Belong.
I really have a hard time deciding whether "Gravity" or "Tell Me What the Rain Knows" is the most emotional song in Wolf's Rain soundtracks. The melodies and lyrics in both of these are very good and touching with Maaya Sakamoto's excellent vocals, even having some Disney magic (yes, I know it sounds odd when you're talking about anime soundtracks, but in my opinion these ending themes do have the charm of some of Disney's most memorable themes). Disney music for adults is probably what I could call it, although I know the definition is a bit awkward and Uncle Walt wouldn't like the definition. Anyway, Wolf's Rain is probably the best mood soundtrack which you can just listen to whereas the other soundtracks of Yoko Kanno and the others require you to be in a certain mood. =)
I visited the bank and the people there said my Verified by Visa access should be working, and yet Play.com keeps telling me my card doesn't exist. I was like "WTF?", and now I feel like calling there. I'm starting to think I should've chosen the Visa Electron card of either Sampo or Nordea instead, because at least those cards would be accepted in net stores. *sigh* Oh well, I might just try to harrass my sister and try to order things through her, but I wonder if she'll accept. We'll see...
Work has been alright although I'm still not all that familiar with all the library stuff, but at least I'm learning slowly but surely. We've had some trouble with teenagers messing around and smoking inside, and we've had to drive them out. Luckily there's been no need for security guards yet, but I fear the worst. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. I've had some nice chats with the library staff, having a debate about LotR and Star Wars, existential questions, the financial situation we're in at this town etc etc. One member of the staff hates LotR with passion, and it was interesting listening to her reasoning why LotR as both the novel and the movies suck. Surprisingly enough I haven't met any Disney bashers (unlike in my other jobs back then when there always was at least one Disney basher and how I had a good time explaining why Disney is good =P), but the LotR debate was quite refreshing, especially because no one got flamed (unlike on the Internet when sooner or later someone will start flaming and then a freaking flame war erupts xD). I look forward to the coming debates (when we have time to debate, that is, because there are quite many customers and then there are all these projects we have to take care of not to mention learn using the databases and all that). =)
Sephiroth1999AD sent me "Everything That I Am" song from Tarzan Broadway soundtrack, and I ended up liking it just like I had suspected. The lyrics reveal where this bit is played in the play, and it happens to be one of my favourite scenes (at least when I talk about the movie; I haven't seen the show so I can't say if the scene will be as emotional there as it is in the movie although the music seems to suggest that it is so). Anyway, the lyrics fit the scene quite well and are quite emotional, and I like the instruments in this song. Tarzan's voice is a bit too high for my taste (they should've imitated Johnny Weismüller's voice instead, IMHO) but it doesn't get bothersome, so it's alright. I like the flashbacky effect at the beginning of the song, and later as Tarzan as an adult starts singing about his place in the world, it gets quite nice. One of the surprising things about the lyrics of this beautiful song is that the lyrics reflect my tGA character Refan very well. I didn't really think Tarzan and Refan had that much in common, but after listening to the lyrics I suddenly realized how similar they actually are. Both have lost their family, meet new people and try to adapt to society, and yet there's this darkness haunting them while they try to control their emotions. And they also have to make some tough choices. Sure, Refan is a darker character than Tarzan and definitely not as heroic (although Refan has proved himself to others on some occasions like during the Battle of Maar Sul). Anyway, the themes of realizing your true heritage and finding your place in the world is what really connects Tarzan and Refan. For Tarzan the revelation is both sad and yet somewhat hopeful (as can be seen in the "One Family" scene at the treehouse when he and Kala say goodbyes), but for Refan the true revelation of his family is both happy and tragic at the same time. Sure enough, if we get to the climactic battle scene in Aison at some point (the long awaited Refan and other heroes vs. Zarnagon duel xD), I'll be playing "Everything That I Am" during the aftermath when Refan finally finds his father and brother right before the last stand, which will thus show him the truth of the world he's living in and making him realize too late how wrong he's been in the classic way all the tragic heroes have in the past.
