The Truth Behind...

If only it was that "Portal"

2012-02-02T06:57:00.001+13:00

Next up on the crappy movie viewing: The Entrance! No... The Opening! No, no... The Hole! That's it, it's a Hole.

The movie starts with us being introduced to a bunch of characters... no, hang on, I lie. The movie starts with a bunch of characters, who we are not introduced to, who go around discussing some thing like we are supposed to already know who they are and what they are talking about. Then the leads come across a painting of a giant fingerprint and due to it being so amazing, they start seeing scary ghost children. There's no hope for them then.

This movie really is a complete nothing. As in nothing happens that marks it out in any way as original piece of horror fiction. I was reminded of The Grudge and The Ring, in that even the American versions were much better than this, but the movie boils down to 'see bad thing and die'. Yeah, as I said, nothing original of note.

Actor wise we have Michael Madsen (why?) and Nicholas Brandon (briefly). Leading is Jenna Zablocki and Michael Muhney. Never heard of either of them, but it looks like he's got a big career. Not sure why he was in this either then, as he mainly seems to be hired due to his ability to stare in a slack-jaw manner. [Were they all friends of the director or something?]

Not a good movie, not even a watchable bad movie. A blah movie, and best forgotten.

[END]

Sheer Craziness!

2012-02-01T07:02:00.002+13:00

And I'm a part of it!

I've a big fan of Order of the Stick. Being D&D-based comic, while self-aware character PCs, and more than a large dose of humour, with good story telling, it's a great read, and free on-line.

Mostly...

Not every comic in the main storyline is online, some you can only get if you get the collected books.

And then there are the stories you can only get in print-only form, being the PCs origin, the bad guys origin, and the collection of other OotS comics (including a fantastically funny take on the 3.5-ish OotS vs the new 4ed OotS).

However...

Some of the books are no longer in print. They are just too popular. And so, Rich Burlew has started a Kickstart project to get monies to get them back into print. Well, just one, and if the money came in, more could be put into print.

Pledgers broke through the lower limits of the costs within... the first day, I think... no, wait, it took two days. And now, about 9 days into it... originally Rich asked for $57k... currently rocking (at time of writing) ~~$270k~~ UPDATE: Over $300K!

This is the biggest comic-based Kickstarter project ever. And is in the top 10? 15? of all time.

And, as I said, I'm a part of it. Already have the books, but there is stuff there for those people as well. (And while I'm incredibly tempted to get a complete signed set, fortunately other people already took those options so I can't spend that large amount money.)

I'm Kickstarting Order of the Stick, won't you?

[END]

The Third Jihad

2012-01-31T07:00:00.001+13:00

So this is a thing that is happening. The New York Police are showing The Third Jihad to new officers to scare them in the ways of Muslim. Time for me to see it then.

In this movie, we see the push of Muslim leaders of radical Islam to strike out violently and with any and all means. Within 50 years, Muslims will be in the White House. They even have evidence of a manifesto. Is radical Islam a problem? Yes. Is it to the scale implied by the movie? Not yet.

And it may not be. But it won't be going away by itself. This does show that radicals are far more active than most of us, and doing is going to trump not doing every time. And if the rest of us just sit here... then yeah, they are going to take the world. [I don't know what the tipping point will be, but that is definitely an 'if', not a 'when'.]

Really, watching this, you can see why Christians have Fatwah Envy. According to this movie, the Muslims push on anything that offends them, and society steps back saying 'sorry'. Christianity wishes it could do that so freely. And if Muslims rise to power, we'll see how quickly they stick to the 'there is no separation of church and state' line they so often quote.

But, you think the idea of Sharia Law taking over can't happen here? It's already been practiced, not with the force of law, but with the force of culture. In that case, the woman got away, but in how many cases have they not?

I don't see radical Muslims being as potent as this movie would have us believe, but radical ideology of any kind is very powerful. And a powerful enough idea will change the world while the rest of us dither.

[END]

One Two Three vs 1 2 3

2012-01-30T07:01:00.002+13:00

One Two Three is a movie about some bad guys taking a train carriage hostage. It becomes Garder vs Blue, but they play it smart, the characters don't take risks, and intelligence and strength of personality wins the day.

1 2 3 is a slick movie in which John Travolta rants on about different things, while Denzel Washington plays someone that has his role in the movie shifted about so he can be the hero even though it makes no sense.

Twenty-five years separates the two movies, and a lot of difference of how movies are made. One Two Three is about story and characters. 1 2 3 is about actors and fast cuts to try for a sense of excitement. There's a lot of similarities between the two movies, and you can tell where the second references the first. But there are a lot of differences in style and the motivation of the plot. As you might be able to guess, One Two Three is simply a lot better.

Hollywood has remade a fair few films. Just stop, Hollywood. Just stop.

[END]

Got the wrong message

2012-01-29T07:00:00.001+13:00

I was sent (via mass email style from someone I know) a story that is supposed to bless me with god or something. It's about a boy who has potato chips and goes out to have lunch with god.

[Interestingly, some versions have him meet an old woman, some an old man. Yet for the man the smile is still described as 'pretty'. Make of that what you will.]

He meets with an old man, shares his meal with him and think he's met god. As had the old man.

The take away message is: "Have lunch with God........bring chips." Um, what?

Actually, the take away message is given in the paragraph before that: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a
life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Embrace all equally!"

That message is actually nice, and speaks to people being with people, making a connection, and how touching it can be.

So why bring religion into it? Why not just have the boy going to the park and having lunch with someone, making them smile, without thinking they are god? Is that impossible?

You don't need religion as a reason to get together. But that message never seems to be the one communicated...

[END]

Congratulations America, you won

2012-01-28T06:57:00.001+13:00

The internet has now closed down, thanks to you.

So SOPA/PIPA got cancelled. And in retaliation (it's hard not to read it as causation, which is does indeed look to be), Megaupload got tackled by the Feds and shut down. (More or less.)

And recently, FileServe decided to kill all its links and kick users off. Or maybe not. Or maybe just the US people. Certainly something happened to it that pissed off a lot of people. (My account is still there, didn't have any files uploaded to it.) Whether this was all due to FS being scared or preemptively cleaning house so it can't disclose people/data to the government, who knows, and it doesn't matter.

Because, you know what... US, you win. Thanks guys. Due to "Big Entertainment"(tm), file hosts are running scared, and people who legitimately use and rely on that form of distribution to get their creations/business out there have been totally screwed. Just because the entertainment industry can't stand the idea that someone might download a copy of [insert whatever crappy movie title you like here for your own amusement]. Yes, there is a piracy problem, but this isn't the way to address it. SOPA/PIPA wasn't. ACTA isn't. Shutting down file hosts won't be.

But they think it is, and now they have won. So, congratulations. Money has brought the win again.

[END]

Junji Ito

2012-01-27T07:00:00.001+13:00

I like horror, and Japanese horror more than American horror, and manga is a great way to really portray weird stuff that tv just can't quite get. So when I found out that Junji Ito did horror manga, I decided to check it out.

First I read Museum of Terror, which was the collected Tomie stories. Tomie is a young girl who captivates the minds of men until they get so passionate that they kill her. And then she comes back. Some well done stories in that vein, although once you get the gimmick most of the stories are waiting for that element to come into play, and few are original takes. There looks to be a slew of movies about Tomie, so I'll see if I can get my hands on some.

However, next I read Uzumaki. Now... that was one of the more brilliant manga I've ever read. Any time I took a break at work, I snuck in another chapter. I just devoured it. It's about a town that gets consumed by spirals, and it has weird stuff all over the place, and I love it. The movie is more about the stories in the first volume, and it is slower than the manga. And it gets stupid weird, just avoid it really. But if you like that genre, definitely get the manga.

And I still have Gyo to read, although can't find the first volume in English for less than a truck load of money...

I'm glad I found out about him, and will see what else I can get. And if you like that, also go grab the manga of Ju-On. (The cat scene is freaky!)

[END]

Voynich Descript

2012-01-26T07:01:00.002+13:00

The Voynich Manuscript is a great example of a crank text that I would have mentioned last time. It's also one of those texts you can get online, in this case as a PDF. But... what is it?

To jump to the end, I think I'm in agreement with the idea that it fits the concept of a Herbal. Basically something that said 'this plant is good for this' and 'these conditions afflict women' etc. At least, that's what it looks to looks like... (There are other interpretations.)

But what of the text? People think it's a code. It looks like it could be. However, as with being a herbal, it looks like it looks like a code. People have attempted to crack it over the years, and no-one has been successful. People have broken all sorts of codes, but you know what the difference was about those? They knew they were codes. No-one knows that this is a code. To be honest, if we go the herbal route, I question the practicality of it being a code. Yes, it would be good to hide from the authorities, but if this was a working manuscript, then you need to sit down and decypher it every time you need to look something up. That could take a long time. That just doesn't work. And if you were good enough to just read the code, then that would suggest that either the code wasn't that complicated (and no-one has broken it??), or that it was a code form of a language, or another language entirely.

And people thought that as well. Another language. However, it clearly isn't any known language, and, more importantly, it doesn't fit any language structure that we know about, and we know about a ton of them. Even before we had the Rosetta Stone, we knew something of hieroglyphics, especially that it was a language. This, not it.

Which, frankly, points to the obvious conclusion: aliens. (Yes, someone in the document on Voynich that I just watched did suggest aliens.) Okay, not aliens, but, as I said, a crank text. Possibly someone who was listening to random noise and writing it down, but more likely a purposefully constructed hoax. And one that was expected to get something out of it given the work that went into creating it. Whether it was Voynich himself, or John Dee and Edward Kelly... given the amount of work, I'd be looking for another text that they borrowed heavily from.

End of the day, hoax or not, it's an incredible effort of work. I'm surprised Voynich and later sellers couldn't get someone to buy it (although it certainly wasn't being sold cheap). It's now at the Yale University, and they aren't letting anyone near it (possibly because this would be the second hoax they were involved in). An interesting text, and I think psychology is the key to understanding it here, not linguistic or cryptographic analysis.

[END]

Psychosomatic Experiment

2012-01-25T07:00:00.001+13:00

I could tell within the first five minutes that I was in trouble with this movie. It had a few shots that were suddenly "artsy" and the acting was mediocre at best. Oh boy.

The premise seems to be that some people randomly developed psychic powers (or there was an actual experiment on them, I'm not clear), and now with other people around to help amplify their powers, they suddenly break out with mass psychicness and everyone is in trouble. There are some sub plotlines about turning them into weapons, and some people are trying to uncover police corruption, or something (again, not clear and I'm not interested in working it out), but it seems to come down for an excuse for people to develop the ability for horrendous things to happen.

Despite knowing the IMDB rating was justified from the opening scene, there was one moment when I thought "nevermind, the effects are good". However, a few seconds later, I changed my mind. Nope, cheap effects for a cheap movie. Not sure why this movie was funded, but then Asylum are still in business too.

Featuring some notable actors in cameos, I note that one of the female leads (again, not interested enough to bother telling who was who) was also the main lead for Paranormal Activity. She needs to find something better to get her name attached to.

Not a great movie, not even a good movie. Although I am just a tiny wee bit tempted to check out Mel House's other movies to see if they are also just as bad.

[END]

Project Nim

2012-01-24T06:57:00.001+13:00

One of the movies I missed at the festival was Project Nim, starring Nim Chimpsky!

This is a movie that recounts the Project Nim experiment, from the start of taking Nim from his mother at day 15, through to his final living at a ranch, and with a lot of talking about the actual trying to teach him speech and of the conditions he was later left to. There is a lot of discussion in academia about whether or not chimps like him and Koko really did learn something or just moved their hands in a way that pleased the humans watching them.

But more than that, this movie is really about the humans involved, from the first mother he had, to the researchers, and the animal carers. To be honest, this project, although a "scientific experiment" was pretty much a failure from the beginning. They tried, but couldn't really get the science part of it right. The human side came up far too often. While people really did care for Nim, it's hard to see him not being just something that was used for other agendas with no interest in how Nim would fair.

Which, as it happens, is the conclusion the movie comes to. I've always said about science "if it can be done, it will be done" and this is a good example of that. While we do need to learn more about our primate brethren, this does not provide a good template of how to do that.

[END]

I went to the zoo, zoo, zoo

2012-01-23T07:00:00.002+13:00

I became a member of the Zoo, in an effort to get out more, and spent some time there yesterday (before it started raining...).

With (photo) camera and (video) camera in hand, I wandered around, camera'ing things. With the weather not that great, some animals didn't bother to put in an appearance (I guess the Malayan Sun Bears weren't Malayan Cloudy Bears! Eh? Eh? ...never mind), and there were a few areas with "Future Zoo" on it. So I guess I will definitely be going back just to get more Zoo experience.

Anyway, behold the videos and photos of animals not paying attention to me!

On the video front, we have Baboons, Birds 1, Birds 2, Cheetahs, Chimps, Emu, Giraffes, Lions, Meerkats, Monkey 1, Monkey 2, Monkey 3, Monkey 4, Otters, Pelican, Red Panda, The Roost (a bird area), and a Tuatara. (Some videos may contain other animals.) And special treat, part of a Larikeet Endoscopy!

And here is the photo set. Well... actually, I lie. Turns out the memory card got corrupted or something, so I got no pictures at all. :( (And Photobucket is already pleading for love.) [Note to self: get a new memory card or two...]

And since we need to engage with the cute, here are those Meerkats!

[END]

Bonus Video: Top of Coromandel Street

2012-01-22T16:42:00.000+13:00

Drive up to the top of the street... or do you?

[END]

Behind the Mask

2012-01-22T06:58:00.001+13:00

[This was a Movie Bob recommendation.]

Well, we have serial killers, especially those that keep returned after they are supposedly killed. Such greats as Freddy, Jason, Michael... so why not make a documentary about one? Involving actually following them around as they go about their business of terrorising students and setting up a house for them to be killed in?

Which is what this movie does. It so wants to be a movie deconstructing slasher movies, and it also wants to eat its cake as well. Which is where the problem sets in. Aside from not being that brilliant a dissection of slasher pics, it switches over to actually being a slasher pic... and goes extremely traditionally, even when it's trying not to be. You end up doing something else waiting for the movie to run its course.

