Time for a videogame entry. I've been playing two videogames lately, World of Warcraft and Mercenaries. World of Warcraft can wait for another entry, because I'm sure I'll be playing it for a while. Mercenaries is just plain fun, which is surprising to me, because its a lot like Grand Theft Auto. As I've written before, Grand Theft Auto is a 'kitchen sink' type of game, like the Sims (though diehard Sims players would be horrified at the comparison). You have an environment and a plethora of options for your playable character, and the player makes his decisions and watches the fun. Whereas the Sims is enjoyably inventive and endlessly amusing, though, Grand Theft Auto becomes less and less impressive the more you play it. At first its like, 'I can drive! I can shoot! I can steal!' Then it becomes more apparent that its a mediocre driving game welded to a suub-par shooter connected to a shoddy control/aiming system. In a way, its impressive that it can do all these things at all, but in another way, its less than the sum of its parts. Mercenaries, on the other hand, which could be described as 'Grand Theft Auto in a War Zone' , is far superior. The driving parts are solid, the combat is fun in and of itself, and the destruction is so darned FUN that it puts the game that inspired it into the shade. Here's the deal: some crazed psycho has taken over North Korea and is threatening to nuke Japan, so the US, China, and South Korea invade. In the ensuing mess, you operate as a free agent, doing tasks for each of the invading armies (and also the Russian mafia), playing each of them against the other as you attempt to find the evil North Korean bad dudes. Okay, so its not Kafka. What it is, though, is fun. It enables you to apprach so many missions from different angles in the sandbox it provides that it becomes more than the sum of its parts. Here's an example. The South Koreans wanted me to capture/kill a North Korean nuclear scientist who was hiding in a far-flung village. I tracked him to a particular building and my first approach was through the front door. Unfortunately, the scientist had 20 bad guys guarding him, and they shot me up within an inch of my life. My next apprach was sneakier. I stole a nearby helicopter and landed it on the roof of the building, and started blasting my way into the scientists lair from the top down. this didn't work either, as the scientist had laid a booby trap in the penthouse. For my 3rd attempt I abandoned all finesse and planted C4 around the building. When I hit the switch the entire building exploded, vaporizing the scientist. Now, I lost half of my reward for killing the target, but man, it sure was a pretty explosion. The entire game is like that. You can play it as creatively as you like, and the game won't break. Plus, the explosions rock. After a hard day at the office, that sounds like the perfect game.
Now, Mercenaries isn't an 'important' game like The Sims or World of Warcraft or Half Life 2. It doesn't appeal to non-gamers and it doesn't really innovate -it just perfects the innovations of those games that have come before it. But its not trying to reinvent the wheel. It's just trying to have some fun. And at that it succeeds perfectly.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
The Oscars...how they’ll go.
I saw Million Dollar Baby the other night and firmly believe that it should win best picture. However, I’m pretty sure that The Aviator will win it. Why do I think that? Two reasons. Firstly, Martin Scorcese is probably the greatest American Director to NOT have an Oscar (apart from Orson Welles). The fact he doesn’t have one is an embarrassment to the Academy, even though, by all accounts, The Aviator is far from his best film. The Oscars have always been partly about make-up calls. The examples are endless. Russell Crowe loses for The Insider, which he thoroughly deserved, and wins the next year for…Gladiator. Now, I love Gladiator, and I think Russell Crowe was great in it, but the best actor of the year? No way. Or how about Denzel Washington? He loses for The Hurricane, and wins… for Training Day. Again, he was good in Training Day, but not THAT good. So yeah, the Academy will honor The Aviator to make up for ignoring Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. Unless they split Best Picture and Best Director, and give Marty the Best Director nod. An outside shot, but possible.
The second reason they’ll stay away from Million Dollar Baby is because of controversy. I’m not gonna spoil the movie (as many have), but suffice to say that Clint Eastwood’s character does something that many people find deeply immoral. Now, whether or not it IS deeply immoral I’m not getting into here, but that really isn’t the point. Enough people are ‘outraged’ to make it a little risky to honor. Which is a real shame, because it’s a phenomenal movie.
Best Actor will almost certainly go to Jamie Foxx, who apparently is great in Ray. I haven’t seen it but I have to problem with that. Best Actress I would love to see go to Hilary Swank, but I doubt it will, because of the aforementioned controversy, and also because of a makeup call for Annette Bening, who lost to Swank when she was nominated for American Beauty.
The screenplay awards are wide open. I’m rooting for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Animated Feature should hopefully go to The Incredibles, which I think is far superior to Shreck 2.
Visual Effects should be a lock for Spider Man 2. Art direction will probably go to The Aviator.
The whole show should be interesting because Chris Rock is hosting this year and IU have a feeling he’s going to want to shock people a little bit. We shall see.
The second reason they’ll stay away from Million Dollar Baby is because of controversy. I’m not gonna spoil the movie (as many have), but suffice to say that Clint Eastwood’s character does something that many people find deeply immoral. Now, whether or not it IS deeply immoral I’m not getting into here, but that really isn’t the point. Enough people are ‘outraged’ to make it a little risky to honor. Which is a real shame, because it’s a phenomenal movie.
Best Actor will almost certainly go to Jamie Foxx, who apparently is great in Ray. I haven’t seen it but I have to problem with that. Best Actress I would love to see go to Hilary Swank, but I doubt it will, because of the aforementioned controversy, and also because of a makeup call for Annette Bening, who lost to Swank when she was nominated for American Beauty.
The screenplay awards are wide open. I’m rooting for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Animated Feature should hopefully go to The Incredibles, which I think is far superior to Shreck 2.
Visual Effects should be a lock for Spider Man 2. Art direction will probably go to The Aviator.
The whole show should be interesting because Chris Rock is hosting this year and IU have a feeling he’s going to want to shock people a little bit. We shall see.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Gladwell Returns
If you're reading this, as soon as you're done, turn off the computer, go to your car, drive to the nearest bookstore, and purchase 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell. This is an utterly fabulous book by someone who knows how to write. If the name Malcolm Gladwell rings a bell, it's because he wrote the Tipping Point, which has become an oft-used phrase in the early 21st century. Gladwell is a staff writer for the New Yorker who finds fascinating insights in the most unlikely places - the behavior of shoe retailers, or the multiple ways mayonaisse can be rated, for example - that manage to illuminate the way things work in a real and profound way. 'Blink' is probably not as profound as 'The Tipping Point', but its every bit as fascinating.
'Blink' is about the dangers of thinking too much. It's about the unconscious faculties our minds have for making brilliant deductions out of very small samples of evidence. It's also about how that process can be corrupted. I decided that if I was going to write about this book, I wouldn't give away any of its knockout anecdotes. And I won't. But I do want to say that I love the fact that decisiveness is celebrated in the book, probably because I like to think of myself as decisive. One of my favorite points from this book is that the more information you accrue, the less likely you are to make an accurate judgement, and if that sounds like balderdash to you, then you will love the book. It's a trip. Some of the best parts of it concern what happened when 4 white NY police fired 41 shots into an innocent black man one night in 1999. And if you think the explanationto that is just 'racism' that's just because I subconsciously primed you to think that way by by choice of words. The angle Gladwell takes is frequently surprising and often challenging. I don't know if the book even has a 'point', but regardless, its the most interesting thing I've read in months.