I watched a couple of movies recently, and Army of Darkness was one of them. It's the third part of the Evil Dead trilogy and apparently the most comic of all the movies (whereas the first one is supposedly pure horror and the second one dark but more comedic than the first one). Ash, played by the cult icon Bruce Campbell, gets stranded on Medieval Earth due to trying to destroy the Necronomicon which had killed his buddies in the previous installments by unleashing a horde of undead and demons and what-have-you. The knights think Ash is the ally of their enemy and plan to kill him, but after Ash manages to prove himself by defeating a Deadite, he's tasked to find the Necronomicon and bring it to the priest so that Ash can be sent back to his own time and that the Deadites can be defeated for good. Of course Ash screws up and accidentally unleashes the hordes of evil which soon begin the siege of the castle he and his Medieval buddies are in. The army of darkness is led by an evil clone of Ash who is as funny and cool as Ash himself. He tries to get his hand on the Necronomicon in order to obtain its powers and become the absolute ruler. The final battle between mankind and deadites is about to begin, but who dares to oppose the horrors of the horrible army of the dead? Although this movie has some scary bits, it's mostly an adventure comedy, and Ash provides most of the comic stuff while the rest of the cast try to be serious (even evil Ash is more serious than Ash himself xD). This feel is enhanced with the epic score which has some very powerful choral moments. It's kind of fun hearing a dramatic score in a funny film like this (the two themes I recognized are very memorable, especially the epic and sinister choral march of the undead army), but I guess it's to counter the comedy which Ash provides. All in all the movie is alright, but it should've been longer. There are some very funny scenes, but the plot is full of holes which kind of takes away the effect. Luckily the comedy and the epic score saves the day, so I'll give this movie 3- stars out of 5.
This was the first time I saw DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp in its entirety, and it was quite a nice film. It has many aspects which were later used in Aladdin, but in here we see Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews searching for the treasure of Collie Baba. They eventually gain possession of the magic lamp among the treasure, and it's revealed that the lamp has a genie who grants his masters wishes. Unfortunately an evil wizard named Merlock is also after the lamp, because with it he can gain absolute power and become the ruler of the world. A series of hilarious scenes ensue when the nephews try to keep the released genie hidden from Scrooge while Merlock and his funny henchman Dijon try to capture the lamp. There are some nice plot twists (with backstabbing and all), and it eventually culminates in an epic showdown between Merlock and Scrooge in the transformed Money Bin. And all the genie wanted was to be a real boy, but will his wish come true in the end or will he be forced to obey Merlock's wishes for all eternity? The score by David Newman is quite epic at places and reminds me of his score for Anastasia a lot. There are at least three themes I noticed: one for Merlock, one for Genie and one for the Scrooge and the nephews in general. The animation style seems to change; it looks quite cinematic in the opening scenes with the pyramid and all but after that degrades until in the final showdown and aftermath it gets better again. The plot suffers from its short length, though, and the epic showdown should've been longer, because it had potential (the sad jail scene, the infiltration of the Money Bin and the transformation of the Money Bin are all excellent scenes leading to the showdown). Still, the movie definitely isn't bad and it does have that DuckTales spirit and better animation than the show at times. I compared the Finnish and English versions. Although generally the English voice cast was better than the Finnish (as hard as they tried they couldn't have as awesome a voice for Scrooge as Alan Young is), but to my surprise Merlock's Finnish voice was much better than the English one which was Christopher Lloyd. Kind of odd, because I thought Lloyd's voice would be sinister and instead it was goofy most of the time. Still, the movie is an entertaining one and does have that Disney magic, and thus it gets 3 stars out of 5.
Rear Window seems to be one of the most respected movies ever, so when it came on I, of course, watched it out of curiosity. The movie's almost entirely from the point of view from one little apartment. In that apartment lives Jeff (played by the wonderful James Stewart), a photographer who is temporarily in a cast and therefore has nothing else to do than watch his neighbors. From time to time his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) comes over, as does Stella (Thelma Ritter) who takes care of him since he has broken his leg. One time Jeff suddenly sees something suspicious happening in the neighbourhood and starts thinking that someone has been murdered. The others don't believe him and evidence seems to speak against him, but nevertheless he's ready to solve the mystery. This movie is voyerism in its best form and has quite a lot of suspense too all the way to the heartstopping climax. The actors do a good job, the cinematography is excellent, the score works quite well in building the suspense, and the plot is quite clever although it does have flaws at times. Still, it's an interesting thriller, although it's missing some stuff which would've made it better. One of the most glaring things is that it's too short. There are some scenes that could've benefited from more length, although things work alright now as well. The plot's flaws, however, prevent it from getting as good as people claim it to be, although it's still a good film. Anyway, I'll give this movie 3½ stars out of 5, and I recommend you watch it if you enjoy suspense and character development and symbolism, because this movie has all of those.
