A Sane Man of an Insane World

Planescape: Torment Journal - Day 2

2009-11-27T23:03:00.013-05:00

Many apologies about the wait. Doing a playthrough of a time consuming game like Torment on Thanksgiving and Black Friday (on which I had to build a computer for my brother) was not the best of ideas.

But enough of that. Let's take a look at the OPENING MOVIE (Audience: Ooooooo).

Opening Movie

Here is how we begin the game – dead. For a second. But it still a fascinating way to begin the game. How many times can you say that the main character begins the story as a corpse? It tells us one thing, in a beautiful way – Torment is not your average RPG. It is something unique, cool, and as ungeneric as you can get.

Hey, its Morte! That’s pronounced MORT, not MORTEE. I just realized that today when Qwinn’s Unfinished Business mod revealed a voiced dialogue where Mort said his name.

Speaking of Unfinished Business, you see that 3^rd line? That wasn’t there in vanilla Torment. There is also a crap load of new dialogue tree options in this new dialogue with Morte.

We learn a little about our situation. Most predominantly, this!

Notice the references to mythology? Basically, it is like this. Torment takes place in a big place called the Multiverse.

The Multiverse is essentially every single setting imaginable connected to each other. Real world mythologies count as well. The river Styx is a galactical river that essentially spans between different planes.

Oh, and by planes, I mean stuff like the elemental planes, and moral planes. There is a plane for each of D&D’s moral alignments. I might as well describe them…

Lawful Good: Also nicknamed Lawful Boring. Think boy scouts, or God (maybe). It is essentially being a good individual who is very much devoted to oaths, laws, etc.

Lawful Neutral: They pretty much believe in a personal code, and maybe laws, but they don’t feel the need to adhere to either the good or bad of the concept of laws. I guess James Bond might be a good example.

Lawful Evil: I like to call it Lawful Awesome. Pretty much, think corrupt politicians. They know laws, and they have morals, but they are also willing to use them for their own self interest. I think Doom would be a great example here. He won’t hurt the Fantastic Four… but that does not mean he won’t send his minions to do it for him.

Neutral Good: Characters that can see the benefit of laws but see no reason to adhere to them. They just do what their morals tell them is the right thing to do.

True Neutral: So, how can you describe a character that is neither a good nor evil, and does not believe either laws or personal conscience is the best way to do what is best? Me neither.

Neutral Evil: A guy that is after his own self-interest. He just does whatever he sees as being more beneficial to him. He has no honor to abide by, and he is not mindlessly violent.

Chaotic Good: The Robin Hood variation. Also the smarter variation of good. They don’t believe in laws or codes – because they are stupid and get in the way of getting things done. They just allow their personal conscience to direct them.

Chaotic Neutral: Someone who is between downright murder crazy (Chaotic Evil) and someone who does good without following tradition (Chaotic Good). They just try to live their lives their way, damning what society thinks of them.

Chaotic Evil: The Joker alignment. Also called Chaotic Stupid by a many D&D players because most players think this means their characters should not do anything logical. Like killing a mayor of a city just because. In truth, there is a sense of logic to Chaotic Evil. They just want to spread chaos, anarchy – freedom, bestial logic – to the world. No need for order when there is none in the world.

Now that we got to know D&D and the Multiverse a little bit more, let’s learn a little bit about TNO and Morte.

Interesting how TNO’s bio is so much shorter when compared to Morte’s. I can presume that I because TNO’s will expand as we reach major plot points in the game. Also, I can understand why they had bio’s in Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, where character development and conversation as kept to a bare minimum. But why in Torment where conversation is every and in large quantities do we need a bio when it will just be revealed to us by the characters themselves?

Maybe it was a “nudge” from the suits at Interplay to make it more like Baldur’s Gate?

So anyways, we quickly realize TNO’s first objective – find Pharod. The “book on his back” told him to do so.

But we seem to have a dilemma – the door is locked. TNO’s journey has just begun and already he is trapped.

Lovely.

But luckily for us, we have no sense of moral dilemma about killing mindless zombies for a key with a rusty, well used scalpel.

One (temporarily) dead zombie later, we opened the door. I quickly realized something. The zombies are not attacking me. They are just wandering mindlessly.

This is the second time in 5 minutes the game developers have told us that Torment is not Uncle’s RPG. This is going to be a weird gaming experience, unlike any you have seen before.

Also, another thing. None of the zombies share the same opening conversation text. Here are some examples:

I really do love it. Some of the zombies have items we can liberate from them. Awesome! The little things really does expand on the believability of the world.

Oh, and we got our first journal update.

“UPDATED MY JOURNAL”

Greater words have never been spoken.

Shortly after, we run into an old Dustman – the guys who run this Morgue, and one of the dozen factions in the Multiverse – named Dhall.

He is old, nearing his end, and knows TNO all too well. TNO appears to have died many times, and each time his corpse comes to the morgue, only to eventually leave

Dhall assures TNO that his secret is safe with him. He will not tell the other Dustmen of his curse. If the others found out, they would surely throw him into the fires to permanently correct the problem.

If you question Dhall about his kindness, he responds with thus:

The highlighted dialogue really resonates with me for some reason. I am a somewhat religious individual, but it seems to me that all around I see nothing but arrogance and ignorance from my fellows. I see so much condemnation on others without any attempt to understand them, or even simply sympathize with them, it makes me sick.

I wish more of any faith were more like Dhall. It’s not right for anyone to be have someone else’s beliefs forced on him. They need to come into it on their own, if at all. If the only way for a religion to survive is through force, then it is not worth surviving at all.

Anyways that’s all for this update. Later.

Planescape: Torment Journal - Day 1

2009-11-26T00:09:00.015-05:00

The Planescape: Torment Journal

Day 01

From those that know me, they know that I can’t give enough praise for Planescape: Torment. It is a game that some would almost think was made specifically for those that favor the narrative in games over the actual gameplay itself. I am one of the few that strongly believe in the driving force a good story can have in any medium, specifically in video games.

Let me put it this way. With most games, the story is determined by the gameplay. For example, let’s take Thief 2 as an example. The levels were made first, and then the story was written to mesh those levels together. “A well created narrative” is not usually one of the defining features you will find on the back of a videogame box.

With Planescape: Torment (and a few others, such as the Metal Gear Solid series), the story defines what the game is. The narrative is the reason you play the game. If the story was horrible, you would cease to play it only because the story is the only redeeming feature.

Luckily for us, Planescape: Torment has the best videogame story ever created. Period.

It helps that it is estimated it has somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 lines of dialogue. In comparison, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s longest play) only had 1,569 lines. And most of them are phenomenally written.

Ravel: There is no room for '2' in the world of 1's and 0's, no place for 'mayhap' in a house of trues and falses, and no 'green with envy' in a black and white world.

Dak'kon: Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

Vhailor: When the injustice is great enough, justice will lend me the strength needed to correct it. None may stand against it. It will shatter every barrier, sunder any shield, tear through any enchantment, and lend its servant the power to pass sentence. Know this: There is nothing on all the Planes that can stay the hand of justice when it is brought against them. It may unmake armies. It may sunder the thrones of gods. Know that for all who betray justice, I am their fate. And fate carries an executioner's axe.

Nameless One: I see.

Vhailor: No, you do not see. Pray you never will.

Coaxmetal: Start with a fragment of the enemy. A drop of blood. A crystallized thought. One of their hopes. All of these things tell the way it can die.

And these are just a few of the lines.

I had finished Dragon Age: Origins (61 hours! Holy crap!) and The Witcher a few days ago, so I have been thinking what to play next. I wanted a good narrative focused game…and then it hit me like a modron being propelled by a mechanus cannon! I’ll play the best narrative oriented game of all time – Torment.

Just playing Torment wasn’t an option, however. I wanted to do something… different. Mostly born out of inspiration from Shadowcatboy’s Let’s Play! thread on SomethingAwful where he practically turns Torment into a book.

I’m going to do a journal. Every day I’ll host a bunch of screenshots from the game, explain their context, and maybe say other goodies.

So, Day 1 of my Planescape: Torment journal! Let me introduce you to the characters who’ll me joining our merry band:

The Nameless One

“I wonder what it was that made death reject me”.

The main character of the game, and whom we express our viewpoints on the Multiverse as well as the plot itself. He was a way for the head writer, Chris Avellone, to express his aggravation at some fantasy tropes and videogame clichés. He was tired of death and loading screens, so he made The Nameless One immortal and turned death into a game mechanic. He was tired of poorly written amnesiac tales, so Torment is a well written story about an amnesiac that barely has a cliché in site.

