An Update

It is time for my review of Never Back Down. Hahaha! Just kidding! Maybe some other time.

Yesterday, the President insulted the Judicial branch of government to its face. While others would call the President's actions tactless, disrespectful and unbecoming of his office, its refreshing to see someone express his honest views even if it did make him look like a dick. The President sure takes his "transparency" gimmick seriously.

Skyrim

Coming Soon

Dun dun duunnnnn....

Little Victory

Suddenly, everybody's a boxing expert.

So the Pacman won a narrow victory against Marquez yesterday and didn't get the quick knockout everyone wanted to see. But why? Some people say this could be the decline of our hero. Some say that his opponent was just better prepared.

I think that the Pacman doesn't really care that much any more. Think about it. When you have all that money and power, smiling and styling in all those houses and cars and surrounded by more false friends than you can count, why bother? He's just not hungry anymore and desperate boxers are the deadlier and more entertaining kind.

Can we stop talking about it now and move on as a nation?

Black Bugger

I decided to download a new anime called Black Butler or Kuroshitsuji in Japanese. I must say, I think there's been some kind of mistake.I was under the impression that this would be a "for boys" show, you know, with awesome shit happening. It seemed pretty cool; a kid with a pimpin' mansion and a demon butler who kicks ass. Unfortunately, this show is a little, well, kind of...

Gay.

I've been tricked!

Dose of Epic

And this is just the credits theme!

Stronghold 3

I finally got my hands on Stronghold 3. Dissapointment doesn't even describe it.

I didn't have incredible expectations but damn, is this game unpolished. There are bugs here and there. It was lower than my low expectations.

The gameplay is incredibly hard and seemingly unbalanced. They changed the popularity vs. population growth system from the last game. Loss of food (which happens too often) impacts your popularity instantly leading to the frustrating downward spiral where people don't move to your castle because there's no food and there's no food because no worker will move into the castle.

Walls can't seem to stop arrows which kind of defeats the whole purpose of walls. The game is way too slow. It takes forever in real time to get the economy up and running. Maybe there's a speed increase option but there cetainly is no mention of it in the tutorial. The tutorial is way too simplistic and woefully unprepares a beginner for the micromangement necessary in some missions. I'm not being pretentious but the missions here have been frustrating so far and so SLOW. There's new music but hearing the same songs from the previous games is a bit tiresome.

They better release one hell of a patch.

Obscure II

Ta-Da! As promised, here's an article about a game so obscure, I won't even explain the joke.

Obscure II is obviously a sequel. I haven't played the original but judging from the name, its probably lost to the mists of time now. To give a brief overview of Obscure II, its a survival horror game set to the style of a teen slasher flick. I don't know if the "dead teenagers" theme was intentional or not but the evidence suggests so. There's also not-so-subtle messages about the dangers of drug use and teenage sex and by not-so-subtle, I mean mutants and killer flying vaginas with teeth. (more on this later)



So the intro tells us that shit happened in the first game but the talking voice is like so over that now, so those past incidents will in no way affect or tie-in with what's gonna happen later. Cool. The game actually begins with a nightmare of one of the main characters, Corey. The nightmare in no way foreshadows the future...ah screw it. He has a girlfriend named Mai Wang (lol) and they both plan to go to some kind of frat party or something. Guess what happens.

Anyway, there's this fantastic new drug that all the cool kids are using that's created from this mysterious flower. The flower is evil. It is so damn obvious, it cannot be a spoiler. The other characters are Sven, the Norwegian who loves hockey and getting high. There's Amy, the young blonde girl. (she is so screwed) There's Mai's sister Jun who's just dead weight and lastly, there's Kenny, a survivor of the first game who needs medication to cope with the experiments done to him in the past. Of course, Kenny doesn't tell the others that he's a danger to himself and others because, well, what kind of dead teenager "movie" game would this be if he did that? Enough story, let's get to the gameplay first.

Standard survival horror stuff really. Third person view, relatively fixed camera angles, et cetera. Monsters run up to you so you whack em' with a big stick and so on and so on. Nothing remarkable. The only interesting part was that two characters are on the field at any one time but the player can control only one. Think of it as an ally...a really stupid ally. There's puzzles too. So yeah. What else... Ah yes, some puzzles can only be solved by using certain characters so you must switch between them. For example, Mai can "hack" stuff because she's Chinese or at least some kind of Asian. Kenny is the muscular type so he and only he can truly comprehend the physics and deep philosophical underpinnings of pushing a large crate next to an obstacle so we can climb over it. Seriously, if you were at least able to obtain the first floor map in Resident Evil, you're all set. Speaking of Resident Evil, there's also a library puzzle here too. God, does every survival horror game have a library puzzle?

So that's about it when it comes to gameplay. Now, we get to the plot which is the only amazing thing about this game. Its amazing because its completely batshit insane, dark, brutal, violent and over the deep end.

Get this, at the frat party, things happen as you would expect. People scream and die and our heroes are in trouble! They run into this scientist experimenting on the spores. The scientist is evil. It is so damn obvious. Scientists are always evil. So they run around some more. The game switches you to different characters pursuing different storylines so I kind of can't remember very well.

Anyway, you need to rescue Jun, the stupid, damsel-in-distress, dead weight, fat, ugly bitch. So they try to find her in the obligatory hospital level or something. On the way, you are assaulted by killer flying vaginas. I cannot find a picture of them but please let me explain. They are basically flying harpies. They have humanoid shapes but no leg below the knee. There's teeth from their thighs to the vagina and they try to squeeze you between their...aww come on!

Back to the story. Kenny can't control it anymore and becomes the demons. He attacks the party and crushes Mei's head with his giant monster hands in front of her lover Corey. Seriously, it was fucking disturbing, I'm not kidding. In fact, I decided not to post a video of it.

Sven inexplicably blunders into a house which, by sheer coincidence, is occupied by a chainsaw wielding murderer. What are the fucking odds? Sven dies, some kind of mutant tree from the first game, Kenny rapes Amy and she's now carrying his demon seed, the games is now officially FUBAR. This game is so dark and depressing. It totally caught me by surprise. It is so depressing, Corey kills himself. The game ends with two survivors from the first game you hardly even played as. Amy kills herself and her demon baby but its not certain if she succeeded. God, I need a drink and I don't even drink.

Well, to summarize, Obscure II was a mediocre survival horror game with a twisted story. Its a strange fit; a crappy game with a plot that makes me want to slit my wrists. Did I enjoy it? Yes! The gameplay was shit but I found myself playing it more and more just to see how deep into hell the story would go. Everyone fucking dies. The teens are subjected to such incredible cruelty its just like...my God...a teenage slasher movie! That's the reason those movies exist in the first place; so we can see annoying teens get their heads crushed in front of their loved ones! I guess this game is alright after all. It combines two of my favorite things: shitty, violent movies and video games.

Finally, a game for sadomasochists.

Twenty-Fourth of October

I almost forgot my password.

After struggling about what topic to write about, I decided to fall back on my favorite topic, video games. I don't like the idea of video games defining my personality, but nevertheless, I promise to write about an obscure game tomorrow.

I procrastinate a lot by the way.

I'm Only

About Facebook

I quit Facebook. Its just another tool for the governments and corporations to spy on the people. Its a conspiracy. Its a stalker's wet dream.

Get out while you can.

Eat Words

I can't wait for the semester to be over. The cycle continues. You're bored, you get something to do and then you wish you hadn't.

Pawn Stars Is Pretty Sweet

At first, the show, Pawn Stars, on the History Channel seemed stupid to me. I didn't like the pun and I failed to see how a show about a pawn shop would have anything to do with World War II which is really the only reason people watch the History Channel. Anyway, after the strange, "somewhat-related-to-Louisiana-history" show, Swamp People, grew on me, I decided to give Pawn Stars a try. I ended up enjoying it.

The show is about four guys who run the "Gold & Silver Pawn Shop" in Las Vegas. This is a family business run from grandfather to grandson. Rick, the bald guy, runs the shop with his son, Corey, the first from the left of the picture above. Rick knows a lot about American History and is very passionate about it. His son is learning the business and sometimes gets up in his father's face.

Also in the shop is Rick's father called, "The Old Man". That's it. He is referred to as "The Old Man" throughout the show. He doesn't laugh or smile and is perpetually pissed off at the stupidity of everyone around him. Speaking of stupid, the last character in the show is "Chumlee", Corey's best friend and designated comedy relief. Chumlee is always the butt of jokes but is prone to moments of genius, at least, when the situation is convenient for him.

Anyway, the shows format is simple. Some shmoe walks into the shop with an unusual item like, let's say, keys to activate a Russian nuclear missile. You know, quaint little curios. Rick gives us the info about the item's unique history which, I guess, qualifies this show to be on the History Channel. You know, if things were that easy, maybe if the hosts of Wipeout would talk about the history of obstacle courses or something, they would qualify to be on the History Channel but I digress.

