Deadliest Warrior Update

An update on Deadliest Warrior then… didn't think I would be doing that so soon.

So I haven’t been watching it for a while, but recently I’ve started to watch a few episodes again to catch up. Some things have changed, others haven’t. But at the end of the day Deadliest Warrior is still one of the most ridiculous yet entertaining shows out there.

So yeah, pig carcasses are still getting hacked and gel torsos bludgeoned, but in two recent episodes I’ve seen, more modern killers have been pitted against each other – namely in ‘Mafia vs Yakuza’ and ‘Green Beret vs Spetznaz’ – which means the introduction of… guns!

So that switches up the game a bit in itself and seeing the killing power of guns used out there in the world today makes you feel slightly uneasy in a way that watching someone lob a ninja star does not.

Other things that have changed: the computer nerd Max Geiger is starting to come out of his shell a bit since the series started. He is getting a bit more input in contributing his advice and opinions as well as continually cheering and whooping like an adolescent boy when a bomb goes off. Actually, no wait - they all do that.

The fight reconstructions at the end are also getting more elaborate. Now whilst they still have to make sure they cycle through all of their weapons at some point in the fight, now they seem to include more story and setting; for example a Pirate finds a treasure chest of gold and has to protect it from a Knight; or they have scenarios of five-on-five squad brawls (in the episodes where lots of guns are used).

The macho boisterous smack talk continues – although I suspect the producers actively encourage it and edit the show to make it look more scathing. I wonder if a fight has ever broken out on set?

And now it seems all the more personal, as we get actual Mafia and Yakuza descendents and former Green Beret and Spetznaz special forces guys represent their respective sides – so I presume the smack talk for them would be much more personal.

As for the guessing game of who is going to win as each episode goes on? I’ve been mostly right so far but sometime I wonder if American’s bias comes through sometimes.

I’m only half way through the first season and there are three! It’s interesting enough but can I really sit through it all? Find out next time on… The Deadliest Warrior!


7 Aug 2011

Uncharted - Superior Shooting Mechanics

So I just finished playing Uncharted 2. Before that I also did the first Uncharted. Twice.

The reason being that I was collecting all the trophies and finishing the game on ‘hard’. Anyway, after that you still need one more trophy to get the Platinum – in order to do that you need to finish each game on ‘crushing’ difficulty. As in ‘it will result in your crushing defeat’ or ‘so difficult it will crush your soul’.

Sod that. For now.

You see I do want the Plat, but it was pretty stressful at points playing through the game again on ‘hard’ so I’m not going to attempt it anytime soon. What I did want to talk about was the gunplay mechanics in the game.

The shooting mechanics in the game is comprised of a solid cover-based affair, something that becomes more apparent on the ‘hard setting’. Basically, if you are caught out in the open you will get shot up.

So you have constant duck in and out of cover, taking mercenaries out with you little pop shots, but also utilising blind fire, run-and-gun and shooting/grabbing people whilst you are handing off of a ledge – all pretty useful in different situations.

You see, all gun battle in this game have to be thought out tactically. Rush in and you’ll get gunned down by enemies that have flanked you. Stay stuck in one place and they’ll throw a grenade over to where you are hiding.

It’s quite easy to beat regular enemies with up-close hand to hand combat but if you engage an enemy whilst any one else with a gun is around? Chances are you wont make it.

You also have to take into account which particular long range and short range weapon you use, as you can only carry one of each (rather realistically) as well as saving stronger guns to take out guys with body armour or riot shields.

Oh, and don't forget to pick up the best weapons and stock up on ammo when you clear out the area. You’ll need as much help as you can get going into the next intense scenario.

So yeah, I like the shooting mechanics – its fun. Things never play out exactly the same way twice. And boy did I die a lot in that game. So yeah, I wont be playing through those two games any time soon. Well, until the third comes out. Then I might just try and go for those two Plats again.


1 Aug 2011

The Week in Review

So this is supposed to be a recap of the weeks post – mainly to explain, discuss and perhaps elaborate a bit on what has passed.I think writing something absolutely everyday kind of sucks in its rigidity so I’ve decided the best thing to do would be to do five articles – one per weekday – and then use the weekend for the overview (like the one you are reading now) and for uploading them (if I don't do it on that specific day).