In many ways, The Nameless One is determined by how you play him. You determine his personality and philosophies, a great deal more so than the vast majority of games out there. In an odd twist, you can’t determine a lot of the superficial details about the Nameless One (how he looks, gender, race, not even his name). But more so than any other game, Torment allows you to really forge the Nameless One’s personality and the way he sees things.

Morte

"Oh sure. I'll just swing it with my arms." (When trying to equip him with any weapons)

Morte is a floating skull that loves to make witty remarks about anything and everything and loves breasts.

Oh, he is also actually funny and acts as the Nameless One’s (ie YOUR) personal tour guide through the Multiverse. He is your closest companion, and probably the closest thing to a real friend the Nameless One actually has.

Also, take note that he makes clicking sounds despite the fact he has no tongue.

Annah

"Get yer mitts off, ye dirty wee rat!" (When attempting to remove Annah’s armor from the inventory screen.)

“Old Ward. Also known as Wanker City.”

A tiefling (half devil) thief, Annah is the only one who is over her head in whole game. After all, most of the characters have either been with the Nameless One in one of his previous incarnations, are well lectured on the ways of the multiverse, are “dead”, or are so crazy that their lives being in mortal danger or not matters naught to them.

She is just a simple thief (albeit a damned good one) and circumstances have forced her to accompany this scarred immortal on a quest through the planes to discover his identity. She has no other place to go but to likely oblivion.

You almost feel bad for her.

Also, customary link to a much finer and *drool* version of her.

Dak’kon

“Endure. And in enduring grow strong.”

“When a mind does not *know* itself, it is flawed. When a mind is flawed, the man is flawed. When a man is flawed, that which he touches is flawed. It is said that what a flawed man sees, his hands make broken.”

The closest thing to a Gandalf character in the game, Dak’kon is a githzerai. The githzerai were once part of the same race as the githyankai, and both were liberated by the same being, Gith. However, circumstances divided them.

What does this mean? This means that Dak’kon is a very devout individual. He is devout to the teaching to Zerthimon. He is devout to his people. He is devout to his hate for githyankai. And more importantly, he is devout to the Nameless One. And his devotion could be his undoing, depending on how much of a bastard you make the Nameless One.

How you treat him also changes his weapon. His feelings towards you will actually change his weapon’s stats and abilities. An interesting take on the Influence System before it was introduced by Obsidian Entertainment (the same guys that made Torment, just under a different company) in Knights of the Old Republic II a good 5 years later.

Fall-from-Grace

“Time is not your enemy, forever is.”

Fall-from-Grace is the one character that, maybe even more so than the Nameless One, realizes the dire of his situation. Grace is a succubus, a demon that uses her sexual allure to draw other mortals into hellish servitude.

Except Gracse is chaste. Unlike the other succubi, she doesn’t have sex. Period. Also, she is Sensate, an individual that wishes to feel all of the sensations of the Multiverse. There is no one more open minded than a Sensate. Heck, they’ll even willingly experience death (but not without a damned good priest by their side to revive them).

Besides Annah, she is also one of the Nameless One’s love interests. Amusing how both of them are devils in their own right, and they are more good aligned than most of the “nicer” races you’ll find in the game.

Ignus

“BUUUUURRRRRRNNNNN.”

Hrm, a floathing corpse that is a portal to the plane of fire that is a pyromaniac on steroids. Nothing unusual about that, eh?

Oh God. Ignus is insane, and the most evil character who can join your party. I do not lie. To burn things is what he is. He can’t not set someone aflame. He is who he is – a wrecked soul obsessed about fire.

But once you find how he got set on his path, and you’ll get all sad panda-like. I promise you.

Nordom

“I think, therefore I am. I think.”

So, the Modrons are essentially a race of cubes with four arms and legs that speak in total logic, with a fair use of calculation and logistics for good measure. They are the servants of order, to the extent that emotion has nothing to do with what they do.

Except for those that go rogue. Meet Nordom, the origin of some of the quirkiest comic relief in the game. Not to mention he possesses two sentient crossbows. And yes, he is absolutely off of his rocker (but in a totally different direction that Ignus).

Vhailor

"Let my words carry you: JUSTICE is a TEACHER. In your PUNISHMENT, gain STRENGTH. Through your PUNISHMENT, achieve PERFECTION."

An animated suit of armor, Vhailor is a Mercykiller, a faction that acts as the Multiverse’s security force. They are totally devoted to justice, and in a way, see everyone as being guilty of something and so all must be punished in some way.

I’ll be playing with Qwinn’s trio of patchs for Torment: his fixpack, his Unfinished Business, and his Tweaks. This will fix a ton of bugs Torment had, as well as putting in some stuff that was left out.

Oh, I’ll also use a Save Editor to give the Nameless One max stats. Yes, this is cheating, but Torment is not about playing. It is about the story. The sooner we skip the bad parts (combat) to get to the good parts (conversation), the better.

And that concludes Day 1.

Why am I so excited about Dragon Age: Origins for?

2009-11-01T16:03:00.004-05:00

I mean, it hasn't been that long since I've posted this, right? I mean, not much has really changed with Dragon Age. After all, Bioware is still calling it a "Dark Heroic Fantasy", it still has a combat system that can't decide if it is real time or turn based, and it probably still has characters that are remarkably similar to certain character from Baldur's Gate 2.

In truth, not a whole lot has changed with Dragon Age. But for once, they actually decided to let out some little things - well, a lot of little things, rather - that have changed the picture.

First off, let's start off with the fact that this game is hard. Dragon Age is undeniably a hard game. Reviewers have said it time and time again: you will wipe alot, and you will wipe hard. Higher levels and superior equipment and spells will be a great boost, but they will not be the deciding factor in who wins each battle. You will have to use something that most modern gamers are very much unused to - tactics! Strategies! Using your superior brain matter to overcome the AI!

I know a lot of players are gonna complain on the forums about it. And I am just going to gloat at them like the inferior beings they are. "Of course you died! You don't take advantage of the environment! You don't surround your enemies and use buffs to enhance your characters!"

I strongly suspect that we are going to get a repeat of alot of the brainhurt we got when Storm of Zehir came around - people say the game is too hard because they are idiots. "Enemies keep on ambushing me, even though I invested no points at all in sneaking and I have no rangers or thieves in my party and I have all Paladins!!1!1!!"

Secondly, I like the casual talking that your party members will have while you are just walking around the world. Nothing will trigger it. It adds a dimension to the characters that forced conversations don't possess. And it sounds to be very amusing when the sarcastic Alistair and the wry Morrigan send jabs back and forth as you go across town.

Thirdly, you can have your bones broken! When your party members come back from losing all of their health in a fight, you'll notice something. They'll have wounds. Surprisingly, people don't fight as well when they have a broken leg or a wound across their groan. They can be patched easily enough, but what if you run out of medkits?

Well, the game gets a lot more interesting.

Lastly, I just need a good party oriented RPG that actually tries to tell a story, even if it is one I have heard half a dozen times before. I just want to recreate that feeling I got with Neverwinter Nights 2, or Knights of the Old Republic. The Witcher is the best RPG to come out this generation, but I still like my RPGs with people to fight along me.

And seriously, I need to stop being so stingy. How am I supposed to love this hobby if I hate every other game that comes out?

Fallout 3 is still a horrible pile of shit though.

What I think of: DLC

2009-10-30T17:02:00.004-04:00

(From Wikipedia: Downloadable content (commonly referred to as DLC) is a form of digital media distributed through the Internet. The phrase is used to refer specifically to content created for video games that is released separately from the main video game release. The phrase has, however, also been used to refer to any type of digital entertainment media distributed online.)

In a nutshell, DLC is content that adds to a videogame. This can essentially be anything from a costume to a mini-expansion, adding hours worth of content to a game for a modest price. Now I don't know when exactly the concept of DLC first came around in the sense we know of them today. It certainly started with the Xbox a good 8 years back. With Xbox LIVE, and consoles finally entering the internet a good 4 years after the PC, being able to download new stuff was not just an damn fine idea. It was downright inevitable.

So, skip a Videogame Generation, and take a look at DLC and it is everywhere. You can't escape it. Developers always say they will give DLC support. If DLC is right there on Day 1 it is praiseworthy. Heck, DLC is now commonly addressed in FAQ on most videogame websites. It is as common as the ridiculous regenerating health. You can't escape it!

But I don't like DLC. On the surface, it is good. More content for just a little bit more cash? What is so wrong with that?

Well, it is when you are charged $4 just to have an Xbox LIVE avatar that it is bad. It is bad when you have to pay for an unlockable costume, or $2 for a single weapon that DLC is bad. Pretty much, it is when instead of given you an opportunity to test your skill at a game you are tested at how thinly you can stretch your wallet that DLC is bad.