'Blink' is about the dangers of thinking too much. It's about the unconscious faculties our minds have for making brilliant deductions out of very small samples of evidence. It's also about how that process can be corrupted. I decided that if I was going to write about this book, I wouldn't give away any of its knockout anecdotes. And I won't. But I do want to say that I love the fact that decisiveness is celebrated in the book, probably because I like to think of myself as decisive. One of my favorite points from this book is that the more information you accrue, the less likely you are to make an accurate judgement, and if that sounds like balderdash to you, then you will love the book. It's a trip. Some of the best parts of it concern what happened when 4 white NY police fired 41 shots into an innocent black man one night in 1999. And if you think the explanationto that is just 'racism' that's just because I subconsciously primed you to think that way by by choice of words. The angle Gladwell takes is frequently surprising and often challenging. I don't know if the book even has a 'point', but regardless, its the most interesting thing I've read in months.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Stuff that's gonna rule in 2005
Ok, after reading my previous post I have officialy scared myself. So very cynical! What happened to the cheerful, upbeat, happy-go-lucky Moondog? Well, the easy answer is, George W. Bush happened, but heck, that's no reason to wallow in despair. So what if we're all terrified riders in a careening shopping cart bouncing around the lip of a volcano? Does that mean we can't have a little fun? I believe that we can, and indeed, probably should. Why? Why should we have fun in the face of impending globo-political disaster? To answer this question, I must tell an old zen story from about 2000 BC.
Seems a zen holy man was being hunted by ignorant villagers and bandits who believed he was a witch. They chased him out of town and, to escape them, he cut off the road and began climbing a cliff. Unfortunately, they had a tracker and soon, the holy man was halfway up the cliff with bandits climbing up after him. To make matters worse, he looked up and saw 12 more bandits at the top of the cliff, climbing down to get him. He shifted his grip on a rock and suddenly an angry bird started pecking at his fingers. At this point the zen master spied a wild stawberry growing out of the cliffside. He smiled, and with his one free hand, picked it and popped it into his mouth, and enjoyed it.
That's the story.
Now, there are zillions of interpretations about what that story means (as with any zen tale), but what I take from it is, if you're in the shit, and you've done what you can, and the shit is still rising, then hell...eat yourself a strawberry. For me, pop culture is my strawberry. Movies, tv, books, video games, and so forth. If I'm stuck halfway up the cliff, then damn, I'm gonna play some Half-Life 2.
Good pop culture due this year:
Movies: King Kong. Do you really think Peter Jackson is gonna ruin his follow up to Lord of the Rings? Neither do I. Can't wait. I think Domino, a movie scripted by Richard Kelly, the Donnie Darko guy, is also going to be great. Apart from that, i'm looking forward to Star Wars and the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Then, of course, theres the new Spielberg War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise which should kick booty. War of the Worlds, man. That's good stuff.
Books: I'm eagerly awaiting A Feast for Crows, the new George R.R. Martin fantasy tale. It comes out July 19. I also want to Read Jonathan Strange and Doctor Morrell. There's a memoir being written by Colin Powell which should be pretty fascinating.
TV: 24 starts this Sunday, and I'm anticipating Jack Bauer kicking all kinds of ass. Lost is the best thing on TV, and I'm REALLY looking forward to Hurly's backstory. I think the fat man has all kinds of interesting secrets.
Videogames: Jade Empire is a role playing game set in ancient China (perhaps it has zen priests) which is supposed to be absolutely fabulous. Apart from that, I'm waiting for the Xbox 2 announcement in march. That thing is going to rock.
Music - there's a new Lyle Lovett cd due out this year, and a new Aimee Mann as well. Can't wait.
Well, that's what comes to mind on january 5th. I'm sure that by May 1st, there will be all kinds of new things on the list. We shall see. For now, it's Tuesday and there's a new episode of Lost. Pass the strawberries.
Seems a zen holy man was being hunted by ignorant villagers and bandits who believed he was a witch. They chased him out of town and, to escape them, he cut off the road and began climbing a cliff. Unfortunately, they had a tracker and soon, the holy man was halfway up the cliff with bandits climbing up after him. To make matters worse, he looked up and saw 12 more bandits at the top of the cliff, climbing down to get him. He shifted his grip on a rock and suddenly an angry bird started pecking at his fingers. At this point the zen master spied a wild stawberry growing out of the cliffside. He smiled, and with his one free hand, picked it and popped it into his mouth, and enjoyed it.
That's the story.
Now, there are zillions of interpretations about what that story means (as with any zen tale), but what I take from it is, if you're in the shit, and you've done what you can, and the shit is still rising, then hell...eat yourself a strawberry. For me, pop culture is my strawberry. Movies, tv, books, video games, and so forth. If I'm stuck halfway up the cliff, then damn, I'm gonna play some Half-Life 2.
Good pop culture due this year:
Movies: King Kong. Do you really think Peter Jackson is gonna ruin his follow up to Lord of the Rings? Neither do I. Can't wait. I think Domino, a movie scripted by Richard Kelly, the Donnie Darko guy, is also going to be great. Apart from that, i'm looking forward to Star Wars and the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Then, of course, theres the new Spielberg War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise which should kick booty. War of the Worlds, man. That's good stuff.
Books: I'm eagerly awaiting A Feast for Crows, the new George R.R. Martin fantasy tale. It comes out July 19. I also want to Read Jonathan Strange and Doctor Morrell. There's a memoir being written by Colin Powell which should be pretty fascinating.
TV: 24 starts this Sunday, and I'm anticipating Jack Bauer kicking all kinds of ass. Lost is the best thing on TV, and I'm REALLY looking forward to Hurly's backstory. I think the fat man has all kinds of interesting secrets.
Videogames: Jade Empire is a role playing game set in ancient China (perhaps it has zen priests) which is supposed to be absolutely fabulous. Apart from that, I'm waiting for the Xbox 2 announcement in march. That thing is going to rock.
Music - there's a new Lyle Lovett cd due out this year, and a new Aimee Mann as well. Can't wait.
Well, that's what comes to mind on january 5th. I'm sure that by May 1st, there will be all kinds of new things on the list. We shall see. For now, it's Tuesday and there's a new episode of Lost. Pass the strawberries.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Well as 2004 slinks out of the door and 2005 adjusts it's tie and checks its breath, here are some predictions, in no particular order. New Years prognostications are one of life's guilty pleasures, along with New Year's resolutions and New Years embarrasing memories of having drunk too much the night before.