The main stars are... people I haven't heard of before. But we do get cameos from Robert Englund and Zelda Rubinstein! And it's not surprising that Kate Lang Johnson is also in a bunch of other movies, being so pretty and all. And Angela Goethals is also in a lot of other productions, although I can't remember who Maya Driscoll in 24 was... (but it was a long time ago).

It looks like there's a prequel in the works, but to be honest, Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) isn't that watchable.

[END]

Bonus Video: 360 from Mt Victoria

2012-01-21T17:12:00.000+13:00

[END]

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

2012-01-21T07:02:00.002+13:00

[This was a Movie Bob recommendation.]

Beyond the terror that dares to speaks its name! You too will come to fear the terrifying walking of the walking terror! What one man must do, another man must also do!

Dr Paul Armstrong is a Scientist, doing Science! Which brings him and his wife out into the hills where there is Atmosphereum! But there is also Dr. Roger Fleming who wants the Atmosphereum to raise the... Lost Skeleton of Cadavra! And beware the ways of the aliens from Marva, which is not Earth, and so they seem like aliens to us!

Yes, this is straight out of the 1950s and the movie is extremely aware of this. Too aware, it feels to me. The characters act and say things because they know that's what happens in 1950 movies, and so they need to check it off the list. About the only original thing in this is the Skeleton (and that might just be a reference to something I don't know), and so much of it doesn't make it past the 'ha ha, isn't this thing that 1950 movies do funny?' stage.

Can't say there are any recognised names in this, but they look to be part of a company that produces this sort of movie, and I might check out their other works.

From 2001, we have The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, and it's good!

(Note: this trailer uses a lot of footage from the last twenty minutes of the film...)

[END]

Black Dynamite

2012-01-20T07:02:00.003+13:00

[This was a Movie Bob recommendation.]

This cat is is one mean muther, and when his brother is taken out, then it his turn to lay the smack down on those jive turkeys! (Okay, I don't speak Jive.) With his brother dead, and drug dealers letting drugs loose on the streets, Black Dynamite goes into action to deal out justice, Black Dynamite style (which involves hitting them a lot, which might use his kung fu). And then he and his allies start tracking down who is dealing out the drugs and who is controlling them and who is controlling them and who...

Now, I haven't seen a lot of Blaxplotation films, but this pretty much hits all the spots I've come to learn is associated with them. This is a well done movie, although the plot in the last third goes off the rails a bit and it starts to wear a little. Still, it's very watchable.

There's a fair few names associated with this. Michael Jai White (voice of a Green Lantern!) is Black Dynamite. Salli Richardson-Whitfield is the main female lead, Gloria (and it took me a while to remember that she's in Eureka). Tucker Smallwood has a cameo role. Mike Starr phones it in. And, hey, Arsenio Hall!

BTW, this movie was made in 2009, and entirely takes the piss. Check it out! [OMG, just seen that there's an animated series coming out this year.]

[END]

SOPA!

2012-01-19T07:03:00.004+13:00

So, this SOPA thing seems to be happening. (It was stopped for a while, but then the next day they were like 'psych!')

What is SOPA? Well, the easiest way to find out is to go to Wikipaedia. Anywhere in Wikipaedia, it won't matter, as that's all you'll see for now. [I would black out my site except... I'm not sure how, and I doubt it'll really send a message that would worry the big names in America...]

And yes, if SOPA happens, it'll kill off a lot of my blog. Videos I link to, probably even movies I "review", and I talk a lot about movies, all gone! (And my precious LPs I like to watch and refer to, gone too!)

On the other hand... if this does happen... it would make for a fascinating sociological experiment. Something will happen to bypass it all, or people will come to realise that they don't need the internet or... something, and, yes, sooner or later people would become used to it... but it would be an interesting shift to see.

That all said... Fuck off, SOPA!

Something that can be done:

[END]

Vigil the Huntering

2012-01-18T06:59:00.002+13:00

We know there are creatures like vampires around. With knowledge like this, what do you do? How do you face the world?

We decide to go on the offensive. Actually tracking down the vampires and dealing with them as they should be dealt with. To that end, Robert spent a long time in the library, and found that over the last ten years there is pattern of women going missing. I kept an ear on the police scanner and am slowing building up a profile map of where places might be to keep an eye on. Dr Jack Cottage checked his patients more thoroughly, and found a number of women that look like they have been drained on, well, blood.
[We also have a lead on a killer called The Calculator... which treads into No Brainer territory for me... I think it is a module I ran for Heroic Cthulhu...]

Eventually, we isolate the likely target area to some nightclubs, and Jane volunteers to use herself as bait in order to trap the vampire. After some nights where it doesn't work, finally she is approached by someone in a pub... and she wants to visit his place, yes, she does...

We follow as he leads her into his apartment. JB heads to the roof to look on her, and lets down the ladder for the rest of us to follow up there. At this point, the rest of us have some trouble getting up, while the creature directly attacks Jane. JB drops down through the skylight to her rescue, and Jane finally gets to try out her improvised flamethrower, and her holy water. [Which actually seems to do something, what the?] JB axes him to stop moving, and the creature obliges. By the time the rest of us get there, it's all over.

We can't find anything of interest in the room, so we bundle the creature up and take off (after, badly, placating the neighbour). More holy water disintegrates the body, leaving only bones, then sunlight disintegrates those. Wow, easy cleaning!

With a lot of luck, we have a decided success. Watch out creatures of Philadelphia, we are coming up [and if I find out any of you had anything to do with Phyllis, I will end you personally].

[END]

Bye-bye Ben

2012-01-17T06:55:00.002+13:00

And so Blanket Man has acquired his final garment. I was in town a few weeks ago in the morning, and saw him, and smiled at his ever presence in his ever present blanket. Very much an icon of the town.

Although not everyone was happy by his presence, especially if you read through the comments. I can't say I ever saw bad behaviour, I didn't bother him, he didn't bother me... but I'm not surprised that he could have done that. He wasn't mentally well.

Which gets to one particular statement: She believed Mr Hana had begun to believe in his "iconic status" as Blanket Man, and felt he belonged on the street. "It gave him an identity ... he latched on to that whole notion of a public persona, and that became more important to him than being well."

After some bad incidents in life, he dealt with it by living in the city clad in a blanket. (Most of the time) he just sat there, content to just be there. Considering other things people do, that isn't so bad. But when you start turning up because others expect you to, even despite health considerations, well... there's probably many people around are in that situation in some way and could use help. General lack of support all around.

Anyway, he was the 'local character', and no he won't be bothering anyone any more. But a lot of us will remember the man in the blanket, and give a fond smile of remembrance.

[END]

The Devil's Own Bible

2012-01-16T06:58:00.001+13:00

There is such a thing, the Codex Gigas. Supposedly crafted by a monk after he made a deal with the devil. More recently, the subject of a National Geographic documentary.

First off, I like how modern technology has brought these amazingly crafted documents into the era of world-wide accessibility. You want to view the thing? Go do so!

Anyway, investigation was about who created such a thing? If one person, it would be the work of most of a lifetime. If a group, they had remarkable consistency.

One page in particular is of interest to most, that of a large scale picture of Satan. There is a dark shadow on the page... mark of evil possession? Evidence from being nearly destroyed in the fire in the 17th century? But why only that page and the one opposite? The document makes you wait a few minutes, building up the suspension of... suspension, before revealing the answer that occured to me after only a few seconds thought: most people would find the image fascinating and have the book open to that page, leading to light damage and explaining the dark shadows. Boom, human psychology!

Moreover, that basically explains the entire book. Spoiler: they do decide it is the work of one person and it took decades, and suppose it is one monk in a monestary sealing himself away to work on this with a passion. There's a more simple answer (which includes that one), one crank did this. Cranks do a lot of things, with a passion that drives them to create large works that look epic for the times. [The only difference for most is that they produce stuff accepted by the times.]

Nowadays, it's even easier to produce works. Check out Crank.Net. People do lots of things in for they believe in. This bible is just one more example.

[END]

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

2012-01-15T17:16:00.002+13:00

Talk to the spy. He's got a lot of information, so we sit around and drag it out of him. And learn about aircraft. And locations of aircraft.

We spend most of the time dealing with the spy. I'm thinking that could have... not gone quicker, so much, as we could have been more organised about the information gathering. Not a lot of time passes as we sit around and talk.

Listen to us do so in Game 49. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

[END]

To the Cave!

2012-01-15T07:00:00.001+13:00

To start with, on a sunny Wellington day, I go somewhere deep into the suburbs... what will I find? WHERE AM I??

Wandering and talking. All the best exploration videos work this way. [Yes, I got permission.]

And, because I can, here's some of the Weta stuff I've gotten over time.

[END]

Not the Next Top

2012-01-14T07:00:00.001+13:00

Season two of Face Off has just begun, and, of course, they have a whole batch of new people. Which raises an issue about more than one season of this sort of show. Presumably, in season one, they found the best person for the role evah! So... who's in season one?

Better than Season One: they found a lot of even better people this time! Moreover, this means that the person who is kicked out at the end of the first episode is better than every single person in season one. Really?

Worse than Season One: This is the best of what's left. And, conversely, even the winner of this season is worse than the the person who was kicked out in the first episode of season one. Really?

Newbies: These people weren't around to be selected in season one. Considering that a lot of them have had jobs in this industry for years, that doesn't hold water either.

No matter how you cut it, someone ends up with egg on their face when there's a second season. [Although not, of course, the executives that rake the cash in for making cheap shows...]

[END]

No Game of the Year for Me

2012-01-13T07:01:00.002+13:00

Let's name a really great game... Skyrim! No, not that one, I mean from a previous year. Batman: Arkham Asylum! Exactly. B:AA was really well received, people rave about it. And because of that, I even picked up the Collector's Edition version (in an excellent sale, I will add). And I might just play it some time soon... No, wait, hang on... from some poking around, I don't think I will ever play it.

Games for Windows Live: The CE version uses this. I already have Steam on my computer, I do not want another gaming system. This may seem a minor thing to others, but I already have Microsoft cluttering up my computer (I run Windows after all), so I don't want another layer of crap in there for this. I thought I'd look at the Steam version, yes I'd even consider buying it again just to avoid GFWL. However, then I saw something else.

SecuROM: No. Fucking. Way. I have a few other games that I would like to play, but I will never let SecuROM onto my computer. I don't care how transparent and easy to fool others into thinking it's nice it has become, I will not have it on my computer. [I will admit that it might already be on there due to other games, but I doubt it. Certainly nothing has ever alerted itself as installing SecuROM.] And this is on the Steam version. Not interested.

Moreover, according to the Steam forum thread, not only does it use SecuROM but also you still need GFWL connection! What? As others have pointed out, three layers of DRM? Fuck off.

Reclaim Your Game rated B:AA at 42%: "Unacceptable".

Indeed. Rocksteady, get your act together. You already have my money, but you've also taken my enjoyment.

(If I could be bothered to, this is why I would pirate games, ones which I already own!)

[END]

Everything but playing Halo

2012-01-12T07:02:00.001+13:00

I've started listening to the Halo audio books. They are fairly good, although it's clear the change in style of the different authors. But I can actually put up with all the military stuff, so that's something I'm enjoying.

This is making me want to watch an LP of the series. Which I will do.

And of course, watching Red vs Blue, set in the Halo-verse. But not playing it.

Although the above isn't entirely true. There was one time, I was away at a hotel, with a friend, and we decided to experiment... He brought his X-Box with him, so I gave Halo a go. Unsurprisingly I wasn't that good, took a few goes to get past each level, but I wasn't enthralled with it. I watched him play some other time, and... he backtracked a lot to get ammo. And I mean a lot. Minutes went by with him just traversing old areas just to get one gun with some ammo in it. I suppose I should have been impressed with how much of the level you could visit compared with other game consoles, but no, his gameplay just annoyed me.

But yeah, these books are making me discover Halo a bit more. Quite the in-depth world building there Bungie! Congratu-well done!

[END]

sKiva?

2012-01-11T06:58:00.002+13:00

As a supporter of Kiva, I am rather biased about the role of microfunding. I want to know that I'm spending my money on suitable things. And, of course, if I honest, there's a chance I'm putting it in entirely the wrong place. I'm helping to "shovel haystacks off the deck of the Lusitania" as a wise man once said.

So I'm eyeing carefully this article about microlending, and am reading through slowly this series of articles about Kiva in particular. There look to be two main issues here.

One, the money I submit is not the money used to give the loan to the people that I'm nominally funding. Kiva (and associated lenders) 'pre-distribute' funds, because the loanees shouldn't have to wait around to be judged by other well-off people around the world if their particular situation is worth the money they are asking for. Thus the money I'm giving is really going to the lenders to use for other lending situations. (I admit I prefer to fund some ventures over others, so hopefully the money is going for similar projects to what got my money, but I have no control over that.) Ultimately, though, I'm giving money and money is being lent to people who need it, so that's good.

Or is it? Point two is that there is discussion, such as in that link above, about whether or not those lenders are actually benefiting societies, and helping them. Yes, individual people, but are the collective people better off? The discussion seems... not entirely resolved on it. On one side, there are better places to fund, we should be focusing on helping people save, society needs helping not people..., on the other they are still helping poor people...

For now, I'll continual to support Kiva... but I'm going to read those articles, and would like a more clear cut answer to this issue.

[END]

TTSSDD

2012-01-10T07:02:00.001+13:00

It's the movie that has that classic character Smiley... and it took me half an hour to think of the DS9 reference...

I'm now thinking that "thriller" is the word used to describe movies that should otherwise be action movies, but are too slow for the action audience. Thus it is now a slow paced "thriller", with 'dramatic character action'... without containing any actual 'action'.

In this movie, there's some mole in some British government and Smiley ferrets that person out while undergoing several flashbacks and... something else seems to happen, but I just couldn't pay attention enough to follow the story more. This does make me slightly inclined towards reading the book, there needing to be more context to scenes that the movie clearly wouldn't be able to portray, but it's not at the top of my reading list any time soon.

