Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

WipEout Photography XI

Ah, so much fun this one track was for taking shots. One of my favorite things about WipEout was the hidden themes that were peppered everywhere. For example, as you progressed in WipEout Pure, you went higher on the island (WipEout FX300 took place on an island). And once you were done with that campaign, there was one where you went all the way up (Sol2), and then all the way back down (Vineta K).

Friday, July 15, 2011

WipEout Photography X

Weeee! Man, when I first played this track that drop scared the shit out of me. :3

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

WipEout Photography IX

It took me a while to get use to this Harimau schema, but it just made it worth it when you unlock the last one.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Preventative v. Curative/Palliative

This isn't really an all out discussion or debate on the matter. This is simply just an observation to add to it.

Recently (lets say for the past few months) whenever I decide to wake up early in the morning (<9am) I get afflicted with a runny nose that lasts till around noon. And when I say runny nose, I mean my nose is basically a faucet of mucus till the middle of the day. I've narrowed it down to the days where I have to go to school, when I wake up at around 7am. Now, I have woken up at similar times outside of school days where it also happens; but it doesn't match the severity as the school days.

It has gotten so problematic that I finally caved in and decided to get medci' for it. I got some anti-histamines (benadryl to be exact) and at first, they worked like a charm. It was pretty awesome, until I realized the awful, awful side affects. See, to my own surprise, I have been pretty attentive and operational in class at the hours of 8am-11am. However, when I take benadryl I feel like I'm back in highschool. My forehead was basically making out with my desk for the duration of the class. I've found a solution (take 2 the night before) but it made me start thinking.

This is a pretty good example to demonstrate the whole preventative v. treatment (Curative/Palliative) ideology. As far as I'm aware, there seems to be a physical trigger to my symptoms. Whether it's my personal morning biology, the fog of cat hair that hangs in my room, or the classroom itself. Fixing whichever one of these is causing the problem would essentially be "preventative"; i.e. solving the trigger so that I won't succumb to sickness in the first place. However, I choose the treatment route. Whether or not it could be attributed to my western upbringing is a different story. The point is I ended up simply treating my symptoms with some medicine.

Now, the problem I see with that is the underlining ailment is still there. Whatever is causing my immune system to activate is still in my environment. It is an extremely short-term solution (albeit one you can extend arguably forever). Not only that, the 'treatment' itself is (as most treatments are) basically a giant mallet; and if you're swinging for a fly you'r going to have causalities. In the case of taking antihistamines the side effect is basically an intense onset of drowsiness. There is no way around it, in fact the pills that say "non-drowsy" are only so because they also add a ton of caffeine in it to counter-act the main drug. So not only are you  "treating" your initial condition, but now you are treating the side-effect of the initial treatment. You're basically fixing broken duct tape with another piece of duct tape.

In the long-run that just means I'm trading one inadequate solution for another. What if the cause of my symptoms is in fact the cat hair? And by simply treating the symptoms, I'm forcing my lungs to breathe even more. Eventually I might end up with pneumonia because I decided to quell my bodies cries for help. What if it's the classroom? Maybe the tiles still carry asbestos and they're beginning to take affect. Again, instead of dealing with the warnings my body is giving me, I am brushing them off.

To me that demonstrates why I wholly prefer preventative over just treatment. With preventative, you attempt to look at what's causing the problem, and grasp the big pictures. It's a long-term solution that makes you stronger. Where as with treatment, when you're just medicating the symptoms and not the problem itself, it leads to a very lacking short-term solution. You might not only be causing more harm than the original symptom thanks to side effects, but you are weakening yourself in the long run. It's like not brushing your teeth and simply filling in the cavities till you have to get dentures. Sure it works but in the end you lose all your teeth.

WipEout Photography VIII

This should be the last of the first-day glomping of WipEout HD. So if you've actually stuck around for the last 7 then your patience might be rewarded. If not, you're a cheater.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

WipEout Photography VII

Holy fuck can benadryl knock you the fuck out. Jeez. All I wanted was to not have my nose run like a faucet in class, not have my forehead make love to the desk.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Regenerative Health

This is just a template, I'm going to come back to this, but I really want to put it on the door step sort to speak.

I hate the use of regenerative health in games in an attempt to fake tension and suspense. Regenerative health is fine and dandy in adventure games like Myst and LA Noire. The point isn't to survive in those games, it is to explore and solve puzzles. In those situations it makes sense that it would be a means to inject quick fire fights to add to the narrative experience as a whole.

No. My problem lies mainly in FPS games containing regenerative health. It takes art and delicacy to craft a game in which every step lurks danger and challenge. To make sure that the game as a whole is balanced from beginning to end, like a river flowing and ebbing to the bay, with a near rhythmic quality. It completely irritates me that such creativeness is now a rarity.

It's almost insulting how cheap this tactic is. It literally just throws in "firefights" in a vain attempt to capture any feeling of urgency and danger. You no longer are playing a game, you are simply traveling to these "hot spots". It becomes more of an interactive movie than a novel, taking a tram rail to the next 'game' portion, get a brief 2 minute gameplay period, and go back on your way to the next station. The veil is so thin that it nearly disgusts me, it makes me question why they even bother with controls; just put it on a blu-ray and let me watch whatever asinine story they were attempting to tell.

Game-play and story are suppose to be intertwined, this is what allows me to consider them interactive narratives. Making game-play a cheap vehicle to traverse a super-polished road of story makes the entire experience akin to watching a movie because the book it was based off was too much of a read. It makes things bland, linear and standardized. No longer does effort and skill come into the equation to color a games experience. Everyone simply is able to strap in, digest the pre-chewed food, and say "please sir, may I have another."

Remember when you could talk to your friends about the same game and how that conversation was novel and interesting? Yeah, I know you don't, because now you all play the exact same game.

WipEout Photography VI

Rock concerts, water slides, laser beams, oh my. Happy (late) 4th gal/uys.