Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
Living in a tropical area, gecko’s are a very common sght.
My maid must spend more time cleaning gecko “kaka” from my walls than she does cleaning my laundry (only becasue I run around in the same pair of shorts for a week).
But now, the lonely gecko has made news TWICE in the span of that many days.
Ok, let me say before I start, I am not a right wing fanatic, nor I am left wing die-hard. I have my own thoughts on immigrants in America, especially after living in foreign countries a large portion of my life. Legal immigration is cool – it’s the heart of America.
But, (been waiting for that “but” huh??!!) after watching the Academy Awards show this evening, what’s with all the foreigners?
You must probably be sleeping for the past week if you don’t know about the sort of flak Mass Effect has been facing for its ever-so-pornographic sex scene, which was like, so much more obscene than prime-time television or the average movies you have going these days. I mean, games rated “Mature, 17+” simply shouldn’t have sex – mindless, bloody, gory violence, maybe – but no boobies, ever.
Okay, we’re no experts at sarcasm, but the guys at Loading.Ready.Run sure do look like they are. Check out the awesome spoof they made of the controversial Fox report on Mass Effect:
1UP has been running an exclusive recently that the one game long awaited by both fighting game fans and deviant porn aficionados, Soulcalibur IV, will feature Darth Vader and Yoda in guest appearances. No wait, what? Yes, for real. Look at the screen above and you’ll know we aren’t making this up. They packed their bags and ran to Sony’s CES, where they found out what side of the Force the two consoles fell.
The PS3 (or Darth PS3) version of Soulcalibur IV is on the Dark Side and will feature Darth Vader, while the Xbox 360 (or Jedi Master 360) version will allow players to be Yoda. While Vader fighting Ivy is enough to get gamers like me spewing liquid all over the floor, we will probably not see a Vader vs. Yoda war in Soulcalibur, unless Namco Bandai decides downloadable content is cool.
Star Wars fanboys like me will see that the Vader and Yoda models as the most realistic ones seen in video games yet (and ironically, not handled by LucasArts) – they even look better than that Force Unleashed game coming out soon. And I don’t mean to nitpick, and I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something weird about that Darth Vader model. Hmm.
If downloadable content turns out to be a reality, it will also be great to see other Star Wars characters in these photorealistic renders, preferably Obi-Wan, Darth Maul and Jar-Jar Binks.
Oh shit. Before I get sacked, here’s the Sony CES trailer to make up for the boo-boo. Note Yoda and Darth Vader in a sneak preview towards the end.
Ah, Cloverfield – there has been no better viral marketing in the world. In fact, I’d warrant that the viral marketing itself has gotten more people on than the movie ever will. It’s coming out in only 11 days now, and we still know what/who the great monster guy is.
Continuing the viral marketing, a new video (or rather, series of videos) have appeared across the Internet, that take the form of news channels reporting that the Chuai Station that belongs to the Tagruato Corporation has been mysteriously wrecked. According to Tagruato’s site, Chuai Station is located quite a ways off the North American East coast (a good place to start ravaging New York) and was “opened” in September 2007.
While of course, we have no doubt that the monster should be at work behind this, Tagruato Corp. released a statement:
There has been an altercation at the Chuai Station. Although details are limited at present time, be assured that Tagruato is taking every measure necessary to ensure the safety and well being of all staff and crew. Specialty teams have been deployed, and are working aggressively to restore harmony at the site.
The cause of the problem is currently being investigated, although it is suspected that an eco-terror cell is responsible for the disturbance.
We have top investigators on our side. Everything will be resolved shortly, and all problems will be fixed. If you have any questions, please contact us at +81-3-5403-6318 for further instructions.
For those of you not in the know, Tagruato Corp. doesn’t actually exist, and it’s only part of Cloverfield’s vast viral marketing campaign.
That’s the Spanish version of the video, with the German and Italian versions also available (they all have slightly different footage, so you’ll want to check them all out). Very conveniently, there is no English version yet.
If you observe the videos carefully, you’ll notice that there are gun-toting ninjas escaping the station. Perhaps this is all a secret ninja conspiracy, whereby they secretly control the world? As you know, Ninjas are too fast to be seen – and if we are seeing them in the video, they’re probably decoys! There is a ninja conspiracy afloat, people. Be very, very careful.
Well, at least they’re not harping on the violence anymore. Christian Science Monitor, perhaps perceiving that that trope has run its course, offers a rather novel critique of our beloved hobby- the lack of consequences.
But what games conspicuously lack is moral consequence. Once you’ve killed someone, stolen something, or blown up a building, that’s usually the end of it – you’ll rarely get to see the emotional impact of your actions on the characters around you.
Every bit of mayhem becomes just another item on a video-game to-do list. Games ignore moral consequence and emotional nuance to focus on the purely visceral. There are only two types of decisions you can really make: the strategically correct one or the strategically incorrect one. There is no “right” or “wrong” – only success or failure.
Get the full story here.