I will give that there are some great performances by the actors involved. Gary Oldman, of course, owns all the scenes he is in, and there's too little John Hurt. The rest give strong performances, so much so that there isn't really a leader, because they are all good.

This is a movie to watch if you have two hours to kill and don't plan on paying too attention. Or that might just be me.

[END]

Team Xero #15

2012-01-09T06:59:00.001+13:00

Yet another pit of lava has opened up. What's with them these days? But as Brassica goes to investigate, he ends up with a very large problem on his hands...

The criteria this time was a 24 minute limit to story creation. Since it can take that long just to get a scene to work, I placed the limit of 24 minutes on script writing. And that's what got converted, with no extra word tweaks or extra body language that wasn't already in there, nothing else. Shows what does get added...

[END]

Muppetastic!

2012-01-08T07:01:00.001+13:00

It's the Walter Movie! Starring Walter, and featuring... Walter!

Yes, that's right! Walter grew up in Smalltown, with his brother Gary, and not growing up (he is a Muppet after all), he fell in love with the Muppets and when Gary and Mary go to Hollywood, Gary generously takes Walter along... and then Walter hijacks the trip and makes it all about him, and nothing can happen unless Walter is involved!

Oh, and there's some Muppets there as well, but it's all about Walter.

Okay, so it's really about the Muppets, with a thinly veiled plot to get them on screen, and when we get to the show, it's wonderful, wallowing deep in nostalgia... but the feeling in somewhat ruined when they return to the Walter story because, he's just not that interesting. Even Gary and Mary are far more interesting than him, and yet the camera is all about the Walter. Gah!

When the writer is also the lead star, that's a bad sign, aside from a very few actors. Jason Segel is not one of those actors, and maybe should have stepped aside for someone else? Amy Adams is great, however, and dances her little socks off (unlike Jason). There are a bunch of cameos (and having just finished The Big Bang Theory season 4, I got a very surreal moment at one point).

Interestingly, Frank Oz was supposed to direct, but stepped down, unhappy with the script. So is this really a suitable Muppet movie? And, to be honest... there is a point in the movie about the Muppets not being of the current generation, and that isn't entirely without justification. I was nostalgic, deep in memories as the cast was, and yet... I'm not sure that this would really be the movie to speak to new kids. Parents will drag them along as they are also nostalgic, but will the kids enjoy it? I don't know...

This is the first Muppet movie I actually saw at the movies, and if you like the Muppets, then definitely check it out... but be prepared to put up with Walter.

[There was also a short Toy Story Toon, which was a basic set up for introducing a particular set of wacky toys... aside from that, it was rather meaningless.]

[END]

Rub Lovingly

2012-01-07T07:03:00.003+13:00

Due to a short time of walking in jandals, I now have sore feet. Yay for that. Thus, on the advice of my podiatrist, I got Anti-Flamme. A rather expensive wee pot of goop.

The problem with goop is that when you start rubbing it in, it doesn't exactly get immediately absorbed, and so you are left with goop on your hands and, due to the application, goop on your feet. Where are you supposed to put your feet once you've finished rubbing goop on them? On the carpet? Who knows what fluff and stuff will be sticking to your foot then.

And you do need to put your foot down, because you need to rub goop into both feet, and unless you are a yoga master, you can't have both feet off the ground at once.

And after all that, you have goop on your hands still and goop other places, because the goop just gets everywhere!

But, the best part about all this are the instructions. I will now quote the best part: "Take a liberal amount and rub lovingly."

When applying medication, nothing like that medically precise instruction to "rub lovingly." Go forth and "rub lovingly" everyone!

[END]

Sherlockian Shadow Game

2012-01-06T06:58:00.002+13:00

The "bromance" continues. (Seriously, there were moments where it could have been entirely in that moment for them to kiss.)

In this movie, it has to be Sherlock vs Moriarty, so there is some contrived plot about some gypsy woman who is the key to the world going to war... or something. It wasn't really that clear, as it was all just a backdrop to, as I said, Sherlock vs Moriarty. Because of this, we get Sherlock in drag, Mycroft being cheeky and lots of big guns being fired. There are more moments of Sherlock-vision, and I think we were supposed to care about some extras so when they die we feel bad, but...

One problem was that this movie was in sepia vision, everything seemed to be brown toned. This make it hard to work out who was who, and when we were told about twins, I went "there were twins in this?".

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are the main reason to watch this, of course. I kept thinking Jared Harris was modelling himself on Mark Gatiss. The rest of them didn't impress me. (In some ways, I'm thinking I'm becoming too impatient for anything taking longer than an hour to get through...)

Not the fantastic movie we were hoping for. Perhaps too rushed into existence?

[END]

The Innkeepers

2012-01-05T07:00:00.002+13:00

This was one of a few (okay, quite a few) films I didn't see at the festival. The Innkeepers is a slow-build ghost story.

This is the last few days of the Yankee Pedlar, and the two innkeepers are ghost hunters, here to try to find evidence that the haunting here is real. And run a hotel, badly (towels keep disappearing). This is, as I say, a slow build movie. Don't expect ghosts up front... or in the middle. There are a few moments, but this movie concentrates more on atmosphere than scares. Which is good, the better movies do this (eg PA1, as opposed to PA2 and PA3).

However... this makes the third Act 'excitement' really come out of nowhere. Why now? And what exactly is going on? A lot is left unsaid (for example, are the towels related to the haunting... or just bad hotel management?), and... it's a bit unsatisfying that it does go so strange without explanation. Fine, not everything needs to be explained to the audience, but random scares work better when you understand what is going on.

A decent try at a ghost movie, could do with more grounding in coherence.

[END]

Drove

2012-01-04T06:57:00.001+13:00

It's the film that isn't Transporter, while still making everything think it is. I noted that it had pink opening titles, reminiscent of Dirty Dancing, and it wasn't until the soundtrack kicked in that I worked out why. This is a film that was made in the 80s. 80s car, 80s music, 80s characters. With current day gore and splatter effects (of which there are a few).

The film starts with us meeting this guy. We follow him around for a while, while he talks to his neighbour. Then after an hour, something nearly happens, but then nothing does.

Really. This film takes a while to get going, but then doesn't go anywhere. I continued to watch it because I was doing something else at the time, and I hoped something might happen, as this is supposed to be something of a semi-action story. And yet... even when the action happened, there was still nothing happening.

Ryan Gosling is the nothing main lead. Carey Mulligan looks like she's about to cry in every scene. And a bunch of other people fill up the roles of other people in the movie.

People may rate this is a low budget indie pic, or something. I dunno. End of the day, it just wasn't very good.

[END]

Episode 2

2012-01-03T06:57:00.002+13:00

I did return to Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and reloaded an old game... and found out that I did indeed go the wrong way. (Then Valve shouldn't have let me go that way... it's all their fault.)

Continuing on, I got up to the last boss fight... and paused. I could tell it was the last boss fight, and didn't feel like completing it then. Nor indeed, was I in any hurry to go back to it...

Unlike all the other boss fights (all three of them), this one... annoyed me. I could see what they were doing, instead of a one-on-one, they would have what was basically a running gun battle. However, I just wasn't that keen. It didn't really fit with the style of fight they had had up to that point. Before they were mostly contained fights, you had ammo stashed nearby, and it was pretty much just you. Now there were lots of people around (who didn't help that much) and it was ranging over a wide area, and ammo was not exactly plentiful. By the time I completed it, I was nearly out of ammo on all guns (and, of course, I was on easy mode). It felt like a drag.

And the new mechanic of how to defeat the Striders didn't help either. They should have been able to be used against the Hunters as well. And it made it a more complicated process to kill the Striders. And... then basically became 'kill the Hunters, then the Striders... and repeat'. Basically, it just wasn't that enjoyable.

Odd for Valve, considering that they test games extensively, and revise to help players. Maybe just an unusual experience that only I had?

Anyway, around again for commentary, and only got half the achievements... but I'm not rushing back to it...

[END]

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

2012-01-02T17:10:00.001+13:00

Metapol is sitting outside the war, it seems. Not a lot of it happening here. (It seems to have quietened down over in Europe too.) That doesn't explain why British agent Leonard Maltin is being watched. Nor why a German watchmaker has been taken. We find spies, but they are not like us. [They are competent!]

Yeah, nothing worse than competent NPCs and Bert has lots of them. I'm not sure if the two events above are connected or not. I can see why they would take the watchmaker, not sure what Maltin is going to give them. But already they look to be outclassing us. Guess we'll have to Bull in a China Shop it as usual...

Take a listen to Game 48. Rapidshare. Hotfile. [There was a connection problem after 3 hours, see if you can spot it!]

[END]

Challenged by Winnie the Pooh!

2012-01-02T07:03:00.001+13:00

Recently I picked up a PlayStation 2. (Yes, a PS2. I am aware that there is the PS3, there was a particular game I wanted to play (which is available for the PS3) which was PS2, and that, plus the PS2, plus a bunch of other games, was far cheaper than a PS3, thus...)

Anyway, since this was my first ever controller based game station, I went for the nice and easy Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure.

Considering that this is more aimed at kids, there is quite a bit of story to it (five different adventures, and they take a while). Lots of wandering around, things to collect, and you get to meet various characters (including Gopher... surely everyone remembers Gopher, best character ever... ???).

But they also have enemies, the Huffalumps and Wozzles, and so there is a fight mechanic. Which proved a problem in two ways. First, while running around, if you change direction by more than 45 degrees, you do this scampering motion before moving, loosing time. And, if you play as Piglet, you have a Quick Time Event. Yes, QTEs even in this. And consider this was the first time I was using the damn controller, I'm not used to where things are, so 'Square Triangle Circle' took me a while to get used to. And there were also timed puzzles which were more luck than skill to complete. Basically, could have been some more game design thought there. [Worse of all, when you are Tigger... you aren't bouncing! The whole point of being Tigger is to bounce, dammit!]

Anyway, plenty of more games to play yet, as I have another source of distraction. While I did complete this game, I clearly have a long way to go before I become proficient... or even competent...

[END]

I've Been Watching...

2012-01-01T07:00:00.001+13:00

Should be watching this in April (I guess), but since it was only four episodes, I sat through The Sun Makers.

Do you get that this story is a take on the tax system? Did you? Huh? Huh? Did you get that? I know, it's subtle, but if you pay attention, and look carefully, it's there... And rather superfluous. It's more background colour, giving context to why the Doctor is helping the rebels overthrow the government, and allows for certain tax-based humour, but this is still a generic 'help the revels overthrow those in power' story otherwise. And can be enjoyed as such. Kids, I'm sure, failed to get certain obscure references, yet, hey, bad guys, good guys (because the Doctor says so / sides with them), so yay for that!

Which helps if, like me, you aren't that invested in knowing the ins and outs of the tax system. Although given that the bad guys just want your money, and the good guys are threatening to kill you if you don't help them (and throw people off roofs), you really will have to take the story's word for it that the planet is better off with this happening as it did.

The extras on this are a little odd. Yes, it's an outtake from a scene in the story, but it's not that funny, especially the third and fourth time! And as for the Dudley Simpson bit... yes, he did do the music for this story, but he doesn't even talk about the Sun Makers during the segment! The commentary is more rambly than usual, and even the info-text is having trouble finding things to talk about.

This story means more to Robert Holmes to the main audience, and beyond that, it's fairly generic.

[END]

Adventures of Tintin Abbey

2011-12-31T07:02:00.001+13:00

You know what movie this is. The one that goes deep into the Uncanny Valley. And it certainly does. Pretty much any time there was a close up on Tintin, especially full face on, it just creeped me out. His face was too small for his head!

Anyway, in this movie they make an extraordinary meal of the comic, extending panels out to ten minute sequences. Tintin stumbles onto a clue that leads him deep into finding out the secret of the Unicorn, meeting up with Captain Haddock, yadda yadda, most of us have read the comic by now, and they mostly follow the story. By mostly, as I say, they expand it a lot to reach the 1 hour 40 minute mark. [And note I'm only referring to The Secret of the Unicorn here. There's still Red Rackham's Treasure to go.]

Performance-wise, it's decent enough. Creepiness aside, Tintin looks proper. Haddock is shorter (or Tintin taller?) than I would have thought, and looks like someone (somewhat Serkis) with a large prosthetic nose. Thompson and Thomson are more round of face than I would have expected. Nestor is pretty much spot on.

Ultimately, this is easily the start of a new franchise of Tintin portrayals, but I'm not sure I'm willing to sit through every one of them... (well, some of them definitely...)

[END]

I Ron Druid

2011-12-30T07:01:00.002+13:00

Recently listened to the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne. Set in the present day, an urban fantasy of the last druid who is trying to get by when shit starts happening in his neighbourhood. (Three books out so far, with a fourth to come next year.)

As it is urban fantasy, the most common reference for this is The Dresden Files. Only... this isn't that good. While a lot of books could be considered self-insertion fantasy, this doesn't give any pause before jumping in that pool. The last druid is able to take down everything that comes his way, with minimal effort (this aspect does get better in later books), and by taking advantages of plot holes (aka "little known lore" and "loopholes" in continuity) to exhibit powers and abilities not displayed by other series.

And then there's the whole lot of padding, where Dresden would have had three fights and gotten messed with by three different plots in the same time.

And yet... it's still entertaining. While I was annoyed and frustrated by what was happening, I continued to listen. And, dammit, I'm glad there's a fourth book, and I do want to know what else is going to happen.

This series doesn't come out polished, but there's a nugget of decency in there.

[END]

Mission Ghost: Impossible Protocol

2011-12-29T07:00:00.001+13:00

[I saw this movie in the Titan XC theatre at Readings. I'm not sure what makes it so much 'Titan XC'ly, but it looked nice.]

This is the latest Tom Cruise Production (that's the credit!), and one thing that amazed me was that this, unlike all the previous movies, is an actual team movie, in that Ethan Hunt is not the one doing everything. The other main male lead gets some action sequences, the female lead (I can't remember names) nearly gets some action, but has to leave a lot of it to the males. And Simon Pegg is the comic relief... and nearly screws that up. It's a fine line, being the comic relief, between being relief and being painful, but Pegg stays on the side of tolerable.

