Going into District 9 I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I had purchased midnight tickets solely on Peter Jackson's name and the general premise. Little did I know that I would walk away from my favorite movie of the year so far. Just wanted to get something out there, because my theater was probably less than 80% full, and I really hope this movie reaches a wide audience. It has action, interesting filming style, perfectly executed roles, and social commentary. What more could you want?

I'll split this sort-of review into three bits.





Traditional critical response or something.

The movie is tremendously well executed. It blends a documentary style with the camera of a traditional fiction film. The flash-forwards intermingled with the build-up keep the audience engaged as you begin to puzzle out what is going to happen before it unfolds on screen. This isn't always the case though, as the movie does manage to keep you guessing on several occasions. The casting for this film works very well. The weakest links are those of throwaway characters with all performances integral to the story carried out with nary a hitch. This includes those aliens or "prawns" that become the stars of the latter half of the film. While most are depicted as entirely alien, several convey more human emotion. Human emotion and impulsive response is the crux of the film. It is a commentary on racism through the lens of sci-fi, which stills hits disturbingly close to home. As you watch the choices of the main character(Wikus) unfold your feelings cycle through revulsion, understanding, and even respect. This movie humanizes those who seem to be at first completely alien, while also showing some of the basest, most cowardly levels man himself can descend to.

Finally, the production values are through the roof. While I expected it to have the Peter Jackson touch of the fantastic this movie went above and beyond anything I had expected. The prawns were extremely well integrated and most of the tech looked quite formidable. Despite a few guns looking a little silly, their effects carried enough gravitas to render their appearance moot.


There are probably SPOILERS from here on out.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS


You've been warned.





Sci-Fi

The idea of emaciated aliens, far from home on the brink of death being stuffed into a sort of slum is taken straight from the annals of human history both past and present. However, the idea still stands as something new. By replacing humans with aliens it is easier to see the revulsion rise and the general hate that people can have for outsiders. The experimentation runs the gamut from weapons testing to genetic engineering.
These two aspects actually go hand in hand through the film because the alien weaponry is locked genetically requiring prawns to activate their tech. By introducing a third element of Nigerian gangsters to the world of District 9 interesting questions such as interspecies intercourse, and the witch doctor practices of offering power and potency through eating the flesh of the conquered are explored. You also get to see some of the reproductive processes of the prawns, and other little details that really bring the film to life. As you discover more about them it becomes clearer that the humans don't have any idea what they are dealing with even after twenty years. While it is unclear if the suggested worker leader class distinction holds true, I believe the movie suggests that it does, since it seems early on the Christopher's son is more intelligent than the average adult prawn. The transformation of Wikus is also quite a thing to behold as it never looks so unreal as to be divorced from the world around him. The plot hinges on a liquid which seems to be a power source as well as some kind of genetic catalyst, another cool piece of alien tech. The genetic locks actually remind me of the nanobot locks from MGS4.

Action, FPS, any game that has guns, gamer.

District 9 is full of weaponry that I would love to get my hands on. Even the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator makes a very brief appearance, The weapons includes stopping bullets then redistributing them in mid air, sonic blasts, and several weapons that seem designed to simply explode humans. Including one the at first seems to be a taser then blows a man's head off. The mech is the most formidable piece of prawn tech and carries most of the aforementioned weapons. Gauss rifles also seem to be a mainstay of their weaponry as well as several grenade launcher type guns that also carry an electric charge. While I thought that the ending bit of the movie, where most of these weapons are used, was the weakest part thematically there were still many interesting concepts.

It would be really nice to see a game that manages to blend the awesome action of District 9 with the social commentary. for a large part of the film Wikus is effectively helpless. His alien transformation doesn't grant him super powers, simply the ability to use their tech. In fact, it makes him a target for those who could kill him even with his access to prawn technology. I think it would be extremely interesting to play a well made game based on this movie, because it would have to include some true stealth sections while also managing the transformation and its effects while balancing basic humans needs such as food and sleep.

Basically, see this movie. Please. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if you come out going "Well it was ok, but those last 30 minutes of action really saved it for me.", which matches some sentiments I overheard as I left the theater, fuck you, that's not what it's about.

I know this is a bit late but I was out all day and didn't have time to finish it before August rolled around, in fact I'm not sure if it's done as is, but I need to get it out the door either way.