Firstly, and not all that surprisingly, reality tv will continue its ongoing search to find ever-lower gutters to lay down in.There are some great reality shows and some merely good ones, but most are absolutely excerable. Have you seen the promos for 'Who's your Daddy?' where some adopted girl gets confronted by a bunch of imposters pretending to be her Dad, and has to pick which one really is, for a prize? In england Channel Four is getting ready to show 'Dust to Dust', where someone bequesths their (and I swear I'm not making this up)dead body to the show and they put it outside in the wild, then film it every week as it decomposes. Yep, this is entertainment in the 21st century. The answer to the question, 'are there any limits to the lengths some people will debase and humilate themselves to be on tv?' is a resounding No. There's stuff coming that will make us feel even more like the Roman Empire in Decline than we already do.
Okay, my next prediction is that there will be a natural disaster of biblical proportions, of asian tsunami proportions,in the United States. As I alluded in my last entry, you can only poop on mother nature for so long before she poops back,and we're heading for a poop-o-rama of unprecedented size. The only thing more predictable than this is the outcry from the news media right after, along the lines of 'who knew about this beforehand?', to which the answer is, all of us did.
Next - the situation in Iraq will get worse in unknown but horribly spectacular ways. Listen up - in 1967, smart people (you know, like us) knew that Vietnam was an unwinnable quagmire that was going to claim the lives of thousands who didn't need to die. But there was no way they could have predicted the specific ways in which the situation would unravel. There were still EIGHT YEARS ahead of the Tet Offensive, My Lai, The Pentagon Papers, and the fall of Saigon. It took that long for the average mainstream american to say "hmm, this might not have been such a good idea."In fact, even up to nixon's resignation in 1974, a majority of americans supported the war in Vietnam. Feeling depressed yet? Because this war has got plenty of play in it yet. Financially, it's costing us hundreds of Billions of Dollars, money that could have been earmarked to save social security or actually improve homeland security. In terms of lives lost there's no price tag. Just a lot of pain.
In brighter news, I predict that the aforementioned news media will rediscover it's teeth and become more aggressive in its pursuit of the Bush administration. Partly this is a function of the traditional change in dynamic for 2nd term presidents - critics realize they can outlast the current occupant of the White House and look more closely at his mistakes - but also its because many in the mainstream-but-still-honorable media feel stung that they were conned into essentially endorsing a war based on utter bullshit. The New York Times, for example, which relied on inner pentagon sources for their series of
stories about WMD in Iraq, now feels so betrayed by the administration that there's a palpable vibe of payback-is--coming emanating from the Gray Lady. I expect a huge scandal to break under the Bush administration, in classic 2nd term fashion. Don't expect the mainstream media to soft pedal this one. We may finally see some worthy successors to Woodward and Bernstein emerge.
Man, this has been a depressing post. Next: my upbeat tips for best movies of 05.
Firstly, and not all that surprisingly, reality tv will continue its ongoing search to find ever-lower gutters to lay down in.There are some great reality shows and some merely good ones, but most are absolutely excerable. Have you seen the promos for 'Who's your Daddy?' where some adopted girl gets confronted by a bunch of imposters pretending to be her Dad, and has to pick which one really is, for a prize? In england Channel Four is getting ready to show 'Dust to Dust', where someone bequesths their (and I swear I'm not making this up)dead body to the show and they put it outside in the wild, then film it every week as it decomposes. Yep, this is entertainment in the 21st century. The answer to the question, 'are there any limits to the lengths some people will debase and humilate themselves to be on tv?' is a resounding No. There's stuff coming that will make us feel even more like the Roman Empire in Decline than we already do.
Okay, my next prediction is that there will be a natural disaster of biblical proportions, of asian tsunami proportions,in the United States. As I alluded in my last entry, you can only poop on mother nature for so long before she poops back,and we're heading for a poop-o-rama of unprecedented size. The only thing more predictable than this is the outcry from the news media right after, along the lines of 'who knew about this beforehand?', to which the answer is, all of us did.
Next - the situation in Iraq will get worse in unknown but horribly spectacular ways. Listen up - in 1967, smart people (you know, like us) knew that Vietnam was an unwinnable quagmire that was going to claim the lives of thousands who didn't need to die. But there was no way they could have predicted the specific ways in which the situation would unravel. There were still EIGHT YEARS ahead of the Tet Offensive, My Lai, The Pentagon Papers, and the fall of Saigon. It took that long for the average mainstream american to say "hmm, this might not have been such a good idea."In fact, even up to nixon's resignation in 1974, a majority of americans supported the war in Vietnam. Feeling depressed yet? Because this war has got plenty of play in it yet. Financially, it's costing us hundreds of Billions of Dollars, money that could have been earmarked to save social security or actually improve homeland security. In terms of lives lost there's no price tag. Just a lot of pain.
In brighter news, I predict that the aforementioned news media will rediscover it's teeth and become more aggressive in its pursuit of the Bush administration. Partly this is a function of the traditional change in dynamic for 2nd term presidents - critics realize they can outlast the current occupant of the White House and look more closely at his mistakes - but also its because many in the mainstream-but-still-honorable media feel stung that they were conned into essentially endorsing a war based on utter bullshit. The New York Times, for example, which relied on inner pentagon sources for their series of
stories about WMD in Iraq, now feels so betrayed by the administration that there's a palpable vibe of payback-is--coming emanating from the Gray Lady. I expect a huge scandal to break under the Bush administration, in classic 2nd term fashion. Don't expect the mainstream media to soft pedal this one. We may finally see some worthy successors to Woodward and Bernstein emerge.
Man, this has been a depressing post. Next: my upbeat tips for best movies of 05.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Well, I'm Back
OK, I'm back, and it's time for the mother of all posts - the 2004 wrap up. My trip to New Zealand was great, and it was wonderful to see my family and friends, but it's good to be back here, too. I've been assimilated. It feels right that Christmastime should be snowy rather than sunny, and that it gets dark at 4.30 rather than 9.30. Funny story: one day after arriving back in Minneapolis, my wife Amy and I went to Madison to have a Christmas with her family. On Friday night I awoke at about 4AM with literally no idea which CONTINENT I was in. I kept looking up at the window in Amy's old bedroom, trying to figure out where the hell I was. It was a pure example of being absolutely confused. Finally my wife awoke and informed me of my physical location. I'd like to tell myself I would have figured it out eventually. I'd like to, but I can't.
Ok, so back to the end of the year. I figured I'd just put down a bunch of 'Best-of' lists, with notations only where neccesary. So - to begin, lets start out with TV!
Best TV of the Year:
5. 24 (Fox)- the virus storyline started slow but got great. Favorite moment: an inspired scene where Jack Bauer chops off his partner's arm with an axe - and his partner sincerely thanks him.
4. The Amazing Race (CBS)- not the one that's on now, which I haven't seen much of, but the one with Chip and Kim and Colin and Christy. Favorite moment: Colin tells his fiance "I hate you so much" as he keeps slipping in mud behind an intractible plough-beast. Second favorite moment: "Lord, help her." - this from a wimpy male model as his fiance is sexually assaulted on a crowded Calcutta bus.
