Sand

Note: I'm going to be tackling multiple topics; hence the rather vague title.

So, on a new note, Y4J is starting on Saturdays and I really need to continue studying for this week, bllaaaah.

***

So I downloaded the Battlefield: Bad company demo onto my Ps3 and I'm just going to come out and say it. It's a great game with a bit of a high price. Besides the game's size, the initial playing was good. Although it had a bit of a learning curve, and ran at 576p! (I'll be returning to this later.) Single player was rather nice, the destructible environments are pretty swank, being able to blow up parts of houses or knock down trees is pretty fun and functional in single player and multiplayer. The graphics were not that good and didn't run on HD. Blah, lost some respect there. Now I'm walking into the multiplayer... In Multiplayer there are two teams; the attackers and the Defenders. This game mode is reminiscent of Gunz' unofficial Attack and Defend game mode which I. LOVED. The HUD is overall rather shit, while the minimap is nice, the rest is utter shit. It's bland and overall hindering at times. The crosshair is utterly DISMAL to use; mostly since it can't even show the recoil range when firing. Now handling the controls is okay; if you find "realistic" walking means having your head bob up and down like a pair of huge tits. End even worse when it comes to looking and shooting close range, I've been playing around with the sensitivity and I am still unable to find a comfortable speed, not to mention shooting a grenade from your gun, or perhaps even a little sniping is a bit bat-shit hard since you have to lead and having such a poor HUD which has no numerical information to help estimate leading; making the entire ordeal all-the-more difficult. Another critique is the close range shooting, because when you're shooting, it doesn't feel right, there's a total lack of immersion as it's frustrating to be in a fire-fight, similar to Haze, and utterly unlike (and I'm sorry for bringing this up in a review) CoD4 (where shooting feels like shooting, and it's actually rewarding to fight. Although I partially liked sniping in this, for lead ing the bullets onto targets was a game in itself, not to mention the HUGE maps allowed for some fantastic sniping. And mentioning sniping reminded me of something else, there's no prone position, making sniping a bit abysmal when it comes to finding a good hiding place, seeing as you cant go prone underneath a bush or by a tree, to minimise recoil and your hitbox, also leaving you unable to hide behind shorter walls from the enemy eye. Seeing as trying to hide from ballistics of any sort is a bit futile, since environments break down like wafers in a toilet.. Vehicles are also nice, but when your playing defend and have a team who refuses to blow up the tanks, you find your team getting beaten pretty damned hard. Nearly sodomised for chrissakes. Next, is the game system. That is to say, weapons unlocking, leveling and whatnot. Overall it's really balanced and is quite simple, reach the next rank and you receive 1 credit, which is used to unlock any weapon or item of your choice. Solid system right there. The sound is okay, but can be a little off, and it sounds a little funny but suits the games light atmosphere. And I got to admit, the music that's used is absolute bliss to listen too n_n The BIGGEST problem was the face the game was FIXATED with fucking my resolution It INSISTED I make the default resolution 567p and that I shan't use a style for my Ps3, and that pissed me off; big time. I deleted the thing, but yet I still re-downloaded it. *sigh* And apparently, few have this problem, not a large number but it's still there. Overall, I think the game is kinda mediocre, but it still kept me coming back for more. Kind of like certain movies I guess. Blah. I recommend the game, perhaps a rent on console, unless you want to go for the PC version. Might fix most of the problems you'd experience on a console. 7/10 babies =/

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner...

So, a week ago, a friend and I went to the cinema to watch a film. There was a film which caught my eye due to it's rating (14). Mainly, it caught my eye because it's a weird rating that's seldom seen. I'm very unsure as to what's caused this, perhaps the way the film seems to really captivate you? I seriously saw nothing that needed it to be rated above 12.

Well, regardless, we watched the film and I'm pretty damned glad we did.

It's got a very good progression of character, presentation of story and a great use of foreshadowing. The beginning characters started out to be rather cliché, stereotyped and relatable, but I guess that helped contrast how their character changes.

The script was very well written and the casting was great. Although I can't help but think that Kate Bosworth seemed too mature looking (Don't get me wrong, she was, nonetheless, attractive), sometimes look less like a young college girl and more like a 30-year-old colleague from the office. On the other hand I guess it makes sense for she holds the 'Mature-minded' part of her character above the "cute crush" aspect. 

Sometimes the film had a habit of making you feel like you were watching a car drive 180 mph into your family, orphanage and Kate Beckinsale in slow-motion, putting you through a bit of frustration and pain. That's a point for immersion, and a point for making me face palm.

To conclude, seeing how the film ends, wrapping it all up and putting a cheeky smirk on your face while you walk out of the cinema was really worth it.

