Nothing Today
Okay, most days I have nothing; I just sit down and start typing, to see what comes out. It can be scary; my subconscious isn't subbed all that far, I fear.
Spent most of this past weekend doing two things: playing the new Tomb Raider game, Underworld, and watching ABBA videos at YouTube.
Tomb Raider; I do like PC gaming, and I do like Tomb Raider. It has been both one of the best games ever to play, and the most frustrating.....the new series, by Crystal Dynamics, has taken the adventurous Lara Croft into new realms, and the graphics are nothing short of stunning. Including Lara herself -- the detail is amazing, and the animation is wonderful, in Underworld. Some of the puzzles are still frustrating, and occasionally the direction you intend for her to go becomes another one altogether, but it's minor, and the auto-save system virtually guarantees you won't have dozens of steps to replay to get to where you messed up.
When it comes to PC gaming, I have many I like, but few I love and replay over and over. Combat flight sims were my game of choice for years, and the only online gaming I ever spent any time with ( I hate online gaming....you want to talk tough, do it to my face, so I can take bolt cutters to your nuts ). My preference is for WWII era prop sims, and I have two favorites : IL2 - Sturmovik, from Maddox games out of Russia, and Battle of Britain II. Both are getting rather long in the tooth, but both are wonderful sims.
My other preference is for action/arcade-style/role playing/adventure type games. I have tried many. I have found the best to be the ones with female protagonists, like Tomb Raider. Another of my favorites was Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne II. Long out of production now, and not much chance of a third, Bloodrayne featured a wonderfully structured, sexy redhaired half vampire (officially, a Dhampir) who hunted vampires. A bloody fun and sexy game, with Rayne being a long-legged beauty with a great ass and moves to make a Ninja weep with envy. :--) With both Lara and Rayne, if you're a male and don't get a sexual reaction during gameplay at some point, you aren't normal.
Perhaps my all time favorite, though, is the Duke. Duke Nukem. Enough time has passed since his last release that many have forgotten him, but Duke Nukem Forever is, amazingly enough, still being developed. It has been, what, 8-10 years since it was announced? But...I am one who is still avidly anticipating it. It is a testosterone feast of male kick-ass goodness, and I am more than ready to 'come get some'. Will it finally make it this year? Only 3D Realms knows.....and per their long standing policy, they aren't saying. It's done when it's done....we will know then.
A current favorite of mine, one in which I am in at least my 12th replay, is a amazingly well done RPG/action game called 'The Witcher'. Out of Poland, from a company called CDProjectRed, it is based on a series of books of the same name by a Polish author whose name I, sadly, cannot spell. Featuring great swordplay action and a story line that forces you to make critical choices that affect the outcome and direction the game will take, it is a gloriously 'adult' RPG that pulls few punches. It is, simply, one of the best games I have ever played, and the only RPG I have ever tried that satisfies me. The graphics are beautiful, the monsters nasty, the bad guys really bad except when they're good, and the women sexy and beautiful. And since a Witcher is both infertile and immune to all disease -- and constantly horny -- the fun is there for the taking.
As for ABBA; I don't have enough time to day to do this obsession justice. And it is a obsession of mine. I mentioned before that music was my life, and still is somewhat. I have always had my preferences, as does everyone; some famous, some not-so-famous, some just 'niche' bands and performers. ABBA came along in the mid-70's, after I had completely quit playing, and I still liked them, despite my trying to stay away form listening to too much ( mostly during that time I returned to following country, and listening to the new craze, 'oldies' radio ). I bought a couple of ABBA albums, but never could find out much about them, and eventually just lost track. The world, though, did not. Here in America, one had to be careful to even say one liked them; it simply wasn't 'cool'. Of course, many of those same people would go home and listen to them in private....but, that's America for you. American taste in music, especially in that era, was a confused jumble. To be 'cool', you avoided 'pop' music, and concentrated on the 'underground' stuff....the stuff with a 'message'. What exactly that message was, I never understood, and almost all of the music was really, really bad.
At any rate, prehaps the best of them all was taking over the rest of the world, from the UK to France to Australia to Japan. This past year, after nearly 40 years, and 30 years since they last recorded together, I rediscovered them....thanks to the fans at YouTube. I finally actually got to hear all their music, and see them perform, and it has been a wondrous awakening for the musician in me -- a appreciation that someone actually did good, even great, music during a time when no one else was even coming close. In fact, up to today, only one band has sold more recordings worldwide than ABBA. It took the Beatles to do that, and I can think of no one better to be in that spot.
I will write more of my feelings and impressions of ABBA in future. They are, as I reach the age where I have more memories than I have time to build more memories ( more past than future ), able to reach me and touch parts of my soul that no one else can. They can bring smiles to my face on the worst, most gloomy days ( I have many of those ), and brighten even my most somber moods. For me, they are the greatest musical phenom of my lifetime, a lifetime that has included Elvis, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Fleetwood Mac, and so many others. I lost track of them for way too long ( I blame the industry in America, but I was busy, too, trying to make a living ), and cannot put into words how pleased I am to have them back as part of my listening and watching pleasure.