Anyway, in the movie, some stuff happens, people die and once again Ethan (and his team) is left alone to deal with some threat... seriously, that seems to the basic plot of all the movies. Something happens to make Ethan removed from the resources of the team... then he gets resources anyway. There are some neat sequences, but nothing really amazing. [There was one plot point with the goggles that I did like. Really, it was a little point, but it nicely pays off, and could easily have come across as too easy.] (There might be links with MI3, but haven't seen that since I saw it at the movies when it came out, I can't remember... and not that keen to re-experience it, to be honest.)

With Ethan not being the sole focus, that makes Tom Cruise far more tolerable as well. Jeremy Renner is a more generic action hero than he is. Lea Seydoux... is extremely attractive (although she reminded me of someone else, I can't remember who).

Not a brilliant movie, watchable (seems like an action moment every five minutes). Worth seeing if you can see it cheap enough.

[END]

Oops...

2011-12-28T07:00:00.001+13:00

I'm in the middle of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (part 2, chapter 2, paragraph 2...). While it seems perfectly logical that I would make my way around behind the building that contains people that want to shoot me, I don't think I've done it right.

Usually Valve are pretty good at indicating the clear way to go. A reward, or linear path, or some obvious visual cue to point the player in the right way. This time... I think I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to (at least, not yet).

Why am I thinking this? This:

That's Alyx. Standing in the middle of a stream of radioactive slime. Umm... yeah, that's not supposed to happen...

[END]

DW: 7.0X (Christmas!)

2011-12-27T07:00:00.003+13:00

Hmm... not sure about all that. It starts out being a Christmas story, but then gets sidetracked and finally ends up... something?

We start following on from the prelude with a moment more ridiculous than the cricket ball, then immediately hit a bad comedic note with Madge falling off her bike. Oh, the hilarity! This story has problems shifting from poignant moments to the inane wackiness that indicates multiple personality order of different scripts stuck together than the seamless story it should have been.

Dancing chairs! Think of it until it hurts. Look, she's piloting the platform! All the souls are trying to evacuate (from being destroyed by the enemy dropping pain from above... the war imagery is about as half-formed as the story)...

But, the ending, of course, we all saw coming. Of course she saved him. We all knew he was going to get out alive. The problem of ricocheting emotional tones ruins that as well though.

Still, quite a few continuity references were shoe-horned in. And what about Bill Bailey? Eh? Eh? Well... what about him? What was the point? Could have taken those scenes out, and nothing would have been missed.

Moffat, you've done better than this...

Next time: What? No next time? Well, I suppose, it is going to be nine months or so, right?

[END]

Best Christmas Movie Evah!

2011-12-26T07:03:00.001+13:00

I think there's only one winner:

Bruce Willis at the start of his action career, Alan Rickman being really cool, and a fantastic soundtrack by Michael Kamen (brilliantly rescoring the Ninth Symphony to fit perfectly with the action on screen). Great stuff!

Number 2 was good... not great, but good. Not quite a Christmas movie, too much of a retread. (And William Sandler is looking damn fine at 40.)

With a Vengeance is only good because of Bruce, Samuel Jackson and lesserly Jeremy Irons. The plot is fun, but the ending falls apart a lot.

Live Free is... a movie that happens to star Bruce Willis pretending to be a character he's played before. (Check out Threevening for great stories about that movie.)

To be honest, the decline of the series is nicely paralleled by the declining versus in the Guyz Nite song...

[END]

Against Santa Claus

2011-12-25T06:56:00.001+13:00

There seems to be a continual resurgence of the idea of 'do we tell kids that Santa Claus is not real?' The latest being from a minister of an Anglican Parish. Gee? Why would anyone want someone to believe there is someone monitoring them, ready to give out rewards and punishments for good/bad behaviour?

Unsurprising to anyone, my take is "Santa Claus is a real as God, and for exactly the same reasons."

[A better question is: why do we tell kids that Santa Claus exists in the first place? Why is it that? Let's bring back Saturnalia and just have it as a general mid-season festival that gathers the family together?]

I can't remember how old I was when I realised it, possibly from having hints dropped. I do remember one Christmas moment, coming out to find presents from Santa... and nothing from mum and dad...

And, you know what? I'd rather have presents from people who know and love me than from some entity that only shows up once a year to dispense random gifts if they think I'm worthy according to their criteria...

So, yes, let's get rid of Santa Claus. Because family is the reason for the season.

[END]

Hate that Family

2011-12-24T06:57:00.002+13:00

In 2007, Louis Theroux produced The Most Hated Family in America about the Westboro Church and the Phelps family in particular. [I think I started watching this on TV, but couldn't get through the first ad break... and that was the last thing on TV I ever saw...]

Anyway, this is some time with the Phelps family, and Louis seems to struggle to get to a point. Something about how the family is weird and the kids are trying to be their own thing, but are coming into conflict with their own desires and the beliefs of the church... but he tries really hard to get to that point and it doesn't come out easily.

He goes back in 2011 to see The Most Hated Family in America in Crisis, briefly touching on the court case of the time, but again goes on about the lives of the kids differ from that of the adults, and how the family has broken up and trying to deny themselves being human with emotions and stuff... but again it doesn't come along clearly.

Now, the Phelps family have strange beliefs... however, they aren't really that weirder than a lot of beliefs (not just religious ones) and many sects probably look at them in envy that they have that much control and conversion of kids. I'm thinking that a lot more sects would be like them if they could get away with it...

Ultimately, they are self-defeating. They think the end is coming very very soon (I'm thinking the timeline is years, but I'm sure they'll come up with some excuse if it doesn't turn up), and refuse to let their kids associate outside the church, so the genetic pool is rapidly terminating... it's a problem that will sort itself out.

Louis Theroux is trying for a portrait of the Phelps, but they are just vocal, and aren't any more special than other sects. Ignore them, attention is what they want...

[END]

By Lantern Light

2011-12-23T06:57:00.001+13:00

Geoff Johns put a lot of work into reimagining Green Lantern when he did Vol 4. (I think the reboot makes it vol 5 now? Either way, that's a good point to cut off, and I'm only a few trades off finishing the vol 4 collection.)

One big change is that the universe came from light, which became seven colours (conveniently the colours of the spectrum we know). Each colour is associated with its own corps... and each colour is the emotion which drives that corps. Now, as I said, Geoff did good work and wove it well into Lantern history, however there are a few issues I have with it, mainly that they aren't emotions. Mostly. Let's look. And, because I'm communicating, let's use "I feel" statements. (And see how people feel these emotions with google searches, using quotes to get exact statements.)

"I feel rage." (727K searches) Okay, that works as an emotion. ("I feel anger" gives over 2 million hits.)

"I feel avarice." (2,770 searches) Hmm... not really an emotion. "I feel greedy" gives 345K searches.

"I feel fear." (3+ million) Fear, emotion no doubt. This is yellow, btw, which does ties in very nicely with Lantern mythos.

"I feel hope." (2.5+ million) Yep, another emotion.

"I feel compassion." (534K) Yeah, okay... 'compassionate' is only 116K searches. This is supposed to be one of the rarer emotions, so that works.

"I feel love." (4.8+ million) Love, big emotion. Retconned to work with Star Sapphire, who originally dressed in red (now rage), but slid towards violet.

And lastly, the emotion that drives the Green Lanterns themselves...

"I feel will." (...hard to search for given its usage of "this I feel will..." style) Yep, will is an emotion... according to Geoff. Not buying it, which is a shame.

And happiness and sadness doesn't make the cut as significant emotions? Or other emotions? ...not sure how effective the Apathy Corps would be...

[END]

Episode 1

2011-12-21T06:58:00.002+13:00

The idea behind the Episodes for Half-Life 2 was shorter stories, more frequently. Yep, that worked.

But yeah, four hours later, I've finished it. Maybe I need to go back and grab Half-Life itself (now 50% off!), but do these things always involve a Deus Ex Machina? And then you can tell we are in the puzzle section for a while, because we don't get a weapon until later (and then lose it, boo!).

My main take-away from this game: Valve doesn't trust the player enough to do what needs to be done, so they have Alex basically hold your hand for the entire game (aside from a few sequences). Just makes it feel rather more linear than usual (and it is a linear game anyway, but this way you are at the visible mercy of an NPC to continue).

There are also a fair few arena fights that feel more like 'resource management' issues than enjoyable combat. It becomes more 'switch to something with ammo, damn pushed the wrong button causing the flashlight/gravity gun to come up, damn I have low health... and I died again.' This is even more so during the damn 'get the citizens to safety' sequence which goes on too long. Surprising considering that Valve seems to test the hell out of the game and streamline things, but I was just annoyed at how often I had to go get more. [And as for the 'get all out alive' badge, hah! Never had a chance...]

Will go back for the Developer Commentary first, but then Episode 2 awaits!

[END]

I was nearly there

2011-12-20T06:55:00.001+13:00

There were a series of lectures not that long ago:
The Royal Society Science 2011 Lecture Series Inside Out: the chemistry of food, sex and ageing, in association with Radio New Zealand

One lecture was at Te Papa, and I was booked in to go... but was unable to go on the day. Pity.

But you (and me) can hear what I missed out on, and the other lectures to, because they are online!

Talking Heads

I'd also like to recommend the E = mc² Lectures, from 2005. Very interesting talks.

Amazing what they archive on the net these days...

[END]

18 Apollos Mooning

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001+13:00

From the makers of Paranormal Activity... actually, I have no idea if there's a connection between PA and this movie. Possible PA2, it's that bad, but this is the PA of moon landing movies.

Only a few missions went to the moon. Apollo 17 was the last... or was it? Using footage that was uploaded to a website, this documentary about the 18th mission was created and now you know the truth. There is something on the moon...

You know, it's tough to buy into the "this is real" disbelief when right after announcing that, they cut to the guy from Sanctuary. And how many cameras did they have? How many were in the lander? Why did they keep filming? ... How did they get the footage without more missions? (I know for a fact that they don't waste weight, and all those cameras would have been unnecessary weight.) They get a moon landing nearly right, but it all breaks down if you think slightly hard about it...

Then there's the actual thing of what's on the moon. That's pretty stupid too. It's like the episode Blink. Makes you go 'what if that basic thing wasn't really what you thought it was...', but no, it really is what you think it is.

A low budget movie, and it shows. Is anyone fooled by this at all?

[END]

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

2011-12-18T17:06:00.002+13:00

War has been declared, so what do we do? Bicker amoungst ourselves, mostly. We did manage to talk to people, but aside from revealing some secrets, not a lot else.

This was really a game where we discussed where to from here. In fact, the last hour is us talking about the longer view, and how the game will continue from here. Useful discussion, but I am wondering if Marlow will still be around...

Hear us talk in Game 47. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

[END]

I Stole The Film

2011-12-18T07:01:00.002+13:00

Since the NZ Government thinks we are all pirates / kowtows to America thinking we are all pirates, I watched a film about pirating, Steal This Film. You won't see this in the theatres, or video stores. You will see this if you download it directly. Or torrent that. That's rather the point.

In Part I (2006), pirating is introduced. Pirate Bay is set up, and raided. And is still around. Torrenting is here to stay, under the nicer name of "media sharing". In Part II (2007), they talk about how pirating in one form or another has gone on through time, and people adapt to it. And so do companies. Movie industries refuse to (so far), because it would be the end of them...

Fine. Let's try that as a thought experiment: torrenting becomes rampant, it's a common everything day, what happens? Hollywood disappears! Well, not really. It's one thing to watch a movie on your computer or big screen TV, but there's still the giant movie screen. And with no sign of 3D TVs being any good, those films will still have a market. (And IMAX films.) And not everyone will be torrenting anyway. And some people will want the BluRay version with tons of extra features they can't be hassled downloading. Hollywood isn't disappearing immediately.

But let's say it does collapse enough to only be one company left. What of all the people there? Will the unemployment rate suddenly jump up? Again... no. I can see the theatre sector suddenly gaining a lot more people. And it's not like the movie industry will go away, already we have people making movies and relying on torrents, etc., to get the word out so people want to see it. They rely on donations and DVD sales to cover themselves, but they aren't forcing to not copy and distribute it for free.

Even if that fails to happen, people have found new opportunities. Those people that destroyed the movie industries won't be getting entertainment any more, and will still want to be entertained, so there's an opening. The industrial revolution didn't destroy civilisation (although some might differ) but gave new tools to use. This might not be that extensive, but torrenting is a tool, and ways to use it will be found and/or something completely different to movies will arise.

Ultimately, it is here to stay, so the movie sector will have to adapt to it. Some people will never pay, only get things for free, no matter what. But that's always true of any area. A new model will arise, and money will be found in other ways, some balance between "no copying" and "total information freedom".

For as long as there are profits to be had, there will be a way found to get them.

[END]

Lost the Coast

2011-12-17T06:59:00.002+13:00

I sprinted through Half Life 2 again (on Hard Mode... with God Mode on), to remind myself of the story, and not at all because there's a hint of HL3. (Really, not.) Because I actually want to move on to the other games in the series and wanted to remember what had gone before.

So, to start with, there's the missing level Lost Coast. Well, not really a level. More of a vignette. Although brief, it manages to encompass resource management in a gauntlet run (limited guns and ammo storming the castle), puzzles (didn't believe that would work... and yet!), and defense against an incoming attack. The basic elements of the game distilled into one brief sequence. This is why people line up to give money to Valve... (a pity you can't go visit the city, though.)

And it is the start of the Commentary nodes. The hunt to find them all, and then try to play them in order, or try to remember which ones you've listened to if you get them out of order. Just such a shame that HL2 doesn't have commentary in it, it's considered such a core of gaming development that would would be fantastic. (Has it been modded into happening? People mod that thing for everything.)

It doesn't look like Lost Coast is available separately. Pity, that'd be a great way to get people in to play their games.

[END]

Do you want my business?

2011-12-16T07:00:00.002+13:00

There's some craft items I want to get. I tried local, they decided not to actually stock what I want (although they don't tell me until after I order, and then mail me when most places would use email).

I then go overseas. There's a site in America, probably where the local store gets it from (wouldn't be surprised). I place the order, then wait for it to be delivered...