3. House (Fox)- brilliant medical show with a fabulous misanthropic title character who also happens to be a genius. Very well written. Favorite moment so far: Nun (who suspects her fellow Nun may be a hypochondriac): "She believes in stupid, made up things." House, (puzzled): "Isn't that a prerequisite for your job?"
2. Lost (ABC)- Impossible to categorize but also impossible to miss. Can't wait to see what twists are in store with this show. Favorite moment: Locke realises he can walk.
1. Angels In America (HBO)- One of the greatest made for TV pieces of art ever. Moving, funny, smart, mysterious, irreverent, stunningly acted. Favorite moment: "The world won't end in a flood - it will end in fire" - behind this 1986 conversation, the Twin Towers loom.
Best Movies of the Year:
5. Dawn of the Dead - perfectly accomplishes what it sets out to do - scare the crap out of you. Favorite moment: birth of the zombie baby.
4. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)- a fantastic time at the movies - and an incredible wrap up to a tripped out thrill ride. Favorite moment: The Bride digs her way out of the coffin.
3. Collateral (Michael Mann)- pretty much a perfect movie Tom Cruise manages to be very scary in this story. There was a moment in this movie where you could literally hear (or not hear) the entire audience holding it's collective breath. That kind of control only belongs to the best directors. Favorite moment: Cruise stalks his prey in a crowded nightclub.
2. The Incredibles (Brad Bird)- If Spidey 2 brought comics into our world, this dragged us into their world, and we loved what we saw. Fabulous story, characters, subtext. Fave moment: impossible to pick.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michael Gondry)- it astounds me that this movie has been forgotten now that awards nominations are being made. First of all Jim Carrey deserves an Oscar for this. He's so wonderful as the timid, nebbish hero of the story its hard to believe he's Jim Carrey. Michael Gondry, the director, also deserves an Oscar for making such a confusing story so funny as well as moving. Favorite moment: "Meet me in Montauk".
Best Videogames of the Year:
5. Halo 2 (Xbox) - great action, great scale, great multiplayer. Favorite moment: Jumping aboard the giant moving cybertank that has been destroying the city and killing its crew before blowing it up.
4. Top Spin (Xbox) - Makes tennis exciting in what may be the best party game ever. I go to bed at night praying for a sequel. Best moment: Any doubles game with 3 real people.
3. Burnout 3 (Xbox) - Two words: Crash Mode. Favorite moment: finally unlocking the fire engine and smashing it into a gas truck.
2. Rallisport Challenge 2 (Xbox) Incredible looking, realistic feel, amazing career mode. Best racing game ever made. Best moment: completing the 15 mile desert hillclimb.
1. Half-Life 2 (PC) - Immersive, groundbreaking, moving and fun. The new benchmark for videogame greatness. Best moment: airboat chase.
Biggest Stories of the Year
5. Torture at Abu Ghraib (Bush administration)- AKA Operation:How To Make Them Hate Us Even More. Favorite moment: Rush Limbaugh says the abuses are no worse than 'fraternity hazing'.
4. No Weapons of Mass Destruction ( Bush administration)- turns out those wimpy UN inspectors were right. Favorite moment: Bush asking the UN for help.
3. Bush wins re-election (Bush administration)- are you still depressed? I kind of am. Favorite moment: "The Internets."
2. Iraq War amazingly not over yet (Bush administration)- but the important thing is, with all the thousands dead, nobody's being held accountable yet. See 3. Favorite Moment: soldier confronts a stunned Rumsfeld with the obvious - why are our troops not as safe as they could be?
1. Global warming accelerates - (Western society/Bush administration) not that you'd know it by reading the mainstream media. This is the biggest danger facing the world right now, as a leaked Pentagon document asserted. In the next 3 decades oceans will rise, cities will fall, and deserts will bloom. And unless we do something quickly, being able to say 'I told you so' isn't going to be very comforting. Favorite moment: Bush saying 'the jury's still out' on Global Warming while Alaska villiages vanish under the melting icecap floods. Don't expect any action from this administration till Kennebunkport Maine gets hit.
Coming soon: Predictions for 2005.
Happy Holidays!
Ok, so back to the end of the year. I figured I'd just put down a bunch of 'Best-of' lists, with notations only where neccesary. So - to begin, lets start out with TV!
Best TV of the Year:
5. 24 (Fox)- the virus storyline started slow but got great. Favorite moment: an inspired scene where Jack Bauer chops off his partner's arm with an axe - and his partner sincerely thanks him.
4. The Amazing Race (CBS)- not the one that's on now, which I haven't seen much of, but the one with Chip and Kim and Colin and Christy. Favorite moment: Colin tells his fiance "I hate you so much" as he keeps slipping in mud behind an intractible plough-beast. Second favorite moment: "Lord, help her." - this from a wimpy male model as his fiance is sexually assaulted on a crowded Calcutta bus.
3. House (Fox)- brilliant medical show with a fabulous misanthropic title character who also happens to be a genius. Very well written. Favorite moment so far: Nun (who suspects her fellow Nun may be a hypochondriac): "She believes in stupid, made up things." House, (puzzled): "Isn't that a prerequisite for your job?"
2. Lost (ABC)- Impossible to categorize but also impossible to miss. Can't wait to see what twists are in store with this show. Favorite moment: Locke realises he can walk.
1. Angels In America (HBO)- One of the greatest made for TV pieces of art ever. Moving, funny, smart, mysterious, irreverent, stunningly acted. Favorite moment: "The world won't end in a flood - it will end in fire" - behind this 1986 conversation, the Twin Towers loom.
Best Movies of the Year:
5. Dawn of the Dead - perfectly accomplishes what it sets out to do - scare the crap out of you. Favorite moment: birth of the zombie baby.
4. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)- a fantastic time at the movies - and an incredible wrap up to a tripped out thrill ride. Favorite moment: The Bride digs her way out of the coffin.
3. Collateral (Michael Mann)- pretty much a perfect movie Tom Cruise manages to be very scary in this story. There was a moment in this movie where you could literally hear (or not hear) the entire audience holding it's collective breath. That kind of control only belongs to the best directors. Favorite moment: Cruise stalks his prey in a crowded nightclub.
2. The Incredibles (Brad Bird)- If Spidey 2 brought comics into our world, this dragged us into their world, and we loved what we saw. Fabulous story, characters, subtext. Fave moment: impossible to pick.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michael Gondry)- it astounds me that this movie has been forgotten now that awards nominations are being made. First of all Jim Carrey deserves an Oscar for this. He's so wonderful as the timid, nebbish hero of the story its hard to believe he's Jim Carrey. Michael Gondry, the director, also deserves an Oscar for making such a confusing story so funny as well as moving. Favorite moment: "Meet me in Montauk".
Best Videogames of the Year:
5. Halo 2 (Xbox) - great action, great scale, great multiplayer. Favorite moment: Jumping aboard the giant moving cybertank that has been destroying the city and killing its crew before blowing it up.