I watched Spirited Away, the animation that won the Academy Award from Disney. I was interested in seeing a Miyazaki animation because people are praising them like crazy, so I thought it'd be a good thing to watch this movie first. The story tells of a young girl named Chihiro who arrives at a strange town in the middle of a forest. Despite her protests her parents eat the food there and turn into pigs, and Chihiro is unable to escape. She manages to get help from the mysterious boy Haku who tells her to find work before the witch Yubaba finds her. As Chihiro finally is enlisted to help Yubaba and hundreds of workers in the bathouse, we gradually get to know that this is not an ordinary world but instead it's a spirit world; the bathhouse is for hundreds of gods that live in Japan. This is just a starting point for this 2-hour animated movie, and a lot of things happen and we get to know some of the dwellers of the world a little better, including Yubaba, the mysterious No-Face, Haku and others while Chihiro tries to figure out a way to turn her parents back into humans and escape with them from the spirit world. The plot, of course, gets more complex as it progresses due to all this Japanese mythology stuff, and the story and nice animation is accompanied by a beautiful but unfortunately not-so-memorable score (I only remember two themes from the various themes in the movie, and the second time I watched the movie didn't help). As I mentioned, the animation works and is quite beautiful and thrilling at appropriate spots, and the characters can be quite complex and intriguing like No-Face. Despite all the praise, though, the plot has some major plot holes, especially when it tries to be cool and leave certain things unanswered. One of the most mysterious things is the relationship between No-Face and Chihiro. At first it seems to want to befriend her, then it wants to eat her, and finally they leave each other alone without even saying goodbyes. There are many other instances that should've at least given hints to the reasoning behind certain characters. Too many plot threads are left open, and the ending itself is quite hastily done without much complexity (which I can understand, though, because of the pressure Studio Ghibli was facing at the time). Chihiro is sometimes very annoying, but at other times she does shine through as the likable protagonist. It's nice that even the villainous characters aren't that evil, and some good guys have some evil intentions for various reasons. However, this movie isn't as good as many people make it be. It tries to be good but fall short, and even though it does benefit from its long running time it just doesn't live up to the finer nuances of the story. Still, it's an alright movie and made me interested in other movies by Ghibli. I'll give this movie 3½ stars out of 5.
Check this out. I wanted to post the link to the long version (~ 1h) because it has some very funny bits from Will Wright (the man behind such games as SimCity and Sims, among other things) who even mentions Helsinki (I almost cracked up when he mentioned black arts and Helsinki after one another xD). Anyway, if you don't feel like listening to Wright's hilarious bits (you should listen to him, though, because he's a funny guy and made me smile several times with his witty comments), either fast-forward the bits where they show his face or then choose the shorter, ~35 min version also found on the site and watch it instead. Anyway, the game we're talking about is called Spore. Don't read forward until you've watched the video, because you have to see it for yourself before reading the analysis (listen to the audience as it gets surprised after Wright shows one twist after another when explaining things about the coming game). So, basically Spore is a game that is both complex and yet extremely simple (as you'll see when you watch the video). It'll be a simulation that ranges from the cellular level to the galactic level, and it'll consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. It has the following phases according to Wright: 1) 2D Tide pool phase, similar to Pac-Man, 2) 3D Creature phase, similar to Diablo, 3) Tribal phase, similar to Populous, 4) City phase, similar to SimCity 5) Civilization phase, similar to Risk and Civilization, and 6) Space phase (the "UFO stage") which eventually evolves into sandbox gameplay. Basically you play your way through from all the way to the cellular way to the intergalactic level (so yeah, evolution from far-away prehistoric times to the far distant future), guiding your race and making it look like just the way you want it to look. You can modify the traits of your species, modify the buildings and stuff, modify the creatures you face, the continents, planets and stuff. The most innovative thing is, however, that you'll get much of the content from other players who provide you with their races and planets which you can visit and either ally with or become hostile to. If you've watched the video, you'll see how big this game actually is, with literally hundreds of thousands of planets for you to conquer (basically as many civilizations as there are players, and the races you'll meet will be different from each other because of the easily modified editor with which players can make their species look whatever, even to the point of creating a race of meat-eating Care Bears if they so desire xD). I like this idea, and I hope it'll work despite some of the problems this kind of sandbox thinking might have. Although Wright thinks plots aren't the main focus of his games (as we've all seen when playing his games), I do think it'd be nice if players could create their own plots for this game, creating hero and villain characters, giant metropolises and have all these quests and stuff. What I mean is the players creating an interactive story where heroes and villains would arise, how the success of some civilizations affects the plot and all that. I think that might be too ambitious and Wright probably doesn't prefer that kind of option, but it's a nice thought anyway. In any case Spore looks very promising with all its nice customization aspects and huge area to play with, and it has the chance to become the Game of the Year if all goes well. Let's hope for the best. =)
