Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton. The Battle of the... Decade.

Originally posted on October 15, 2018:

It may be time for another post because there are a few things worth covering. People have been commenting and asking me for months now to organize the videos that I've posted featuring Andrei Fursov. Because of my translations of Fursov's lectures, my channel has gained something of a dedicated following on YouTube. These videos, however, are not my most popular videos by far. My most popular videos are about music, cinema, and other things. People don't usually use YouTube to search for educational content. And I think that the owners of YouTube would like to keep it this way. Still, since translating lectures has been a part of my hobby of making videos, I've been able to translate and post many such videos over the last several years. At first, I didn't want to react to the requests about arranging the translations in order. It's because I know what a problematic and controlled website YouTube is. Is it worth my time, for example? Because YouTube has become institutionalized already, it has gone from being a website that enables learning, creativity, and sharing to being a website that opposes these things. But, after thinking about this for a while, and after realizing that this process won't take much time, I've finally decided to do this. I've created playlists on my YouTube channel so that Fursov's lectures can be seen in order. This is an ongoing process, however. I haven't organized all of the videos yet.

One person who has caught a little of my interest lately is Steve Bannon. I must admit that I found out about him only after the 2016 United States presidential election. It seems that Fursov mentioned Bannon in one of his interviews before the election, when he called Bannon one of the top analysts in the USA. Still, this didn't compel me to begin researching Bannon. I should mention that I'm not a politician or a political analyst. American politics, and what's going on in the USA generally, don't interest me much. So, it took some time before I decided to look into who Bannon is, and this happened only recently. Apparently, Bannon's advice is what helped get Donald Trump elected back in 2016. It seems that Bannon was the one who came up with the strategy and the catchphrases. And Bannon, like Trump, came under fire from the American media. A few things became clear to me after I watched several interviews featuring Bannon. In the last several weeks, Bannon has been interviewed by some media outlets, including popular ones, about the upcoming mid-term elections in the USA. He talks about why he thinks Trump was able to win the 2016 election. This is something that I already made a post about. According to Bannon, the Clinton campaign took a wrong turn when it introduced identity politics into the race. I guess I can agree with him. This factor played a part. At the same time, the Trump campaign was able to surf the wave of dissatisfaction in the USA. A large number of people in the USA now, largely young middle class people, are dissatisfied with the situation in the USA. This is mostly due to the depression and the shortage of jobs. But Bannon is not someone that I agree with or someone that I like. He's probably not a monster like my so-called father, who's a bigot and a bully, among other things. But he's still a right-winger, a nationalist, a deceiver, and he says offensive things. He's someone that people in the ruling class of Russia can agree with, but he's not someone that I can agree with. The Russians, of course, didn't hide that they preferred Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. In addition, Clinton was openly hostile toward Russia and Vladimir Putin during the race. It's worth pointing out that modern Russia (the Russian Federation) is a right-wing, anti-democratic, and oligarchical state. And, since it's oligarchical, it's a state that is going nowhere, much like the USA. The regime in Russia supports right-wing parties and right-wing personalities abroad as well. This is something that Zbigniew Brzezinski joked about, when he said that during the Cold War the Russians supported the Left and that now they support the Right. But there are a few differences between the USA and the Russian Federation, though these differences mean little in the long run. The USA benefited from the end of the so-called Cold War by profiting from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this way, American political domination of Western Civilization continued and got a boost for a few decades. When it comes to Russian Civilization, Soviet political domination came to an end in the second half of the 1980s and the union split up into what became known as the Russian Federation and some other, much smaller right-wing oligarchical states. The Soviet Union collapsed like the Ilkhanate, which appeared to be strong and stable to the people living in Iran only a decade before its collapse. In order to help justify their lame existence, the Russian Federation and these other post-Soviet states regularly put out anti-Soviet lies and propaganda. Anyway, though the Russians preferred Trump, they still didn't interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election and help get Trump elected. They're not capable of doing this. They're not even capable of preventing an American-orchestrated coup d'etat in a neighbouring and culturally-identical state like Ukraine. This is how weak the Russian Federation is. The Russian interference story is something that Clinton and her team cooked up after her defeat in order to put the blame on someone else. And, since the Russians are the most demonized people in the West, Clinton knew that she'd be able to get away with this lie. Another thing that's amusing is how Clinton and her supporters were called "the Left" during the race and afterwards. Some of Trump's supporters took advantage of this. Well, I'll begin by saying that there is no real Left in establishment American politics. The Left isn't about identity politics or mostly about race relations and women's rights. It's about making life better for workers, about limiting and ending exploitation by capitalists, and even about social progress. There is nothing leftist about Hillary Clinton. She joked about the death of Muammar Gaddafi, who was the leader of Libya. I don't think that something like this happened during the Cold War. Even Ronald Reagan, with all of his bigoted and deceitful talk, didn't joke about the death of another country's leader. She's simply an operative for Wall Street, and her campaign was backed by oligarchs. This isn't a secret. Still, the average person in the American middle class and working class doesn't know such things. We have to keep in mind that the USA is a country (empire) where communism and real leftist politics are constantly demonized and lied about. In addition, people from the American middle class and working class are provided with a bad education, which keeps them uninformed, obedient, and capable of performing only the most basic tasks. It's safe to say that these people haven't read Das Kapital by Karl Marx or any other work by a leftist thinker. So, I guess that it's not hard to fool such people into believing that a conservative establishment politician like Clinton actually represents the Left. A real leftist wouldn't support Clinton, or Trump, for that matter. Therefore, a conclusion has to be made that the strategy of the Trump campaign in relation to the dissatisfied people worked. Among these dissatisfied people were bigots, conspiracy theorists, commie-haters, homophobes, racists, nationalists, xenophobes, the "awake", and the unemployed. Because they don't know better, they believed in Trump's sham populism, and many of them still defend him like he's Jesus Christ.

In general, it's somewhat interesting to listen to what Bannon says, though he acts like Trump can win again in the future. Does he know something that I don't? After all, after Trump's win in 2016, the opposition has been working on preventing such a thing from happening again. After everything that has happened since then, it would seem like there's no way that Trump will be allowed to win again. Or has Trump gained more support in the American establishment since then? What's interesting is that Trump didn't really look pleased right after he won the election. In fact, he looked kind of worried. Maybe he didn't expect to win. Or maybe, by then, after everything that had happened, he didn't really want to win. OK. Moving on. Another thing that's amusing is what happened to Alex Jones. Jones remains one of the most notable supporters of Trump, and Jones was recently purged by several popular internet platforms, apparently because he supported Trump and played a role in getting Trump elected. Jones has a large following, by internet standards. Interestingly, Roger Stone made frequent appearances on Jones's show before the election. I think that Stone's support for Trump shows that Trump has some serious backers in the American establishment. So, after Jeb Bush dropped out of the race, and after Trump decided to run as a populist, it seems that some important people decided to throw their weight behind Trump. This just shows that Trump wasn't some lone, helpless man in the race. He had some serious support, though nowhere near as serious as the support that Clinton had. I must admit that I was a little surprised when Jones got purged. The thing about Jones is that he's an offensive, right-wing propagandist for the establishment, who always throws his weight behind candidates from the Republican Party. Well, this time he threw his weight behind Trump, and, somewhat surprisingly, he got purged as a result by companies like Google, for example. His popularity on the internet wasn't enough to prevent this. He wasn't the only one who got purged, but he was the most famous one among the purged. I personally think that this was the work of Hillary Clinton. This was her revenge for her loss and for all of the criticism and lies that Jones put out about her. Like so many Hollywood celebrities, the people working at Google, for example, didn't hide that they support Clinton. In one disturbing scene, one of the founders of Google, Sergey Brin, openly voiced his opposition to the Trump campaign.

