| Wednesday, June 28, 2006 |
 | But, ironically, one of the most expensive games in recent history -- "Half-Life 2" -- with a production budget of more than $40 million -- went out of its way not to hype the name talent that lent its voices to the biggest PC game of 2004. Included in the cast are Lou Gossett, Jr., Robert Guillaume, and Robert Culp -- but there's no indication of that on the game box, on the official Web site, or even in the marketing assets or advertising. In fact, the credits don't roll until the very end of the game, a destination only visited by the most skilled gamers who, presumably, weren't influenced by voice talent when they rushed out to buy the sequel to the "best PC game of 1998."
No disrespect intended, but I can't help but feel that "Contains the voices of Lou Gossett, Junior, Robert Culp and Eli Vance" would, as a box sticker, have had in my admittedly unscientific model a far smaller positive impact on sales than using the same space for a blazon reading "Shooty bad alien faces yes!"
Speaking of Half Life 2, Valve have released the playing stats for Episode 1, harvested (with a Combine harvester. Ha, I kill me) from their Steam system. In a week when it turned out that - surprise surprise - Apocalyptic Christians have no respect for privacy - this raises questions about the harvesting and storage of this data - I'd be a bit concerned if someone found out just how many times I killed Lara Croft during my spectacular failure to grasp Tomb Raider; I'd look like Fred West.
That aside, there is some interesting info in here. Apparently completion rates are lowered by people who restart without getting through the credits sequence, but have only 47% of players really persevered through the admittedly highly repetitive tour-guiding episode of "Exit 17"?
Unfortunately, it did not collect some of the statistics I want to read. Like how many times are players zooming in on Alyx Vance's face, then repeatedly turning their flashlight on and off? How many times does the average player hit a downed dropship with a crowbar to make its limbs jiggle before it stops being cool? How loud did microphones record cries of "No, Barney, let's not do that. Let's all run across in a single heavily-armed group, before the Combine can bring in reinforcements. You multitool". How many times has a zombie been set aflame just to try to work out what it's screaming? How much treacherous speculation has been entertained as to whether Roberts Culp and Guillaume will stay hale and hearty long enough to record voices for all three episodes? All these and more...
So, how far up the obsession curve are you (I'm a bit disturbed to find myself not just in the upper quartile but the upper sesqupidile, or something to that effect)? What statistics would you like to see measured? And, most importantly, are you one of the crazy people playing it with DirectX 7?
On a related topic, the release of Prey will mark a tipping point when there are more Native American characters in computer games than there are actual Native Americans.
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| Monday, June 26, 2006 |
| Phil Collins is my all-time favorite musician. If you know little about his career and impact to the music industry or if you just accidentally found this web-site you've got a long long way to go! Many people are misinformed about the "type" of music Collins produces. The problem deals with his fantastic ability to collide with different formats. The 90s American Music industry has placed him in the category of Adult Contemporary(aka Light Music). In the mid 80s, his career was considered Pop/Rock(AKA TOP 40). He can also fit into Classic Rock(ROCK), based on certain solo and Genesis songs. Is he better as a Drummer, a singer, producer, songwriter, or even an actor? I don't know how it can all be inside this one English Male Heartthrob. Collins has artistic talents that are always full of energy, devotion, and spontaneity. He is literally intense with his best qualities for Drumming and Singing. "In The Air Tonight" was his first popular breakthrough song as a solo artist- for good reason. The vocals and music capture more than an emotion, but state-of-mind. You can feel the painful accusations and bulit up anger at times in the song, which never really seem resolved. His songs past and present are based on human reality- either feeling anger or promise in dealing with change. After 17 years as a solo artist, he has been able to develop a strong musical balance between his own life and society. I have enjoyed his music for over five years with a passion. He is not what he appears to be and I find this to be a hugely attractive quality. If you want to experience this artist's work in the best way possible here are some tips- 1. Listen to his albums BACKWARDS from Dance Into The Light(1996)toFace Value(1981). I suggest that you buy 1989's ...But Seriously before the rest.
Obviously, I didn't like the early Genesis albums. They were too... artsy. Too... intellectual.
Just imagine it, though. Imagine listening to his albums BACKWARDS from Dance into the Light to Face Value. Around Invisible Touch you would start to hear the voice of the divine. Your eyes would dazzle. Aleph. Beth. Collins, Collins, lema sabachthani.
The voice of God, among the backmasked snare drums. His use of brushes particularly sensitive. God seems to have an invisible touch also, which raises the very real possibility that God a) is a woman, b) went out with Phil Collins and c) has a built-in ability to touch anyone she sees. That is, has unbelievbably long arms. Or unbelievably bad vision. Oh God. Oh God. Sususudio God.
I can actually feel the electricity sparking between my molars, and I don't even have any fillings.
Link from here.
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| Thursday, June 01, 2006 |
| Microsoft recommends that Word only be used in safe mode. Has it struck them that maybe, next time, once they develop a software's capacity to the point where it mimics that of the previous version when run in safe mode, they should just ship the damn thing?
Top 50 songs for conservatives. Hard to work out if it's serious or not.
Unboxing. Basically an expanded polystyrene fetish site, but still.
Excruciating BBBC Business News Rap. via B3ta
Also from B3ta, When gmail ads attack.
via Monkeyfilter, Pink Floyd on "Look of the Week". The music, although better than their later stuff, is nothing special - about Echobelly level - but they're such lovely, softly-spoken young men that it's hard not to warm to them.
Pat Robertson = weak.
William Faulkner = strong.
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