They do contact me by email to say "we couldn't calculate the postage correctly" (I'm assuming because I'm living in a country they haven't heard of, which could be any country outside of America) "so we need to charge you more." I email back about the matter... and hear nothing.

I go to their site to where the order is... oh, there's a form there, I use that to contact them... and hear nothing.

So now I've emailed them again... still nothing.

I get that it's getting near Christmas, but it's not like this is the festival craft shop or anything. I can only presume that they don't have have any interesting in running their business, because it's not like they are acting in any way that would want to make me use their services again. And I'm not wanting to try elsewhere because then the order will suddenly go through and I'll be charged for it, yadda yadda.

Good to see the principles of incompetence are alive and well...

[END]

No Impact, Man

2011-12-15T06:59:00.001+13:00

When you hear that the documentary is called No Impact Man, you are likely to jump to the idea that it deals with the environment, and having 'no impact'. And you'd be right.

This movie follows the year of the life of a family that is trying to have no impact on the environment. This means creating no garbage, not producing carbon (walking/biking everywhere), no toilet paper, and, ultimately, no electricity. Not to say that everyone should do that (because that ain't gonna happen), but to show that it can be done.

And they manage it... more or less. The wife is less enthused about the project that the husband (as it was his idea), but she goes along with it with the hope that he'll go along with her idea... another child. I'm not entirely sure why they included that thread in the movie, even the wife says it is a loose thread narratively and could have easily been left out entirely... but it is a human interest piece amidst a human interest story, so no movie maker is gonna skip that easy heartstring pluck. But that does help underline one problem with this movie in that there really isn't a cohesive narrative structure to the whole piece. It's more like random bits and pieces as they try to have no impact, intermingled with them having soap opera moments... and then it ends.

The easy joke is that the movie didn't have an impact on me... but that is the fault of the movie makers, as this is a good example of what we could do if we really wanted to.

[END]

Vigil the Huntering

2011-12-14T07:00:00.003+13:00

After the (not at all entirely incompetent) dealing with the motel situation, we decided to lie low for a while. Which comprised of the doctor ordering in medical equipment, Jane going to church, Robert going to the library, JD going out stabbing things, and me going to my shop. [Yeah, we are incredibly subtle.]

One thing that Robert finds is that there is a core agreement about vampires and things they don't like. Looks like the movies got some things right, but most people don't like being burned or having wood thrust into them. With that in mind, we get together for a bit of a chat and come up with the idea that maybe we could get a piece of wood, then find a vampire, some hold him down, someone points to the heart, and then someone thrusts said piece of wood into indicated heart. Yeah, we're so brilliant, no-one has ever come up with that plan before. [Kind of odd that to first use a tactic, we got to come up with a plan of what to do. Because there are no movies about staking vampires that we've seen? Still, I rolled exceptionally, so I helped!]

We're still being tracked by people, and while we're out practicing this idea, Stitch (who has joined me to help running my gun shop) lets me know the police are still poking around, but he told them I was "out of town". Since then, I've come up with the cover story of "gun convention", that should work.

Aside from getting some idea of how to stake someone [hey, hey, finally a chance to bring along my Buffy stake prop!], more investigation continues, with Robert using the laptop we got to access a virtual network to find out about the email address Karl had. However, someone was monitoring the network enough to lock out Robert before the computer locked up.

After JD and I grab a car to use for hauling around our weapons, he and the others head to the museum to check out the display the pendent was a part of. They find a distinct vampire theme. They also spot Heinrich Koenig, creepy museum guy that talked to me. After a lot of kerfluffle, they investigate his office and nick his Rolodex. Hopefully that will reveal some leads, but nothing incriminating immediately.

And around that time, we find that the police following us have decided we aren't the suspects we clearly are. For now, we are free...

[During this time I had a dream. Stitch tells me I woke up screaming about Phyllis and a horse. I can't remember all the details, but... that wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare. I recall some old man told me something about that... It's time to track him down, and if he knows anything...]

End of story one.

[END]

I've Been Watching...

2011-12-13T06:59:00.001+13:00

[Well, not the missing episodes, only clips available of those...]

Several years ago I was in Australia for a conference, and on TV at the time they were showing episodes of Doctor Who. I caught the end of The Sea Devils, and the first episode of The Mutants. Which meant I never found out what happened to Ky and Varan... until now! [I had seen it many, many, many years ago, but like I remember that!]

So at last I get to find out that... pretty much everyone dies. Certainly most of the Solonians do. Consider that most of them mutate, and most of those end up in the cave and gassed to death. Those that are on the Sky Base are all shot. Ky only survives by becoming Super Ky. Presumably there are whole tribes of them on the planet, but you wouldn't think so. Not to mention the number of Sky Base personnel that die (one at the hands of the Doctor himself!). [Notably, amid all the race focus of this episode [it was focus enough for one of the extra disc items to be about it] the black guy survives!]

Although it is six episode, it doesn't feel padded. There's enough change of scene and progressing of information that nothing immediately feels like it should have been cut out. (No doubt you could trim the episodes down, but you could do that for any story.) Looking back on it now, it's amazing how the whole planet was subjugated by a fat guy and a handful of guards. And yet, it all works out nicely. [I'm glad they got rid of the clone plot, no idea what that would have been about.]

We've got the usual commentary (seven people mixing it up this time, this is how you fill out a six part story, not just miss episodes), and production subtitles, with the overlap of information as usual. [Yes, Paul, I know it's entirely accidental.] The second disc has extra stuff on it... but I'm hard pressed to be excited about it to consider it worthy of needing a second disc. There's the usual behind the scenes talking heads bit, but the rest of it could easily have been missed or allocated to a four-parter needing more filling out. (And that Blue Peter segment was amazingly irrelevant, short and containing no episode specific creatures!)

You don't need to be seeing the colonial angle to be enjoying this story!

[END]

Metal Gear - Solid Video

2011-12-12T06:58:00.001+13:00

Okay, so in no way is this original, but, hey, I haven't commented on it, so... As I've mentioned before, I watch Let's Play of computer games, and just finished working through Metal Gear Solid 2.

That's a lot of watching that I've done. Several hours. The thing is... that's a lot of video watching for the person playing too! Just how much cut scenes does a game need? It certainly feels like more cut scene than game play. There were definitely moments where the player moves about two steps then hits another cut scene. Seriously? There is a discussion of the role of cut scenes in games, but this game doesn't help with the 'only as needed' side, and certainly lends credence to the 'game maker only wanted to make a movie and grudgingly decided to allow the player a chance to do a little something within tightly controlled boundaries'.

And then there's the actual story. It starts out relatively not-insane, but... near the end, revelations were revealed and... what the hell? How many plans were there in action? What was really going on? Did anything explained at the end make any sense to any one? (No, not really.) Comments in the LP suggest that MGS2 is one of the worse ones, story wise, and I have others to watch (2 and 3 were available for download before, 1 and 4 are only now just become available).

As I said, these are hardly original comments, but it's one of those things whereby you don't really believe it until you experience it for yourself. Reputation well earned, I say. Reputation well earned...

[END]

Death Valley

2011-12-11T07:00:00.003+13:00

[I might have blogged about this already, but if so I can't find it...]

I checked out seven episodes of the series Death Valley. The basic concept is that zombies, vampires and werewolves turned up in Los Angeles, and this series is a mockumentary about the cops that are dealing with them.

First problem, the cops are incredibly incompetent. Like so much that the only reason they get through each episode is because of more than stupid good luck. They are 'only protected by the script' stupid. In anything more like reality, they'd be dead or otherwise removed based on the number of people who die just because they are so useless, let alone getting themselves killed.

Second problem, this is supposedly 'reality series', so camera men and sound guys are on screen. Or rather, one sound guy, which is all they seem to have despite having three groups in any given episode. Let alone a lot of the camera angles can't come from documentary makers. [Yes, The Office also had this problem, but far less, and they tried harder to cover it properly.]

Third problem, and this is the big one which could have otherwise forgiven the first two, but it doesn't... it's not funny. This is an MTV series, so clearly aimed at people who aren't me, but I'm not even recognising this as humour. Is the MTV audience supposed to be stoned when they watch this, or something, because unless we are supposed to be laughing at the show (instead of with it) (and I'm not even doing that), there's nothing redeeming here.

Big shocker: it wasn't picked up for a second season. There's a surprise...

[END]

A meandering through NZ 90s music

2011-12-10T06:56:00.001+13:00

Not quite sure how it started, for some reason it was in my mind, so started with:
Violent by Stellar*, then, as you do with youtube, I moved onto
Alright by Tadpole, and stuck with them to get to
Nothing New by Tadpole and
No Man by Tadpole, before going to one of their bigger hits
Blind by Tadpole and one more
For Me by Tadpole then moved on to
Run Run Run by Goldenhorse, was then annoyed there's no video for Fur Patrol's Man in a Box, then switched over to
Calling On by Weta, then popped back to
Out of the Moon by Goldenhorse, before trying to find a Fiona McDonald song (still can't) and got sidetracked by
George by Headless Chickens, annoyed again at no video for Body Blow, before finishing with the sister of the lead of the opening act
Something Good by Bic Runga.

[END]

Collection or Single?

2011-12-09T06:59:00.003+13:00

I did something I said I wouldn't do. I didn't intend to, but... it was just too tempting, so I gave it.

I started rereading Green Lantern. (Although with the reboot happening this year, I'll probably stop again when I reach that point.)

How I have done this is pick up the collected trades (usually the paperback versions, relatively cheaply through Amazon), and read my way through those, trying to keep them in order. Not that straight forward, as I have Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. Fortunately while they are going on concurrently, they aren't crossing over that much, so reading them in the collected chunks is working more or less well. (A little trouble around the Sinestro Corp Wars and the GLC story skipping issues for some reason, but have that sorted out now.)

But now I am up to Blackest Night. Which, even just the core trades, is about half a dozen. And the question becomes: do I read each trade in one go, with whatever spoilers for other trades as they happen, or do I read each issue in the proscribed reading order?

On the one hand, I get the full story in one go (reading the full trade at once), on the other I get to experience the story more or less as it was published. But that does involve flipping back and forth through several trades (and I don't have every single one). I'm early in it, so it's not bad yet... and very definitely mean 'yet' as it's about to start flipping all over the place.

I'm tempted to read the full trades, just to make it easy on myself. But let's see how far I get putting up with switching around...

[Yes, I haven't talked about the story itself... maybe another post some time...]

[END]

Soul Eater

2011-12-08T06:56:00.002+13:00

I've just finished watching the 51 episode run of (the first season? of) Soul Eater, based on the manga. (Hmmm... I was trying to find a good, representative trailer for it - can't do it.)

This is about a group of kids at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. In each pair, one is a Meister, the weapon master, and the other is the weapon... and these humans actually transform into weapons, either guns or scythes or... (it seems to be due to something a witch did 800 years ago). Anyway, we follow three pairs as they train and fight the monsters in order to defeat the wicked witches and ultimate the Kenshin that will drive everyone mad.

And, of course, have a lot of fun. In that while this does contain serious moments, it is a comedy. Death (remember Death weapons here) is a rather goofy figure (he was more serious in the past), and the sun and moon are... just plain weird. Yet, cool. As usual for these types of shows (battle style), the main opponents are really themselves as they fight to become better fighters. And the witches and Kenshin too. Will they overcome all odds?

I haven't been watching anime like I used to, and rarely have the patience to start a new series, but this hooked me after only a few episodes, so that I had to watch it to the end. So I can give this one a thumbs up!

[END]

Because Apple won't unclench

2011-12-06T06:56:00.001+13:00

I have an iPod Touch. Quite useful, definitely like the ability to listen to podcasts at 2x speed. Wish the normal music tracks had that feature. And the feature of skipping back 30seconds. (Because by 'music tracks' I generally mean other podcasts/rpg game sessions that I don't download via iTunes.)

And iOS v5.0.1 is out. While I don't necessarily need to, I could update my iPod to that. Just to make sure everything is running at top efficiency...

The problem is is that when I got the iPod, it came with movie files on it. (YES, legally. It was part of a thing this website was doing.) But, iTunes doesn't want to have anything to do with them. If I tell iTunes to 'sync', it wants to delete any files on the iPod to load on ones it does know about.

And... of course... and this is the problem, it's not like any other software is letting me easily access the iPod. (At least none that look to be free that I would trust.)

But, and this is the kicker, if I want to update to the latest iOS, it warns me that all apps and media will be deleted. (It doesn't acknowledge that the computer I'm connected to is the one that I sync with, so it can't backup the files on the device.) I don't want to delete the files. I don't have copies anywhere else. So... I can't update the device.

Really, Apple? Is it so hard to let other people manage files that go off or on the device? Am I forced to consider jailbreaking the thing just to back up my perfectly legal files?

Does anyone else out there know what the solution is? Is there free software that can copy all the files off? Or is there some setting I'm missing that stops iTunes from deleting everything I haven't given money to Apple for...

[END]

Immaltors

2011-12-05T07:02:00.002+13:00

This is a stunning looking movie, when you can see it in the darkness. This is certainly a film to see... any other sense however...

In this movie, the gods are immortals from long ago )you can spot them because they wear ridiculous helmets), and they imprisoned some other immortals. Hyperion seeks a plot key to free the immortals. On the other hand, we have Theseus, an outsider with Mad Fighting Skillz(tm). And... you can exactly guess what's going to happen as well as anyone. (Although at one point when they get the plot key I went 'what? no fetch quest?' then I realised 'did I want a fetch quest? no... so good then!')

That is the problem I had with this movie. There was no real plot, you could guess everything that was coming... so what was the point of it again? To look pretty? I want more than that... although from looking at the profits for it, I'm thinking I'm in the minority... no doubt we'll see a sequel soon...

No-one really stood out, acting wise, and since most of the movie was dark and everyone was grubby, it got to be hard to tell who was whom (not that they were amazingly distinctualised people anyway...). Mickey Rourke was there being Mickey Rourke's new personality (big and brash) and it was nice to hear the voice of John Hurt (even if I did keep expecting him to say 'Merlin!').