ЖИЛА БЫЛА ДЕВОЧКА (советский фильм о блокаде Ленинграда)

 

История двух маленьких блокадниц в осажденном Ленинграде. 7-летней Настеньки и 5-летней Катеньки. Голод, холод, путешествия через вымерзший город к Неве с санками за водой...

Hillary Clinton’s Historical Revision of her Presidential Campaign and Rebranding

 

https://maoistrebelnews.com/2017/05/07/hillary-clintons-historical-revision-of-her-presidential-campaign-and-rebranding/

In a remarkable feat of self-important delusion Hillary Clinton declared herself back in town and a, “part of the resistance.” This comment was made a week ago as she spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in New York City. During that same interview, she claimed to admit “absolute personal responsibility” for her loss to Donald Trump in the presidential election. However, she did go on to state that she “would have won” had it not been for the alleged Russian interference. She also blamed James Comey’s decision to reopen her email investigation after her wrong doings were made public by Wikileaks.

Far from her claims, she lost the election because of the unethical and undemocratic manner in which she carried out her campaign. It is now known that she orchestrated the banishment of the more popular candidate Bernie Sanders from the leadership of the Democratic Party. This is exposed all the more by the legal filings of the Democratic National Committee and former DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in response to a lawsuit filed by Bernie Sander supporters. According to a motion to dismiss, the DNC claims that it has the right to “go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way.” They also claimed that the lawsuit is based upon an “internal rule” which can’t be enforced, and that the term “impartial” can’t be defined.

Clinton also lost due to her relationship with the financial aristocracy of Wall Street. The Clinton family, (as is every former president,) is heavily connected to and funded by large banks and financial institutions. This is really nothing new in American politics. But, the family’s very close association with the banks made many voters distrust her. By contrast, Donald Trump (falsely) claimed dissociation from them and railed against their greed and corruption. While Trump lied about his relationship with Wall Street, people still believed him. Clinton, by contrast, was a known close associate of it. Popular anger towards the financial aristocracy and her connections to it seriously harmed her credibility and popularity.

The recent interview she gave was nothing more than a massive distortion of the truth. While the information exposed by Guccifer 2.0 and Wikileaks certainly hurt her campaign, they were only exposing what she had done that was unethical which the public opposed. She has absolutely denied this. Instead, she has claimed that she would have won had it not been for the alleged Russian interference and James Comey’s decision investigate her wrongdoings. She cannot claim she is taking responsibility when she is directly placing blame on others. She was wholly dishonest in her interview where she tried to portray herself as a victim. The truth is that she has victimised Bernie Sanders by preventing him from becoming the head of the Democratic Party.

Despite all of this, she has still declared herself to be a member of the resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency. It was reported by Politico last Friday that she is in the process of building an organisation dedicated to opposing Trump and the Republican Party.

“The former secretary of state is building a new political group to fund organizations working on the resistance to President Donald Trump’s agenda, spending recent weeks in Washington, New York City, and Chappaqua, N.Y., meeting with donors and potential groups to invest in, and recruiting individuals for the group’s board of directors,” the media outlet said.

In the wake of her disastrous presidential election, she has attempted to rebrand herself as a public “resistance” figure. It is clear that there is a great deal of popular sentiment against Donald Trump and his presidency. In Clinton’s eyes, she sees herself as able to take advantage of this sentiment and use it to promote herself and force her way back into the mainstream under a new image. She is beginning to pose herself as someone who is opposed to everything Trump stands for: Wall Street lackey, racist, misogynist, and most importantly, warmonger.  Using money collected from interests among the capitalist class opposed to Donald Trump’s presidential agenda, she will try and form a political block against him.

Right now there is no such thing. The Democratic Party has been left in ruins after the failure of the Clinton campaign. A fractured Party is attempting to oppose Republican rule but is having very little effect. There is no real leader of the Party at this moment. Bernie Sanders has been relegated to career backbencher after it was made clear to him by the Party that he is never going to be in a leadership position. Tulsi Gabbard has risen as a rival for Clinton in very much the same populist style as Sanders. It’s mostly made up of anti-Trump, anti-war, pro-single payer health care rhetoric. Her recent gain in popularity is no doubt what has spurred Clinton to make a rebranded comeback so soon.

Right now a rebellious “radical” image is needed to oppose the Trump administration. The rebellious image Trump gave during his campaign has completely collapsed, and has been acknowledged by all but the most hardcore of his supporters. Clinton is attempting to rebrand herself as that rebellious radical. Gabbard has very much the same rhetoric that Bernie Sanders that made him popular. If Clinton doesn’t return to politics soon, she’ll be beaten out by the rising star of Gabbard.

It seems as though there may end up being a power struggle in the party between the two women. Both are jockeying for a position of leadership with similar images in what appears to be a kind of power vacuum in the Democratic Party. Gabbard is attempting to take Clinton’s place as leader, while Clinton is organising to keep it. In all likelihood, Clinton will beat out Gabbard because she will get the funding necessary to carry out the coming political war between the two. Sections of Wall Street have already chosen her as their candidate, and are prepared to give her all the money necessary.

To see Clinton as an outsider, a “part of the resistance” to use her own words, is nothing short of facetious. Clinton has been a Washington insider for decades and has already been the Secretary of State. She simply couldn’t be any more a member of the establishment. This stands in stark contrast to why Trump defeated her in the presidential election, he appeared to be the opposite. Attempting to rebrand herself as opposed to the current order will fail. She is the established order. She is a great companion of Wall Street, she supports a violent imperialist foreign policy and seeks to maintain the status quo.

It seems very unlikely that she will be able to brand herself as Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama originally did. She is too well established within the system as a Wall Street hawk to ever appear otherwise.

Now reading Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands Is False by Grover Furr...

 

Just finished watching Toy Story 2 (1999) and Akira (1988)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Georgia Street in Downtown Vancouver. Autumn of 2019.

Georgia Street is an east–west street in the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Its section in Downtown Vancouver, designated West Georgia Street, serves as one of the primary streets for the financial and central business districts, and is the major transportation corridor connecting downtown Vancouver with the North Shore (and eventually Whistler) by way of the Lions Gate Bridge. The remainder of the street, known as East Georgia Street between Main Street and Boundary Road and simply Georgia Street within Burnaby, is more residential in character, and is discontinuous at several points.

West of Seymour Street, the thoroughfare is part of Highway 99. The entire section west of Main Street was previously designated part of Highway 1A, and markers for the '1A' designation can still be seen at certain points.

Starting from its western terminus at Chilco Street by the edge of Stanley Park, Georgia Street runs southeast, separating the West End from the Coal Harbour neighbourhood. It then runs through the Financial District; landmarks and major skyscrapers along the way include Living Shangri-La (the city's tallest building), Trump International Hotel and Tower, Royal Centre, 666 Burrard tower, Hotel Vancouver and upscale shops, the HSBC Canada Building, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia Hotel, Four Seasons Hotel, Pacific Centre, the Granville Entertainment District, Scotia Tower, and the Canada Post headquarters. The eastern portion of West Georgia features the Theatre District (including Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts), Library Square (the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library), Rogers Arena, and BC Place. West Georgia's centre lane between Pender Street and Stanley Park is used as a counterflow lane.

