were telling me that there was to much production and it was ahrd to sell so i had to slow down production, but I had no idea how to do that. I went through everywhere to find it, there were many individual items i could tweak but i didn’t know if they would affect the shop or not. It was very confusing.

I would decrease production...if I knew how

The other problem is that these problems sometimes fix itself and you have no idea why, theres not enough feedback saying how well your doing and if your doing the right idea so basically you can’t repeat it sicne you have no idea if it was you or it fized itself. its all very cryptic and very frustrating when you get the same problems again and again and they keep fixing so you have no idea what to do the next time they come along. And they will come along.

Thanks for fixing youself for me

In final this is quite a good game once you go into it, but theres just a lot of design problems that just make it a rubbish product as well. If it was worked on for quite a bit it would deifnitly be good, and I have to say the tutorial is good but definitly should have more in it just to get you out of some situations that it doesn’t tell you about. And definitly look into the optimisation since the way it is at the moment is absulutly horrible.

So I’m still looking forward to this game because I see the true game undearneath the crap that it seems to have built ontop of it. Some work could make this into a gem of a game that I hope quite a nmber of people will try out.

Date: 31/08/09

WiseAss Thinkers

I recently watched Moon this week which is a great little indie film directed by Duncan Jones and the main actor in it is Sam Rockwell. I’m not talking about the film in this article but I do have to say I recommend it whole heartedly. Anyway to watch this film I had to go to a 9:00 clock showing which is the only thing they had over 4 days or something like that. It actually surprised me that my cinema got it at all, usually with these films you have to go to London to watch them. And this got me thinking in how Indie Films aren’t really been catered to anyone without going through many hoops, and that’s just the ones that go to cinema. There are many that interest me that don’t actually get into the cinema or on DVD and it gets tough not to go to any more disrespectful means to watch them even if I can watch them there.

Why is it annoying? Well some of these films are so original and so great that they really have to be seen as many people as possible, these films have more creativity in one scene then Hollywood’s blockbusters. The problem? Money. You have no idea how much it costs to get even one cinema in one screen it costs anywhere up towards £20,000 not much when you see it but an indie developer probably has that much for his whole film budget let alone just getting it out there. So must Indie filmakers either go for major cities like London or don’t distribute at all unless on there website. This means you can miss some of the best indie films.

The thing is there’s things people could do…Cinemas could take down the cost a bit for these shows, I’m sure they will get enough profit from it. The Moon showing we went to was packed. They also could use some of there lesser used screens, My local Cinema has 8 screens, Only 4 of them seem to be used from just curiously going to the cinema quite a number of times and seeing lights not on in certain wings and only going to the same screen for bigger releases. If its empty space its costing you money for no reason, so for those cinemas could put some of these indie movies in. Maybe have publishers get in on some indie directors, The newly released District 9 had an Indie developer get Peter Jackson publishing his movie around the world because he liked it so much.

But no, the films are run by the studios, studios pay more money so screening is going to be expensive since cinemas are used to studios splashing out at them. I really fear that many people are missing out including the film makers. I know I’ve pirated many indie films just because I couldn’t find a way to see them since they seemed to be no where or they seemed to be to far away. I saw one film I had to go to Birmingham just to see it. Now is that right/ No I don’t think so, its making cinema just a artless soulless business.