I installed Deus Ex and played it for the first time. So far it's been quite interesting with its complex plot and good voice actors. I like the fact that everyone in this game talks and that you get multiple ways of completing an objective (for example in the first mission you can decide whether to storm the Statue of Liberty where the terrorists are, try to override the security to get in, find a key to the place or find another way into the Statue. It's also nice how the game rewards you from exploring all the places in the maps. Many of them are hidden well, but finding them is quite nice. I've tried to take the sneak approach and defeat as few bad guys as possible (I use the crossbow for such purpose; it's quite a nifty weapon although apparently the pistol is one of the best weapons in the entire game after you've modified it). It's quite refreshing to peek around the corner (I do hope that all FPS games will have this ability, because it's very nifty) and try to avoid the enemies, although it can be frustrating at times too. I look forward to finding out what happens in the game next, and so far the story of J.C. Denton has been an interesting one.
To my surprise I managed to play through the Battle of Endor game and defeat the Super Star Destroyer Executor (Vader's flagship which is the final "boss" of the game). Usually I've had enough lives but the bastard and its TIE Fighter and Interceptor minions had always managed to defeat my flagship Home One before I'd managed to destroy the Executor. This time I tried the risky strategy of attacking all the turrets of the Executor, disabling them one at a time. This proved to be the right strategy, because without its turrets the big ship became defenseless, and it was relatively easy to deal with the TIEs that were threatening Home One. Most of my squad died out in this epic battle (note that this was the final stage of the game so I had already lost quite a bunch in the previous stages), and I practically had to finish the Executor all by myself. So, I destroyed the turrets and then the pesky TIES and then attacked the shield towers of the ship, destroying them. Then I just decided to finish the bastard off with my torpedoes. I could've done a suicide and crashed through the command bridge like the A-Wing pilot did in the movie, but instead I fought the ship mano a mano and won, and the health of Home One was still at 48% so not bad at all. The Battle of Endor is quite a nice fan game and has some of the easier aspects of the X-Wing series in it. It's quite easy for an X-Wing veteran (although stages 4 and 6 can be really annoying if you don't watch out, because not only do you have to protect Home One but also Wedge Antilles's X-Wing and Lando's Millennium Falcon). Every Star Wars fan should give it a try, even if you have played the great X-Wing series, because it's so much fun to just blast hundreds of TIE Fighters that attack you. The next time I play I'll try to get some screenshots of the TIE swarms so that you'll see how many of those crackpots I have to defeat. But yeah, play the game; you won't regret it. xD
I've continued writing my fanfic at tGA and had posted a new chapter to the fanfic. I also managed to speak with the lurker ThroneofDravaris on IRC some time ago, and it was quite funny how my vampire villain and ToD had the same nick: Dravaris. I hope he doesn't mind. xP I also got quite creative this evening and wrote a lot of text for my other writing project. It's nice when you don't have writer's block and can just write about stuff as you please. It's also nice writing all these personal histories for your characters to use as a reference point later. I hope I'll be as creative later this week as well.
I attended to a funeral a few days ago. I sang two songs there: "Täällä Pohjantähden alla ("Here Under the North Star") and "Suojelusenkeli" ("Guardian Angel"), both of which are quite beautiful and sad songs. Funerals are quite depressing, and I hope the relatives of the one who passed away will get better as time passes. And here's something happy after the gloomy news: I was surprised to hear that Marko (my cousin's son) is going to become a father later this autumn. Now, I hope he and his girlfriend will get a wedding so that I can finally attend to a wedding (never actually been in one; all I've ever attended to were funerals). I've also helped dad and mom repairing the summer cottage and taking care of the lawn and stuff. We also celebrated mom's birthday yesterday, and everyone had a good time. The weather has been both sunny and rainy, but it's getting colder now. I hope it'll get warm again (although not too warm), although I wouldn't mind a few thunderstorms either. We've only had like two and both were very short. One of these storms was actually so close to our house that our house actually shook when the lightning bolt hit the ground. Well, all we can do now is just to live on and wait what's going to happen. And I need to continue working on tGA stuff sometime tomorrow; we'll see how things go from here.