East of Cambie Street, Georgia Street becomes a one-way street for eastbound traffic, and connects to the Georgia Viaduct for eastbound travellers only; westbound traffic is handled by Dunsmuir Street and the Dunsmuir Viaduct, located one block to the north.

East Georgia Street begins at the intersection with Main Street in Vancouver's Chinatown, then runs eastwards through Strathcona, Grandview–Woodland and Hastings–Sunrise to Boundary Road. East of the municipal boundary, Georgia Street continues eastwards through Burnaby until its terminus at Grove Avenue in the Lochdale neighbourhood. This portion of Georgia Street is interrupted at several locations, such as Templeton Secondary School, Highway 1 and Kensington Park.

Georgia Street was named in 1886 after the Strait of Georgia, and ran between Chilco and Beatty Streets. After the first Georgia Viaduct opened in 1915, the street's eastern end was connected to Harris Street, and Harris Street was subsequently renamed East Georgia Street.

The second Georgia Viaduct, opened in 1972, connects to Prior Street at its eastern end instead. As a result, East Georgia Street has been disconnected from West Georgia ever since.

On June 15, 2011 Georgia Street became the focal point of the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Merican Eagle Shirt Is Patriotic AF And No One Can Say Otherwise

 

https://brobible.com/gear/article/merican-eagle/

 

This majestic bird is the ‘Merican Eagle. He’s patriotic as shit. He probably also knows Willie Nelson. He also could be yours, at a steal.

“This shirt was everything it said it was. It’s pure America. Not only is the quality well and it fit good. It also gives a feeling of true American Bad Assery when you wear it. It can be described as flying on an American Bald Eagle as it shoots fucking lasers at our enemies. You put this shirt on and you’re ready to spartan kick any commie or triggered snowflake that gets in your way! All in all it’s American as Fuck!”

It even comes in a tank top which is so god damn American it should be illegal.

Metal Hero Review: Special Rescue Police Winspector

 

http://www.jefusion.com/2016/06/metal-hero-review-special-rescue-police.html

Knight Rider? No it's Special Rescue Police Winspector. Unlike other Metal Hero series, the show deviates from heroes killing monsters that have caused crime or battle a sinister organization. Instead, Winspector has no main villain running around and focuses strongly on a rescue theme.

Plot

Winspector is a special police force organized by Captain Shunsuke Masaki, played by Hiroshi Miyauchi. While the show has some Knight Rider influences like its amazing police car but don't expect it to be completely like Knight Rider. The team was created to combat criminals and not monsters of the week. MADDOX is a computer with artificial intelligence who helps dig down the database for the criminals of the week.

The Winspector Squad

The main hero is Ryoma Kagawa. He's the leader of the Winspector Squad. Unlike other superheroes, he might be one who older fans can relate to in some way. Ryoma is privileged to wear the Cross-Tector but with great power comes great responsibility. The Cross-Tector sets a five minutes limit to the user of the suit as a constraint. You didn't have with the Space Sheriffs, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Power Rangers. But Ryoma is stuck with that limit and he must save as many people as he can before the time limit is over. His life can be in danger after five minutes. Then he must rely also on Biker and Walter to help him in his operations. Demitasse a bullet like robot is later added into his list of androids.

A bit of throwback to the Space Sheriffs is the non-transforming badass female partner. If Super Sentai had females in power suits but why not this show? The female parter is Junko Fujino. Junko feels like she's just there for eye candy though she still shows off her amazing fighting ability. She's got some episodes where she shows off that fighting. She's a hot bruiser so beware if you think of trying to do anything to her. Hisako Koyama is a cafeteria worker who's actually the occasional cover agent. I felt like both characters needed more development. Togogaro Rokkaku plays as a lower ranking officer who's there for comic relief but seldom gets involved with the plot's progress.

How the show progresses without any main villain

Winspector's scenario is sort of a what if to a series of events. It's the year 1999 as far as the show's continuity is concerned. What's funny is that in GoGoFive in 1999, the Grand Cross event really happened in August 18, 1999 and that year a rescue-themed Super Sentai was created. The show also shows how humanity can take technology to the wrong direction as evidenced by many crimes in the show or how some events tend to show disasters related to the consequences of reckless destruction. It also shows how some villains have noble agendas but shows that nothing you do ever justifies crime.

The show's development doesn't go with the villains and heroes but more on the heroes. In everyday life, people get promoted and demoted based on their performance. As situations get tougher, the people behind Winspector end up creating new gadgets as the situations get tougher. The whole show's direction is mixing Tokusatsu elements into American rescue-themed shows. As the show progresses, everyone realizes what's important in them as they continue to battle day to day criminals and do rescue tasks. In the end, Winspector is ordered to go on a worldwide scale leading to Solbrain's formation in the next season.

The possible legacy of Winspector to later Tokusatsu shows

After Winspector, there were two more shows that came with the same theme. Winspector was succeeded by Solbrain where Captain Masaki resumes his role as the show's mentor. Exceedraft was meant to be a standalone series but was later connected to Winspector. All three Rescue Police shows from Winspector to Exceedraft had no real main villain involved. Then there was Tokosou Robo Janperson as a Robocop-style Tokusatsu series except the hero was 100% mechanical. Blue SWAT came next which may have been Dekaranger's spiritual predecessor.

The influence went into Super Sentai and Power Rangers. Gekisou Sentai Carranger endorsed safety rules and may have tried to do the lesson of the week approach from Chikyu Sentai Fiveman. It even had a rescue-themed upgrade for its mecha midseason. Then we had Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive and Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue as rescue-themed shows. Lightspeed Rescue not only had Captain Mitchell which felt like any typical Tokusatsu commander but also the show had a public service announcement on safety rules. Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger and Power Rangers SPD may have also shared in that legacy. In the case of Dekaranger, some episodes were more or less like the Rescue Police Trilogy since some of the Alienizers were independent villains than shown to be Agent Abrella's clients.

Just finished watching Dragonslayer (1981) and Toy Story (1995)...

 

Game Review: StarCraft (PC, 1998)

 

https://takeaimandgame.blogspot.com/2013/03/game-review-starcraft-pc-1998.html

StarCraft is a genre-defining game, it’s effectively the national sport of South Korea, and it was the beginning of a phenomenon unlike any other.  Although it was released nearly 15 years ago, the upcoming expansion to its sequel prompted me to revisit its roots.  What followed was a 14-hour journey through one of my childhood favorites.

For the record, I don’t think it’s worth reviewing games given their contemporary world, instead opting to review a game based on my thoughts as I play it – in the case of this StarCraft review, that means I’ll be looking at it through the eyes of a gamer in 2013 instead of 1998.  Sure, this approach means that my reviews will lose something over time, as “timeless” features may become obsolete and nostalgia fluctuations may give classics different spins, but I think it’s a more honest approach.  I can’t accurately convey the excitement of engaging the Zerg swarms for the first time in the late nineties, and no gamer will be able to experience that rush again given the evolution of the industry in the last decade-and-a-half.

So, for better or worse, fair or not, here are my thoughts on the original StarCraft on the eve of the release of Heart of the Swarm:

First the basics: StarCraft puts you in control of a military outpost and tasks you with harvesting raw materials, developing technology, and raising an army to crush your foes.  It’s a real-time strategy (RTS) game, meaning quick decisions and quicker reflexes are necessary to outsmart and outmaneuver the opposition.