Anyway the History™ segments regarding the items are very interesting. As it turns out, the keys mentioned were not for missiles but for space shuttles which is about as cool. Some items like guns and swords are always a good listen. If Rick doesn't know much about the item, he calls an expert. After we had our fill of History™, the item is appraised and Rick asks the customer if he wants to sell it. Usually the customer is a dumbass who wants to sell it at its exact value thus, denying Rick profit. Anyway, they haggle a bit which is fun to watch then they strike a deal, do a handshake and "go do some paperwork".

Corey and Chumlee usually go on the road or do some work outside the shop. Corey and Chumlee are hilarious together. I'm not sure what the Old Man does but he's probably doing some managerial stuff in the back or something. Hey, nobody argues with the Old Man. Old Man is often annoyed with the antics of his dumbass sons but always with Chumlee. Occasionally the Old Man deals with the people who bring all the weird crap in.

What I enjoy most is the brutal honesty of Rick and Old Man. If your item is worth crap, they won't hesitate to tell you. If you offer a ridiculous price, they laugh it off and offer a more realistic one. They draw the line and if the deal just won't work then too bad, go sell it yourself then.

I never expected to enjoy this show. Its just fun to watch and the characters have really interesting personalities.

I still think IRT Deadliest Roads is still stupid though no matter how you look at it.

Bright Lights Bigger City

Summerslam 2011 was pretty sweet. The theme song kicked ass too. Cee Lo, man. Damn that's cool.

Witcher 2: Spoiler Free Review

Graphics

What can I say? The graphics are pretty top notch. I'm impressed with the textures in particular. Clothing and skin were rendered really good. At max settings, this game is really beautiful.

Sound

Music is epic enough. You don't need Hans Zimmer for this shit. The music is memorable in some parts. Its fitting and not too distracting. The voice acting is sadly adequate and forgettable. I can't put my finger on it but the dialogue seems a little off in some parts.

Gameplay

Who gives a shit about visuals and audio. That don't mean squat if the gameplay sucks so let's get down to it. I heard that this game is hard and, since I jumped in at hard difficulty right off the bat, I can say that yes, it can be pretty unforgiving.

Combat requires you to be mindful not to be overwhelmed or get flanked and attacked in the rear. For one, blocking uses up energy called vigor. Get outnumbered and the blows will rain down so fast, your vigor meter will drain to zero with your health quickly after. Even if you specialized in magic and used the magic barrier, that barrier won't last forever and it costs vigor to cast it. Worse still, you can't regenerate vigor while the shield is up so its the same slippery slope.

As the game progresses, it becomes much easier especially when you can take skills from the talent trees. There's the Witcher tree, which is basic stat bonuses. There's the swordsmanship tree which specializes in physical combat. The magic tree enhances your runic magic's effectiveness and lastly, there's the alchemy tree which increases the boons from potions, oils and other craftables. Significant investment in a tree allows slots for mutagens, which are permanent stat increases. Once you put in a mutagen, you can't remove it so you have to put in a "greater" mutagen and disregard the lesser ones. What's the point of lesser categories then?

Combat is to be taken seriously in Witcher 2. Sure, playing it as "hack and slash" is possible especially if you took swordsmanship but its not the most efficient. The game rewards thoughtful play with extensive use of potions before battle and the right rune spells. Proper preparation reduces the chances you'll fuck up and trust me, in hard difficulty, when you fuck up, it is not a pleasant sight to behold.

Other than combat, Witcher 2 is standard RPG stuff. You loot monsters, get gear, etc. Oh, there's some "quick time event" nonsense in this game too but I'll leave that for now.

Story

Since this is spoiler free, I won't go to the details but the story is hard to comprehend at first. I mean, this isn't some Bioware bullshit about saving the universe/world from an unspeakable evil with gay sex along the way. No. This game requires you to pay attention and READ the journals extensively to better understand the characters even though the journal is cleverly biased due to the in-game character writing it. The basic premise of the story is that you are Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, who is King Foltest's bodyguard. The king is assassinated, you are blamed and the rest is up to you.

Geralt himself is a weird character. He has amnesia which is the game's way of saying "fuck you" for not having a save file from the original Witcher to start with. Geralt's motivations are blank. I'm not kidding. The game let's you decide what Geralt's purpose in his adventure is. If you take it seriously, as you should, and get into the spirit of RPG, you'll find the story makes more sense if you act in a consistent manner and work towards a specific goal. Get into it. This game demands that you do.

A lot is said about the choices in the game. Yeah, the choices matter for the most part, particularly in the second act where choosing allies determines the starting location. More importantly, the choices determine the flow of the story. In case you haven't noticed, I'm really trying to deliver the point here that the story of Witcher 2 is good only if you get into it. Really, you won't enjoy this game if you don't.

The quests have multiple endings but sadly, the quests are not that interconnected or complex. The choices are not so

Cons

I hate the interface. It's just not intuitive. Drinking potions is a hassle but that's not even the worst of it. The inventory is just a mess sometimes with junk items being hard to find. The categories of items are a little strange. There's a category for alchemy and another for crafting but sometimes they interlap making you wonder what's the point. Having a merchant craft an item is cumbersome. Can't I arrange my own recipe screens for efficiency? Do I have to leave the crafting menu just to go to the buy menu to get the ores I need and then close it to open the crafting menu again? Why do ingredient lists take too long to scroll up? A little streamlining would be good.

The game is too short. The last act feels too short. Did they run out of money or something. To be fair, my game came with a manual so I guess I was spoiled for easy solutions. Technically its longer if you make different choices so I guess there's some replay value there.

Conclusion

Overall, Witcher 2 is a great game that requires a different state of mind than other games of its type and I don't mean that in a pretentious sort of way. You can really see the effort put into the game and that the creators really want you to get into the experience. Its a shame if you don't. If you can play along to the story, (care) then good for you. The gameplay is challenging but rewarding and the superb graphics and epic soundtrack is icing on the cake.

I don't use an arbitrary rating system.

The Witcher 2

I got around to installing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. I died in the first battle, I don't know what the fuck is going on, I have to keep rereading the manual to know what this rune does and it hasn't even been an hour.

I'm gonna like this game.

The People's Fist

Recently, the mayor of Davao, who's a daughter of the local ruling clan, punched a sheriff who was trying to carry out a demolition order. Mind you, it wasn't girly punches but man punches. Given the things I hear about Davao, I guess this is how they do business over there or something.

The most disturbing thing about this is how people support her for what she did, praising her for fighting for the "rights of the landless". At worst, praising her out of some warped idea of girl power. Reading the idiotic comments cheering her act in public forums makes me physically ill because this is so wrong that it boggles my mind how people can see this that way.

Rights of the landless? What about the rights of the guy who actually won the case? Oh well, whats his vote compared to the hundreds of landless.

The sheriff doesn't have discretionary power. When the court tells him to do something, do you really think he can just say no or maybe later? He was just a government worker doing his job which is remarkable in itself. The mayor's excuse that a riot was gonna happen and that he should have waited since she was negotiating is bullshit. I reiterate, waiting it out is not the sheriff's call. Second, are we just not gonna enforce the law if people complain hard enough? If the people can just scare off the police by threatening to fight then what good is the government? Smells like Ochlocracy.

The mayor was a lawyer too by the way. Well that's a relief. If an "exceptional individual" like that can become a lawyer then I figure my chances are pretty high.

Coincidentally, Legal Ethics is only 5% in the Bar. Go figure.

Scrambled Eggs

Alright, maybe talking about how nice it is to have something to do may be talking too much, too soon.

I feel so disorganized. Everything is in dissaray. I don't know what to do, how to do it and in what order.

Maybe watching some Pro Wrestling will relieve some stress.

Back In The Saddle

Another year of law school has just begun.

I feel anxious and relieved. I'm anxious because of the hardships that will no doubt be ahead. Yet, I'm relieved that I have something to do. The monotony of Summer has disappeared.

I mentioned before that life is a balance. I've found that too much free time can be a bad thing. An idle mind is a devil's workshop. That old saying is true. There's a certain negative energy in idleness. Some people, like me, tend to think negative thoughts in prolonged periods of boredom. Every little slight, every annoyance gets inflated. When you have nothing to hold your attention, what gets it is the little things instead. Something goes wrong and I blow up and get frustrated the whole day. So its good to have something to preoccupy the mind to keep your mind off things. Others create trouble when they are idle. But if you believe in energy or a mystical force, idleness isn't something calm or neutral. It's negative. I think its unnatural. Man wasn't meant to hide caves but to go hunt beasts and invent fire. Imagine a stagnant pool with debris and gunk collecting in it. Our energy should flow and move with the earth and seasons.

I guess its not so bad.

