IM FREEEEEEE

NO MORE DISCONNECTS NOW BT, POOR OL’ LANT’S FREE OF THEM AT LAST.

HAHAHAHAHA.

Well actually, my new broadband has been spam disconnecting every 10-15 minutes or so, but I’m thinking that might just be because it’s a new connection or something. My download speeds have increased by around 200kb/s and my upload speed has more than doubled (which frankly, doesn’t say much because it was depressingly slow with BT) and if nothing else, it’s cheaper.

BT is dead, long live o2 (or should that be…be? ‘cos for some reason my ISP is listed as be unlimited, who are owned by o2 but whatever!)

N-no more BWEE TEE?

I cannot even put into words how happy it makes me to finally be FREEEEEEEE from BT after all these years. I can only hope that o2 lives up to my, frankly, rather low expectations. All I ask is that I get consistent speeds, no random disconnects/slowdowns and no throttling.

HA-HA-HA, SAYONARA.

OH THE IRONY

I just saw an advert for BT broadband which went like this:

“Man this streaming video isn’t loading!” -Guy who doesn’t have BT.

“Maybe it’s your laptop?”

“No, it’s your broadband *smug look* come watch it at my house!” -Guy who does have BT.

That’s hilarious!

Because British Telecom is shit. On that note, my BT dies tomorrow, and my o2 comes alive, (I love that album, incidentally I hear a new one comes out in August this year) hopefully the downtime won’t be very long. I actually meant to publish the post right below this a few days ago, but seemingly I didn’t actually hit publish.

Drrr!! + Star of the Beast King

So Durarara’s season finale aired the other day, so I’ve now completed that and an older series that I recently picked up, named Jyu Oh Sei (Juuosei) also known as Star of the Beast King. I figure I’ll briefly touch on what I thought of them.

Drrr’s a tough one, I really liked it at the start, but around the time the Saika arc started, it went downhill. I believe that the plot and writing is better than Baccano for the most part, but the characters are horrible now. Sonohara(?) Anri completely ruined the show for me. It’s hardly even a matter of opinion. I firmly believe that if you like her character, you’re either a brainless moron or the author. It’s…laughable. Yeah, I know it’s not really the correct term to use mary sue as they are usually for self inserts into fan fiction, but I’m going to use it anyway.

Look, I’ll be honest, I don’t appreciate characters designed solely for fan service. I don’t like characters who are written in solely for the purpose of being killed, I don’t like characters who are designed simply to get a reaction. Anri’s character also makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. She’s the bearer of a magical katana that seemingly has some form of mind control, right? It’s a pretty well-known fact that in order to subdue a powerful sentient weapon, you must have incredibly strong willpower or cheat. (See Artemis Entreri and Charon’s claw as a perfect example) OH LANT THIS ISN’T DND IT’S NOT USING THOSE RULES. Uh, sure it isn’t, but how do you explain the fact that a weak willed young girl who has no backbone whatsoever is able to subdue some amazingly powerful and evil katana? You don’t, it’s because she’s a terrible mary sue moeblob.

Shit pisses me off, as much as I wanted to love Drrr like I loved Baccano, it’s a 6/10 at best. That whole last arc was terrible with the three kingdoms ripoff stuff. It’s a sign of bad writing to rely on “OH LOL THE AUDIENCE KNOWS THIS BUT THE CHARACTERS DON’T” style of drama, it’s nothing more than pantomime. Pantomime is used for entertaining 8 year old children, not adults, or anyone with a working brain. I am incredibly disappointed in Drrr, wasted potential sums it up well. I can only hope that the second season, if one is made, focuses less on Anri and Mikado, who are both terribly written characters who receive far too much screentime.

As for Star of the Beast King, holy shit. I would count myself a fan of studio Bones, I like pretty much all of their shows, but I had never even heard of this one! That itself was surprising, but more surprising was how it was a genuinely very good show, 8/10. It could’ve even been a 9 or 10 with a little more work, for starters, it needed more episodes, perhaps around 24, it felt very rushed at times, like they were just cramming stuff in with the limited time they had. I’m also fairly certain they skipped over a lot of fairly important character development when they made the adaptation. Even so, it was very interesting and the characters were fairly realistic in their interactions and development. It also had a surprisingly sad ending, and not just because of the many character deaths. Touching? Almost.

As expected of Bones, it had very nice animation.

I usually like to end mini-review style things, or posts about a specific show in general with a screenshot taken from them, so this seems a good a choice as any. From the second to last episode of Jyu Oh Sei/Star of the Beast King. I would recommend it, it was a very entertaining watch that for the most part, kept you guessing.

