Self-Quote: Self-Help

All this self-help business is based on the false idea that we don't live as we should because we don't know what's best for us, and not because we don't want what's best for us.

Self-Quote: Religion

The men created religion to control God.

CONSOLE GAMES

I don't have a video game console since my Intellivision in the early 80s.

My two preferred game genders are First Person Shooters and Strategy (Real Time, Turn Based, any) and luckily, both suck in console.

They are trying to make Strategy games for consoles, like Civilization V. I hope they never succeed, because all games that goes from PC to consoles became over simplified and limited. Want examples? Civilizations series -> Civilizations Revolution; Battlefield early series (1942, Vietnam, BF2) -> BF Bad Company series (and - I hope not - BF3).

I recently bought BF Bad Company 2 complete and, being an old school BF Vietnam player, I was terribly disappointed with it. OK, the graphics are perfect. OK, there is a single-player campaign. But the multiplayer has only a very few vehicles (when BF1942, BFV and BF2 had dozens different vehicles each). Either they are too lazy or too greedy - why making a deep game if you can make a new one next year and sell like hell?

Console = fast food of games.

BTW, damn you game industry for creating the DLCs. Not long ago, the developers continued to improve the games for free, releasing new maps, weapons, units, even game modes, in each update. Now you need to pay U$ 2.00 for a freaking new character texture?! Are you kidding?

PS: of course they make these new console-oriented games impossible to mod. If you let people making great new free stuff for your game you can't sell crappy DLCs. This business is twisted.

PARTY DUNGEON: THE SCOUT

PARTY DUNGEON
Dungeons & Dragons Online meets Team Fortress 2


Class: Monk
Race: Halfling

A fast-running and fast-talking Halfling from Stormreach with a penchant for brawling and grievous bodily harm, the Scout flies like a butterfly and stings like a bat to the face. The fastest of all the classes, his speed and ability to double jump will leave slower opponents spinning. This, coupled with his volley of Darts, makes the Scout ideal at hit and run tactics, allowing him to inflict massive close-range damage before dashing away to safety. Not content with only one way to harass his foes, the Scout can also equip his trusty Sling to stun opponents with long-range bullets.

*Party Dungeon is a TF2 (my former passion) parody I'm making of DDO (my current addiction).

Other characters:

- Heavy = heavy armored Dwarf Fighter with a huge repeating crossbow;
- Pyro = Human Evocator specialized in - guess what - fire;
- Soldier = Human Paladin with a sacred sword;
- Engineer = Gnome Artificer with Sentry Constructs, Magic Chests and Dimension Doors;
- Sniper = Elf Archer (duh!);
- Medic = Human Cleric;
- Spy = Half-Elf Rogue.

GREAT DIRECTORS MAKE WORST MOVIES

I watched the movie Bad Lieutenant (from the legendary director Werner Herzog) yesterday and I'm still angry. I usually don't like movies about junkies, but movies that are like made by people on drugs are even worst.

Mr. Herzog, whatahell are you thinking? Weren't you retired?

Baaaadd trip

Don't get me wrong, the movie is kind of interesting, but suddenly there is a completely random scene (mostly involving iguanas) that ruins everything. Of course, the fact the movie doesn't go anywhere only makes it a waste of time.

It's not smart, it's not serious, it's not wild. It's just crazy bullshit. It tried to be some kind of Herzog's Mulholland Drive, but it only keeps the lowest level Nicolas Cage reached in Ghost Rider.

Now here is a gallery of terrible movies that stained the name of (supposedly) great directors:

- Lady in the Water, by M. Night Shyamalan. Let's do the math: one excellent (The Sixty Sense) plus one good movie (The Village) and one OK (Unbreakable) against one bad (Signs) plus two terrible (Lady in the Water and The Happening)… hmm… well, Shyamalan, looks like the balance is not great. The Last Airbender is your chance to: 1) redeem yourself (if you keep up with the great original series' spirit) or 2) fall in disgrace and provoke eternal rage of millions of fans.

EDIT: The Last Airbender is OK.

Worthy of Uwe Boll

- Black Hawk Down, by Ridley Scott. I confess, I loved Gladiator. And I, of course, have the most respect for the director of Alien and Blade Runner. Said that, it was expected Scott wouldn't fall on this unbelievable patriotic mambo jumbo that Black Hawk Down is. The speech of Josh Harnett's character to his dying comrade about being a hero is simply outrageous.

You killed 1000 Somalis to save a few American soldiers – good job!

- Planet of the Apes, by Tim Burton. We can overlook everything wrong in this remake, but the end is so absurd that the movie deserves only to be forgotten. A commercial success that proves (as Burton's Batman) that marketing worth much more than content. Luckily, there isn't much space for a sequel.

EDIT: Oh my, looks like there will another Planet of the Apes soon!

EDIT2: I saw Burton's Alice in Wonderland = and it sucks! It's like a recycled Alice in Wonderland, without all good stuff and with an "epic" battle scene in the end to try to spice things up. Even they puting all the weight of that weak story in Johnny Depp's shoulders, it sucks.

A great movie, if you are a monkey

- Southland Tales, by Richard Kelly. The promising director of the surprising good Donnie Darko made one of worst movies I ever saw.

Two words: epic fail

- Windtalkers, by John Woo. Talking about Nicolas Cage and his taste for disgrace… I wouldn't ever put John Woo in my list of great directors, but this Windtalkers is so bellow his other movies that it needs to be featured here. Woo managed to transform a well produced WW2 movie (with and unusual theme: the Pacific theater) into a poor eighties-like action movie where the hero kills alone hundreds of bad aimed enemies.

Rambo in WW2

- War of the Worlds, by Steven Spielberg. That's what happens when a veteran like Spielberg tries to copy Roland Emmerich: he might actually succeed (and make a terrible movie in the process).

Just ugly

- Sucker Punch, by Zack Snyder. Nothing can go wrong when you put some hotties brawling in a beautiful imaginary world, right? Wrong! You need to spend at least a few dimes hiring someone to write a minimal story. The movie is just cinematographic masturbation. Without a happy ending, I must say. How could you do that after Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead, Snyder?

There is nothing here

CONCLUSION: even the masters can fail and when it comes to remakes made by great directors, stick with the oldies.