Ibiza is an island resort. Beaches, parties, all that stuff. This place reminds me very much of Guam, so I’m not that excited about the place. Water has that salty taste and is definitely not potable. Everyone has to buy water from the store. Temperature is not too warm. Hovering around 19 centigrade. The beach is full of people doing beachy stuff. I find that the water is actually not very warm -certainly not warmer than Guam back in the Christmas holiday. The water also had a bunch of sediments and other floating objects. It did not look very good for swimming. The beach is not for swimming. There were tons of people sunbathing in their European uninhibited style. Good stuff.
Walking around, we were approached by a bunch of bar promoters. Basically it isn’t the prime season for tourism yet, and all the local bars are struggling to get enough people. Every bar has people standing on the streets trying to get people to go to their businesses. A lot of them actually look pretty dead.
After last night, I have decided to take a short reprieve on drinking. I had three nights in a row of bad sleep and heavy drinking and I just didn’t feel super great. Just didn’t want to continue waking up with a dehydrated hangover. So, I didn’t drink at all but still joined in on the card game.
Not sure if it was the exhausting day that everyone has had, but it didn’t look to me like they were having a lot of fun. The party ended when one of the players made a mad dash to throw up in the balcony. He almost made it to the edge, but missed. Vomit. All over the ground and partially on the balcony wall.
18 May 2010
Day 13 – Madrid
As soon as I stepped out of the hostel, I realized that my camera/phone wasn’t charged at all. No photos. :( We walked for about 4 hours, managed to stop and get fast food twice (cheap budget!) Originally we went to a fairly large mall. It was closed. We decided to head back to a museum which was fairly large. From what we understood at the entrance, there was a timed exhibition thing going on and that it will cost 10 euros to enter. By now, most of us have seen enough art to not really care about art. We found out later that apparently museums are free on Sundays, but what do I know?
After a short break, we went to go to the largest flea market in Europe. They were just cleaning up when we got there around 5. Not cool.
It was Sunday and the places were pretty much all closed. Boo. We acquired supplies to make a decently tasty chicken curry. It was nice. This is also the last night we get to see a bunch of people, possibly forever. Even though last night was supposed to be the party night, we partied pretty hard. At 2 AM, a bunch of people left by cab to the airport.
After a short break, we went to go to the largest flea market in Europe. They were just cleaning up when we got there around 5. Not cool.
It was Sunday and the places were pretty much all closed. Boo. We acquired supplies to make a decently tasty chicken curry. It was nice. This is also the last night we get to see a bunch of people, possibly forever. Even though last night was supposed to be the party night, we partied pretty hard. At 2 AM, a bunch of people left by cab to the airport.
Day 12 – Travel to Madrid.
Left at 7:30, arrived at 8:00
This is the party night. Since half of the students are going back to Vancouver on Day 14 (flight at 4am), this will be the only reasonable time to party. Passed out at the airport is not a good idea. In addition, this will be the bachelor party for one of the students getting married soon afterwards. Huzzah.
Before getting to Madrid we stopped by a mining museum slash park. I think it is a historic site or something. It was the standard museum experience except about mining. What was neat is that they had an underground part of the mine that can be visited. We walked around for a little bit. The coolest part is that in order for us to get out of the underground, we rode a (straight path) mine cart train out of the mountain into an old refinery system.
This is the party night. Since half of the students are going back to Vancouver on Day 14 (flight at 4am), this will be the only reasonable time to party. Passed out at the airport is not a good idea. In addition, this will be the bachelor party for one of the students getting married soon afterwards. Huzzah.
Before getting to Madrid we stopped by a mining museum slash park. I think it is a historic site or something. It was the standard museum experience except about mining. What was neat is that they had an underground part of the mine that can be visited. We walked around for a little bit. The coolest part is that in order for us to get out of the underground, we rode a (straight path) mine cart train out of the mountain into an old refinery system.
Day 11 – Rio Blanco
We had an early field trip to Rio Blanco. It is basically just another copper/zinc mine with fairly low grade of ore compared to Los Cruces. The COO of the company came to chat with us and was immensely interesting. He talked about how the company was founded and how through mergers and acquisitions became a big player in the market.
We also got the standard tour of the mine and got to see the circuits and everything. It was incredibly nice of the engineers to come and show us the stuff. It was supposed to be a local holiday and they weren’t supposed to come in.
Spent the night mostly with my main man Jerome. We went out looking for souvenirs and ended up having dinner due to overwhelming hungriness. We walked quite a bit and found this mysterious structure which did not seem to have any functional purpose. The ‘structure’ is composed of two parts which is interlinked only at the top. One side has an elevator and stairs. The other side seems to be the main building. What doesn’t make sense is that the existence of the stairs and elevator on the outside will probably negate the chance of having stairs or elevators on the main building. The stairs/elevator section is also only connected to the top. Supposedly it is a remnant from a Spanish Exposition event.
Once back at the hostel, I joined in on an existing party and blahed.
We also got the standard tour of the mine and got to see the circuits and everything. It was incredibly nice of the engineers to come and show us the stuff. It was supposed to be a local holiday and they weren’t supposed to come in.
Spent the night mostly with my main man Jerome. We went out looking for souvenirs and ended up having dinner due to overwhelming hungriness. We walked quite a bit and found this mysterious structure which did not seem to have any functional purpose. The ‘structure’ is composed of two parts which is interlinked only at the top. One side has an elevator and stairs. The other side seems to be the main building. What doesn’t make sense is that the existence of the stairs and elevator on the outside will probably negate the chance of having stairs or elevators on the main building. The stairs/elevator section is also only connected to the top. Supposedly it is a remnant from a Spanish Exposition event.
Once back at the hostel, I joined in on an existing party and blahed.
14 May 2010
Day 8,9,10
Day 8 - Free Day
Cadiz is surrounded by water on all sides. I have a picture here:
The end of the strip is where the old downtown used to be. It is now mostly a tourist attraction used to take money away from tourists with their extremely expensive meals and items. I went to see some lame cathedral and ate poorly cooked food.
Oh yeah, I bought a totally sweet ds charger. It was sweet because Nintendo didn’t opt to pay the extra 20 cents to include a voltage convertor for their default charger. This one is USB and should be fine wherever compooters are used.