Through the campaign, you’ll control one of three species – the cunning humans (the Terrans), the viscous swarms of the Zerg, or the technologically superior Protoss.  Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses, giving different experiences and requiring different strategies.

The single-player mode is divided into three parts, with one 10-mission campaign for each of the races.  Starting with the Terrans, you’ll learn the basics of each race and get a chance to deal with each possible matchup.  Although the story of three campaigns are chronologically ordered, you do have the option of jumping to the race you want to play and skipping the other campaigns, if you want, which is definitely a nice feature.

These days, the StarCraft mythos is pretty complex, but only a portion of that complexity is available in the original game.  We see examples of political intrigue and bitter enemies, but the majority of the game’s exposition happens in the first act (the Terran campaign).  There are details about harsh political struggles within the Terran Dominion and how the Terran leaders are dealing with the sudden arrival of two sentient (and hostile) alien species, and we learn a lot about the StarCraft universe in those first 10 missions.

In the other two campaigns, there’s a lot less detail and a lot more repetition.  We don’t learn as much about the internal workings of the Protoss civilization or the Zerg hierarchy, and what little we do hear happens several times.  To make matters worse, there are hints at some awesome backstory that is never explored.  The lack of detail in what are arguably the more interesting campaigns is disappointing.

On the other hand, each of the campaigns has a self-contained story arc.  The later campaigns build on the earlier ones, using the other campaigns’ events as a backdrop for a new conflict, but each campaign focuses on a particular struggle and follows it to its conclusion.  It’s great to be able to see the StarCraft universe from three different perspectives, each with its own biases and goals, and the end result is some knowledge of the inner workings of each of the races.

While the voice acting is pretty darned good (the script isn’t always stellar, but it’s never really cringe-worthy, either), and some of the sound effects are iconic, the graphical style hasn’t aged very well.  Pre-rendered cutscenes are obviously very dated, and although they’re not terrible, they’re not quite as good at conveying the tone as they could be.  In-game graphics are similarly old-school, using blocky sprites and jagged animations, but the graphical quality never affects the gameplay itself, so it’s not a serious problem.

While the old graphical presentation may be the most obvious flaw in the modern market, the most disappointing part of replaying a classic like StarCraft is the dated gameplay.  While the basic mechanics are the same as any good RTS game these days (even better than some), there are small features that really stick out as frustrating in the modern gaming world.

First is the fact that you can only select 12 units at a time.  In many cases, you’ll need to control 20 units or more simultaneously, which means that you’ll need to issue many commands, quickly switching between small groups of units, as opposed to a single command to one group as in modern RTS games.  This system presents an awfully high mechanical barrier for new players to overcome, encouraging strong defensive tactics until you can build an army of your race’s most powerful unit instead of making full use of the technology tree.  It’s frustrating to feel like the game’s control scheme is getting in the way, and that definitely happens in StarCraft on occasion.

Second, the unit AI is downright silly at times.  Pathing is generally terrible, such that units will follow long, winding paths to reach their destinations instead of the most direct route, and they will interact with each other in complicated (and almost always sub-optimal) ways, like pacing back and forth behind other units instead of moving around them to go forward.  It can be a huge pain to deal with these weird dances, particularly when one well-placed unit could mean the difference between a successful battle and a humiliating defeat.

Interestingly, these control flaws have proven useful for StarCraft as a really competitive game.  Truly skilled players can separate themselves from the rest by expertly overcoming these control hurdles, making for an exciting spectator sport, but it’s never good to alienate new players with clunky control schemes.

StarCraft also features an expansive custom game system, allowing you to play deathmatches against computer-controlled opponents, to challenge your friends online, or to play some silly user-made maps with custom triggers.  The map editor comes with the game, giving creative gamers a chance to develop something fun for others to enjoy.  It’s a really cool system, and the multiplayer gives the game a huge number of additional options, but the online community is ever-dwindling as StarCraft loyalists move into StarCraft II.  Even so, the custom map features are exceptional even by today’s standards.

StarCraft is one of the respectable elders of the gaming world.  The ideas contained within it have spawned numerous imitators, so much so that its name is almost synonymous with “real-time strategy game.”  Even though it’s growing ever closer to the age of consent, it’s still a fun, challenging game with lots of options.  Its flaws may deter new players, though, so if you’re not already a fan of the RTS genre or the StarCraft series specifically, you probably want to start with a different title.

Just finished watching Stargate (1994) and Rocky IV (1985)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Fantasy X/BlueHighwind

 

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Walkthrough:Final_Fantasy_X/BlueHighwind

Welcome Space Monkies, to the near future. I am the one you all certainly know and love by now, BlueHighwind. In order of being started, this Walkthrough is the fourth one and the very first even numbered game I've guided you through. FFX is not an amazing game. Don't get me wrong, its not a bad game by any means. Its just not great. Its well down there, right in the middle. A mediocre Final Fantasy at best. Most of the characters are unlikable, poorly acted and even more poorly dressed. The first 90% of the game is walking forward in a straight line, and Blitzball is truly terrible. But the graphics are spot on, the music is good, and though most of the voice acting is lousy, it was still a very good idea. What few good voice actors there are well make up for the weaknesses of the others. Hey, the storyline isn't bad either. Certainly a game that could be missed, but nothing that you'll regret playing.

I am not concerned with such trivial matters such as spelling or grammar, so if it really bothers you edit to your heart's desire but do not change the fundamental idea of what I have said, for it is sacred text. If you do not like foul language than you better get the fuck used to it, because I enjoy cursing.

Also be sure to note that I'm using the original American version of the game. So that means no Dark Aeons or Penance. Even if they were in my game, I'm not crazy enough to fight bosses that ridiculously over-powered. The Emerald WEAPON is where I draw the line.

If you despise me and how I do things, see Crazyswords's Walkthrough: here.

How to Play Final Fantasy X

Before you even think of playing Final Fantasy X, there are some minor physical limitations. First of all you need at least one working human hand, the ability to take visible Electromagnetic Radiation through organs called 'eyes' in a process called 'seeing', and a central nervous system to take in this information and interpret it in a meaningful way. Hearing is optional, but the game is much better if you can actually listen to the brilliant score. Plus you're going to have to know how to read. (If you can't read, then how the hell are you even understanding this?).

Now for the technological limitations. You're going to need a power source, preferably electrical to drive the machinery you are going to need in order to play this game. First you are going to need a TV made sometime in the Nineties or later, hopefully its in color. Second you're going to need either a PlayStation 2 or 3, the PS1 cannot play this game. Finally you're going to need a copy of the actual game. Which can be procured in your local video game retailer's Bargain Bin. Or much more easily on eBay.

Insert the disc into the disc tray. If you cannot perform this simple task than you either lack the physical ability to play this game (if that's the case then I feel for you man, life really dumped a lot of shit on you) or are just a complete fucking retard, in which case you get no sympathy from me. Seriously if you can't even do that, then you've shown a greater degree of stupidity, and incompetence than an Italian Tank Division charge. Congratulations!

Basic Controls

If you've ever played a Final Fantasy and have even the slightest amount of intelligence you can skip this section and the next. If you're a total idiot who cannot grasp even the slightest concepts (I know at least one is reading this), feel free to read to your heart's content.

