Sunday, August 21, 2011
Quick Non-Update
Well, I initially started out with the intention of writing something new every day. Unfortunately, I write too much per entry and end up taking quite a few hours to put out a blog post, and I don't have that much focus to do daily posts. So, I have to decide whether I want to update this blog infrequently with large posts, or more frequently with smaller posts. I feel the latter would be best when I'm starting small, so I'll attempt to curtail my keyboard kraziness (sic) and limit each post to... two hundred words max? Does that sound decent? We shall see how it turns out. Anyhoo, that's all. Just checking back in to make sure I don't disappoint my two followers as of this writing!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Bond. Which Bond?
I'll assume most people have heard of quintessential book-and-film spy hero James Bond and know that his portrayal has been meted out by six actors over time. Viewing Goldeneye at random yesterday made me come to thinking that, in my opinion, Pierce Brosnan made for the best Bond beneath the legendary Sean Connery. He's suave, handsome, and roguish when he wants to be, yet somehow brings more solemnity to his character than Roger Moore and overall feels more convincing than Timothy Dalton. I'm not sure how qualified I am to say this since I haven't seen any Bond film in a long time. Last I've seen was Casino Royale and that was several years ago. I felt Daniel Craig made for a very good Bond, one different than I was used to but apparently more conducive to the character as Ian Fleming originally wrote him. I wish I could say more about George Lazenby, but I've yet to see On Her Majesty's Secret Service, although I do keep hearing he made the most despite only starring in one film.
There's not much substance to this post, but there doesn't need to be. Sometimes, dippy little topics like this one come to mind. Hors d'oeuvres between the meals, if you will. Anyway, if anyone's reading this blog yet, might I ask which Bond you felt was the best? I'd think most would say Connery, and if Connery is your favorite, which actor did you feel was second-best in the role? I stick with Brosnan, but I likely say this as I grew up during Brosnan's tenure in the role. From what I remember, Goldeneye was one of the better entries in the overall series, and Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough were okay. Never seen Die Another Day, but I never watched it because my brother refused to view it. We would view the Bond films together, but he objected to it on the principle that Madonna's theme song for the film was completely terrible. I hear it was a rather stupid film in retrospect, and I would assume its relative failure beckoned the need for the reboot Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's portrayal brought to the character.
... okay, I confess the main reason I like Brosnan and Goldeneye is due to Rareware's N64 game based off of the film. I grew up on that, dangit. Nostalgia hasn't protected all of its faults, but I still mostly find it fun. For a first person shooter on a console (most FPS games were known best on PCs), it was ambitious and challenging. By today's standards, it looks ugly, but I gave it many a play as a kid.
But I digress. I ask again: Who's the best Bond in your opinion? David Niven does not count.
There's not much substance to this post, but there doesn't need to be. Sometimes, dippy little topics like this one come to mind. Hors d'oeuvres between the meals, if you will. Anyway, if anyone's reading this blog yet, might I ask which Bond you felt was the best? I'd think most would say Connery, and if Connery is your favorite, which actor did you feel was second-best in the role? I stick with Brosnan, but I likely say this as I grew up during Brosnan's tenure in the role. From what I remember, Goldeneye was one of the better entries in the overall series, and Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough were okay. Never seen Die Another Day, but I never watched it because my brother refused to view it. We would view the Bond films together, but he objected to it on the principle that Madonna's theme song for the film was completely terrible. I hear it was a rather stupid film in retrospect, and I would assume its relative failure beckoned the need for the reboot Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's portrayal brought to the character.
... okay, I confess the main reason I like Brosnan and Goldeneye is due to Rareware's N64 game based off of the film. I grew up on that, dangit. Nostalgia hasn't protected all of its faults, but I still mostly find it fun. For a first person shooter on a console (most FPS games were known best on PCs), it was ambitious and challenging. By today's standards, it looks ugly, but I gave it many a play as a kid.
But I digress. I ask again: Who's the best Bond in your opinion? David Niven does not count.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Maybe it's Nothing
I have a fairly large backyard which borders on both a small forest and a cornfield. That's the sort of rural nowhere area in which I currently live, and for better or worse, not much happens. However, a glance out the window today detected some minor rustling among the full-grown corn stalks. Closer examination made a figure out amongst the stalks, most definitely human and wearing what appeared to be a lavender shirt. The figure in question did not step out into view but instead exited stage right into the forest. I had no idea who this person was or why he or she was there.
More than likely, I just saw a not-too-distant neighbor who was bored and decided to take a stroll through the cornfield, having fun by treating it as some pre-season Halloween maze. Were I more paranoid, I'd assume this was a government agent scoping out my house for examination with a classified agenda. At its worst, it's a malevolent spirit or otherworldly horror assuming human form sending me a message, that it'll be back later tonight or in the future to take my body and soul away.
Perhaps my brain's been tainted by reading too many horror stories on the Internet, quite a few of which involve popular terror fuel Slenderman, a tall faceless humanoid in a dark suit, often depicted with shadow tentacles flailing around its body. Nothing supernatural has happened to or been observed by me, at least not lately. I digress; the fact stands that I saw someone (something?) out there. But it's probably nothing to worry about. I'll see if anything happens over the next week, be it a similar incident or something far more morbid. Considering how generally boring my life at home turns out to be, it's likely to turn out as a one-time look at some random guy or gal wandering out in the cornfield for no adequately explored reason.
