wordPhile

Zero Punctuation: Infamous Edition

2009-06-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

Yahtzee brings up a few good issues about games not having a "gray area" in terms of karma and multiple endings.

My Top 5 Games of E3

2009-06-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

The time has come to see the future of gaming. Yes the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is here. All the major developers and publishers are there, demoing and showing trailers of new games. My geek senses are tingling. Here's my top games of the expo.

1) MAG - This is a PS3 exclusive shooter that allows 256 players in one level. This game is developed by Zipper Interactive, the makers of the original SOCOM series (not the crappy SOCOM: Confrontation) so it should be pretty good. The game was announced at last years E3, but this time full gameplay demos were shown. It seems that their is very little slowdown even with all 256 players in the level. There are also not going to be any tedious waiting rooms to get into a match. No, you dont have to wait for all 256 players to hit the ready button for the match to start. The developers have also said that players leaving the matches will not effect the gameplay in terms of lag, etc.

This game has a full fledged squad based leveling up system. That means that experienced players will play as squad leaders and issue commands. These squad leaders will have even higher superiors who lead the offensive as a whole. Leveling up is a real good way to add replay value to a first person shooter, as Call of Duty has shown.

2) Star Wars : The Old Republic - After seeing the trailer for this game, all I can say is WOW!! It honestly looks like this is going to be another movie. This MMO will have full voice acting for all character interactions. The developers have stressed that this is a story based and while im not a big fan of MMO's in general, my inner Star Wars fanboy will take full control of me when this game comes out.

3) God of War III - This game looks brutal. Watching Kratos rip apart creatures with blood flying everywhere is just awesome. Entire levels will take place on the backs of Greek gods. Hopefully this game will come out around the rumored console redesign and price drop, then Sony can catch up to Xbox.

4) APB - This game is basically an MMO sandbox similar to Grand Theft Auto. Its being developed by Realtime Worlds, the makers of Crackdown and the Original Grand Theft Auto Series. It seems this game is only for PC at the moment, but hopefully there will be console ports as well. There is no doubt that City/Crime sandbox games will one day be fully online. Its just a matter of time before a game surpasses GTA. Will this be it?

5) Splinter Cell : Conviction - I was surprised to see that this game is Xbox 360 exclusive. I was even more surprised to see how different this series has gone since the first time we played as Sam Fisher. This game seems to be more Bourne-esqe, in the sense that you are a rouge agent. The gameplay seems to be a lot more fast paced and the environments a little more free form and less linear. Oh and the graphics have never been better.

With that being said, there were a few games that I wish we could have seen more from. Games like:

The Agency - This Sony espionage MMO/Shooter could be really interesting especially considering that MMO's really havent been done well on a console yet.

Red Dead Redemption - This recently announced Rockstar sequel hasn't really been shown full force yet. Maybe they are saving it for next year, but I'm looking forward to a western sandbox for the next generation.

L.A. Noire - This is another Rockstar game rumored to have a larger budget than any other video game in history. All I've heard so far is that its PS3 exclusive and set in L.A. during the 40's or 50's.

Rage - This id game will be based on the Doom 4 engine and is supposed to take a new direction from the previous Quake and Doom games. Will this become the next Duke Nukem: Forever?

Dead Rising 2 - Im a little surprised this game was not shown off in a full gameplay demo. Capcom seems to be taking their time on this one, I've heard that you will be able to battle more on screen zombies than ever and have new weapons to creatively De-Brain them.

Modern Warfare 2 Screenshots

2009-05-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Check out these screenshots of the new Call of Duty from this months Game Informer. A few things we do know is that the Russians are back, there are snow mobiles, some sort of campaign co-op, and it looks like there will be some SWAT bulletproof shields. It also looks like there will be a level in Rio de Janeiro. I can't wait.

Star Wars Are Officially the Greatest Movies Of All Time (according to me)

2009-05-16T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well the numbers are in. Ive crunched the statistics from all the major box office blockbusters and reviews from IMDB in the supercomputer that is called my brain. Here's preliminary data.

