Pastiche of Life

Oh My God!

That’s it people time to close the world, its time to  hit the ‘Nukem’ button , its  time to surrender ourselves to our under dwelling masters. All that and many other bombastic affectations to doom. as you can see above we have reached a new low.

Honestly I’m slowly starting to lose my mind as i try to conceive of how many questions you can possibly ask about the Twilight movie. The fact that the game involves itself with the movie rather than the series of Novels make’s its scope severely limited, Not that the Twilight Saga was a deep well of discursive history and mythology in the first place.

To stop my self from going over the top in my distain for this iteration of the the excellent series of games i thought i would Wiki myself up with some knowledge of their release history now look at this list:

New DVD expansion games are released every year. Expansions include:

Harry Potter 1st Edition (2005)

Harry Potter 2nd Edition (2007)

Disney Edition

Warner Bros. 50th Anniversary Edition

James Bond Edition

HBO Edition

Turner Classic Movies Edition

Nickelodeon Edition

Marvel Comics Edition

Friends Edition

Pirates of the Caribbean Edition

Doctor Who Edition

FIFA Edition

Disney Channel Edition

Seinfeld Edition

Star Trek Edition

The Simpsons Edition

Now as you can see there is plenty of Fandom’s covered by their release’s but the presence of multiple editions for Disney/Harry potter to follow the continued development of the stories means an acceptance and attention to the limitations of focusing on a few titles in a series. In this list the Pirates of the Caribbean is the one pack trading on the least amount of footage released to sift and quiz upon, its connection to Disney history and the use of easily recognised cast members with illustrious movie histories filled out its content nicely.

In its use of the twilight series considering the limitation of focusing on the first film and its associated text just in time for New Moons release simply smacks of pandering to the already Ghoul like fanaticism that follows the book.

Yes, I hate the Twilight books and yes, i have read them. thankfully not having to pay for the displeasure go ahead and complain i have control over the horizontal the vertical and the comment box ^_^

Lose/Lose Is a game, this is obvious but the point it’s creator makes is that it is a interactive question or at least the opening point of discussion into the value of data and the consequences of virtual actions.

Of course the question has been asked before but with a different hook, How can previously made data be included or added in a new organisational system?
In previous titles the process created new values from the previously existing data be it music/software or the simple barcode (Vib ribbon/Monster Rancher/Barcode Battler) this creation of secondary value was the process of adding or making other data inclusive with new meaning, It is a positive process of creation, a reflection of Growth and nurturing games. This process is reversed in the creation Of Lose/Lose as data becomes the target of deletion with the destruction of each Alien invader. In doing so brings to question the environment of the consistently aggressive action that online shooters inhabit. We begin to ask are the attributed kills in a Death match worth anything? was this existential question one of the reasons we see RPG elements are a growing importance in our FPS Shooters especially in online play?

The clever construction of the game with the passivity of the alien’s creates a vacuum of purpose for the ship the player controls with its own weapons. In taking the aggressive stance we now dam ourselves to critical losses while this may seem like inherent pacifism we don’t get hammered over the head with morality we simply begin to equate how much the individual is willing to expend on a simple task.
the creator said himself

"Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?"

in asking this we make a split decision as to what is valued most and in what situation can it be considered acceptable losses. As the already apparent competitiveness of the scoreboard attests you can in fact not just lose to the game but lose to other players willing to expend data and time. To otherwise lose to the game and let it delete itself we are not even relieved of our consequence as the game self destructs. Metaphorically we do only have one life to make the decision.

There have been shooters in the past that use content from the users hard drive to inform or Propagate fields of view like using video files as a wall panel or using Image files as a level wall texture either directed by the user themselves in user create maps but also uncommonly by the games process, A single example where the games name escapes me was a descent like shooter that let to the player act as the computers antivirus using directed folders of data/pictures/video that created the additional background content of the level while you exterminated the viri. The other side of this coin was consternation of people playing the game and minor sensationalist reports of the game being a virus in reality. This has come true for LOSE/Lose as Symantec Lists the game as Low threat Trojan

The Creation of LOSE/LOSE is an elegant reminder of the existential problems of playing a game and divorcing it from the consequences of actions. It Informs and elucidates the argument for creative and expressive games without even attempting and if you have a few MB to lose of data and you don’t really mind I’d recommend you give it a try. The action of deleting your own data can in truth be fun and more terrifying than most survival Horror.

Joystiq – deletes files as you play

LOSE/LOSE – Original Site

Oh I’m a little giddy, everyone has hammered the MGS series into the ground with “UGH more cut scenes” “ugh I wanna Play!” comments so I’m sure the prospect of a film to allot of people is hell. To those people I think you all suck and I’m happy such a good piece of film is here.

MGS: Philanthropy is a fan project started by a group of Italian film students that blows anything I’ve worked on out of the water. With a internally raised budget of £9,000 (listen if you haven’t seen it don’t say that’s allot of money to make a film Clerks Cost twice as much) they have managed to create a both involving yet flippant action filled story that makes more sense than many of the plot elements of MGS2/3/4.