This post mostly turned out to be full of "what ifs," which I usually find to be a cop-out when it comes to writing material. But hey, this blog's still new, and I'll blame the creation of this post on a lack of focus. Whatever this blog turns out to be, focused on video games, creepy stories, or (deity forbid) my angry rants on politics, I should hope to have more substantial material than a one-time look of an unidentified walking person (UWP) in my backyard. With any luck, it won't be material where I start to see apocalyptic messages in my dreams (similar to John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness) or have night terrors like the ones H.R. Giger suffers through to inspire his deliciously disturbing artwork. Though if I DO start suffering from either of those or worse, I'd have found a definite theme for this blog... at the cost of my sanity, which I'd prefer to keep.
For now.
More than likely, I just saw a not-too-distant neighbor who was bored and decided to take a stroll through the cornfield, having fun by treating it as some pre-season Halloween maze. Were I more paranoid, I'd assume this was a government agent scoping out my house for examination with a classified agenda. At its worst, it's a malevolent spirit or otherworldly horror assuming human form sending me a message, that it'll be back later tonight or in the future to take my body and soul away.
Perhaps my brain's been tainted by reading too many horror stories on the Internet, quite a few of which involve popular terror fuel Slenderman, a tall faceless humanoid in a dark suit, often depicted with shadow tentacles flailing around its body. Nothing supernatural has happened to or been observed by me, at least not lately. I digress; the fact stands that I saw someone (something?) out there. But it's probably nothing to worry about. I'll see if anything happens over the next week, be it a similar incident or something far more morbid. Considering how generally boring my life at home turns out to be, it's likely to turn out as a one-time look at some random guy or gal wandering out in the cornfield for no adequately explored reason.
This post mostly turned out to be full of "what ifs," which I usually find to be a cop-out when it comes to writing material. But hey, this blog's still new, and I'll blame the creation of this post on a lack of focus. Whatever this blog turns out to be, focused on video games, creepy stories, or (deity forbid) my angry rants on politics, I should hope to have more substantial material than a one-time look of an unidentified walking person (UWP) in my backyard. With any luck, it won't be material where I start to see apocalyptic messages in my dreams (similar to John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness) or have night terrors like the ones H.R. Giger suffers through to inspire his deliciously disturbing artwork. Though if I DO start suffering from either of those or worse, I'd have found a definite theme for this blog... at the cost of my sanity, which I'd prefer to keep.
For now.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Pseudo-Beginning
It's time to boot this boulder down the hill and witness the ensuing chaos.
...
Sorry, too dramatic. I'll start simple. My name's Mike, and this blog used to be called "Strange Bloodlines" after a music track from the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I made exactly zero posts due to laziness, and I thought the title was too creepy anyway. That was about three or four weeks ago, but not having anything better to do, I decided to give blogging another shot under the title "Compliant Confusion," a slightly modified title from yet another piece of video game music from the N64 title Tetrisphere.
Since I mentioned two games, I may as well elaborate upon them. Symphony of the Night is one of the better-recognized entries of the long-running Castlevania franchise, released in 1997 for the Sony Playstation as the first CV title to involve Koji Igarashi, the current series producer. Most CV installments up to SotN were linear action titles (the only exception being Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest for the Nintendo Entertainment System) starring several members of the Belmont clan, a legendary bloodline of vampire slayers. These games had Dracula as the main villain, not the exact same Dracula as Bram Stoker's eponymous character but most certainly inspired by the book and many classic horror films.
The old-school CV titles were simple yet challenging affairs (once again, Simon's Quest being the exception), but Symphony changed the style of the series by making it a non-linear action-adventure affair with elements commonly found in role-playing games. The protagonist is Alucard, the son of Dracula, who has free roam to explore Dracula's castle and use whatever weapons, armor, and items he can find hidden in the castle's many hallways and passages. The castle holds host to a wide variety of enemies ranging from cannon fodder like skeletons and fishmen, to serious threats like floating ghost swords and fire-imbued demons. The game's graphics are fantastic, with most characters and objects rendered in pixels instead of polygons as was the trend of most games released in the later nineties. The soundtrack, composed by veteran Konami music maestro Michiru Yamane, is diverse with genres such as orchestral, hard rock, techno, and so forth. There's so much more I could say about Symphony, and perhaps I will later, but it is most certainly one of my favorite all-time games, with its only major flaw being a rather low amount of challenge.
Also released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64, Tetrisphere is one of the more creative spins on Alexey Pajitnov's classic falling block puzzle game, Tetris. The action takes place on a three-dimensional globe instead of a flat chamber, and instead of attempting to fill rows of blocks, you simply have to drop a block onto at least two matching blocks touching each other. You can drag blocks to arrange them next to each other and earn more points by clearing multiple blocks in one drop. These matching blocks disappear and reveal a deeper layer of the Tetrisphere, and you have to keep clearing layers until you reach the core. Revealing enough of the core frees a trapped robot from imprisonment, thus clearing the level. Dropping a block onto an unmatching surface or taking too much time adds a miss, and you lose the game if you rack up three misses.