Yours,
Mikko
I visited the bank and the people there said my Verified by Visa access should be working, and yet Play.com keeps telling me my card doesn't exist. I was like "WTF?", and now I feel like calling there. I'm starting to think I should've chosen the Visa Electron card of either Sampo or Nordea instead, because at least those cards would be accepted in net stores. *sigh* Oh well, I might just try to harrass my sister and try to order things through her, but I wonder if she'll accept. We'll see...
Work has been alright although I'm still not all that familiar with all the library stuff, but at least I'm learning slowly but surely. We've had some trouble with teenagers messing around and smoking inside, and we've had to drive them out. Luckily there's been no need for security guards yet, but I fear the worst. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. I've had some nice chats with the library staff, having a debate about LotR and Star Wars, existential questions, the financial situation we're in at this town etc etc. One member of the staff hates LotR with passion, and it was interesting listening to her reasoning why LotR as both the novel and the movies suck. Surprisingly enough I haven't met any Disney bashers (unlike in my other jobs back then when there always was at least one Disney basher and how I had a good time explaining why Disney is good =P), but the LotR debate was quite refreshing, especially because no one got flamed (unlike on the Internet when sooner or later someone will start flaming and then a freaking flame war erupts xD). I look forward to the coming debates (when we have time to debate, that is, because there are quite many customers and then there are all these projects we have to take care of not to mention learn using the databases and all that). =)
Sephiroth1999AD sent me "Everything That I Am" song from Tarzan Broadway soundtrack, and I ended up liking it just like I had suspected. The lyrics reveal where this bit is played in the play, and it happens to be one of my favourite scenes (at least when I talk about the movie; I haven't seen the show so I can't say if the scene will be as emotional there as it is in the movie although the music seems to suggest that it is so). Anyway, the lyrics fit the scene quite well and are quite emotional, and I like the instruments in this song. Tarzan's voice is a bit too high for my taste (they should've imitated Johnny Weismüller's voice instead, IMHO) but it doesn't get bothersome, so it's alright. I like the flashbacky effect at the beginning of the song, and later as Tarzan as an adult starts singing about his place in the world, it gets quite nice. One of the surprising things about the lyrics of this beautiful song is that the lyrics reflect my tGA character Refan very well. I didn't really think Tarzan and Refan had that much in common, but after listening to the lyrics I suddenly realized how similar they actually are. Both have lost their family, meet new people and try to adapt to society, and yet there's this darkness haunting them while they try to control their emotions. And they also have to make some tough choices. Sure, Refan is a darker character than Tarzan and definitely not as heroic (although Refan has proved himself to others on some occasions like during the Battle of Maar Sul). Anyway, the themes of realizing your true heritage and finding your place in the world is what really connects Tarzan and Refan. For Tarzan the revelation is both sad and yet somewhat hopeful (as can be seen in the "One Family" scene at the treehouse when he and Kala say goodbyes), but for Refan the true revelation of his family is both happy and tragic at the same time. Sure enough, if we get to the climactic battle scene in Aison at some point (the long awaited Refan and other heroes vs. Zarnagon duel xD), I'll be playing "Everything That I Am" during the aftermath when Refan finally finds his father and brother right before the last stand, which will thus show him the truth of the world he's living in and making him realize too late how wrong he's been in the classic way all the tragic heroes have in the past.