Woah...

My brain feels like this right now.

Enrollment

Its time for enrollment again. What a pain in the ass. It never ends.

You think school enrollment is bad? Just wait until you're older and have to deal with government bureaucracy. It never ends.

I need a good night's sleep.

Bullshit

After much thought, I've decided that blogging about my feelings are too personal. My thoughts expose too much about myself. Henceforth, I will only blog about movies, video games and random crap.

WWE Over The Limit 2011

I spent yesterday watching the WWE's PPV "Over The Limit" and I gotta say, my life ain't exactly peaking in fun and excitement. Anyway, I'm just gonna write about it. This could get foul mainly because a lot of stupid shit went down, even more than the usual.

The show begins with a somber in memoriam to the late Randy "Macho Man" Savage who passed away recently. Its a damn shame really.

R-Truth vs Rey Mysterio

R-Truth comes out without any music. Thank God. I was getting tired of him yelling "What's up!?" a billion times. Seriously, his song has "Whats up!?" as its only lyrics. I like how he rambles on and on and gets a good reaction from the crowd. I like R-Truth as a heel way better than when he was a face. Nobody liked him as a face anyway especially folks from Milwaukee. This match was supposed to be against John Morrison but he needed surgery so they settled on Rey as the sacrifice to advance his character forward. I guess he was all they had on such "short" notice? D'oh hoho! Whatever. Its not like there's anything better for Rey to do anyway.

It was an OK opening match. I noticed R-Truth is using less flashy moves. Good. Truth escapes the 619 and manages to get the smaketh down on Rey. Eventually, he...what the? He won fair and square? Oh boy, that was unexpected. It looks like they're really serious about building him up. After the match, Truth hits Rey with a water bottle just to show how much of an asshole he is.

Ezekiel Jackson vs Wade Barrett (IC Championship)

Ezekiel Jackson, or "Old Spice Guy" as I like to call him, used to be in The Corre with Wade until he realized how shitty their group's name and t-shirt were. Wade still has the other two guys on his side though (for now). So its Old Spice versus the Three Stooges. Oh well, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that good either. Ezekiel just seems to pound on Wade to display his "DOMINATION". Wade doesn't do anything fancy. I think one guy yelled "Boring!" at some point. Matches with two big men or "powerhouses" tend to coma inducing. At least it was helping my insomnia.

Zeke loses, I mean, wins by disqualification when the rest of the stooges pull shenanigans, which means although he won, Wade still gets to keep the strap. Retarded I know, but hey, that's how it always has been.

Sin Cara vs Chavo Guerrero

Its weird how the lights in the arena were dim and continued to use the blue and gold scheme from Sin Cara's entrance while the match went on. I thought this match was very good. Sin Cara used a lot of dazzling moves. The crowd was dead silent. I guess they were just in awe or maybe waiting for Sin Cara to screw up and crash and burn. Chavo is experienced and can keep up with Sin Cara. Plus, they both speak Spanish, which helps in choreographing moves. Its easy to forget that Chavo is a talented wrestler what, with all the bullshit the WWE has forced on him in the past like losing to leprechauns for example. It was spot after spot after spot. Not much rhyme or reason. It was an exhibition really. At least its actual wrestling. God knows, there's been a lack of that for a while now. Sin Cara wins although I think , he botched the ending. Either that or the camera guy sucked.

CM Punk & Mason Ryan vs Kane & Big Show (Tag Team Championship)

Great. Kane and The Big Show, two of the slowest guys on the roster against The Nexus, which hasn't done anything significant except the entire stable jobbing to Orton. It sucked. The shocking thing was that Punk and Ryan lost. Why? Can't they give CM Punk a fucking break? Oh, I forgot, talent and skill don't matter anymore. As for Ryan, why bother hinting at a push if you're gonna make him lose miserably? Also, is it just me or does Mason Ryan look more and more like Batista every time? Its disturbing. Maybe Ryan should call himself Batistwo or something and play a character that's a parody of the "unstoppable powerhouse" type. Nah, that would be too good.

Kelly Kelly vs Brie Bella (Diva's Championship)

Boring. True story, I went downstairs to get a drink and when I came back, the match was a about over. The only notable thing in this match is what didn't happen. Kharma, the newest addition to the women's division, didn't show up. For those who don't know, Kharma is a big, scary, black woman who tears the heads off dolls and stomps on people in the ring. She used to be known as Awesome Kong in TNA back when its Knockouts Division were way ahead of the WWE's Diva division. I looked over some of her matches and her feud with Gail Kim and the woman can wrestle! Why didn't she show up? Damnit. See? I ended up writing more about Kharma than the damn match.

Christian vs Randy Orton

I'm just gonna set this straight; I hate Randy Orton. I find his character boring and stupid. I hate that he's a face now when his character is much better suited playing a power hungry asshole heel. But no, he's gotta be the face. After winning his very first championship in more than a decade-long career at the last PPV, Christian would job to Orton and lose it to him only two days later in a regular show. Goddamnit.

Despite Randull Snoreton in the picture, the match was very good. I mean really, it had actual wrestling in it! It was a good solid back and forth match with suspense. The crowd was apeshit. It seemed half were for Orton and the other for Christian. Its a match worth seeing again. It was that good in spite of that awkward bit where Randull did a weird reverse Boston crab hold. I think he botched it. Sadly, the inevitable had to happen. Christian takes the fall and Orton retains. Bullshit.

Although the match was superb, the ending ruined it. After a grueling match, Christian and Randull approach each other and brohug like best friends. WHAT THE FUCK!?

I have a problem with this for four reasons: Firstly, Randy Orton, "The Apex Predator", is supposed to be an asshole who DOESN'T hug people. Hell, he hugged Cena last year too and looked like a pussy doing so. Where's anti-hero Orton? Secondly, Christian has no reason to be pals with Orton. I don't think they've had a history of being friends and Orton is the asshole who took Christian's championship, the same championship that Edge, Christian's best friend in-ring and in REAL LIFE, helped him get remember? Why are they pals? Thirdly, it was a perfect set up to make Christian a heel. Heel Christian would be like the best thing ever. Lastly, it was just gay.

Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole (Kiss My Foot Match)

More like kiss my ass. This tedious, piece of shit angle should have ended in Wrestlemania but instead its still here like an infected wound. I hate this angle so much, I actually levelled up Archaeology in World of Warcraft instead. FUCKING ARCHAEOLOGY. That's how bad it was. I hope this angle ends, here in "Over The Limit of My Patience 2011". Bret Hart showed up or something. Whatever. I'm tired. To top it all off, instead of Zin'Rokh, Destroyer of Worlds as my next rare piece, I got haunted war drums instead. I wanted to jump down the staircase headfirst at that point.

John Cena vs The Miz (I Quit Match)

I was asleep already when this match came up. I have no interest in either men. Besides, its a foregone conclusion. I don't even need the internet to know how this will go.

Remember how old comic books would scream "SUPERMAN DIES!" or some shit and the kids (which are majority of Cena's fans) would be like, "No way! Superman can't be dead!" and buy the crap while we adults would know there's no way in hell DC would kill off a character worth millions in merchandise alone. So it is with John Cena. John Cena saying "I quit" is like North Korea turning into a Capitalist, Democratic utopia with free Coca Cola and pecan pie.

I'm out.

Nada

I got nothing.

I have nothing to look forward to. I guess I'll just watch wrestling.

I hope it doesn't suck too badly.

The Rapture

The world was supposed to end today or something. Where have I heard that before?

Looks like I survived...again.

Vox

Sometimes I wish I had a golden voice. I've always wanted to use my voice in doing things like reading or dubbing over. I learned somewhere that one must learn to modulate the voice, that is, to speak in a low tone and control it from there. I need to train myself to speak more clearly and with a lower tone.

It's worth a try.

Visions of Doom

The Pacman won.

In what turned out to be an extraordinarily normal bout, Pacman won by unanimous decision. Of course, his "fans" bitched about the match being boring and how people were leaving the stadium during the last part of the match. The ingrates. Show some respect. Two people are punishing themselves and people moan about how there was no excitement? Be thankful nobody got put out for good.

What's next for the Pacman? Well, I'm pretty sure a match with Mayweather won't happen. Looking closely at the Pacman's current standing and taking into account every possible factor, I predict that the Pacman will be the next President of the Philippines. It is the only logical outcome.

You heard it here first.

Pride

Manny Pacquaio, which henceforth shall be referred to as Pacman, is a world famous boxer. In fact, he could arguably be the best pound-for-pound boxer alive today. Also, he happens to be Filipino.

The reason I'm writing about him is because he has a hyped match coming up against some poor fellow named Mosley. As usual, Pacman's fans are getting all excited and I get all irritated. It's not so much that they like him, go ahead and cheer your idol people, but what annoys me is all this Pinoy pride they suddenly feel. "Pacman is the best boxer in the world so I'm proud of my country." Go ahead and look at any YouTube video of Pacman and the comments are just full of these specific strains of stupidity.