As you may have noticed- two things. Firstly, it has taken longer than a week for the last seven posts. So yeah, I was playing catch up for a while. But I think this new ‘five articles a week’ idea is a bit more flexible – not going to be too strict with it – as long as there are at least five things to upload per week that should be ok (not counting the roundup).

Secondly, the date of the post and the date written in the post (at the end of the article) differ. That's because I uploaded all the new articles at once this evening. So yeah, as long as the dates that the articles were written correspond to the five-a-week that should be ok.

That's also indicative of my blogging style. I don't like the straight ‘to blog’ writing at present, I actually prefer writing things out in Word first. But at the same time I don't like to spend too much time editing and re-writing these articles so that will be kept as a minimum.

Links to videos, pics and websites are fine too – at the moment for pics I am using photobucket but I noticed that there is an add picture option to upload images to the blogger directly. Maybe I can investigate that as having to deal with a photobucket account is an extra chore.

As for style and content, there has been only a little variation so far – most noticeably in the Guardian Scheme article, but I’m still finding my feet and once the logistics of regular blogging are all sorted I can start to get a bit fruitier with different styles.

I’ve also gotta come up with a labeling system for my articles. Another thing for the to do list!

So until next time dear reader!


1 Aug 2011

The Overkill of 2012

So I recently watched the film 2012 directed by Roland Emmerich.

Known for his other flicks that incorporate greater and more ridiculous scenes of disaster (from Independence Day through to Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow) this one is certainly up there on the biggest scale. The technical achievement here of both practical effects and CG is truly astounding and has to be mentioned for its achievement.

The amount of time and effort put into the thousands of special effects shots is certainly impressive, but is there such a thing as too much destruction?

Thrilling at first, then overly familiar and then to the point of ad nauseum, destruction goes on and on and on… Toward the end my eyes started to glaze over. My brain seemed confused – on one hand the sheer spectacle leaping around before my eyes was telling me I should be thrilled and excited but the fact that there was just so much of it throughout the film started to render it all a bit impotent.

Sometimes I even felt a bit guilty as I thought of the hours of work that hundreds of people had put in only for me to simply go ‘meh’. Another building topples over – so what?

The other thing that seems counter intuitive is the way in which the main characters always only JUST escape whatever threat is closing in on them. For example, they JUST manage to drive under a falling building or they JUST manage to take off with their plane as the runway collapses. Sure, this makes for exciting cinema but the sheer repetition of this gambit ultimately renders it useless as you know that in any threatening situation the main characters are faced with they are going to - yep you guessed it – only JUST escape it by an inch… AGAIN.

So is there such a thing as too much destruction in a movie? Yeah, sure. And to be honest the only reason I wanted to watch this movie was to see the scene mocked by Dara O’Briain (you can watch it here).

Which, after all, doesn't even happen in exactly the way he describes it. Bloody comedians…
Roland Emmerich himself has stated that he is officially disastered-out after this film and doesn't want to do anything more like this. After watching this film, you will probably feel the same.


1 Aug 2011

The Electro Fighter Mixtapes

In this article, I want to talk briefly about each of the mixtapes I have made so far. The software I used is called Sound Studio and it is only available for Mac, although it is just a fairly simple sound editor so I am pretty sure there are similar things out there for PC users.

I have made other mixtapes and short mixes for use in dance shows previously with this software and so I was pretty used to editing with it but the beat matching and then cross fading and cutting and equalising were further challenges I had to meet.

Anyway, here’s is a short description of each mix to date.


Electro Mix 1 – Dec 2010

As you can see by the imaginative title, at the time I didn't really know how far I could go with this – if anything it was just a test to see if I could actually make a DJed mix using this editing software.

Similarly, the track selection was a little more random and unfocused than later mixes as at the time I only had a very limited number of tracks to choose from. Two tracks from Daft Punk’s TRON soundtrack featured as bookends as well as multiple tracks by Chromeo and Tigersapien. In later mixes I have tried to be more diverse and not repeat artists.

As far as mixing goes it wasn't too bad but as of yet I haven’t uploaded this one to Mixcloud.


Super Electro Fighter II Turbo – Mar 2011

With my second mix, Electro Fighter was born! Combining my love of TRON and Street Fighter, I wanted the cover art to be somehow a crossover of the two – something which became a running theme for the cover of other mixes.