In fact, a lot of DLC sucks in this regard. Now, there are some instances where the developer has the balls to not charge you for more. Mainly VALVE - they never charge you for anything beyond the actual game. Portal's challanges? Free update. Team Fortress 2's new hats and guns? Came with a patch. Left 4 Dead's new campaigns? Again, one big update.

The problem with DLC is that it is way too much for too little. Recently, Bioware announced their first DLC for Dragon Age: Origins - Warden's Keep. $7 for a quest that we are assuming will last a few hours.

That is just too much. Think about it - for the PC, Dragon Age's MSRP is $50. The game itself will last a very long time - reviewers say anywhere from 30 to 60 hours on a single playthrough. With additional Origin stories, that could easily be tripled. That is at minimum of, what, $1 (or less) for every hour.

The DLC is asking for twice the price tag for not even a fraction of the original game's play time!

Now, do not get me wrong. I fully and completely understand why DLC is a necessity. Videogames are becoming more expensive. Budgets are getting bigger by every year, standards are getting higher. But $50 for a game isn't cutting it any more. Not even $60 is good enough for most console releases. Companies need extra income to stay afloat.

That is where DLC comes in. But the problem is that they are too much. And it is becoming more of an issue where developers may very well cut content from a game to sell it as DLC. It is not ridiculous to assume that one day some big name company will say "Insert Credit Card for Ending".

And players everywhere will do so willingly.

I have a new computer... how does it feel?

2009-10-12T20:24:00.003-04:00

A long, long, long, time ago, I made a little post about my initial thoughts on building myself a gaming rig. What I had originally planned on buying then, and what I ended up were quite different. The cup was the same... but some other stuff was somewhat different. And some of it was the same. I kept the video card, but I threw out G.SKILL in favor of CORSAIR, and I favored COOLER MASTER for my cpu cooler.

But that is all besides the point. I have a new computer - one that is wholly mine. I built it myself from scratch. I chose each and every component. This was my creation. And it never felt so good to see that boot up screen on my monitor (a tiny 1280x1024 one. It will be solved soon, I promise!).

To be at the end of the road, it is nothing less than weird. When I first bought that Intel Core i7 waaay back, I was fairly certain I would end up selling it after giving this affair up. But for some reason or another, I persevered. I'm not one for commitments. I like quick satisfaction, and to actually spend a year buying the parts for a high end computer was a fairly big departure from the norm for me.

There was quite a few road bumps, most specificly me trying to figure out why nothing would show up on the monitor despite the fact I plugged everything in right. It only took me 12 hours and 1 help post on a computer builder forum for me to find the problem culprit in a DOA RAM stick.

Oh, and did I mention I had trouble getting the cpu to lock into place, and it had to take my engineer dad to do it for me? Yeah, that was an interesting moment.

I also had to redo it 3 times (first time because I forgot to install the backplate for the cpu cooler, second because I put the cpu cooler in the WRONG direction, and the third time to see if that would solve the monitor issue).

But at the end of it all, it was all worth it. I love having a 5.4 out of 7.9 system rating from Windows 7, and the only reason for that would be due to the "slow" transfer rate of the primary hard drive. What with everything else being 7.3/7.4, one could hardly call this an "okay" machine.

And I can hardly describe how darn cool it is for me to finally have a computer with an Alienware case! It is quite intimidating.

Initial thoughts on GEIST: THE SIN-EATERS

2009-08-23T19:40:00.004-04:00

Every year, White Wolf Publishing, the guys behind Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening, Changeling: The Lost, Exalted, Scion, and lots of other rules-lite roleplay-heavy games, releases a limited release for their World of Darkness line. In contrast to their main lines, which will have a few supplement books every year added to it, these limited lines will get only 5 or 6 at most.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters is their newest limited game, and I was looking very forward to it. I really can't emphasive how much I was anticipating this game. Heck, I preordered it way back in May! I even marked the release date on my calendar.

Folks, I never ever mark anything on my calendar. Not even The Dark Knight or Star Trek! I was quite happy when Geist came in on Saturday. Of course, as luck would have it, I was busy that day, with me at Cold Stones training from eleven to five, and then my best friend Pete came over and we played Guitar Hero and went to see District Nine. His first time, my second. He loved it, and I still continued to love it. But that is neither here nor there.

But I did read Geist today, but not all of it. It's barely a 300 page book, so it is not the biggest RPG White-Wolf has put out. I think Mage and Changeling are the runners up for that, with a cyclopean 400 something pages. In fact, I'm only halfway into Chapter One, which describes exactly what Sin-Eaters do and their duties and the circumstances in their metamorphosis from humans to Sin-Eaters, as well as describing the death demi-gods the Geists that live within them. It covers alot, but I'll leave my description of them for another post.

This post will be on my initial thoughts on Geist. So far, what I am loving I really do love. I love the concept of the Geists, these very tormented souls that have become the embodiment of whatever type of death that took their lives. They don't even have a personality any more. And they don't cause deaths because they are monsters - it is because they have to. It is their nature. Fire can't help but burn people alive - it just burns.

I like how Sin-Eaters understand that this is their last chance, so they have to live like no one has never lived before. How to do that is different from Sin-Eater to Sin-Eater.

But, I do not really like how Sin-Eaters just mish mash all of the cultures together to make theirs. It just does not make a lick of sense to me! I see no real life culture ever doing that. I mean, you could give some argument for the English culture, but we have nothing on these guys. Sin-Eaters put a little bit of every foreign culture they encounter into their own. And then they drop it the next week and replace it with something else. It. Does. Not. Make. Any. Sense.

And another thing: if Sin-Eaters are so religious (which makes sense, since most of them are poor, and the poor have the tendency to be more religious than the middle class and the rich), why do they put stuff from other faiths into their own religion as much as with their culture? I just have a very difficult time getting that.

And this is more of a personal preference, but I do not like how most Sin-Eaters are aware of the fact that other Sin-Eaters are out there. I like unified supernatural beings, not divided ones. I can certainly see where the writers were going with this, however, since the Sin-Eaters' krewes are essentially gangs, minus all of the crime. That tightly knit brotherhood. "I watch your back, you watch mine, brother".

But even then, I do not hate the stuff I don't like. I just don't get why any rational human being would do something like that. What I do like, though, I more than like. I love them! And I am only 30 or so pages into the game, so don't count this as gospel.

Until next time, gentle readers.

A Marketing Strategy So Crazy It Just Might Work!

2009-08-12T22:05:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Kotaku, I have been informed of some absolutley bizarre news.

Next Tuesday, the next video game in the long running First Person Shooter franchise, Wolfenstein, is being released.

It is up against that hellspawn of a game, Madden 10.

The project's director, via his Twitter, has said the following:

Here's the deal folks: if Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10 in August I will personally pay for your copy (keep your receipt) - SPREAD THE WORD

That was yesterdat at 10:51 AM.

I am tempted enough to contribute to this madness!

"Judge Will Likely Deny Activision's Request for Brütal Legend Release"

2009-07-30T17:54:00.004-04:00

Source: Escapist Here is what I have to say to you, Activision. This could of had been yours. This hard rocking game of a gem could have had your nice little label on it, and you could of have made oodles of cash on it. You could of had it Activision! You could of had it all, only if you wouldn't make it a Guitar Hero spin-off! But noooo, you had to have that cursed spin-off, you couldn't perceive the brilliance of any marketing strategy outside of it. You didn't dare have the awesome power of metal burn your faces off like butter sitting on a freshly warmed knife! So you got rid of it! You abandoned Schafer's baby in the cold desert of 'No Publisher', leaving all those years of labor for naught. And when EA swoops down to save it, what do you do? You panic! You go "Oh noes!" and you decide to pull off the biggest douche bag move you could ever conceive of pulling off. You try to use the legal system to delay it, you good for nothing sons of mothers! You tried to stop the great charge that was Brütal Legend. But you can't stop it! You can't! Even the legal system urinated you in the face! You had your chance to do something good with the gaming world, but you shrunk back! And you got nothing for it all! And that is all you deserve.

Friday is for Funny Picture Day! Wait, its Sunday?

2009-07-26T20:13:00.006-04:00

Sin to Win!

2009-07-26T12:08:00.002-04:00

This is so ridiculous that I can't even be offended. Also: EA knows their bastardization of Dante's Inferno is a piece of shit, so instead they pornography it to get sales. Good job EA.