In the dark, wild days of the last generation online gaming in its current form was something I would never have believed. We barely had dial-up at home, and Wi-Fi was akin to magic. Before I had my unified tag of Cwal37 and I went by Clyzer. Despite having five siblings I still craved a massively multi-player experience, one that I found in Cybernations. Cybernations is a text based nation simulation games. You make a country in your image and define it by your actions. Its most popular predecessor was NationStates.



Unlike NationStates, which only allowed you to make a random choice about your country each day, Cybernations allowed you to build a military and go to war with other countries. It also had a complex trading system in which countries are given resources which can be traded with other countries. Specific combinations gave bonuses, and trading within your own team gave a bonus as well. This was all done with the goal of increasing your nation's infrastructure and tech in order to become more powerful. However, the bread and butter of the game sprung from its team system. Your team was based on an arbitrary color chosen upon the creation of your country, but it could easily mean everything for your future play as the colors quickly gave rise to alliances. Several of these alliances jumped directly from the pages of the NationStates forums.



Through forums and IRC a massive bureaucracy quickly sprung to life. Because this game was so much livelier than NationStates with the potential for real(digital) harm to be done a complex web of treaties and peace agreements ensnared the major alliances. From MDPs (Mutual Defense Pact) to NAPs (Non-Aggression Pact)everything had an acronym and for the uninitiated a declaration of war post could be nigh on unintelligible. Not only would the leaders remain within their strict, horrifically verbose personas but sprinkle acronyms throughout like chocolate chips in a delicious pancake. In short, it was a world I immediately loved. I joined within the first three months the site had been active. Already the CN world had been rocked by war, its blood-soaked infancy testament to long simmering NationStates hatred brought to numerical life.

I remained within the game for slightly less than a year, but it was the first two months that defined my entire play experience.



During an chat session a friend who was much more into NationStates than myself linked me to CN. It looked interesting, so I created my nation. Within the first few days I was sent messages extolling the virtues of several alliances. After receiving one such message I wandered into the forums and became a part of something much bigger than my tiny nation. It was amazing to see the pomp and grandstanding present within the posters. Everyone remained within character and I quickly discovered the quirks of various alliances. I had chosen blue as my color and decided to follow through and join the largest blue alliance, the National Alliance of Arctic Countries. The NAAC was a democracy, with elected leaders and a constitution. It's members had a voice and a balance of power was kept, or so I thought. They were all friendly, and I was having a great time. In fact, nearly everyone within the game was friendly except the New Pacific Order.



The NPO was a red sphere alliance ruled with an iron fist by a dictator in all but name. Their entire structure and alliance was brought directly over from NationStates. Because of this base and their ruthless eradication of any red sphere competition they quickly established themselves as one of the most powerful alliances. They always played from a position of power and demanded kowtowing and respect at every turn. Seen through the eyes of an impressionable young recruit to a Democratic alliance the NPO was basically Nazi Germany. Any way it was looked at, they were the enemy. One of the first major wars had been fought between the NAAC and NPO, which had ended in favor of the NPO due to their pioneering of a new midnight blitz tactic. This only added fuel to the fire. It was a burning question in my mind, “Could democracy triumph over fascism the same way it had in the real world?”



I joined at a perfect time to be deeply affected by the game. I had never played anything that involved community interaction on this level, and because you were required to check your nation every day in order to maximize its power there was a lot to be lost by failing in your interactions. As an impressionable new recruit I was awed by the attention the leaders of our alliance paid to me, the little guy. Realistically, the game was just pretty new still and the community was fairly small. However, I was still impressed by my fellow members and their dedication. I resolved myself to work hard and make our alliance the most prosperous and therefore powerful. I participated in an election almost immediately upon arrival. The outgoing Protector was much beloved as he had founded our alliance and set it on the path of strength and peace. In the elections we were collectively idiots, falling for stupid promises and propaganda, instead of focusing on experience and honesty. In the end we elected a coward, although this was not immediately apparent. I was fooled. Fooled in much the same way that voters are today. Essentially it was the candidate who had the most political capital and best speeches, chock-full of amazing assurances about the future.