I also had a collection of Street Fighter samples from a previous audio project – some of which I started to use in this mix.

Again, I used a TRON track as an intro. I wanted to use Armoury from the album but then having re-watched the film I found that using a direct sample from the film with its vocals and sound effects was far more fitting.

I found this mix to be far more consistent in terms of mixing and track selection.
This was also the first mix I uploaded to Mixcloud. You can listen to it here.


Super Electro Fighter III Third Strike – May 2011

Continuing the theme here with more great tunes – focussing more this time on tracks with vocals. There was no TRON intro this time, but the influence clearly remains with a cheeky sample tucked away right at the end.

For some reason, during this mix I had some problems with the track formats I used to edit in (.m4a and .aiff) that either led to annoying clicks over the music or sudden dips in volume that occurred at random. Although I really like this mix in terms of song selection and mixing, the sheer amount of going back and fixing things and repeatedly testing different formats and ways of saving as a result of these problems was really frustrating.

We got there in the end though. The mix can be heard here.


Electro Fighter III vs Pop Remixes – The Fête of Two Worlds – June 2011

Whilst looking for tunes to use in various mixes, I came across loads of good remixes of well-known pop/rock songs and thought it would make an interesting mix.

The title comes from another similarly barmy crossover – the Marvel vs Capcom games – the series that originally started as Street Fighter vs X-Men.

Remixes range from tracks that were fairly similar to the original but with a dancey edge to ones that were totally different in their remixed form, which provides a nice variety I think. I even put two totally different remixes of the same track next to each other –Ellie Goulding’s Starry Eyed.

This mix was fun for me. Although it could be a little cheesy and tongue in cheek at times, I genuinely like the tracks used.

Perhaps this one will appeal more to those that aren’t that much into dance music – there are many surprises thrown in there to keep you listening.

This mix can be heard here.


Future mixtapes?

At the time of writing, I am planning two further mixes. Super Electro Fighter IV Tournament Edition – featuring all new tracks; and also another ‘concept’ mix – a mix entirely made up of alternate remixes of previously used tracks in the first three mixes.

The reason for the latter is that I often found myself having to choose between multiple remixes of a particular track, so this will be a chance to go back and use some of those. I also think it will make an interesting listen to those that are familiar with my previous mixes – one for the fans if you will.

I’m sure I’ll write and update when these mixes are ready.


27 July 2011

Making Mixtapes Again

Of the many creative endeavours I occasionally partake in, one is making dance music mixtapes.

Years ago I used to DJ as a hobby – decks, vinyl the whole shebang. Back then not many people used CD mixers, mp3s didn't even exist and pretty much all beat matching and mixing was done by ear. I owned 2 sets of deck, mixers and stacks of vinyl but had to eventually give it up due to the sheer expensive of having to continually purchase new vinyl just to stay up to the minute.

The internet too was not too prolific then either, and so the only way I could hear new music was to stay up to record late night radio shows or listen to a selection of vinyl in a record shop. All in all, it proved too much of a drain in finances and when I ended up going abroad for my second year at uni, my career as a DJ was put on hold indefinitely.

As time went by I dabbled more widely in my musical tastes including hiphop, soul, electronica, rock and metal. I listened to pretty much everything – but the progressive house music that I mainly DJed gradually faded away for me.

In the past couple of years, however, with the growth of iTunes previews, youtube and sites such as Soundcloud, exploring different artists and their music has become easier than ever and most recently I’ve been getting back into Electro music. With that my desire to create mixtapes came back again.

As I also became more proficient in using certain sound editing software, I realised I could create mixes like I used to back then, but this time using mp3s and being more precise and creative with my mixing.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have made four of these mixtapes since December 2010, three of which you can currently listen to now on Mixcloud.

At the risk of sounding like an old man… kids today really don't know how much the internet has changed our lives even in the past decade… grumble grumble…

26 July 2011

Deadliest Warrior

Apart from the odd episode in passing, I’ve never really watched the American channel Spike TV’s show Deadliest Warrior, but having recently finished watching the first season of Game of Thrones, I was in search of something new to sate my bloodlust.