*Note: Trilogies are sometimes counted as one story unless otherwise specified by an exceptional sequel (Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers) or an exceptional entry movie (the Matrix).
*Note #2: sometimes movies are offset by good reviews or box office by a certain bad-ass-factor(BAF) this ratio is equated by subtracting the suckiness (x) multiplied by the amount of girls or people who think the movie is cute (Y)
The formula is as follows (X*Y=Z) if z is less than or equal to the ammount of bullets fired, alien lifeforms, explosions, seconds of car chasing or people killed in the movie, it is officially bad ass.

For movies in 1980-1993:

Close Encounters
of the Third Kind,
The Shining,
Mad Max,
Blade Runner,
Star Trek II:
Wrath of Kahn,
Jaws,
Star Wars
Classic Trilogy,
Dune,
Escape from NY,
Top Gun,
The Abyss,
Aliens,
Indiana Jones,
Back to the Future,
Terminator 2,
Predator

Old-Ass-Movie Conference Final:

After grouping these movies into brackets and selecting the best, i ended up with 3 selections.

-Indiana Jones
-Star Wars: Original Trilogy
-Aliens

After processing the data, I came to the conclusion that the original Star wars Trilogy were the best of this era. The first two in the trilogy also hold very high ratings on IMDB and Star Wars: A New Hope is among the highest grossing movies of all time, especially when adjusted for inflation.

New Era:
1993-Jurassic Park,
Last Action Hero,
Demolition Man

1994-Forrest Gump,
True Lies,
Pulp Fiction,
Stargate

1995-Batman Forever,
Goldeneye,
Die Hard 3,
Species

1996-Independence Day,
Mission Impossible,
Mars Attacks!

1997-Titanic,
Men in Black,
Jurassic Park: The lost World,
Starship Troopers,
the Fifth Element

1998-Saving Private Ryan
Armageddon

1999-The Matrix
Star Wars Episode I

2000-Gladiator
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon;
the Patriot,
X-Men

2001- LOTR: The fellowship of the Ring,
Black Hawk Down,
Harry Potter: The sorcerers stone

2002-Signs,
Star Wars: Episode 2,
LOTR: The two towers,
Minority Report

2003-LOTR: Return of the King,
Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl,
Terminator 3,
Kill Bill vol 1

2004-Passion of the Christ,
National Treasure,
I, Robot;
Troy

2005-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith,
War of the Worlds,
King Kong,
Sin City,
Munich

2006-Casino Royale,
V for Vendetta,
Mission Impossible III,
Apocalypto

2007-Transformers,
I am Legend,
300

2008- The Dark Knight,
Iron Man,
Body of Lies

Here's How these movies stack up after the Preliminary round of the New Era Conference Finals:

1993: Jurassic Park
1994: Forrest Gump
1995: Goldeneye
1996: Independence Day
1997: Fifth Element
1998: Saving Private Ryan
1999: The Matrix
2000: Gladiator
2001: Black Hawk Down
2002: LOTR: Return of the King
2003: Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the black pearl
2004: Passion of the Christ
2005: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
2006: V for Vendetta
2007: 300
2008: The Dark Knight
2009 (so far): Star Trek

Now you have the modern era. The best movies by year. Now we move forward to the next round. After putting these movies in brackets, these movies advanced to the next round.

- Jurassic Park
- The Matrix
- Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
- The Dark Knight

Further reducing these, two titans emerge.

The Matrix vs. The Dark Knight

The Modern Era winner is.......
THE MATRIX.

Now we have our final matchup for the greatest, biggest blockbuster, most bad ass movie of all time.......

The Matrix vs Star Wars: The Classic Trilogy

And the winner is..............

Yes its the star wars Trilogy. You can debate amongst yourselves which one is the best among the original trilogy (Return of the Jedi IMO). But we can all agree that the prequels were not as good. Can the next Star Trek movie top this? We'll See.

iPhone App Review, vol. 1

2009-05-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Well I had to do it. The Bold was just not working out for me and I decided to get the iphone. I would say the major factor was the bigger screen. This is crucial if you're watching video or doing any web browsing. The app store is awesome too. There's "an app for just about everything", as the apple commercial says. Thats not to say they're all good, mind you, but if you look at the reviews and it seems like something you would enjoy then go for it. Why not? Most of them are free anyways.

