28
02/10
As was expected, fans of Crackdown 2 will be getting another reason to re-enter Pacific City sooner rather than later. Joining the previous “Toy Box” DLC is this new content called…
For the full article, please visit our website at www.GodisaGeek.com
27
02/10
This is not about a book per se – but I do love all the Pragmatic Bookshelf books I’ve read this far, and so a free magazine available on-line from these folks is awesome. They’ve got downloads available for this first edition in pdf, epub and mobi formats. That is also a big win as it means I can read them on my phone. Below is text cut from the press release for the new mag.
The Pragmatic Bookshelf, the innovative publisher of award-winning books by programmers for programmers, has launched a new magazine: PragPub.
PragPub editor Michael Swaine served for years as editor-in-chief and editor-at-large for the venerable Dr. Dobb’s Journal and coauthored the seminal personal computer history book, Fire in the Valley.
Michael says, “There is a huge demand for timely information on current programming issues, but conventional magazine publishing can’t keep up with the pace of change in software development. There are some wonderful blogs and wikis that address particular technologies or projects, but they tend to come and go, or serve an extremely niche audience. We’re hoping to strike a balance between a conventional magazine and a topical blog or wiki, capturing the benefits of professional editing and a regular publishing schedule of a magazine, and the responsiveness and sense of community of the blogs and wikis–the growing, worldwide Pragmatic community.”
The July issue is now available from the Pragmatic Programmers site. PragPub is published monthly and is free of charge.
23
02/10
Karaoke is a big deal nowadays, as are music games in general, but 4mm are attempting to bring something new to table with a game based solely on rap and R&B. It has just been announced that if…
For the full article, please visit our website at www.GodisaGeek.com
21
02/10
Doug Fieger, lead singer and songwriter of the successful and influential power pop band The Knack, died on Valentine’s Day after a long battle with lung cancer. It’s a very sad end to an amazing musical life.
I knew he was sick during this time, but he still continued to give interviews. He gave a terrific one in January 2008 to Vintage Guitar magazine about his amazing collection of equipment, growing up loving rock and roll, and the impact of the classic single “My Sharona.” There was no mention of his illness in the article.
“You can have the same equipment, but unless you’ve got Jimmy Page’s fingers, you ain’t gonna sound like Jimmy Page,” Fieger says. “Still, as a collector, I like having what a lot of the players that inspired me had.”
According to the obituary that appeared in his hometown Detroit News newspaper, Fieger told the paper just last month, “I don’t know any better than anyone else when I’m going. I’ve had 10 great lives. And I expect to have some more. I don’t feel cheated in any way, shape or form.”
The Knack’s premiere album, Get The Knack, sold 6 million copies and brought back a love for 60′s-era British invasion guitar rock and roll to the world. Although their aping of the Beatles caused a huge backlash and ridiculous expectations for the band’s second album, they kept plugging away making great music and giving no quarter.
If you have any doubts of the staying power of “My Sharona,” then you can remember the funny scene from the 1994 film “Reality Bites” (shown below) or that the song is featured in an edition of the video game Guitar Hero.
Their third album, Round Trip, produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon), gave them a bigger, in-your-face sound, and featured one of my favorites of theirs, a tour de force called “Africa.”
Leaving Capitol for Charisma for the one off Serious Fun, old Detroit buddy Don Was roughed up the band’s sound, gave the guitars more edge, but the songs were still there, like “Rocket o’ Love” and the title cut.
The band continued releasing records periodically with mixed results, such as Zoom and Normal As The Next Guy.
What Fieger should be remembered for is finding a grand musical vision and sticking with it. Clearly, he was mesmerized by the melodic rock songwriting of the 60′s, grew up learning how to play and collecting these instruments that mean so much to him. Even when the critics turned on The Knack and eventually the public went along, he still believed in the three-minute rock song with hooks and harmonies, lots of guitars, and the angst of a teenager.
I own a wonderful DVD the Knack did in 2002 called Live From The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fun House, where three quarters of the original band do a fantastic staged run through of many of their great songs.