My first month or so in the game was great. My alliance mates showed me how to optimize my country both economically and militarily, while providing a lot of fun in the forums and IRC. Just as I had begun to really enjoy myself and grow my nation well was when our Protector made a small mistake whose flames he fanned into a massive blaze. Apparently he had been contacted by someone within the NPO who offered inside information. Suspected spying was the NPO's favorite pretense for war, despite their own persistent use of the tactic, which went against every ideal the NAAC stood for. It became an issue when our leader tried to accept some information from this “spy” and everything sort of came out into the open. The particulars remain unclear to this day. What had a chance to be passed off as a small diplomatic snafu quickly turned into a full blown international incident as our Protector sniveled and begged for forgiveness, acquiescing to demand after demand without consulting the alliance at large as per the constitution



In the end, he offered to give up one or more of our members that had somehow offended the NPO in the past. Essentially they would be cast out for the wolves. Without alliance protection most nations, especially older ones, will not last long due to their status as high-reward, low-risk targets. This was completely unacceptable to the rank and file as well as several elected officials. While laughing at our dedication our Protector left the alliance for a safe haven elsewhere along with many of our top officials. Leaving us to fight a war not just against the NPO whom had already defeated us once, but the two other largest alliances in the game who were pulled in due to mutual treaties.



We were crushed, devastated, destroyed. Our leaders were scattered or never were really leaders at all, and our membership quickly dwindled. Our place within the game as the most powerful blue alliance disappeared, and we were forced underground for quite some time. Despite all of this we retained our honor. We refused to retaliate against those who were forced into war by treaty, instead focusing only on the alliance who had forced it upon us all, the NPO.

Not that it mattered. In the end, the NPO went on to become the strongest Alliance in the game, even seeding the blue trading sphere with their own spin-off alliance, the New Polar Order. The NAAC was officially disbanded and disallowed to remain an alliance. Nothing was changed, the Goliath won, and his iron fist continued to rule. It was horrible to watch as they exalted in their always-assured victory. Even worse was reading what our leader said as he labeled those who chose to stay and fight idealistic fools. We were idealistic yes, but fools never.



We understood that standing up meant the end of our nations and possibly tenure within the game. We knew that the alliance might be lost to the vast streams of packets on the web forever. But we chose to make a stand, an attempt to appeal to the better nature of our cyberverse fellows. To always stand and believe in your freedom of choice, not to lick the boot of a dictatorial overlord. None of this came to pass. Our influence was negligible. Quickly forgotten, the game-world moved on to continue the same process of kowtowing, knowing that if you fight, you lose.

I witnessed the death of democracy, and there was nothing I could do about it.

This is not the sort of experience that most games are not built on. It wasn't fun to lose everything that I had put some work into every day for several months. It wasn't nice to see the “bad guys” win. But it worked, in a way, because the game affected me. It had a bigger impact on me than pretty much any other multi-player game I've played. I haven't touched the internet text based genre since, despite the relatively low cost of entry and ease of addiction, it's just not worth it to watch the world crumble around me again. The cost of departure can be quite high.



It also had more personality than any RPG. We had our villains (the leader of the NPO's name was Ivan Moldavi, which just seems designed to instill a sense of evil dictatorship), heroes, (one of the best military minds in the game was in our alliance, his name was Arctic appropriately enough) and everyone in between. I was interacting with a completely different world, one that had spun out of the hands of the creator and its framework into something both amazing and depressing. Perhaps it speaks more to the nature of the internet. Simply put, that democracy does not work as well as something more authoritarian, since both are without material reward, but only one causes motivation through fear of punishment.

So about a year ago I began to rebuild my childhood. Unfortunately, soon after I purchased Super Metroid my laptop died and I had sort of not been saving much money ending up spending pretty much all that I had on a new computer. This new computer and a general resurgence in my own interest in my PS3 kept me from much pursuing my old collection. However, recently three factors combined to get me to continue pursuing my past.


1. I started listening to RetroforceGo. My summer job is a pretty basic landscaping yard work deal which means that I'm outside every day just doing manual labor. I tried silence and got bored immediately, I tried music and got bored after a slightly longer period, but eventually I moved onto podcasts and knew I had struck gold upon hearing the first "aaannd welcome." While there are many memories discussed that I don't share with the hosts because I'm younger, their SNES recollections constantly brought me back.to my own childhood.





2. I was spending a lot of time at my grandparents house because my grandpa has brain cancer. Most of my earliest memories involve playing the SNES at their house, so I inevitably begin to reminisce about the good old days whenever I spend time with them.


