GameReview: Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was the first ever action, shooter game I legally purchased. Exactly. That's how cool I am.

Even though I finished the game months ago (thank you, Cheatsville!) I only now feel like writing something about it.

Okay, here's the story: Kane is a former member of The 7 (a criminal gang doing criminal stuff - you know the deal) and he is on his way to death row, when suddenly the truck he is being transported in has a head-on collusion. It's not long though before Kane realized this is not a rescue - it's an abduction.
He is teamed up with Lynch, a medicated psychopath (and probably one of the most amazing characters in any game ever), who is supposed to keep an eye on him while Kane retrieves something he once stole from The 7, and which they now want back. And as you can imagine, things soon start going out of control and Kane and Lynch are, well... practically dead men.

I don't like aggressive, brutal games, I'll say that right away. And I really don't like playing them. I'm a lover, not a builder, you know? I'm currently watching every second of Silent Hill: The Room and Alone In The Dark 5, but I'd never, ever play them, simply because it scares me. Hell, I pee my pants when I switch on Tomb Raider!
But it was completely different with Kane and Lynch. Okay, I was invincible. Yes, I had unlimited ammo. But at least I didn't have to try getting through a level 8, maybe 9 times.

It's a great game. It's got brains (it was made by IO Interactive), and that's what makes it so special. The characters are not only existent but also entertaining, the story is fast and fun, and the game play is very comfortable. The only thing I didn't like was that the game was pretty short (it took me about 2 weeks to beat it, including school and that) and I don't think there's enough movement freedom: even though the levels do look graphically great, it would have been even better if you could have more places to walk around.

Of course, a sequel and a movie (with, it is rumored, Bruce Willis as Kane and Billy Bob Thornton as Lynch - should be the other way around!) are already in the making.
But I really think that this is going to be a great franchise, maybe even better that IO's other baby, Hitman.

Ryan Reynolds on running

I have to say, I was getting a little bored of Ryan Reynolds (aka Mr. King), especially since I discovered that every once in a while, he blogs for the Huffington Post. EvilBeet, very honestly, said about his writing: "and I won’t get into this in much detail, but his stuff is so overwritten and irrelevant and annoying — we get it, Ryan. You know big words and you’re a famous actor. Big props to you, buddy." which is absolutely fitting. I mean, I consider myself pretty thick-skinned when it comes to reading boring articles, but his stories (titled "Competitive Eating" - yuck - and "The Clown God") are absolutely impossible to read without a dictionary and/or a translator - I had to stop about half-way through and start again, not only because the entire concept is extremely hodgepodge but also because he has a very poor writing style.

However, he now released another article, called "Why I'm Running The New York Marathon", which I have to say is absolutely amazing. Basically I could not care less about anything than Ryan Reynolds evildoer brother, or the New York Marathon, or running, but the writing style in this article is pretty amazing, and it both moved me and made me laugh.

Ronin should read this!

Oh, and by the way? I still like Alanis better. Ehem, go away, Scarlett.

PS: When does Vin Diesel start writing for The Huffington Post? That's the day I'm looking forward to!

Description.

Do you know how you sometimes feel that there's one person in your life who'll always have some sort of significance? Yeah, I was sort of forced back into contact with that person, and it's basically been getting me down pretty bad every time X (let's call the person that for the sake of the argument) has written me an e-mail or something like that.
So I decided to visit X's schuelervz (a German Internet community for students ... pretty much everyone is in it), and take a quick look over what's been going on in X's life, and I found a comment from a girl, writing:

i'd give you my heart,
if you want.
do you want to have my heart? <3

Which I suppose is either a song text or really banal, home-made poetry.
In response, X wrote:

yes i do. <3

Back to the girl. She wrote:

-> here's my heart for you.

There was no response from X after that. Which absolutely, 100-percent-ly describes and sums up X's personality.
Because that's who X is. Someone who makes you feel like you're the only person on the planet. And then shoots you right in the knee caps.

People just stay the same, I guess.

I'm just happy I'm away from X.

Parole, parole, parole Or: Why you should learn Italian!

1. It's easy. Especially if you know a little bit from another Romanic language (Spanish or French, even English)
2. It sound beautiful.
Transforma le frasi in mondo da ottenere una sola frase con l'aiuto del pronome relativoe 'che'.
Transform the two sentences into one with the help of the relative pronoun 'che'.
Beautiful, isn't it?
3. You'll know your way around Italy (which might be fortunate for some people...)
4. Why not learn it? Every day's a day to learn a new language (:

Metti la parola giusta! (Choose the right word!)

Favorite quotes - 21st of October

It's the sense of touch. In any real city,
you walk, you know? You brush past
people, people bump into you. In L.A.,
nobody touches you. We're always behind
this metal and glass. I think we miss that
touch so much, that we crash into each other,
just so we can feel something.

- Graham Waters, Crash

Boh3m3 knows how to make an idiot of himself.

Well, well, well.
So I switch on my computer to check my e-mails, look up people who have been dead for two thousand years and see who of my favorites has done new videos on the tube, when I see that boh3m3 (well, 3m3hob) has made a new video titled "Baleeted".
Now the sole reason I can figure out as an explenation for why I'm still subscribed to both the B's (ehem) is that I'm still hoping for a return. Hoping for a return of that wonderful, funny, smart and slightly crazy person that, I think, boh3m3 once was.