SyFy...New Name...But needs more Sci-Fi shows...Working on a new "Firefly"

2009-07-24T11:45:00.002-04:00

Thanks io9. It would appear that SyFy, a channel that is devoted to Science Fiction shows and movies, is now quite surprisingly out of shows that deal with Science. They have plenty of Fiction though! What is the solution? Simple! Make a new Firefly show! Well, not exactly Firefly, alas, but it will be in the same style, and tone, and all sorts of goodness. This Browncoat hope it works and it lasts for more than a single freaking season and a feature length film.

No fruit for California for 100 years

2009-07-23T23:22:00.002-04:00

You can read more about it here. But why so worried? In 100 years, our kids will be on the moon doing crazy things with jetpacks!

Castlevania movie is back from the dead

2009-07-23T20:53:00.001-04:00

Thanks to BloodyDisgusting, it has been revealed that the Castlevania movie, which was killed in the Spring, has been revived, thanks to the co-creator of the Saw franchise, James Wan! ...Yeah, I never heard of him either. But it has an awesome poster!

A Review of FIRE AND ICE

2009-07-19T14:56:00.003-04:00

If there was ever a better collaboration to produce the greatest masterpiece in fantasy's short run in the Cinema, it would of had been Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta. Between these two people, we had gotten The Lord of the Rings (the animated one), Wizards, the Death Dealer, countless paintings for Conan the Barbarian, as well as cover artwork for some Tarzan novels. These guys knew how much artwork lends itself to some of that over the top landscapes and scenarios that are so common in fantasy. These two were perfect for bringing the Fantasy movie. They made Fire and Ice, a chronicle of the battle between the denizens of the Fire Kingdom and the Lands of Ice, a retelling of the struggle between good and evil that only these two guys could of had thought up of. Unfortunately, they did not make the definite fantasy movie. On the positive side, Fire and Ice is still a pretty good movie, and one you could watch and so long as you are not looking for a storytelling masterpiece, you will find a fair representation of the fantasy genre. Fire and Ice has its shortcomings. The overly sexualized heroine, the occasional dry dialogue, and the fact that pretty much everyone has to wear loin clothes. But on the plus side, you get a fun movie with lots of action and suspense and proof that just because you were a Panther's mask you can still be a badass. It is a fun movie. Ignore the fact that all of the girls are in small bikinis and you will have a good time. A solid 7.

It's Friday! You know what that means!

2009-07-17T00:01:00.009-04:00

No.1 - You have one more day to write the story for saturday's RPG Group? Me - No. No.2 - You have to think of some way to get money for that First Date? Me - What First Date? No. 2 - Precisely. Me - No, it means this is "post funny images" day!

An astronomically idiotic 18 year old makes a mock terrorist threat via World of Warcraft

2009-07-16T12:08:00.002-04:00

From Kotaku.com You know, it is an unproven fact that precisely 1/3 of World of Warcraft's player base is made up of incest spawns.

As a huge fan of Planescape: Torment and Final Fantasy VII's #1 Hater, I must say this...

2009-07-15T21:43:00.002-04:00

My God. Okay, yes, Planescape: Torment has some baisc design principles with Eastern RPGs, but come on! That is just painful!

Matt goes to see PLAY! A Video Game Symphony

2009-07-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

The days of the bleeps and bloops of the video game ancients of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Tetris and Space Invaders have long since passed. Technology has now reached the creativity of composers, and while it is a rarity that you will get compositions that equal their patriots in the film industry, there are always a few glimpses of true art with video game music. I had the privledge on Saturday to go with a certain blogger named Chris Knight to "PLAY! A Videogame symphony", a 2 hour long compiliation of various video game music suites written specifically to be played by a live orchestra. As a lover of not only symphonic music, but also video games, I went there with great enthusiasm. But first, I'll link you to Chris Knight's post, just so that you can get an idea of how a much more casual music lover's tastes are. Oh, and just to give the man some much needed publicity. Back to the symphony! I met Chris at the Palladium Cinemas at 5:00, and soon we were off to one heck of a road trip. I was under the impression that we would be heading straight to where the symphony was taking place, but Chris had more than a few trips up his sleeve. We took a pit stop at "Hyper Mind", a hobby store that Chris is more than attached with. As someone who was quite new to the RPG hobby, I was quite excited to be in a gaming store for the first time ever. Of course, just my luck they had no RPGs that I was currently acquiring. It was still a very fun expierence for me to have. Of course, when I told Chris my semi-dissapointment, he turned to me and said in a loud voice that made me glad we were alone in the car "You want RPGs? I'll give you RPGs! We're going to Sci-Fi Genre!" A good twenty minutes later, we turned into a small six car max parking lot, and before us stood Sci-Fi Genre, a store that I was more than acquainted with. I had almost bought a set of Q Workshop's Cthulhu Dice for my friend Peter's birthday back in April from them. It didn't take me long for me to find their shelves full of RPG books, and just a tad longer me for to find their old RPG shelf. I had almost bought their copy of "Fading Suns", but not after I realized it was the First Edition, and not the Second Edition that I was on the hunt for. Anyways, Chris bought his figurines for Warhammer 40,000 (Chaos Space Marines! Death to the False Emperor!), and we were off. We arrived there at about, oh I'd say 7:00-ish. We found some nice seats on the lawn in front of the playing platform, and at 8:30 the music was on! They began with SUPER MARIO BROS. Well, it was quite expected to be honest. After all, where else would you start any sort of dedication to video games than with something regearding that big, fat, Italian plumber? It was a mixture of suites of the main theme, the undergound, that underwater theme, and Bowser's castle theme. BATTLEFIELD 1942 came next. Now to be honest, I never quite remembered that game's music havins such a Jazz-like feeling to it. Of course, we have to be honest here, I don't remember that much about the game, so I'll allow that to pass. We were then subjected to an electric guitar edition of the SILENT HILL games. Personally, I thought this was the weakest part of the whole occasion. Silent Hill does NOT work very well with rock instruments. It was designed to give a sense of corruption and supernatural horror and the way it was used here did not evoke that atmosphere at all. Listen to this, and then I am sure you will be in agreements with me. One of my most favorite parts of the symphony came next - CASTLEVANIA! I was in estatics the whole way through. Sure, they didn't have any of the themes from Lament of Innocence play, but come on! This was Castlevania! How could you not be excited just by the fact that they had some Castlevania music playing? I was satisfied for the entire performance right then and there. KINGDOM HEARTS came next. It was a nice arrangement of the music - and thank God, no pop songs in sight - but the overly ecstatic applause made me frown. Only because of Kingdom Heart's association with Final Fantasy makes it such a huge hit. Otherwise, it is just a purely average game. The music is charming, sure! But it is not worth all of the love it is getting. Oh, wait, I'm going into rant mode again. Let's move on. They finished the first part with a wide variety of music from THE LEGEND OF ZELDA games. Of course, with 12+ games, there is no way in hell you could accurately give a musical suite with such a vast variety of musical cues in just 7 minutes. But whoever did the arrangement gave it their damned best attempt, and what music was heard was quite good. After the break we listened to some jolly music from SIM CITY 4. It was the light hearted fun you could expect from a game where you can build your own cities and destroy it any way you could desire. As much as I hate the Elder Scrolls games (or heck, anything from that hack studio known as Bethesda Softworks), the musical cues for the fourth entry in the series, OBLIVION, was quite good. It gave a good sense of the fantasy setting, of the mysteries of the ruins, to the despair that was given by the hordes of Oblivion that was invading the land. I quite enjoyed the choral cues. Some music from CHRONO CROSS and CHRONO TRIGGER was played. Surprisingly, I remember nothing from this portion of the performance. This is when the biggest shock occured - it rained. And not just a drizzle, no sir. It rained cats and dogs and some mice for good measure. Chris and I ran for them hills and got some nice cover and stayed to listen to the music from the HALO trilogy. Now, you guys probably know that I think the HALO games are good mindless fun, but to be honest, are pretty average. The music on the other hand... woo boy, now there is some music. Great fun to be had, especially by that HALO geek Chris Knight. Then one game came up I was never expecting - WARHAMMER ONLINE. As a one time player, it was great to have that music play. And of course, then came one game that everyone knew would come up - WORLD OF WARCRAFT. A great set of music to be sure. Thinking that it was done, Chris and I made our way to the parking lot when, all of a sudden, we heard something. Like mad men, we raced back to the stadium, and I heard the final boss music from FINAL FANTASY VII, "One Winged Angel". I thought the choirs were too soft and slow myself. And then, they were done. For real. And it was a great experience. Should it ever come North Carolina's way again, I will certainly be dragging everyone I can by their ears to this. Good fun to be head by all.