After lunch, we walked back to the hotel (did I mention the hotel itself is pretty sweet, except for the whole see-through bathroom door. Had a little siesta (afternoon nap), and then headed out for dinner. Went to McDonald’s again and this time I went for the value menu again. Spent 2 euros versus the 15 euros for the stupid expensive lunch. Blah.
Walked along the beach and then I mostly went to bed (after hanging out with some cool guys.)
Day 9 – On the way to Seville.
Checked out at 9 am and headed for Seville. The ride only took about an hour and a half. This City is very organic and old. What I mean is that the streets only have enough space for two lanes max. The rest of them only have space for one lane. In addition, the roads are laid out at strange angles (not parallel and perpendicular like ours.) This is the result of having a really old town centre that just grew outwards.
While I still had clean clothes when I got to Cadiz, I was running out of clothing by today. I went to see the Cathedral at Sevilla, which was pretty neat. One of the better ones I’ve seen in Europe. I then bolted back to the hostel to put my laundry into the dry cleaning. 3 euros for each machine, which is way more reasonable than the 3 per item at the Laundromat. Went for a walk for dinner, but ended up eating cheaply at some cheap place. I’m trying to conserve money for now. I don’t really think I like the whole Spanish-seafood stuff in this part of the province. I had this mussel that had disgusting things inside that tasted like grass or some sort of plastic. Not exactly clean water. It was within the mussel, so yeah.
Didn’t go clubbing or partying, but just stayed indoors. Went to bed at 1:30 am. One of the roommates got hella pissed off because she wanted to sleep. I can understand wanting to sleep, but the thing is that she disappeared downstairs for 3 hours ‘waiting’ for people to leave the room and when she got back she was angry it wasn’t over. By that point, we’ve winded down and people were leaving. She decided to ‘get back’ at us by playing Chinese music which was stuck in a loop. I put on my earplug/phones and lol’d to sleep. Fact: If she stayed in the room, people would have left for bed earlier, like at midnight. (the next day’s activity doesn’t start until 10.) Oh yeah, the hostel fits 6 people and she was the only one who didn’t want to do anything.
Day 10 – Los Cruces
Went to Los Cruces, a place where dreams are born. The deposit at the mine is intensely rich compared to other places and as such are able to afford many luxuries. I mean, just look at their front entrance. They have enough money to make a waterfall moat. They’re also in the process of installing new palm trees. Baller.
We got the usual mine tour. Apparently the clay in the region makes it impossible for vehicles to go when it is wet, so every time it rains, they have to stop operation. They’re still making a boatload of money though. Good for them. They served us lunch and we went back to the City.
I feel like I have to reiterate that alcohol is really cheap. I’m not sure if it is the taxes or what, but on average, I have to say it is about 40% cheaper in Spain.
Another awesome thing about Spain is that all of the prices listed have tax included. That’s right! What you see is what you pay. No more bullshit dumb calculation in the head.
Cadiz is surrounded by water on all sides. I have a picture here:
The end of the strip is where the old downtown used to be. It is now mostly a tourist attraction used to take money away from tourists with their extremely expensive meals and items. I went to see some lame cathedral and ate poorly cooked food.
Oh yeah, I bought a totally sweet ds charger. It was sweet because Nintendo didn’t opt to pay the extra 20 cents to include a voltage convertor for their default charger. This one is USB and should be fine wherever compooters are used.
After lunch, we walked back to the hotel (did I mention the hotel itself is pretty sweet, except for the whole see-through bathroom door. Had a little siesta (afternoon nap), and then headed out for dinner. Went to McDonald’s again and this time I went for the value menu again. Spent 2 euros versus the 15 euros for the stupid expensive lunch. Blah.
Walked along the beach and then I mostly went to bed (after hanging out with some cool guys.)
Day 9 – On the way to Seville.
Checked out at 9 am and headed for Seville. The ride only took about an hour and a half. This City is very organic and old. What I mean is that the streets only have enough space for two lanes max. The rest of them only have space for one lane. In addition, the roads are laid out at strange angles (not parallel and perpendicular like ours.) This is the result of having a really old town centre that just grew outwards.
While I still had clean clothes when I got to Cadiz, I was running out of clothing by today. I went to see the Cathedral at Sevilla, which was pretty neat. One of the better ones I’ve seen in Europe. I then bolted back to the hostel to put my laundry into the dry cleaning. 3 euros for each machine, which is way more reasonable than the 3 per item at the Laundromat. Went for a walk for dinner, but ended up eating cheaply at some cheap place. I’m trying to conserve money for now. I don’t really think I like the whole Spanish-seafood stuff in this part of the province. I had this mussel that had disgusting things inside that tasted like grass or some sort of plastic. Not exactly clean water. It was within the mussel, so yeah.
Didn’t go clubbing or partying, but just stayed indoors. Went to bed at 1:30 am. One of the roommates got hella pissed off because she wanted to sleep. I can understand wanting to sleep, but the thing is that she disappeared downstairs for 3 hours ‘waiting’ for people to leave the room and when she got back she was angry it wasn’t over. By that point, we’ve winded down and people were leaving. She decided to ‘get back’ at us by playing Chinese music which was stuck in a loop. I put on my earplug/phones and lol’d to sleep. Fact: If she stayed in the room, people would have left for bed earlier, like at midnight. (the next day’s activity doesn’t start until 10.) Oh yeah, the hostel fits 6 people and she was the only one who didn’t want to do anything.
Day 10 – Los Cruces
Went to Los Cruces, a place where dreams are born. The deposit at the mine is intensely rich compared to other places and as such are able to afford many luxuries. I mean, just look at their front entrance. They have enough money to make a waterfall moat. They’re also in the process of installing new palm trees. Baller.
We got the usual mine tour. Apparently the clay in the region makes it impossible for vehicles to go when it is wet, so every time it rains, they have to stop operation. They’re still making a boatload of money though. Good for them. They served us lunch and we went back to the City.
I feel like I have to reiterate that alcohol is really cheap. I’m not sure if it is the taxes or what, but on average, I have to say it is about 40% cheaper in Spain.
