WTF is SOPA ? aka The American Government trying to ruin the internet

SOPA and Protect IP

For some time now, there has been two bills set up for due process in the American gouverment system. Alot of you have probably already heard of these two and those of you whom are actually based in America have probably written your senators with your two cents.

So what's it to me? I'm a Dane.

It has everything to do with both me, and any other person based outside the U.S. as much as it has to with the Americans themselves. SOPA, the biggest threat to the internet we have faced thus far can basically take down all your favorite sites because they *might* contain copyrighted content or links to it. This is a direct censorship attack on sites like Facebook, That Guy With The Glasses, Youtube, Google, Screwattack, Overclocked Remix.. Basically, they can even take down webcomics because they might contain depictions of copyrighted characters. Consider popular series like Penny Arcade, 8-bit Theatre and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

To me, the internet isn't something you can actually gouvern. It is far too vast. In actuality, you can call The Internet the first man-made natural thought. It is literal no-mans land. The voting on the fate of these bills will take place this Wednesday, december 21st. If I have anyone in my audience who're based in America and still haven't contacted their senators - please do so. It is good old fashioned showdown, and the stake is Free Speech.

Annoying plotholes

It is no secret that I absolutely love most things with a narrative. That said, I thought it might kill some time to list 5 annoying plotholes that I've personally noticed. Hopefully, at least one of these should be painfully familiar to you. Do note though, that this will contain SPOILERS in order to explain my points. Here we go:

5. Joker Disguises.

In "The Dark Knight" The Joker uses a disguise at least twice in order to reach his goals. Once as a redheaded nurse and once as a police officer. So what's so strange about that? It's disguises! Here the deal: The Jokers face ISN'T exactly a mystery to the general public. He quite literally appeared on main stream television and did a close-up of himself (Albeit with a cheap handheld camera). On top of that, even if we allow it to be hard to recognize him through the face paint, he has huge scars on each side of his mouth. You're telling me that no one noticed the police officer with a scarred smiley face, or the redheaded nurse wearing clown make-up? No deal.

4. Super Bulimia Man?

Another DC Superhero movie. In Superman Returns, good old Kal'el has been away from Earth for several years. Let's stop right there. While the movie might be 'meh' at best (it kinda requires you to actually like Superman, which alot of people sadly doesn't) the plothole actually came already at the premise which is kinda odd. Apparently, Superman also had a Super Eating Disorder as he spent his time at the ruined remains of his homeplanet of Krypton without food. Either Supes found a still-running Kryptonian Diner, or he lived for 5 years straight without eating. So what possible effects can not eating have on a Kryptonian body? None apparently, apart from changing Christopher Reeves into Brandon Routh.

3. Birds.

This is one that most people have probably thought of. At the end of The Return of The King, the 3rd Lord of the Rings book - Gandalf saves Frodo and Sam from the erupting mt. Doom by sending giant falcons to save them. So, why exactly didn't Gandalf just bring the birdies with him when he went to the council meeting at the elven kingdom? Well you might say, Gandalf obviously has an adventurous spirit and wants Frodo to make a difference to the world! I'm gonna stop you there, Gandalf already experienced the 'thrill' of making a Hobbit an international hero ONCE, in the form of Bilbo. Here's my theory of what the reasoning behind that ending was: A feeling of dread in the head of Tolkien when he realised he had written himself into a corner.

2. Coldblooded Dorothy

The Wicked Witch of The East from The Wizard of Oz was a mean old wench, She ruled the entire Eastern region of Oz with an iron fist and made the munchkins collect food for her. That said, Dorothy drops an entire house on her head, killing her, steals her shoes and leaves the premises as fast as possible. Sure, I'm making Dorothy sound alot meaner than she's portrayed, but let's be honest. Dorothy never really gives any thought to the fact that she's actually taken a life throughout the entirety of the rest of the series. On top of that, not only did she crush a woman with a house. She later goes on to MELT another woman, equivalent of pouring acid on her, while she cheers on as the woman screams in agony: "I'm Melting! I'm Melting! what world, what a woooorld...." That's just coldblooded murder. Psychopatic female.

1. Whatever happened to that Priest guy?

I love me some zombies from time to time. They're an easy fictional enemy and they're most definetly creepy. George A. Romero's Night of The Living Dead is an awesome movie, and I personally consider it part of the classic horror movie line-up (which mostly includes the classic Universal monster flicks). That said, at the end of 'Night' a Priest character is introduced. This guy has been bitten by the zombies, but for some reason he doesn't turn. He ends up having a dog following him around for protection. Not for the protection of him, but for others should he ever turn. Romero went on to make Dawn of The Dead, Day of The Dead, Land of The Dead and Diary of The Dead 1 & 2 with possibly more that I don't know of. Theese movies all supposedly take place in the same universe, but the Priest is nowhere to be found in any of the sequels. So where DID he go anyway? Well, only Romero knows.

So that was my humble list. I know alot of you probably expected the death of a certain Final Fantasy character to be there. So why isn't it there? Well.. I kinda wanted to stick to movies this time, or at least things that have been turned into movies. So perhaps on another list.

- Later Days.

News!

So I decided to put a Project Wonderful ad on the site. I've also started advertising on Scandinavia & The World and if you got here by clicking that ad: Welcome! Check out the place. It's a bit dusty but I'll be gradually working on cleaning out the codwebs.

with that remark you might be thinking: Wait, isn't this made with a blogging service? Yes. For now. I'm currently saving up for the purpose of getting my own domain name where I can put not only this thing, but my entire online portfolio as well. That would mean my webcomics (There's 2 of them still online) and mayhaps some of my older stuff could be found all on the same page. That would make all this stuff a little more manageable, and make it easier for you guys to check out my stuff without checking several different places.

Video Games evolving into a form of media

What is art? This is a question that has been on a lot of peoples lips since the first introduction of new media. To many, art is a piece of work from which each can draw their own interpretation, and emotional response based on their personal experiences, and personality. What large groups of people seem to agree on however, is what art isn’t. The conservative Christians in the so-called Bible Belt of the 30's and 40's considered the thriving popularity of movies to be the work of the Devil and the parents of the last decade spent their time worrying if little Timmy might learn how to hijack a car by playing Grand Theft Auto 3.

But can video games be considered a stand alone medium of expression? The shortsighted answer is a cold No. The more optimistic answer however is: Not yet, But it most definitely should.

When the general public thinks of video games they often think of them as playthings. A brief escapism from the everyday life, in a video game you can be a cowboy fighting a gang of thieves or a successful manager bringing your football team to the World cup finale. But potentially, video games can teach you about life, and maybe a little bit about yourself. In video games with charisma, a choice that may seem like the most positive at the moment can turn out hurting the people you are trying to help. A good example of this is the fairly recent fantasy roleplaying game: Dragon Age Origins.

In Dragon Age, you play as a warden. The Wardens is a international organization that has treaties with the different species in the world to bring them armies to fight a soon to come blight upon the land. When you go to the Dwarwen kingdom in the mountains, this is supposed to be smooth sailing. The king has recently passed away however and there is disputes between the kings own chosen follower, and his actual heir of blood. At a first glance, the choice seems easy. The prince uses less than honorable methods and the other one seems like a regular saint that has been forced into hiding by hired goons.