4. Top Spin (Xbox) - Makes tennis exciting in what may be the best party game ever. I go to bed at night praying for a sequel. Best moment: Any doubles game with 3 real people.
3. Burnout 3 (Xbox) - Two words: Crash Mode. Favorite moment: finally unlocking the fire engine and smashing it into a gas truck.
2. Rallisport Challenge 2 (Xbox) Incredible looking, realistic feel, amazing career mode. Best racing game ever made. Best moment: completing the 15 mile desert hillclimb.
1. Half-Life 2 (PC) - Immersive, groundbreaking, moving and fun. The new benchmark for videogame greatness. Best moment: airboat chase.
Biggest Stories of the Year
5. Torture at Abu Ghraib (Bush administration)- AKA Operation:How To Make Them Hate Us Even More. Favorite moment: Rush Limbaugh says the abuses are no worse than 'fraternity hazing'.
4. No Weapons of Mass Destruction ( Bush administration)- turns out those wimpy UN inspectors were right. Favorite moment: Bush asking the UN for help.
3. Bush wins re-election (Bush administration)- are you still depressed? I kind of am. Favorite moment: "The Internets."
2. Iraq War amazingly not over yet (Bush administration)- but the important thing is, with all the thousands dead, nobody's being held accountable yet. See 3. Favorite Moment: soldier confronts a stunned Rumsfeld with the obvious - why are our troops not as safe as they could be?
1. Global warming accelerates - (Western society/Bush administration) not that you'd know it by reading the mainstream media. This is the biggest danger facing the world right now, as a leaked Pentagon document asserted. In the next 3 decades oceans will rise, cities will fall, and deserts will bloom. And unless we do something quickly, being able to say 'I told you so' isn't going to be very comforting. Favorite moment: Bush saying 'the jury's still out' on Global Warming while Alaska villiages vanish under the melting icecap floods. Don't expect any action from this administration till Kennebunkport Maine gets hit.
Coming soon: Predictions for 2005.
Happy Holidays!
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Apologies for the delay
Well, I've been in New Zealand. To tell you the truth, I'm still there. I came about a week ago to see my family and it's been tricky getting my hands on a computer. But here I am. Hopefully there's still someone out there reading.
Things are great in New Zealand at the moment. The government just passed a civil unions bill for gay people, the economy is sweet, the weather is balmy, and the country doesn't have troops in Iraq. On the minus side, they haven't got 'Lost' here, which outweighs everything.
Naturally, a great number of people have told me how much they despise Bush. New Zealand was really into the U.S. election - maybe more than their own elections. People had election parties, and pubs in town broadcast election night coverage on their giant projection screens. This led, of course, to many people being just as depressed as democratic supporters in the U.S.
The reason is simple, of course. New Zealand, like every other country, feels that four more years of Bush will effect them as well as Americans. New Zealanders are scared that Bush the bus driver is erratic and twitchy, prone to bold and sometimes stupid driving decisions. And like the rest of the world, they feel annoyed that he's back for four loooong years of boneheaded decision making.
I was talking a a good friend of mine yesterday and giving him my opinion - that it's in the nature of the right wing to overreach, and once they do, the pendulum will swing back - and I realized he was looking at me like "poor, deluded fool". That's the kind of smugness they have in New Zealand at the moment, with their center-left government and their nice beaches and their lame tv.
Despite all of New Zealand's ample benefits, I realise that I have been completely americanized - I find the service in restaurants shocking, and they charge you to refill your diet coke. However, I thouroughly understand why thousands of Americans will be rushing to immigrate here in the next year or two. Me, I'll be getting back on the bus in a week. The road is twisty and full of corners - hopefully we won't crash.
Things are great in New Zealand at the moment. The government just passed a civil unions bill for gay people, the economy is sweet, the weather is balmy, and the country doesn't have troops in Iraq. On the minus side, they haven't got 'Lost' here, which outweighs everything.
Naturally, a great number of people have told me how much they despise Bush. New Zealand was really into the U.S. election - maybe more than their own elections. People had election parties, and pubs in town broadcast election night coverage on their giant projection screens. This led, of course, to many people being just as depressed as democratic supporters in the U.S.
The reason is simple, of course. New Zealand, like every other country, feels that four more years of Bush will effect them as well as Americans. New Zealanders are scared that Bush the bus driver is erratic and twitchy, prone to bold and sometimes stupid driving decisions. And like the rest of the world, they feel annoyed that he's back for four loooong years of boneheaded decision making.
I was talking a a good friend of mine yesterday and giving him my opinion - that it's in the nature of the right wing to overreach, and once they do, the pendulum will swing back - and I realized he was looking at me like "poor, deluded fool". That's the kind of smugness they have in New Zealand at the moment, with their center-left government and their nice beaches and their lame tv.
Despite all of New Zealand's ample benefits, I realise that I have been completely americanized - I find the service in restaurants shocking, and they charge you to refill your diet coke. However, I thouroughly understand why thousands of Americans will be rushing to immigrate here in the next year or two. Me, I'll be getting back on the bus in a week. The road is twisty and full of corners - hopefully we won't crash.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Half-Life 2: Games as Art
I ‘m gonna write on video games again here, and I hope eyes don’t glaze over. I had to severely edit this post because it was getting away from me, due to my enthusiasm about the topic. This is the severely edited version. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about Halo 2 and it’s impact on popular culture. I was talking about video games in general and how, like motion pictures a hundred years ago, their impact and artistic merit are being largely ignored by the cultural mainstream. Some might raise their eyebrows that I would compare video games to a financial behemoth like the movie industry, but the truth is, that fight is over. Movies lost. Video games are on track this year to outgross movies by several BILLION dollars. You read that right. The information is out there – its just not making an impression on the evening news. Yet.
Halo 2 made 125 million dollars (place pinky by lips when reading that aloud) in its first 24 hours. No movie has ever done that. Still, at it’s heart, Halo 2 is art in the sense that a ‘Star Wars’ movie is art. It’s great entertainment, and fantastic fun, but it’s not going to convince people that video games are a legitimate artform.
For that, we have Half-Life 2. Let me give a little background. The original Half Life was released in November 1998, which, of course, is 42 Gaming Years ago. It was instantly hailed as the best game ever made. PC Gamer has had six ‘Best Games of All Time” polls since it’s release, and Half Life has won every single one. Why is that? Well, to explain, we need to digress. I know, I know. We’ve already digressed from Half Life 2 to Half Life 1, but this is important. Stay with me. This will all tie together.