Another awesome thing about Spain is that all of the prices listed have tax included. That’s right! What you see is what you pay. No more bullshit dumb calculation in the head.
13 May 2010
Day 7 – Smelter, Cadiz, and Laundry
Early in the morning we left for the smelters in Huelva. Here, they take the copper concentrate, purify it, and the product is a sheet of copper 1 m by 1m and 65kg by weight. When I first entered the building, there was a huge conveyor type grappler that was moving above my head. Obviously there was more than enough clearance for safety reasons, but because of the huge scale of the object, my natural response was to duck down a little. Honestly, it felt like something from a science fiction movie.
After lunch, we left for Cadiz. By now, people in my class are desperately out of clothing and clean underwear. I understand their plight because my under wears weren’t exactly clean. Fortunately, I have many extras so I was still safe. Some of them were afraid though. We made a trek across the city to look for a laundramat, but it turns out that laundry is really expensive. I’m talking about 3 euro per item expensive. Apparently, the Spanish people aren’t really big on the whole self-serve Laundromat idea. I spent the rest of the night being dumb. Went to McDonalds and spent 3 euros on dinner. I got a Chicken Move-it, a Chicken Burger BBQ, and some onion rings. Vastly cheaper than anything else I could have eaten.
Jerks were staying in my room for way too long and I didn’t get to sleep until 3 am.
The hotel room was much, much nicer than the hostel we’ve been staying. Wide open spaces, INTERNET, great.
The problem with the room is that there’s a broken window pane. It is permanently stuck on open. Cold.
After lunch, we left for Cadiz. By now, people in my class are desperately out of clothing and clean underwear. I understand their plight because my under wears weren’t exactly clean. Fortunately, I have many extras so I was still safe. Some of them were afraid though. We made a trek across the city to look for a laundramat, but it turns out that laundry is really expensive. I’m talking about 3 euro per item expensive. Apparently, the Spanish people aren’t really big on the whole self-serve Laundromat idea. I spent the rest of the night being dumb. Went to McDonalds and spent 3 euros on dinner. I got a Chicken Move-it, a Chicken Burger BBQ, and some onion rings. Vastly cheaper than anything else I could have eaten.
Jerks were staying in my room for way too long and I didn’t get to sleep until 3 am.
The hotel room was much, much nicer than the hostel we’ve been staying. Wide open spaces, INTERNET, great.
The problem with the room is that there’s a broken window pane. It is permanently stuck on open. Cold.
11 May 2010
Day 6: Free Day
So, apparently no Internet. I just couldn't find a hotspot. Well, day 6 is a free day with no scheduled itinerary. Played some beach volleyball, went to the market, and had some "papajas", which is a spanish seafood rice dish. There are clams(shell included), prawns, and even a mini lobster thing. Overall, it was alright. It really wasn't anything special.
My feeling about this place (technically called Punta Umbra) is that the economy has hit the place hard. When walking down the streets, even downtown, there were many, many stores that were closing down and have for sale signs. The hostels have bad quality and the beach isn't really maintained. Yeah, it might be because it technically isn't the right season yet, but I can't help but feel that the best is behind this place.
Went for a bike ride around town. It costed 4 euros for half a day. While biking, Jerome and I stopped by some stores to buy some items. I swear we stopped by three stores owned by three chinese guys. Because my mandarin is better than my spanish, we just communicated in that. I got a 10% discount from one of the guys. Neat. Its just funny how I'm half an ocean away in a foreign country, and they're from half the world away in the same foreign country, and I'm speaking mandarin. Talked about where we're from and why we were here.
Coolio. Afterwards we decided to just bike around. Wasn't really afraid because I had my NOKIA N97 with the built in GPS. Apparently we biked pretty far after backtracking the path we took.
This was the first real time I biked for a long time. (10 years?) Probably totally less than 10 hours for sure. This was a challenging experience for me. Bleh.
Found a weird sandwichy place that served mini sandwiches. I didn't order any sandwiches, but I got this strange bowl of strangeness. Eggs. Potato. Sausage. Tomato sauce in the bottom. It didn't taste that great. Sourness from the tomato sauce. Saltiness from the sausage. Bleh.
Day 5: Rio Tinto District
We got up at 7:00, which was tough considering the night before. Drudged along to the bus with a small prepared meal. One of the weird things in Europe is the lack of a concept of a breakfast. Their lunch is served late and their dinner is served even later. Bah.
We got a tour of the Project Rio Tinto mine by IMED. They bought the mine along with all of the liabilities (environmentally, the previous owners were not good.) There’s still a lot of copper that can be profitably extracted, but there are a lot of concerns regarding fixing the environment and upgrading/updating the equipment before this can occur.
Went to the Mining museum afterwards. Saw the history of mining in the region. Went to a model roman mine and a restored tunnel leading to an open pit that’s filled with water. You can see the red tint in the water. After lunch (from 2 to 4) we went to take a train ride along the Rio Tinto River. Went back to the hostel afterwards. I’m going to try to find Internet now. Its been a couple of days without the Internet and I’m starting to feel a little crazy. Day 6 is a free day in Huelva. We leave for another place on Day 7.
Note: No internet : ( Went for dinner right after the attempt. Got some good old Pollos (pronounced Polos :D)
10 May 2010
Day 4: Huelva
Woke up at 7:47 am. Breakfast was served at the hostel at 8:30, so I just blahed around somehow.
Afterward, we went to visit the University of Huelva's other, more industry related campus. Here, we had a presentation and a short information cultural exchange. Afterward we toured the campus, had lunch, and headed back to the Hostel.
Once there, a group of us went to the beach to nap in the sun and swim. I have to say that the water here is really salty. Way saltier than the ocean water in the Pacific. Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to be drinking the water, but it accidentally happens sometimes. Not bueno.
We had a search party go out to find dinner. 18 of us ate a bunch of fish and the bill totaled to about 270 Euros. 15 per person. Not a bad meal. Spent the rest of the night at the beach until about 1:30 am.
Day 3 – Lisbon to Huelva bus ride.
The bus left Lisbon at 9:30 am. Took a detour trip to Sintra. Arrived at Huelva at about 6 pm.
Huelva is surrounded by beaches. It is a pretty nice place. Unfortunately, the hostel does not have any Internet, so this is all delayed.