What does the Pacman have to do with being proud of the Philippines? I don't think that we should be proud that our country is so poor, Pacman had to resort to getting punched and punching strangers for a living. We are a Christian country, right? Should we even be applauding boxing, a sport that's all about rocking another man's brain until he passes out for the mere amusement of spectators? Hmm, if I were a devout Christian, that seems...immoral don't you think? And we're all about morality with the RH bill controversy and all, right? But I digress.

Anyway, Pacman is a successful guy, that much is true. He's won championships, he's wealthy, he sings (badly), acts in (terrible) movies and is even a member of Congress. The question is, did he succeed because of his country or in spite of it? Well, there is no answer. One could argue that we should be proud of the Pacman's individual accomplishments instead and praise him for his willpower, courage and determination. Or we could spout gibberish like "Pinoy pride" and attribute his success to being Filipino because the Philippines sucks so much, it toughened him up to deal with all sorts of bullshit like getting punched in the face. You decide.

Also, I hate that Charice singer very much.

Death Proof

The White House doesn't want to release the photos of the dead Osama Bin Laden.

I think they should release it. The argument that it would be inflame the Muslim world seems a little shaky. I mean, shouldn't the death of the man alone and describe the details of the shooting be inflammatory enough? What's a couple of photos? Who cares what the "Muslim world" thinks anyway. The "Muslim world" is a faulty idea anyway. Islam isn't a monolithic entity.

We've seen Saddam dead. We've seen Uday and Qusay, or whatever their names,dead. We've seen thousands of Americans die on 9/11. We've seen beheadings even here by the Abu Sayaff. Really, what harm could Osama's head shot be? To be scared of how the "Muslim world" would react is appeasement in my opinion.

I guess we'll just have to wait for THE MOVIE!

Important Information

The End Of The World

I don't know why I play World of Warcraft anymore.

Everyone else is gone and the guild seems dead. Anyway, I still have a few days left in my account so I've been running the new dungeons and crap Blizzard has served to its slaves, I mean, loyal customers.

The deal is that the Troll race wants to unite and reclaim their ancestral lands and become a super empire like they were in the old days of Azeroth. Of course, you must stop them because this is a role playing game and you have no choice in the matter. Hahaha. Just kidding?

Honestly I felt like the bad guy in the story.

Since the guild is empty in the morning when my Internet is most reliable, I have to use the Dungeon Finder, a neat little feature Blizzard added that groups you with four random players with varying degrees of intelligence, consciousness and sanity but almost always lacking basic courtesy, and sends all five of you off to a dungeon where you'll all hopefully, somehow survive against all odds. Think of it like a scientist tossing five mutated and drugged hamsters into a cage to see how they'd interact only to throw a cobra inside and see if one of them can distract it by getting killed while the others bite it in the ass.

So I'm whisked away into Blizzards shiny new dungeons to fight monsters to earn shinier stuff. Actually "new" may be the wrong word since the "new" dungeons are rehashes of two older dungeons but eh... ah, screw it. They could have used the word "remastered" or "remade" at least, like how Hollywood does with old classic films. Those always turn out swell, huh?

So there I was with four other exceptional individuals in a "remastered" dungeon where nobody knew what each boss did, where to go or how right was different from left. I'm a tank by the way. To those uninitiated in dungeon crawling, a tank's job is to draw the enemy's attention away from toilet paper armored wizards. I soak damage efficiently while the other players go about their business. I'm a tampon basically. I got a healer with the stupid pvp gear, the silent guy who you hope to God can at least understand English, Sir Derpsalot from the server of Hurpaderp and Mr.Epicgears who's does damage like throwing marshmallows at an elephant. Stay with me folks, this is gonna be ranty. I ain't even going to post pictures or a video.

When I tank for strangers, I expect the worst. I expect the scrappers to attack the wrong target. I expect the healer to disconnect at any moment. I expect a crisis to occur at any second. My fingers ready to press the "Oh, Shit!" buttons at a moments notice. This is the only way to play if you spend majority of your time in dungeons with inmates from an asylum but I like tanking. I like tanking in the same way people enjoy being whipped and cutting themselves to feel alive. I consider myself a good tank. It's not arrogance, its just that the standard is set really low, you know? It's really not saying much looking at the people who think, just by equipping a shield, immediately think they know what they're doing and boss me around. I play as a scrapper too by the way, just to see how the other tanks do their jobs and pick up some tricks. I learn nothing.

OK so we're on this boss right? This boss has two bullshit, haxx abilities; he summons a fucking bird that fucking kidnaps someone and summons a lightning storm. Its pretty simple to deal with. The bird must die as fast as possible and we should all stand in the "eye" of the electrical storm to avoid damage. Sounds easy? Well here's how it went; The bird swoops down and kidnaps Mr.Epicgears and nobody notices since the boss isn't dying any slower anyway. I tell Sir Derpsalot to shoot the bird. I'd do it myself if I was the one holding the goddamn crossbow. Sir Derpsalot pulls through and rescues a frazzled Mr.Epicgears who promptly continues being useless. The silent guy was busy doing...something. The healer was just standing there healing which is too bad since the electrical storm cooked him to a crispy golden brown. He should have moved. I mean, there's a lot of movement in pvp why can't he do the same here? Even Derpsalot stood in the eye but it might have been purely by accident. With the healer dead and the boss not even halfway done, I guess there was nothing to do but wait for the inevitable. Our sad tale ends when Derpsalot was kidnapped by an eagle and Epicgears, the man he had rescued before, coldheartedly denied him the same favor. I died, Epicgears died, Silent Bob tried to heroically retreat but died and the eagle ate Derpsalot's liver. The end.

Haha, no, it's not the end. We resurrected and restarted the encounter like the good little tools we were and tried again. We eventually killed the boss but there were like five more to go. I wish I could share more of my tales but I kind of spaced out. I had entered the zone. It's the zone where every part of your brain shuts down except the ones that are needed to breath and play WoW. I don't know how, but we did it, we finished the dungeon. Its all a blur to me. I can't remember how we did it but I'm sure there was a lot of crying involved. All I know is that somehow, against all odds, we succeeded. We celebrated our glorious victory with rounds of "ty for gruop" and "gj" and then argued bitterly about dividing the loot and that's when Silent Bob started fucking talking. Somewhere in a dark, underground laboratory, a Blizzard developer was staring at a monitor, watching us, his subjects, triumph in his virtual skinner box as he began pleasuring himself...

Enough tales. The new dungeons are pretty alright. The boss mechanics are actually challenging and require people to use more of their brain. If you were fans of the old versions of the dungeons then I guess an additional boss mechanic won't mean much. What other shit did they do? Oh yeah.

To encourage people to tank with the mentally challenged, Blizzard is offering special goody bags for us. See, there's always a shortage of tanks in the meat grinder, I mean, dungeon finder. To remedy this, they're offering special goodies if we que up when there's a tank shortage which is always. Simple time, its a BRIBE. Same goes for healers. If there's a healer shortage, they get the bags. If there's a shortage of damage dealers blizzard will give them the bag and a complimentary flying pig mount because that ain't gonna happen.

What else? New quests? Lol sure. Oh yeah, there's some kind of new system to earn currency. Whatever. I hate math. Google it if it interests you. That's about it then.

Somebody shoot me.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction P2

So you've picked your merc and you're heading out to the DMZ. Right away, the game puts several enemy vehicles in your path and a rocket-propelled grenade resting visibly on a box by the road. What you must do is clear. Let that sucker fly and laugh as the rocket with the hilariously wobbly trajectory impossibly hits its mark and reduces the road block into scrap. Oh what's that? Did you just hear a cash register? That's right, for every Nork vehicle you blow up, you collect a small reward! This game rewards destruction and every building can be destroyed with enough missiles, rockets and air strikes.

The game play is more than just blowing things up. This game can be quite hard. Too much destruction can potentially kill your bounty and deny you full payment. Accidentally kill civilians and you lose cash to the agency for public image "damage control". The Norks aren't such pushovers too. Their RPG troopers inflict incredibly annoying splash damage. Bunkers continuously spawn troops or TANKS and must be taken out by a well placed air strike or enough crates of C4. Vehicles can instantly kill you by running you over and if you're careless with your ordnance, as our pal Mattias often is, you'd be vaporized in an instant. If you die, you respawn in an AN medic camp but you're money will be deducted and that's money you could have spent on shelling that small village! What a waste.