Too long; don't read: WATCH THE FILM; TARD.

Eurovision Semi-Final!~ Results

The countries moving on to the Eurovision finals are.....*cue drumroll*

• Ukraine!
  
• Croatia (Viagraz?)
  
• Albania (Wtf?!)
  
• Iceland (Uhh)
  
• Georgia (What the hell?! [Hope she doesn't see this])
  
• Denmark (Retro!)
  
• Sweden
  
• Latvia (Gay Latvian Pirates... who knew?)
  
• Turkey (OH for FUCKS sake)
  
• Portugal (...)
  

In conclusion, the Maltese presence is getting more redundant each year, albeit Morena's curvaceous figure brightened up the TV.

C-c-COMBO POST

Right. So in my following post, I'll be tackling multiple topics.

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I recently thought of purchasing a book, preferably by Kathy Reichs or something, but then I recalled a meeting I had with my wallet the week before, i.e., my wallet is on lockdown. Let's hope the album art I drew for a band will prove a wise investment.

***

So recently the lurking co-author Drake introduced me to Thin Lizzy a very solid band which I am quite fond of. So yeah, Thanks Drake!

Additionally, yesterday I had a chemistry problem-solving experiment, which was, basically, finding the optimum pH indicator from herbs, plants, flowers, fruits, vegetable and children. Well, children should've been an option, too many are running around complaining about how their mother didn't buy them the latest doll that pisses itself.

***

So, Haze was released a short while ago. Apparently it's quite the disappointment.

It's a short game, clocking in at about above 7 hours. Alas, if I were to poke at something, I wouldn't poke at its length because with nowadays standards, a 7 hour game is not exactly common. (Looking at you, Heavenly Sword) So now I bring myself to face some of the more serious problems with the game.

The Gimmicky Nectar element is okay, which is only really fun, in what could possibly be the games redeeming quality-the co-op, which, at moments can be really fun. I mean, striking your mate in the back only to see him shaking violently due to high levels of urine-sorry, Nectar-is kind of amusing. That aside, Nectar just that, a gimmick. Although soon you'll end up losing your MANTEL alliance and defect to the Promise Hand (really awkward since you're the only non-Latino there) in turn losing the power to dose on Nectar and gain the ability to play dead, an interesting mechanic in a First Person Shooter, but it just seems like a re-hashed idea. 

As foreseen by the gaming community, the hype that was surrounding Haze (couple with a few delays) was its downfall. When you get something mediocre, dress it up, and drown it in hype, the final game seems much worse. Now I won't dwell on how God-awful this game could've REALLY been if it weren't for any improvements they made during the delays (unless they were sampling some of their own "Nectar" at the workplace). As far as graphics go, the game is pretty much just run-off-the-mill. Although the effects and visuals are passable when actually fighting and what have you.

The Story is not bad, but definitely nothing to write home about, nothing that leaves you thinking, or even something elusive. Its pretty straightforward, like an Action film that would scramble to have a believable plot for their next gun-fest.

In closing, the game is worth, at most, a rent. 6/10. But don't take my word for it, for I'm posting my opinion, so bugger off and get your own.

*****

Also, keep an eye out for an hour from now, when I come back with the Eurovision semi-final while sampling some Russian Vodka off of my own back. 

Ramblings!

What's going on?

Well, I've taken on a small part in a play for "Founder's Day" at my school, a day to celebrate St. John Baptist De La Salle's founding of Lasallian schools. And yesterday my Maltese and Maths teachers took those who were participating in the play (six in total) to RTK, a national radio station. It was really cool to go to a studio and see how they do their stuff, although some halls were notably dusty from constructions going on at the time (a lift, apparently). It really is an experience, you know, to go with friends (and teacher's) to a radio station during school hours and I have to say, for a radio play by kids, it sounded really good (apart from a couple of odd recordings of me, <_<).

For some reason I've recently been feeling very stressed, fatigued and just plain peeved. Iunno. I cherish the time I get to spend to myself, in utter peace, because as the years roll by, these sacred moments are getting ever more scarce. Not to mention that right now, I seem to be harbouring a bucket of paranoia with a few dozes of self-hate. *shrug* Probably just adolescence. Ugh.

I'm hoping that perhaps I can produce a comic in summer. A small side project... along with my studies... studying in summer! RAGH. Oh yeah, I heard Treyarch want to make Call of duty 5 a WWII shooter, but in the PACIFIC! Oh la la, more WWII shooters.  -_- You'd think after Infinity Ward's impeccable success with Call of Duty 4, Treyarch wouldn't be fools and beat progress with their shoe, until progress piggy-backs them to an 'odd' drop in profit. Also, why is the Call of Duty license being whored around so callously? I mean, if it were between two good companies I'd understand, but alas the other company is Treyarch. Congratulations on beating the dead horse you twits.

