Limbo: My Woman on the Side

I've struggled with writing this. No, that's not fully accurate, I've struggled with sitting down to write this.

I've only played the demo for Limbo, a new XBox Live Arcade title. I haven't been able to pull myself away from Fallout 3 to dedicate the five or so hours that it takes for a play through of Limbo. The problem here is that I kind of need to play Limbo, even if I deny that I do, because it's seriously killing my enjoyment of Fallout 3! Oh, I'll go in, explore for a bit (Operation: Anchorage really helped me to focus in) but then I'll start to think of Limbo. Oh, Limbo, you with your simplistic game play, your deep and dark moody atmosphere, your so simple it's revolutionary 2d platforming experience... and then a Super Mutant or some other such creature murders me because I was daydreaming about my other love. I think I might be cheating on Fallout 3 like Cyclops cheated on Jean Grey (nerd).

Maybe this isn't an article about how I love Limbo. I think this is really an article about how I love the taste of Limbo that I've had. Maybe I don't want to buy Limbo because I love it like I love the idea of that cute girl at the bar who flirted with me that one time (this is an example sweetie, I don't remember her, I swear).

I think it's time to take the plunge so this affair can be over. Monday. Look for an update here on Monday. Unless Limbo and I spend all day doing dirty, dirty things.

True Blood's Crazy in Love Romeo

I had never watched True Blood before this weekend. As a premise, I can't say that the show interested me. And I certainly do not have HBO, so it's like I could watch it even if I was inspired to do so.

Of course, one promise of casserole and brownies later, and I'm at my good friend Abby's apartment with her second favorite couple Torgan watching a solid marathon of episodes 2-5 of True Blood's third season.
And boy, am I glad for that promise of casserole and brownies (thanks Tara, totally delicious) because I was introduced to one of my brand new characters in fiction:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Franklin Mott

The first time we are introduced to Franklin he is a pair of leather shoes sneaking around the home of one of the shoe's main heroes. That's all the character we get. He's fashionable, clearly, and he has some kind of agenda, an agenda that is surely nefarious in some manner.

The second time we see Franklin he's saddling up to, apparently, the only bar in town. Tara, the bartender, is having some kind of a troubled time, and he throws a little bit of game her way (this is the gun introduced in the first act, for real). On Tara's way out of the bar gets into a fight with a few hillbillies, and Franklin, much to my personal delight, holds one of them while she pummels the drunk idiot.

Then they have awesome vampire sex. Which is apparently much, much better than normal people sex. I was aware of this, because Tara's eyes did a really weird flutter thing with the whites, good times. For her.

Do keep in mind, throughout all of this, Franklin is a gentleman. His English accent is used to it's full charming extent, and his witticisms are strong.

This is where we get fun.

Franklin shows up at Tara's house, mesmerizes her to let him in, forces her to tell him everything she knows about the main characters of True Blood and then ties her to the toilet while he sleeps. We knew Franklin was bad news, but this was straight nasty. We're treated to a good establishing shot of Tara, tied up and crying, struggling and unable to free herself from her bonds.

So, naturally, Franklin brings her roses.

And professes his love for her.

Seriously.

The next handful of episodes involve Franklin's steep, steep decent into love and madness, which is a joy, absolute joy to watch.

He buys Tara a wedding dress. He gets jealous when her cousin texts her ("Who is this!" I'm paraphrasing, "I thought you said there was nobody in the picture, I'll kill him!") whom he quickly learns is gay (to a complete turn in personality, from angry jealous to delighted child) and tries to get rid of (watch the video, but take the super speed part and watch it five or six times [that's how it is on the show! Franklin is SO damned impressed with himself]).

When Tara tries to escape and fails, he beats himself up because SHE hurt him so bad. His poor emotions. He literally throws himself against the wall. Poor Tara has to calm him down by telling him everything will be alright, and that it's not HIM she's afraid of, it's everyone else. Right.

I love this character. He has the perfect mix of dark comedy and damn seriousness. He's believable as a cold hearted, conniving killer because that's what he is. But at his heart, at his core, he's fucking crazy and in love with anyone that will show him a touch of decency.

I might be romanticizing that last bit.