The game is fairly linear; capture every ace until you get to Song. The faction missions are well done and actually have an overarching story that explodes in the climax of the fourth act. The Chinese are enemies with the South Koreans and you're actions drive them to the brink. None of the missions feel too repetitive. There's a mission I must mention where the Mafia needs you to collect small valuable things from several people quickly so they give you a super fast, ruby red, extra delicate sports car that must be made of magnetic material since rockets seem to be drawn to it. Finish the mission with the car in one piece for an extra bonus!

Aside from missions, you could go free roaming and collect regular bounties for cash and intel. You could do challenges or collect several rare items scattered across the map to unlock new stuff in the Mafia website. You could just dick around and destroy every North Korean unit you see and you'd still get paid for it.

Combat is just fun. The best part about it is hijacking enemy vehicles such as jeeps, tanks, helicopter gunships... You can even turn them in at the Mafia garage and earn even more money! There's nothing quite like running from cover to cover, shooting, throwing grenades and calling down air strikes on wave upon wave of never ending enemies who will not stop coming until every last building is reduced to craters visible from space.

Interestingly, the game even has a very basic stealth system in it. You can use faction vehicles to sneak in faction restricted areas. It is possible to sneak around and use your rifle to pick off key targets and use satellite targeted bombs to destroy important buildings from far away. Don't expect a pure stealth run to be possible. Maybe "stealth" is the wrong word. "Tactical" seems more like it.

To avoid staleness, the ace missions take place in their own special stages as mentioned. After every act, the violence in the map escalates and the work you've done for factions start to show. After the second act, we move to a new map further north that's even chaotic. Its smart to do this.

No complaints for the voice acting. Its good. The musical score is very good too. Each faction has a leitmotif going on and the music goes well with the frantic action. The graphics are excellent for its time. Its nice that the game can handle all the explosions, gunfire and carnage in a large map with little to no lag.


The only bad things about this game is that you can't swim. Aquatic shenanigans would add to this game but its not really necessary. The trees are indestructible for some reason. You cant even run over it with your tank. That sticks out like a sore thumb.What other bad thing can I possibly mention about this awesome game? Well there's a bug where the shotgun doesn't make a sound when fired. That's about it. Oh yeah, it spawned a terrible sequel but that's not this games fault now is it?

I just might hook up my old PS2 for this.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

I'm not the biggest fan of sandbox games. Ever since GTA3 became a hit, many other sandbox style games tried to get in on the action. Some were fun, sure, but only a few were awesome and memorable. Games like Prototype for example, are just mindless fun and that's about it. Sandbox games aren't just about smashing stuff in a wide open environment. You're IN that environment too after all, so it has to feel a certain way, some kind of flavor or style. Its hard to describe exactly.

Of all the sandbox games, I consider Mercenaries:Playground of Destruction the best I've played. That's right, THE BEST in my humble opinion. It was just an awesome game. It was a sandbox game done right. The gameplay, story and other elements just worked together so well. This gem is woefully underrated.

If you dismiss this game as just another "GTA clone", I will punch you in the mouth. M:PoD was developed by the late Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts for the Ps2 and the Xbox. The setting is a fictionalized North Korea. The evil dictator, General Song, has allegedly killed his peacenik daddy and staged a coup. Also, weapons of mass destruction, oh my! A multi-national task force has moved in to take him out but who cares? You are a mercenary! You are working for Executive Operations and you're there to collect bounties and make lots and lots of money while things explode around you.


As you can see by the game's cover, You get to choose from three different mercenary characters to play as. There's Chris Jacobs, ex-Delta Force black guy who has the highest health of the three. Seriously, he can take a tank shell to the face and live. There's Jennifer Mui, a Chinese-British person born in Hong Kong, who was a member of M16. She's the stealthy one and harder to detect. Then there's Mattias Nillson, an ex-Swedish Navy artillery officer who's voiced by Peter Stormare and has an unhealthy obsession with explosions. He's the "crazy" one. He can run the fastest and can regenerate to the base 20% health faster than the others (I think). He's perfect for the kamikaze types. All mercenaries have Fiona Taylor as their ExOps radio support. She has a sexy voice and an even sexier Australian accent. Australian accents are the hottest accents ever. Its statistically proven, don't doubt me.

There are factions in the game who you take missions from and gain reputation with. There's the "Allied Nations" who are obviously American. There's the South Koreans who are there for obvious reasons, there's the Chinese who are there for shady reasons and then we have the Russian Mafiya who are there to make lots and lots of money while things explode around them. Oh yeah, there's the North Koreans, who are always chaotic evil and are just cannon fodder.

One thing that deserves mentioning is that the Russians run the weapons black market via website called "The Merchant of Menace". Through this website, you can order all sorts of weapons, vehicles and even airstrikes! Just wire some money in and uncle Sergei will convince the Americans to "test fire" a bunker-buster bomb in that "abandoned" bunker where, coincidentally, your enemies happen to be hiding in. Maintaining good relations with the Russians is a must although its a little hard seeing as how their missions, in particular, often pit you against everyone else. They are the troll faction basically.

The game works like this. You collect bounties. There's a most wanted list in the form of a deck of cards kind of like Saddam's regime in the second Gulf War. General Song is the ace of spades, the final boss you must capture dead or alive. To get to him, you need intel which is provided by the other aces. To get to the aces, you need intel from the lesser cards, from deuce to king. See how this works? The game is divided into four acts with each act corresponding to a suit of cards. Act one are club cards, two are diamonds, three are hearts and four are spades.

Numbered cards are found in the open game world. Hell, you can even stumble around and find one accidentally. Capture deuce to ten and you can unlock the ace mission. The royal card targets will only spawn in the game world if you do enough missions for a particular faction. The royals are worth more intel apiece than a numbered card. Capturing a bounty alive nets more cash and intel while a dead one is only half. Once enough intel is gathered, either from hunting down the numbers yourself or capturing a royal or two with the aid of the factions, the ace mission is unlocked. Ace missions are given by the AN and take place in their own unique maps with unique mission mechanics and set pieces. It feels more epic that way and makes taking down an ace feel like a big deal which it is. Its a nice touch. After an ace of a suit is captured, the next act begins. Cards of a previous suit can no longer be captured as a new suit comes into play.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the gameplay. For now, I'll leave you with the epic opening theme of M:PoD. Yes, the music kicks ass too.



Ciao.

Query

A lot of people ponder on the difficult questions in life; "Is there a God?" "What is the point of it all?" "What's the meaning of life?" and so on. I too, spend much time trying to answer mind-boggling questions.

For example, in the movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, why is it that the Decepticons can send a hot robo-chick after the main character Sam, while the rest of them still insist on disguising themselves as cars? You'd think that if the Decepticons could disguise themselves as humans, that would be far more effective and devastating. They would have taken over in no time.

Optimus is descended from the Primes right? How can he be a descendant since the Primes are already dead? You know, a brief one second explanation would have been nice. Did the Primes die when Optimus was still a baby or something? Is that even possible?

Why did Sam have to go to Egypt and all that shit to try and revive Optimus when he had a piece of the Allspark in his backpack all along? How in the hell did Sam see visions of robots when he "died"?

Why did I see that movie?

Bribery 101

I just had a thought. College is supposed to prepare us for the professional world right? Wouldn't it make sense for them to also teach the basics of bribery and corrupt practices. Given the way things are done in this country, being taught these essential skills for functioning as a proper member of society is a no-brainer.

Classes would be interesting. Instead of being told not to cheat, we are taught the best techniques in evading capture. Then again, I guess it would be difficult to pass since another studet could outbribe the teacher or hire someone to fling dirt and ruin your reputation.

Unless the teacher is a relative.

Something Lively

Posting music videos by their name in the title while their name is on the video itself is kind of redundant...

Fallout: New Vegas Part 2

The story is definitely Fallout but the gameplay is inherited from Fallout 3, meaning its using the same game engine. When I talk about gameplay, I can't help but compare it to FO3 but I'll try not to compare these two too much.

There's a "hardcore mode" available in the beginning that adds a hunger, thirst and rest meter that you must satisfy by eating, drinking and sleeping. It's not as hard as it sounds, its easy enough to satisfy so really, its more of an annoyance so far. Also, companions can die permanently in this mode so pay attention and save often.

If you've played FO3, you'd immediately realize that the combat has changed for the better. There's iron sights now and the weapons can be fired accurately in first person view now. It is so much better than the weapons in FO3 which were so horribly inaccurate, you could aim at the broadside of a barn and hit a nun. Playing the game as a standard shooter is now possible. V.A.T.S. or Vault Assisted Targeting System still exists but its just that; an ASSIST system. You don't have to rely on it 24/7. Its handy for crippling the legs of monsters because some of them are really good at hitting you and you can't fake them out like you used to in FO3. Blowing up their kneecaps works wonders. Its a system to make precise shooting of limbs easier. V.A.T.S. no longer makes you immune to damage so it becomes a tactical choice. Do you make targeted shots like shooting a guy's arm to make him drop his gun while his pal wails on you with his very large knife or do you go old fashioned and just go shooter on them? Glad to see this change.