You rack up more points if you drop a block onto a matching crystal block, slowing down the action and enabling your to achieve larger combos by clearing more blocks while the chain reaction from the crystal block(s) continues. Achieving combos of twenty blocks or more or clearing small glowing squares gives you a weapon which you can use to clear great portions of the Tetrisphere at once. Your weapon starts our as a simple firecracker, but can be upgraded to stronger tools like a bundle of dynamite and a magnet if you rack up more combos or find more squares. It plays simpler than it sounds, and it offers multiple gameplay variations via its "hide-and-seek" mode as opposed to its standard "rescue" mode, as well as including a "puzzle" mode where you have to clear all blocks in a limited amount of moves. What really seals the deal is Neil Voss' fantastic techno soundtrack with such atmospheric and energetic tracks as "Martist," "Azule Lux," and this incipient blog's namesake, "Compliant Confuse."
So yeah. I love video games, but I will do my best to ensure that this blog is not exclusively about games. Though, being that games are my primary hobby, it may eventually turn out that way. And hey, this first post turned out to be about games. Whoops. Anyhoo, welcome to Compliant Confusion. Feel free to read and/or criticize whatever, and remember that there are no refunds.
...
Sorry, too dramatic. I'll start simple. My name's Mike, and this blog used to be called "Strange Bloodlines" after a music track from the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I made exactly zero posts due to laziness, and I thought the title was too creepy anyway. That was about three or four weeks ago, but not having anything better to do, I decided to give blogging another shot under the title "Compliant Confusion," a slightly modified title from yet another piece of video game music from the N64 title Tetrisphere.
Since I mentioned two games, I may as well elaborate upon them. Symphony of the Night is one of the better-recognized entries of the long-running Castlevania franchise, released in 1997 for the Sony Playstation as the first CV title to involve Koji Igarashi, the current series producer. Most CV installments up to SotN were linear action titles (the only exception being Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest for the Nintendo Entertainment System) starring several members of the Belmont clan, a legendary bloodline of vampire slayers. These games had Dracula as the main villain, not the exact same Dracula as Bram Stoker's eponymous character but most certainly inspired by the book and many classic horror films.
The old-school CV titles were simple yet challenging affairs (once again, Simon's Quest being the exception), but Symphony changed the style of the series by making it a non-linear action-adventure affair with elements commonly found in role-playing games. The protagonist is Alucard, the son of Dracula, who has free roam to explore Dracula's castle and use whatever weapons, armor, and items he can find hidden in the castle's many hallways and passages. The castle holds host to a wide variety of enemies ranging from cannon fodder like skeletons and fishmen, to serious threats like floating ghost swords and fire-imbued demons. The game's graphics are fantastic, with most characters and objects rendered in pixels instead of polygons as was the trend of most games released in the later nineties. The soundtrack, composed by veteran Konami music maestro Michiru Yamane, is diverse with genres such as orchestral, hard rock, techno, and so forth. There's so much more I could say about Symphony, and perhaps I will later, but it is most certainly one of my favorite all-time games, with its only major flaw being a rather low amount of challenge.
Also released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64, Tetrisphere is one of the more creative spins on Alexey Pajitnov's classic falling block puzzle game, Tetris. The action takes place on a three-dimensional globe instead of a flat chamber, and instead of attempting to fill rows of blocks, you simply have to drop a block onto at least two matching blocks touching each other. You can drag blocks to arrange them next to each other and earn more points by clearing multiple blocks in one drop. These matching blocks disappear and reveal a deeper layer of the Tetrisphere, and you have to keep clearing layers until you reach the core. Revealing enough of the core frees a trapped robot from imprisonment, thus clearing the level. Dropping a block onto an unmatching surface or taking too much time adds a miss, and you lose the game if you rack up three misses.
You rack up more points if you drop a block onto a matching crystal block, slowing down the action and enabling your to achieve larger combos by clearing more blocks while the chain reaction from the crystal block(s) continues. Achieving combos of twenty blocks or more or clearing small glowing squares gives you a weapon which you can use to clear great portions of the Tetrisphere at once. Your weapon starts our as a simple firecracker, but can be upgraded to stronger tools like a bundle of dynamite and a magnet if you rack up more combos or find more squares. It plays simpler than it sounds, and it offers multiple gameplay variations via its "hide-and-seek" mode as opposed to its standard "rescue" mode, as well as including a "puzzle" mode where you have to clear all blocks in a limited amount of moves. What really seals the deal is Neil Voss' fantastic techno soundtrack with such atmospheric and energetic tracks as "Martist," "Azule Lux," and this incipient blog's namesake, "Compliant Confuse."
So yeah. I love video games, but I will do my best to ensure that this blog is not exclusively about games. Though, being that games are my primary hobby, it may eventually turn out that way. And hey, this first post turned out to be about games. Whoops. Anyhoo, welcome to Compliant Confusion. Feel free to read and/or criticize whatever, and remember that there are no refunds.
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