Also, I take my coffee like this, Beans, sugar, MILK, WATER, STIR. I'm kind of hoping my butler monkey's read this, they're too busy trying to write Hamlet.

P.S, I won't hate any of you if you COMMENT.

Would You Like Whipped Cream with that, Sir?

To cop out of writing an entire blog-entry, in turn posting lots of mundane drivel, I'll simply put up some of my art. =D

Edit: My cop-out has been foiled. Darn.

Right, so I'll just put out some notes on some recent events.

Ok, so I finally got to check out the McCafé, the main attraction being the posters with the Strawberry Frappé. The Frappé was nothing special, though I had an Apple Faggotto (who the HELL came up with that name?) And to be frank, whenever I buy from the Café, the names and looks of the food always make me feel that I'm a step away from wearing frilly shirts and going to discos to listen to techno and let men do jello-shots off of my stomach but after I start eating I stop caring and simply nibble away.

Also, last Saturday I tried something new, waking up at 5am to take a run on the seafront. I'm gonna say that drinking Dr. Pepper in the town square at half-five and then sprinting off and free-running around St. Julians is really cool. Not only are there less people, therefore less awkward looks, but it's really tranquil. Even the weather is kind of invigorating, in contrast with what was the hot sun we normally have in May. (In case you're not Maltese, it's been really cloudy and overcast (with some rain)  during the past two days) Also, being able to free-run and work out in the playground is kind of cool, seeing as there are no kids to worry about.

Well, the most recent news is that the Metal Gear Online Premiere Beta ended yesterday, so I'm gonna round off with ROLL ON JUNE 12th!

Cloverfield Review

So at around half three today, my dad asked me to go down and return a DVD to the store when upon seeing what the little machine held in itself, I yelped. Seriously, what I saw on that monitor lifted my spirits a wee bit. 

What I saw?

Cloverfield. I must admit, Cloverfield (produced by JJ Abrams directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard) is one of the only films I've been excited about since Barney's Great Adventure all those years ago. Since then, I'd always had a certain lack of enthusiasm about new films. Then I heard it was a monster film... it was inevitable, I HAD to watch the film.

Now, onto the actual film. The film is ENTIRELY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF ONE CAMERA. A camera which recorded the entire thing. Now, I won't delve into details (leading to spoilers) but we follow one main event (May 23rd) and little snippets of another event (April 27th). The snippets are a little comic relief. Some people may be asking why on earth would their be comic relief in a thriller? Well, with the way that Cloverfield captivates you, ties you up, and toys with your emotions at gunpoint calls for a little relief now and then although these snippets tend to lull you into a sense of emotional safeness. Then bam, your psyche is being beaten with a stick.

My next comment is the cast. Nearly everyone is unknown in the bizniz but they all pulled it off so well. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Their acting coupled with the camera really payed off in the end result. Going onto the camera, now, I'm not the harshest of critics, but the worst thing that MAY be present is the camera's angles, which can give some people headaches. I myself experienced no problems, but I've spoken with others who have had massive headaches from the film. 

I was really satisfied with the ending, it left me wanting more, but also left me satisfied. Something seldom found in film these days, what with the cliché endings, cliffhangers and whatnot. 

Now that's the general, spoiler free review, I'm gonna leave it at that seeing as I could throw out a few more paragraphs with detailed praise of the film.

Happy Birthday From Us!

Happy Birthday from Drake, Steve and me!

Welcome to the Las Vegas ring! In one corner, we've got...

So, there's a petition to stop Dr. Uwe Boll's Career of taking video games, chopping their limbs off, covering them in pig's fat and then labeling it as his "Latest hit film".

The Petition is aiming for 1,000,000 signatures, so far reaching 24% of its goal. 

First time I heard of the guy, I thought to myself, "Could he really be THAT bad?". I, being the young and foolish adolescent, rented a few of his films. I can tell you, drugs aren't the only thing that adolescent curiosity can tempt you to experiment with. And just like drugs, his films are bad. Really, REALLY bad.

Thinking this guy was just some young buck who sucked, I didn't think I could hate him, but he made me hate him. This guy is failing beyond all expectations. I mean, not only is he a middle-aged man who's had some experience, but as far as public reactions go, his are extremely childish. He later rebutted to more hate from the populous,  at the beginning I felt he was trying to make a valid point, then BAM, a reflex must've kicked in, throwing his head so far up his ass he re-created the CatDog self-ingestion paradox.