But when the game ends, and you get the updates on what has happened in the different nations since your influence, the saint-like heir is actually the bad ending. Instead of making the Dwarven nation a better place, he just carried on the same way the late king did and the land of dwarves plunged into civil war. The prince however, ends up changing the way the whole kingdom is run. People are now free to choose their own careers, where before they were locked into kind of life their parent of the same sex had, in likeness of the Indian caste-system from the real world.

This is kind of a weak example, but choices and consequences like this one could be used to teach players about the world we live in. Strategy games could be used to teach history and First person shooters could be used to explore the single soldier’s role in a war started by diplomats. It may provoke us, make us question ourselves and potentially make us change for the better.

Video games can also be documentaries, but this has a long bumpy road ahead of it. In 2007, a division of the video game developer Atomic games worked with the American military to develop a training simulator. During the process however, the band of soldiers that the division had worked with was sent off to Iraq to fight in the war. There, the band participated in one of the most bloody battles of the entire Iraq campaign and lost a lot of teammates. When the soldiers returned, they contacted Atomic games and asked them to convey the story of the battle through a video game to the rest of the world. What resulted was a survival horror game but not in the traditional sense, the fear would come from uncertain, terrifying unpredictability of an actual city war. It would use the likenesses and retelling of the soldiers and senior officers that fought in the battle of Fallujah to paint an as accurate and respectful picture as possible of not only those six days, but of the entire war.

But as was predictable, some people weren't happy. Once word got out that someone was making a game about such a recent event, people were outraged. Parents who had lost sons and daughters in the battle, and senior officers who didn't even participate started a debate about it. Heads were going to roll. These people, as with many others still viewed games as toys. Their anger reached the press, and the press literally destroyed the credibility of the small video game developer. Konami, who was slated to publish the title soon backed out of the project and Atomic games was left out in the cold. In a matter of a few years, that being as soon as 2009, Atomic games shut down completely. And that with Six Days in Fallujah still a ways behind hitting store shelves, which I suspect it never will.

There's a lot of blame to go around for this affair. It's easy for an enthusiast like me to just say that those that lost loved ones should have ignored the release of the title completely or even backed it up. After all, it seemed like a really entertaining title. But that's just it. Video games are still at a social standpoint where it's merely escapism. While Atomic games should have been credited for wanting to take the medium further, Six Days in Fallujah would still be released in the golden age of Modern war-based shooters. To many, Six Days wouldn't have stood out much in the flood of first person shooters that comes out these days and it would have been shrugged off as yet another Call of Duty- or Battlefield-like title. That said, to me the blame goes to Konami. Konami is a huge video game publisher, and has followed the medium since the beginning. Konami was originally one of the backers of the project before they eventually left it and that means they simply lost their spine. This is a huge publisher, they must have known that making this game was quite literally sticking your hand in a hornets nest. This was like if as huge a movie-company as Universal Pictures had backed out of a movie, simply because it said something the general demographic didn't agree about.

But that's the thing about freedom of expression. If you want to have a right, you have to accept the responsibility that comes with it. And you have to be ready to defend your points when confronted about them. There will always, always be someone who disagrees with you. If you're planning to use a medium as young as video games to express yourself, you have to understand that you will most likely be on your own. Even video games that was supposed try and teach children about the second world war has been stopped in development because of moral outrage, and that's even though it might have had the best intentions.

So that brings us to my conclusion. Video games are a very young medium. Older and more respected mediums has gone through exactly the same challenges that video games face today. Comic books still face them. Movies won them all. Rock N' Roll won them as well. We have a unique storytelling and teaching opportunity in front of us, now we just have to make people respect it. And once they do, we have to know how to live up to the responsibility that comes with it.

15 Things I've wondered about that you probably haven't

Before we go on with my crusade against cultural ignorance, here's some random stuff:

1. In both Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic X, a ring will give Sonic superspeed even by his standards. In the games, you collect a bunch of rings each level, yet no extra speed. Why is that?

2. Exactly what kind of ghost is Slimer supposed to be anyway?

3. Why do I know people that doesn't watch fantasy or science-fiction movies because they're too strange, yet hold a firm belief in supernatural phenomena?

4. Is it strange that I can see why people would be attracted to both Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Black Canary, yet I can't see it in Wonder Woman?

5. I wonder if Mr. & Mrs. Hitler lived to see their son become a historical douchebag

6. So. Capes. I'm still waiting for them to get back in fashion, please let it happen soon.

7. Wouldn't the world just be a scary fucking place if photographs were sentient like in Harry Potter?

8. So if everything we imagine becomes real in Fantasia... I don't think I have to finish that sentence.

9. Barbar's King of the Elephants right? I wonder if he can open diplomatic negotiations between the Ratqueen and the army of Nutcrackers

10. Whatever happened to Disney's Atlantis franchise? That stuff was awesome.

11. So where does Beetlejuice, Candyman and Biggiesmalls go when they aren't called upon? Puerto Rico?

12. So If I've gotten this right, Dr. Wily wants to take over the world, and replace everyone with robots so he can... what?

13. I wonder if my nephew will grow up with the same respect for Darth Vader as I had..

14. How exactly did no one notice that one of the nurses was the Joker? And when did he wire all those bombs?

15. I pray every day.... That there will never be a serious action movie make-over of Inspector Gadget.

East and West - Emotions and Archetypes

Eastern and Western Entertainment. Some people can love both, others choose one side and live with it, and even others choose one side and start mocking the other. I'm here to clear up what the ACTUAL difference between the two sides of this apparent argument is. I'm a fan of both, but seeing both sides making strawman arguments against the other has reached a sickening point. I'm sick of this, none of these are 'genres' and should never be regarded as such. This can't really be covered in one article without being kinda overwhelming, so I'm going to touch two subjects at a time.

Emotions

Emotions are an important part of storytelling, if your characters don't have emotions it will be hard for the reader/listener/watcher to get into the characters and plotline. What I've basically tried to illustrate is the difference in which Western and Eastern animation/comics will show the emotions of the characters. Of course neither case is exclusive to the region and vice versa.

Basically, you can compare Western emotions to movies from the sound era. The story will be told in close-ups and facial expressions. There is a difference in which a human being can show sadness, and the detailed drawings of the west have the opportunity to capture this, if done well. A prime example of human facial expressions captured in animation is Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt. Particularly in the scene where Moses returns from having met God. He meets up with his brother Rameses, now Pharaoh of Egypt. Rameses hopes that everything will turn back to normal. Unfortunately, Moses returns a ring given to him as a gift earlier in the movie, asking Rameses to free the Hebrews. Rameses' facial expressions through his reaction is beautifully animated, it manages to show by my count at least 6 emotions in about 40 seconds of animation. The Nostalgia Critic has also mentioned this in his video "Old Vs. New, The Ten Commandments vs. The Prince of Egypt" Which you can find HERE. (Around the 6:34 mark, but I really recommend watching the whole thing, it's good stuff!)

While the Western audience is treated to a more 'subtle' approach when it comes to conveying emotions, Eastern series often resemble what you would see in a silent movie or in a stageplay. One of the first rules I was taught in drama class was to never face away from the audience. The audience can't be allowed to see your back unless it's absolutely nescessary. In the same way, you have to 'emote with your hands'. Words have little meaning on their own, and since those in the back of the room can have a hard time conveying your emotions from your face, being able to emote with your whole body is a pretty good tool. Take a look at any silent horror film and you will understand. I especially recommend the public domain movie "Phantom of The Opera" starring the man with a thousand faces himself, Lon Chaney. Both of his parents were deaf, so he mastered the art of body language. Good news, it's public domain now, Go get it!