1) Apple Remote

This one is sweet because it allows you to control your itunes library on your phone. Big deal, you say? Well say you're having people over and you make a custom mix, you can pick and choose tracks on your computer to entertain people. Say that you don't want to sit at your desk or walk across the room to switch tracks. Hook up a decent sound system to your computer, and you don't even have a need for a boom box. The coolest thing about this app is that it downloads all the songs in your library allowing you to pick and choose, not just pause, play, or skip tracks. How many boom boxes do that?

2) Stanza and/or Kindle for iphone

Stanza was recently acquired by amazon, so i am lumping these two together. Plus they do practically the same thing anyways. Both these apps allow you to read books on the iphone. The kindle downloads via Amazon through your wifi network. There is a really good selection of books and they are all cheaper than their paper counterparts. A bonus is that you don't have to pay 400 dollars for a regular kindle to get this great service. The stanza is great too, because it allows you to get many, albeit older, books from sources like project gutenberg. This app even allows you to cut down on battery life by switching the text to white and the background on white. Using this contrast ratio makes reading on the iphone much more pleasing to your eyes. Another cool thing is that you can download Stanza for your desktop and convert pdf files into readable format and load them on your phone. This is great for downloading ebook torrents.

3) Wired Reviews

Wired is a great magazine about technology and geek culture, so its only natural that they have a great iphone app. The reviews haven't really been updated much but im sure there will be more to come. Reviews on such items as the latest phones, cameras, computers, TVs, laptops, games, and even household appliances. The app also gives you daily access to their blog, which is worth the app alone, and video blogs. The video blogs integrate well with the youTube app, kinda satisfying my need for missing flash videos on the browser. Hopefully more websites and apps just add youTube in the future until we get flash.

4) Feeds

Feeds is an RSS reader that allows you easy access to websites by providing just the headlines and then either brief descriptions or sometimes full articles. This cuts down on loading time if you have a lot of bookmarks that you want to keep up on such as news, tech, video games, etc. Best of all there is an internal browser that allows you to quickly bring up the source article, if the shorter version is not enough. The fact that it is an internal browser is key, otherwise you would be switching back and forth between the safari and the app and that would suck. There are a few gripes about this app though. If you have a lot of feeds, it can be slow to load them when you bring up the app. Gladly you can change the setting to load individual feeds as you choose them instead of loading all them at once when you open the app. The other is a minor gripe less about the app itself. Sometimes finding RSS feeds and/or typing them in can be a pain. Most major sites have them, but they may not be easily accesible. When you do find them, they are long and take a while to type in. This isn't too bad since you only have to do it once, and that's only if typing the initial web address in the app doesn't find the actual feed.

5) Flixster Movies

This is pretty much the standard movie finding app. You can scope local theaters for listings, see reviews, box office statistics and more. This app even has facebook connectivity, facebook is also a great app for the iphone.

My new Phone, Available at Radio Shack.

2008-11-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

If you like browsing internet with a full HTML browser, but dont want the confusion of a touch screen, then maybe this phone is for you. The iphone is ok, but i really dont want to have to text with a touch screen. The speakers are great for music, theres even a program to sync it whith your itunes collection. One of the downsides is the camera, which looks way too dark and pixelated. The design is flawless and has a cool leather esque texture on the back. Obviously this works with office, word, powerpoint if youre into that. The display is beautiful and bright as fuck. The screen, although smaller than the iphone, has a higher resolution than it. Theres also optional GPS and its compatible with mobile tv clips and theres a music store if you feel like spending money for music (ya me neither). Im going to have to give this phone a B+.

Like the library of Alexandria, sort of.