While a movie to see for the visuals, it won't satisfy otherwise.

[END]

Outfoxed

2011-12-04T07:02:00.001+13:00

The subtitle of this movie is "Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". It would be more fair (ha!) to say "How Fox Spins the News" would be a more accurate subtitle as this isn't about Murdoch (at least not directly) but more a documentary for how Fox News tactics work to spin the news how they want to, and the impact they have on actual news (what they do is not 'news' by any definition that relates to 'imparting new information').

Biased? Yes, but so is Fox News. At least, it is as portrayed in this movie from 2004, right before the "reelection of George Bush" as they called it. In many ways this was a serious documentary version of many swipes at Fox done by Daily Show.

But, to be fair to Daily Show, they do attack more than just Fox News. In this movie, we don't get to see that other networks are better, nor is there an official take from Fox itself (although one can easily imagine what the response would be... and take a look at the Wikipedia entry to see if you are right).

The last few minutes (practically) of the movie is a call to action against biased media. Certainly a stance to take, and this movie is a good call for that. Just make sure it's more than just the obvious targets that are examined.

Definitely worth a look to see how Fox operates... and then wonder how many other stations looked at this and thought "so that's what we should be doing"...

[END]

DW: Sightseeing in Space

2011-12-03T07:02:00.003+13:00

Book 4 of the double stories is Sightseeing in Space. We get Steve Lyons and David Bailey delivering us entertainment.

First up Terminal of Despair by Steve Lyons. And since the main monsters cause despair, they are called Desponds. (To be fair, they are named by humans, so yeah, they weren't creative.) Anyway, on an intergalatic airport, monsters have caused it to go into quarantine for five months and everyone's still alive after that... um, sure. Food can last that long and everyone can survive, why not? Just as well the Doctor, Amy and Rory turn up when they do to resolve matters. A decent enough tale, but there is a lot of padding of irrelevant plot points, and I hope you like reading scenes of people being attacked by monsters, because it happens many, many, many times with nothing new to add. In some ways, this could have been a black comedy, but the idea isn't sustained enough for that.

Second is The Web in Space by David Bailey. It's about a Web. That is, yes, in Space. Actually, that's a lie. It's really about a bunch of robot pirates taking over a ship that happens to have as a backdrop the ship stuck on a web of a giant space spider. Most of the story is them traveling around the ship which is having problems (being stuck and all), very minorly about them interacting with pirates, and hardly at all about the spider. But, to make up for it, there's a lot of exclamation marks! Because it must be exciting if there are exclamation marks!!!

A book that has stories that zip pass... for whatever good or bad that means...

[END]

Room to Panic

2011-12-02T06:57:00.002+13:00

For some reason I've had this itching to see Panic Room. Not sure why. Even less sure now that I've seen it.

The set up is basic. Jodie Foster and kid are in a house. Bad guys come into the house. Jodie and kid gets in the room. And that's about it for the rest of the movie. Sure, the bad guys want into the room, Jodie needs to get safe, but if you've seen one Base Under Siege movie...

The problem of this movie is one of tone. Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker are playing this as the thriller/drama this movie is billing itself as. The problem is first we have Jared Leto, and whenever he's on screen he's so hammy the movie becomes a farce. And then it gets to be Dwight Yoakam's turn to go Over The Top and drop the movie into inanity. Not good, David Fincher, not good at all.

A movie with some decent performances, but not an amazing feast for the brain...

[END]

Th' Thang!

2011-12-01T06:59:00.002+13:00

Is it a sequel? Is is a prequel? Is it a remake? Is it just cashing in on the fame of the original? Either way, it fails to feature Kurt Russell!

There's a thing. It's in the ice. It gets dug up. And that where everything goes wrong. (When we saw the Thing in the ice, my mind when back to a similar scene in The Ice Warriors... which came out before either of these movies.) From that point on, it's all about killing them one by one in ways that feature typical effects of the time. (Yeah, the actual plot, with character arcs and such, are completely secondary if not entirely absent, but who cares?)

There is flak sent in the direction of this movie for overly relying on CGI and not being as good as the puppets from the original. Y'know what... I like the CGI effects! The original puppets were good, yes, but these things are flying all about the placed and are doing unnatural things in an entertain way no non-astronomical puppet budget is going to achieve. Yes, there are clearly creations that are entirely due to the computer, but... they still work, so thumbs up.

As for the humans... most of them are large, not-overly-descript men, so I didn't keep track of who was who. Even Mary is rather generic as 'pretty woman who gets screen time and psuedo-scientific dialogue to attempt to movie this vehicle along'. Whatever, they don't matter.

So, yeah, enjoyable movie... but now I want to watch the original again...

[END]

Vigil the Huntering

2011-11-30T06:59:00.001+13:00

We gathered in the motel room to pool our information. I didn't have a lot to contribute, but found there was a priest for a church that never showed up. And, I'm not entirely clear on this, one of the not-leader guys from the train was an investigator that worked for a law firm that has dealings with a Sarah Haversham who was instrumental in getting the amulet thing to Philadelphia. And the investigator had notes that implied he was investigating the law firm he worked for on behalf of a guy named Karl (I'm thinking the leader of the train gang).

However, after that, there was a knock at the door, and it was the cop. The cop working with the train gang that had been by my shop earlier. Somehow, he found us here. (Yeah, stealth, lose-the-tail types we ain't.)

While the punk kid JB, the doctor Jack and the token woman Jane head out the back bathroom window to a back alley, I stay with Robert to give the others a chance to get away. That's as the cop is kicking in the door and wielding a shot gun! I get into a struggle with him, while Robert is ducking shots from a badly dressed pretend cop who's outside. I get the gun away from the cop, but keep him pinned as Robert grabs the gun, badly fires a few times, before basically shoving the gun in the cop's mouth and pulling the trigger. The not-cop does a runner at that point.

Meanwhile, out the back, the others find another not-cop waiting, who JB puts down for the count, and a vampire that starts snacking on Jack. Then the ninja chick from South America (totally not a Slayer, and the priest is not her Watcher) pops up, touches the vampire and disconcerts him enough for JB to come and smack him about. Jack gets away, the Slayer disappears again, then Jane turns up, and they wail on the vampire for a moment before he disappears to.

Getting back together, we quickly set the scene up that cop and non-cop from the back alley shot each other, and get out of there. We are terrible at this, but clearly we need to get better. And fast.

[END]

Team Xero #14

2011-11-29T07:00:00.001+13:00

When trouble goes down, there is one man that knows it. One man that opposes it. One man that can sort the world out. And, best, of all, he's French...

(My turn to lay down the challenge gauntlet. And with all the bashing they get, I've decided to go Franco and give the requirement: a French Hero. With bonus challenge: a breakfast scene.)

[END]

With Feeling Once More

2011-11-28T07:02:00.002+13:00

Recently Sanctuary had a musical episode. Generally, musical episodes are a nice gimmicky episode, and can be fantastic. This episode was motivated by Abby (girl-friend of the main male lead) getting infected with something, and only able to hear certain harmonics... yeah, so everything has to be sung, because she completely cannot hear anything said normally. Bullshit science is your friend. (Somehow this was accompanied by music as well, there was no justifying that in the episode.)

What we ended up with was, aside from one or two moments, dialogue being sung to music. Not songs that happened to fit what was going on, but dialogue that would have otherwise been fine as normal spoken conversation being sung. No, no, it worked about as well as that sounds...

And, as you might guess, that made me revisit the classic episode by which all are judged, Buffy's Once More With Feeling. Now that was a great episode, the music and the singing (and the dancing) was completely justified within the episode. The songs were actual songs, and fitted the moments being sung about. And the words would entirely not have worked if just spoken. And the whole thing was perfect in the arc of the season as well.

Since then, we've wanted more. As they say "be careful what you wish for"...

[END]

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

2011-11-27T17:25:00.002+13:00

Metapol is exploding, and it's up to us to stitch together the pieces! Actually, all it takes is one man with one microphone, and it's amazing what can happen. (And now I'm suspicious of that one man...) But then the world scene explodes, so now what do we do?

After the last episode this was a race, in many ways, against saving Metapol before it went to far. Which is manage to do, more or less. Certainly lives are lost (but not the PCs). And now... I'm not sure what our next move is. There are things we can do, but they seem small in comparison with the bigger picture...

Want to listen to Game 46? Rapidshare. Hotfile. [Amusing Avira blocked Hotfile as Malware. It probably is, but I'm continuing to use it anyway.]

[END]

Star Trek Hidden Talent

2011-11-27T07:02:00.001+13:00

[Warning: I'm about to poke fun at fans who were doing something they loved. While this probably makes me a bad person, I have seen far worse on the Doctor Who front.]

So, I've been watching Star Trek Hidden Frontier. This is an extremely fan made series, set in and around the Briar Patch (from Insurrection) about... some star base or another, and their ship that goes places at gets into trouble. (Not that uncommon a set up in Star Trek.)

First, let's say positive things. The CGI effects are amazing. Clearly done by someone who knows what they are doing. And the range of people they have on demonstrates, shall we say, more truer peoples in real life than usually grace a TV screen. (Yes, that's a positive, they went for people who wanted to be filmed, not people filmed for the sole aim of getting money.) And, yes, clearly, this is a love of the fans effort, and that love shows.

However... oh dear gods, some absolutely appalling acting. There's a reason we leave it to professionals. (And having been in a few fan videos myself, I have nothing but shame for my own performance.) The cast is definitely more "oh, oh, pick me, pick me!" than "I was in the stage production of Macbeth." And then there are the sets. No wait, I mean set. Everything is shot against a green screen and a background image of some part of a ship is added in. And by 'everything' I mean the one chair they have that everyone sits in one at a time so they can record their scenes. I was quite impressed when they went to a nearby park and did some actual location shooting!

Script-wise... eh, they are trying, some parts better than others. Nothing's really wowed me yet (and again, there are some professional productions that fail to wow me).

I'm going to watch all of it, but it's something that's more 'on in the background' than 'I must watch this!'

[END]

I was there, where were you?

2011-11-26T06:58:00.001+13:00

So, yesterday happened. As it does. And one thing that happened yesterday was the quarterly Wellington Pub Meet of the Doctor Who fans. Which reached an exciting peak of five people, of myself, Alden, Peter, Foo and Tim. Woo!

Topics ranged from various tv series to... other tv series, and then, as these things happened, strayed onto Doctor Who. One thing that came up was that Big Finish is doing an audio to celebrate 20 years since Love and War.

Really?

20 years????

Freaking hell! We were trying to remember the books of the NAs that came between the start of the NA series and Love and War. The Timewyrm books (7), Cat's Cradle (3), Nightshade... and then named books after. Huh... looks like we didn't miss any. I was sure there were others in there, but no, Love and War was number 9. There were 61 of the things (plus MAs), can't be expected to remember them all.

But 20 years...

There are things you hear about, and all of a sudden they are 'hey that was a long time ago'. Thinking about it now, it doesn't make me feel old so much as it makes me thing I was very young when the books started. And I have them all!

Anyway, come along next time and hear about other pointless trivia that we bring up!

[END]

48 years later!

2011-11-24T07:01:00.001+13:00

Yes, because I have to, this is a post in celebratory of one Doctor Who, premiering on 23rd November 1963!

So why is this posted the 24th? Because it showed on the 23rd of November... in England! Which, given that it was shown late in the day, means that it was the 24th over here! So people from England, coming here, will see this posted on the correct day for them! Woo, time zones!

But, hey, 48 years. And it's not lonely fans in basements celebrating it any more. And with Moffat taking over, and Smith just loving the hell out of the part, it's a great series to enjoy at the moment!

[END]

Protector-ing

2011-11-23T07:00:00.001+13:00

With a first season (of 13 episodes) out of the way, I've now made it through The Protector. I'm not entirely sure why I started watching it, but I suspect the main reason was because of Ally Walker, last seen in a completely different show The Profiler.

This is a "quirky" cop show about Gloria Sheppard who is trying to juggle her work as a cop with her life as a single mom to two kids, living with her brother. [There's a whole backstory which is only semi-revealed, making me think there was a pilot episode that I missed (I haven't). Something about a fire when she was younger, when her mentally sick mother wasn't able to, she went in save her brother, and now she has scars, and is divorced... Dribs and drabs, I'm not sure how intentional it is, but it feels like there's something there the audience should already know.] And it is a rather light show, considering its 'murder of the week' style.

It's also unusual for me to watch a cop show that doesn't have something else. Either time travel, the main woman remembers everything, a fake psychic... maybe it's just that it is more light-hearted than the more grim CSI type of show. Certainly I don't watch any of that! There's also less action, as the two main leads are women. And yes, I am implying causation there. The one time I do remember a chase with guns out, it was the guys doing it. (Actually there is a chase in the last episode, but she's a giant chicken suit so it could be anyone in there.) Usually, at the end, everyone confesses when accused. Nice and easy, not entirely believable. But these things need to be wrapped up.

Surprisingly, the home life is also watchable. The brother Davey is well played, and even the kids are likable. And the mother brings in the required family tension.

Overall, a lightweight series that is entertaining. If you have the time and have been thinking about it, give it a go.

[END]

Odd Resonance

2011-11-22T07:00:00.000+13:00

You remember that moment in Firefly? Of course you do. If you don't, go to 05:10 in this clip.

Jubal Early: You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport. Yet by far the most troublesome. Does that seem right to you?
Dr. Simon Tam: What'd he do?
Jubal Early: Who?
Dr. Simon Tam: The midget.
Jubal Early: Arson. The little man loved fire.

So where (hint: did you just read the above) did my mind go when I read the headline Fire-bug dwarf escapes jail.

(It doesn't help that in the Serenity-based RPG I played in, the GM continued the idea of the midget arson, until one player got rather final with him.)

[END]

DW: Alien Adventures

2011-11-20T07:02:00.001+13:00

Remember the 2-in-1 books from before? They are back still as two adventures, but this time in a more straight forward, one orientation printing that puts one story before the other. This one involves Alien Adventures.