A good example of the Eastern animation making use of the whole body language thing is apparently best in their fighting scenes. Every punch and kick, however weak, is given special attention. The lights seems to dim around the action, and only the most important things are animated. My nifty drawing above also illustrates the difference in showing emotion in the two kinds of media.

Archetypes.

Here's where it gets fishy. When it comes to archetypes, the Eastern audiences are treated to archetypes way more often than in the West. Or at least, the Eastern creators are more open about it. A bad example of archetypes being put to use can be found in the series 'Naruto'. The creator himself, Masashi Kishimoto, has stated that when he first pitched the series to his editor at Shounen Jump (the biggest shounen manga magazine in Japan, and possibly, the world) his editor told him to add a rival for the titular character. Thus Uchiha Sasuke was born.

Masashi Kishimoto has stated that in order to create Sasuke, he studied the archetypical rival character in other manga, and he created what he himself has named "the perfect rival". Sasuke bears all the typical signs of a rival character: he has a tragic past (which only became more complicated as the series went along), he's adored by the main character's love interest (nevermind that the main character is oblivious to someone else loving him as well) and he's a bitter, emotional mess. He is the complete opposite of the main character. Sasuke has since gone on to be one of the most notorious examples of cardboard cut-out anti-heroism in the modern era of the genre. Among elitist manga fans, he is outright and publicly loathed and he bears a large part of the guilt in Naruto cosplayers being looked down upon. Don't trust me? Try cosplaying Uchiha Sasuke at a convention sometime. See what happens.

In the west, a more common archetype is the villain who is evil 'just because'. I'm not talking about a villain who is supposed to be a demon, that in itself is pretty obvious. I'm talking about the villains who just got out of bed one day and decided, "you know what? I'm gonna fuck it up for everyone but me!". Not that such a character can't be well-written, but there's the example of Victor Kruger, the Kurgan (played by Clancy Brown). For those that don't know, the Kurgan is the main villain of the first Highlander movie - his entire purpose in the movie is to go around killing off the other immortals so he can become a formidable enemy for Christopher Lambert's character, Connor MacLeod, the Highlander. While the Kurgan's background is fleshed out in the novelization, he just comes off as a mass murdering brute. Throughout the movie, in the modern era (I use the term loosely, the movie was made in the 80's), he wears punk clothes and hangs around in motels, and in the past he "killed Ramirez and raped his woman before his corpse was cold" (Ramirez being the teacher and friend of the Highlander). This could of course be explained by the Kurgan being born into a barbaric tribe in Russia around 1005 BC, but it's really not that much of an excuse. You'd think that after more than 1000 years the guy would at least have picked up some basic understanding of morals, but apparently not.

I'm the Joker! Apparently.

I recently took a "Which Batman Villain Are You" test on the Escapist. Here's The Result:

If I weren't crazy, I'd be insane!

Take this quiz

In defense of The Simpsons

*Sigh* I never thought I would have to write this. Here goes anyhow. One of my favorite shows of all time "The Simpsons" stands at the threat of being cancelled. This is despite other shows of the same nature (Family Guy) having 2 or 3 spin-offs running smoothly. This is sad. Whenever I defend The Simpsons in public or whenever I hear The Simpsons being talked about in public lately, a lot of people accuse it of not being funny anymore, and having grown stale. More recently, people have said that Family Guy is a much better show and that Simpsons should be cancelled to leave more space in programming to that show.

I'm sorry but that is just not true.

Like a lot of other kids of my generation, The Simpsons were one of my first mature satirical influences. These were dark times in Scandinavia, only 3 channels and most of them only showed local bad comedy or reruns of The Muppets Show to trick you into having a glimmer of hope that the monopolic channels might actually show something of quality for a change. Then, in 1995, a channel called TV3 burst onto Danish television, showing all of the sugarcoated American nonsense from the 80's that everyone missed if they didn't get it on VHS. Sooner or later, Simpsons started getting shown on Danish television and when I became old enough (Around 8) I was hooked. The family was dysfunctional as hell and reminded me alot of my own family. And as they say, truly good comedy makes people laugh at themselves. This is perhaps why Homer Simpson may be dumb and egotistical, but unlike Peter Griffin he actually cares about his family and will do anything he can to make them happy.

That's what I like about The Simpsons, and why I don't really care about Family Guy. Family Guy is just a collection of people who's cherishment of one another is dependent on comedic value. The charactirazations of the Griffins feels like easily modeled high concepts, with only few steadfast characterpoints that isn't thrown to the wind unlike the rest of the charactarizations if a joke calls for it. A very easy example lies in Peter. Peter is supposed to be catholic, but this is only brought up when it's convenient. Instead he goes and does all sorts of stuff like creating a church dedicated to The Fonze. If the creators intention with Peter Griffin was to make fun of catholics, they failed miserably.

I'm very fond of South Park, we know who the characters are, and although they're completely bizarre they don't just go and do stuff that they really... wouldn't do. For instance, we know that Cartman is a anti-semitic asshole of a kid, so we know that he's not suddenly gonna go pick flowers and dance around in a tutu.. unless brainwashed of course.

I see Simpsons as a classier South Park (No dancing poop), and a valuable asset to the comedic scene. And Family Guy? Uh.. Am I the only one that feels like I'm watching some animation a fanboy made to a stand-up perfomance? It doesn't really feel like a show.

A Random Selection of Good Old Games

Most of the time, when you talk about old games that are good, chances are the most mentioned are either not only good but GREAT or almost exclusively from the consoles.

So this is a selection of old games in random order that aren't GREAT but they hold a nostalgic value to me, and can most definetly get the rank of "good".

THE PINK PANTHER - PASSPORT TO PERIL.

Back in the 90's, The Pink Panther was re-exposed to the world in a packet-format TV-series as was popular at the time. Typically, an episode of such a show would have a 10 minute episode with the host character (in this case, The Pink Panther) and then two 5 minute long cartoons with other characters like forexample The Blue Anteater. In Any case, the show spawned two PC adventure games for kids that would challenge them but teach them about stuff while they do it. Pink Panther - Passport to Peril taught kids (and at the time, Me as well) about different cultures and countries around the world.

The storyline is as such: There's been made a summer-camp called Chilly Wa Wa for the children of highly influential and rich people from around the world. But suddenly the children have started to act weirdly from one day to the other, Pink Panther gets assigned to travel around the world (England, Egypt, China, Bhutan, India and Australia) and find out stuff about the kids so he can try and make them normal again. All the while the kids playing the game would learn about the things children in these cultures have to deal with while growing up. There would also be songs, Awesome songs. Go check them out on Youtube. And while you're at it, check out the sequel Hocus Pocus Pink as well.

LEGO: Chess

Do you like Lego? Do you like Chess? Well then what the hell do you need to know?! This game taught kids about the boardgame chess while entertaining them with short clips depending on which character defeated which. There would be differently themed Chess boards and stories, forexample: In the Cowboy storyline, a sheriff is trying to capture three robbers. So yeah. It's Chess. CHESS!