Went to the University of Huelva for a guest meet and greet dinner. There were like 50 people just standing around the main hall. There are tables with snacks but no chairs. The idea is for people to walk around and mingle. I met some students from Germany, and a (white) instructor teaching in China.
Afterwards, we went back to the hostel. Went to the beach and had a small swim.
04 May 2010
Lisbon, Portugal.
I arrived in Portugal safely after a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt and a 3 hour flight to Portugal. There were many delays due to circumstances including one which involved the Icelandic Volcano erupting again.
One of the methods I use to beat jetlag is to stay awake the entire flight. I stayed up for the first flight (which landed ~3 am vancouver time), but I dozed off occasionally for the second flight ( arrived ~8 am vancouver time due to waiting for transfer).
By the time we got to the hostel, it was around 6 pm local time. Shower was necessary because of the ickiness. Went out for din din at a restaurant about a kilometre away.
Indian Curry. Not the best, but not the worst I've had.
Beside it was a store with a lot of Hello Kitty merchandise. Too bad it was closed by the time we were done.
In the Portugal / German airport, there were these Camel Smoking Booths. It was an area where people can isolate themselves and smoke. Of course, it was ventilated.
Coming back to the hostel, there's a lot of drinking involved.
One of the methods I use to beat jetlag is to stay awake the entire flight. I stayed up for the first flight (which landed ~3 am vancouver time), but I dozed off occasionally for the second flight ( arrived ~8 am vancouver time due to waiting for transfer).
By the time we got to the hostel, it was around 6 pm local time. Shower was necessary because of the ickiness. Went out for din din at a restaurant about a kilometre away.
Indian Curry. Not the best, but not the worst I've had.
Beside it was a store with a lot of Hello Kitty merchandise. Too bad it was closed by the time we were done.
In the Portugal / German airport, there were these Camel Smoking Booths. It was an area where people can isolate themselves and smoke. Of course, it was ventilated.
Coming back to the hostel, there's a lot of drinking involved.
23 April 2010
Starcraft 2 Beta, Exams, Trip
Because I preordered my copy of Starcraft 2, I received a beta key for the game.This is all fine and dandy, except this is the during the Final Exam Period! Note: Final here represents the last exam period I will have. Note2: Period represents a duration of time.
Even more depressing is that the Beta will end May 16 (unless they extend it.) I will be on my European Trip from the start of May, so I won't even be spending a lot of time on SC2.
Woe is me.
Even more depressing is that the Beta will end May 16 (unless they extend it.) I will be on my European Trip from the start of May, so I won't even be spending a lot of time on SC2.
Woe is me.
25 March 2010
God of War 3
The latest game in the franchise and possibly the last one in the series with Kratos (considering the ending.)
If you have played the previous God of War games, you have pretty much played this one. The gameplay is almost exactly the same. There is still the quick time events for all the major boss fights. You essentially just hit the boss enough times until there's a button on the bosses' head. Hitting the button will lead into an epic quick time event ending in the boss' death.
One of the main criticisms I've had for these games is that if you fail in a sequence during the quick time events, you fail completely. I would actually like to see some sort of branching path in the QTE. ( I mean, if I cut the minotaur's stomach with my blade, and then stab his back, he should still be hurting even though I missed the stab to his eyes.) You have to restart the entire sequence again. This isn't a big deal (because I rarely miss), but I think it can be improved.
God of War was never really known for the depth of its story. All three games are about a really mad bald character who is trying to kill a bad guy and will stop at nothing at achieving that goal. Though the story formula is about the same, this version lacked the drive for the player to complete the task. In God of War I, we are shown the reason why Kratos wanted to kill Ares. Ares had indirectly caused Kratos to murder his own family. In God of War 2, Zeus tricked and killed Kratos. It makes perfect sense that Kratos wanted to kill Zeus. In God of War 3, Kratos is still angry from the second game. We don't really see Zeus do anything to Kratos. I didn't really have the same
The first game introduced us to the fantastic world. It ended with Kratos killing Ares and becoming the god of war. The second brought in the concept of the Fates, which was a major part of the whole Greek Mythology. Kratos used the looms of fate to change to allow the Titans to come back into the 'present time', launching an offensive against mount olympus. The third game doesn't really introduce any concepts we haven't seen before. We get to see the Labyrinth, which was pretty well designed, but it doesn't have the impact of the things from the other games. The end of the game was completely lackluster. Kratos gets his vengeance, and then nothing. We get no satisfying conclusion. It felt empty, just like Kratos after his revenge.
I love that when each god dies, their associated 'domain' gets messed up. When Poseidon died, the ocean flooded to the mountain. When Helios died, the sun went away. It was great to see the world transform with each god that dies. I expected Kratos to destroy the entire Olympian god structure at the end of the game. There would be no titans or gods left to control the elements, and there would be no need anymore. The world would be able to exist without any gods. Essentially, I wanted the God of War world to transform into one like our own.
After the climactic battle of the game, there was a long cutscene between the ghost of Athena and Kratos. Athena wanted Kratos to give her whatever was inside Pandora's Box. Kratos insists that the box was already empty when he got there. It turns out that when all the evils of the box was released in the end of GoW1, they flew into all of the gods of olympia, turning them into paranoid assholes. Hope (which was the power to destroy the gods) got inside Kratos, but he couldn't use it because of all his anger. At the end, Kratos worked out his anger issues by forgiving himself and was able to kill Zeus.
The game was pretty good up to this point, but then they had to add in this hope bullshit into the story. There was a minute of dialogue from Athena explaining that the power of HOPE was inside Kratos all along! Hope beats everything because hope is powerful!
This ending felt like a non ending. Instead of giving Athena the power, Kratos ends his own life and 'hope' was dispersed into the world. Kratos lies down on the ground, bleeding to death. After the credits, there's a trail of blood leading to a cliff. The end.
Summary: I like this game. It just didn't live up to the hype. :(
Could have used a bigger character transformation for Kratos since this is his last game.
If you have played the previous God of War games, you have pretty much played this one. The gameplay is almost exactly the same. There is still the quick time events for all the major boss fights. You essentially just hit the boss enough times until there's a button on the bosses' head. Hitting the button will lead into an epic quick time event ending in the boss' death.