Below is a video memorial for Doug Fieger and The Knack, starting with a local cable interview he did in Rhode Island. You’ll notice that a number of these performances were from the past few years, when Fieger was battling cancer, but that did not stop him. Rest in piece, Mr. Fieger.
20
02/10
The popularity of web site Will It Blend? is indicative of how people enjoy mashing things together. Of course this kind of sharing and combining has been going on in the arts for quite some time. The new Lev Grossman novel, The Magicians asks ‘will it blend?’ of two rather popular fantasy series, J.K. Rowling’s world of Harry Potter and the tales of Narnia from C.S. Lewis. Grossman’s thoughts on both are tossed on top and then the author begins to play a symphony across the full range of buttons from stir to liquefy. What comes out is not children’s fantasy but at times a rather bitter mix.
Grossman is an author and critic for Time and has written for a number of high profile magazines. He is a talented writer and handles his story telling with skill. His characters have depth and this story takes on a very gritty sense of reality, something that is not often found in fantasy. I was impressed with his writing, yet at the same time I was torn with how I felt about the book. I found it to be compelling and at the same time difficult. It took me a few weeks to process the whole thing and get an idea of why the book impacted me the way that it did. I’m going to lay that all out now, but I have to say that when reviewing fiction I work very hard to avoid discussing plot. In this case, it will be impossible to some extent. I don’t think I’m going to give away anything that the promotional material doesn’t make pretty obvious, but anyone who wants to go into this book knowing as little as possible should stop reading now.
The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater is a nerd. He’s an academic over-achiever living a life of privilege, set on a path of success. He’s also extremely unhappy, feeling disconnected from the rest of the world. He struggles with his inability to connect with others and the meaninglessness of life. He has sought out and found some respite in the fantasy world of Fillory. A magical land created and explored in the books of an American author that lived in England. At the start of The Magicians Quentin in on his way to an interview as part of the admissions process for Princeton. But this does not end up as another normal day for Quentin. Rather than his ultimate destination, Princeton, Quentin ends up at Brakebills. Brakebills is a university in upstate New York where students learn magic.
While Hogwarts was not the first literary school of magic, it is the model Grossman has in mind and he is very up front about that fact. The students take part in a magical game called Welters. At one point a team member of Quentin’s, Josh, is absent at the start of a match. Quentin hunts him down and the following interaction takes place between the two of them.
Josh stood up. He saluted smartly. “Send me an owl.”
“Come on, they’re waiting for us. Fogg is freezing his ass off.”
“Good for him. Too much ass on that man anyway.”
Quentin got Josh out of the library and heading toward the rear of the House, though he was moving slowly with a worrying tendency to lurch into door frames and occasionally into Quentin.
He did an abrupt about-face.
“Hang on,” he said. “Gotta get my quidditch costume. I mean uniform. I mean welters.”
“We don’t have uniforms.”
“I know that, ” Josh snapped. “I’m drunk, I’m not delusional. I still need my winter coat.”
This sliver does a lot to reveal the similarities and differences. Brakebills is very much like Hogwarts in external ways, and completely different in substance. The school is for adults, not children and the life that Grossman portrays is much more in line with reality than fantasy. This is not a book to pick up for a young child. This story contains profanity, sexual content, graphic violence, as well as alcohol and drug abuse. This is where I ran into my first issue with The Magicians. I’ll get to that shortly, but first I’d like to finish laying out what the book involves.
Not all of Brakebills is lifted straight from Hogwarts, though I don’t think the reader with much experience in reading fantasy will find anything that could really be called new. What there is, as I have mentioned, is very well done. Grossman builds up to moments of palpable tension. He pulls the reader into the life of Quentin and shows real finesse at times. His characters very much come alive, in their brief moments of joy and in their many moments of pain, frustration and loss. Anyone who has felt the hurt of being outside, dealing with the cruelty of others or a general questioning of meaning will be able to relate well to the protagonist.