I watched a couple of movies recently, and Army of Darkness was one of them. It's the third part of the Evil Dead trilogy and apparently the most comic of all the movies (whereas the first one is supposedly pure horror and the second one dark but more comedic than the first one). Ash, played by the cult icon Bruce Campbell, gets stranded on Medieval Earth due to trying to destroy the Necronomicon which had killed his buddies in the previous installments by unleashing a horde of undead and demons and what-have-you. The knights think Ash is the ally of their enemy and plan to kill him, but after Ash manages to prove himself by defeating a Deadite, he's tasked to find the Necronomicon and bring it to the priest so that Ash can be sent back to his own time and that the Deadites can be defeated for good. Of course Ash screws up and accidentally unleashes the hordes of evil which soon begin the siege of the castle he and his Medieval buddies are in. The army of darkness is led by an evil clone of Ash who is as funny and cool as Ash himself. He tries to get his hand on the Necronomicon in order to obtain its powers and become the absolute ruler. The final battle between mankind and deadites is about to begin, but who dares to oppose the horrors of the horrible army of the dead? Although this movie has some scary bits, it's mostly an adventure comedy, and Ash provides most of the comic stuff while the rest of the cast try to be serious (even evil Ash is more serious than Ash himself xD). This feel is enhanced with the epic score which has some very powerful choral moments. It's kind of fun hearing a dramatic score in a funny film like this (the two themes I recognized are very memorable, especially the epic and sinister choral march of the undead army), but I guess it's to counter the comedy which Ash provides. All in all the movie is alright, but it should've been longer. There are some very funny scenes, but the plot is full of holes which kind of takes away the effect. Luckily the comedy and the epic score saves the day, so I'll give this movie 3- stars out of 5.
This was the first time I saw DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp in its entirety, and it was quite a nice film. It has many aspects which were later used in Aladdin, but in here we see Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews searching for the treasure of Collie Baba. They eventually gain possession of the magic lamp among the treasure, and it's revealed that the lamp has a genie who grants his masters wishes. Unfortunately an evil wizard named Merlock is also after the lamp, because with it he can gain absolute power and become the ruler of the world. A series of hilarious scenes ensue when the nephews try to keep the released genie hidden from Scrooge while Merlock and his funny henchman Dijon try to capture the lamp. There are some nice plot twists (with backstabbing and all), and it eventually culminates in an epic showdown between Merlock and Scrooge in the transformed Money Bin. And all the genie wanted was to be a real boy, but will his wish come true in the end or will he be forced to obey Merlock's wishes for all eternity? The score by David Newman is quite epic at places and reminds me of his score for Anastasia a lot. There are at least three themes I noticed: one for Merlock, one for Genie and one for the Scrooge and the nephews in general. The animation style seems to change; it looks quite cinematic in the opening scenes with the pyramid and all but after that degrades until in the final showdown and aftermath it gets better again. The plot suffers from its short length, though, and the epic showdown should've been longer, because it had potential (the sad jail scene, the infiltration of the Money Bin and the transformation of the Money Bin are all excellent scenes leading to the showdown). Still, the movie definitely isn't bad and it does have that DuckTales spirit and better animation than the show at times. I compared the Finnish and English versions. Although generally the English voice cast was better than the Finnish (as hard as they tried they couldn't have as awesome a voice for Scrooge as Alan Young is), but to my surprise Merlock's Finnish voice was much better than the English one which was Christopher Lloyd. Kind of odd, because I thought Lloyd's voice would be sinister and instead it was goofy most of the time. Still, the movie is an entertaining one and does have that Disney magic, and thus it gets 3 stars out of 5.
Rear Window seems to be one of the most respected movies ever, so when it came on I, of course, watched it out of curiosity. The movie's almost entirely from the point of view from one little apartment. In that apartment lives Jeff (played by the wonderful James Stewart), a photographer who is temporarily in a cast and therefore has nothing else to do than watch his neighbors. From time to time his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) comes over, as does Stella (Thelma Ritter) who takes care of him since he has broken his leg. One time Jeff suddenly sees something suspicious happening in the neighbourhood and starts thinking that someone has been murdered. The others don't believe him and evidence seems to speak against him, but nevertheless he's ready to solve the mystery. This movie is voyerism in its best form and has quite a lot of suspense too all the way to the heartstopping climax. The actors do a good job, the cinematography is excellent, the score works quite well in building the suspense, and the plot is quite clever although it does have flaws at times. Still, it's an interesting thriller, although it's missing some stuff which would've made it better. One of the most glaring things is that it's too short. There are some scenes that could've benefited from more length, although things work alright now as well. The plot's flaws, however, prevent it from getting as good as people claim it to be, although it's still a good film. Anyway, I'll give this movie 3½ stars out of 5, and I recommend you watch it if you enjoy suspense and character development and symbolism, because this movie has all of those.