One of the main criticisms I've had for these games is that if you fail in a sequence during the quick time events, you fail completely. I would actually like to see some sort of branching path in the QTE. ( I mean, if I cut the minotaur's stomach with my blade, and then stab his back, he should still be hurting even though I missed the stab to his eyes.) You have to restart the entire sequence again. This isn't a big deal (because I rarely miss), but I think it can be improved.
God of War was never really known for the depth of its story. All three games are about a really mad bald character who is trying to kill a bad guy and will stop at nothing at achieving that goal. Though the story formula is about the same, this version lacked the drive for the player to complete the task. In God of War I, we are shown the reason why Kratos wanted to kill Ares. Ares had indirectly caused Kratos to murder his own family. In God of War 2, Zeus tricked and killed Kratos. It makes perfect sense that Kratos wanted to kill Zeus. In God of War 3, Kratos is still angry from the second game. We don't really see Zeus do anything to Kratos. I didn't really have the same
The first game introduced us to the fantastic world. It ended with Kratos killing Ares and becoming the god of war. The second brought in the concept of the Fates, which was a major part of the whole Greek Mythology. Kratos used the looms of fate to change to allow the Titans to come back into the 'present time', launching an offensive against mount olympus. The third game doesn't really introduce any concepts we haven't seen before. We get to see the Labyrinth, which was pretty well designed, but it doesn't have the impact of the things from the other games. The end of the game was completely lackluster. Kratos gets his vengeance, and then nothing. We get no satisfying conclusion. It felt empty, just like Kratos after his revenge.
I love that when each god dies, their associated 'domain' gets messed up. When Poseidon died, the ocean flooded to the mountain. When Helios died, the sun went away. It was great to see the world transform with each god that dies. I expected Kratos to destroy the entire Olympian god structure at the end of the game. There would be no titans or gods left to control the elements, and there would be no need anymore. The world would be able to exist without any gods. Essentially, I wanted the God of War world to transform into one like our own.
After the climactic battle of the game, there was a long cutscene between the ghost of Athena and Kratos. Athena wanted Kratos to give her whatever was inside Pandora's Box. Kratos insists that the box was already empty when he got there. It turns out that when all the evils of the box was released in the end of GoW1, they flew into all of the gods of olympia, turning them into paranoid assholes. Hope (which was the power to destroy the gods) got inside Kratos, but he couldn't use it because of all his anger. At the end, Kratos worked out his anger issues by forgiving himself and was able to kill Zeus.
The game was pretty good up to this point, but then they had to add in this hope bullshit into the story. There was a minute of dialogue from Athena explaining that the power of HOPE was inside Kratos all along! Hope beats everything because hope is powerful!
This ending felt like a non ending. Instead of giving Athena the power, Kratos ends his own life and 'hope' was dispersed into the world. Kratos lies down on the ground, bleeding to death. After the credits, there's a trail of blood leading to a cliff. The end.
Summary: I like this game. It just didn't live up to the hype. :(
Could have used a bigger character transformation for Kratos since this is his last game.
22 March 2010
Kane lives in Death.
"The Epic Conclusion to the Tiberium Saga"
C&C4 was announced with a shift from base-building and resource gathering to a mobile 'supply-based' combat. You are given a set amount of supplies (50/60/80) which you're able to have right from the start. Killing enemies will eventually give you tech points which allows you to research unit upgrades or unlock a higher tech tree. Because of the limit of possible units, the game becomes more focused on getting the correct combination of units against theirs. This is both a positive and a negative. If your army is destroyed, you can quickly rebuild it all.
There's also three different roles you can choose during the game. Offensive, Defensive, and Support. They each have unique units, buildings, and abilities suited to their respective roles.
In addition, there's a new 'player experience' system. During gameplay, certain actions such as killing different enemies or completing mission objectives, will award experience points. As your experience gets higher, more units will become available to you. One playthrough of the campaign got me to level 13 out of 20, so I wasn't able to use the best units on the last mission.
In multiplayer, all the maps are point-based. The first to reach a certain number wins. These points can be acquired by capturing certain buildings, or killing units in the game. When your main 'crawler' (or MCV mark 7) dies, you can request a new one.
Overall, I feel that some of the changes in the game play is necessary. How many iterations of the same game can we really go through? I'm just not keen on losing the resource system because it made the game feel much simpler. The game as is works, but I think I would have liked another rehash of the same RTS from the past decade.
---
Command and Conquer was never really about the gameplay to me. I am a big fan of science fiction, and the idea of an alien poisonous unstoppable glowing green mineral/plant fascinated me right from the start. With the rich lore of the universe (with Kane apparently being an immortal prophet) and the semi-serious FMV, the story was what really mattered to me. That's why C&C4 is so disappointing to me.
It was quite obvious to me that Command and Conquer 4 lacked the budget or time of the previous versions. While the lines in C&C3 were about the same quality, the actors were able to transcend through the script and really deliver something that's mediocre. C&C3 had an awesome cast with Sawyer from Lost and Michael Ironside. The acting in this version is one of the worst in the series. The entire storyline felt flat and uninspired. There was never really any clear motivations for why people are fighting at all.
In the intro to the game, Kane decide to call a truce with the GDI forces after seeing how Tiberium has contaminated most of the Earth. He meets up with GDI leaders and offers them the Tacitus, which is an alien orb containing vital information which can save the world. 15 years later, the alliance has built several Tiberium Control Network towers which promise to keep the infestation at bay, giving humanity true safe zones while allowing them to harvest the mineral rich resources of tiberium. Not every single Nod soldier likes the idea. There's a splinter group which seek to destroy all of the towers, citing that Kane has betrayed the ideals of Nod.
In this game, you play as a commander who chooses to side with GDI or Nod in the fourth mission. Apparently, you are one of five people with a newly installed occular implant that is vital to the activation of these TCN. Throughout the game, the people with these implants are killed, leaving you to be the sole survivor. Apparently in addition to controlling the tiberium infestation, the TCN towers are also key to Kane's ascension. They beam a magical frequency to the surviving Scrin tower in the game, which ultimately opens a portal to an unknown place.