Another important detail is damage threshold. Basically, a guy with armor gets a high DT value and certain weapons can't pierce it and do full damage. It adds a welcome challenge to the game and armor really matters now. It helps a lot. There's a crafting system for ammo, meds, chems and food but it leaves a lot to be desired. I'll explain why later.

The quests are refreshingly different and sometimes more complex than FO3. For one, speech skill checks and stat checks are no longer luck based. Its either you meet the requirement or you don't so dialogue options won't be the same for every character. But dialogue isn't the only way to solve a quest although it allows you to do pull off some pretty manipulative and funny shit. You can use sneaking, pickpocketing and lock picking skills to bypass obstacles. If your character is smart he can hack computers to get info some NPCs wouldn't otherwise give. Basically, if you've invested in certain skills, no matter how strange, its bound to give you a boon in certain quests. There's this one quest where you need to kidnap someone and a high guns skill allows you to pistol whip him silently but if you chose speech instead, you can simply talk him into walking into a trap. Basically, if your character is built to fight, by God, that's what he's gonna do. No talking out of that. There's main quests and there are smaller ones that intertwine with each other. Some are contradictory in fact and can't be done along with another so choose your sides. At least we've gone beyond the point of fetch quests that involve going to A and B while going through long metro tunnels. If you played FO3 and know what I'm saying, pat yourself in the back or better yet, hang yourself. Questing is better.

As for graphics, well, we've seen it all before. It's adequate though it feels old but only because I've played FO3 too much and see it as recycled material. The music features classic songs and the choices of songs are top shelf. They get repetitive though. Even a handful of good songs can get repetitive but hey, turn the radio off and enjoy the original music from FO they put in the game. I must mention the voice acting. I was so fucking relieved to hear more than 3 voice actors in this game. The voice acting is better and more varied. The voice acting features the talents of Danny Trejo. Let that sink in for a minute.

You might think that I love this game to death and think that its the Fallout game FO3 should have been. While the latter is true, I grieves me to say I must know expose the bad bits of FO:NV. Nothing is perfect and with the good comes the bad.

Did I mention the engine is buggy as hell? The game is plagued with so many problems. Even quests can get bugged and some things become impossible to do. That's the biggest gripe I have about this game. The patch relieves some of it but it shouldn't be so terrible in the first place.

Another problem is also caused by using the same engine. The interface is badly designed. To equip or use an item, you have to go to your PIP-BOY menu using the tab button. The game pauses. You must navigate about 2 or 3 windows to see your weapons list and pick out what you want to kill with. God, help you if you want to use food or medicine. See, food, medicine and chems are all categorized under "Aid" section. If you have a lot of assorted food and medicine like a survival skill oriented character would, it tends to get cluttered. Its only sorted alphabetically but gee, I would have appreciated a "medicine" tab or a "chems" tab or even a "craftables" tab. You can use hotkeys though but still, Id appreciate a system to more easily access my shit. A bag system maybe? Something that allows you to grab right away and doesn't involve goddamn PIP-BOY scrolling. Crafting is difficult due to this unless you keep note of ingredients but who does that? Crafting should have its own recipe notebook or a better system overall.

By the way, the hunger, thirst and sleep meters are misleading. For example, the more thirsty you are, the higher the number in the meter. Let's say, the value is 75 H2o. A bottle of water has - 50 H20. It seems bad but it reduces your thirst meter so negative is actually good for you? Seems a bit misleading but its a minor point.

I can't complain about the story just yet but it just left the dirty diaper called FO3's plot in the dust.

SUMMARY

FA:NV when compared to FO3 is a vast improvement. Its much better executed and is just the smarter game. Even on its own, its a pretty. It has the spirit of Fallout in it too but its a spirit trapped in an old, bloated rotting carcass. Its a good game trapped in a bad game engine. It's like a genius brain trapped in a body with radiation poisoning and pubic lice. This game is worth getting only if you can update it. If you've played FO3 before, this game will make you love again. If you haven't played FO3, skip it and play this.

I hope it won't crash so much now that I've written good things about it.

Fallout: New Vegas Part 1

When I first heard of Fallout: New Vegas, I wondered to myself how they could possibly ruin Fallout even more. I wrote about Fallout 3 and how stupid it was and how the game had more bugs than a two peso prostitute. Yet, there was cautious optimism. There was word that it would be developed by Obsidian Entertainment and would actually have people from Black Isle Studios, those people who had experience with the previous Fallout games, to work on it. But then again, it used the same engine as Fallout 3 so FO:NV being a buggy mess was a foregone conclusion. In fact, I would have played this game sooner but the games shop I regularly go to pulled this product out because it was so buggy that they received too many complaints. Its the first time they ever did that and it was discouraging. Fortunately, I have acquired a "copy" but don't ask about its authenticity. I haven't finished it yet but I'll weigh in on how it is so far.

STORY

The opening cinematic shows you over a shallow grave about to be shot in the head by some asshole in a checkered suit. You take a bullet to the brain but somehow manage to survive. You are rescued by a robot and bought to a doctor in a small town called Goodsprings in the middle of the Mojave desert. After the doctor patches you up and you build your character, you step out back into the world ready for adventure. You are The Courier. Your job was to deliver a mysterious item but you got ambushed obviously. The main quest involves you going after the people who tried to kill you and unravelling the mystery behind the delivery you were supposed to make. Eventually you make it to New Vegas which is run by the enigmatic Mr.House who nobody has even seen. New Vegas seems to be exactly what you'd expect, a haven of vice and sin. Awesome. There's a lot of optional quests and exploration to be done.

Since the story is set in the West Coast, the same place as the first two Fallout games, there's a lot of references to the events of those games. The references aren't superficial. It really takes place in the continuity of those previous games. Shady Sands, Tandi, The New California Republic, and New Reno are all mentioned. FO:NV takes place in the same setting. Its nice that the source material gets attention with nods here and there. New Vegas is a thriving city and the towns outside it are actually important given the need for caravans and supplies. In other words, the locations MAKE SENSE unlike a town built around an atom bomb for example or a town of nothing but children like we had in FO3.

There are two main factions: The New California Republic and The Legion. The NCR originated from Shady Sands of the first game and is what you might consider the closest to an actual US government. The NCR has a rugged, wild west ranger thing about it but its hinted that the NCR are too big and bureaucratic. They aren't the good guys per se its just that the other factions aren't really into human rights and freedom and shit. The other faction is Caesar's Legion. Its led by a guy calling himself Caesar and is based on the Roman Empire. The Legion is no joke. They're numerous, fanatical and an actual threat to the NCR. Their also into slavery and subjugation of women. They are a ruthless and martial society. You might think that its ridiculous how there's a faction based on Ancient Rome but hey, its not too far a stretch. They're not shy about using guns. You gotta have some suspension of disbelief.

I'll continue about the gameplay and other elements tomorrow.

Man Wash

I keep hearing this commercial over the radio for MASCULINE wash. This time, it had a sexy woman voice talking about how its so great and how it cleans so good and leaves you fresh and gives you confidence and what else. I may have written about it before but now I feel like trying it out.

To think I've been an ignorant boob content with just soap and water. I'm tired of living in the past! I want to be metro and buy a care product tailored especially for intelligent men. I just wish they didn't call it "MASCULINE wash" because it doesn't sound masculine at all. No impact. It doesn't sound good. Maybe MASCULINE SCRUB? How about MANLY SLIPSTREAM or MAN DELUGE?

Man I'm bored.

Wrestlemania 27: The Fallout

I got to see Wrestlemania last Monday. Here's a run down on what happened. What is the worst Wrestlemania ever? I don't know but what I do know is that it kinda sucked and I pity the silly Americans and their Pay-per-views when I can watch it for free.

U.S. Championship: Sheamus v Daniel Bryan
Hahaha! What? The U.S. Championship was turned into a dark match that ended with no winner? What? It descended to a messy lumberjack match or some kind of "Royal Rumble" thing? What? The Great Khali won? WHAT? The one match that was actually promising was turned into shit? What? How do I know? The Internet is whining about it being ruined to this day. Fuck you, WWE.

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge v Alberto Del Rio Unfortunately I didn't catch this match so I can't comment if it was any good but what I do know is that Edge retained. It's peculiar that they first televised match would be the WWE Championship match. It's usually towards the big events later.