He then preaches to the haters, saying he found the IPs of petition-signers and tracked them down like an internet hax0r, despite calling Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay 'computer nerds' for, APPARENTLY, signing more than once. What? Did he seriously accuse these two directors of signing an e-petition multiple times personally? Qrwtfbbq? Also, he continues by saying he found a "Film" on YouTube  by one of the undersigned, and started to ridicule it and compare it to his films even though he puts his out for profit in cinemas, while these guys were trying to get a few laughs on youtube. What was he expecting? To find the works of Giacomo Talimini? Or perhaps a box-office hit?

I'm unsure wether he is schizophrenic, or just an air-headed pillock.

Also, if anyone finds the video where he calls out Michael Bay for a fight in the ring, please send!

Metal Gear Online: Premiere Beta

First of all, I must excuse me and my colleagues for we've been busy with our busy, cheeky-cheery lives, socialising with cheeky-cheering pros and doing homework for our cheeky-cheery teachers.

So, for us EUROFAGS, the Premiere Beta was abso-ha-loutely free. All we had to do was download the game, install it on our PS3s,  update it for a few thousand hours, then endure entire days trying to get the Konami and Game ID needed for the game. Lovely first impressions eh? Konami then postponed the beta to get out a nicer, faster site as well as working servers for MGO. Bravo, we now have a secure server size for the game :D

Next, is the game. You get on, log in and make a character (rather simple, but intricate and entertaining enough for the BETA) and it's really cool to change the voice pitch, face and clothing of our character. Okay, all well and good! But delving further into the game, we play a match. If you ignored the online manual for the game, as well as the training levels, you're going to suck more than a man that found a puddle of water in the Sahara after wandering for a few days. This game has a steep learning curve after getting used to Call of Duty 4 gameplay. So until you get comfortable with the maps and controls, you're not going to be seeing lots of your enemies downed by your guns.

Another reason for this curve is that your character is as well handled as trying to run a business where the salesmen are donkeys on dope. But as you use this "Skills" for your character, and develop them, you start strengthening your strengths and whatnot. Leading you to having a pimped out character suited to your playing style.

When it comes to fighting, you can snipe (sniping, in Metal Gear Online is, btw, SUBLIME!), you can stick to your team with an assault rifle and shoot en masse. Or you can use CQC. CQC is a nice factor which allows you to grab, choke, knockout and punch enemies. Trés fancy!

Now, the game modes and Maps.

In Metal Gear Online, the Europeans received two initial maps with four game modes.

These were Blood Bath and Groznyj Grad, with the game modes called BASE, Team deathmatch, deathmatch and Capture.

Now we have Blood Bath, Groznyj Grad, Midtown Maelstrom and as for game modes; we got Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Base, Capture and Sneaking.

Blood bath is the mayhem map, Groznyj Grad is the sneaky-sneaky large map, and Midtown Maelstrom is the lengthy, sniper ridden map. All very, very nice.

Now Team deathmatch and deathmatch are self-explanatory.

 Base is  basically both teams being control freaks, trying to dominate each other in specific areas of the map. It's kind of like a "Domination/Domination" Relationship. Challenging and unstable (Exciting) ;D.

Capture is a rather tricky game were there are two objects in different sites on the map, where you must get them both (or just one) at your base, while leaving the other team with nothing. It's very satisfying to snipe the enemy bases xD

Last and not least is sneaking, sneaking has two players playing as Snake and his robot the Mk. II pitched against the Red and Blue teams, who are also fighting one another. Forming a love triangle of bullets. Now, Snake's objective is to knock-out, or hold-up others and take their dog tags. While the Mk II whizzes around knocking people out for our old Friend Snake. Now, playing as snake is FUN. You've got two primary weapons (Custom M4 and Mosin Nagant Tranq. Sniper Rifle) the Mk. 2 tranquilizer gun, and stun grenades, chaff grenades and a dirty-magazine (With MORE PAGES!), giving you a little arsenal to help you out. Also, Snake has the nifty Octocamo, which when used right, ensures a stealthy and swift win. The Octocamo replicates the texture you press against, and when in the shade, makes one almost invisible. But beware, running or hasty decisions could lead to an enemy player raping you with CQC for a while :(

But so far this game has proved great for a balanced, stealth-action online game. I was wholly surprised by the sexiness of it all @_@

Now, off to twiddle my thumbs.

Hey, this is a little test I did a while ago, experimenting with Flash professional 8 =D

Pardon the piss-poor quality.

So I needed some money...

Mhaarrr.

Open for Business!

Hey, this is me saying that this blog is now open, grand, isn't it?

Right now I'm just fooling around and fondling with codes. RAWHAHAW *rowdy laughter*