I watched Spirited Away, the animation that won the Academy Award from Disney. I was interested in seeing a Miyazaki animation because people are praising them like crazy, so I thought it'd be a good thing to watch this movie first. The story tells of a young girl named Chihiro who arrives at a strange town in the middle of a forest. Despite her protests her parents eat the food there and turn into pigs, and Chihiro is unable to escape. She manages to get help from the mysterious boy Haku who tells her to find work before the witch Yubaba finds her. As Chihiro finally is enlisted to help Yubaba and hundreds of workers in the bathouse, we gradually get to know that this is not an ordinary world but instead it's a spirit world; the bathhouse is for hundreds of gods that live in Japan. This is just a starting point for this 2-hour animated movie, and a lot of things happen and we get to know some of the dwellers of the world a little better, including Yubaba, the mysterious No-Face, Haku and others while Chihiro tries to figure out a way to turn her parents back into humans and escape with them from the spirit world. The plot, of course, gets more complex as it progresses due to all this Japanese mythology stuff, and the story and nice animation is accompanied by a beautiful but unfortunately not-so-memorable score (I only remember two themes from the various themes in the movie, and the second time I watched the movie didn't help). As I mentioned, the animation works and is quite beautiful and thrilling at appropriate spots, and the characters can be quite complex and intriguing like No-Face. Despite all the praise, though, the plot has some major plot holes, especially when it tries to be cool and leave certain things unanswered. One of the most mysterious things is the relationship between No-Face and Chihiro. At first it seems to want to befriend her, then it wants to eat her, and finally they leave each other alone without even saying goodbyes. There are many other instances that should've at least given hints to the reasoning behind certain characters. Too many plot threads are left open, and the ending itself is quite hastily done without much complexity (which I can understand, though, because of the pressure Studio Ghibli was facing at the time). Chihiro is sometimes very annoying, but at other times she does shine through as the likable protagonist. It's nice that even the villainous characters aren't that evil, and some good guys have some evil intentions for various reasons. However, this movie isn't as good as many people make it be. It tries to be good but fall short, and even though it does benefit from its long running time it just doesn't live up to the finer nuances of the story. Still, it's an alright movie and made me interested in other movies by Ghibli. I'll give this movie 3½ stars out of 5.
Check this out. I wanted to post the link to the long version (~ 1h) because it has some very funny bits from Will Wright (the man behind such games as SimCity and Sims, among other things) who even mentions Helsinki (I almost cracked up when he mentioned black arts and Helsinki after one another xD). Anyway, if you don't feel like listening to Wright's hilarious bits (you should listen to him, though, because he's a funny guy and made me smile several times with his witty comments), either fast-forward the bits where they show his face or then choose the shorter, ~35 min version also found on the site and watch it instead. Anyway, the game we're talking about is called Spore. Don't read forward until you've watched the video, because you have to see it for yourself before reading the analysis (listen to the audience as it gets surprised after Wright shows one twist after another when explaining things about the coming game). So, basically Spore is a game that is both complex and yet extremely simple (as you'll see when you watch the video). It'll be a simulation that ranges from the cellular level to the galactic level, and it'll consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. It has the following phases according to Wright: 1) 2D Tide pool phase, similar to Pac-Man, 2) 3D Creature phase, similar to Diablo, 3) Tribal phase, similar to Populous, 4) City phase, similar to SimCity 5) Civilization phase, similar to Risk and Civilization, and 6) Space phase (the "UFO stage") which eventually evolves into sandbox gameplay. Basically you play your way through from all the way to the cellular way to the intergalactic level (so yeah, evolution from far-away prehistoric times to the far distant future), guiding your race and making it look like just the way you want it to look. You can modify the traits of your species, modify the buildings and stuff, modify the creatures you face, the continents, planets and stuff. The most innovative thing is, however, that you'll get much of the content from other players who provide you with their races and planets which you can visit and either ally with or become hostile to. If you've watched the video, you'll see how big this game actually is, with literally hundreds of thousands of planets for you to conquer (basically as many civilizations as there are players, and the races you'll meet will be different from each other because of the easily modified editor with which players can make their species look whatever, even to the point of creating a race of meat-eating Care Bears if they so desire xD). I like this idea, and I hope it'll work despite some of the problems this kind of sandbox thinking might have. Although Wright thinks plots aren't the main focus of his games (as we've all seen when playing his games), I do think it'd be nice if players could create their own plots for this game, creating hero and villain characters, giant metropolises and have all these quests and stuff. What I mean is the players creating an interactive story where heroes and villains would arise, how the success of some civilizations affects the plot and all that. I think that might be too ambitious and Wright probably doesn't prefer that kind of option, but it's a nice thought anyway. In any case Spore looks very promising with all its nice customization aspects and huge area to play with, and it has the chance to become the Game of the Year if all goes well. Let's hope for the best. =)
I installed Deus Ex and played it for the first time. So far it's been quite interesting with its complex plot and good voice actors. I like the fact that everyone in this game talks and that you get multiple ways of completing an objective (for example in the first mission you can decide whether to storm the Statue of Liberty where the terrorists are, try to override the security to get in, find a key to the place or find another way into the Statue. It's also nice how the game rewards you from exploring all the places in the maps. Many of them are hidden well, but finding them is quite nice. I've tried to take the sneak approach and defeat as few bad guys as possible (I use the crossbow for such purpose; it's quite a nifty weapon although apparently the pistol is one of the best weapons in the entire game after you've modified it). It's quite refreshing to peek around the corner (I do hope that all FPS games will have this ability, because it's very nifty) and try to avoid the enemies, although it can be frustrating at times too. I look forward to finding out what happens in the game next, and so far the story of J.C. Denton has been an interesting one.