Cody Rhodes v Rey Mysterio
Cody came out with his plastic face mask and crappy dark remix of his entrance theme. You know, the plot of the feud is that Cody's face was damaged by Rey and now Cody thinks he's an ugly freak. I can't understand why they'd let Cody wear a plastic face mask that's transparent so that we can see that there's absolutely no damage whatsoever. Also, wouldn't his mask be a foreign object and thus, be illegal? Rey comes out in Captain America themed gear. What is it with Rey dressing up as comic book characters? He had a Joker theme once which I thought was pretty cool in a weird way. Rey appears to be wearing a leg brace so I guess it evens out Cody's mask so its fair? Also, despite wearing a leg brace, Rey shows no signs that his leg is in any bad shape. He's running around doing flips and shit. Ugh. Whatever. OK match. Cody managed to use Rey's leg brace to hit Rey while the Referee was distracted by something shiny all the way over the other side of the ring . Cody hits his finisher for the win.

(Backstage Crap with Snoop Dogg I Don't Care About)

The Corre v Face Team
What a terrible match. So The Corre show up with their shitty t-shirts and then the good guys show up. The match begins and almost immediately, hijinks happen with people falling out of the ring and whatever. Long story short, the good guys win in what appeared to be a two-minute match. Hell, their entrances seemed longer. Half of The Corre, namely Wade and Ezekiel, were totally inconsequential and did nothing at all. The other half, who are also the freaking Tag-Team Champions in case you forgot, didn't even get five seconds of offense in. It was a goddamn burial. Jesus, The Corre doesn't deserve this and I don't think a squash match belongs in a big even like Wrestlemania.

CM Punk v Randy Orton
Great match with a shitty ending. Punk and Randy go at it for a while. At first it's a back and forth match but Punk gets the upper hand. Punk targets Randy's "injured" leg and pounds on it mercilessly. He stomps it and puts holds on it while Randy sells the pain convincingly. At one point, Randy attempts to do a running "patented punt" (Fuck you too, Michael Cole) but his leg gives way and he falls over. What a dumbass. Punk even manages to do a standing Figure-Four Leg lock on the turnbuckles which was awesome. Yet despite all the impressive offense and Randy's theatrics of pain, Randy inexplicably jumps up and pulls an RKO finishing move out of nowhere on a suddenly reckless Punk, who was cold and methodical before, and throws all the psychology of the match out the window. Why even target the damn leg all throughout the match when in the end, it didn't even matter? Gah.

Michael Cole v Jerry Lawler
Shit. Just take my word for it.

The Undertaker v Triple H
Best match of the whole damn show but is it enough to save Wrestlemania? You watch it and decide because I won't spoil it. What impressed me is that The Undertaker, despite his height, weight and age, still managed to clear the ropes for a Suicide Dive like it was nothing. I actually believed, for a second, that Triple H just might beat The Undertaker but alas, The Undertaker finally beat Triple H in Wrestlemania, despite having fought him already before a few years back but WWE hopes you won't remember that. By the way, Triple H's entrance was the coolest ever.

Snooki, John Morrison and Trish Stratus v LayCool and Dolph Ziggler
I guess I haven't seen this match too because I went downstairs to grab a quick snack and when I came back, it was over. Snooki was booed but she managed to pull a double back flip something which surprised me. The winner? Face team.

WWE Championship: The Miz v John Cena
The match begins with an impressive video package for The Miz. The video's message was pretty much "I'm the Champion and if you don't like it, go sleep on the train tracks." Cena's entrance had a freaking black gospel choir with a prayer session or something making it impossible to boo at least, until Cena finally comes out and then the boos start. The match was OK I guess. The Miz can wrestle but he just didn't bring style in my opinion. Cena sucked. The match ended in a double DQ but The Rock appears and restarts the match. He also hits Cena with a Rock Bottom. The Miz pins for the win. Cena lost. Cena lost and I smiled.

Wasn't that great.

Krieg Krieg Krieg

Cinemax has been offering a nice collection of war movies lately. This morning, I missed most of The Bridge Over The River Kwai which is sad but I just saw The Battle of The Bulge a while ago. I think I already saw it but its nice to watch again. It is a good movie.

One thing that always grabs my attention in old war movies like this is how the Germans are always yelling the same old stock phrases. "Achtung!" "Schnell, los!" "Halt!" "Hande hoch!" and "Raus!" It is to be expected but what bothers me is that they not only use the same words but they also sound exactly the same every instance their said. I might be imagining things but I think all WW2 war movies use these phrases like stock sound effects. I think they might have a cabinet labelled "General Purpose Nazi Sounds" or something and just reuse it like the Wilhelm Scream.

Alarm!

Wrestlemania 27

Classes are over for now and I was just thinking, "What big things are gonna happen soon?" Of course! Wrestlemania 27! For those of you who live under a rock or oppressive dictator, Wrestlemania is only the biggest event in the WWE and arguably all of professional wrestling. This year, like the years before it, is promised to be the like the bestest evar. I've been watching the WWE shows leading up to Wrestlemania and there's a lot of hype definitely. I'd like to offer my thoughts on each match that's in store.

WWE Championship: The Miz vs John Cena

To be perfectly honest, I don't give a crap about The Miz. However, if you've read a previous post of mine, you'd know that I absolutely loathe John Cena so I'm praying to several gods that he'd lose. I am aware that a Cena victory is pretty likely as he, regrettably, really is the face of the WWE with an army of small children behind him who buy merchandise. The only reason I'm holding out is that The Rock is involved in this feud. Also, The Miz' butt buddy, Alex Riley is probably gonna be running around and doing stuff. Maybe something interesting will happen. Maybe not. But if Cena wins, I'm gonna run out to the street and punch a lamppost until I'm arrested.

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge vs Alberto Del Rio

I think Edge will win. I don't think ADR is ready to be champion just yet. I have a gut feeling or maybe its just indigestion.

U.S. Championship: Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan

This match has a lot of potential. I've seen some of Daniel Bryan's matches on the tube and he's pretty impressive. I'm a fan of Sheamus by the way. I think he's hilarious and gingers are too marginalized and underrepresented in television and sports. Daniel Bryan can sell Sheamus' hard hitting moves very well and make him look good while Sheamus has the strength to support Daniel Bryan if he goes for the more tricky maneuvers. I expect both performers to look good. Although I'm a fan of the Celtic Warrior, I'm hoping Daniel Bryan wins this one. That way, Sheamus can be drafted to Smackdown where I think he'd do better. Hey, its just a thought.

8-Man Tag Team Match: The Corre vs Santino & Kozlov/Kane & The Big Show

I think The Corre is gonna win this one. I may have said shit about the Corre in the past but The Corre turned out a much better group than say, The Nexus. Last time I checked, each member of The Nexus was getting their head kicked in literally and effortlessly by Randy Orton. But I digress. Santino and Kozlov or "The Allied Powers" as I prefer to call them, are an interesting duo but they're a comedy duo. Its hard to take them seriously and even harder to picture them winning in Mania. Kane and The Big Show or "The Big Red Machine" or something...are two of the slowest men on the roster. I almost fall asleep watching them. Why are they here again? Oh yeah, They're feuding with The Corre. Right. They don't need this win. It doesn't make sense for them to. The Corre is gonna win and hopefully look like a competent and legit stable. Their shirt designs still suck though.

Mixed Tag Match: Trish Stratus/John Morrison/Snooki vs LayCool/Dolph Ziggler
Barf. What's a "Snooki" and what the hell is it doing in my Wrestlemania. This is problematic. This match could be a mess with a "celebrity" from Jersey Shore in it. If the fans in the arena are good sports, they could let this slide as simply a weird idea some writer had while drunk. If not and they boo loudly for someone in the face team then its only gonna be more awkward. Who's gonna win? Trish's team of course. Call me a cynic but Trish's win would benefit that Tough Enough show she coaches or something. I expect a lot of good wrestling from Morrison and Ziggler. With Snooki and LayCool hanging around, both men are gonna have to carry this match. Both are good wrestlers but another thing they have in common is they suck on the microphone. Curious. I feel bad for Ziggler actually. Losing here would just add to the growing pile of suck his career has been. Somebody give this guy a break.

Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes
Interesting. Cody Rhodes was pretty funny with his pretty boy narcissist gimmick but it would seem he's changing his gimmick to something more serious. Good for him. There's no way he'd be a champion with his silly, old, hard-to-take-seriously-as-a-legitimate-threat gimmick anyway. Rey Mysterio could make Cody, ahem, "look good". I hope Cody wins. A loss here would break the momentum of his new character.

Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole w/ Jack Swagger Special Referee: Steve Austin
Say what you want about Michael Cole but I think he's a terrible character and I don't mean that in a "love to hate" kind of way but in a "hate with every fiber of my being" way. He's an announcer OK? It's important for him to call the match and help explain to us why we should care. Its not his job to get involved. The same goes for Lawler. Hopefully, this match will put an end to this feud and nonsense. If Cole wins then we'll never see the end of it which is why I think Jerry is gonna win this one with a little help from Austin who is also in Tough Enough too, I think. If Jerry wins we can finally bury this feud and shut Cole up.