What I'm Playing Now - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

2009-07-09T22:29:00.005-04:00

There are few games in the field of videogames that divides players as much as this one does. One end, it is horribly glitchy, has some of the worst combat you could ever see in an RPG, and the character models aside, it is not at all a good looking game. On the other side of the spectrum, you have some of the most finely written dialogue you could ever hope to see in any medium, its characters are so well written that they seem real life human beings, and it has a wide range of options in handling the objectives in the game. You could persuade your way past the guards, suck their blood like that Vampire you are, or sneak past them like you are the next Solid Snake. There is a lot of hate, let me tell you. But man, for someone who loves his options and his stories like I do, there is so much to love that you have to wonder why bother hating it at all? Let me give you all one good reason why you should grab this game from your nearest torrent site. This right here is the Haunted Hotel at Santa Monica beach. You think you have seen scary in a video game. You probably thought you had seen it all. "Pfft!" You will think when you are given the task to retrieve the pendant from inside the Hotel that control the ghost that haunts it. "I've seen Horror movies. I saw Alien and didn't even flinch! I'm a new age man. I watch SAW and I can handle this pussy Hotel ghost like it was nuthin'!" You will be wrong. My hand was shaking the whole time. I couldn't even keep my mouse steady. My palms were sweaty. It was like Niagara Falls all over my Microsoft Sidewinder (the new spiffy black one, not the one that looks like a boomerang). I had to wash my hands for a whole minute, soap bar and all, before I was convinced I was clean enough to continue gaming. People, that scene is pure atmospheric brilliance. Saw what you will about that sewer level, where all us persuasive characters are forced to run for our (un)lives from those Death-on-Legs because we were too busy investing our points into Persuasion and Seduction rather than "I'm Gonna Woop Yo' Ass!". The Hotel Mansion alone made Vampire Bloodlines one for the record books. And that wasn't even the best scene. There is this one scene where you are confronted with a Cannabilistic Vampire, and this is where the game throws some moral-philosophical head spinners our way. See, this vampire wanted us to send some poor chap that had seen her doing her stuff down to her lair so she can make sure the guy doesn't tell a soul about her. You will do it. It will make perfect sense in all of the world for you to do it, even for those extremelly moralistic individuals. You will do it because she presents the case - and quite well, I might add - that you are no different from her. You suck blood, the life force of humans. She eats them. They are both horrid, damnable acts. What makes what you do so much better than heracts of survival? None of it does. So that is why you do it. And that is why I love this game. Because it is more than a game. It is about things, stuff that you need to think about, to ponder about, to debate with yourself. That is a sign of good storytelling folks, not how much fanart is dedicated to your game on DeviantArt.com. I'm not even finished with it yet. If it weren't for the fact that The Witcher and Arcanum and Planescape: Torment are patiently waiting for me to finish them, I'd do a second play through as either the butt kicking Gangrel or those crazy I'm-gonna-debate-with-a-stop-sign Malkavians.

If there is one good thing about Barack Obama...

2009-06-30T14:44:00.002-04:00

It is this.

Pirate Bay Goes Legit

2009-06-30T14:34:00.003-04:00

Say what? The biggest file sharing site in the world is going legit? Now that's something you never would of expected in a million life times.

What Happaned to the Oscars

2009-06-27T16:48:00.004-04:00

“This was the time when the Oscars actually meant something”. So commented Skac01 7 months ago to a YouTube video of Jerry Goldsmith winning his one – and unfortunately, only – Oscar for his score to The Omen – and what a score that was!

But I’m not going to write about that fantastic score. I’d much rather talk about that comment, what it meant, and why it rings so true… or at least to me.

The Oscars first came about in 1929. That was when movies were still young. They were fresh and exciting! Sure, we didn’t have CGI, or Computer Generated movies, or even color. Now that I think about it, we didn’t even have sound. But we did have stories. We did have images that moved. That was something new. After millions of years of just being content with having pictures that stayed perfectly still, they could now be animated.

It was something new, something exciting.

And the Oscars were supposed to award those that were truly great.

With that in mind, a question should be raised. Is the reason the Oscars no longer mean anything is because movies no longer mean anything.

I’d wager a yes.

More and more, I am seeing a trend in our general media. The mass audience go for the cool things. Big shiny robots, cool explosions, a simple good against evil plot. Things that are nice to stare at and say “Oooooo” for 90 or so minutes, but beyond that, not much more.

We have our cool special effects, the awesome fight scenes, the copy cat romantic comedies, and one has to wonder, why even bother anymore? If all of the movies are cookie cutter duplicates, with minimal difference in characters and plot, why should we even care?

And the answer is we shouldn’t.

So, Academy, if you want to make the Awards worth something, allow me to give you a big hint. Nudge those Studios to make movies that are worth something. Then you will see people flocking to their televisions to watch the Academy Awards again.

Just a hint.

How do I revive this blog?

2009-06-24T11:44:00.002-04:00

By saying that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is way too long at 2 and 1/2 hours, has way too many juvenile jokes, and had what I'd like to call the "Car Car Binks" twins. But it had awesome action scenes and Meghan Fox, so all is well. With all due apologies to those (2) faithful readers. I will return to posting more melodramatic insights on philosophy, politics, and RPGs soon, I assure you.

The Great, Grand, and Wonderous 'Fire David Letterman' Rally

2009-06-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen: I present to you a bunch of loons. Maybe we should have abortions - at least then we wouldn't have idiots such as these folk running around.

Bioware Tells Sucky Stories, and Here is Why!

2009-06-06T10:16:00.002-04:00

I. Bioware bases nearly all of their storyline on the idea of "Absolute Good versus Absolute Evil" Ever since their inception into the RPG universe with Baldur's Gate, there was a certain familiar feel with their storylines. You can't help but have the feeling that you have been there before, just in diffirent shoes, and maybe with a different reason to be there every now and then. That is because Bioware almost always relies on the classic "A Hero must Rise to destroy a Great Evil that Threatens to Destroy the World!" plot archetype. Now, this is a classic archetype, and rightfully so. It is often found in the likes of mythology and folklore. J.R.R. Tolkien brought this into mainstream with his The Lord of the Rings, and George Lucas even more so with the vast majority of his Star Wars movies. However, just because a story archetype is classic does not mean it is all good either. After all "classic" is just one stone throws away from being "cliche". We need more than just a mold for a story to be good. We need interesting characters, character relationships, a villain that is truly worthy of being called a villain, the development of the characters, etc. You can have all of the plot twists to your heart's desire, but if it does not have a heart, what is the freaking point? Simply put, plot twists alone do not make a story "good". And Bioware seems inept of understanding this fact. In Baldur's Gate, you were a SPOILER! Spawn of Bhaal, the God of Bloodshed,, and you must stop your SPOILER! evil half brother from replacing your divine father, and save all of Baldur's Gate in the process! Baldur's Gate II was a very refreshing change of pace, when you instead were out to kill the bastard that tortured you and killed one of your friends. The villain was also very compelling, and you understood his actions. He was an interesting character, as well as a plausible villain. What was at stake was all that mattered - your own neck. It was an epic storyline for all of the reasons that most people do not think is epic. Unfortunately, Bioware did not like it, and went back to its roots with their next games. In Neverwinter Nights, you must stop an ancient evil from conquering the city of Neverwinter. The singleplayer game was quite bad, but in return, they gave the community an amazing editor, which allowed users to create their own games! Sure, most of them were crap, but a select few were quite stellar, and were worth the price of the game and its 2 expansion packs! With Knights of the Old Republic, you are tasked with saving the Republic from the evil Sith! Oooooo. In Jade Empire you must stop a horrible person from conquering the Jade Empire! Hrm.... where have I heard this before? And in Mass Effect, you, once again, have to stop some horrible evil from destroying galactic civilization as we know it! People, how on Earth is this not getting tiresome? Bioware is recycling the same story archetype 4 games in a row (surely soon to be 5 with Dragon Age in October)! And people praise Bioware for good storytelling? Laughable. Now, I understand that just a story archetype alone isn't enough to condemn a story. It may still very well be a "save the world" storyline, but there could be enough twists and turns and interesting scenarios, well written dialogue, and compelling characters that it will be a good story. Unfortunately, Bioware rarely has any of those things. Their plot twists are far too rare, and rarely do anything for the storyline, that makes them truly effective. Their dialogue is often quite crude, with the appearance that they were scratching them onto stone rather than writing them with pencil. Sometimes, the dialogue is just downright cringe worthy. In some cases with Baldur's Gate, they were even laugh worthy at how campy it all was. II. Bioware Recycles Their Characters for Nearly Every Game Baldur's Gate II is one of the strongest games in Bioware's lineup, and they know it. Not only was it, fun, engaging, an open world, and full of dozens of characters that can be a part of the player's party, but it also had an engrossing storyline, and it was full of strong characters, especially the villain. So, instead of bashing their brain boxes together and trying to think up of ways to recreate the magic in their subsequent games, they decided to just downright copy it, paint it another color, and just call it new! Basically, nearly every single party NPC after Neverwinter Nights can be easily be described as a BGII character with a different name and backstory. This weakens the overall narrative of the story overall. III. Bioware's perception of "evil" is just mindlessly killing people and/or being a bully Let's face it people. Being a murderer is not the sole way in which you can be classified as evil. In the same respect, being a bully, asking for money from someone for just saving their lives, is not evil. Evil is when you totally and absolutely remove all measures of hope and perseverance from someone. It is when you leave them as a lifeless husk, when you screw a woman despite you having no affections for her whatsoever, and right after that going to the local whore house, leaving her on that bed. Evil is using that woman's affections for your own selfish ends. Evil is when you totally and absolutely remove the humanity from people, leaving them as a soulless husk for you to do with as you please. So, those are my 3 main reasons as to why Bioware does not tell good stories. Good day and good gaming.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trailer

