Game #107 - Jade Empire.
Posted on March 18, 2007 at 9:47 pm.
Today I finished Jade Empire Special Edition for PC and added it to the list of games I beat under the number 107.
Although I stand by my assertion that overall the game is of poor quality, I must make one correction. The plot has pleasantly surprised me with a twist that I did not anticipate. Although I was getting ready for a twist, I thought it would take another direction entirely.
** Warning! Spoilers **
I thought that during the confrontation with the Emperor it would be revealed that Princess Sun Lian is not Emperor Sun Hai's daughter. I was expecting to discover that she was actually Sun Li's daughter who was supposed to have been murdered at Sun Hai's orders and whom he has instead taken for his own.
Of course this is not what happened.
** End of Spoilers **
This is the only redeeming quality I was able to find in this game.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Movie - The Great Dictator.
Posted on March 16, 2007 at 12:05 pm.
We were over at a friend's house last night and saw a Charlie Chaplin film "The Great Dictator."
It is an awesome-awesome movie, I can't believe I have never seen it before!
Comment on this post - 3 existing comments.
Tightening of the bolts.
Posted on March 15, 2007 at 3:07 pm.
So far I don't know the original source or whether this is true or not. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is. This is copied directly from DrudgeReport:
"President Vladimir Putin has decreed the creation of a new super-agency to regulate media and the Internet, sparking fears among Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free Web.
Putin signed a decree to create one entity that will license broadcasters, newspapers and Web sites and oversee their editorial content.
Raf Shakirov, who was dismissed as editor of the Izvestiya daily after critical coverage of the 2004 Beslan school siege, tells REUTERS how Putin's decree could extend Soviet-style controls to Russia's online media, which have been relatively free to date.
'This is an attempt to put everything under control, not only electronic media, but also personal data about people such as bloggers,' he said.
Developing..."
Comment on this post - 8 existing comments.
Book - The Enactor.
Posted on March 15, 2007 at 10:18 am.
Just finished reading The Enactor by Max Fray.
Seemed like a pretty average one, but it has its moments.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Iran pissed at 300.
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 12:49 pm.
Even though I didn't like 300, I gotta give its creators some credit, they managed to anger the Iranian government as this article states.
How does one know if any given government is pathetic? There are many ways of course, but if you see a government bitching about a movie, that's a dead giveaway.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Movie - 300.
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 12:02 pm.
We just went to see 300.
I am not a fan of the original graphic novel. In fact I am hardly a fan of comic books at all, so I am judging this film purely on its own merit. I won't go as far as to call it plain terrible, but I found every aspect of it to be plagued by one misfortune or the other.
Historical accuracy... well I do realize it is based on a comic book and has monsters in it. Within that context, a lot is forgivable. However, many parts made me laugh. All the talk about freedom vs. slavery is especially funny considering the fact that the bigger part of the Spartan population was made up of slaves. (That is how all those Spartans were able to spend their time becoming professional soldiers.) And referring to Athenians as "boy-lovers" didn't make matters any less funny. The fact is, pederasty was an absolutely integral part of the spartan boys' upbringing. In Athenian jargon of the time, "to spartanize" meant "to sodomize".
Visuals: Pretty. Not spectacular though. Of course by the virtue of being a male I am bound to like weapons and battles, but even those didn't do much for me this time.
Dialogue: Sucked ass. Written by a bunch of sleep deprived 6-year-olds.
Music: Meh. Ranged from mediocre or plain bad. I love metal but it did not need to be there during the combat scenes.
Acting: Absolutely nothing to write home about. Seriously.
Overall this is not a movie I would see (or rent) again. This is also not a movie that should cost $9 to see since it doesn't benefit from being seen on a large screen. Any 22" TV would be just as fine.
Comment on this post - 1 existing comments.
New kitten.
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 10:11 am.
We got a new kitten on Saturday.
She is about 4 months old and solid grey. Very fuzzy and playful too.
Too playful in fact. We haven't slept since we got her. She jumps into our bed at night, pokes our faces with her nose, tickles us with her whiskers and purrs very-very loudly. If we lock her out of the bedroom she cries and meows. I guess this will go away as she gets more used to her new house.
She doesn't have a set name yet.
Comment on this post - 3 existing comments.
History and global warming rant.
Posted on March 13, 2007 at 9:57 am.
Religion was with mankind from the very beginning. Our distant ancestors saw the natural phenomena which they could not explain and so they invented spirits and gods. Most if not all cultures had deities to personify fire, thunder, water and so on.
Later an idea of monotheism developed. Yet later an increasingly large number of people abolished the idea of supernatural explanation to things and became atheists. People began to believe that in time, science will be able to answer all their questions about the natural world.
And then a curious thing happened.
For some reason a bunch of people who considered themselves to be at the forefront of science, took one more step forward and ended back at square one. They began to almost personify a force of nature in order to explain certain phenomena. Other people, who were smarter but less honest, began exploiting this new religion for political gain.
From then on things are developing as they would normally do. Questioning this new religion has become a crime. Excommunication is reintroduced. Witch hunts do not yet result in public burnings, but in time they will.
Proof is no longer needed, those speaking against the religion are silenced, and new adepts are recruited by intimidation, ignorance and a promise of saving the world.
It feels so surreal to see these things. To me they have always belonged in history books. Admittedly that is my favorite kind of reading, but I wouldn't want to live that stuff. Somehow this reminds me of the words of one of my professors from a while back. He said that the Western Civilization experiences somewhat of a collapse every 1000 years.
Are we there yet?
Comment on this post - 10 existing comments.
Global warming awww!
Posted on March 12, 2007 at 11:37 pm.
So these brave explorers decided to set out on a journey to bring attention to their global warming religion.
Sadly they had to cancel because due to extreme cold they got frostbite and their batteries got drained.
Awww...
This article has details.
"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming, but one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."
If I also may add, the will of the global warming god is unbeknownst to men. Global warming is our lord and it will smite the unbelievers... with freezing temperatures.
Amen.
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
Deniers and infidels.
Posted on March 12, 2007 at 10:13 am.
Question "global warming" and get free death threats! This article talks about the treatment that is received by those scientists who don't belong to the new radical religion of Globalwarmingism.
In related news, this article talks about a Muslim cleric who claims that droughts, climate change and pollution are a direct result of Australians' lack of faith in Allah.
Global Warming is God, and Al Gore is its Prophet! Jihad!!!!
Comment on this post - 0 existing comments.
99% of people who deny evolution can't as much as define it.
Subscribe to RSS feed.