The first adventure is the Underwater War by Richard Dinnick. The problem with this story is that Richard has taken 'for children' to mean 'childish'. There's 'Show, don't Tell', but here we have 'don't Show, or Tell, but express what happens in a very condescending childish way that would offend a five year old'. There are some very badly written passages here that made me wonder if there was an editor anywhere near this. The actual story itself is about humans coming to an alien world and trying to exploit it. (I kept flashing back to seaQuest DSV.) The aliens are quite nice, and would have worked better had the nature of the writing not made them seem negative dimensional. This should have been better.

Rain of Terror by Mike Tucker is better written, but in this case 'for children' falls into the trap of 'having child characters', so we get a few scenes written from a rather basic child perspective. The story is an alien invasion (of a sort) (and, amazingly, doesn't become a base under siege story), although the resolution to said invasion is very quickly done. The bulk of the story is really just interactions between people, now I think about it... but they are handled well that the story kept the pace up. Nice!

Only one decent read in this set, but they both fly by so quickly, they could easily have been 'Quick Reads'. Only half recommended.

[END]

A Bus load of Hope

2011-11-19T07:04:00.002+13:00

Yes, it's that time again. Time to jump in the Bus and drive for hours at a time! And have fun while doing it!

Yes, it's charity time, for Child's Play, and the Loading Ready Run crew are already in for at least four days of driving, and it hasn't even started yet! (It starts at 3pm, our time.)

More than the fun of watching them driving, check out the auction items. The live auctions can go for crazy amounts, and are usually over in a flurry of activity. The silent auctions, obviously, last a bit longer, and there are many items there I want.

[Moreover, I've had an idea for what I could craft for next years Desert Bus! And it will probably take me nearly that long to do it.]

So come on over and join the fun, watch the money roll in, and, most importantly, experience the joy of driving a bus...

[END]

New Zealand, City of...

2011-11-18T07:00:00.001+13:00

So, Statistics New Zealand recently announced the latest estimate of the population of New Zealand (these things are always estimates, what, you think we know exactly how many people there are at any given moment?). The number is: 4,414,400. Yes, that is a lot of 4s.

But, how big is that? Let's put that in perspective in terms of cities. Namely... let's note that there are 44 other cities that have populations that are larger than the entirely of New Zealand.

Some of them are obvious, London, Tokyo, New York. The one that is just bigger than NZ is Surat. Um, can't say I've ever heard of it, but it has 4,462,002 people. (That does sound precise, but I note that the number is a multiple of 3, which makes me wonder... but that's something I might talk about another day.)

Let's talk about Jakarta. Why? Because, at number 13, it has a population that is more than twice that of all of New Zealand! Yes, 13 cities could contain multiple NZs!

And the biggest city is Shanghai. It's not just one New Zealand. It's more than two New Zealand. It even breaks three New Zealands... in fact, by over 150,000 people, it has a population that breaks over four times the entire population of New Zealand!

Fortunately, our population density is a bit lower. We may be smaller than some cities, but we have room to breathe.

[END]

Animated Green Lantern

2011-11-17T07:00:00.001+13:00

The animated series that was hoping to build off the audience from the movie has begun with a two-part pilot. And after watching it, you realise where they are going...

Namely, into the wild west. Hal and Kilowog end up on the "frontier", a long way from Oa, with only them and their horse... I mean ship. And they travel around fighting the criminals with their guns... I mean rings. And both sides have guns. I mean rings. The opponents in this series are the Red Lanterns.

Which, of course, brings up a big question: what continuity is this in? We don't start with the typical Abin Sur giving of the ring, so people are expected to know something. But Carol doesn't know Hal is GL and there's no mention of Parallax, so this isn't the live action movie continuity. It can't be the comics either, because although they are using the emotional spectrum plot device (not that they have explained that yet, but that is where the Red Lanterns (Red for Rage) come from), but there's only one GL for earth, not four, and only one GL per sector, not two. It could be from the animated movies, but then they didn't agree with themselves on continuity, let alone this. It's another variant yet again.

And it's in CGI. And Hal, for some reason that animation seems to like now, has a huge chest on a thin body. What the? At least, unlike in another cartoon with GL (namely JLA), they are forming constructs with their powers. (At least, the GLs are, the RLs are just firing red beams of power.)

I don't see this grabbing new viewers as it does rely on some Green Lantern knowledge. And it's odd setting probably isn't going to resonant with GL fans. So... it has been booked for 26 episodes. We'll see if it lasts that long...

[END]

Snuff

2011-11-16T06:57:00.002+13:00

So, I just finished the latest Terry Pratchett, known to the world as Snuff.

Over time, the Discworld novels have been less on the funny, and more on the plot. Not to say they aren't enjoyable, and this one definitely was, but I could deal with more humour.

This, in many ways, is another iteration of the Vimes stories. Each book, in some way, has been bringing in different races into the general folds of 'normal people'. First trolls and dwarfs, throw in golems. Then werewolves, and vampires. And now goblins. From that point of view, you can see where it's going.

And also, it's about Vimes being a copper, and gets to educate someone on being a copper. Also getting close to standard fare in many ways. Again, enjoyable, but... it is predictable where that part of it is going too.

Vimes has come a long way from the drunkard in the gutter afraid of dragons. The Summoning Dark has left its mark, and now Vimes is all too aware of what's inside himself. This could end up somewhere very dark (if Terry is well enough to tell the tale). But, if I may ask, can we deal the others (eg Carrot and Angua) again in the next Watch novel (when there is one).

As said several time, enjoyable, and will definitely be rereading this in the not too distant future. But I may reread others for the funny before I reread this for the plot...

[END]

Contagiouson

2011-11-15T07:02:00.003+13:00

Lots of big names appearing in a movie must be a good thing, right? Especially when it's going to be just like Outbreak.

In this movie, an outbreak occurs, slowly building up from a few people to a large part of the world becoming infected. This movie really follows a few stories of people at different levels, doctors at the front line, people whose lives were affected, people at the top...

The problem with this movie is that when it hits Act 3, it gets to the moment of conclusion quite early... and then the movie completely lacks momentum as we go through the last half hour or so. We still have some character stories to go, but nothing interesting happens. And certainly nothing that builds tension in any way. The movie claims to be a thriller, but it isn't. It's otherwise classed as a drama, but the ending isn't that either. It becomes more like "here's how a real outbreak scenario might end up", and just whiles away the time. Not at all worth watching.

One good point: homeopathic remedies get a small taste of the kicking they truly deserve.

Anyway, a lot of big names, go see the list yourself. None of them really stand out, although I did spend a lot of time staring at Jude Law's tooth whenever he spoke. I don't know if it was make up, but Matt Damon's showing his age. And Lawrence Fishbourne just outclassed everyone.

Not the movie you might think it is. And not one that is satisfying to watch, either.

[END]

Team Xero #013

2011-11-14T07:00:00.002+13:00

It's all very well seeing the superheroes get out there, fight the bad guys, and win the day, but what about the other people? Support staff have issues too.

Although the set-up was for minor character, I don't have a lot of characters in the first place. And Trish has been in videos before. But she doesn't have any super-related role, and is seen in the opening/closing, so...

[END]

DW: The Gunpowder Plot

2011-11-13T07:00:00.002+13:00

So, a traditional historical story, with hardly any aliens to be seen. A rare treat... no, hang on... I'm thinking of The Plotters. No, in this, the latest computer game, as is standard for New Series Who, everything that happens on Earth is due to aliens. In this case, there is a small issue of Sontarans and Rutans... (I will give the new series this, they do have the actual battles between aliens that we only dreamed of in the old series.)

Anyway, with the backdrop of the Gunpowder Plot to explode ol' London town, the Rutans are trying to wipe out the Sontarans, as they do, and need to help events along to get their crashed ship out. And so our hapless heroes get mixed up in history as they put paid to another alien invasion.

And heroes indeed! This adventure features the Doctor, Amy... and Rory! And you get to play as all of them! Indeed, Rory gets more to do here than he ever did in the actual stories. And that's another point: this game is long. Far longer than any of the previous adventures. Mainly because it is split up into lots of smaller segments, but have a few hours spare if you want to work your way through it. But considering how thin some previous adventures have been, this is only for the better.

Not to say it's all wonderful of course. Levels get repeated a bit, and long segments are repeats of the "dodge the guards" mechanic (ugh, the Sontarans really over-guard the sewers... and can't see people sneaking right in front of them). The camera didn't help in many cases, especially when I had to move backwards to go forwards. There were a few puzzles where it took me a while to work out what I supposed to do (especially Rory vs the Rutans). And a very odd bug: while in the Rutan ship, Rory and then Amy literally lost their heads! (Another bug, Amy getting hung up on scenery... caused me to die, stupid woman!)

But the free roaming levels were good. They do visuals well, so being able to look around pleased me. Although it's not always clear where I can go and where I can't (a few odd invisible walls). And there were a few places I didn't look, which bring me to...

Would I play it again? I think so, but not immediately. And I didn't find the surprise guest, so that will be something to look for. (Unlike cards, none of them to be found.)

[END]

He is... Intentionally Homeless

2011-11-12T07:00:00.001+13:00

The current chairman of the NZ Skeptics is one Gold. (That's now his legal name.) He's decided to take a break from the normal working regime so he can walk to work. Or rather, walk for work.

In particular, he is on a walkabout across New Zealand. He's doing so for different charities, and because he can't (so do this now before he can't!).

(I also read a while ago that he plans to offer his services to create websites for people in return for a place to stay, but that doesn't seem to be mentioned on his website any more.)

Anyway, quite the admirable goal, and he's looking for sponsors, major and personal, so if you'd like to tip him (the price of) a pint, he's be happy.

[END]

11111111111

2011-11-11T06:59:00.001+13:00

So, what is today? World Quality Day? Yes, but whatever. Skyrim? I couldn't care less. The date that a stupid movie claims has major occult significance, based on powers that existed before the Julian Calendar? No-one should care about that.

An atheist (so you can already know where that character arc is going) is a sad person, and is called home to attend to his dying father, and is reunited with his wheelchair bound father. It turns out that numerology explains everything, demons and gods are real, and there is purpose in life so give all thanks to higher powers and in no way take credit for being able to do anything for yourself.

A big thing about this movie is that it is from the director of some of the Saw movies. Definitely not the writer of, just the director. This is a stupid movie, it drags on, rehashs the 'you believe in religion, what about this?' a number of times, and as for the ending... I don't want to give it away, but I did, later, think of this (don't click unless you want a spoiler).

No doubt due to the Saw connection, this will do well. What a pity, as it so doesn't deserve any recognition at all.

[END]

Trekkers

2011-11-10T07:00:00.002+13:00

No sooner said that done. [BTW "Trekkies" vs "Trekkers"... I don't care!]

Trekkies in 1995 is all about the fans. Even the stars are just there to talk about the fans. And, in some cases, there are fans of fans. But, really... they are just like other fans. That's how people want to spend their money? Hey, I've been to Armageddon, spent some money myself. This is all about largely positive experiences. That said... warning sign: when you dress up your pets, perhaps you're going a bit too far. (That and young children.) This is hosted by Denise Crosby, the woman who decided she didn't want to be involved... then desperately wanted to be back in. She talks to fans, to stars of the original series, TNG and Voyager... interestingly, no-one from DS9. Not sure why. A lot of people will point at this people and laugh... yeah, I can't. Too much like me.

Trekkies 2 in 2004... is just a repeat of Trekkies, really. Only this time they go around the world and go to other conventions. And check in on a few people from the first movie. But basically a continuation of the first. (Got to think that this movie is fairly easy to make. I'm sure there are a lot of logistical issues, but this really is just 'shoot people and edit together'.)

Very much a slice of fan culture that we all recognise.

[END]

George Lucas Must Die!

2011-11-09T07:02:00.001+13:00

That, at least, is a take home message from this documentary. This really is a love/hate letter from the fans to George Lucas.

I sort of get it. If someone really screwed up Doctor Who... however, we have the benefit of if we don't like what's currently happening, wait a few years and someone else will be in control. Doctor Who isn't as identically identified with anyone in the same way that Star Wars is identified with the other GW. I don't have the same passion for Star Wars as these fans do, but I can recognise it.

This movie is mainly about the fans. (And we see a lot of fan made work in this. Some adequate... most not.) It starts off with some beginning lead up of George before hitting Star Wars itself, and talking about how it made them feel. Importantly, the people talking were kids then. And then it goes on to the re-edits of the movie (and here is where I really don't care who shot first), then goes back to the new movies. [My Phantom Menace story: I saw it within 12 hours of its release, at 10am, in a largely empty theatre.] Then ends on bile and hatred and admiration.

There's always a problem with fans, in that while a lot of them are normal people, the one's who end up on screen are the weirdos. This documentary suffers a bit from that, in that few of them make a coherent argument. But one point of this movie is that SW brings out an emotional reaction, so that is getting captured. That does make the point of the movie a little hard to follow... but then there can't really be an ultimate point. Some people thing SW belongs to them, some go with what Lucas does, and then there's the current generation of kids who like all the movies, including Jar Jar.

An interesting slice of life of fandom. I know there are a few documentaries about Trekkies, not really about Whovians (nothing big screen certainly). Might try to track them down.

[END]

The World V Bobby Fischer

2011-11-08T06:55:00.001+13:00

Insert line here about fine lines, genius and insanity. On the genius side, we have Bobby Fischer, chess player. On the insanity side, we get Bobby Fischer, conspiratorial finder supreme.

The document starts off being about BF and his brilliant chess skills. Then they cover the games with Spassky, and devote a fair bit of time to that. And then, afterwards, the movie shows off the decline of Fischer with a little more glee than the previous parts of the movie, finally some juicy human disaster to get into!

(Interestingly, considering that this is a documentary about a ... sport? ...hobby? baordgame? they don't spend any time explaining how it is played. Every other documentary has a segment on 'here's how this bit is played', but not this one. Either chess is that ubiquitous, or the only people likely to watch this are already chess aficionados and don't need to be told.)

In fact, in many ways, this movie does expect a level of knowledge about Bobby Fischer as well. We don't get a heartwarming story about his early child life (except as it pertains to him liking to play chess), nor are we told about who Spassky is, other than 'the Russian champion'. And the afterwards section jumps around like we already know the gaps that need to be filled in. I get that he is a 'name', but I can't say I know a lot more about him now than before I started watching.