2008-11-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

This is quite possibly the only site you need to know. You know how the library of congress stores a catalouge of newspapers and periodicals? Imagine that but digitallly. Im so suprised to see this even exists. Its called the Internet Archives and its sweet. You can go to your favorite pages and see what they looked like when they were first started. Want to know what happened in November 1997 on a webpage? There you go. When you think that the internet just doesnt move forward fast enough, maybe its time to start looking back and doing research.

Just read their mission statement.

Pretty cool stuff.

Review: Call of Duty: World at War

2008-11-21T01:21:00.001-08:00

Let me first start off by saying that if you read this review, it will be assumed that you somewhat enjoy WWII shooters and recognize that it was the most epic battle to ever happen on planet earth.

And with that we come to the best shooter based on that war, CoD: World at War. The japanese front has been tried and done before by the Medal of Honor franchise and although not a complete failure, it was less than spectacular. I think that jungle wars are the hardest to render, the environments so thick that they will be the real challenge in FPS to come. This game has the best jungle environments on a console (Crysis for PC).

The mission structure is the same as most WWII shooters, kill the mortar team, eliminate all enemy shooters, plant explosives etc. We are bored of the same thing because the military essentially does the same things over and over again. This game does manage to seperate itself from the crowd. Flamethrowers, extreme gurella tactics and unique Russian front levels all stand out. The multiplayer is as good as Modern Warfare, but again, if you dislike WWII then you will probably think it is horrible. Since mission structure is very linear you may feel like youve been there and done that, but i ask you, how many times have YOU played the pacific theatre?

I mean, you actually get to drop the atomic bomb and see first hand the charred flesh of nagasaki and hiroshima. Oh wait im just playing too much Fallout 3 because that game kicks this ones ass. God I hope Gears of War 2 doesnt get game of the year.

Attourney General Mukasey Collapses and the End of Neoconservatism has Begun.

2008-11-21T01:07:00.000-08:00

The Bell has tolled for those who fear the federal rise in power. The history books will speak of how power became concentrated, society streamlined and yes Neocons got their way. Oh boy is Regan rolling over in his grave right now. Less gov, less gov. But no I say, the neocons hijacked that ship long ago, brainwashing the middle class whilst leading them down the federalist path that Jefferson so feared. Their minds will be fraught with wrath of those who fear true patriotism, not patriotism out of fear, but patriotism out of functionality.

We have faith in this new administration, that it will bring the guillotine down on free markets and lax governmental involvement by the populace. This new generation, the indigo aquarian generation which will reach its equinox during the year 2012 AD, bring a new revelation, not unlike false revelations during the sixties and eras of enlightenment. This has all been done before so I see no need to panic. So when I say that the election of a black president was a shift in paradigms, you shall respond no. The election of Barrack Obama was a shift in paradigms. He is no holy ruler, purely secular in nature. Conservative media clung so tightly and corrupted his religion so vigorusly that he has publicly turned to a position of agnosticism. Again your stupidity has revealed itself to the light and that which you fear comes forth. This fear is based on superstition not rationale. For if it was otherwise you would know that life is what you make of it and that we will make it great. Or meet the same fate of our ancestors.

Why Fable II sucks.

2008-11-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

Here you go.

Click here to see!!!

Zero Punctuation grills the "game of the year" - Bioshock

2008-09-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

If you havent already checked out this vlog and youre into video games whatsoever, i suggest you jump on the bandwagon.

Bioshock Review Here

Free Online Resources

2008-06-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Heres some interesting websites that you can spend hours on.

1) www.sacred-texts.com

This website has information on pretty much every religion known to man, with books about history and philosophy as well. You can't go wrong with this site. Start off with something simple that you think you know about, and find out you really didn't know that much. Its updated all the time. Great free library on all things esoteric.

2) www.gutenberg.org

Heres another online library that has a suprising selection of random historical books. I actually found a book of stories from ancient egypt on here. Pretty cool stuff.

If all else fails, just filter google.books to find complete texts.
Im so easily amused... free entertainment!!!!!!!!!!