Now this programme is a good watch simply in terms of its sheer ridiculousness. For those of you who don't already know - the basic premise is this: each episode compares two types of warrior plucked from somewhere throughout history and pits them against each other in a hypothetical fight to the death.

Throughout the episode, the various weapons for each side are compared in categories such as long, medium and close range and then the effectiveness of killing and/or maiming of these is measured using “modern scientific techniques”, which more often than not is using the weapon on a dead animal carcass or a ‘gel torso’ standing in for a human body.

So far, so gory – most guys have some kind of morbid curiosity about what type of damage these things really could do. Where the show really becomes ridiculous though, is the sheer amount of bravura macho posturing that goes on during it.

You see, instead of particularly boffin-y scientists or fusty old historians approaching things from a calm and intellectual point of view, each warrior’s side is represented by a modern day fight expert (or at times an actual descendent) or two, who fiercely believe that their warrior is greater than the other and stubbornly do their best try and prove so.

Each episode therefore often descends into a dick-swinging slanging match of the juvenile ‘my sword is bigger than your sword’ type nonsense or, ‘see that? That's your guy’s head’, before smashing a skull with a hammer or something.

At the end of it, when all the data is collected on a laptop and plugged into a specially made computer program made by ‘Slytherin Studios’ (hellooooooo nerds!) the simulation is run to see which of the two competing warriors would win in a one-on-one fight repeated a thousand times.
We all know that staring at the resultant bunch of numbers would make for a dull finale and so instead, they show a reconstruction of such a fight for our viewing pleasure. For example, we see a Samurai strolling through the countryside when ‘bam!’ – he randomly runs into Viking.

Immediately they fight in the most dramatic and drawn out way possible making sure that they utilise the COMPLETE RANGE OF WEAPONS that were studied at during the show.

Laughable though this series is – it cant be denied that its fun to watch. I mean who wouldn't want to see ‘Spartan vs Ninja’, ‘Pirate vs Knight’ or more shockingly, ‘IRA vs Taliban’?
For further enjoyment, place bets at the beginning of the show to see if you can guess the outcome!

25 July 2011

Guardian Scheme

Recently I was in London for the weekend with a few friends and we needed to be put up for the night. A friend of a friend said he had enough space at his and that we could crash there.

Apparently he had loads of room and so we hopped into the car and headed over to the postcode he had given.It was about 1.30am as we got out of the car we found ourselves outside a huge warehouse. A few minutes later Rich, who lived there, came trundling around the corner on his Boris Bike, flashing us a cheeky smile.

“Here it is”, he said gesturing to the building. “Give me a sec to get in and then I can let you in the back”.

Moments later we were in and wandering around. What hit me first was its school like structure with its numbered doors, labelled bathrooms and multiple staircases. His room was fairly spacious and having set our bags down there, Rich took us on a quick tour around.

And there it was – the space that took up the majority of the building – a massive empty hall stretching on and on – so big that our voices echoed.

“I can’t believe you actually live here.” Someone said to Rich, staring in wide-eyed wonder.
It turns out that his accommodation was organised under the Property Guardian Scheme that allowed people to live in buildings such as this for low rent in order to deter squatters and vandals and for basic maintenance of the property. This particular building used to be an archive of some sort but now, as all of the materials had been removed, a vast open space in the middle of the building was all that remained.

Most of the room was empty but here and there were various animal sculptures crafted out of various materials, which only added to the surreal feel of the whole place. They belonged to an artist that lived there - one of around 12 other tenants none of whom we saw for the entire time we were there.

We made our way past the felt elephants and fibreglass crocodiles to a lounge area – and sat down on sofas to relax in conversation for a bit and put on some music from a stack of old community records that were piled and shelved in one corner.

“Lets go up to the roof”, someone suggested.

“Sure”, said Rich and we followed him up a flight of stairs.

There, on the floor above, was another massive open hall exactly like the one on the floor below – causing us to wig out all over again. We found out that there was yet another similar room in the basement level. What was someone to do with all this space? Having lived in modest accommodation for most of my life this was very exciting for me.

At the top of the stairs we exited to an outer walkway and then came to a metal ladder affixed to the side of the building. Rich had gone back to get something and so my companions and myself proceeded to climb the ladder and went up on to the roof. The London night sky lay before us, clear and twinkling. It was exhilarating.