2009-06-05T16:31:00.006-04:00

I want it said right here and now that I absolutely love all things Castlevania. I love the liberty IGA took with the Dracula mythos. I love the larger than life characters. I love the mythology, the gothic art style, I love the techno-orchestra-symphony soundtracks that have been a part of the franchise ever since Symphony of the Night. And I love what I see with Lords of Shadow. The graphics are beautiful. I love the music, I love the voice acting, and I love the idea of a man willing to embrace the darkness to bring back his wife. Now, this is all from just a trailer, and a short one at that, but I am very happy with what I see. My prospects for this are very high, especially since Hideo Kojima is reportedly heading this up. About time that he got away from Metal Gear Solid. Granted, I loved what he did with that franchise, but that is all he has been doing since 2000! He needs room to breathe, and MGS3 and MGS4 were almost claustrophobic.

WTF?!: RIFTS

2009-05-25T22:51:00.002-04:00

Thanks to SomethingAwful, I have concluded I will never EVER play RIFTS.

The Journals of a New GM: 2 - The Dreaming and Fearing of Man

2009-05-22T04:29:00.005-04:00

I really made two interesting book choices earlier this week, and at the moment they were just based off of me wanting some more interesting things to happen in my Mage games, but not I can easily see that it was my mind at work. See, the two books are Astral Realms and Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss. The first deals with the dreams and fantasies of mankind, and how mages can enter their "inner souls" and the collected dream universe of mankind, while the other deals with adding supernatural horror that easily complements mages. Since the abyss is the source of all mages' woes, the "intruders" from the abyss must be the physical incarnation of them. Dreams and fear. In some ways, you could say that they are two sides of the same coin, and I think it is just very interesting how, for my first Mage add-on books purchase after Boston: Unleashed, I picked boosk dealing with those themes. Now, I have only read a little bit of both - only the opening short story of Intruders, and some ways into Astral Realms, but already I am getting a stream of ideas how I can mix elements of both into the game. It won't be for some time, mind you, but I can already say that it was well worth the $40.

Seeing Midnight Screening of Terminator: Salvation

2009-05-20T21:01:00.003-04:00

Here's to hoping that it is going to be good. :)

So, err...

2009-05-19T21:49:00.004-04:00

Am I the only one who thinks that this is one awesome t-shirt design? For those that agree, here is a link to the site to buy it.

Sherlock Holmes trailer

2009-05-18T22:37:00.001-04:00

So many good movies, so little time...

The Journals of a New Game Master: 1 - Mixing Faith with Fantasy

2009-05-18T21:11:00.004-04:00

After 3 sessions as a Game Master, I thought it would be a good idea if I were to start writing some entries from the PoV of one. Heck, it just might give me the motivation that I need to keep this blog updated for once! So, GMing. It's an interesting thing. For one, it is pretty much essential to any good RPG campaign. You need a GM who can juggle being a good storyteller, thinking of his feet, who can moderate the type of games he wants to play with that of everyone else, being good with the rules, moderating the other players, keeping the players interests throughout the 3+ hour session, not to mention being good with voices and body motions when he is the NPC, to have a really good gaming session. It's tough work. Not to mention all of the work BEFORE the session. Alternate plot routes, for instance. The creation of the world, the motivation of the characters, making the bad guys evil as well as morally complex and human, and stuff like that. Oh, and let's not forget the actual arranging of the sessions. Where to play, when, is there food, how long do we play for, and if we take breaks. Breaks open up a whole other can of worms, because they are like commercial breaks. When commercials come up in Lost, everyone goes crazy because YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! You need to take the break at the right time, or else the momentum is completely lost. At the end of the day, I kinda appreciate what this guy has to go through.Okay, maybe not THAT much, but you understand my point. Now that we are on the topic of God, it brings me to the topic of this entry: merging Faith and Fantasy in a modern era game. For my first campaign, my group (which was, at the time, me and my best friend Pete) decided on Mage: The Awakening. Considering that we were a Christian group, and had the intent of using the RPG Group as a sort of Christian Ministry (is that the right term?), this was a very interesting choice. I mean, Christians playing RPGs (Ohnosatandemonsblahblahblah!), an RPG game that deals with people casting spells and summoning spirits and the like. If we were the standard RPG Group, one would have to wonder what an irregular group was! But hey, who said I had to be sterotypical? You are talking to someone that wants substance over style with his movies and video games. I hate Halo for God's sake. Yes, you read that right. H-A-L-O. The one with Master Chief. Oh, did I mention I think Harry Potter is boring as heck? And yes, I did read all of the books. I am anything but typical. Anyways, I like my stories to be deep - or as my pastor put it, profound. I like for them to have themes, messages, moral passages, and social commentary. I think that stuff is fun. I love it when a game gives me a variety of moral choices, and NONE of them can be simply put into right or wrong. I like it when stories makes me think. And so, when I working on the campaign for my group's Mage game, I want them to ask themselves: "Is this the right thing to do? Is this what I would do in this situation?" as much as possible. I don't like black and white. I love gray, because that is what we are. Not even Hitler was evil - heck, he gave millions to a family he barely knew, because they needed it. He put gays in concentration camps because the father of that same family left them for his gay partner. No one is evil, but neither are they good too. JFK cheated on his wife. Churchill was a drunk. We humans are stuck in the middle. Anyways, I like themes. I like moral lessons. So, when designing this campaign, I wanted three moral lessons (or themes) that would underlayer the entire thing. They would support one and another, and enrichen the game as a whole. Besides, it gives me a really good excuse to rent out philosophy books at the library. Anyways, for the campaign, I choose three categories: moral, political, and faith. Three pretty important things to think about, if you ask me. Political was the easiest. "America has the potential to become it's very worst enemy. Its worst enemy is tyranny - look at the Red Scare, and the Patriot Act, as well as all of the measures to remove the right to bear arms. We are using fear to back these unconstitutional acts." Of course, this is just my opinion, but that is somewhat unavoidable. Now, fear of what? Easy - death, and death's distant cousins, fate and destiny. We have now reached the moral: "The only way to conquer death is to embrace it. To know that your end will come, and to make the most out of what time you have. You can't escape your fate. " We can't change what we must do. If a man feels he must do something, he must. This is our nature. Changing fate brings only disaster. We are so scared of that fact that we will do anything to change it. We will even go so far as to turn America into a pseudo-dictatorship. Now, gratefully, we have not reached that point, but if we keep on going down this road we will. However, faith is where I am having the most trouble. In what way can I tie in the first two lessons with a pro-Christian one - but also in such a way that is not propaganda like (Narnia?). I wanted to use a lesson that will make the players ask questions about their spiritual walk, but not force them to come to one definite answer. I do have an idea of "People who choose to become greater than God just end up becoming lower than dirt" but that feels too...condescending I suppose is the right word. It just doesn't feel right. It's not the type of lesson I would want to hear in a movie or book. Why would I do that to my players? Besides, it doesn't even fit with the other two themes! Faith just added three buckets full of worms on top of everything else. I considered for a fraction of a moment to take out the faith theme all together, but I rejected that. If I am going to do this, I am going to do all three. The great holy trinity of RPG Themes - faith, moral, and political. That is what each and every one of my Campaigns would have, or they will be just a grand old adventuring romp. Which isn't bad mind you, but I wanted to start off with a grand start. I had been toying with the idea of the PC's (that's Player Characters to you RPG newbies) meeting with a God, a god of Death in particular, but then I started to wonder where these gods would fall in the Christian cosmotology. Would they be between God and the Devil? Would God be just the God of OUR universe, and each universe has its own pantheon? Or maybe they would be the last of the stock, with God and the Devil being above them. Also, I want to use Planescape with Mage. Planescape is essentially a multiverse that can be used with fantasy settings. It is rich, imaginative, uniquely fantastic, and full of so much plot hooks I would be insane not to use it. But how do I make sense of that with Christian faith? Should I even bother? As one can sense, I am absolutley insane. First time Game Master, trying to make my campaign deep (profound), three themes that make the players think, fitting Fantasy pantheons into Christian doctrine - mein gott! What did I get myself into?!