The digression will be on the nature of video games. Games in general, well, that’s a huge topic, but video games we can handle here. A video game is basically a 30 second hook repeated for several hours. Look at Halo 2. The 30 second hook is you face a bunch of enemies, you throw a grenade at some of them, you pick off some stragglers while ducking behind some architecture. The scenery changes, the hook does not. Wash, rinse, repeat for 20 hours. That sounds kind of lame, described like that, but it’s not. Great games have a great hook. Bad games have a bad hook. Horrible games don’t have a hook and think their game is about how pretty it looks or how ‘shocking’ they can be. The Halo 2 hook is so well done, and the scenery is so well made, that by some alchemy it becomes a great game. Half Life on the other hand, had that and more. It really made you care about its story. Stories in video game are kind of like stories in porn – an afterthought. If the hook is good, the story doesn’t matter. If the story is good and the hook is bad, then the game is lousy. But if we hit a sweet spot – if we have an intelligent, mature story, and fantastic gameplay….then we really have something. Half Life hit that sweet spot. Gamers immediately began waiting for a sequel. Because the technology of games was getting so much better, and Valve, the company that made Half Life, really seemed to get it, Half Life 2, whenever it was going to come out, was the big hope for the game – the game that would make the legitimate leap from pastime to artform. Rumors swept across the internet. It was like following a soap opera. There wasn’t going to be a Half Life 2. Half Life 2 was going to be a role-playing game, not an action game. Valve had scrapped the original game engine and worked on a completely new engine from scratch, an immense technical undertaking. (This last rumor turned out to be true.) Years went by. No actual information was released. Then, in June 2003, a press release was made. The game was done, and would be released in September 03. There was joy, there was jubilation, there was bellowing in the streets. However – then the game was stolen by hackers. I kid you not. This led to the release date being pushed back by 14 months. There was despair, there was anger, there was weeping and rending of clothing.
Well, now it’s finally here, and I have played it, and it is better than I thought it would be. This is the game that people will point to and say ‘see what this medium is capable of?’
So, what’s the big deal? It comes down to several factors – story, characterization, physics, environments, and polish. I’ll go through them one by one.
Story – the story in Half-Life 2 is phenomenal. It’s about free will, love, fascism, emancipation, slavery, and killing aliens. Don’t turn your nose up at the killing aliens part! The ‘killing aliens’ part is what makes it a game. That’s the hook. The basic storyline is that you are a scientist who awakens in an eastern european totalitarian regime, and wind up starting an uprising. Along the way you meet up with several characters, one of whom you fall in love with. This was definitely not a case of a ‘porn storyline’ By the last third of the game I was playing because I desperately wanted to know what happened. That’s phenomenal for a videogame.
Characterization – a big reason why the story works so well is because of the characters. Videogame people are usually just placeholders. I mean, you can see that they represent people, but you don’t ever buy into the fiction that they are people. Well, the characters in this game are absolutely incredible. The facial expressions alone are capable of such subtlety, you can’t believe what you’re seeing at first. You start to relate to the characters, and then, when the storyline gets more involved, you really start to care for them. The technology that valve software created to create the facial expressions alone took 2 years to create. Ah, you gotta see it to believe it.
Physics – Your character, Gordon Freeman, is a man of science. He’s a thinker, not just a killer. In this game, if you’re smart, you can think your way out of situations without killing people. Everything in this virtual environment that’s been created obeys the laws of physics. If there’s a piece of trash on the ground, you can pick it up, and toss it. Early on in the game, I came across a teeter-totter, and placed a doll on one side. It slowly sank to the ground. Then I picked up a large brick and dropped it on the other side. The doll flew into the air in a perfect parabola. As you make your way through the world, you can navigate past obstacles by building bridges and ramps out of found objects. At one point, I built a raft out of old paint cans and a wooden pallet! And it worked. When you’re in an environment where everything acts like it’s supposed to, filled with believable characters – well, the suspension of disbelief is that much easier. I think what I loved most about the physics is that it allowed me to indulge my inner McGuyver and think up unique solutions to whatever problem was in front of me.
Environments – this is the part that will impress people the most. The environments in this game are utterly believable. The totalitarian city you find yourself wondering around really looks like it should. Early in the game I found myself in a loft with sunlight streaming through the windows and I was struck that I could see the dust particles in the sunlight. That’s a level of detail that is simply astounding to me. The game does a great job of placing you in diverse environments, as well. From the opening in the city, you go on an odyssey that takes you through canals, rivers, warehouses, beaches, bridges, prisons, back to the city, and finally a huge citadel. It’s a heck of a ride.
Polish – polish is what you get when every element in the game is checked and rechecked with every other element to make sure they create a seamless whole. It makes the experience greater than the sum of its parts. This game has it in spades. It’s a phenomenal experience that creates the feeling that only great art can do. It’s easily the greatest game I’ve ever played. In the future, people will look back at this game and say ‘that’s when games became art’. In my opinion, it’s the best art of the year.
Halo 2 made 125 million dollars (place pinky by lips when reading that aloud) in its first 24 hours. No movie has ever done that. Still, at it’s heart, Halo 2 is art in the sense that a ‘Star Wars’ movie is art. It’s great entertainment, and fantastic fun, but it’s not going to convince people that video games are a legitimate artform.
For that, we have Half-Life 2. Let me give a little background. The original Half Life was released in November 1998, which, of course, is 42 Gaming Years ago. It was instantly hailed as the best game ever made. PC Gamer has had six ‘Best Games of All Time” polls since it’s release, and Half Life has won every single one. Why is that? Well, to explain, we need to digress. I know, I know. We’ve already digressed from Half Life 2 to Half Life 1, but this is important. Stay with me. This will all tie together.
The digression will be on the nature of video games. Games in general, well, that’s a huge topic, but video games we can handle here. A video game is basically a 30 second hook repeated for several hours. Look at Halo 2. The 30 second hook is you face a bunch of enemies, you throw a grenade at some of them, you pick off some stragglers while ducking behind some architecture. The scenery changes, the hook does not. Wash, rinse, repeat for 20 hours. That sounds kind of lame, described like that, but it’s not. Great games have a great hook. Bad games have a bad hook. Horrible games don’t have a hook and think their game is about how pretty it looks or how ‘shocking’ they can be. The Halo 2 hook is so well done, and the scenery is so well made, that by some alchemy it becomes a great game. Half Life on the other hand, had that and more. It really made you care about its story. Stories in video game are kind of like stories in porn – an afterthought. If the hook is good, the story doesn’t matter. If the story is good and the hook is bad, then the game is lousy. But if we hit a sweet spot – if we have an intelligent, mature story, and fantastic gameplay….then we really have something. Half Life hit that sweet spot. Gamers immediately began waiting for a sequel. Because the technology of games was getting so much better, and Valve, the company that made Half Life, really seemed to get it, Half Life 2, whenever it was going to come out, was the big hope for the game – the game that would make the legitimate leap from pastime to artform. Rumors swept across the internet. It was like following a soap opera. There wasn’t going to be a Half Life 2. Half Life 2 was going to be a role-playing game, not an action game. Valve had scrapped the original game engine and worked on a completely new engine from scratch, an immense technical undertaking. (This last rumor turned out to be true.) Years went by. No actual information was released. Then, in June 2003, a press release was made. The game was done, and would be released in September 03. There was joy, there was jubilation, there was bellowing in the streets. However – then the game was stolen by hackers. I kid you not. This led to the release date being pushed back by 14 months. There was despair, there was anger, there was weeping and rending of clothing.
