Destiny versus Free Will
The more I think about Locke’s journey on last night’s episode of Lost, the more impressed I become with the writer’s sly incorporation of themes like Buddhism. The first time the young boy version of Locke meets Richard, picking out items that belonged to him is taken from the Buddhist test of finding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Young John picked the vial of sand, the compass, and the rudimentary hunting knife.
Visibly upset, it’s clear that Richard wanted Locke to pick either the book of law or the ‘Mystery Island’ comic book; perhaps designed to represent rules and imagination respectively. But Locke picked the items that truly belonged to him. This fit in the theme later in the story when Locke rejected the idea of science camp (another attempt by Richard to alter John’s path) to choose his own destiny.
Later in the story, we see Abbadon manipulating John into getting on that Oceanic Six flight for his Australian walkabout. Rather than becoming upset at John’s choices, he encourages them. If Richard is supposed to represent destiny, then Abbadon clearly represents free will. Abbadon’s intentions are less clear though and he obviously remains oblivious to the island’s location after the Oceanic Six are rescued.
I believe Locke is a combination of both destiny & free will, but neither side realizes this yet. The only person that finally understands is Ben. What Ben saw as a manipulation of Hurley’s destiny under the guise of free will, Locke offered actual free will to Hurley.
Moving the Island
There are two distinct possibilities on this one. Physically moving the island is out of the question, so the island will have to be moved through time via the Orchid station or the pathway into the island will have to be moved. I’m leaning toward the time theory, although both are possible. The time theory would certainly explain the Black Rock ship sitting in the middle of the island. If the island jumped to a different time, any ship on the open seas in that area would suddenly be sitting on land rather sailing around. On the other hand, moving the entrance would fit with Widmore’s inability to find the island after the Oceanic Six get rescued. Plus it would be easier for a mass television audience to swallow than a time traveling island.
- My Favorite Moment: Hurley sharing his candy bar with Ben. It was sweet and a nice sidebar to the tension of the moment.
7 reasons to dislike GTA IV
I completed the single player campaign over the weekend and took some time to reflect today. The plight of Niko Bellic was very much a series of well constructed moments, designed to bring out the inner sociopath or benevolent soul in you. There are brief, flourishing cinematic points that sparked delight in me, Packie’s Three Leaf Clover being the most notable (Heat anyone?). But beyond those moments, beyond the hype, beyond the rushed reviews, there are negative aspects that keep GTA IV from perfection in my mind; 7 to be exact.
I’m back in Liberty City, so where’s my Double Clef FM?
There’s just something inherently classy about mass murder when listening to “O mio babbino caro” while behind the wheel mowing down pedestrians. I miss Morgan Merryweather’s pompous attitude and continual spouting of untrue facts about classical music. Over all the 18 radio stations within GTA IV, I don’t understand why Rockstar didn’t immediately jump on the chance to recreate the classical one. Not only that, they didn’t create a way to load user tracks onto the radio. I suppose I’ll just have to settle for Jazz Nation Radio and the smooth style of Roy Haynes.
Worthless green paper in my wallet
Money has become completely devalued in this version of GTA for a couple reasons. You don’t lose any weaponry at death and there’s a ridiculous amount of ammo found on each mission. While health care costs can bleed a player dry in the very early stages of the game, money has no worthwhile use for the majority of the game. I ended the single player game with about $950,000 in the bank, but it might as well have been $950 for what I needed it for.
Liberty City’s Most Wanted
OK, I’ve just killed 58 beat cops, 32 SWAT guys and 4 chopper pilots. I have a five star wanted rating and I’m racing from the scene in a stolen police cruiser. What’s the best way to lose the cops? Take a nap. Yep, the police will call off the manhunt if you find the nearest safe house and take a 6 hour nap. This should have been an automatic arrest for the police, but apparently dingy apartments are too confusing for the police to enter. (I realize this is a flaw of the overall series, but Rockstar should have fixed it by now.)
Should I wear a suit or a suit or a suit?
There are 3 unique clothing stores in the game. That’s right; a digital version of New York City only has three types of clothing stores. Obviously Rockstar kept it simple to work hand in hand with the girlfriend system, but it’s an extreme step down from the amount of clothing / customization options in Vice City & San Andreas. Additionally the clothing options are far too similar and the interface, while visually improved, is still slow.
Love the internet, hate the browser.
The brilliant, snarky humor on the in-game internet, and the television programs for that matter, is classic Rockstar and deserves praise, but the asshole that designed the browser should be fired. Why? There’s no way to bookmark a site. Every time you return to the PC, it’s back to the keyboard to type an insanely long web address or, even worse, one letter at a time on the controller. Accessing the site (whattheydonotwantyoutoknow.com) that holds the maps for hidden items such as armor, health, stunt jumps, etc. is a ridiculous pain in the butt and likely sends droves of players to the real internet for map screenshots.