3. Goodwill apparently has an online auction site. This sort of ties into RetroforceGo again in that Dyson made me wish that I had ever found anything worth having in a goodwill, since to date I have found nothing. Either way, the discovery of another online auction site always excites me, and I ended up making some purchases. In the end I picked up 37 SNES games, a system, controller, and a fighting stick. Now for a few pics.









I'm happy to have the beginnings of a collection again even though it doesn't match what I had in the past (selling FFIII(6) and Chrono Trigger to Gamestop in order to buy Gamecube games was a huge mistake). I probably won't finish every game I have anyways. Although one of the games I got was Battletoads and I plan on beating that fucker even if it has only destroyed myself and my self esteem every time we've crossed paths in the past.

Edit
Figured I'd throw in a few highlights of the collection since the pic sort of sucks. Mega Man X, All the DKC games, NBA Jam, Battletoads, Super Mario Allstars, Street Fighter II Turbo, Mortal Kombat II, Super Punch Out, Super Gameboy.

This might disgust you.

I really enjoy pizza, and the frozen variety is no different. They're simple and quick, terms that also bring to mind fast food, something else that I partake of every one in a while. sandwiches are also delicious simple inventions. So why not combine the three?

Last night I was at a friend's place, discussing how I was going to attempt a creation similar to something you would see on This is Why You're Fat. Apparently one of my friends hadn't eaten the entire day, and within an hour or so of having mentioned my plan he became so voraciously hungry that he declared his intentions to carry out my plan immediately. Naturally, I immediately agreed and we headed out to buy the crap we would need. We got two sausage tombstones and a bag of schredded cheese, then headed to a nearby Wendy's.

We had decided it was too late to actually cook some bacon (every giant ridiculous pizza sandwich needs bacon) so I was thinking about getting Jr. Bacon Burgers off of the dollar menu when my friend ordered 7 Baconators. Now, for the uninitiated, a Baconator is an item from Wendy's that has, "Six strips of hickory smoked bacon piled high atop two 1/4 lb.* patties of fresh, never frozen, beef. Complete with two slices of American cheese, mayo and ketchup for a mountain of mouth-watering taste. Go on, obsess a little" according to their website.

Upon arrival back at the house of my friend we assembled our ingredients.



We could only fit three Baconators between the pizzas without losing control, so people ended up eating the other four.



It took us a few tries to get everything right. In the end we sort of half cooked the pizzas then put it back together to cook some more.



















The two of us directly involved in the process and purchase of materials each had a half and we each cut a slice cut a slice off of for a friend. I actually finished mine too despite having had an entire pizza for dinner only 3 hours previously. I'm on the left supporting Liverpool.





It was ridiculously heavy. Someone commented that black holes probably begin once people start to make super-dense pizzas.



In the end it turned out to be pretty damn good, the only improvement I thought of at the time was pizza rolls. Throwing some of those in there would add a few pockets with a little more flavorful zing to them. Anyways just thought I'd share my foray into the awesome world of ridiculously unhealthy foods. Hopefully there will be more Heart Attack Masterpiece Theater.

On this most precious of Holidays there is one brave act of heroism that must always remain in our minds. When Will Smith got all badass on those aliens who almost killed us.




We salute you and your badassery Will Smith, may you always be there to protect us from alien threats, for without the force of your righteous fist there is little doubt in my mind that this great country would fall before the onslaught of the violent and extraterrestrial.

HAPPY 4TH

It's not because I've been playing my Wii too much, it's not because I have a porcupine as a pet, and it's certainly not because of whatever perverted sexual reason you might think. Rather, my hand hurts because I have embraced a fighter, BlazBlue. I know there have been a glut of BlazBlue blogs lately, but most of those have emanated from a similar perspective. "I have played fighting games since the dawn of time, and have been closely following this game and awaiting its release since the inception of the universe. I have an arcade stick, and I'm not afraid to use it." That kind of perspective. And it's cool, great that you enjoy the game so much, just not particularly surprising. I'm coming from the opposite direction.



Despite having my fondest memories of gaming spring from the magical well of the nineties I never played fighting games. Even though I ended up with 5 younger siblings whom I game with nearly every day, when home we never considered a fighter to solve our squabbles. Street Fighter II was a game that never locked it's silicon teeth with my SNES. In fact, I would go so far as to say that through the nineties the only fighting game I ever played was Killer Instinct, which my uncle left at my grandparent's house once. Arcades were never an option, as far as I understand it they were a dying breed before I was born, and once I had the desire and cash to play they had all but been wiped out. I've probably played under 10 arcade machines in my life.