If you side with the GDI, it turns out that your commander tricked you by killing your wife and blaming Kane. You spend the rest of the campaign crying about your dead wife and exacting your vengeance on Kane.Turns out, your commander was butthurt due to the lost of her family in the war. She wants Kane dead and can't see reason. Nothing in the missions really matter, because in the end, you have to stop Kane from activating the Scrin tower. Inside, Kane reveals that your boss is a lying sack of shit. He begs you to open the portal (PLOT CONTRIVANCE OF THE IMPLANT ARGH) and you do. Kane hops into the purple portal. Your boss is probably killed by Kane.
If you sided with Nod, you spend your time protecting the TCN towers and fighting off the splinter Nod faction. Blah Blah Blah. You end up in the same place, but this time you die so you can't hop inside the magical portal.
In the aftermath, the TCN towers activate and tiberium is gone from surrounding areas. Kane's loyal followers who were at the Scrin tower have disappeared, presumably they 'ascended' with him. Yay. The story is over!
And then someone in the script department decided to add in a line which ruined the climax. The scene is set on the street interviewing a random stranger. "Kane, gone? Yeah right!"
Queue the credits.
Summary: Nothing is explained. Kane's plan as shown in the various Nod campaigns don't make sense. The only confirmed thing is that Kane has lived for thousands of years and has worked all this time for his ascension. How does converting the world to a Tiberium Red Zone in C&C2 make sense? It doesn't. Why wouldn't Kane build a remote to activate the portal? Apparently the only way to open the towers is to implant new eyes into people. What happened to the Scrin?
The game infuriates me because it could have been so much better.
C&C4 was announced with a shift from base-building and resource gathering to a mobile 'supply-based' combat. You are given a set amount of supplies (50/60/80) which you're able to have right from the start. Killing enemies will eventually give you tech points which allows you to research unit upgrades or unlock a higher tech tree. Because of the limit of possible units, the game becomes more focused on getting the correct combination of units against theirs. This is both a positive and a negative. If your army is destroyed, you can quickly rebuild it all.
There's also three different roles you can choose during the game. Offensive, Defensive, and Support. They each have unique units, buildings, and abilities suited to their respective roles.
In addition, there's a new 'player experience' system. During gameplay, certain actions such as killing different enemies or completing mission objectives, will award experience points. As your experience gets higher, more units will become available to you. One playthrough of the campaign got me to level 13 out of 20, so I wasn't able to use the best units on the last mission.
In multiplayer, all the maps are point-based. The first to reach a certain number wins. These points can be acquired by capturing certain buildings, or killing units in the game. When your main 'crawler' (or MCV mark 7) dies, you can request a new one.
Overall, I feel that some of the changes in the game play is necessary. How many iterations of the same game can we really go through? I'm just not keen on losing the resource system because it made the game feel much simpler. The game as is works, but I think I would have liked another rehash of the same RTS from the past decade.
---
Command and Conquer was never really about the gameplay to me. I am a big fan of science fiction, and the idea of an alien poisonous unstoppable glowing green mineral/plant fascinated me right from the start. With the rich lore of the universe (with Kane apparently being an immortal prophet) and the semi-serious FMV, the story was what really mattered to me. That's why C&C4 is so disappointing to me.
It was quite obvious to me that Command and Conquer 4 lacked the budget or time of the previous versions. While the lines in C&C3 were about the same quality, the actors were able to transcend through the script and really deliver something that's mediocre. C&C3 had an awesome cast with Sawyer from Lost and Michael Ironside. The acting in this version is one of the worst in the series. The entire storyline felt flat and uninspired. There was never really any clear motivations for why people are fighting at all.
In the intro to the game, Kane decide to call a truce with the GDI forces after seeing how Tiberium has contaminated most of the Earth. He meets up with GDI leaders and offers them the Tacitus, which is an alien orb containing vital information which can save the world. 15 years later, the alliance has built several Tiberium Control Network towers which promise to keep the infestation at bay, giving humanity true safe zones while allowing them to harvest the mineral rich resources of tiberium. Not every single Nod soldier likes the idea. There's a splinter group which seek to destroy all of the towers, citing that Kane has betrayed the ideals of Nod.
In this game, you play as a commander who chooses to side with GDI or Nod in the fourth mission. Apparently, you are one of five people with a newly installed occular implant that is vital to the activation of these TCN. Throughout the game, the people with these implants are killed, leaving you to be the sole survivor. Apparently in addition to controlling the tiberium infestation, the TCN towers are also key to Kane's ascension. They beam a magical frequency to the surviving Scrin tower in the game, which ultimately opens a portal to an unknown place.
If you side with the GDI, it turns out that your commander tricked you by killing your wife and blaming Kane. You spend the rest of the campaign crying about your dead wife and exacting your vengeance on Kane.Turns out, your commander was butthurt due to the lost of her family in the war. She wants Kane dead and can't see reason. Nothing in the missions really matter, because in the end, you have to stop Kane from activating the Scrin tower. Inside, Kane reveals that your boss is a lying sack of shit. He begs you to open the portal (PLOT CONTRIVANCE OF THE IMPLANT ARGH) and you do. Kane hops into the purple portal. Your boss is probably killed by Kane.
If you sided with Nod, you spend your time protecting the TCN towers and fighting off the splinter Nod faction. Blah Blah Blah. You end up in the same place, but this time you die so you can't hop inside the magical portal.
In the aftermath, the TCN towers activate and tiberium is gone from surrounding areas. Kane's loyal followers who were at the Scrin tower have disappeared, presumably they 'ascended' with him. Yay. The story is over!
And then someone in the script department decided to add in a line which ruined the climax. The scene is set on the street interviewing a random stranger. "Kane, gone? Yeah right!"
Queue the credits.
Summary: Nothing is explained. Kane's plan as shown in the various Nod campaigns don't make sense. The only confirmed thing is that Kane has lived for thousands of years and has worked all this time for his ascension. How does converting the world to a Tiberium Red Zone in C&C2 make sense? It doesn't. Why wouldn't Kane build a remote to activate the portal? Apparently the only way to open the towers is to implant new eyes into people. What happened to the Scrin?
The game infuriates me because it could have been so much better.
04 March 2010
Say hello to my little friends
28 February 2010
Shutter Island , Bad.
