Saturday, 08 August 2009

  • Meh. I'm coo wit dat.

    So I was watching this:

    And of course after that I had to go an Google 'Ryan Reynolds' to find out just who this guy who might play both Deadpool and the Green Lantern is. (Lousy memory for names and faces; bite me.)

    Meh. I can live with that. But somehow I just don't see him as the GL... Maybe it's because the Justice League cartoon has fixed him in my mind as being black... But he'd make an awesome Deadpool.

Thursday, 06 August 2009

  • Cool stuff

    Cosplay's a big thing in Asia (I blame the Japanese; not that I'm complaining) and it has its nerdy roots in Star Trek conventions in the US too. And where would we be without all the cool props which go with it.
    Hang guns and grenades
    But trust WETA (the guys behind all the props and sets for Lord of the Rings) to go and 1-up everybody.
    Warthog by WETA 2
    Warthog by WETA
    I have... warthog envy.

    edit: Top picture taken from the Bungie blog where they strut some of the gifts fans get them. Warthog pictures can be found here.

  • Seven second itch

    Someday, I will find a blog theme which lasts more than a week. Until then...

    But you know what, maybe I'll find that I really, really like dark blue North Star high-tops.

    Check back in a week.

  • +1 Sanctions

    We're probably pretty familiar with the idea of violent video games being banned or strictly controlled. Actually, if you're Singaporean, you've walked the 'banning violent video games' road. (Mass Effect anyone? Oh come on, I'm sure you remember the ridiculous hype over a few seconds of non-explicit lesbian alien sex in a single possible outcome the game offered.)

    Whether you think violent video games should be banned, given ratings or tightly controlled might depend on several factors. Such as whether you're actually old enough to legally buy that M17 video game. Or whether you're a parent. Or even on your views on the right to freedom of speech. But all that aside, there's one undeniable fact that film has long known and video games seem to need to get out in to the open: Violence sells. It makes mega bucks. Oh, and so does sex.

     Which is partly (or largely...) why after it's automatic reaction to ban 'adult themed' games like Mass Effect, the Singaporean government instated its own video game rating system. This cleared their concience to allow more grown-up games in Singapore which made lots of money while keeping young, impressionable children safe. Which made most of the gamers above the age of 18 very happy because they could stop having to worry about police kicking in the door while they were playing games involving lesbian aliens. 
    (Actually, given how ignorant most parents are of ratings, starting a rating system probably made a lot of gamers under 18 very happy too...)

    Anyway, now that the worst of our rating wars are behind us, it's interesting to watch them being carried out in other countries. For example Germany which has recently been debating the idea of completely banning violent video games. Unlike Singapore which is a small market with a relatively new gaming industry, Germany is home to some big gaming guns. Crytek, known for its Crysis series, has gone on record stating that is the German government decides to ban violent video games, then they will see it as "...essentially like banning the German artists that create them. If the German creative community can't effectively participate in one of the most important cultural mediums of our future, we will be forced to relocate to other countries.”

     Owch.
     
    Germany has had its share of school-shooting disasters and not surprisingly, pushed much of the blame on video games. I guess when there's the threat of real violence and harm, there's a lot more pressure for a government to be seen doing something about it. 

    Though there is the question of whether a more effective course of action would be to exercise stricter gun control laws.

     On a completely unrelated note, look! Mass Effect 2 trailer from E3!! (No clearly lesbian aliens. Sorry guys.)


    Disclaimer: if you've seen this post before on www.gc-asia-blog.sg, don't freak out. I'm not plagiarising. I'm the same writer on both blogs. I just felt this post was worth tossing onto my Hardest Level blog too.

Saturday, 01 August 2009

  • Currently
    Beat It
    By Michael Jackson
    see related

    Comics

    I must admit I don't play as wide a variety of video games as I would like to. School and family commitments make it a little tricky spending time with my 360 and having had a full-time job all summer hasn't helped at all. So I've been falling back on what I've been doing for a long time. I've been reading comics.

    There's plenty of good webcomics out there and it's nice that I can get my graphic novel fix for free online. (Though at the end of the day, nothing beats hard copy.) In particular I've been enjoying Ctrl-Alt-Del.

    It started off at a gaming comic and in many ways, it had remained that. The main character's a massive gaming addict and the comic is sprinkled with pithy comics poking fun at video games.


    But I do also really like that the comic has moved beyond simply being a gaming comic to having one with actual character development. I know that's a word we bandy about a lot but in this case, there's no other way to describe what's happened with the comic. Especially since the comic's not story-driven (it's about two geeks/nerds, a girl and a robot) and what they do. So really, it's what the characters do and knowing them which makes it so enjoyable. (Which isn't to say that the stories of the escapdees they get up to aren't plenty entertaining). It's really different from comics like the Pheonix Requiem where finding out what happens next is really the comics main draw.

    Then you get comics like Lackadaisy which are a lovely blend of great charcters, amazing artwork and setting and a definnite idea that the story is going somewhere (only you don't quite know where.)

    That being said, Ctrl-Alt-Del and the Pheonix Requiem update several times a week and Lackadaisy comes up with a new comic once every... uh... Okay, I don't think there's a regular updating schedule.

    Well, now you know what I'm doing when I'm not playing Dragonica... :p

s7r4t4

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    • Name: s7r4t4
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    • Member Since: 7/30/2009

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