DONALD DUCK: QU@CK ATT@CK

This is one of the simplest and shortest platformers I have ever played. It's easy as boink and you can pick it up and complete it in an afternoon. Which is perfect if you have an afternoon to spend. Seriously, I know standard length for a game is 10 hours and I wouldn't have it any other way. But this game is just too much fun to pass by.

For another really good Donald Duck game check out Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow.

(EDIT: I know the picture says "Going Qu@ackers" but it was called "Qu@ck Att@ck" in Europe.)

ASTERIX: THE GALLIC WAR

It's the universe of Asterix The Gaule meets the boardgame RISK in a way. You start out with the ever-silly village that Ceasar somehow just can't conquer and then start conquering back all of Gaule from the Romans. While most of the time the conquering would be like a simple strategy game animation, other times it would switch to a platform game depending on if you're Asterix or Obelix. And other times (again) it would be a parody of the Olympic game Hammer Throw.

There, wasn't that fun? If you have other games that people really need to mention more, please name them in the comments! Maybe I can make more of these :D

Passionate Gaming

Now I'm hardly the first to kick this ball on the green, hundreds if not thousands of far more capable minds have probably pondered this issue already. I've decided to throw in my thoughts anyway, as recent events has made me think about it more than normally.

People that know me personally, also know that I've never been big on competitive games, unless it's been along with people I actually enjoy spending time with. I've often soffed at the idea at actually putting out the money to play on Xbox Live because of all the reported problems with the service. That being the community. Communities build around and for games can be awesome, I've had some great experiences with the Civilization, Ninja Turtle, and Sonic The Hedgehog communities in particular.

Notice how none of those communities revolved around a fairly competitive game? While I love the Halo games or Team Fortress 2, I've never once considered venturing into their part of the jungle. People on the internet can be mean, sore losers. The crazy thing about it is, none of them are particularily dignified losers either. Now, most readers have probably noticed about now that I've been very judgemental about a group that I actually count amongst. And yes, I'm sad to say that I too can become far too involved in what was originally meant to be simple, time consuming, fun. Of course some of these games doesn't really count as simple fun anymore. Entire companies seems to have dedicated most of their resources to the rise of eSports.

Which brings us to the core of the subject, Why are there more sore losers in online gaming than elsewhere? And it's not limited to FPS's either. Recently, I had the pleasure of moderating a game of Werewolf on Board Game Geek. The whole thread is readable for those interested HERE Take a look at it, I'm actually rather proud of the Flavour text. In any case, one of the players in this game got rather frustrated, to the point of swearing never to play the game online again. I don't have any ill feelings towards the player, Werewolf is a deceivers game and I've always found such games to be best amongst friends. My point was, Werewolf is a board game. It's essentially about talking to people and deducting their roles from the conversation. So why can people be passionate about such a game the same way they would a First Person Shooter? The action isn't immediate, yet it appears to give you a feeling of absolute loss either way.

The most common answer to the question of why people are so angry online is the anonymity. Once you're anonymous, you don't really care about your fellow man. That I find to be wrong, I and several people I know are able to be perfectly friendly towards strangers. I think some people needs to think about what they actually do when they're online. If someone is mean to them, they bring the bad energy into other conversations as a direct result. Give the world a favour instead, if you have a bad day stay out of the public chatrooms. Don't go spamming up a storm in a groupchat in League of Legends just because your teammates might be doing worse than you. I can put myself in your stead, you might see yourself as a decent player, constantly put alongside bad players that you feel lose the game for you. The frustration of feeling you can do much better than that is common, but this is where you should show yourself as a better man/woman and maybe offer friendly advice. And please, word the advice in another way than "Go buy Aegis of The Legion N00b" or "Force of Nature plz". Likewise, if you find yourself constantly being blamed for failure, maybe you should listen to your teammates, don't get mad when somebody offers advice or tells you what would be a good idea or maybe even crucial to buy in a given situation. I've seen tons of players stating "Don't teach me" or "Get out of your moms basement, fag" in those situations. Knowing when you should just shut up, sit down, and be taught can really win the game for you. No matter how much of a champion you might think of yourself, there are always, Always, ALWAYS players that are better than you. And that's despite if you won some kind of tournament.

Sometimes, people just gotta be humble. Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna tell this Newfag Medic how to properly heal a Heavy.

- Later Days.

Minecraft

Trivia: What does Hans do when he's bored off his ass in his summer vacation?

Answer: He makes a skull fortress in Minecraft

In all seriousness though, more games should give you the challenge of "If I make my Skull fortress out of sand with wooden teeth, will that be a reflection of ME or what I do to people that cross me?"

decisions, decisions.

The trained eye will notice I gave it eyebrows. That's how nice of a guy I am. No really.

Minecraft have become one of my new hobbies, much to my friends dismay as I apparently JUST. WON'T. SHUT. UP. ABOUT IT.

My friends love me, I'm sure :D

The thing I like about Minecraft is all the opportunities, one level I've totally flooded and another I've build tall buildings just to reach the sky. This is awesome, and it takes effort. The monsters can be a challenge and finding out what you can do with the materials you find. Making my own personal water-park has become a reality, and so has my skull fortress.

Now if only the game would provide me with 8 robotmasters and an arch nemesis...

In defense of The Boy Wonder

Like any other fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum, I look forward to it's sequel. I haven't really had any complaints about the news about this game until I saw.. This:

Okay granted, That is a VERY cool looking costume and it uses Robins Colors without making them too bright. the staff and hood DOES make him look like a misplaced elemental mage though. That being said, did we forget the purpose of this character?

Batman is one of, if not the most popular superhero character, an excellent line of movies both new and old (with a few exceptions of course) has made Batman stand out in public consciousness perhaps more than anyone else that wears a cape and beats up criminals.

In case anyone forgot, Batman isn't exactly the most witty character around. He's a brooding no-nonsense John Wayne of the night. His parents was shot in front of him, and in return he decided to learn everything he could about the criminal underworld, in order to combat it. A few months later, Robin came along. Robin was a kid, always firing off one-liners and wearing a bright colorful costume. Just as intelligent as his mentor and an accomplished acrobat, Robin became the arche-typal sidekick in the business. Robin was created so that children wouldn't fantasize about being Batman - But rather working beside him. Mostly to make sure they wouldn't start climbing buildings and wearing masks. Understandable.

Robin also had another effect on the Bat, he became happier. Sure he was still dark and brooding and hateful, but Robin was a bright spot in his life. I honestly think that the Robin character completed Batman. Made him something more than a one-dimensional avenger.

Of course, a lot of people doesn't realise this. In the modern world-view, Robin makes Batman look "gay". Mostly because of the internet, and the 1960's TV-series. Oh, and Robin wearing shorts. That could help. But really, aren't you just making Robin ping on your Gay-dar because you kinda WANT them to be gay? You want something to make fun of, plus you kinda wanna fit into the general consensus. After all, if you don't think someone is gay, you MUST be gay. Or well, that could just be me raging at the stupidity of the modern Batman fan. Seriously though, sometimes Batman fans like with any other fanbase can be a bunch of sheep. I've already written in great length elsewhere about my hatred of the Heath Ledger Joker, so I won't go into it here.