Almost a year ago, when I first saw the trailers for the movie, I wasn't too thrilled.
I'm a firm believer that movie trailers can be way too revealing. I'm not saying that all movie trailers are bad. I've watched the Inception trailer a couple times now and I still have no idea what that film is about. I remember the original Matrix trailers. I don't recall showing any part of the 'real world' in the various spots.
The Shutter Island trailer choreographed the whole film. Scenes from the trailer were cut from various parts of the movie, including some near the end. This is what you understand from the trailer:
1) Main character, a federal marshal, arrives at Shutter Island, a prison for the criminally insane.
2) Originally sent to investigate a missing inmate, he soon finds out that there's a huge conspiracy around.
3) Trailer shows him speaking with the missing woman, who informs him that there's a huge conspiracy and everyone's in on it! (the orderlys, doctors, guards, everyone!) They're doing nasty experiments and he's the latest victim.
4) He's trying to get out before they make him insane through psychobabble drugs which are in the good, medicine, cigarettes that he's been using.
Now, I don't think its a spoiler in stating that there's a twist to this movie. The real twist (here it comes) is that it is so blatantly obvious. The main character has always been a patient at the hospital. He's a federal marshal who was so grief stricken with the death of his wife and kids that he fabricated the whole story of going to Shutter Island to investigate the guy to blame for their deaths... and that's himself! Brilliant stuff, right?
I'm not a doctor, and I don't claim to know anything, but I wish that I could have delusions as great as the main character's. To be able to fabricate a story like that and then delude himself into believing it. Wow.
Anyway, movies aren't just about plot. The acting in the film was great. I thought the pacing had some problems. The action and drama slows down dramatically the moment that the twist is revealed. It felt a little too pretentious to me with the whole name-anagram idea. Really, an insane man is going to create his alternate persona with the same anagram as his real name? Yeah, right. I was waiting for the other twist to drop, that somehow he was correct and that Shutter Island was a brain-washing camp. Nope. The movie ends with Leo still being crazy.
Also, I thought the music score in the film was strange and out of place. There were several points in the movie where there's an increasingly loud blast of low tone (like a ship's horn or something) such as when Leo first enters the prison facility. I'm not sure what that was about, but I didn't like it.
I'm a firm believer that movie trailers can be way too revealing. I'm not saying that all movie trailers are bad. I've watched the Inception trailer a couple times now and I still have no idea what that film is about. I remember the original Matrix trailers. I don't recall showing any part of the 'real world' in the various spots.
The Shutter Island trailer choreographed the whole film. Scenes from the trailer were cut from various parts of the movie, including some near the end. This is what you understand from the trailer:
1) Main character, a federal marshal, arrives at Shutter Island, a prison for the criminally insane.
2) Originally sent to investigate a missing inmate, he soon finds out that there's a huge conspiracy around.
3) Trailer shows him speaking with the missing woman, who informs him that there's a huge conspiracy and everyone's in on it! (the orderlys, doctors, guards, everyone!) They're doing nasty experiments and he's the latest victim.
4) He's trying to get out before they make him insane through psychobabble drugs which are in the good, medicine, cigarettes that he's been using.
Now, I don't think its a spoiler in stating that there's a twist to this movie. The real twist (here it comes) is that it is so blatantly obvious. The main character has always been a patient at the hospital. He's a federal marshal who was so grief stricken with the death of his wife and kids that he fabricated the whole story of going to Shutter Island to investigate the guy to blame for their deaths... and that's himself! Brilliant stuff, right?
I'm not a doctor, and I don't claim to know anything, but I wish that I could have delusions as great as the main character's. To be able to fabricate a story like that and then delude himself into believing it. Wow.
Anyway, movies aren't just about plot. The acting in the film was great. I thought the pacing had some problems. The action and drama slows down dramatically the moment that the twist is revealed. It felt a little too pretentious to me with the whole name-anagram idea. Really, an insane man is going to create his alternate persona with the same anagram as his real name? Yeah, right. I was waiting for the other twist to drop, that somehow he was correct and that Shutter Island was a brain-washing camp. Nope. The movie ends with Leo still being crazy.
Also, I thought the music score in the film was strange and out of place. There were several points in the movie where there's an increasingly loud blast of low tone (like a ship's horn or something) such as when Leo first enters the prison facility. I'm not sure what that was about, but I didn't like it.
08 February 2010
Heroes Season Finale. Disappointing.
The final episode of the season (series) has just aired and I can't help but feel it didn't live up to its full potential.
Fans everywhere have been saying for a while that the series has gone sour and bad. I personally felt that the 'badness' first began to show at the showdown of Season 1. I mean, that episode was just anticlimactic.
Season 4 began pretty good. It was definitely a slow start, focusing on less plot points than usual. In a lot of ways, I think its similar to SGU. I was holding out hope that the season would build up to something great, and it all depends on the finale. Unfortunately, it just didn't deliver.
So, Samuel has been collecting meta-humans because his ability is exponentially increased with more mutants around. His power is to move dirt. During the whole season, Samuel has been saying that he wants to build a home for his mutant friends, so that they can live in peace without hiding their powers. I dig that. Of course, Samuel is also the season's villain, so the heroes had to be against his plan. He killed his own brother out of rage (the brother did hide the secret to Sam's power his whole life) and used various manipulations to gather more mutants. He must be bad! Claire/Bennett believes that he's gathering all of these people so that he can magnify his power to kill "thousands of people".
It would have been a genuine surprise IF Samuel, although his methods were evil, actually did want to build a mutant paradise. Imagine if the Heroes were barging in to stop him, and then Samuel and his circus freaks battle it over. In the end, all of the 'heroes' have been rendered useless and they could only watch what Samuel had planned. He reveals to the world that mutants do exist, and then he creates his paradise somewhere in the midwest, inviting all mutants to join him. He would announce that this town will succeed from the USA, being its own country, etc. No bloodshed, no harm. The heroes who tried to stop samuel would be banished from this new town.
Doesn't this sound more interesting than what we got?