Rocky Marciano, I’m not.
From the start of the game to the finish, there was rarely a time without some firearm in Niko’s hand. I choose that route because the hit detection system in hand to hand combat absolutely stinks. Character movement doesn’t work fast enough with the targeting system to accurately land punches and the combos are nearly worthless. It only took a few minutes of boxing my shadow before I permanently glued the semi-automatic machine gun to Niko’s right hand.
Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy
With the exception of a handful of missions, the game difficulty is really quite low for the experienced video game crowd. Without a slider to increase difficulty, popping off head shots is pure simplicity; even with auto-aim off. Over the entire 30 hour campaign, I was never busted by the cops and died less than 10 times. The rare, occasionally challenging mission was easily completed after tooling up with body armor and plenty of ammo. Besides giving the game a rushed feeling, the real shame is that many missions offer alternate dialogue between main characters upon reloading. Unless you play through the entire game again, you won’t get a chance to hear all the stories and comedic banter.
Digsby + Facebook Chat = Excellence
Digsby added Facebook Chat as a supported client last week, frankly shocking considering Facebook Chat only went live for the entire Facebook community a week previous. I’ve been evaluating the service for a week and have grown to prefer it over the Facebook in-browser chat screen. Using the Digsby interface is easier on the eyes and messages pop up instantly. I often miss messages from the in-browser screen due to lack of attention. It also seems to update friend status faster than the Facebook Chat window in addition to providing notification windows.
Digsby’s blog indicates they will eventually add the ability to move FB Chat users into groups as well as syncing IM status to FB status. Very cool moves for the IM / Social Network power users. Digsby just keeps getting better.
The Ridiculous Mr. Shephard
I’ve been distracted by Grand Theft Auto for the past week, but I did want to take a break to write about the most recent Lost episode. After reading the description in my Google reader, I knew it was going to be an episode of filler, but wondered what curve ball the creators would toss at me. Turns out to be Jack’s Dad, yet again.
I have no problem with slow, unrevealing Lost episodes. I do have a problem with anti-climactic episodes though. We knew Jack was going to be perfectly fine from the surgery, yet were forced to sit through the operation anyway. The only purpose it served was to offer yet another doppelganger moment as the situation improved on the island, the situation post rescue deteriorated for Jack.
We learned very little from this episode other than Charlotte speaks Korean, Sawyer decides to stay on the island, and lots of those crazy mercenary bastards survived the wrath of the smoke monster. But the writers decided to give us a lovely “What the Fuck?” moment when Papa Shephard shows up to lead Claire off into the jungle. For you folks that forgot, Jack’s Dad is also Claire’s father. I believe Jack’s dad is involved in the island’s fate somehow and perhaps we will find more out in the season finale. His brief appearances are becoming utterly ridiculous at this point though.
Before the previews for next week rolled, the only thing this episode really achieved was setting up possible scenarios for the finale. Jack may not be well enough to travel on the helicopter, Jin made it clear that he won’t get on the chopper before Sun and baby Aaron is on the way to his new mom, Kate.
Oddly enough, the previews were more exciting than the entire episode. For one, it’s clearly going to be a Locke episode. Does this mean we will see a Locke flashforward? One can only hope. We also saw a brief clip of Horace Goodspeed chatting it up with Locke. Seeing how Horace died 12 years ago in Ben’s purge, he’s either another ghost or been faking his death for years. Either way, I want to see Jacob for the love of Pete. I can’t go another entire year without some details about that crazy mystery man.
The Shape of Things to Come
An advantage to the truncated season of Lost due to the writer’s strike is that each of the remaining episodes will likely be filled with a fast moving plotline. Last night’s episode proved that assumption and then some. Locke’s faction of Losties finally got attacked by the mercenaries from Michael’s boat and Jack had to deal with the washed up body of the boat’s doctor, who hadn’t died yet according to the boat’s communication.
- The game of Risk was some sort of foreshadowing. Hurley says “
- I despised the way that the writers dispatched the 3 remaining extras that followed Locke. Having each run directly into gunfire to check on their downed friends was ridiculous. Of course their comical deaths fit their roles as mere sheep following one leader or another.
- The death of Ben’s daughter was extremely disturbing. I had a feeling that Alex was going to be executed, but that didn’t change the impact of the moment. I thought to myself that Ben had completely snapped at that point and went for solace in his panic room. Little did I know he was going to bust out an ancient cave with similar drawings as the flipping countdown on the hatch timer. I can only assume that the cave controls the smoke monster, although there is a theory that he travels to
- The recruitment of Sayid was fairly predictable, but I was fooled by Ben’s intentions. The sly little smile he had after Sayid begs him to join the cause was classic Ben. It’s also possible that Ben killed Nadia to manipulate Sayid.