Eventually school is over and the students graduate. And here is the turn that I think the promotional material makes obvious but some may not want to know about going into reading the book. The second section of the story begins as Quentin and his fellow Brakebills alumni find out that Fillory is real. They immediately prepare to set out on an expedition to the land they’ve loved since childhood. That Fillory is better spelled N-a-r-n-i-a is just as obvious as the connection to Rowling’s work. Quentin and company enter fillory using magic buttons that take them to an intermediary world of fountains. Jumping into each fountain takes a person to a different world. They have to take care to jump into the correct pool at the base of the fountain that will take them to Fillory. Fillory is a land of talking beasts and magical creatures.
So what sets The Magicians apart from lesser books that lift heavily from other works? Why is The Magicians a strong story while something like Eragon is a weak rip-off? I think it boils down to two elements. First is Grossman’s strong writing. Even if this were just a big piece of fan fiction, it would be well written fan fiction. Secondly, this isn’t just an homage to the work of others. While Grossman has lifted the settings and externals, the substance is completely different often to the point of taking a position that is completely antithetical to the original work.
My first problem, which I tie to the very adult content is wrapped up in why I read fantasy. I read fantasy on many levels as a form of escape, much like Grossman’s character Quentin did. Much of the fantasy I’ve read is not only fantasy but it is written for children. At the bottom of it all there is no real risk or fear. I read with anticipation, not of an outcome but rather how that outcome will be worked out by the author. There is often death or treachery but it takes on a fairty tale like quality. It does not feel real or cruel but rather cartoonish. Grossman completely jettisons any of this kind of approach. He tackles the safety of these childrens tales and eviscerates it. The violence in The Magicians is not cartoonish, it is often cruel even sadistic. There’s not much in the way of escapism here. What Quentin finds is that magic doesn’t change the basic underlying facts of life, not even traveling to another world does this. This is combined with the fact that much of Grossman’s realism includes behavior and speech that isn’t something that I would consider normal or appropriate. It may be for others but this isn’t a book I would feel comfortable recommending to friends or family.
Then there is my second issue. I’ve read that Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is intended to be a type of anti-Narnia. Well Grossman doesn’t just create an alternative world that is contrary to Narnia. He destroys Narnia from the inside. And this caused issues for me in both sections of the book at times. Not because of ideological difficulties with what Grossman puts forward but because it would frequently push me outside the story as it felt like Grossman would move from telling his own story to commenting on the story of another. It isn’t that what he has to say about the other stories isn’t interesting and that he doesn’t bring up intriguing issues and criticisms of both, but rather that it jarred me out of the narrative as the story became more a work of exposition. Something like the flashbacks to History and Moral Philosophy class that fill so much of Starship Troopers. The author shows his hand, that he is more interested in making a point than telling a story.
The fact that a major component of the book is polemic in nature means much of the discussion around the book will not be about plot or setting but rather about the argument the author sets forth. I don’t agree with Grossman’s premise or conclusions but I do admire how well he states his case throughout the entire book, not only in those portions that might feel a bit preachy. I’ve read in an interview Grossman did about The Magicians that he feels that Rowling lets her characters solve their problems, rather than resting on divine intervention like the characters of Lewis’s works. This is reflected in how he handles the world of each, though I would argue that this is not the case, especially in light of how Rowling’s series ended. I think it does explain why he is so much rougher on Lewis.
Anyone looking for a dark story that questions the assumptions and underlying principles of those that are not so dark should really enjoy this book. Any parent that picks it up for their young one because they hear it compared to Harry Potter is in for a rude surprise. Those looking for a fun little escape from the real world wont find it here, though things are so grim at times they made find the real world a bit of a relief after the weight of Grossman’s. The Magicians held my attention and I was impressed with Grossman’s ability, unfortunately at the same time I was a bit disappointed with how he used that ability. With something this subjective YMMV, and since release The Magicians has hit number nine on the New York Times best seller list.
