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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Gemcraft: chapter 0

I think it's fair to say that one of the biggest genre in flash games is tower defense.
There are loads of such games out there, but few are as good as this one.
Slick graphics, the gem crafting system is excellent from a strategy point of view and the Xp gains makes you compelled to go back to it in order to gain access to more maps/modes...

Outstanding!

Gemcraft: Chapter 0

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Crank: High voltage.

OK. I'm glad I watched the first one last week because it at least got me half prepared for the assault that this movie is.

As crazy as it may seam, it DOES look like the directors held back a great deal when doing the 1st. For the 2nd, they got serious. I would guess they took a list of every offensive thing they could think of and then they did it. Just like that...
The little sense Crank made has been throw out the window here to focus on pure exploitation.

You know that for some stupid reason I caught myself thinking at first ridiculous things like "hold on a sec, that's a bit too easy". By the time the movie ended, I was brain washed, laughing and cheering and then shaking my head wondering how this could be possible, how a movie like that could be committed to celluloid...

It kicks the shit out of Tarantino's/Rodriguez's Grindhouse. And then butt-fucks it.

Admittedly, it's not going to earn any award. Maybe it should actually. In the category "movie that's actually bad for your health"?
Guys, please give your girlfriend a break and don't drag her into this, it could be cruel...

Still, what a ride...

Friday, April 17, 2009

Crank

Crank 2 is coming out right now, so I had to fill in this massive gap in my movie culture and see Crank.
It's now done.

It's movie that is Wrong. It's shot in a completely epileptic manner, it never stops, it's gratuitously and extremely violent, it's got crude sex, tits, excessive swearing, no moral...
And I loved it for all this!!! (^0^)/
It's an insane and relentless rampage. And it's also wildly imaginative...

I don't think there's much to say about acting here, they do the job, I like Jason Statham, he knows how to play badass and AMy Smart is cute.

It's hard not to compare it to Shoot'Em Up, but they both share the quality of being outrageously ridiculous. But thre's no point in trying to put one above the other as they're both greatly enjoyable for what they are...

And in all honesty I think that's all there is to say...

From what I have read, Crank 2 pushes it all further... I'm bracing myself then...

Babylon Babies.

Back in my teens I set myself a rule. I went to see Jurassic Park in the cinema. I enjoyed it as it was, a good old Spielberg rollercoaster, with state of the art CGI at the time. A few month later, I read the book. I didn't know Michael Crichton at the time and was quite blown away by the depth of the story.

I realised at that time that should I have read the book before seeing the movie, I would have been massively disapointed...
So from that time, I try to refrain to read a book if I know that a movie adaptation is on the way. Of course, in most of those cases, I become aware of the book I should read when I hear about the adaptation.
It worked quite well so far, thanks to this I managed to enjoy I Am Legend for example. Having read the book since, I don't think I would be able to prevent myself from thinking how better the movie could have been so much better.

Anyway, all that to say that Babylon Babies almost falls into that category: I waited for Kassovitz's adaptation to come out to read the book, which has been warmly recommended by a friend for years now. Only here, I didn't see the movie in the theatre because the word wasn't as positive as I would have hoped. So missed my opportunity to see it, haven't had one since, so I just went ahead and read the book... I can't succeed every time.

Finally back on the subject, all the good I heard about this book is well deserved. By any standard, it ranks with the best SciFi work I have ever heard / seen. Groundbreaking, high concept, epic and all articulated around a sturdy crime-novel story.
It's interesting because I read Les Racines Du Mal ("the roots of evil" also by Dantec) and it was a "proper" crime novel, only with SciFi elements to it. In it, Dantec had some SciFi digressions, that were great and contributed to the atmosphere, but were only parellel to the story.
Here it's the opposite. The frame is clearly SciFi, so Dantec can just let loose without any doubt that any of his imagery will feel out of place.

There's much to say about his writing style that changes shapes depending on the situation, he can be very crude and at the same time conjure some brilliant metaphors...

As for the themes, you go straight out into metaphysical territories nothing could be more appropriate for such an apocalyptic work...
Also to note is how he ties in his previous work (La SIrene Rouge & Les Racines Du Mal)... If you know them, then it just builds on his universe and feels even deeper...

A truly great work...
Definitely one of the best books I've ever read...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Creativity?

I saw a spot on TV yesterday, that was saying something like "go at this website and do something creative".
I didn't go to that website to find out what it's really about, so it might actually be very good, don't know. Yet, the whole idea of "doing something creative" seems wrong to me.
You don't do "creative things" for the sake of it. You just do things. And they might turn out to be creative. Creativity is not an end, it's a mean. For me at least.

As far as I'm concerned, if I go out and do something with the aim of "being creative", I'm quite sure that nothing good (satisfactory could be a better adjective) is going to come out of it.
However, if I set out to do something specific, if I set myself an objective, I'll deal with the limitations I find in a creative way and the result will be that of a creative process, eventhough it might not be creative itself. But what is something creative anyway? What hasn't been done before?

What matters is the way you take to get somewhere. That, I know, saves lives. In fact litterally: studies show that it helps ill people to cope and even get better...

So if that was me, I would just say: people, just do something. Go out, stay in, but do something. Your thing. You'll have been creative.
But maybe that's just me.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Personnal April's fools round up.

This year's april fool's jokes I have enjoyed:

It's naughty to joke about games' reklease dates, especially when said games are late...

Assassin Creed is moving in a new direction...

Team Fortress 2 upgrades the sniper unit with a nice "recycling" feature.

Blizzard takes this April fool's business VERY seriously. A new "Transformer" unit in StarCraft 2, a new class in Diablo 3 (the Archivist that dies with a simple touch) and a dance battle system in WoW. I wish they would actually implement that...

Since all of this comes from Kotaku, I might as well include their own round up.
(but I'd like to add I spotted those as they got posted... ;)

Google made 1 announcement that looks fishy as well, actually... More from Google here. The Pandatastic IA CADIE is just brilliant. And 3d Chrome is not bad either... :)

Since I follow the release of upcoming WiiWare title Swords & Soldiers, I had a good laugh at their April 1st announcement... Space marines when everyone would expect ninjas? Naaaaa!

Nine Inch Nails release a new free paying record! Between the cover, the desciption and the tracklist, there's a lot to enjoy here... :D

Warner Bros bought The Pirate Bay!

Brittish newspaper The Guardian ran an article saying that they would now only publish news on Twitter. And they also made a Twitter feed!

And Seti@Home reported they received an alien message. I couldn't listen to it (it was sent to subscibers) but I'm guessing it was interesting...

Great year, all in all...
I like seeing people going crazy like that...