In the televised final episode, Claire and the gang go to stop Samuel. They convince that Samuel is a bad man, and then tells everyone to leave so Samuel doesn't have anymore power. While everyone is trying to get away, Peter fights Samuel with his cloned power. Dirt battle! Exciting! Hiro appears and teleports everyone out.Samuel and Peter both lose their powers, so Peter knocks Sam out with a punch.
The teaser for Volume 6 is that Claire, wanting to not hide anymore, decides to show the world that meta humans exist by getting camera people to film her hurting herself and regenerating. Lame!
Anyway, the ratings for the show have been so abysmal that I doubt there will be another season. I think I'm done with the show regardless. I liked my ending so much better.
Fans everywhere have been saying for a while that the series has gone sour and bad. I personally felt that the 'badness' first began to show at the showdown of Season 1. I mean, that episode was just anticlimactic.
Season 4 began pretty good. It was definitely a slow start, focusing on less plot points than usual. In a lot of ways, I think its similar to SGU. I was holding out hope that the season would build up to something great, and it all depends on the finale. Unfortunately, it just didn't deliver.
So, Samuel has been collecting meta-humans because his ability is exponentially increased with more mutants around. His power is to move dirt. During the whole season, Samuel has been saying that he wants to build a home for his mutant friends, so that they can live in peace without hiding their powers. I dig that. Of course, Samuel is also the season's villain, so the heroes had to be against his plan. He killed his own brother out of rage (the brother did hide the secret to Sam's power his whole life) and used various manipulations to gather more mutants. He must be bad! Claire/Bennett believes that he's gathering all of these people so that he can magnify his power to kill "thousands of people".
It would have been a genuine surprise IF Samuel, although his methods were evil, actually did want to build a mutant paradise. Imagine if the Heroes were barging in to stop him, and then Samuel and his circus freaks battle it over. In the end, all of the 'heroes' have been rendered useless and they could only watch what Samuel had planned. He reveals to the world that mutants do exist, and then he creates his paradise somewhere in the midwest, inviting all mutants to join him. He would announce that this town will succeed from the USA, being its own country, etc. No bloodshed, no harm. The heroes who tried to stop samuel would be banished from this new town.
Doesn't this sound more interesting than what we got?
In the televised final episode, Claire and the gang go to stop Samuel. They convince that Samuel is a bad man, and then tells everyone to leave so Samuel doesn't have anymore power. While everyone is trying to get away, Peter fights Samuel with his cloned power. Dirt battle! Exciting! Hiro appears and teleports everyone out.Samuel and Peter both lose their powers, so Peter knocks Sam out with a punch.
The teaser for Volume 6 is that Claire, wanting to not hide anymore, decides to show the world that meta humans exist by getting camera people to film her hurting herself and regenerating. Lame!
Anyway, the ratings for the show have been so abysmal that I doubt there will be another season. I think I'm done with the show regardless. I liked my ending so much better.
04 February 2010
LUElinks is dead. Car Crash
The site is no more. The url leads to a dead page.
Goodnight, sweet prince.
I witnessed a car crash today. I was driving on Marine drive, where 41 intersects with the road to UBC. There was a sudden drop of speed in the vehicle in front of me. Since I often leave enough space, I was able to stop in time. The car behind mine was able to stop in time (due to my longer braking period). I heard a sudden screeching of tires and a loud bang. The car behind the car that's behind mine crashed. I lol'd and continued driving when the light turned green.
Goodnight, sweet prince.
I witnessed a car crash today. I was driving on Marine drive, where 41 intersects with the road to UBC. There was a sudden drop of speed in the vehicle in front of me. Since I often leave enough space, I was able to stop in time. The car behind mine was able to stop in time (due to my longer braking period). I heard a sudden screeching of tires and a loud bang. The car behind the car that's behind mine crashed. I lol'd and continued driving when the light turned green.
20 January 2010
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Today, my maintenance class was canceled, so I had 6 hours of free time between classes.
I used that time to go to a theatre and catch the matinee of Doctor Parnassas.
If you don't know, the film is directed by Terry Gilliam, and is the last film that the late Heath Ledge starred in. In fact, he died halfway during filming, so there were some creative choices made to explain another actor, which made sense.
The film itself is decent. The visuals were hit and miss. The story was straightforward, except that the 'deal' was never really explained well. Doctor Parnassus has a deal with the devil that whoever got 5 souls first wins the bet. Now, I presume that the devil will evil his way into the people's hearts to get their soul. I don't really know what the doctor is doing to get the souls.
*upon reading the summary, it looks like Parnassus is trying to 'inspire' the people to become better, while the devil is tempting them with fear/lust.*
Another problem is that I never felt connected to any of the characters at all. I understand that I'm supposed to cheer for male-love-interest, but I really don't give a darn.
Side note: I was the only person in the entire theatre. I guess the combination of it being at 11:35 AND that this film doesn't have a big buzz explained it.
I used that time to go to a theatre and catch the matinee of Doctor Parnassas.
If you don't know, the film is directed by Terry Gilliam, and is the last film that the late Heath Ledge starred in. In fact, he died halfway during filming, so there were some creative choices made to explain another actor, which made sense.
The film itself is decent. The visuals were hit and miss. The story was straightforward, except that the 'deal' was never really explained well. Doctor Parnassus has a deal with the devil that whoever got 5 souls first wins the bet. Now, I presume that the devil will evil his way into the people's hearts to get their soul. I don't really know what the doctor is doing to get the souls.
*upon reading the summary, it looks like Parnassus is trying to 'inspire' the people to become better, while the devil is tempting them with fear/lust.*
Another problem is that I never felt connected to any of the characters at all. I understand that I'm supposed to cheer for male-love-interest, but I really don't give a darn.
Side note: I was the only person in the entire theatre. I guess the combination of it being at 11:35 AND that this film doesn't have a big buzz explained it.
Bed time
Over the past week or so, I've been exprimenting with a different sleeping schedule. Instead of sleeping for a block of Six to eight hours, I've been going for shorter chunks of three to four hours twice a day.
I didn't try to do this pattern intentionally. It just kinda came together that way from the hours I've been working. I have to confess that I love the quietness of late night. Really the best time to work.
I didn't try to do this pattern intentionally. It just kinda came together that way from the hours I've been working. I have to confess that I love the quietness of late night. Really the best time to work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)