Well, now it’s finally here, and I have played it, and it is better than I thought it would be. This is the game that people will point to and say ‘see what this medium is capable of?’
So, what’s the big deal? It comes down to several factors – story, characterization, physics, environments, and polish. I’ll go through them one by one.
Story – the story in Half-Life 2 is phenomenal. It’s about free will, love, fascism, emancipation, slavery, and killing aliens. Don’t turn your nose up at the killing aliens part! The ‘killing aliens’ part is what makes it a game. That’s the hook. The basic storyline is that you are a scientist who awakens in an eastern european totalitarian regime, and wind up starting an uprising. Along the way you meet up with several characters, one of whom you fall in love with. This was definitely not a case of a ‘porn storyline’ By the last third of the game I was playing because I desperately wanted to know what happened. That’s phenomenal for a videogame.
Characterization – a big reason why the story works so well is because of the characters. Videogame people are usually just placeholders. I mean, you can see that they represent people, but you don’t ever buy into the fiction that they are people. Well, the characters in this game are absolutely incredible. The facial expressions alone are capable of such subtlety, you can’t believe what you’re seeing at first. You start to relate to the characters, and then, when the storyline gets more involved, you really start to care for them. The technology that valve software created to create the facial expressions alone took 2 years to create. Ah, you gotta see it to believe it.
Physics – Your character, Gordon Freeman, is a man of science. He’s a thinker, not just a killer. In this game, if you’re smart, you can think your way out of situations without killing people. Everything in this virtual environment that’s been created obeys the laws of physics. If there’s a piece of trash on the ground, you can pick it up, and toss it. Early on in the game, I came across a teeter-totter, and placed a doll on one side. It slowly sank to the ground. Then I picked up a large brick and dropped it on the other side. The doll flew into the air in a perfect parabola. As you make your way through the world, you can navigate past obstacles by building bridges and ramps out of found objects. At one point, I built a raft out of old paint cans and a wooden pallet! And it worked. When you’re in an environment where everything acts like it’s supposed to, filled with believable characters – well, the suspension of disbelief is that much easier. I think what I loved most about the physics is that it allowed me to indulge my inner McGuyver and think up unique solutions to whatever problem was in front of me.
Environments – this is the part that will impress people the most. The environments in this game are utterly believable. The totalitarian city you find yourself wondering around really looks like it should. Early in the game I found myself in a loft with sunlight streaming through the windows and I was struck that I could see the dust particles in the sunlight. That’s a level of detail that is simply astounding to me. The game does a great job of placing you in diverse environments, as well. From the opening in the city, you go on an odyssey that takes you through canals, rivers, warehouses, beaches, bridges, prisons, back to the city, and finally a huge citadel. It’s a heck of a ride.
Polish – polish is what you get when every element in the game is checked and rechecked with every other element to make sure they create a seamless whole. It makes the experience greater than the sum of its parts. This game has it in spades. It’s a phenomenal experience that creates the feeling that only great art can do. It’s easily the greatest game I’ve ever played. In the future, people will look back at this game and say ‘that’s when games became art’. In my opinion, it’s the best art of the year.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The Incredibles
There’s an interesting thing about this movie. For an animated feature, it really takes its time to get moving. After an action packed sequence as the movie opens, it calms down for the better part of an hour to allow us to get to know about its characters. Bob Parr, the erstwhile Mr. Incredible, works now in a soul-destroying insurance company. Now, if you’re an 8 –year old kid, would you rather watch a frustrated middle-aged executive battle bureaucratic corruption or a red-suited superhero fight a giant killer robot? However, this is just part of the movies cunning plan – it knows that many of the grownups watching the movie will relate to its central subtext – that in growing up, we compromise, but the idealist inside us doesn’t have to die. Mr. Incredible has tried, oh, how he’s tried …to bury the hero he once was, because the world doesn’t want heroes like him anymore. Instead of doing what he most wants to do – help people with his special gifts – he instead has to deny old women their coverage claims. The zenith of the frustration this causes him is when he desperately wants to stop a mugging in progress happening before his eyes, yet his odious boss orders him to do nothing. At this point he snaps and throws his boss through several walls. It’s a satisfying moment, but also a scary one. And it’s meant to be. William Blake has a proverb that I once spent several months trying to understand. “Better to strangle an infant in the crib than nurse unanswered desires.” Wow. That’s pretty intense, no? But think about it. What Blake is saying isn’t that you should strangle a baby. He’s saying that as horrible as that is, the consequences that arise from suppressing your true nature will lead to worse things.
Thus it is with Mr. Incredible. All he wants is to help people, to stop crimes, to be a hero – but the world has no place for that. And this can only be a bad thing. Try as he might, he can’t escape his inherent nature. His wife, Helen, who formerly went by the name Elastigirl, is much better at dealing with this new reality. She’s an elastic person in attitude as well as her abilities. (This metaphor of superpowers mirroring the internal persona plays out with the other characters also – Violet, the teen daughter, literally vanishes when she’s around the boy she likes – she’s a shrinking violet due to her shyness. And Dash’s superspeed is an obvious analog to his AD/HD ness. Samuel L. Jackson’s Frozone? C’mon! He’s coooooool.)
The joy that this movie contains is from seeing The Incredibles – particularly Mr. Incredible – get to express their true natures after suppressing them for so long. After being told his whole life to not run faster than other people, little dash is finally told to run as fast as he can. The look of bliss that crosses his face when he realizes he’s moving so fast he’s running on water is the look of someone who has finally accessed his place in the world. That’s a wonderful feeling. After all the set-up the movie gives you, when you finally do get to the giant robot showdowns, you care that much more.
One other point about this movie. Apart from the explicit critique of the insurance industry (which I loved), it also contains a major theme about mediocrity. It’s possible to say this movie is defending the value of elites. Several times the line “Everyone’s special…which means no-one is.” Gets uttered. I think many people will be uneasy about this aspect of the movie. I am certainly not one of them. ‘All men are created equal’ is a great fiction for basing a democratic government on, but it’s a fiction nonetheless. We’re NOT created equal. It’s okay for people to excel. You shouldn’t feel guilty for excelling. I saw something on the news this weekend that made my jaw hit the floor. Apparently there’s a movement among teachers to stop correcting papers using red ink, because ‘the red ink makes the children feel bad.’ Okay, just for a second ignore the fact that if they start using green or purple ink, soon kids will start feeling bad about seeing those colors on their papers. Instead think about how bass-ackwards it is to think that if a kid is upset because they have red all over their paper, the problem isn’t the kid and his issues, it’s THE FUCKING INK!
The Incredibles subtly points out the ridiculousness of such positions, and for that, it’s a much more solid work of art. It’s a truly life-affirming shot in the arm. This will be a movie that people are watching and enjoying twenty years from now. One of the best of the year.