In any case, Robin is Batmans happiness. To some extent of course, but I think most people get what I mean by that statement. Of course Batman stories has to be somewhat dark, dark is cool.

But Robin doesn't really need to look like fellow-Teen Titan Raven. Otherwise we could just make Raven Batman's new sidekick.

...

...

...

Let's Not.

(Proof read creds to Sophie & Eric. Sadly, I don't have any links to any stuff they've done)

Review: Deadman Wonderland Season 1

Quick Info:

Title: Deadman Wonderland (デッドマンワンダーランド Deddoman Wandārando)

Written by: Jinsei Kataoka
Illustrations: Kazuma Kondou

Published by: Shõnen Ace
Anime adaptation: Manglobe

Reviewed: Anime version

Liscensing rights: Tokyopop/Funimation

Aired on: Crunchyroll.com

So let's talk Anime, shall we? Deadman Wonderland is one of those ultra-violent, ultra-dark series that comes along once in a while. It starts off with a very bleak tone, and while it may delve into typical Shõnen territory then and again, it manages to keep somewhat fresh. It's based on a actual dead-wood manga, but I've only had the anime available to me (No actual effort was put into tracking down the manga though, the anime version is legally free on Crunchyroll.)

INTRO:

So I sit down in front of my computer, ready to have the usual J-pop insanity thrown at me,

or at the very least some sort of death metal nightmare. Instead I'm treated to a pretty descent little New Metal song, In English no less. The song is best described as akin to Pre-Reanimation Linkin Park, though it lacks rap it's very similar to their normal metal. Listening to it, I can't help but think of songs like Runaway or Papercut. The actual intro video, while very bloody and dark isn't all that visually interesting to look at. It features the most important characters in different kinds of poses, obscured by darkness and bloodsplatter.

PREMISE:

While it may be decently cool, The premise seems mostly like something an angsty teenager would come up with. A high school kid named Ganta Igarashi is somehow spared when all of his classmates are murdered brutally by an entity known as The Red Man. He is blamed for it however, and quickly sentenced to death. He's sent to the privately owned prison/fun fair called Deadman Wonderland. Built in the crater that once was Tokyo, Deadman wonderland is known for putting their inmates out in display as entertainment in a giant theme-park. Ganta quickly gains two friends, a secretive thief named Yõ Takami, and a albino fanservi-I mean happy girl named Shiro. It's also pretty fast established that Ganta has been given a special power to shoot bullets out of his palm. How it works, and why he has it it's too much of a spoiler to reveal here. The characters are cool enough, but the author seems to forget the story is supposed to take place in a high security prison and not a High School sometimes. Because of this, I sometimes feel there's a blur between this and any other High School battle shõnen available.

MAIN CHARACTER:

Ganta Igarashi suffers from the I'm-So-Weak-Phenonemon that's become very popular among authors these days. His personality and even given voice is very similar to Tsuna from Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Sena from Eyeshield 21. Both decent anime in their own right. The voice actress Romi Park, previously the voice of such characters as Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist does a stunning job though. It does make Ganta kind of intolerable in the long run, as these kind of characters lack of confidence tends to take up most of the first couple of story-arcs. All in all a very typical Shõnen hero that struggles to find their place in the world. The other characters, though interesting in their own right, really suffers from being comparable to other manga stereotypes as well. Off the top of my head, The character Crow is similar to Roronoa Zolo from One Piece.

ALL IN ALL:

While nothing groundbreaking or genre-changing it's a pretty good Battle Shõnen. The action is typically epic and like with any other series in the genre it let's you root for the characters and have your blood boil in excitement when the hero saves the day in the end. If series like One Piece (or something similarily popular) were to end tomorrow, Deadman Wonderland would probably be one of the series that the torch would be passed on to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you liked this article, Please pass it on to your friends or write a comment! :)

The Power is YOURS

As you may recall, I was very disappointed with Capcom earlier this week. They had announced that to battle THE SCOURGE OF USED GAME SALES Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D would only support one playthrough. Well it seems that enough fans have given them flak for this, and they have now retreated and announced that they will never pull something so absolutely stupid again. My faith in Capcom is restored! Well, at least for now.

In other news, Nintendo pulled a fast one on Legend of Zelda fans. At E3 this year, they had a showing of a HD rendition of Link in the Twilight Princess style battling a giant spider. The showing was absolutely gorgeous, but Nintendo has announced that it was only meant as a tech-demo to show off the Wii U's capabilities. That's what we in the fanbase call a total cockblock. That's sad. Well at least Skyward Sword won't be anything like any other Legend of Zelda game ever, right? Right? Who am I kidding? It's repackaging, and I'm probably gonna buy it along with everyone else. Fun.

And now for something completely different.

In my infinite sea of absolute wisdom (*cough*) I've realised how much my art-style in All Sorts of Happenings has begun to resemble that of The Peanuts. Now I'm a big Charles M. Schulz fan, So this really doesn't bother me THAT much. But it occured to me how sad it is that while Superheroes and Manga is flourishing well into the new millenium, newspaper strips is a dying breed. One could argue that the webcomic is the modern reincarnation of the newspaper strip but this is where I have to disagree. Popular webcomics have a habit of either being about a single hobby (Penny-Arcade with Video Games) or having a complex storyline (El Goonish Shive). The classic semi-philosophic family-oriented newspaper strip doesn't really have a modern equivalent. Series like The Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes presented us with (at the time) unique stances on life. They taught us something about ourselves while at the same time being witty. In my upbringing at least, Newspaper strips played a role in shaping me into the person I am today. Sociologists theorize that we are in a post-modern era, in which our lifestyles are comparable to that of a charmeleon. We are no longer brought up solely by our parents, but by the instituions we frequent and the group of friends we create for ourselves. we resemble the Charmeleon in that while at work we may be the one that makes the jokes all the time, we can still fall into the role of the braniac at school. I believe that comic strips and fiction in general plays a much larger role in our upbringing in post-modern society. As an Atheist, I reject the fact that any God exists. Our morals are shaped by experiences and outside input, factual evidence that gives us our place in the universe. That said, I am honored to live on a planet where people feel fullfillment in learning about the world around them. To look back at our history of philosophers, Theists, Deists, Atheists or otherwise and see that some have spent their entire life building the modern zeitgeist that I'm privileged enough to live in is a humbling experience. And I truly believe that the future shapings will come from comics. While we may no longer have a Charles Schulz around, new comics like Scott Pilgrim and Nemi embrace the fact that our generation. My generation. Consists mostly of men and women who's concept of masculinity and feminism largely comes from a backdrop of fairytales and adventures as told to us by loving parents, or inspiring individuals.

Top 10 Insane Characters

Insanity is a lovely character trait, and while it's mostly used for villains it just makes alot of fictional characters a lot more entertaining. It's almost always more interesting to follow a character where you're not always sure what the person is going to do in any given situation.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

10 - Stinky Pete The Prospector From Toy Story 2.

Toys are meant to be played with, and this becomes no more apparent than with the villain of Toy Story 2. Secluded ever since fabrication, Stinky Pete has watched all the other copies of his type of toy being taken home by kids and parents and being loved and cared for. This has made him Mean spirited and dark. He actually ends up deciding that children are mean to toys, and even destroy them and that th

ey will be better off being admired in a museum for years to come. His character arc is one of the coolest in the otherwise pretty happy-go-lucky movie, perhaps foreshadowing the pretty dark themes that the Toy Story movies would end up tackling in the final movie.