This game uses the American scheme of buttons. The X-button.png button is the select button, and the Circle-button.png button is the cancel. The Triangle-button.png is the menu button, and the Square-button.png doesn't seem to have any function unless specifically mentioned in a mini-game. You use the L1 button to switch your characters in and out in battle. You use the left analog stick to move your character around and select from menus. The right doesn't have any purpose. Since the camera is on rails you can't move your line of sight, which can get annoying sometimes.

Battle system

I don't really need to go over this portion of the game, since FFX holds your hand like no game before. However since I must walkthrough everything, I'll go over it right now. The old ATB system from the last three games is gone, in exchange for a turn based system. This was quite a surprise for me a few years ago, when I found that my enemies will wait until the end of time for me to choose between a "Fire" or "Ice" spell. I don't really consider this change an improvement but its not that big of a difference anyway. One of the cooler features of this system is that you can switch characters mid-battle. Say you're fighting an enemy weak to magic, but all you got are physical attackers. Simple: switch out your swordsmen and throw in a Mage. You can't switch out KOed characters, or characters that have been knocked out of battle.

Now for the significant changes. Levels are gone in exchange for a Sphere Grid system. The Sphere Grid is a giant board on which your characters move when they receive a Sphere from battles. The Grid contains all of the stat boost and new abilities that your character will learn during the course of the game. Each of your character starts in a different section of the Grid that corresponds to their own special class. Later on in the game you can break out of this little area and move onto the entirety of the Sphere Grid. Basically its more of an annoyance than anything else. Now you have to manually move each character up the Grid after every battle, it gets tedious really fast. I'd just like a Level Up with automatic stat boosts.

Another fun feature is the Overdrive System. These Limit Breaks are pretty much the same as FFVII's. You build up your Overdrive Meter, and then when its fully filled, you can use a powerful attack called an Overdrive. This time, you can set your Overdrive Modes. So it can build up by your character losing HP, your character gaining HP, your character dealing damage, whatever you like.

Weapons and Armor can be Customized at any point of the game using special items you find. New weapons and Armor are not necessarily any more powerful then the last one you find. They just grant different abilities, like immunity to Stone or whatever. I never really bothered too much in this system because I'm on the lazy side.

Oh, and Summons in this game are out of their freakin' mind! These monsters act as normal party members, when they're summoned you have full control but they replace your three current party members. However, Summons are so strong you can live with it, especially those that can heal themselves. They have Overdrives as well, and they are very powerful. These creatures beat pretty much everything. They kick total ass. I'm sorry that nothing like them has ever come back in any of the newer Final Fantasy games.

Not my favorite battle system, but at least its better than FFVIII. And we can all be thankful for that.

Omar Khayyam - New World Encyclopedia

 

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Omar_Khayyam

 

Omar Khayyám (Persian عمر خیام; May 18, 1048 – December 4, 1131) was a Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer. During his own life he was primarily known for his ingenious work as a scientist; Khayyám contributed a number of insights to the development of geometry, algebra, and other fields of mathematics. He also revolutionized the field of astronomy by proving that the earth-centric theory of the cosmos was fundamentally flawed. Almost all of Khayyám's contributions to science would eventually find their way into the Western hemisphere.

Today, however, Khayyám is primarily known as a poet, and particularly for the volume The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, famously translated by the nineteenth-century English poet Edward Fitzgerald. Khayyám's poetry, written in rubaiyat, or quatrains, which tend to rhyme in an "aaba" rhyme scheme, is memorable not only for the beauty of its language and the concise gracefulness of the rubaiyat form, but also because the poems give the reader a glimpse at a mind of profound complexity and intelligence addressing fundamental issues of faith, doubt, and morality.

As a brilliant scientist and devout Muslim, Khayyám struggled to find the balance between rationality and religion, a struggle which forms the principle topic of Khayyám's poetry. Although he was virtually unknown to Western audiences until nearly a millenium after his death, Khayyám is now universally acknowledged as one of the most profound and important poets of the Middle East.

Early life

Khayyám is thought to have been born into a family of artisans in the city of Nishapur. He spent his childhood in the town of Balhi, studying there under the tutelage of Sheik Muhammad Mansuri, one of the most well-known scholars of the time. Later, Khayyám studied under Imam Mowaffak of Nishapur, who was considered one of the greatest teachers of the region. Two other exceptional students began studying under the same teacher at about the same time. One of these was Nizam-ul-Mulk, who went on to become the Vizier to two rulers of the Persian Empire. The other was Hassan-i-Sabah, who went on to become the leader of the Hashshashin.

It was commonly believed that any young man who studied under that eminent Imam would attain honor and happiness. These three students, who became friends, each pledged to one another that whichever of them received fortune, he would share it equally with the other two. After Nizam-ul-Mulk became Vizier, Hassan-i-Sabah and Omar Khayyám each went to him, and asked to share in his good fortune.

Khayyám made a very modest request, asking not for an office or fame, but simply a place to live, study science, and pray. He was granted a yearly pension of 1,200 mithkals of gold from the treasury of Nishapur. He lived on this pension for the rest of his life.

Mathematician

Khayyám was famous during his lifetime as a mathematician, well known for inventing the method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle. Although this approach had earlier been attempted by Menaechmus and others, Khayyám provided a generalization extending it to all cubics. In addition he discovered the binomial expansion, and authored criticisms of Euclid's theories of parallels which made their way to Europe, where they contributed to the eventual development of non-Euclidean geometry.

In 1070 C.E. he wrote his great work on algebra. In it he classified equations according to their degree, giving rules for solving quadratic equations which are very similar to the ones we use today, and a geometric method for solving cubic equations with real roots. He also wrote on the triangular array of binomial coefficients known as Pascal's triangle. In 1077 Khayyám wrote Sharh ma ashkala min musadarat kitab Uqlidis (Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid). An important part of the book is concerned with Euclid's famous parallel postulate, which had also attracted the interest of Thabit ibn Qurra. Khayyám's attempt at proving this difficult postulate was a distinct advance over those of his contemporaries. Khayyám also did other notable work in geometry, specifically on the theory of proportions.

Astronomer

Khayyám was also famous as an astronomer. In 1073 the Malik-Shah, sultan of the Seljuk dynasty, invited Khayyám, along with various other distinguished scientists, to build an observatory. Eventually, Khayyám measured the length of the year with extraordinary accuracy as 365.24219858156 days. This calendar measurement has only a 1 day error in every five thousand years, whereas the Gregorian calendar used today, has a one day error in every 3,330 years.

Khayyám also estimated and proved to an audience that the universe is not moving around earth as was believed by all at that time. By constructing a revolving platform and simple arrangement of the star charts lit by candles around the circular walls of the room, he demonstrated that earth revolves on its axis, bringing into view different constellations throughout the night and day. He also elaborated that stars are stationary objects in space which if moving around earth would have been burnt to cinders due to their large mass. All these theories were adopted centuries later adopted by Christian astronomers.

Poetry

Khayyám is famous today not only for his scientific accomplishments, but also for his literary works. He is believed to have written about one thousand four-line verses. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the English translations by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883). Perhaps the most famous of Fitzgerald's translations is this one, Rubaiyat XI:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

As a work of English literature Fitzgerald's poetic version is a high point of the nineteenth century. As a line-by-line translation of Khayyám's quatrains, it is noted more for its freedom than for its fidelity. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyám's quatrains at all. Fitzgerald indisputably distorted the eleventh-century original by adding his own nineteenth-century Romantic sentiments, and some more recent translations of Khayyám's poetry are not nearly as sentimental or overwrought as Fitzgerald's version, revealing a poet of stark intelligence and concise language. Nonetheless, Fitzgerald's version remains the most familiar (and most widely imitated) of Khayyám translations.