It's been a topic on youtube for pretty much the better part of a year, I think, that boh3m3 wants to take down his videos. Because he can't stand them anymore. Because he can't see himself in them anymore. Because he think they won't - wait for it! - stand the test of time. And basically, he's been a (and please, please excuse the profanity, but I feel like I have to use some to give voice to my inner anger) whinny bitch about it. Every. Single. Step. Of. The. Way.

Now we all know that this is not a perfect world, especially if you're talking about media or art. People who put white chairs into white rooms are paid millions of dollars, while people with true talent are left with jobs at fast-food restaurants.
But you know what? Deal with it. Because life is not always gonna deal you the cards you deserve. Because life is definitely not gonna deal you the cards you think you deserve. Because whining about it and wasting all your energy on something you cannot change is a complete waste of time.

I'm not trying to say that you should simply accept everything that happens to you, because that would, obviously, be dumb.
But I just don't understand how you can lose your way so much - and here I come back to boh3m3.
Being a "celebrity" on youtube is nothing (not everyone can be a Brendon Hardesty). But that doesn't mean that it's not something to be proud of. And it especially doesn't mean that you should start making fun and disrespecting the people who supported you, without who you would be nowhere right now. But I don't have to say that.

However, I'm still hoping. I'm still hoping that he can find his way out of this giant puddle of self-pity. Man, I hope you find that path that you're looking for. But don't be too surprised if you'll find that that path is the one less traveled by (your supporters). Remember, whatever you do comes back unto thee and such.

History lesson time! Yay!

Today I want to talk about a one of my favorite historical stories.
It's about the death of Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus).

In the spring of 49 BC, Caesar (Pompey's former friend and co-consul and now enemy) was marching towards Rome. Caesar has been gone for many years, waging war in Gaul, while Pompey had stayed in Rome to look after the city.
Now even though Pompey claimed that he could defeat Caesar and "raise armies merely by stamping his foot on the soil of Italy", he soon decided to abandon Rome.
He fled to Brundisium and then to Dyrrhachium, where Caesar lost 1000 men. Still, Pompey failed to see his great chance to finally defeat Caesar, and did not strike. As Caesar himself said, "Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner" (Plutarch).

Eventually, Pompey decided to flee to Egypt.
However, the Egyptians decided to give their loyalty to Caesar (who was already on his way to Egypt) and decided to kill Pompey. So on September 28th, one day short of his 58th birthday, Pompey was assassinated by Achillas and Lucius Septimius, two old comrades-in-arms and the latter one a fellow Roman.

When Caesar arrived in Egypt he saw that the body of Pompey had been cremated and Ptolemy XIII, the young king, offered Pompey's head to Caesar. But "he (Caesar) turned away from him with loathing, as from an assassin; and when he received Pompey's signet ring on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paws, he burst into tears" (Plutarch).
You see, even though his greatest enemy was defeated, he was grieved by seeing such a great man disrespected in such a manner.

Anyway, this is just a little story that I find especially interesting. I always though Caesar was a great man (minus the tyrann-ish bit), but I have deep repect for his reaction.

What do you think?

I've finished my first story!

After six years of ups and downs in writing, I have yesterday evening finished a story for the very first time. And let me tell you, it felt A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I mean, surreal, but good.
It wasn't like I'd imagined it. There was no fanfare, no dramatic light and no deep, content sigh at the end. But I guess that's a good thing, because that's not what my stories are about. I want to write about what's going on inside, and not what's shown only on the surface. And, boy, did something go on inside.

Did I actually just write this? Wow, I feel more famous by the second.

Another good thing is that now that the story's rough version is finished, I don't feel so desperately far from my ultimate goal (becoming a published writer) anymore, and a lot of pressure is gone. Before, I was like "Okay, besides the fact that, first of all, I'll never finish a story, how will I ever find strength and positivity to go on after that?" Because, admitted, I usually hate - excuse me - don't like most of the stuff I write.
But now that I'm finished I can, for some reason, actually go over my text and think: "Know what? I like it!" and that's the first step.
Another thing is that, while before I was really scared of being criticized (in general, not just concerning my writing), I'm now really looking forward to seeing what people think.
Think of all that amazing progress I'm going to make.

Of course there's still the opportunity that what I wrote is total bull crap, but this worries me a lot less than I expected it to. And I guess that's because my - I think, very down to earth - wish (that even if I move only one person, I have moved someone, which is a great achievement)is already fulfilled:

I moved myself.

With writing this story and finishing it, I have done something great for myself.
Which I guess isn't that bad.

This is what makes life fun:

Aaaahhahahaaaa!
So I was just following my guilty pleasures (meaning: looking for people who also don't like Eragon and Twilight). I was reading comments on the Eragon movie on Imdb, and there was some 15-year old writing about how well done everything was, and how amazing the acting was. And then he wrote:

"Jeremy Irons was so great too. I loved his voice and could totally tell he was Scar in The Loin King."

Loin King?
Haaahaaaha.
Classic.