- In the end, the ironic part of Sawyer leading the charge back to Jack’s camp with Claire & the baby is nearly the same moment that Daniel admitted to Jack that the boat wasn’t there to rescue them. Neither camp is benefiting from either leader at this point. I’d imagine they will rejoin by the end of the season.
- I loved that the previews showed Keamy (Alex’s executioner) still alive. That son of a bitch deserves an up close and personal death from Ben.
- The painting of the Black Rock ship was hanging beside Widmore’s bed at the end of the episode.
- Alex typed the number ‘1623’ for the fence code.
- The Rocket ship hieroglyph from the hatch clock was also seen on the cave wall.
The Internet loves Obama
While I have always found American politics to be incredibly tiresome and out of touch with my interests, the internet’s collective latching onto Barack Obama’s campaign fascinates me from a social networking standpoint. It’s blatantly apparent on community-based news sites such as Digg, carries over financially to benevolent sites like DonorsChoose and grows exponentially faster on social networks like Facebook. Why have the majority of internet-savvy users latched onto the young senator from Illinois? The most obvious clue is the difference in technological understanding in the Obama / Clinton camps, most well defined by their web presence.
Obama’s web site is very much designed to brand his candidacy. Note the soft white light emanating from the background to reflect a feeling of hope in coordination with his message. The “
Strangely
Liberty City Removed
Seven days from the launch of a game that will probably hurt the box office receipts of Iron Man, I’m keeping myself in check over the deluge of information concerning GTA IV. It’s extremely tough to keep myself in the dark about one of the most anticipated titles in this generation of gaming, but a fresh entrance into the title is something that can’t be understated concerning the cinematic nature of the narrative. One story did mange to slip through the crack though; a piece over at Gamepolitics on the removal of a GTA IV advertisement from Chicago city buses. To sum up the article, the Fox News affiliate in Chicago pressured the transit authority to remove the advertisement.
Fox News, on a national level, is no stranger to ignorant reporting practices concerning the video game industry, but I see the entire national media in a full blown quandary concerning treatment of the industry. First off, airtime dedicated to the industry is completely abysmal. There are segments dedicated to weekly movie releases, but the video game industry doubled their 2007 box office take to the tune of nearly 19 billion dollars. The average age for gamers is around 34 years old (always rising) and the average age for purchasers is 40. I look at those staggering numbers and say “How in the world can news networks afford to ignore such a potentially profitable market?”
The most common answer: The industry wide stigma on a national stage is that the end users of gaming products are dominated by children. I can’t argue that’s certainly a large portion, but it’s no longer the majority. 60% of the market is comprised of 18 and over gamers; 25% of those being 35 and older. This stigma leads into the only coverage that the MSM offers to the industry, negative stories about the supposed relationship of violent video games to real life violence. Ironically, only 15% of total games sold have a Mature rating. The other 85% is rated between E for Everyone to T for Teen, which is very tame by comparison.
There are smart print organizations that have started to capitalize on the market, Newsweek being the most obvious choice. Newsweek has an extremely intelligent editor by the name of N’Gai Croal who launched a video game blog called Level Up in Sept. 2006. His blog is a highly referenced source for much of the industry and it gives credence to Newsweek, an unlikely source of gaming information. USAToday has also been very progressive when it comes to covering the industry.
Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, and ABC News have tremendous amounts of catching up to do if they plan on capturing the attention of the gaming consumer. They need to stop booking utter buffoons such as Jack Thompson and stop jumping to blame filled conclusions when tragedy strikes at one of our schools. Hire tech-savvy reporters that can offer educated opinions on the quality of new game releases. Book industry icons to offer analysis of upcoming consoles and their respective companies. Give equal time to positive stories like Penny-Arcade’s yearly Child’s Play charity that collects toys / games for children in hospitals across the nation.
I’ll continue to offer my “18 to 34 year old demographic” dollars to the companies advertising products in gamer savvy print and online media until then. Plus I’m totally moving into this building:
Where does my moola go?
For money management, I’ve used a site called Yodlee in the past. Yodlee is tightly spun into the majority of the financial world and works as a central hub for my bills / accounts. When I need to go pay my mobile phone bill or check the balance of my student loan, I can type my password into Yodlee once and they will auto-log me into those accounts rather than having to remember several user names / passwords. Yodlee is extremely useful in that respect, but doesn’t offer a user friendly study of my finances or interface for that matter. This is where Mint comes in…