09 - The Black Knight From Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

Monty Python characters are already insane enough, hell the writers are probably a little insane as well. Then you have The Black Knight, he protects a certain path somewhere in medieval England for whatever reason. Then King Arthur shows up and they do glorious battle for all of.. 2 seconds. The Black Knight takes persistency to a whole new level. He loses an arm, calling it merely a fleshwound. This he does 4 times until he's nothing but a torso and a head. And even then he tries to keep fighting, this guy just doesn't know when to stop. Most Monty Python characters may be relatively insane, but when you're being called a looney by one of them, you might want to do some self-reflection.

08 - Wile E. Coyote from The classic Looney Tunes cartoons.

One of the most Stubborn characters in fiction, Wile E. Coyote is a Super genius living in the desert. Starting off as mere hunger, Wile E.'s hunt for the Roadrunner has become an insane addiction. He constantly comes up with increasingly convoluted and complicated schemes that always fails in the end. He clearly has access to post-order services and in one case even The Internet so one has to wonder.. Why doesn't he just order a pizza? Well because he's endured tons of amounts of pain just to catch the damn bird and he'd be damned if he ever stops trying.

07 - Scrooge Mcduck From Disney's Comic Book universe.

To those of you only familiar with the cartoon version of Scrooge, You're in for a treat! Scrooge's Gol fever in the comics are exagerrated to an extreme degree. If he looses money in a deal, he's able to cry so loud that it can be heard in the far reaches of space.

In one case, it even causes him to Flood The City of Duckburg With His Tears. That's alot of crying. Being an avid treasure hunter, Scrooge's Goldfever allows him to smell Gold already when he lands in the airport. It can cause him to run on water, lift giant rocks, and gain nightsight. When he's not out in the world making more money, he even bathes in them. He rarely eats more than three beans and a piece of bread with a glass of water, just to save money. If something becomes wrong with his money bin (such as having cracks due to over-filling) He's known to become seriously ill. He may be somewhat stable, not having been on a killing spree yet (at least not that we know of) but this is a serious case of obesession.

06 - Edward Wong Hau Pepulu Tivruskii The 4th from Cowboy Bebop.

Edward is a girl, though she may look like a boy. Edward is also a hacking prodigy from Earth in the year 2071. Edward also likes to talk about herself in the 3rd person. Edward is a very strange person, straying from place to place like a cat and always being pretty careless. She almost never walks normally, always running or climbing or prefferably

walking on her hands. She also named herself, as her father is always moving from place to place she decided her real name was boring. Her real name is Francoise Appledelhi, a boy's name because her father is too clueless to understand that he has a daughter, and not a son. Ed get's best along with other kids, but in particular a super intelligent corki puppy named Ein. For same strange reason they're able to have at least some kind of communication. Edward also never refers normally to people, with lines like "Father person, this is Spike Person and Jet Person". Though she may not be dangerous like some of the others on this list, she's definetly insane.

05 - Johnny from Ed Edd N' Eddy.

Johnny has a vivid imagination to put it softly. He talks to a board named plank, with a drawn face on it and it's able to throw him into fits of all-destroying rage. Being alienated by the rest of the kids in the cul-de-sac really doesn't help, making him create Melonhead the superhero persona. His faith in Planks reality is so believable to others that it's actually able to do physical harm to people without Johnny's presence. This kid needs a therapist, and soon.

04 - The Joker from the Batman comics.

The Joker is one of those classic insane villain that everyone knows. He's been subjected to something horrible at some point in his life, having permanent bleached white skin and freaky smile. He's come to enjoy he's super-villain persona too much and is now beyond the help of any psychologist. So he does what he loves, fighting his arch-enemy the Batman and making Gotham city into his private playground. His insanity has come to the point, that he can't remember his own past. Therefore he always tells us a new story, which makes him all the more creepy. Afterall, there's nothing more scary than the unknown.

03 - Tyler Durden from Fight Club.

Insomnia is dangerous, just ask this guy. After having problems sleeping he goes on a plane and meets Tyler Durden. Durden is a soap salesman, and has a very different lifestyle. Our main characters goes to live with Tyler Durden after a fistfight between the two gave him a rush. They start a Fight Club, and little by little it evolves into a cult. Tyler Durden decides he want to blow up all credit card firms in America, causing the destruction of debt. This of course turns to true insanity when it turns out Tyler Durden never was a real person, and our main character has been fighting against himself all this time. This is skitzofrenia on a whole other level, and the only way to defeat oneself is to shoot youself in the head. Which oddly Works.

02 - Johnny "'Nny" C. from Johnny The Homicidial Maniac.

Johnny lives in a random American suburb, in a house that already had all sorts of torture devices when he moved it. He goes around killing anyone that annoys him (which in reality, constitues EVERYONE) and pours their blood on a certain backwall in his house. He's convinced that if he ever stops feeding the wall with blood, something even worse will come out. So he keeps on killing, and he isn't picky. He's kept company by three "creatures". One is Nailbunny, a floating dead rabbit with a nail through it's head, representing his inner child. Then there's two Doughboy statuettes named Mr. Eff and D-Boy. One of them claims to be working for the entity behind the wall, the otherclaims to be working against it. He's also known to go off on existential rants about modern society, actually making kind of a understandable point sometimes (I'm NOT crazy). But really, he's a serial killer with voices in his head. What more do you want?

01 - Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Shinji is troubled kid, so troubled that his puberty makes him think he's fighting aliens in giant robots. His relationship with women is convoluted, to the point of him giving his masturbation dream a persona named Rei (Yes, That really is what she's supposed to symbolise) while most of the episodes is just a Giant Robot anime, later on there comes whole episodes where we get a nice trip through the poor guys psyche.. And it isn't pretty. The two ending episodes were so confusing to most people that they made an alternate one i movie form, depicting what happened in the Giant robot world while all the stuff was going on inside Shinji's head. His mother and daddy issues is pretty.. entangled. Let's leave it at that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So that was my Top 10 for the most insane characters. Of course there are probably even more insane characters out there, but I tried not to make the list too samey (otherwise, Rorshach, Green Goblin and most of the Rogues Gallery of Batman would have made the list as well).

I hope you enjoyed my list, and will comment on what you think, perhaps mention some characters I haven't thought of?

Top 5 Ridicolously Dark Pasts

Don't we all just love popculture? Well sure we do, it's entertaining as hell. But sometimes a character's background can be so dark and brooding that you just have to wonder "Just what the heck were they thinking?" And then do a Patrick Stewart facepalm to punctuate.

Now some of these pasts are actually in quality works, but they're still pretty damn silly-dark. Of course I can only use one character from each franchise or else I could just fill this up with Naruto or One Piece characters.

BEFORE WE START: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS.

5. Drusilla - From Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Drusilla is one of those gleefully evil characters, being completely and totally insane. Drusilla was raised in a very religious family, and was put away in a nunnery because of her ability to be given visions of the future. Already somewhat rejected by her family, things became worse when she was discovered by a bored Angelus that was passing through her town. Angelus made her a project, raping and torturing her into insanity before finally siring her into a vampire. Drusilla has since only contained the ability to think like a child, and it's more or less a fact that there's nothing more cruel and cold than a child. Especially one that has found out that it enjoys maiming and torturing people. This coupled with the aforementioned ability to look into the future makes Drusilla one of Buffy's most insanely dangerous enemies.