Ron Paul on the state of our dollar

2008-04-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

This video is interesting. If you havent heard why we are in such an economic slowdown, this may lead to some answers. We float our currency, the dollar is no longer based on gold but oil. Before Iraq, the Iraqi government tried to start exchanging oil for euros rather than dollars. Currently Iran and Venezuela are following suit. And the only buildings we protected in Iraq were the Oil ministries, not museums or anything of cultural importance.
Its funny that people are panicing right now because we have always had a lower currency exchange than the British Pound, probably since the colonies. I love this country, but there are many things that we are doing wrong. Id like to think a new president will help, but I doubt it. A lot of people want another Bill Clinton, like life was paradise during his presidency. That would be better than our current administration, but I think we need to do even better. The more i hear Ron Paul speak, the more i wish i voted for him.

New England and the Bavarian Illuminati

2008-04-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a document written by Vernon Stauffer titled New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. I was suprised how unbiased this work was and it made me question whether the illuminati may have been so bad after all. They wanted to be distinct from the occultism of the rosicrucians, and free from the superstition of the freemasons. All the while, 18th and 19th centuries were undoubtedly changed forever by this mysterious cult. A few facts are that as a neophyte, a member only had contact with his superiors. After moving on to the role of superior, he would meet with others in round table discussions about problems faced and strategies for improving the society. At this level, the member was encouraged to join the freemasons and many references are made to becoming a scottish knight. Could this be the influence behind scottish rite masonry? I wonder.
Although the illuminati was supposedly disbanded, there were confirmed illuminated lodges throughout the European and American states. It seems their biggest sin was that they stood for rational thinking. In such an idiotic world, this can be a revolutionary idea.

Read excerpts here

Rise of the Police State

2008-04-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

You think airports are bad. Thats just the model for what daily life will be like. With wiretapping, national RFID cards, and FEMA prison camps, we have a lot to look forward to. Remember most of these movies were made before the patriot act and 9/11.

Loose Change - 9/11

2008-04-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Heres a great movie about what really happened on 9/11. There is so much to the story that people dont know about. They officially blew up building 7. We all know about the care and special treatment given to the Bin Ladens. Wait until you hear what cheney has to say when he is given the option to shoot down the planes. This movie is great.

9/11 an inside job?

2008-04-19T22:57:00.001-07:00

Lets get something straight. 9/11 was not directly an inside job. But it was allowed to happen to allow more government controll. The planes could have been shot down, and jet fighters could have been scrambled in time. Missing footage at the airports, missing black boxes, missing footage from the pentagon missle going into the buildings. Oh and building 7 of the world trade center was officially blown up. Larry Silverstein, owner of the WTC property has admitted this publicly. And why the military buildup at Afghan borders before september the eleventh? A government think tank called Project for a new American Century stated it well. They needed a "pear harbor like incident" to bring about what the council on foreign relations stated "a new world order". Then we have the reality, which is that the new world order means old world tyranny. At bilderberg meetings, you dont find radical hippies. You find white men in suits and media moguls, presidential canidates and suprise, European nobility. In this "new" world order, we will be ruled by old world elietes.
9/11 was just cause and effect. Hagelian dialectic at its best. Research project northwoods and tell me if you think that the government could have planned it. Although I dont think they directly did. The paper trail to al-qaeda is there from the war with the soviets in the 80's, but I dont think this was directly a government op. They may have had advance knowledge and multiple chances to stop it, but in the end they didnt really care.

http://www.911truth.org
http://www.prisonplanet.com/011904wtc7.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

Endgame

2008-04-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

Heres Alex Jones' new movie, Endgame in its entirety. This is probably his best one yet. Most of it is on Bilderberg, and the creation of a new world order, north american union. Ron Paul even makes an appearence. The scary topic is about the depopulation of the world. Government websites confirm that avian flu could spread soon. The anthrax scare was also reported to be made in government labs, coincidence? Just testing the waters, dumb you down, treat you like cattle.

Benjamin Fulford speaks out against NWO

2008-04-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

This Dude has some great ideas about moving forward to a benificial New World Order, while leaving the eugenics, bonecrushing, nazi style one in the dust.