Red Dead Redemption Trailer: Wow!

2009-05-17T01:08:00.003-04:00

I am just about sold. I must have gotten the Cowboy bug from my grandfather.

And now, a word from our AWESOME

2009-05-12T19:05:00.007-04:00

Yes, I am fully aware that I said I would write a review for Star Trek. But it would it be better than this? I think not.

Thoughts on Star Trek XI

2009-05-10T19:40:00.003-04:00

"Where has no man has gone before," eh? A great union of character driven plots, action and adventure, wonderfully crafted music. Not something new, but one that is desperately needed. Regardless it is one hell of a movie. But I am speaking as a Star Trek virgin, familiar with the souls aboard the Enterprise, but never trully touched by them until now. I feel the need to say more, but I don't have the words for it. A second viewing feels necessary. I will do so soon. Until then, as some would say, "Live Long and Prosper".

Where have I been, what I have been doing, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THREE MONTHS OF NOTHING!

2009-05-08T17:14:00.001-04:00

Laziness. Sloth. Lack of motivation.

Call it what you want, but they all pretty much mean the same thing. The reason this blog of mine has yet to be updated for so very long was for one reason – I was too lazy to do so.

It is most certainly isn’t because I haven’t thought of anything interesting to write about. Quite the opposite in fact. I can remember quite well when my online friend, Skotti, relayed to me how she was banned on Xbox Live just because she mentioned in her profile that she was a Lesbian whom was living with a woman she loved.

I didn’t write about that.

Or I could have written about my frustration in Algebra, how I am forced to study in something that has no use to me at all.

I didn’t write a thing about that either.

OR, if I really wanted, I could have written about how the “joy and celebration” of a black man being elected president really showed just how racist our country is still is.

Why I didn’t write about that is still beyond me.

But this post isn’t about any of those topics. Instead, this post is essentially one big “Last Time, on the ‘Life of Matt’”…

· I went to my first ever Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention! StellarCon, as it was called, was an absolute blast. I played Pen and Paper RPGs for the very first time, I was surrounded by fellow geeks, and I got to know what it was like to be truly welcomed at a place. I had never felt more welcomed in any other place in my life, church included. That should speak volumes about the state of Christianity in America.

· My pastor, believe it or not, was all for a Christ-centered RPG group being hosted at my local church. This was way back in March.

· Watchmen: The Movie. A wonderful adaption of one of the most profound comic books were created. I have serious doubts anyone could do better.

· The RPG Group got started in late April. It is still going on today, but it NEEDS people.

· Helped started a Young Adult (18-30s) small group/bible study called WHAT’S NEXT. Couldn’t stand the name, but I guess that is what is ‘hip’ now. Don’t see the point of it myself.

· May be going to school at ECPI for some sort of major regarding computers. I love technology, and I love English, particularly writing, but I don’t want to make the latter a career.

The Development of a Cyclopean Computer

2009-02-26T10:44:00.004-05:00

Over the past month, I have been brainstorming as to what parts I should use in the creation of my next computer. It was a few months ago, when I realized I wanted to build my own gaming computer instead of buying one from Alienware.

I did the math, and I found out that if I built my gaming computer, even if I bought an Alienware case off of eBay for $400, I would still be saving thousands of dollars. I looked online, googling “how to build a gaming computer”, and I saw dozens of guides on how to build a computer. I was so certain it was a mammoth effort to assemble a computer, but the guides showed there was no less than twenty steps, most of them just screwing in a power supply, or inserting the mother board, or plugging in something into the motherboard.

So, once I knew just how easy it is to build a computer, I knew that was the path for me. First thing I had to decide was what type of computer case I wanted. I am very pleased aesthetically, so I knew I wanted it to look good. But it also needed lots of room to work in, so it also had to be a Full Tower case. On top of that, it needed to have lots of room for both internal drives (hard drives, card readers) and external drives (Blu-Ray, DVD, CD, Floppy). It also needed to be ATX. ATX essentially describes the size of the slots, the placement of the support screws for the motherboard, etc. Ventilation was also necessary, to give sufficient air flow and to keep dust out…something my current computer, a 2003 VAIO PCV-RS710GX, is very much lacking.

I found what I was looking for in an eBay auction for the Aurora 7500 Space Black case. It was a full tower case, its front grills also acted as dust vents, had room for four external drive bays and six internal drives, and it was very aesthetically pleasing, but this is Alienware so that was a given.

I got it off of eBay for $160. I ordered it three days past, but it still hasn’t arrived yet. The seller is using USPS to save me some money, but that means I have absolutely no idea where the chassis is now.

Next I had to decide on a CPU, or processor. The CPU is the brains of the computer. So, you do not want to skimp out on it at all. It also determines what kind of motherboard you can use. The Intel Core i7 920 CPU was the obvious choice. The i7 is the leading processor out on the market right now, and it is light years ahead of the other Quad-Core CPU, the AMD Phenom II. This power comes at a price though - $280, to be precise.

I have read that the onboard heat sink for the i7 was unsatisfactory, so I went with the Dynatron G555 77mm fan heat sink. Essentially, this goes on top of the CPU, absorbing the heat, and the fan pushes it out. This keeps the CPU very cool.

And it wasn’t just the CPU that was expensive. Both i7 compatible motherboards and DDR3 RAM memory, which is the only memory that can work with the i7, are much more expensive than their equivalents. For the motherboard I went with the ASUS P6T Intel ATX motherboard. With three PCI-E slots, it has more than enough room for my eventual expansion from one videocard to two, as well as a High Defenition sound card. It sports six RAM slots, with a maximum support of 12 GB RAM. This gives me a great deal of room for upgrading my computer.

As for RAM, I went with G.SKILL due to their relative low cost, and will be buying two of their 2x2 GB packages. This will get me 8 GB of RAM, far more than exceeding the average RAM requisites, giving me maximum performance for my gaming.

The videocard is an essential component for getting the most visually out of your system. Knowing this, I went with AMD/ATI, since they have always given me a great bang for my buck. I chose the HIS HD 4870 IceQ 4+ 1 GB card. HIS put on the HD 4870 a cooling base, which takes the hot air the card brings in and pushes it out of the case, cooling down the card by as much as 60%. It is more than worth the extra $70 in my eyes.

Next, I had to choose a sound card. I didn’t want to go with on-board sound because I listen to music frequently, and I wanted the highest quality. Knowing this, I went with the AuzenTech X-Fi Forte 7.1 Low Profile sound card. It gives me a high quality sound, but it takes up very little room on the motherboard. The only downside is that it takes up a PCI-E expansion card slot, thus limiting me to just two videocards, instead of three. It shouldn’t make much of a difference, though.

A good power supply is necessary for any good computer, for obvious reasons. I went with Corsair, since they have a good reputation for computer hardware. Their CPMPSU-850TX has 850W of power, more than enough for when I buy my second videocard a year after I build this rig. It also comes with a massive collection of cables, which is both good and bad considering I will have to tuck the excess cables away somewhere to give maximum airflow.

From there I had to choose my hard drive, my card reader, my Blu-Ray and DVD player, and monitor. I got myself a 1TB (that’s 1,000 GBs!) so I can fit plenty of music and games on my computer. I got myself a Blu-Ray player because eventually, Blu-Ray will become the norm and I want to be prepared for that. As for monitor, I got a 21.6” ASUS. This thing is massive, and is one hell of an upgrade over my current 16” I got with my VAIO.

So, in total, I will be spending close to $1,700. Expensive, sure, especially for a college student, but when I look at the end result, it will be far worth it.

Alan Moore must be rolling in his grave...

2009-01-31T00:51:00.003-05:00

And he isn't even dead yet! The guy on the right looks like the third Mario brother

Two days, and already Obama is screwing up!

2009-01-24T16:19:00.003-05:00

The Obama Administration continues to immorally monitor citizens in its "search" for terrorists Where is Howard Beale when you need him most?

The hell is this crap?

