Late night pondering.

Tonight I've been cruising through the interwebs looking up all sorts of information and amusing myself by commenting on political story boards when I was reminded of something that has been bothering me for quite awhile. As far as American politics have gone the more liberal a politician tends to be, the less likely it is that they seem to be willing to really FIGHT for what they're trying to do. In general I've gone to Bertrand Russel's observation that "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts"

I myself have been guilty of that exact same thing. As I'm sure all of you remember, for the most part I had always been pretty straight-edge atheist. But as time has gone on, and as I've learned more and more, I've been forced to stop and REALLY think about everything. I never particularly had an issue with the big bang theory until quite recently, and it has less to do with what religious people may dislike about it (the universe IS pretty goddamn complex, and it seems relatively unlikely that it all happened by chance. So there MUST be a greater power) because it's a paradox that implies if god exists, there must be a super-god that made normal god, and an ultima-god that made super-god...so on and so forth. What I've recently been having issues with however, is the most recent addition to the theory. Which revolves around gravity's effect on time. (I'm nowhere near intelligent or educated enough to give this theory the explanation it deserves, so please look it up :3) HOWEVER, I will try to explain it at least in a simple sense. Gravity effects everything, including time. Black holes have such a high-mass and high gravity that they can suck in everything, like light, hence the name. But scientists have been saying that ontop of sucking in light, black-holes can absorb time itself, slowing it to a crawl. The same thing can happen with speed (the closer an object gets to the speed of light, the "slower" time moves around it.)

So with the newest theory, time didn't exist before the big-bang, because everything within the universe was condensed into such a small point that time itself was frozen. My issue with it arises for the following.
 A. It's still implying that the universe existed before it existed. (Yeah, I understand that this is still our best explanation for everything, and that it's not necessarily what happened... I don't care, it annoys me all the same)
B. If time was incapable of escaping our universe's lil egg, how the fuck did the big bang happen? Shit should still be stuck in that one spot, forever.
C. It implies that there is something beyond the universe (and yes, I do realize that there are some people trying to remove the use of the word "universe" specifically for that reason, again, I dun care, it annoys me.)
D. Do you ever get the feeling that our species is on the verge of figuring out shit that could completely change our perspective on everything...and that our generation will die RIGHT before that point? I do. And I HATE IT.

AND THUS I HAVE STARTED TO HAVE DOUBT.

Moving onto the point of this post. It seems more and more that liberals are starting to gain the...meanness... That conservatives have had. While I certainly don't care that racists and bigots have started having to explain themselves on a national scale, and while I DO think that one of the two political parties in our  government has both the moral and historical advantage all things considered... I worry sometimes that our generation could do some real good for our country, but that we're damaging our own potential by stooping to the same level that our parents and grandparents have. (Think McCarthy.)

What I mean by that is in our country, we have lots and lots of differing opinions, but for better or worse they've all been clumped into two huge groups, liberals and conservatives. I have all sorts of complaints about our system, but what I hate the most about it, is that it is becoming easier and easier to isolate ourselves to only our own viewpoint. So when we meet a person from the other party, they seem like a fucking alien. And when you try to challenge some of their beliefs, they consider it a personal attack and they retreat back to their hidey-hole to read all the books/articles that have led to them having their beliefs, and they reaffirm to themselves that the other team is evil.

It's pretty goddamn obvious that nothing is going to really change into this country until certain areas of our country decide to open their mind a bit more.  But whenever I read some of the comments coming from people with the same beliefs as me.. I can't help but worry we're going to lose the war because we shot ourselves in the foot. The last 10 years (in my opinion...much longer, but eh) have more or less proven that many of the things conservatives hold to be true, do not work...and often times have done the exact opposite of what they were intended to do. But nothing will get better if we just scream "fascist/bigot/racist/bible thumper" instead of offering constructive criticism.

So my question to the basement group is this... How do we fix this conundrum? We can't return to the whimpy-party that rolls over whenever challenged, but we also can't turn into our "enemies."

Hitman: Absolution Review

The Hitman series has always had a special place in my heart of gamer hearts. I can quite honestly say that the first game was what introduced me to "Game rage" and the body count Agent 47 has racked up is eclipsed only by the number of controllers I've broken while fulfilling those contracts. Despite that rage, I still love these games, and Blood Money is probably in the top 10 games with best level design (fuckin' heaven and hell rave? YES. Attacking the white house? I'm sorry my virtual Marine brethren!)

"Agent 47, your job entails not being seen."
"No sir, my job entails no surviving witnesses."

"You killed the entire White House Staff"
"Yep. No witnesses"

"...the money is being wired to your account now"

Absolution starts off on a relatively somber note (even for a game revolving around killing people in various ways.) 47 is brought in on a contract to kill his former handler, and in the process of doing so, finds out that the Agency has created another genetically modified lil super assassin named Victoria. Diane (his former handler) asks 47 to ensure that the Agency can't use Victoria as they did him.

"The Agency can't use you if you're dead!"

"Jesus! OR you could protect me from them."

"...That would also work"

From the very beginning it is obvious that the developers have been working  their asses off to make the game more accessible to a larger audience. The controls are a trillion times better than the previous installments. Agent 47 can now use his spider sense to see through walls, find items of interest, and track enemy movements. At first I was slightly turned off by this feature, partly because it doesn't really make sense, and partly because this is one of the few series out there that haven't been dumbed down for mass consumption.