Some critics jokingly refer to the Fitzgerald's English versions as "The Rubaiyat of FitzOmar," a practice that both recognizes the liberties Fitzgerald took with his source but also the credit Fitzgerald deserves for the considerable portion of the "translation" that is his own creation. In fact, Fitzgerald himself referred to his work as "transmogrification." Some people find this quite unfortunate, while others see Fitzgerald's translation of the work as close enough to the true spirit of the poems to warrant the liberties taken.

One of Fitzgerald's most important (and, according to some, controversial) innovations was his choice to organize Khayyám's rubaiyat into coherent sequences. It is almost certain that Khayyám wrote each of his rubaiyat as a poem unto itself, and although he often returned again and again to the same images and issues, there is no textual evidence to suggest in what order (if any) he wanted his poems to be read. By linking a number of rubaiyat together, as in the following famous sequence on religious doubt, Fitzgerald was able to turn Khayyám's small, brilliant poems into lengthy meditations on deeper, philosophical themes:

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted - "Open then the Door!
You know how little time we have to stay,
And once departed, may return no more."

Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And that after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There!"

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter'd, and their mouths are stopt with Dust.

Oh, come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out of the same Door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd -
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help - for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

Putin signs Russian internet censorship bills into law

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/03/22/inte-m22.html

 

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law two bills that dramatically escalate the government’s censorship of the internet and crackdown on free speech. The first bill provides for the removal of and ban on sites and blogs that allegedly spread “fake news”, and the fining of their authors. The second outlaws the alleged disparaging of state symbols and the government, and the inciting of society to “hooliganism”.

Individuals accused of spreading “unreliable information” on “socially significant” issues that could cause harm to individuals or social disorder, can be fined 30,000-100,000 rubles (US$ 466-1,553) for their first violation of the law – an amount that surpasses what a sizable portion of the population make in a month – and up to 400,000 rubles (US$ 6,211) for repeated offenses. Legal entities can be charged up to 1,5 million rubles (US$ 23,292).

What constitutes “unreliable information” is nowhere defined and will be decided by the General Prosecutor’s office, which will be overseeing the implementation of the law, as well as the state agency Roskomnadzor (Russian Communication Oversight), the main agency responsible for the surveillance and censorship of the internet in Russia.

The two laws are part of an international campaign by the ruling class to crack down on the internet, which has become the main platform for the dissemination and discussion of news and opinions that run counter to the official bourgeois mainstream media, as well as for the organization of demonstrations and strikes.

The bill had been approved in a first and second reading by the Russian parliament earlier this year, amid a strike of some 12,000 truckers in southern Russia. The signing of the bills by Putin occurred on the same day as medical personnel at several hospitals in Novosibirsk launched a work-to-rule action to protest against their miserable salaries (about 20,000 rubles monthly or US$ 314 with overtime) and the ongoing cuts in the health care sector.

If the US political establishment and corporate media have based their campaign of internet censorship ideologically on the fight against alleged “fake news” with reference to the “Russian meddling” in the election, the Russian government and state media have justified Moscow’s own clamping down on free speech on the internet by citing the international campaign against “fake news” as well as the Ukraine conflict and the overt propaganda by the Western bourgeois media.

Amid escalating tensions with the US and European imperialist powers, and rising levels of social inequality, the Russian government in recent years has worked to set up what is now a comprehensive framework for the surveillance of the internet and individual users. It has banned the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that hide users’ actual internet IP, allowing them to surf on the internet without being automatically identifiable; public WiFis require personal identification for usage and the government has also obliged corporations running social media platforms to store their information about users on Russian servers and make them available upon request to the secret service. Meanwhile, a 2018 attempt to ban the popular messaging app Telegram, which enables encrypted communication, has largely failed.

In addition to these two new censorship laws, the Russian government is also actively preparing to create a Russian internet that would be separate from the World Wide Web. In February, the Russian parliament approved the first reading of a such a bill. The Kremlin has presented the law as a response to the US national cybersecurity strategy that was passed in 2018, and Putin has defended the law as necessary to guarantee the “security” of Russian citizens.

While there is no question that the open war preparations by the United States and NATO against Russia are a major motivation for the efforts to create a separate Russian internet, at least as important a factor is the fear of the Russian oligarchy that the internet can be used by Russian workers and youth to access information about and link up their struggles with the growing struggles of the working class all over the world. Russia is the most unequal large economy in the world, with the top 1 percent owning as much as one-third of the country’s net wealth and the bottom 50 percent of the population owning less than 5 percent.

The yellow vest protests in France, as well as the strikes by Iranian workers and, most recently, the mass protests and strikes in Algeria have been closely followed in Russia, where over 90 percent of the population has expressed opposition to the raising of the retirement age by five years, which was rammed through in the summer and fall of last year.

The US media coverage of the new censorship laws in Russia, feigning outrage over the Kremlin’s crackdown, has been entirely hypocritical. Thus, the editorial board of the Washington Post denounced as an “authoritarian assault” on the “potential value of the Internet, and its very freedom”.

The same Washington Post has been fully complicit in the internet censorship campaign in the US. It has been one of most vociferous proponents of a campaign against “fake news”, and, in November 2016, it published a “black list” of anti-war and left-wing web sites, many of which, including the World Socialist Web Site, were subsequently demoted by Google in search results, and purged by Facebook.

Dokken - Dream Warriors (Official Music Video)

 

Watch the official music video for 'Dream Warriors' by Dokken from the Dokken album 'Back for the Attack'. 'Dream Warriors' was written to be the theme song to the movie 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'

Halo 2 - XB - Review | GameZone

 

https://www.gamezone.com/reviews/halo_2_xb_review/

 

The most anticipated.  The most talked about.  The most pre-ordered.  The fastest selling.  Halo 2 has become the game that everyone wanted it to be: the most important reason to ignore reality and escape to a world that’s 100% better than your own.

Everyone waited for Halo 2 because of its multiplayer gameplay.  That’s the reason why it has a chance at becoming the most played game of this console generation.  Based on my personal experiences, it seems that no less than three people are playing Halo 2 for every copy sold.  If it sells as many copies as the first game (over five million), it’ll reach at least 15 million players.

When your friends aren’t around, you can log into Xbox Live and play it against thousands of gamers from virtually anywhere in the world.

There are times when you’ll end up playing the game alone, and in Halo 2’s case it will be by choice.  The new single-player and co-op campaign is an ultra-fun, out-of-this-world, non-stop action-fest.  What Metal Gear Sold did for espionage Halo 2 does for action.  I literally felt like I was inside of an action movie, shooting my way through a legion of ferocious enemies that want to take over the world.  (The whole galaxy is in their long-term plans, but they’ll settle for one planet at a time).

The action is backed by Halo’s award-winning controls and a new set of levels that are better than any featured in the original.  You heard right – better than any level featured in the original Halo’s single-player campaign.  Halo 2 is bigger, badder, and a whole lot better in every conceivable way.  From tiny things like mounted weaponry, to the more major improvements like vehicle controls and the intense battle sequences (which you’re a part of!), Halo 2 is nothing short of an amazing experience.