4. Uchiha Sasuke - From Naruto.

Masashi Kishimoto has claimed that he thought up Sasuke to be the perfect manga rival, giving him all "the best" elements from shounen rivals out there. However one may feel about this character, theres no denying that he isn't lacking in

the dark past department. Uchiha Sasuke is from one of the noble ninjaclans of his village, their clan having a signature ability that's unique to their bloodline. It's a special type of sight that lets them predict their enemies moves, and alot of other clans and villages wants that ability for themselves. Enter Sasukes brother, Itachi. In order to protect his brother from getting killed he agrees to kill all the rest of the clan in front of him, and leave the village as a dishonored ninja. Sasuke is thus left to grow up with the dark memories of a killed off family, and a thirst for revenge that holds him back from gaining friends. This is of course what ultimately leads to him leaving the village and his team behind and becoming a villain.

3. The Bride - From Kill Bill.

Being trained into the ultimate hitwoman by her master and lover Bill, The Bride leaves the dark life behind when she discovers she's become pregnant. She hides in Texas, and plans to marry a lowly musicstore owner in order to give her child a normal life. Bill however, is not pleased and he sends her former colleagues out to her wedding reception when she's in final stages of pregnancy to kill everyone off. The group leaves a absolute bloodbath behind when they leave the church, but The Bride somehow survives, just to be put into a coma for 5 years. When she awakes she not only has an unstoppable thirst for revenge but she finds out that she has been used by the nurse responsible for her to rent out sexual favors to truckdrivers. Later on, insult is added to injury when her child turns out to be alive, raised by the very man that caused all of her suffering.

2. Superboy Prime - From The DC comics Event books.

Superboy Prime is a alternate reality Superman from Earth-Prime, The DC equivalent of OUR Earth. Other than sharing origins with his main continuity counterpart (crashlanded as a baby on Earth after his own planet was blown up due to a dying Sun) Superboy Prime actually has it worse. On his Earth, Superman and the Justice League was fictional characters, and Superboy was believed to be completely normal. That is, Until the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" where the passing of Halley's comet triggers his Kryptonian abilities, just in time for him to meet the main continuity Superman and witness his world be destroyed by the Anti-monitor. Initially being calmed fighting the good fight against The Anti-monitor, he later turns to anguish when the battle is over and he is left on Paradise-Earth, where he becomes more and more secluded and ultimately turns evil.

1. Nico Robin - From One Piece.

Nico Robin was raised by her mother's sister and her family. Being alienated and teased by the other kids, Robin copes by visiting the historians of the island. The island being known for the best historians in the world. She's taught to read and falls in love with the craft of archeology while she grows up. One day however, her mother shows up on the island after several years only for her and the entire group of archeologists to be publicly executed. It turns out that the group had found less than flattering historical facts about the founding of The World Goverment and they and the entire country is to be destroyed. The World Goverment executes a "Buster Call", the attack of thousands of marine ships that starts firing cannons relentlessly on the island only stopping when the entire population has been wiped out. Nico Robin however, is saved by a rebellious Marine captain and sneaked away on a raft. She then becomes one of the worlds most wanted criminals, her country having been branded as traitors by The World Goverment. She ends up being constantly on the run, using her devil fruit abilities to gain a name for herself as a fearsome pirate and then ending up in the mysterious Baraque Company due to nescessity. Ultimately however, the company is defeated and she joins forces with the Strawhat Pirates.

So that was my picks for the characters with the most ridicolously dark pasts, I hope you agree with some of my points and at the very least has found this informative. If you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to throw me a comment!

Review: Spiral Knights

Quick Info:

Title: Spiral Knights

Price: Free to Play

Platform: PC/Steam Client/Facebook

Genre: MMORPG/Top-Down Shooter/Hack N' Slash.

Developer: SEGA, Three Rings.

Players: Massively Multiplayer, 4 Recommended for Action sequences.

Recently, Valve decided to support Free-To-Play games on their ever so popular Steam Client. Among the titles re-released for the client there was a game called Spiral Knights. Like with any modern MMO worth it's gull, you start off the game designing your character. The choices are somehow limited with only 3 types of helmet or armor available to choose from, you also get to choose from a sortiment of colors. Choose wisely however, as the color is the only thing you won't be able to change later on, it will become your permanent health-bar color and eye-color and all of your future equipment will sport the chosen color in some way or form. Very akin to the Guild Wars games. A friend and I had a 'incident' where both of our characters looked exactly the same. Thankfully, a really early quest requires you to aquire new amor in tier 2, of which there is lots to decide between so the problem was shortlived.

When you start the game, you wake up in no-mans land. The Spiral Order, the Knights of which you belong have crashlanded on a distant world. You'll have to fight your way to the rescue camp, armed with a sword, a shield and a handgun. Now already here you can find two pretty consistent complaints. The hit detection is pretty shaky, only hitting your target with the handgun 7 out of 10 times making you constantly switch to your sword. Even when it's strategically undesireable. The other complaint is the netcoding, a problem which alot of these games suffer from is that if you don't have a pretty good internet connection, The game is virtually unplayable. I myself, are for unrelated reasons only able to have a wireless 3G internet connection with a 20GB monthly download limit, making playing this game after the limit has been exceeded pretty problematic. If you can live with that however, the gameplay is definetly worth it.

Another reason to download the game is the free hat, If you're a Team Fortress 2 player (and if you aren't, why not? The Game is FREE now! Go get it!) you get a neat little helmet for your Soldier character which actually looks pretty cool compared to the standard equipment.

When you get to the Rescue camp, you're almost immediately transported to the city of Haven. Haven is your new permanent home-away-from-your-own-planet, Here you will be able to shop for equipment, chat it up with your fellow players, use the auction house, and train in the Advanced Training Center. More importantly though, this gives you access to "The Arcade" the area in which you're able to go to the action stages. The action stages are explained as being "The Clockworks" a maze of underground areas, riddled with monsters and traps. To get down to the clockworks however, you need to spend Energy. Energy function the same way as most Facebook games do. You're given a standard amount of energy, and every action costs some of it. When you're out of energy you can either wait a few hours for it to recharge or buy something immediately via micro-transactions with real money. An interesting twist on the tried and true formula is the Energy bazaar in which you can trade energy with other players with the in-game currency known as Crowns. While it definetly would have been preferred to just do away with the energy system once and for all, it's refreshing to see a new take on it. While the art-style is pretty cute it's also very standard and seen-before, so it's understandable they didn't go the League of Legends route.

All in all it's a very enjoyable experience, (Especially for the price of absolutely nothing) and it's a nice way to pass those times you need to wait for other games to patch, or your pizza to arrive.

By your powers Combined..

I've never been good at keeping up with the current events in the DC universe. Mostly because DC comics hasn't been published in a monthly edition in Denmark in a decade. That being said, I have been able to sometimes go to an actual comicbook store (a rarity in Copenhagen, oddly enough) and take a look at the new hardback releases which is why I'm now able to talk about Green Lantern in Blackest Night.