  Snake is played by one of the original creators of the fan project Giacomo Talamini and in the design of the character the Body suit worn by snake and his age reflect a particularly good transition stage from the narrow faced younger MGS Snake to the more Bearded MGS2. Talamini does an excellent job of portraying grumpy snake with allot of very noticeable physical gestures lifted from the exaggerated physicality of the Video game such as the Grunts and shifts of weight when something snatches Snakes attention compounded in editing with recognisable quick cuts and zoom on snake or the hanging of his head and shifting looks when Snakes asked questions he doesn’t wish to answer. This is all compounded by a faithfully gritty English Dub by Philipp Sacramento

The Special Effects work is worth a watch alone, at times providing a surreal moment or two when digital actors are used in transitions that could be mistaken for Scenes from MGS2/3. The Screenshot to the left has a tone and colouring that could have been taken from one of the Early MGS4 Teaser trailers while the filter effects used on the the shot to the right make it difficult to determine if the foreground Snake is in actuality the actor or one of the transitional Digi’s. The soft blur and perspective of the shot look so well blended together. Admittedly Not all shots look quite as convincing but to have these moments are quite excellent and i know that Ill be keeping them as wallpapers for a time.

The rest of the Cast are also excellent the Characters above all deserving special mentions clockwise from top left (Unnamed Foxhound-esque Soldier, Informant Britoil(Sp?), Pierre LeClair, Sen. Abraham Bishop, Elizabeth Laycan) LeClair’s character features heavily in the humour of the movie his introduction leading to one of the strangest if humorous and satisfying moments of the film. This Wry humour is something that any form of Hollywood involvement in a Big budget incarnation of the series would eliminate from the narrative.

There is so much to Say about the characters of Laycan and of the mysterious soldier but id prefer to leave this movie unspoiled for your viewing go check it out ASAP

AT

http://www.mgs-philanthropy.net

It has come to my attention after a little bit of browsing tonight that the Wii version of Modern Warfare (Due out Nov10th) has yet to give a taste of its Gameplay.

The fans of the Infinity Wards shooter are extolling dismay and fear over the decision to not show advance gameplay footage each of them springing up with many rumours and reasons for why they are withholding the information. It is to be expected of course by Activision considering the presence of obviously broken street dates that any attempt to corral the lucky few with access to the game and a webcam will only be building buzz over the game. Already tonight i have myself been unfortunate enough to miss out any of the leaked footage before Activision brought down the legal hammer, Or should that be Gavel…

The discussion of reasons behind Activision and Treyarch’s silence has come to two differing sides one that is optimistic and the inevitable pessimist who hopes to be proven wrong. Its a Strange combination of forlorn expectations from the pessimists probably born from the history of porting and power issues that reared its head in games such as Dead Rising on the Wii but the optimists counterstatement has been Infinity wards strict quality control using examples of the internal struggle between Infinity ward and their handlers it is simply a mater of time now to see if everyone can come away happy. A true happy ending of course would be something that will blow the expectations of all parties and pull the carpet out from Wii detractors and admittedly if anyone could do it Infinity Wards would have my bet. (See Below for my retraction of this statement)

Anyway With the amount of excitement surrounding MW2 and MWii the COD behemoth rolls on after its reported 12Million unit sales. This cannot come as a surprised considering the stellar Single player campaign that has been a discussion cinematically with my own friends, Alongside its addictive multiplayer that even caught hold of my non-fps centred attention. Lets just hope that the Wii delivers.

Edit Postscript!

(The fact that Infinity ward is not at the helm of this port has been pointed out to me and i think i made a major mistake not double checking my sources apologies for claiming the Wii port was developed by infinity ward it was in-fact done by Treyarch, so stop emailing me for those who want to read the First impressions of the port should take the jump to Here)

The Road Avenger Game for the classic\lamented Mega-CD console is a piece of my gaming history and now its a book!

personally i have fond memories attached to it. I’m pretty sure i could still complete the first level or two on hardest difficulty with the help icons removed even today but less of my boasting, Today I had a reminder of its excellence and with that reminder a shock as to how much of a present fan base the game has accrued.

On my daily perusal of YouTube to delay the onset of actual work i found a series of videos called Guru Larry’s retro Corner. In his look back on the Game “Renegade” a small comment popped up pointing out A car from Double Dragon (Arcade) that was modelled on the car from Road Avenger, Inserted because the creator worked on both games. In a flare of inspiration i began searching up the plot and history synopsis of Double dragon and attempted to link it with the story of Road avenger with the intention of writing a little fiction to pair two games i love into a singular reality. This is where the Shock and dismay, at being beaten to the punch, began. As Road Avenger already has a Book in the works.

Due for release Next year a teaser of the books content is already available on its main site which also reveals that in the design of the novelisation a musical project to re-orchestrate and re-imagine the classic Theme tune is in the works for concurrent release.

You might expect being a fan of the game I’m excited about the musical accompaniment but i may give the Soundtrack a miss, Its not that i don’t think its worth a listen but the sample given with the excerpt does feel a bit bland compared to the literature. Which is surprising considering their YouTube Video of an Excellent Piano and vocal Duet by both Writer and composer. The Musical sample provided on the main site upon repeated listening does have the feel of the song embedded in there somewhere but its subtle compared to the original but hey i am just a fan boy purist so what does my opinion matter, It only Fills me with slight concern as to further reduction that might coincide with the books pacing and plot.

The writer Mary Margaret Park and composer Sekrett Scilensce seem to have a real handle on the simple source story of the game which gives room for creative plotting from the tragic death of the protagonists love and his process of planning before the eventual vengeance. Their pairing is perfect with what seems to be an honest excitement for the project. If the samples already on offer are the level of quality to expect its an exciting adventure ahead and i look forward to its release

Main Site

http://www.theroadavenger.com/

Writer/Composers Sites

http://www.marymargaretpark.com/

http://www.sekrettscilensce.com/