Halo 2 has a lot of new gameplay features: new weapons, faster shield repair, the ability to use two weapons simultaneously, etc.  Those are great, but my favorite is the ability to steal vehicles.  Halo 2 gives you the power to chase opponents, kick ’em out of the vehicle, hop in the driver’s seat and take over.  You have no idea how much fun this is to perform (unless you’ve played the game already.  Then you know it’s the coolest and most brilliant addition Bungie has given us).

This is an especially cool treat for multiplayer games.  Your friends will get so mad when they’re battling someone with a Ghost, only to lose it when you snatch it from them. The best part is when you’re playing Juggernaut (one of the many multiplayer games).  In Juggernaut, only one enemy exists: the Juggernaut.  Only the Juggernaut can score points by killing other players.  Killing the Juggernaut turns you into the Juggernaut; killing anyone else will deduct points from your score.

The Juggernaut will likely search for a vehicle, thinking it’ll give him/her the upper hand. It might for a while…until the Juggernaut becomes distracted.  That’s when I run in, steal the vehicle, kill the Juggernaut, and destroy the players I once called teammates.  They hate it when that happens, which is precisely why I love it so very much.

Halo 2 has the expected multiplayer modes: Slayer (kill the most opponents to win), Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill.  It also has a mode called Assault where you gain points by carrying, arming and dropping your team’s bomb in the other team’s base. Oddball is like Capture the Flag with constant movement: find the ball and hold onto it the longest.  In Territories, players must control various areas on the map for as long as possible.

Halo 2’s weapon selection is the best of any console FPS.  You can find pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles in any FPS, but they’re all better in Halo.  The new dual wield system might take some getting used since each weapon is controlled by a different trigger.  To fire both weapons at the same time you must hold down both triggers.  This felt a little awkward at first since I tend to hold the Xbox controller very loosely.  The awkward feeling began to fade as soon as I realized how much quicker enemies die when wielding two weapons. This greatly improved my chances for success in multiplayer, a mode I do not yet dominate (but will dominate very soon.  Mu-ha-ha-ha!).

The vehicles, old and new, are undeniably cool, and undeniably Halo.  Controlling the enemy’s vehicles is the best part, whether you’re the good guys or…do you really want me to spill the beans?  If you haven’t heard by now, you’re best discovering this little secret on your own.

The Ghost is the vehicle you see everyone stealing, and the Banshee is the awesome aircraft that takes Halo to new heights, both in multiplayer and during the single-player campaign.  The M808B Scorpion MBT (a near-indestructible tank) has the power to crush almost anything.  It can drive over rugged terrain, take out enemy aircrafts, and cruise through a Ghost like it wasn’t even there.

Like every Halo vehicle, the Banshee doesn’t fly like a typical aircraft.  The right trigger handles the Banshee’s powerful plasma cannons; the left trigger increases your speed.  This aircraft moves in the direction of your crosshairs, so if you have them pointed at a ground-based enemy, you can be certain you’re losing altitude.

The new weapons and gameplay features would be useless without great multiplayer maps.  Halo 2 has several.  The cat’s out of the bag, so I’m sure most everyone knows that Coagulation is the Blood Gulch map, revived and revised for Halo 2.  The other maps are extremely rewarding.  Ivory Tower is an instant classic, featuring lots of areas to climb and a central dome-like area for all-out battles. Waterworks is perfect for the happy camper who likes to grab a tank and sit and wait for opponents to come.

If the vehicles don’t appease you, go to the options menu and change them.  Same goes for the weapons.  Halo 2 has a huge list of options that can be tweaked.  The only thing I haven’t been able to do is eliminate ALL vehicles from a map.  It’s not something I would normally do (the vehicles are one of the best things about Halo), but there were times when me and my friends wanted a game where our only line of defense was sniper rifle.  The temptation of having a vehicle on the map is too great to resist.  Eventually someone would cave and grab one, then we’d all cave and start using ’em.

As if there was ever any doubt, Halo 2 is the best Xbox game ever made.  This means that it’s better than the first Halo.  It’s better than Splinter Cell, Ninja Gaiden, Knights of the Old Republic, The Chronicles of Riddick, RalliSport Challenge 2, and every other Xbox game that, at one time or another, stole our hearts as the best game available.  Halo 2 won’t be topped until the day Bungie releases Halo 3.  Join the revolution now and buy the game that no one can stop talking about.

Review Scoring Details for Halo 2

Gameplay: 10
Everything you loved about the first Halo times two.  Twice the addiction, twice the replay value, more than twice the number of gameplay features, and more than twice as many multiplayer options.  Everyone who’s played it will tell you the same thing: this is the game makes you glad you bought an Xbox.

Graphics: 9.2
Some of the best visuals the world has ever seen.  Take a look at the water, the textures, the destructible environments.  Almost every moment is breathtaking.  I was especially impressed by the effect the game demonstrates when using a sniper rifle or some other type of scope.  The backgrounds gain detail as you zoom in, just as they would in real life.

A couple of things keep the game from receiving a perfect score in this category.  (1) Graphics are always improving, so no game truly looks perfect.  (2) The game seemed to slow down every once in a while during co-op.  What gives?  (3) Some of the movie sequences have clipping.  Halo 2 looks gorgeous, then you watch a real-time sequence and see the game clip.  The gameplay is good enough for us to forget that this happened, but why did it have to occur at all?  They had three years development time.  Was that not enough time to make it look as good as it played?  I’ve seen EA work wonders in just 12 months.

Sound: 9
Good voice acting, but the music is split 50/50.  I love the orchestral score – those songs are awesome.  The rock-oriented tracks are good, but completely out of place.  I know why Microsoft wanted to include them, but they’re not Halo’s style.  Halo 2 is an epic game.  The soundtrack should reflect that throughout the journey.


Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.9
Surprised by the imperfect score?  Halo 2 is not entirely innovative.  Bungie created innovation with the first game.  Halo 2 improves on what they already made. The developers somehow managed to make the gameplay, which already seemed perfect, even better.

Multiplayer: 10
If you expected the multiplayer to live up to the original, you might be disappointed.  Bungie didn’t want to make a game that played as good as the original.  They wanted to make one that played better.  I know it’s hard to deal with, but you’ll find a way to go on.  We all will.

Overall: 9.7
What do you mean you want an overall score?  Doesn’t my review say enough?  Kids these days. Back in my day, it didn’t take a review to get us gamers to go out and spend money.  We flew to the store whenever a game like Halo came out, regardless of the cost.

Back then we didn’t have a game like Halo.  We had the Marios and the Street Fighters, but not until Bungie came along did we get a game like this.  A game that brings people together in a way that no other has.  Halo 2 is the Xbox revolution you’ve been waiting for. Not just you – but all of us.

Just finished watching Airplane! (1980) and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)...

REVIEW: Silent Hill (1999) - JumpCut Online

 

https://jumpcutonline.co.uk/2019/01/24/review-silent-hill-1999/

The bubbling crucible of horror video games has brewed some underwear-dampening gameplay over the last two decades. Heart-stoppers such as Outlast and Amnesia: The Dark Descent leave their mark on the psyche of gamers brave enough to endure their scares, but one game has been the muse to up the ante in current survival entertainment and JumpCut wanted to commemorate its twentieth birthday.

