words from a screen

If you ignore the shame it's brilliant

thepowerofaglove:

tazar:

thepowerofaglove:

wardrox:

SEX. HELL. FUCK YEAH.

Fuck off art.

Dante’s Inferno and Bayonetta are average games given visual gimmicks and huge PR budgets. Their gimmicks are lowest common denominator sludge designed to maximise profits. Their PR showers the loudest voices with both obvious, and subversive messages. Instead of pointing this out from tall chairs next to log fires, whisky glass in hand, the games media pussies out and falls on an old friend.

“Just stop worrying about that stuff, it really doesn’t matter” says the reviewer staring at Bayonetta’s arse. “Stop being so serious and just enjoy it for the popcorn-game that it is” he continues, remembering all the free stuff and extra traffic Dante’s Inferno’s self-generated controversy brought in. “Oh, and treat me seriously”.

Nope.

Shit like this matters to me. I don’t want games to be in the Tate Modern, that’s dumb. I would however like to talk about them in front of my parents, or people who don’t play many games, without looking like a 12 year old who just discovered the internet.

/rant

Uhh… how can you call Dante’s Inferno an average game when it’s release date has not hit yet and you have likely not gotten a copy at this point. Just saying.

The demo is extremely telling of the graphics to the game itself. Rarely, if ever, has a demo not shown off just how far the graphics are gonna go in a full retail game. And honestly, do you expect Dante’s Inferno to be anything more than rust colored, crumbling structures and sometimes lava?

My complaint was against the idea pre-judging a full game based on zero experience with the full retail copy. Is it really fair to pass judgment on any game without spending time with the proper build. It has nothing to with graphics or art design at all.

Also, you forgot the Ice portions.

Also, “gaems r imptortant art sily amrikns”

ronworkman:

Over 2 years ago I filed for the rights in the US for something that is now a video game. I own the name. Because it was an Aussie company they missed the boat. A few people know about this. One of those people is someone I used to work with. That person has a character in the game. This should get pretty funny pretty soon. I had no idea that these former people had a deal in place with this unnamed game but it just goes to show you how stupid and forgetful people can be. Well, I guess you can’t be too stupid paying people below slave labor and them being happy about it.

I think I remember you telling me about this in person when I saw you in NYC, or an entry I read via your Tumblr about it, but this should be interesting.

Don't Call It a New Years Resolution: Day Something or Other.

So I have to apologize for what seems like a joke. I still keep myself on a strict diet and working out, but my computer died last Tuesday, so I’ve been pretty limited on my time online, so my blog kind of fell by the side.

Once I get my own computer back online, I’ll probably update “Cataract’s Fat Kid Misadventures” at least twice a week.

Thoughts on fighting games, and the community that surrounds them.

[Note: This was written on a forum about a month or so, give or take some time.  group of regulars, myself included, began to talk about trash talking and whether or not it had a place in the game, and then that evolved into a talk about the community, and more. Here’s my take on it all. Fighting games have become such a large part of what I play today, and the community for them is the most dedicated one out there. Love and respect.]

Growing up, I never had any real arcades that I’d frequent until recently. But I started playing Street Fighter 2 down at a bowling alley a few towns over. It wasn’t a legit cabinet, it was a pre-made MAME cabinet with font so small you could barely make out the title of the game. It made obnoxious noises when you scrolled through the menu, making everyone look at you with scorn. The sticks were worn out and always a bit greasy. The buttons were stiff as all hell, and spaced in a way that made playing for more than a few mintues at a time incredibly uncomfortable. I loved it.

Now whenever I would show up, there was always the same group of kids playing, and they were good. All a few years older than me, if it wasn’t for the fact they were playing a game I liked, I would’ve avoided them completely. The only practice I had with Street Fighter was by playing Street Fighter II Turbo on ZSNES, and playing on a keyboard isn’t anything like playing on an arcade cabinet, so it was tough to learn. Back then, I didn’t pick or play as anyone other than Ryu, and dedicated myself to “learning” him, which mostly means repeating a fireball motion continuously and talking about how throws were cheap. In retrospect, this is funny because I probably avoid Ryu and Ken more than anyone else, save for Bison or Chun-Li. But those guys were assholes, man. They’d talk shit to me the entire time, and really got in my face when they beat me (which happened a lot). It didn’t matter if I was playing them or not, if I was taking up their time by being on the machine, I was in their way. Eventually I got better and read up online about the game, learning some of the mechanics in play. I started beating them, and eventually got to a point where they couldn’t beat me, unless I made it obvious that I let them win. These were kids who knew how to play the basic game, but still thought that throwing was cheap. So I fucking threw the shit out of them, and laughed the entire time. And you better believe I gave them 10x the shit talking back when I realized I didn’t have to try to beat them.