Fallout 3 and my love affair with the Side Quest

I recently purchased an XBox 360. I know, I've always been a Nintendo man (even though I did dabble with a PS2), but I finally caved, new games are so cool.

So I went ahead and purchased this one game, Fallout 3, you have to know this, it's in the title.

I wasn't really aware of what exactly Fallout 3 was, all I knew was that it was highly rated, my good friend Matt said it was cool, and it took place in a post-nuclear war retro styled future. What I didn't know, and should have going in, is that it is a massive RPG that not only looks beautiful, but has so much style and cool it's silly.

But I'm not here to review Fallout 3 for you, that'd be silly, I haven't even finished one play-through of it yet.

I blame Bryan Wilks.

Do you see that face? That is the face of a really long and amazing side quest.

- Could you find my dad?

Sure kid, let me murder all of these fire ants for you. Oh, snap, I found your dad, he's dead :(

- Could you murder all the fire ants?

Sure kid, clearly I can do that. I just spent two hours or so wiping out an entire city filled with them.

Then you run into a random scientist...

- Could you murder these really strong fire ants for me? Oh, but leave the Queen fire ant alive.

Oh, sure, yea, that won't take me any time at all.

Then you run into a religious zealot wearing power armor...

- Hey, could you murder these giant mutants for me? We'll save my friend!

Of course I can, that won't take me an hour or so while they brutally kill me over and over.

Then you return to the kid...

- Thanks for killing all those Fire Ants for me... could you find me a new home?

And I haven't done that yet, because his new home is in a city that is really far away, and I had other Side Quests to do. I can't even begin to imagine how awesome the actual game is once I start playing it.

Predators Day!

Yesterday I watched Predators.

To more completely describe the experience I need to fill you in on a tradition that I've been creating with a few of my friends. When a sequel to a film comes out, a sequel such as Predators, take a day and watch all of the films in the series, in this instance, we watched Predator and Predator 2. Just spend a good day and a half hanging out and watching some old film with good friends. It's a classy idea, and I recommend that everyone at least try it.

On to Predators, and why I loved watching it!


Let's start out with the concept for the film, because it's a good one, and it lends itself wonderfully to making a great action flick. Toss a handful of diverse and interesting characters into a foreign land (in this case an alien planet), give them a common goal (survival), and a common foe (Predators!). It's a simple formula, really simple, but it gave me exactly what I was looking for, and I love that. It also helped to set the pace of the film early. We open with Adrian Brody falling out of the sky, he barely hits his parachute, and takes a bumpy landing. The first bit of the movie doesn't slow down from there. We're introduced to our cast and concept wasting absolutely no time. Fantastic!

Then there are the scenes I'm going to carry with me, the bits that were clearly minor labors of love and genius.

Laurence Fishburne played a survivor of the alien planet. This is one of those tropes for like movies that you generally have, or at least I feel like it's a trope (I'm thinking Battle Royale here). Of course, Fishburne continues the trend of characters in this film, everyone in the film is a terrible person. Fishburne is no different and you come to realize HOW it is that he has stayed alive for so long. Lovely bit there. That he was either crazy to start with or developed an imaginary friend is an added bonus. His scheming mania was a real high light for me, there was some nice humor in the film anyhow, what with Topher Grace playing a guy who "wasn't supposed to be there" and Walton Goggins' fairly worthless in combat serial killer, but the madcap over the top element always makes me happy.

I'm a fan of Japanese cinema, or at least, what I've seen of Japanese cinema, so the ridiculously classic shoot of a Samurai battle between a Yakuza and a Predator filled me with pure delight. Is it ridiculous in context... maybe a little. Why would the Predator not shoot the Yakuza, why go one on one? Why not! Either the director loves Samurai films like I do, or he gave a fantastic homage because he knew it would be fun, it doesn't matter. The outcome was brilliant.

And of course we have spectacular performances from every one involved, a script that flows smoothly, and direction that shows love.

My hat is off to the cast and crew.

Manifesto

What I think is fun:

I'm fascinated by entertainment in all mediums. I think about it all the time, and I'd like some kind of outlet to share those thoughts with others. That outlet will be this blog.

However, I'm not interested in discussing the normal things here. Craft, while it will likely have some place, is not the focus; the focus here is fun. We're here to talk and think about what makes a work fun. If it ain't fun, it don't belong here.