To start off, naming this as a Green Lantern book is kinda silly, as most of the other DC heroes appear. It's more of an event book some would say, putting it in the same booth as Crisis on However-Many-Earths-DC-Is-Gonna-Blow-Up-This-Time. So why not call this Death Crisis affectionally, eh? Well because in my eyes it's more of a Team-up comic. The Flash and The Atom seems to have just as large roles in this as Hal Jordan and his merry band of intergalactic cops do so you might as well call this "Brave and The Bold, Zombie Edition". Also, Now they HAVE to do a Marvel Zombies crossovers. There will be blood if you do not comply with my nerdy wet dreams!

But what I could not imagine is what I would find in said comic. Now I'm totally aware of the Green Lanterns will powered ring and the stuff he can do with it. But as I used Blackest Night as my jumpng on point, I was kinda baffled by the stupidity of the Captain Planet-esque every-corpse-has-its-own-element thing that I was thinking

... Maybe Geoff Johns forgot he was writing a DC comic and started writing his saturday morning cartoon wet dream?

Or maybe he was teasing something? Captain Planet the Comic book? Nah. That could never happen. Could it?

HOLY CAPCOM IT'S REAL! RUN FOR THE HILLS, RUN I TELL YOU.

Speaking of Capcom..

I AM VERY DISAPPOINT!

According to The Escapist, Capcom has decided to come up with the most ridicolous DRM in gaming history. You see, Capcom has decided that to manage THE SCOURGE OF USED GAME SALES (Thunderstrike in Background) their new release of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for the 3DS will not only support only ONE Save Game but by Extension Only One Playthrough. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard since The American remake of "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" (and allow me to say that that is a retarded fucking idea). Capcom have bought alot of cheap fan thumbs-up over the years. Mega Man 9, Bionic Commando Re-armed and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 just to name a few, and this is SURE to kick them in the face. So what? Did they figure that they were so far ahead in the Awesome-O-meter that they could take some REALLY stupid chances? For this is not only going to hurt your PAYING, LEGAL, CUSTOMERS. This is going to hurt YOU. I understand that used game sales are hurting the industry. Heck, one could argue that it actually hurts MORE than piracy does. Giving money only to retailers and none to the developers is a very cruel move and I can see why you're upset. However, pulling off a dick move like this certainly ISN'T going to help. Then make a EULA with retailers, disallowing them to resell your products after they have bought them used from a customer. Really, the customers aren't gonna be that hurt by this, sure buying new games as opposed to used ones are expensive, but most hobbies are. If you can afford a 3DS or a PS3, then you should have more than enough to lay out the money for at least one of the truly top tier games that rarely comes out anyway. And on the retailers side, just what are you playing at? Retailers has it rough after digital distribution has grown, true, but not to this extent. This is just being a money-grubbing greedy person and nobody likes those guys. Sure, you may have to downsize in the next couple of years but you have to realise that retailing as a business really isn't going anywhere. There will always be people who prefer the feeling of looking through a store, looking at the shiny box-art and what-not. Making a fieldtrip out of going to your local mall, shopping, and then ending it at the restaurant floor is a international tradition now that will last for years to come.

Being directly mean to your customers is going to burn you in the long run, And I'm pretty sure heads are going to roll in the marketing department over this one.

To those interested, you can find the original Escapist article HERE

Stuff

Anti-Heroic Addendum
As I showed my blogpost to my friends, one of them (a girl, such mystical creatures indeed) had a pretty good counter argument. You see, she argued that the "Superhero frontfigure" thing wasn't very up to date or at all in touch with todays industry. Granted, what she actually said was "I've never cared for Superheroes, I've always rooted for the villains and bad boys". But you know, potato, tomato, Shigeru Miyamoto, really.

Because she's kinda right, I myself have always been a big fan of both Disney's version of Hades and The Joker. Some bad guys are just so unquestionably evil yet somehow relatable that you can't help but feel a little sorry for them when they loose. After all, why do you think Iznogood or Pinky & The Brain ever got so popular? We know that what they want is horrible yet seeing them fail, time and time again when they come close to actually suceeding is why we enjoy their company. It's kind of sadistic really, we want them to succeed because we recognize the feeling from when we try to swat that one fly that JUST. WON'T. DIE.

But, that was kind of my point in my previous post. We have become very used to the worldweary Humphrey Bogart-type character that doesn't have perfect morals but is doing good for the rest of us in the long run. Characters switching sides has become a stable of modern culture and in particular the Manga fanbase where this among some has become known as "The Vegeta Complex" based on the very popular Dragonball Z, where on of the invading Saiyans that was the main villain in the first storyarc turn out to be one of the main characters most powerful allies in the long run. This is also seen in American popculture, with examples like Gambit from X-men, and Spike from the Buffy The Vampireslayer franchise. Of course the most well-known example of side-switching is Darth Vader. The one who started out as a noble jedi, betrayed his brethen due to the potential loss of his wife and children (which he ultimately lost anyway, cheery, eh?) and back into a hero when his son needed him the most.

Isn't this kind of naive? to assume that EVERYONE ultimately will hold up their end of a bargain like Hades or come to our aid in battle for the honor of the lost like Vegeta? One of the things The Dark Knight actually got right was this line of dialogue: "Some people just want to see the world burn". And while The Dark Knight might have been an open letter of sympathy to the Bush administration (Another article, promise) it actually had a point. Human beings can be fairly stubborn and some of them to the point of going to their deaths merely to piss off the people they disagree with. How else do you think suicide bombers can actually exist? Whoa, this took a very dark turn. So that's another reason we need our Supermen and Astro Boys, they balance things out with their just as naive pursuit of truth and justice to make our Rick Blaine's and Punishers all the more enjoyable.

GOD DAMN GRAPHICS
so, my computer died on me. The Graphics started gradually dying on a day-to-day basis in a period of 3 months, every day the "The Graphics Driver has encountered an error and has been reset" error became just a little bit more frequent, at first totally unnoticeable to the point of actually exploding the day-before-yesterday. I formatted my computer, with what turned out to be a too scratched windows back-up and now my computer shows black screen beyond the point of the Windows Vista logo before the logon-screen. It's a probable mixed drink of melted graphic-card, bad windows back-up and some kind of servicepack 1 update that triggers it. In case you're wondering, I've been going online from my fathers laptop since the "incident" and I'm now waiting on payday (tomorrow) to go out and buy myself a new graphic-card. I've always taken pride in having at least a decent gaming PC and I'll be damnned if I'm gonna be left behind.

WHERE'S WALLACE BARCRAWL
So I was searching online for refferential images of Wallace (or Waldo) online when I saw a group of individuals having a annual meet-up in canada dressed up as Where's Wallace characters. It wasn't a barcrawl and just seemed to be something of a communal nature. That's when I thought, I loved going to Zombiecrawl 2009. It's to this days on my top ten of favorite moments in my life. So why not combine the two? Therefore I have come up with the Where's Wallace Barcrawl. I will get as many people as I can and do a route in Copenhagen. The date isn't set yet, but It's probably going to be some time in September. My cousin Rikke has agreed to do a British version if she can't attend mine on the same date, More on that when I get some more information. But that's that.

Incidentally, you can find my comicstrip All Sorts of Happenings including the strip that caused the barcrawl HERE