By the time the 21st century rolled around I was cementing my place as lord of games within our household. having grown up with Nintendo, we remained Nintendo through the Gamecube. There was one fighter for me in this time, and it was Soul Calibur II which I purchased solely because of the inclusion of Link. I had no interest in competitive play, and although all of my friends had it we would only play a few quick matches if we were bored of our other games.

By the time this generation rolled around it looked as if most fighting games had left outside of Soul Calibur. I picked up a Wii on launch day, and in December of 2007 bought a PS3. The first game I bought from the PSN was Mortal Kombat II. A game I had never played in a series I had completely neglected, but one that was a part of the gaming world, one that everyone knew. If there was anywhere that I was going to get in on the ground floor of fighters this was it. I went online and was promptly crushed, and again, and again. I once lost somewhere between eighty and ninety matches, without a single round victory, in one sitting. To say that I was disillusioned would be a huge understatement. MKII became the game that sits in the bowels of my downloaded titles list, only to see the light of day when some unsuspecting fool stumbles across it. There was no way I could crack into such an established player base, so I looked to the future.

I had never played Street Fighter, but I did know how to Hadouken, plus SSFIITHDR was looking gorgeous, so I resolved to make it my second attempt to enter the realm of fighters. While I did enjoy playing and looking at it I discovered that it harbored an even older more practiced set of players than MKII. I might have won a single match, but it was probably against someone as failure-prone as myself in the genre. SF IV wasn't even a consideration for me. I didn't care about the franchise, and I didn't care to get my ass kicked in the same manner as SSFIITHDR.

Jump ahead to the beginning of this summer. I've seen a few trailers for BlazBlue while I was browsing the web but have zero intentions of purchasing it ever, much less as a day one. As the release date approaches I found myself reading more and more about the game, mostly within the CBlogs. People are excited for it, and though I'm not sure why I begin to become excited as well. This excitement culminated in a spur of the moment purchase yesterday.

So. . .

Now that you know where I'm coming from let me tell you this; BlazBlue is bloody brilliant. I feel like I have a chance even though I'm terrible at the genre. It's beautiful and feels fresh. I sense that I have the power to become semi-decent at a fighter, so I'm going to. I have fun playing it for hours on my own, trying to work out little things. I play fighters and RTS games in a similarly idiotic fashion. Instead of learning build orders or button combinations I play and mash until I can do it instinctively. If something works I do it again and again over and over until my hands can do it without me having to think, in fact I try to skip the thinking step entirely. Normally this prevents me from learning the nuances of a game, but this time I'm slowing down and working my way through things with the help of tutorials. It took around 15 years of gaming, but I found a fighter that I enjoy and want to be good at.

Recently I made another spur of the moment purchase in Cross Edge, and I hated it, despised it, unloaded it on Goozex as quickly as possible. I used to love an RPG no matter what the flaws, but maybe my tastes are changing, maybe I crave the 1v1, the satisfaction of mastering an instant response system rather than wading through a marsh of statistics. Only time will tell if my personal tastes have truly morphed, but either way BlazBlue will be in my PS3 for quite a while to come.

That is why my hands hurt, because I've been playing BlazBlue so much, and they've never really been contorted in this manner before for any length of time. These days I mostly game on my PC, but now I have something to pull me back into my consoles and keep me there for a good long while.

Quick Checklist, BlazBlue is:
♦Fun
♦Awesome
♦Beautiful
♦Great
♦Fantastic
♦A Fighter
♦HD
♦Quirky
♦Japanese

If any of you want to beat down on an underwhelming opponent, I'm your man: CWal37 (PS3) However, I must warn you that my home internet is nothing short of abysmal. I'll be fine in August once I go back to school, but if I play you now be prepared to grapple with lag. I'll also work on finding one of my headsets. Also, everyone should check out the "Tips" section in the Main "Story" screen. I was not expecting "Miss Boobie Lady".

This is sort of a kneejerk un-spellchecked post I pulled out of my head quickly, since I wanted to get it down before I get my wisdom teeth pulled. Sorry for any glaring errors.