For me, if it never gets any better than that, I can be content.
Spent most of this past weekend doing two things: playing the new Tomb Raider game, Underworld, and watching ABBA videos at YouTube.
Tomb Raider; I do like PC gaming, and I do like Tomb Raider. It has been both one of the best games ever to play, and the most frustrating.....the new series, by Crystal Dynamics, has taken the adventurous Lara Croft into new realms, and the graphics are nothing short of stunning. Including Lara herself -- the detail is amazing, and the animation is wonderful, in Underworld. Some of the puzzles are still frustrating, and occasionally the direction you intend for her to go becomes another one altogether, but it's minor, and the auto-save system virtually guarantees you won't have dozens of steps to replay to get to where you messed up.
When it comes to PC gaming, I have many I like, but few I love and replay over and over. Combat flight sims were my game of choice for years, and the only online gaming I ever spent any time with ( I hate online gaming....you want to talk tough, do it to my face, so I can take bolt cutters to your nuts ). My preference is for WWII era prop sims, and I have two favorites : IL2 - Sturmovik, from Maddox games out of Russia, and Battle of Britain II. Both are getting rather long in the tooth, but both are wonderful sims.
My other preference is for action/arcade-style/role playing/adventure type games. I have tried many. I have found the best to be the ones with female protagonists, like Tomb Raider. Another of my favorites was Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne II. Long out of production now, and not much chance of a third, Bloodrayne featured a wonderfully structured, sexy redhaired half vampire (officially, a Dhampir) who hunted vampires. A bloody fun and sexy game, with Rayne being a long-legged beauty with a great ass and moves to make a Ninja weep with envy. :--) With both Lara and Rayne, if you're a male and don't get a sexual reaction during gameplay at some point, you aren't normal.
Perhaps my all time favorite, though, is the Duke. Duke Nukem. Enough time has passed since his last release that many have forgotten him, but Duke Nukem Forever is, amazingly enough, still being developed. It has been, what, 8-10 years since it was announced? But...I am one who is still avidly anticipating it. It is a testosterone feast of male kick-ass goodness, and I am more than ready to 'come get some'. Will it finally make it this year? Only 3D Realms knows.....and per their long standing policy, they aren't saying. It's done when it's done....we will know then.
A current favorite of mine, one in which I am in at least my 12th replay, is a amazingly well done RPG/action game called 'The Witcher'. Out of Poland, from a company called CDProjectRed, it is based on a series of books of the same name by a Polish author whose name I, sadly, cannot spell. Featuring great swordplay action and a story line that forces you to make critical choices that affect the outcome and direction the game will take, it is a gloriously 'adult' RPG that pulls few punches. It is, simply, one of the best games I have ever played, and the only RPG I have ever tried that satisfies me. The graphics are beautiful, the monsters nasty, the bad guys really bad except when they're good, and the women sexy and beautiful. And since a Witcher is both infertile and immune to all disease -- and constantly horny -- the fun is there for the taking.
As for ABBA; I don't have enough time to day to do this obsession justice. And it is a obsession of mine. I mentioned before that music was my life, and still is somewhat. I have always had my preferences, as does everyone; some famous, some not-so-famous, some just 'niche' bands and performers. ABBA came along in the mid-70's, after I had completely quit playing, and I still liked them, despite my trying to stay away form listening to too much ( mostly during that time I returned to following country, and listening to the new craze, 'oldies' radio ). I bought a couple of ABBA albums, but never could find out much about them, and eventually just lost track. The world, though, did not. Here in America, one had to be careful to even say one liked them; it simply wasn't 'cool'. Of course, many of those same people would go home and listen to them in private....but, that's America for you. American taste in music, especially in that era, was a confused jumble. To be 'cool', you avoided 'pop' music, and concentrated on the 'underground' stuff....the stuff with a 'message'. What exactly that message was, I never understood, and almost all of the music was really, really bad.
At any rate, prehaps the best of them all was taking over the rest of the world, from the UK to France to Australia to Japan. This past year, after nearly 40 years, and 30 years since they last recorded together, I rediscovered them....thanks to the fans at YouTube. I finally actually got to hear all their music, and see them perform, and it has been a wondrous awakening for the musician in me -- a appreciation that someone actually did good, even great, music during a time when no one else was even coming close. In fact, up to today, only one band has sold more recordings worldwide than ABBA. It took the Beatles to do that, and I can think of no one better to be in that spot.
I will write more of my feelings and impressions of ABBA in future. They are, as I reach the age where I have more memories than I have time to build more memories ( more past than future ), able to reach me and touch parts of my soul that no one else can. They can bring smiles to my face on the worst, most gloomy days ( I have many of those ), and brighten even my most somber moods. For me, they are the greatest musical phenom of my lifetime, a lifetime that has included Elvis, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Fleetwood Mac, and so many others. I lost track of them for way too long ( I blame the industry in America, but I was busy, too, trying to make a living ), and cannot put into words how pleased I am to have them back as part of my listening and watching pleasure.
For me, if it never gets any better than that, I can be content.
Comments