Title: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 402
ISBN: 978-0-670-020550-3
Rating: 7/10
18
02/10
This week, Ross, Qais, Jinny and I discuss a few happenings at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, including the announcement of the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection for PS3. Other topics include Colonel Sanders, plastic surgery in Queens, the new Donkey Kong high score, Terry Prachett’s sword forged from a meteorite and other esoteric matters. I do hope you find it to be enjoyable.
13
02/10
Jinny, Ross, Qais and I are back this week to discuss the Nintendo 3DS, QR Codes, Scott Pilgrim on DVD, Xbox Live Arcade deals, buying a year’s worth of food from Costco, Beyond Good and Evil HD, LEGO and Ross’ obsession with filling up bars in Halo: Reach. Also, stay tuned to the end of the show for our song of the week from Sufjan Stevens’ new album. It’s pretty darned good.
12
02/10
It’s 2010, many imagined by now we would have many advanced things. Flying fuel efficient cars, the end of world hunger, and maybe even world peace? The cure to all disease? We have one thing now that I don’t think the scientists of ‘yesterday’ hand in mind, digital drugs.
Like something out of a Sci-Fi story, kids are getting “high” off music. Or should I say, as the web sites pitch it, they can buy “doses” and download them to their i-pods and computers.
When I saw one my friends post to an article on facebook about this. To be honest, I thought it was a mistake. Maybe the person writing the article saw a few youtube skits and ran with it. The screen caps the article posted from videos on youtube of kids that recorded their experience…well..it didn’t look like ‘fun’ to me. Heck one looked a little funny or staged. So I did some investigating. It’s real.
I found several articles and sites with information about I-Dosing. It also wasn’t hard to find a web site selling I-Doses. The one I visited claims you can buy “The highest quality exotic bud, mood enhancement pills and legal hashish.”
All our favorite drugs that came out of the 60′s (and then all the dumb ones that came after) now available in digital form. To be taken in via sound files. The question is, does it work?
These kids seem to be reacting on some level. But, are they reacting because the variation in pitch and sound is stimulating the same areas of the brain as the drug the music is supposed mimic? Are they reacting because they are psychologically convinced they should? (Ever heard someone say, you can convince yourself your sick?) Or are they faking it for the attention?
Could be all of the above.
Ever hear of the “Hemi Sync Program” from the Monroe Institute?
Monroe indicated that the technique synchronizes the two hemispheres of one’s brain, thereby creating a ‘frequency-following response’ designed to evoke certain effects. Hemi-sync has been used for many purposes, including relaxation and sleep induction, learning and memory aids, helping those with physical and mental difficulties, and reaching altered states of consciousness through the use of sound. – Wiki
This all sounds crazy and dangerous to me. Its something that should be left to being Sci-Fi. Ever seen Warehouse 13? They covered this in one of their episodes. There was a record that when played with an echo, reached out and touched your synapses and made you feel calm, relaxed and loved. While people were standing there drugged out like hippies in a commune, banks were being robbed.
This makes one think. Does it not?
11
02/10
This review of Red Dead Redemption was written for The Hindustan Times and was first published on 26th June, 2010. The original unedited version is reproduced below, and you can also read the printed version here:
Review: Red Dead Redemption (XBOX 360 version)
Gopal Sathe
John Marston is a man on a mission. He was an outlaw, but he’s given up that life. All he wanted was to settle down with his wife, and raise his son. But the world is filled with change in 1911, and the government in the East can’t let people in the Old West remain lawless and wild anymore. The railways have changed everything, and tamed the lawless land.
Marston is taken in by the government and told that if he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in jail away from his family, he will go into New Austin (a fictional state entirely like Old Texas) and kill his one-time friend Bill Williamson. This might sound like an old Eastwood movie, but it is the world of Red Dead Redemption, the latest game from Rockstar Games, the same banner that made Grand Theft Auto a household name.
It’s a sandbox game – an open world for you to explore and do what you want, when you want. You’re given a vibrant world to explore, and John Marston is a real living person whom you will care about.