It sucks now, though. No one really plays fighting games seriously in my area, although there are a few random tournaments that pop up every now and then, and going to gaming conventions usually results in me playing tournaments for stuff. Even then, a lot of people play to win. Now, this isn’t a bad thing, and I love to win as well. But when you stop playing a game because you love it, it just isn’t the same. This is one of the reasons I rarely play SF4 anymore. If you don’t enjoy the game, then you’re wasting your time.

But I think the limited scene around here is really what makes it awesome. If you go to a tournament around here, you’ll usually see some of the same people you saw at the last one. In fact, the person who placed second in the picture (I placed first) above is someone who I kept running into at that some convention, and now we talk every once in a while, and we’re planning on hanging out over winter break. A friend of mine, Liam, I met from going to about 3 different SF4 tournaments and recognizing each other from the past ones. Because it’s so limited, you get to play and hang out with the same key people from the other tournaments. This is how scenes grow. I can only hope that it continues to grow in New Jersey. You se the people who play because they love the game or the genre, and you stick together. you play against each other, and you train to get better with each other.

Once I started going to New York City, and more specifically, Chinatown Fair, things got way different. You get used to the local players and such, but when you start going to the same arcade that some of the top US players go to, things get so different. On most weekend nights, people show up and put their best game on just so they can play these top players and try and beat them. People are hungry for beating these pros, and if you fuck one thing up in your game, you can fucking bet that they’ll exploit it and make you regret putting that dollar in.

And then, on the offchance that someone like Justin Wong, Sanford Kelly, or Arturo Sanchez shows up, the shit talking is out of fucking control. So much shit talk gets flown around that it’s ridiculous, and the majority of the arcade is focused completely on the match at hand. But among all the shit talk you hear, you realize that it’s not about trying to be tough or give someone shit. It’s all done among friends. For all the videos you see Justin Wong talking shit or hyping shit up, you have to remember most of the time he’s playing against his friends or among them. It’s smack talk between friends, and thats what people forget. Shit talk is about giving your friend shit because he’s your friend, and you know they can take it. One of the first times I went to Chinatown Fair on a weekend to try and play one of the pro’s, I ended up going against Justin Wong. I was with a few friends, but I was tense as fuck. I mean, this was someone who I looked up to in a way, one of the biggest examples of East Coast playing in a time when West Coast liked to think they were better.

So I sit down, and he just kinda looks over, laughs a bit, and tells me something along the lines of “relax man, it’s just a game”. He wiped the floor with me, but even then the shit talk was done out of being a community. So if people are shit talking, don’t act like they hate you or they’re trying to put you down. Sure, some people are straight up dicks about it because they’re so self absorbed, but with most people, it’s all a sort of brotherly love.

Don't call it a New Years Resolution: Day 1

I made a solid decision last week. I decided that I’m going to do something about my health. I live an extremely unhealthy lifestyle, and it’s about time I get myself in shape while I still have the means to. So, this means the following. I am going to live a better, healthier lifestyle, and commit myself to exercise at least for an hour every day.

To start, I enrolled myself in the same Karate school that I was in when I was much younger, around the age of 12. I am also starting to eat better, cutting down on my consumption of red meats, increasing my intake of grain, and switching to low fat or low calorie alternatives. Ideally, this is just how I want to start, and I may alter this plan based on what becomes available to me as I go on.

But regardless, I plan to use this Tumblr to track my progress and thoughts every day. This should, at the very least, prove interesting to me. At best, I hope it can be inspiring to others.

Today was my second day of training, and parts of me feel somewhat sore, mainly my forearms and thighs. It’s refreshing, though, to feel this way. It’s almost as if I’m remembering what my own body feels like, if that makes any sense at all (protip: it doesn’t).

1/09/10

Height: 6”2’

Weight: 230 lbs.