CM Punk vs Randy Orton

This is a match I actually want to see. I'm a fan of CM Punk. He's an excellent heel with awesome mic skills and great ring skills too. Randy Orton's character has gone stale recently. Orton is boring to watch. His character is supposed to be a dirty, rotten scumbag who would do anything to get what he wants. Instead, Randy has become some kind of a good guy anti-hero? It just doesn't fit. A Punk win would solidify Punk as a top performer and doom Randy back to the bottom where he can get back to plotting revenge and acting all ruthless and shit. By the way, The Nexus was also supposed to appear in this match but only if they could beat Orton. None of them did. Oh man, it was a brutal burial. I think The Nexus is dead. Good.

Main Event: No Holds Barred: The Undertaker vs HHH

Ah yes, the most hyped up match in the card. Its "The Streak" vs "The Game". Who will win? Could The Undertaker's 18-0 streak in Wrestlemania finally come to an end in the hands of Triple H? I expect this match to be brutal. The thing that worries me is that The Undertaker is a pretty old guy and he can't perform as well as he used to. I expect Triple H to bear the brunt of the hits then. It's gonna be a slow match with a strong finish. I think The Undertaker is gonna win this one for three reasons: Firstly, The Undertaker isn't ready to retire yet. I can't find any official info if he's gonna hang up the boots in this event. Last year, Shawn Michaels went up against Taker but we pretty much knew Shawn was retiring and that was his last match. His loss was a foregone conclusion. I can't see the same signs here. Secondly, Triple H doesn't need the win. If Triple H wins, what's he gonna do? Go after the Heavyweight Title AGAIN? He already said it himself that he's done almost everything in the business except end "The Streak" which brings me to my third point. It's not time to end "the streak" just yet. Hell, let it go up to 20-0. By that time, hopefully, there will be some new talent, someone worthy, someone ready to be the new face of the company who will end the streak and become a god. Triple H doesn't have to be the one to end it. He's already hogged all the glory.

I'm looking forward to the show.

Takitha - Walking Through The Darkness

Last Week on Earth

Well its finals week. If there ever was a time to reacquaint yourself with a merciful God, it would be now. Its the last hurdle before summer vacation and also the last chance to make up for all the screw-ups in the past, especially the clusterf*** that was the midterms. Holy hell, did the midterms suck.

Seriously, I feel edgy.

Something Political

Ever since the Cold War, the world is often seen through the eyes of either Communism or Capitalism. Even today there's still a lot of discussion about the flaws of one and the brilliance of the other. I thought I would write about my thoughts on the matter since, upon review of my previous posts, I haven't written anything even semi-serious for a while. If you're not into this I suggest the reader go search for my review of Speed Grapher.

There is Capitalism and there is Socialism. I don't say Communism outright but we'll get to that. I'll try to keep it simple because this shit gets old real fast. Capitalism is characterized mainly by two things: private property and the free market. In a Capitalist system, people have the right to own property, even the means of production, and produce goods and services for profit in a free market. Depending on the government, state intervention in the free market is minimal, adopting a laissez-faire policy and stepping in to enforce fairness among competitors and prevent monopolies. The market is driven by supply and demand.

Socialism, you could say, is the "opposite" of Capitalism but that's not entirely accurate. Socialism is characterized by collective ownership and allocation of resources. That does not mean to say nobody owns anything, its just that the means of production belongs to the government and resources are distributed based on merit or contribution. Socialism, as an economic theory, should not be confused with Communism, Marxism or Maoism or what have you. Socialism is a feature of the latter theories. One can be a Socialist and not be a Marxist. It is possible, in fact, for a country to be Democratic and be Socialist. Socialism just means that the state owns. How that state is run exactly is another story.

I prefer Capitalism to be honest. There are several reasons why I choose so and many of them take into consideration the experience of being raised in the Philippines and observing and studying the culture. But as my favorite teacher in Political Science taught me, to better understand a political philosophy, even that of your own, it is important to first discuss human nature. so I have to write about that first.

I believe men are essentially equal and have innate rights. Man has a right to to be free and to live as he pleases. However, the problem is obvious. If man has a right live as he pleases then what is there to stop him from causing harm to another? That is where government comes in. People establish government as a means to settle disputes between one another to the effect that all men live within their rights and not trample on the rights of another. John Locke basically.

But what of property? Let's say, a man plants a mango tree and through his care and effort it grows big and bears a fruit. Is it his mango tree? Of course it is. His labour produced his property. I believe that property is a natural right. Does another man then, have the right to come in and take a mango? The thought is offensive. To put it differently, if a man builds his house by the river, can anyone just go inside?

The role of government is to regulate property to the end that there is no conflict between individuals and everyone's rights are protected. Government should not be the one to determine who will own what and how much for the simple reason that man is the master and not the slave of the state. The right to freedom and property are innate. Some may believe otherwise but this is my own. What I'm basically saying is that man owning property and producing what he wants to produce is his natural right as a free person and that the state exists to protect him and his property from others.

What about goods and services? The rule is that if there's a demand, somebody is bound to cater to it. The man who owns the many mango trees can hire people to help him harvest it but he has to give payment in exchange. Physical labor too has a value and payment for services is a way to approximate how mach that labor is worth. If a man agrees to help harvest the mangoes in exchange for five sacks to himself cannot blame another who agrees to do so for only three. Naturally, the cost of the service would shrink to the lowest one is willing to do it for against the overall desirability and ease of doing the service itself. If they can go no lower than a price of two sacks because one sack wouldn't be worth the effort, then that's how much the help to harvest the mangoes cost. The value of a thing is determined by how much one is willing to buy it or sell it for.

If my explanations seem simplistic then that's because life doesn't need to be complicated.

So why don't I agree with Communism? It's not that I hate it. Theoretically, people could decide by themselves, to ditch Capitalism and agree to form a Socialist government. There's nothing wrong with that actually. Human beings are intelligent and if they desire Socialism then who's to stop them? The problem that I have is that in my opinion, it won't work and is dangerous.

While many view the world in terms of Capitalism versus Socialism or worse, Capitalism versus Communism, I view it as man versus X. What is X? X is the force which seeks to dominate man. At first X was nature; beasts and the wilds. Man, of course, banded with others for protection but where societies rose, so did conflict between man and man. Thus, man formed a government and granted it power to settle disputes and rule over them to protect them from each other. But when you grant something power, its kind of a big deal. As societies grew so did the government and its power until you had the kings, the tyrants, the dictators and the fascists. The deal now is man versus the state.

Keep this statement in mind, "Nothing is perfect."

Living here in the Philippines, a government that's quite western as far as Asia is concerned, taught me many things. It taught me never to trust government. The importance of understanding our relationship with government has never been so dire. Ultimately, its not about Communism, as many leftists and rallyists would say, but about our inefficient government plagued with corruption and incompetence. Assuming you have a Socialist state of mind and are living in a country like the Philippines, ask yourself this; "Am I willing to give the Philippine government control of my property?" That's what Socialism would mean. That's what Communism, Marxism, Maoism, Rocky Road and all flavors of Socialism would ultimately boil down to. I, for one, don't want the government to decide who owns what, how much one gets or whatever. That's too much power. In a country where political connections can get you places even farther than your actual ability, it would be beyond ironic to see such government distribute goods based on how much it thinks you deserve. You think our patronage plagued system would even know what merit is in the first place?

Which is why I am pro Capitalist. If we are a truly Democratic Republic that respects our right to life and freedom then it should also include property. Our system of Capitalism is a bulwark to massive government abuse. Even now, the system of Capitalism is under assault in this country. You have crony Capitalism, the unholy marriage between bureaucrat and businessman, colluding together to violate fair competition. You have the bureaucracy in general which seems to hate success and taxes it accordingly. You have a weak justice system undermining property rights and slowing everybody down. Since when did squatters have rights to enforce against legal land owners? Then you have senators who, when they're not busy "solving problems" by inflating the government with new offices and dividing provinces to make even more positions, are funding "projects" to their favorite underlings and making the Filipino pay it with his earnings, his labor!

Whenever there is poverty, it is usually blamed on corporate fat cats and Capitalism. Well, that's partially true given the cronyism but know this; the government DOES NOT produce the wealth of this country and DOES NOT have the right to "distribute" a wealth it DOES NOT own. It is the small businesses, the traders, the workers and etc. Through their labor, wealth is produced and they did it all by themselves. Nobody ever told some guy to build a chain of successful malls or a chain of fast food places. No bureaucrat demanded that there should be Internet and cell phone service providers. Its when people are left alone to live their lives and make names for themselves, free from the intrusion of people who don't know what they're doing, that there's progress.

In summation, I believe a Capitalist system, with its freedom, competition and innovation, is more conducive to economic progress than Socialism, which although pretty on paper, tends to give too much power to government.

OK, quota filled.