Overall, a moderately decent documentary that assumes some knowledge.

[END]

Call of the Margin

2011-11-07T07:00:00.001+13:00

I wanted to watch this movie for a number of reason. Kevin Spacey. Jeremy Irons. Demi Moore. Simon Baker. Zachary Quinto.

Shame I didn't pick it because of the story. Or rather, didn't pick it because of the story. The story is about some... unnamed financial institution that has just let people go (this is set at the beginning of the financial crisis), and one person had been developing a new model of their business. Someone else picks it up and... well... I had a hard time following the content, there was financial speak, various characters asked for it in plain english, and yet it was still containing jargon. Basically, something about them owning stuff that would cost them, and so they had to get rid of them...

I wouldn't really call it a thriller, as it has a slow build, and in the last sections of the movie it tells you what it's going to do, and then does it. At least, I guess it does, it isn't really clear.

So, why watch it? Because it has great acting, and solid direction. Even if the script could use another few passes, this is still a well made movie. All the big names are worth watching, and give fantastic performances.

But, yeah... plot, don't watch for that...

[END]

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

2011-11-06T16:32:00.003+13:00

Keblang! A season ender! Watch us get off to an exciting start as we try to get off a train and back to the city! Will we ever attack... somewhere? It does take us a while, but look out for George!

Bert does odd things with plots. We... well, me at least, am not entirely certain what's going on with it all, and next week will be interesting as we have fall out from our actions, and from what else is happening in the city. Will there still be a city??

Listen to it all in Game 45. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

[END]

Activity that is Paranormaler-er

2011-11-06T07:01:00.002+13:00

Once was fine, two pushed it too far, so why not back for a third shot at "static camera horror footage"!

Since we know from the first movie that whatshername suffered from demons when she was young, and something about a sister in the second movie (which no-one remembers), experience shock and horror as we go back in time to see how it happens! ... although not in any way that causes shock and horror.

There's a big gimmick this time of... a rotating camera! Woo! Experience the terror as the camera slowly swings around to show something slightly scary, then pans away slowly... and then stops... and then swings back (seriously, minutes, months, centuries pass by waiting for the damn swinging camera padding to GET ON WITH IT!) to show the spooky thing gone and someone being puzzled by the lack of spooky thing! Gah!

Admittedly, there are some attempts at actual horror, with a few things flung about (mostly off camera, or moving blurredly) but mostly we are again being scared with the 'standing in one spot for a long time' or 'tell me about the scary person you were talking to' moments. Not so much.

I liked the first movie. It worked, had actual atmosphere. The second one just didn't click anything interesting. And now the third is showing that this is a movie in a franchise (and there is nothing stopping them expanding this to another family member, or another family entirely). Give this a rest and come up with something new, hey, guys?

[END]

Who's the Ice Warrior?

2011-11-05T07:00:00.003+13:00

So, in Silent Stars, Dan rants on (he brings it up more than once, and it seems to cause him some concern) about how, in The Ice Warriors, Victoria is the one who names the Ice Warriors 'Ice Warriors', but then the Ice Warriors seem to quite happily call themselves 'Ice Warriors' as if it's their actual race names.

Oh noes! What a continuity blunder! The entire canon of Doctor Who will surely never sustain such a blow to its integrity!

Well, just as well I'm here to explain this.

Let's go with Victoria does name them. So, then, in people's minds, at that point, they are called the Ice Warriors. Now, enter the TARDIS. We know the TARDIS does the actual translating (what, you think the Martians are speaking English?), so then whenever the Martians are talking, and refer to themselves, the TARDIS thinks 'aha, when they say their race name, I'll simply translate it to Ice Warriors, 'cos that's what everyone else already thinks of it as'. (And this simple translation trick works for the audience too.)

But wait, you really nit-picky people say. Walters was the one who first uses the phrase 'Ice Warrior'! Aha, now we move on to the next part of the theory. Let's skip ahead to The Seeds of Doom. Which, of course, happens before The Ice Warriors. When the Doctor and co turn up, once again, we can have the TARDIS translating the race name. But also consider that the Doctor is the one saying 'it's the Ice Warriors!', so that fixes that name into everyone's mind then. And from that point on, for humans from 2070 onwards the big green Martians are Ice Warriors. Which is why the name comes to Walters later.

(Or, if you follow other media, insert Red Dawn from Big Finish audios in that role instead.)

Ta da!

[END]

DW: The Silent Stars Go By

2011-11-04T06:59:00.001+13:00

Because this is apparently what needed to happen, Dan Abnett was given allowance to write his own DW hardcover, and came up with The Silent Stars Go By.

This books features... wait for it... you're going to be surprised... I promise you'll never see it coming... the returning monster is... I'm going to give it away... complete spoilers here... this novel has... The Ice Warriors! I know! You never saw it coming, did you? Not in a million years would you expect it! Suspense about their identity is built right into the book, and they aren't named until a third into the book! Wow! Out of nowhere!
Small tip, Dan. If you want to hide the surprise, a) don't mention them in the blurb. And b), most importantly... DON'T PUT THEM ON THE COVER!!! Seriously, I haven't cared enough to count the number of times the monster is a big reveal, but it's already been given away by the publicity, including the cover picture which, even if people don't read blurbs (like me), they're going to work it out as soon as they see the actual book!

*sigh* (Oh, and speaking of naming things, Dan goes on about a particular continuity error I'll address in a post tomorrow.)

Anyway, that aside, there is a reason not to name the monster straight away, although the explanation isn't obvious. Most of this book is a run around, with Doctor and Amy (and others) running from Ice Warriors, and Rory (and others) running away from Ice Warriors for... the bulk of the book really. There's a little plot expansion during the running, but basically it's them running around. Then, in the last 50 pages, we get actual exposition about what's really going on. If you can hang on till then, then you might get some originally of story, but it's a long way through chase scenes to get there.

From the above rant, you might guess I wasn't that impressed with this novel. You'd be right. For hardcover novels, you'd expect something special, either a particularly famous author, or maybe a big event. This is neither of those.

Unless you are a completest (like me), feel free not to bother with this.

[END]

It gets better... and worse

2011-11-03T06:59:00.000+13:00

A while ago I reviewed The First Sequence. This one is The Full Sequence.

The first thing to note is that this movie is in black and white. Some people have complained about this. The director did it to make it 'scarier'. I wouldn't say that it was scarier... or even scary, but I'll get to that in a moment, but I will admit that the black and white nature gave it a more raw, edgier feel to it. Overall, the production was quite good, and it's been a while since I saw the first one, but I feel that this is better.

However... there's the content. In this movie, Martin watched the original movie on DVD (yes, this treats the first movie as fiction) [notably, while watching it on a computer, has to rewind the DVD in super rewind before rewatching it... what the?], and takes an unhealthy liking to it. Fair enough, we see easily that he's an unhealthy person all around, so when he goes off the deep end, we aren't surprised. He has it in his head to make a twelve person centipede because... well, because. And so he sets about getting some bodies, mainly from his work place (which doesn't seem to notice and/or care), and puts it together...

However, he's not any kind of surgeon, knows what to do from only watching the movie, and so the last third of the movie isn't scary so much as... absurd. And funny. And just stupid. It all falls apart, again surprising no-one, but while it's happening it's just bizarre, not horrific at all. Meh.

I'm not sure where there is to go in the third movie... but, yes, there is a third movie...

[END]

Vigil the Huntering

2011-11-02T07:02:00.001+13:00

In preparation of the Travesty visit, it was decided to get the pendant back from where Jack Cottage hid it, and place it in my safe. (I say 'it was', because I have no real interest in dealing with the thing.) Turns out the doctor's place was ransacked yet again and the pendant is missing. Good riddance.

At the club, we are shown into a room in which the owner, Darlington, talks to us through speakers, and doesn't show us his face. Bit of a prick really. He also took our cell phones away so we couldn't call in reinforcements (like I had planned to, which is also why I'm glad I didn't say 'come in if you don't hear from me'). He knows who the South American chick is, and the bully boys on the subway weren't working for him, and, in general, he seems behind the eight ball. Oh, and his room had really thin doors (yay for a fumble!).

So, with him letting us go, and the pendent out of the way, that's about it really. All over with. We can move on.

The punk kid turns up at my shop in the morning, wanting to contact the doctor, so I get rid of him easily. (Turns out he woke up covered in blood, and there was a young woman killed last night which matches, but I don't know this yet.)

After a quiet day, when I'm closing up, two cops turn up, claiming something about firearm selling illegalities. While they have a look around, I get Stitch to come over, and Jane and Robert contact me. The cops can't find anything (I run a clean shop), so I leave Stitch to keep an eye on the place while I head out with Robert and Jane to catch up with Jack and the punk...

[one day per session... don't expect xp to be spent in a hurry...]

[END]

Zombores

2011-10-31T07:01:00.002+13:00

Fine, because it's All Hallow's Eve, and that's supposed to mean something to our society for... some reason, let's talk Zombies. A lot of vid/podcasts are talking about, and they are certainly pervading the computer game sphere at the moment, so...

Zombies are supposed to be a metaphor, for consumerism, or... all sorts of other things. Maybe they were intended that way at the beginning, I didn't really see it. Still don't see it now, and, frankly, I'm not sure they are intended as a metaphor for anything any more. Dead humans, the fright of death not being the end, of having to kill your friend because he now wants to eat your brains... okay, that last one is a possible area that is still addressed, but moreso in movies than in games because you can't make the player suddenly care about some person your character knew who died and now is back, whereas in a movie you can have characters care about others.

But, the point of this all is... zombies aren't anything other than zombies any more. They are simply a cheap source of enemy that can be bashed, shot, and otherwise killed in amusing and hilarious ways for entertainment, don't carry any stigma for picking on minorities (claims about Resident Evil 4 notwithstanding), and easier to have as an explanation than bringing in aliens because they are still human shaped, and don't we all want to kill other humans?

But this simplicity of concept is what makes them dull. When I hear 'zombies are involved', my already latent high disinterest/apathy kicks up orders of magnitude. All too often zombies are simply a subset of the survivor genre, and that bores me as well. Seeing someone trek miles for a turnip, while bitching with others who also want the turnip, doesn't scream exciting entertainment.

Now we have zombies that a killable fodder, vampires that are sparkly sex machines, and ghosts that... still don't do much beyond moving things around to scare people. Can we get some better supernatural please?

[END]

Battle of the Bulge...ing hard drive

2011-10-30T06:57:00.000+13:00

According to my computer, it only has 20 Gig left. (Huh, a whole 20 Gig! I remember when floppies were excessive storage... Hell, I remember my first computer, the Timex Sinclair 1000, which was just like the ZX81! But where the ZX81 only had 1K of base memory, the Timex Sinclair 1000 had a whole 2K! Yeah, suck it ZX81! Ah, but how I was envious of my cousins with their Spectrum with actual colour and ability to do proper sounds...)

Where was I? Oh, yes, 20 Gig. This is, as it is known, of course, a lie. I have far more than that, only the computer hasn't bothered to delete temp files. Moreover, having seen this before, it won't delete temp files until I give it room. Yes, it will only delete files when it has room to delete them...

Huh? You must have me confused with someone who doesn't think that is stupid.

(Yeah, I could run a defrag program, but where's the fun in that?)

Now, I do have a fair few programs to watch and clear out, so it's not like I'm only going to have 20 Gig for a while, but that isn't reason to complain. (Really, it is complaining about having less than 10% free.)

So, on the one hand, I have plenty of room! On the other hand, three shows later, and there's a gig gone straight away...

[END]

Warned Spoilers - HL2 ep 10

2011-10-29T07:00:00.001+13:00

And so it continues, and will probably for a few more days. Watching this, and... ah, the mammaries... no, wait, that was Duke Nukem Forever...

The bridge run... my first go I got through fine, but then fell off the cliff at the other end. I think I took a break, because it took me a while to get through again. I was pushing the button to accelerate, yet couldn't speed through again. Was I not early enough? Did I need to aim for the vanishingly small gap? Oh... the OTHER mouse button! Right, that works...

The fight, yeah, I parked the car properly. And in the fight, I thought 'hey, there are plenty of health packs for me around, I know, I'll just head on in and take the damage then grab the packs and be fine.' So, there's that approach. (Although I did start by crouching behind cover more than my compatriots did.)

When I first encountered the two guys, I stumbled out onto the sand. Oops. Reload and try again. Oh, he dies anyway. Oh well. I can't recall if I knew there was a badge for not triggering the antlions, but I did start out trying to do that... but, I think like most people, RUN FOR IT!

[END]

Warned Spoilers - HL2 ep 9

2011-10-28T06:58:00.001+13:00

So with Spoiler Warning doing Half-Life 2 again, and since I've now played it, this has me wanting to comment on how I played. First of all...

As Valve intended, I did get the cross-bow and sniped. I liked that weapon. There was a section later, in the city, where sniping really helped clear out the area before the group and I went in.

I also like the roller mines. Not that annoying, sort of cute really, and punting them with the Gravity Gun was fun!

Ah, the bridge... now, when I played, this took me far longer than the guys here breezed through. One issue was that I never went up on the bridge to begin with, so I had no idea there was a barrier to take down, nor that the cord went along. Instead I went onto the path, hearing the zombie, and then followed it along to under the bridge. Ooh, items! Onwards... and, hey, I can get out here. Let's see what's out there... Wow, up high, don't want to fall. (From memory, I did it all in one go without dying once, amazing.) However, for a long while I wasn't sure that I was supposed to go this way. Was this just a bonus, optional area? Was I going out of the way? There were items... oh, and enemies. This had to be an actual area to pay attention to... right? But, yeah, like Josh, waste rockets, and race for the crate near the end.

Not knowing that I was going the right way added a level of tension. It could easily be a set up to let me kill myself by doing something stupid, which was very easy to do, lots of opportunity for that. And, because it was an unknown, in that it seemed to be a forbidden area, that did make it more fun to complete.

Still want to drop into the ocean just to see what happens though...

[END]