RSS newsfeed from Digg

2008-04-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ive added my customized newsfeed from Digg. More links, youTube content, reading list and commentary on current events coming soon.

Illuminati

2008-04-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

Many people are afraid. Indeed the quiet revolution began many moons ago, bread in masonic lodges and by the candle light of many revolutionary minds. People are afraid of what we might become when so much power is concentrated into the hands of so few. No matter. Adam Weishaupt created the illuminati in 1776 and infiltrated masonic lodges and no doubt the catholic church, as he was a Jesuit priest himself. People wonder if it exists today, people wonder if it existed befroe, i wonder if it ever really existed at all. All we have is some second hand anecdotes by masonic sources that say it was a mere hiccup in masonic history and conspiracy theorists who say every molecule, every miniscule detail of history has been a grande scheme by them to take over society. If we must look at the beginning of the illuminati, we must look at ourselves. We must look at the fall of man in the garden of eden and our imperfections, as this society is a man made creation. It is a fact that the Illuminati dont care much for human life, they funded both the american and french revolutions and the russian as well. Not to mention the notorious ties of the Thule society and hitlers foray into socialism gone seriously wrong.
When i think of the illuminati, i am reminded of Morpheus in the matrix, when he says they are guarding all the doors, they have all the keys. For we must bow down to them, if we are to become like them and succeed in their world. I highly doubt that the illuminati is such a bad thing, most people dont practice religion and hate their governments. So it would seem that the populace would support an organization abolishing both. It is curious that as we near 2012, the date of the end of the mayan calendar, CERN in switzerland is about to start the experimentation that could lead to the existence of god, or maybe the destruction of.... who knows what. We are at a crossroads. Wouldnt that be awesome if science proved religion exists and that spirituality is the highest form of human expression?
We must remind ourselves that we are not god, gods or anything of that sort. Angelic and Saintly, maybe. But we were created in gods image and it becomes possible that we may rival him in this physical world, but untill we break the dimension barrier that exists between spirit and physical, we remain very small. So small in fact, we are like a flea on the ass of a cow, who could be slaughtered at any moment by the farm owner. But the farmer remains benevolent. Should i reach out to the illumined ones, i could laugh if i found them to be so human in nature and so similar to myself and left brained, i would probably giggle uncontrollably and let out a fart or two.
You see, we are brought up (some of us) with the idea that there are elietes and there are regular people and somehow they are different. When we do something similar in nature to them, we get stuck. Do we continue into the unknown where greatness fears to trod or do we reluctantly remain mediocre? It is no big thing to be great. It is as nature would have intended. What you call great, i call a mere spasm natural as breathing. I was brought upon the english revolution and that england beheaded their king way before france ever did and my history class never told me this. Although the monarchy in england was reinstated, i have a feeling that this has much more significance than the french revolution because of the dominance of europe today. The british empire still exists to some extent. We are the only nation who doesnt have a monarch. The only one that matters in my opinon. Which leads me to the topic of the new world order.
The new world order, as i see it, is a global revolution. Google the word globalization if you want to know what the NWO is for they are one and the same. It seems that we are trying to decide whose revolution this will be. American? English? European? Chinese? I think all of the above. But that is not as it should be. Since we are fighting for oil in the middle east, why not state our intentions of controlling the globes economy and resources? We are a beacon for other nations. Im not talking about some bloody neocon crusade as bush would have you believe, but a new enlightenment. Indeed what i am saying is already happening and to think me a fool for saying this would be ridiculous. Yet we have many thorns in our side. Many setbacks as it were on our struggle for rational thinking. It is my decision to either become involved in the democratic party or to become an independent based on one thing. If the democratic party wins this election and we still play catch up with the european and asian worlds. If we still have the illlusion of freedom and the reality of serfdom, it will be my duty to become a lou dobbs figure, an independent.
What does this have to do with the illuminati, you are wondering? Well it seems i am of the camp where i think the illuminati have a hand in a bit of everything. Viva America!!!!!!!!!!