Konami’s 1999 survival horror for Playstation has remained timeless amongst retro gamers. Remaining visible in the media’s eye, various adaptations on multiple platforms have invited non-gamers into Silent Hill, including a visual novel, feature film and seven sequels to the original game (The most recent being Downpour in 2012). These adaptations have spread the myth of this pastime to all niches of civilization, ensuring we all receive a dream from Pyramid Head.

Harry Mason is the protagonist in the foggy American town as he searches for his missing daughter and consequently interferes with a cult’s ritual to birth the deity they worship. With a combination of third-person combat, exploration of real-time 3D environments and crucial puzzle-solving, the quivering player must learn the true origin of this town’s evil and beat the game that – depending on your choices – offers five different conclusions.

Director Keiichiro Toyama lacked in horror culture, but his interest in UFOs, the occult and David Lynch movies influenced and encouraged the game’s development. Though Silent Hill was compared to Resident Evil, it established a distinct approach to prompt fear by creating a disturbing atmosphere for the player, in contrast to Capcom’s action-oriented base. A combination of thick fog, darkness and vintage technical grain aided Silent Hill’s scare-o-meter, combined with composer Akira Yamaoka’s jarring industrial score, who had to explain to Team Silent that the noises they heard in his music were not glitches.

Toyama guided the design and narrative of Silent Hill away from a B movie format and towards psychological horror that had a lasting effect on gamers and provided a gateway to the silver screen. Its plot and nightmarish images caught the eye of Christophe Gans when he directed his 2006 cinematic adaptation, replacing Harry Mason with female lead Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) because Gans saw feminine qualities in Mason. Mitchell’s emotionally-driven Rose offered a new dynamic for the franchise and Gans gifted us with a graphic look at the bubble-head nurse, for which, we thanked him for.

Silent Hill is a horror aficionados paradise and an Ori and the Blind Forest player’s biggest NOPE. This nineties classic was transformative for gaming on the gore scene, updated for modern platforms thanks to Konami’s release of the Silent Hill 2 & 3 HD Collection. Whether you play alone, in a group of namby-pambies, or with your mama, this sublimely atmospheric godfather of horror games has to be experienced at 2 AM in complete darkness and don’t forget your pocket radio.

Walking Guns and Laundering Drug Money – The “War” on Drugs is Doing Just Fine

 

https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2019/09/walking-guns-and-laundering-drug-money.html

If there is an argument to be made that the United States is the biggest purveyor of terrorist activities across the world which we justify with the endless “Global War on Terror” (and that argument is not hard to make), what does that say about our “War on Drugs”? Look at just a few of the recent stories from the headlines and judge for yourself…

The Justice Department lied repeatedly about “gun walking” firearms to Mexican drug cartels – There was a policy in place at the highest levels in the ATF and the Justice Department to ship weapons to Mexican “drug cartels”.  This is at a time when violence in Mexico is at it’s highest level since the Spanish landed on their shores. In February the Assistant Attorney General wrote the following to an investigating body of congress; it was a complete fiction… a lie… and congress now has the emails to prove it.

“”ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico,” wrote Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general.” the Hill

Darrell Issa has backed off his calls for Eric Holder’s resignation. He basically states that since the program is institutional in the Department of Justice and has been since the Bush administration (yes, yet another Bush program the administration of CHANGE kept), holding Holder responsible would be pointless. If corruption existed before the new head took over and the new head of the department continues the same corruption and illegality, I guess he gets a pass. That’s what passes for logic these days.

“This isn’t the first time the FBI and other agencies have been involved in investigations in which bad people are allowed to continue doing bad things in the name of going after bad people,” Issa said” CSM

In that vein, we take a look at another developing story, this one deals with the money made by the so-called “drug cartels” in Mexico.

Apparently, while the ATF was shipping weapons to the drug cartels, the DEA was helping them launder their cash. I shit you not.

“Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.

… Another former agency official, who asked not to be identified speaking publicly about delicate operations, said, “My rule was that if we are going to launder money, we better show results. Otherwise, the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths.”” New York Times

According to officials who are only speaking out about this because the plan was exposed, the idea was much like the one they claimed when Fast and Furious came out… they were laundering the money so they could catch the bad guys. But as the NYT article pointed out, they have been doing it for a couple of the drug cartels “for years“

In Washington these days when you get caught doing something illegal and definitely immoral (like morality factors into any equation in DC anymore) all you have to do is say you were doing it to catch the bad guys. Arming thugs in Mexico to destabilize the country? Just say you did it to “catch the bad guys”. Laundering massive amounts of drug money for off the books financing of your destabilization teams? Just say you were doing it to “catch the bad guys”. Get caught fabricating “terrorist” plots to divert public attention from you SS style crackdown on legitimate protests in New York? Just say you did it to “catch the bad guys”

Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? And as long as you have over-paid stenographers posing as journalists in the MSM, it’ll work.

Here’s an interesting point brought up in the Times piece:

“The laundering operations that the United States conducts elsewhere — about 50 so-called Attorney General Exempt Operations are under way around the world…” New York Times

“About 50” drug money laundering programs “around the world“? What? And the AG is “exempt” from U.S. law while running them? Really? Really? That’s a lot of drug money. That’s a lot of drugs and ruined lives and crime and murder. And the AG is “exempt”?

Let’s take a trip back in the not-so-way-back machine to 2009 because remember, both Fast and Furious and apparently the drug money laundering program existed back then and god knows how many of the 50 other exempt operations did too. It was revealed by an Afghani counter narcotics official that U.S. and NATO forces were taxing the poppy growers and actually protecting their crops. (go to the link for an endless selection of photos of U.S. and NATO troops protecting the poppy fields)

“In November 2009, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada. He also said that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control and that foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.” Public Intelligence

His statement dovetails perfectly with something else we know about Afghanistan: 1. Afghanistan’s installed puppet president has a brother Wali, who is a notorious drug dealer with ties to the CIA and 2. the Taliban had nearly wiped out the poppy production in that country (drug dealing is a death sentence according to Sharia Law) until Baby Bush invaded in 2003 and got things going again.

Yes, you can go back to Iran Contra when it’s known that the CIA was shipping in cocaine and shipping out guns for another fascist coup.

Yes, you can go back to Mena Arkansas and the start of the Clinton rise to power.

Yes, you can go back to Ricky Freeway Ross and Gary Webb who showed that the CIA created crack cocaine and conspired to market it to the West coast of the U.S.  Gary Webb wrote “Dark Alliances” exposing all of this shit and when he turned up dead with two bullets in his head, they called it a suicide.

Yes, you can go back to Frank Lucas, that’s the New York heroin dealer made famous by a Hollywood movie recently. He became the drug kingpin of the 60s and 70s because during the Vietnam War, for some reason, he was able to have loads of smack shipped right along on Army transport planes with no one supposedly the wiser. For years his shipments came in regularly and he moved tons and tons of Asian heroin into New York and other cities without anyone ever getting to wise, that is until the end of the Vietnam War.

Hell, for that matter you can go back to the Opium Wars when Britain was shipping the shit from India to China. The Chinese government didn’t like it too much. Go figure. I guess back then they hadn’t invented the Attorney General Exempt Operation. That makes it all ok.

You can go back to all of those things and see a pattern of hypocrisy, corruption, and the vile institutionalized exploitation of the human condition if you want to, or you can just read today’s paper and connect the dots yourselves. Or you can get drunk and watch a football game and thank god they haven’t kicked in your door… yet.