"I can smell that this police officer's bladder is full. He must be heading to the bathroom!"

 But quite honestly it makes the game much more enjoyable. Instead of always being on edge because a guard might be around the corner, you can actually walk around the levels (which are beautiful, and HUGE) and find different areas for you to use to your advantage. An early level takes place in Chicago's chinatown during a New Year's celebration (because every day is a New Year in Chinatown) and your spidy-sense can lead you to a fugue-fish that you can then extract poison from and squirt into your target's drink. In blood-money, it would have taken several playthroughs to realize you could even poison the target, and then a few more for you to find the fucking fish. I've seen  a few Hitman Veterans bitching about this feature on forums and such, and all I can really say is this. The game allows you to turn it off. If you don't like it, stop using it!

"BUT THAT REQUIRES TWO SECONDS WORTH OF EFFORT!"

The graphics are also a million times better than the last installment, no more blocky-heads for example. I'll admit that I spent about 20 minutes just watching the start-menu because it is gorgousssss. 

"Yes. Yes I am."

As far as story goes, I'll admit that I don't even remember the plot from the older games so I don't have much to compare this game to. But I enjoyed this story. Even when it throws some of...stranger...contracts at you, they do it in a way that makes you forget about how weird it is. It's relatively rare that a game can make me forgive it's odd moments without FORCING me too. Case in point?

Meet the "Saints"

"Girls...The Director approved your disguise idea because nuns wear clothes that are easy to hide  weapons in, and no one REALLY pays attention to them. I'm not quite sure you understand that concept"

"Shut up, we have boobs and tight leather, and the vast majority of people that play these games are teenage boys"

"....fair enough"

When I saw this game's trailer, I figured the sexy nun assassins where just a way for the developers to get people's attention. Then they showed up in game and I almost gave up on it right there and then. HOWEVER, they turned a retarded cliche into a fun level. Sure, they're a fairly stupid idea at first glance, but then you see them in action and you realize you have to kill 8 different targets that keep in radio contact with one another, and are heavily fucking armed. It works. It works very well.

Pros: Beautiful level design, fun character design, large levels, intelligent (for the most part) enemies, various ways to complete most of the levels, if you really want to you can just shoot everyone and everything.

Cons: Some of the levels feel rushed (not as many ways to kill your targets), no heaven and hell rave, I don't realllly need to know every time I lose some points.

FUCKIN YES: Easter eggs. Kane and Lynch show up. Yes. Yes. Yes.

9/10  (Buy this fuckin game)

Condemned 2 review (filler post until I finish the tactics ogre review)

Alright, first off I'm going to say that I loved the first condemned, so this review may be a tad bit biased. You pick up the game as fallen FBI agent Ethan Thomas, during the time between the first and second games the affects of brutally beating a ton of people to death with his bare hands have clearly messed with his mind. 

He's now a bum and an alcoholic, some people thought this change in character was lame, I personally thought it was pretty neat, and at least semi-realistic. The game then moves on through a relatively boring beginning up until you are forced to fight tar monsters (from now on to be referred to as "tar babies") screaming and semi-scary beasts that somewhat reminded me of the creepy sewer people in the first game. This is where I first noticed how much better the fighting had become, the weapons seem to do damage a bit more realistically and the fact that Ethan can actually use his hands was a welcome change of pace. 

However the scare tactics of the tar babies quickly wear thin because they are killed in one hit...that is up until you are forced to fight through a department store completely covered in tar. The fact that scrawny skeleton like things that will viciously beat you down can hide so easily in this part of the level is the only thing that really makes it difficult, and it was a bit of a let down, in the first condemned the opponents were difficult because...well they seemed to be very good at smashing your skull in with a brick until pink liquid poured out of your nostrils.

The next level introduces the use of guns into the game play, which again was a bit of a let down for me, I bought this game because I wanted to beat people down with whatever I could tear off the walls, but here it was giving me a gun at the start of the level. I soon found out that the guns were more or less...weak. By that I mean it took 3 shot gun shells to kill a meth-monkey..granted I could have shot him in the head.Two seconds later I killed another person and...he dropped another shot gun, and instantly I began to worry that this would become a poor FPS game. (even if the guns are somewhat weak, when a game throws ammo at you constantly it's hard to not beat it). I basically blew through this level pretty quickly, the developers did do a great job of the sound on this level, hearing the creepy laughter of a meth-monkey somewhere around you is dis-heartening, and the crunch of garbage under your own feet gets to you after awhile. 

The forensics of this game was GREATLY improved, I really had a blast doing it, and although some of it required you to know a bit more about forensics than the average person, it was still fun.

(with the first use of forensics however you have to follow a blood trail that looks more or less like someone just poured bucket after bucket of blood down a hall way, for about 600 yards, all of that blood from a single guy? it just kind of ruined the mood)

Alright I'm not going to go through a level by level review, I just wanted to get those two out of the way because they introduced the main aspects of the game. 

One of the things people don't like about this game is the story, and yes...it's a bit out there. But in all honesty it's a video game, I don't play them for realistic story-lines I play them to have fun, and the abilities you get later in the game are just that...fun.

Overall I had a great time with this game, but it could have been much more terrifying if the developers used lighting as well as they did in the first condemned. Darkness isn't quite as scary as dim light with lots of shadows moving around. If you can get past the weak story then you'll more than likely enjoy this game very much for its visceral melee combat.

6/10