To my surprise I managed to play through the Battle of Endor game and defeat the Super Star Destroyer Executor (Vader's flagship which is the final "boss" of the game). Usually I've had enough lives but the bastard and its TIE Fighter and Interceptor minions had always managed to defeat my flagship Home One before I'd managed to destroy the Executor. This time I tried the risky strategy of attacking all the turrets of the Executor, disabling them one at a time. This proved to be the right strategy, because without its turrets the big ship became defenseless, and it was relatively easy to deal with the TIEs that were threatening Home One. Most of my squad died out in this epic battle (note that this was the final stage of the game so I had already lost quite a bunch in the previous stages), and I practically had to finish the Executor all by myself. So, I destroyed the turrets and then the pesky TIES and then attacked the shield towers of the ship, destroying them. Then I just decided to finish the bastard off with my torpedoes. I could've done a suicide and crashed through the command bridge like the A-Wing pilot did in the movie, but instead I fought the ship mano a mano and won, and the health of Home One was still at 48% so not bad at all. The Battle of Endor is quite a nice fan game and has some of the easier aspects of the X-Wing series in it. It's quite easy for an X-Wing veteran (although stages 4 and 6 can be really annoying if you don't watch out, because not only do you have to protect Home One but also Wedge Antilles's X-Wing and Lando's Millennium Falcon). Every Star Wars fan should give it a try, even if you have played the great X-Wing series, because it's so much fun to just blast hundreds of TIE Fighters that attack you. The next time I play I'll try to get some screenshots of the TIE swarms so that you'll see how many of those crackpots I have to defeat. But yeah, play the game; you won't regret it. xD
I've continued writing my fanfic at tGA and had posted a new chapter to the fanfic. I also managed to speak with the lurker ThroneofDravaris on IRC some time ago, and it was quite funny how my vampire villain and ToD had the same nick: Dravaris. I hope he doesn't mind. xP I also got quite creative this evening and wrote a lot of text for my other writing project. It's nice when you don't have writer's block and can just write about stuff as you please. It's also nice writing all these personal histories for your characters to use as a reference point later. I hope I'll be as creative later this week as well.
I attended to a funeral a few days ago. I sang two songs there: "Täällä Pohjantähden alla ("Here Under the North Star") and "Suojelusenkeli" ("Guardian Angel"), both of which are quite beautiful and sad songs. Funerals are quite depressing, and I hope the relatives of the one who passed away will get better as time passes. And here's something happy after the gloomy news: I was surprised to hear that Marko (my cousin's son) is going to become a father later this autumn. Now, I hope he and his girlfriend will get a wedding so that I can finally attend to a wedding (never actually been in one; all I've ever attended to were funerals). I've also helped dad and mom repairing the summer cottage and taking care of the lawn and stuff. We also celebrated mom's birthday yesterday, and everyone had a good time. The weather has been both sunny and rainy, but it's getting colder now. I hope it'll get warm again (although not too warm), although I wouldn't mind a few thunderstorms either. We've only had like two and both were very short. One of these storms was actually so close to our house that our house actually shook when the lightning bolt hit the ground. Well, all we can do now is just to live on and wait what's going to happen. And I need to continue working on tGA stuff sometime tomorrow; we'll see how things go from here.
Yours,
Mikko