Somewhere in a different part of the roof a hatch opened and Rich climbed out and joined us. We sat at the edge of the building for a little while, not too close edge - as there was just a sheer drop and looking down would result in that funny feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Before settling down for the evening, we checked out the basement room and ended up turning the lights out and playing with a glow in-the-dark Frisbee. Come on, you know you would too.

24 July 2011

Limitless Techniques

Neil Burger’s Limitless is an interestingly made film for me, particularly through the varieties of techniques it employs to convey information and ideas to the viewer.

Briefly, the story centres around this deadbeat guy who comes into possession of a miracle pill that lets him access the full capability of his brain and thus achieve things in life he never thought were possible.

During the film, the effect this pill has on Eddie (played by Bradley Cooper) can be easily shown in terms of the results it produces; for instance the money, women, popularity, career and general lifestyle successes he accrues.

However, what is harder to show on film is the way in which the pill works and the effects it has on his Eddie as it kicks in. How can you convey these abstract ideas in a way that makes sense to the viewer? One obvious way in which this issue was tackled was through the use of Eddie’s narration. At times, he directly describes what is going on, but beyond this lies the more interesting stuff.

For a start – cinematography and lighting: Eddie’s regular life is presented in drab and cold green, blues and greys, but when he takes a pill his world is literally illuminated – bright, sunny and clear: a better place to be.

When he first experiences the pill’s effects, he sees another image of himself walking where he was moments before, to imply a heightened sense of self awareness- manifested directly here as an out-of-body experience.

This is also shown through time slowing down, sounds being amplified and certain details in the environment being zoomed in on- none of which are presented as being literal but help to get across the idea of Eddie experiencing a heightened sense whilst on the drug.

More outlandish effects used in some scenes include: letters of the alphabet falling around him as he types away furiously on his novel, the ceiling tiles flicking through stock market information and the various fighting techniques he had seen on TV in the past flashing through his consciousness as he employs them almost instinctively for the first time during a brawl in the subway.

My personal favourite though, is the ‘zoom through multiple shots’ sequence that is used twice in the movie, most noticeably during the opening credits. The camera zooms through shot after shot of bustling New York City giving the illusion of one long seamless take. With so many sounds, sights, lights, people – all with their own incredible minutiae of detail, seemingly going on forever. Drug or no drug - even in just one night and one city, the possibilities presented here are truly limitless.

21 July 2011

This... is... BLOG!

This… is… BLOG!

Okay, now read that again, but this time imagine the person saying it is King Leonidas, AKA Gerald Butler, AKA Geraaaarrd Butler (if you are American), in the film 300 and he is just about to boot that guy down the well.

Okay, ready? Go!

This… is… BLOG!

Boom! ‘aaargh’ – slow motion falling… you know the rest.

Anyway, the point here is to illustrate my own personal war cry to… er… myself. You see, I’ve always wanted to write - but as with any skill you can never really grow and develop without practice.

So this is my practice - this blog. A place for my personal manifesto of writing 300 words a day to take shape in. Documented proof that it’s happening. Originally, I wanted to start on the first day of 2011 or the next day after my birthday (you see my skills of procrastination at work here…) but to hell with it – 20^th July is a good a day to start as any!

Okay, any questions? You in the back - reading the computer screen!

‘What will I write about?’

Well, anything and everything, really. It can be an informational, an opinion piece, a review, a work of fiction, whatever I feel like at the time. However, as well as writing a variety of pieces, I also endeavour to explore different writing styles - so don't think I’ve lost the plot if I decide to switch it up again.

On a side note – whatever I write about or in whatever style, I will try not to delve too much in to personal matters as: a) This is not a diary and reading a recounted tale of how you missed your bus and had to wait in the rain and blah blah blah is a cop out, not to mention MEGA BORING to you the reader; and b) I am sick to death of people pouring out details of their personal life all over the internet, crying out for attention and then moaning about the creeps and trolls who inevitably gather having invaded their privacy.

So, each entry will be at least 300 words long and should be labelled with what kind of piece it is. There may be an odd pic or two in there to as we all know how monkeys and babies like to point at pictures and coo.

So let the writing commence! Let the words fly worth – so many that they blot out the sun! If that happens… Then we will type in the dark! Hohoho… aaaaaand cut!

20 July 2011