It’s so real, I now fear cougars. An early optional mission had me look for a missing person. I followed the trail to the Hanging Rock, a few miles north of the town of Armadillo. I got of my horse to investigate some blood on the ground and there was a heart stopping sound behind me! Suddenly this monstrous creature was charging at me!
I ran as quickly as I could but it took a swipe at me and I fell down. Luckily my horse panicked at that point and ran between me and the cougar, giving me a few seconds to pull my gun and kill it. I knew then that I was never getting off my horse outside the cities again.
The modelling of all the animals, and the various pistols and rifles you use through the game, has been done with tremendous care and is extremely realistic, though people and faces are a little less so. The game stands as a wonderful technical achievement, with almost no load screens to speak of, and an enormously detailed game-world.
Red Dead Redemption is definitely fun. Games don’t _have_ to make sense, they have to be enjoyable. The mechanics themselves are not as important as the enjoyment they provide, and Redemption definitely delivers.
But at the same time, it also gives you a cohesive world to explore. You could do the side quests given by people around the world, or roam the countryside hunting animals for fun and profit, or pick up bounties and arrest gang members. Just riding your horse, with no objective in mind, is enjoyable.
Despite these distractions, you keep coming back to the main storyline because of the great writing. John Marston is no cardboard cut-out, and before long you will actually care about this man, and want things to work out for him.
Like most open world games, RDR also dabbles in creating moral choices for the player. For instance, in an early optional mission, you have to convince an old man to sell you his property. You can put up your own money, or point a gun at him and make him give it to you.
There’s no real consequence to either choice – ‘good’ choices raise your honor and ‘evil’ lowers it, and all this does is change the discounts you get in stores – but while I normally play as the bad guy in any game that lets me, here, I found myself ponying up the cash myself because I knew that Marston would have.
He’s a good guy and while he’s done a lot of bad stuff, he’s clearly trying to atone for it. He might be here as a government assassin, but he’s not happy about that, and he’s not going to rebel by becoming a gun toting outlaw either.
At least that’s how I felt about the character, although perhaps the developers see things differently – the game hardly penalises evil characters and there’s a few things you can do as a bad guy which actually sound like a lot of fun, and would probably warrant a second playthrough of the game for me.
There were some gameplay issues in the game, a number of glitches as often happens in such huge games, but nothing gamebreaking. Some people are complaining about the control scheme and the shooting mechanics to which I must say – the shooting is fun! It’s a game, not a simulator! The control scheme is a little complicated but the game takes you through a thorough tutorial, and the end result is great control over the horse, which is half the fun of this game.
It’s possible to finish the game within around 10 hours, with no side quests, fast travel everywhere, and skipping all the cutscenes. If you’re like me and don’t go for 100 per cent completion, picking up only interesting challenges and missions, focussing largely on the main storyline, the game should take around 4 – 5 days to complete. To compare, I finished all of Modern Warfare 2 in one day. Also, even when you’re done with the story, riding around saving strangers and hunting bears is so much fun that the game represents tremendous value for money.
08
02/10
Guest post of the week by Bradley Guthrie
Guest post of the week by Bradley Guthrie
Oobi is not animated, and does not use humans, in the entirety.I think this is what I love about this show. The characters, Oobi, Granpoo, Uma, and Keiko, are all hands. That’s right, it is a human hand with jiggly eyes on them. The characters are all different hands. Sometimes they have hair and need to go get a haircut, which was a funny show. They were all dancing around and singing, trying to find the perfect hairstyle for Oobi, but the perfect hairstyle for him is no hair at all. They go to the fruit store to get more fruit, and granpoo goes to talk with the fruit lady who he is sweet on. They make homemade pizza. This episode so inspired my child, we made homemade pizza. They show kids all type of games. We like the memory game where there are three items, and one person shuts their eyes, while the other person puts one of the items in a box. Then you opne your eyes and have to guess what is missing. Cool game! The show is awesome on my satellite tv service from www.direct.tv. Even love it when Oobi has to deal with people who are different from him. When he and his new friend Freda work out all their issues, she is a foot, they become fast friends.
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