Thus it is with Mr. Incredible. All he wants is to help people, to stop crimes, to be a hero – but the world has no place for that. And this can only be a bad thing. Try as he might, he can’t escape his inherent nature. His wife, Helen, who formerly went by the name Elastigirl, is much better at dealing with this new reality. She’s an elastic person in attitude as well as her abilities. (This metaphor of superpowers mirroring the internal persona plays out with the other characters also – Violet, the teen daughter, literally vanishes when she’s around the boy she likes – she’s a shrinking violet due to her shyness. And Dash’s superspeed is an obvious analog to his AD/HD ness. Samuel L. Jackson’s Frozone? C’mon! He’s coooooool.)
The joy that this movie contains is from seeing The Incredibles – particularly Mr. Incredible – get to express their true natures after suppressing them for so long. After being told his whole life to not run faster than other people, little dash is finally told to run as fast as he can. The look of bliss that crosses his face when he realizes he’s moving so fast he’s running on water is the look of someone who has finally accessed his place in the world. That’s a wonderful feeling. After all the set-up the movie gives you, when you finally do get to the giant robot showdowns, you care that much more.
One other point about this movie. Apart from the explicit critique of the insurance industry (which I loved), it also contains a major theme about mediocrity. It’s possible to say this movie is defending the value of elites. Several times the line “Everyone’s special…which means no-one is.” Gets uttered. I think many people will be uneasy about this aspect of the movie. I am certainly not one of them. ‘All men are created equal’ is a great fiction for basing a democratic government on, but it’s a fiction nonetheless. We’re NOT created equal. It’s okay for people to excel. You shouldn’t feel guilty for excelling. I saw something on the news this weekend that made my jaw hit the floor. Apparently there’s a movement among teachers to stop correcting papers using red ink, because ‘the red ink makes the children feel bad.’ Okay, just for a second ignore the fact that if they start using green or purple ink, soon kids will start feeling bad about seeing those colors on their papers. Instead think about how bass-ackwards it is to think that if a kid is upset because they have red all over their paper, the problem isn’t the kid and his issues, it’s THE FUCKING INK!
The Incredibles subtly points out the ridiculousness of such positions, and for that, it’s a much more solid work of art. It’s a truly life-affirming shot in the arm. This will be a movie that people are watching and enjoying twenty years from now. One of the best of the year.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Halo 2
If you're not into video games, the Halo 2 'phenomenon' may well take you by surprise. I mean, Halo was just an excellent shoot-em-up game. Why is the hype for the sequel so huge? I will attempt to explain. First, however, full geek disclosure: I waited at the video game store last night with hundreds of other geeks to get my hands on my pre-ordered copy.
Ok, to understand this phenomenon, we have to buy into the concept known as Sturgeon's Law. Theodore Sturgeon was a Science Fiction writer in the 50's and 60's who wrote dense, clever, intelligent stories which contrasted with the shallow, giant-robot fighting science fiction that dominated the genre back then. He was once asked, 'Why is so much science fiction crap?" He answered, " Of course 90 percent of science fiction is crap....but 90 percent of everything is crap." Want evidence of the accuracy of this law? Go to your movie listing page in the nearest newspaper. Look down the list of movies. See what I mean? Now go to your TV Guide. Yep, 90% crap. For the final proof, turn on your radio. So, if 90% of everything is crap, then 90% of all video games are crap. And boy, are they crap. One has to sift through a lot of crap just to find some mediocre titles, let alone something good. Something excellent - if you get one example of videogame excellence a year, you're doing well.
The original Halo was such a game. Smart story, incredible environments, amazing gameplay, and the ability to do it all with friends with an amazing multiplayer element. People played it pretty constantly for 3 years. And in the gamer world, years are like dog years - a 3 year old game may as well be 21. When I hosted the inaugral Moondog's Gamefest earlier this year, (more on the Glory that is Gamefest later), it was Halo that had everyone staying up late and wondering where the time went. So the sequel - well, everyone that loved the original knew they wouldn't screw it up. Such quality is rare in life. It makes grown men stand out in the cold outside Electronics Boutiques accross the country.
And Halo 2 delivers. It's freakishly good. It's so good non video game people look at it and say "Holy shit!" It contains moments where you forget you're playing a game. That is something that only good art can do - it transports you. The crazy thing is, Halo 2 will probably not even be the best game of the year - that will probably be Half Life 2, due out in 2 weeks time. My theory of video games is that, like motion pictures 100 years ago, they're the Rodney Dangerfield of art - they don't get no respect. It took a few legitimate movie masterpieces - Birth of Nation, Citizen Kane - for movies to be accepted by mainstream culture as legitimate art. Until the masterpieces, theatre snobs just turned up their noses at the movies. The advance word is that Half-life 2 is the game that will do that for this new medium. I'll let you know, because guess what? I have it pre-ordered.
Ok, to understand this phenomenon, we have to buy into the concept known as Sturgeon's Law. Theodore Sturgeon was a Science Fiction writer in the 50's and 60's who wrote dense, clever, intelligent stories which contrasted with the shallow, giant-robot fighting science fiction that dominated the genre back then. He was once asked, 'Why is so much science fiction crap?" He answered, " Of course 90 percent of science fiction is crap....but 90 percent of everything is crap." Want evidence of the accuracy of this law? Go to your movie listing page in the nearest newspaper. Look down the list of movies. See what I mean? Now go to your TV Guide. Yep, 90% crap. For the final proof, turn on your radio. So, if 90% of everything is crap, then 90% of all video games are crap. And boy, are they crap. One has to sift through a lot of crap just to find some mediocre titles, let alone something good. Something excellent - if you get one example of videogame excellence a year, you're doing well.
The original Halo was such a game. Smart story, incredible environments, amazing gameplay, and the ability to do it all with friends with an amazing multiplayer element. People played it pretty constantly for 3 years. And in the gamer world, years are like dog years - a 3 year old game may as well be 21. When I hosted the inaugral Moondog's Gamefest earlier this year, (more on the Glory that is Gamefest later), it was Halo that had everyone staying up late and wondering where the time went. So the sequel - well, everyone that loved the original knew they wouldn't screw it up. Such quality is rare in life. It makes grown men stand out in the cold outside Electronics Boutiques accross the country.
And Halo 2 delivers. It's freakishly good. It's so good non video game people look at it and say "Holy shit!" It contains moments where you forget you're playing a game. That is something that only good art can do - it transports you. The crazy thing is, Halo 2 will probably not even be the best game of the year - that will probably be Half Life 2, due out in 2 weeks time. My theory of video games is that, like motion pictures 100 years ago, they're the Rodney Dangerfield of art - they don't get no respect. It took a few legitimate movie masterpieces - Birth of Nation, Citizen Kane - for movies to be accepted by mainstream culture as legitimate art. Until the masterpieces, theatre snobs just turned up their noses at the movies. The advance word is that Half-life 2 is the game that will do that for this new medium. I'll let you know, because guess what? I have it pre-ordered.
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