2009-01-23T17:49:00.000-05:00

High School seeks to forfeit 100-0 win The hell? Excuse me, but if a sports team sucks enough to not gain a single point in a game, then they deserve it. The school is forfeiting because it is not right for their team to kick some serious butt? This is just retarded. You won! You got one hundred points! The other team got none! That is pretty awesome! Why forfeit it? Some administrator mentions something about a golden rule. In competitive games, there is only one golden rule – beat the team no matter what, as long as you follow the rules of the game. The two teams were on equal footing, and the opposing team got clobbered. This is why America is in such a bad state of things. Because we have a pussy mentality. America, the toughest country in the world, has turned into a bunch of pussies.

Let's talk about Pirating

2009-01-23T14:34:00.002-05:00

Stealing is bad. Stealing is something you just don't do. You don't go into a candy store and just steal that Hersey's Kiss. You don't take what is yours, and you only get possession of something when you hand over your hard earned cash for it. You work hard, you spend hours after hours doing whatever it is that you do, you get your paycheck, you pay your taxes. You pay for insurance and food and gas and electricity and your cable. After all that, then you get to spend your hard earned money on anything you please, if that suits your fancy.

It's a system that makes sense. That is how economy works, in a nutshell. We all make a service or product, we get money, we pay for our essentials, then we buy our luxuries. And who made those luxuries? Why, somebody who was making a service, just like you.

So, what does our morale upbringing tells us when we think of stealing? Why, we remember that it is almost like we are stealing from ourselves. Thus, stealing is wrong. One hundred and one percent, all the time, always, and forever.

Right?

Well, not really. In the videogame industry, there is something called pirating. Pirating is essentially when somebody downloads a videogame and does not pay for it. Somebody steals a game. From the outside, this is all bad.

Things are never quite so simple, however. What if, oh let's say, a computer game installs data gathering software on your machine, without your permission? It doesn't even say so on the box, even? What if this software not only sends data, but by doing so, it creates a back door on your computer for hackers to get into your computer? What if, sometimes, this software doesn't even allow you to install the game that you legally bought? Even better, what if the software decides that you did not buy the game – even when you did – and takes out some essential object from the game, like a character or mission objective? Oh, and before I forget, this software gives you a limited amount of activations, and after that, you have to buy the game – again! - to play it.

I have some bad news. This is all real. This is SecuROM. Many major publishers, such as EA, Atari, and 2k Games, use SecuROM.

This is just one reason why people pirate. So that they don't have to deal with this crap. If a major publisher decides to treat you, the customer, like a criminal, you might as well throw one back. SecuROM is, on the surface, an anti-pirating program, but it is easily cracked within days, if not hours. SecuROM has never once prevented a game from being put on torrents or sites. As an anti-pirating tool, SecuROM fails on all fronts.

That is one of the reasons why I recently pirated “Dead Space”, a phenomenal game. It is a great game, with some certain flaws to the PC port. I wanted to play the game, but I also did not want to have my computer become security flawed. I should be able to play a game without having that risk. That's why some of my friends pirate. They shouldn't have that risk. Just because we choose not to play on the consoles does not mean we should be punished.

I have other reasons why I pirated, sure. I wanted to see if I liked it. There was no demo of “Dead Space”, and even then, demos usually only contain the good bits of a game, leaving any major faults out, giving us an improper impression. I have a one-third rule: I play a game one third of the way through. If I like what I see, I buy it. If not, I uninstall it and move on with my life.

There is also the issue of if the game will work on my machine. Now, I have Windows XP SP3, 2.5 GB of RAM, and an ATI X1650 PRO 512 MB videocard. Most games released today should work, but there is always the off chance that it won't. So, I pirate games I want to play, just to be safe. After all, since all opened softwares can't be refunded at most stores, I am given very little choice. Either I buy a game that may or may not work, and thus have a chance of forking over fifty dollars for nothing, or I pirate it and see.

The sensible thing to do would be to pirate it. Since fewer and fewer companies are giving us PC gamers demos – and even then, those demos give us a foggy view of the actual endgame product – you really can't ask why we pirate.

Now, of course, some people pirate so that they don't have to pay. I understand that. I love free stuff. But is that why I do it? No. I pirate to see if the game will work, if I will like the game, and so that I don't have to deal with SecuROM.

It should be said that people will be responsible when they are given appropriate power, but we know that isn't true. I can only speak for myself when I say I am doing what I think is right, and I do so responsibly. Just because people pirate does not mean they are bad people.

Now, some would say that pirating is bring down the industry to its knees. That's what the chairman of “Iron Lore Entertainment” said. He put the blame on those of pirated a game released prematurely as why his company went out of business.

The thing is, they did something very fishy. For all pre-released and thus, pirated, copies of Titan Quest, once you left the cave of the tutorial level, you got a crash to desktop error. It was programmed into the game.

But, they did not say if it was a fatal bug, or if it was an anti-pirating maneuver. They just crashed the game, leaving the player to their own conclusions. It didn't take long for word to spread like wildfire that Titan Quest was a critically flawed game. “Don't buy it!” everyone said. They were the prophets of doom, and they preaching the word of how Iron Lore Entertainment was releasing a game you couldn't even beat.

Of course, this didn't happen in the commercial products, but the damage was done. Iron Lore Entertainment still had the time to release an expansion pack to Titan Quest, but it didn't take long afterwards for THQ, the owner of Iron Lore, to announce they would be closing down Iron Lore.

So, do you want my opinion? I think it's a mixture of those who pirate and don't buy the games they finish (as well as in theory like, since why would you finish a game if you did not like it) as well as the developers who put in anti-pirating software that punish those that do buy the games.

Developers, stop laying the blame on pirates, because it's not just us. It's you too. Your anti-pirating software backfires. It actually prompts more people to pirate!

And to all my fellow pirates...if you like the game, give some support to the developers. If you like the game, buy it. If you don't, just delete it. But don't play a game and not pay for it. As much as you would like to think otherwise, these guys need to eat as well! Everyone is suffering from this Recession, and you aren't helping things.

One more time now...

2009-01-20T12:56:00.002-05:00

I have never been good with staying with a blog. I would always say "Okay, this time, I swear to the almighty God, I will see this through. There will not be a week that goes by where I do not post something." And time and time again, I always mess up. My name is Matt. I was born and raised in the Norwood suburb of Massachusetts, but moved to central North Carolina four years ago. I am currentley attending a community college, and will transfer to UNC-G in Spring of '10. What do I love? Pretty much everything but sports. I read comic books (yes, that includes graphic novels and manga), play videogames, read books (mostly in the form of science-fiction and fantasy novels, although I am planning on expanding), watch movies and TV shows. I am also a hopeful author, and am working on the fantasy setting for my first novel. My choice of politics are... unusual. I did not vote for the two main canidates for Presidency. Yes, that means a write-in. I am definied as an Independant, but I would offically define myself as a "Conservative with some aspects of liberal, with a great deal of Constitutional Conservatism". I offically supported Ron Paul as president, and kept my "Ron Paul for 2008" bumper sticker after he offically dropped out of the race. I still have it on my car, and when I get a new one, I'll probably find some way to move it to my next car. For my videogame choices, I believe that it will never become an art form as long as it puts gameplay over story. They need to be of equal value, just like wordplay is of equal value to the story and characters in novels, and the skill of the actors and the cinematography are just as important as the script. I detest recent "ground breaking games" such as Fallout 3, and somewhat, Prince of Persia (2008), which advocates idiocy and lack of substance and care over intelligence, critical thinking, and well written dialogue. I'm much less lenient with movies, but I prefer drama over comedy. I will only go to a romantic comedy if my girlfriend - when or if I acquire one - wants to go. My favorite movie of 2008 was The Dark Knight, mainly because it was such a good character driven story, and a great telling of the fall of Harvey Dent. I do plan to watch "The Wrestler" which, from what my friend tells me, had the best actor (Micker Rourke) of the year. Slumdog Billionaire is another movie I want to see. As for comics? I am a huge Vertigo fan. I love "Ex Machina" and "Y: The Last Man", and "Sandman" is pure gold. Alan Moore is the God of comics, with "Watchman" being the best Trade-PaperBack in the industry's relativley short history. "Miracleman" is the lost treasure of the industry. Books? George R. R. Martin is king. A Song of Ice and Fire is the best fantasy series of all time. Screw "The Lord of the Rings"! The best J.R.R. Tolkien did was essentially give fantasy a big head start. Robert E. Howard is a hell of a writer, with Conan being one of the best fantasy leads ever. So, that's me. Matt, a guy who has way too much time on his hands and just as many tastes. Hope you enjoy the ride.