I have also adopted a pair of cats this past week, my are they little rascals. I tell you what.

FFID’s almost finished now, but don’t worry my loyal peons, you won’t have to wait long for FFID2 to start.

M8s are strange things

Ah, so once again I feel compelled to blog about relatively pointless stuff, certainly everything I blog about is pointless, but this is extra pointless. Pointless speculation. So for now I’ve got something to roar about, three things actually.

First off, it occurred to me earlier that it’s funny how people always want what they don’t or can’t have. I’m sorry if you were looking for a deep example, but I’m actually referring to food. A few weeks ago I thought, “god damn I’m wanting a steak right about now.” and now that I’ve actually got a couple in the freezer, I’m finding myself somewhat disinterested in them, same with DORITOS (or any type of crisps (or chips for AMERIKANZ)) the amount I want them is directly proportional to the amount I currently have. In other words, the more I have, the less I want them, and the less I have, the more I want them. Of course I’m sure you can apply this to other aspects of life besides food.

Second, I have also found it amusing how, when I was around 16, I used to think that I had fully matured, that I knew enough. Now that I’m almost 20 and look back, I realise that no, I wasn’t. It makes me wonder if I will look back in another 4 years and think the same, and so on. Is this perhaps the division between wisdom, maturity and experience? I don’t know, I don’t know everything now, and while I imagine I am almost fully matured, no doubt there’s still some way to go. I think experience is the main thing now, it’s amazing how much you can change in 4 years, hell, in one year. It is possibly our greatest strength as humans, we adapt extremely quickly, if we are cold, we don’t spend generations evolving to have fur or something. We can just jam our face into a toaster.

To quote a book I read not long ago; It is certain that even the most ignorant and stupid peasants- nay infants, nay even brute beasts- improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects which result from them. When a child has felt the sensation of pain from touching the flame of a candle, he will be careful not to put his hand near any candle; but will expect a similar effect from a cause which is similar in its sensible qualities and appearance.

This extends far beyond that particular example of course. To use another quote, this time from LOTR; Nay, the guest who has escaped from the roof will think twice before he comes back in through the door. Now I shall apologise in case you were wondering where I’m going with all this, because I’m not going anywhere. All I’m trying to say is that I’m continually impressed by how many new things I learn, and in doing so, finding out how much I still don’t know.

Finally, this one is a little more random, but this has happened several times to me, but a recent example made me think about it in greater detail. It’s strange how some things can stick with you, by which I mean, something that somebody has said. It might be something dramatic, or something that doesn’t strike you as odd at first, but then you can’t stop thinking about what was said. It eats away at you and you’re not really sure, why can’t we stop thinking about it? Are we subconsciously trying to work out an answer or reason? Or are we trying to justify something that deep down doesn’t sound right, because the person who said it is a friend or relative and we don’t want to disagree with them? I don’t know, all I can offer are more questions, not the answers.

That said, don’t worry, I think I’m quite done discussing pretentious hipster topics. I have dealt with all the issues that bothered me, in one way or another. So fear not, now my mind is clear, to quote SS, IM FREEEEEEEEEEEEE, free to continue screaming about E3 and religions and twilight and all manner of rage worthy topics.

After all, these are Kaonazhie’s Tales of Rage. Not Lant’s Pretentiously Philosophical Anecdotes.

Although I could re-style the blog to that, if you want?

No, Lant. Go hump yourself.

On a more positive note, Crackdown 2 demo arrives on Monday, not to mention the newest members of my family. Then there’s the free RDR dlc a day later.

But there’s always more

~Warning~ I’ve not ranted or whined for a pretty long time – raged, certainly. There’s a difference between the two. I try not to rant or whine much here, hell, you should see how many drafts there are of times I’ve just written a huge rant and never bothered posting it. (there’s 37 drafts, to be exact, obviously not all of them are gigarants that never saw the light of day) Why? Well, no reason, it makes me feel better just to type it down. I’m sure that doesn’t make sense, but if I write it down, I can get rid of it.

Today has been a strange day.

I’m not even entirely sure how to address my…primary concern. As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a people person. It is perhaps a flaw of my personality (and possibly many other people, I can’t speak for anyone else, I’m going by personal experience only) that I tend to analyse everything, I over analyse everything. I see monsters where there are only shadows, you could say. Paranoid? No, that’s not the right word. Cautious then? Maybe, but it’s not really to do with anything like that – I just cannot help it. Do you do this? Does everyone do it? Who can say.

Simply put, I read far too much into anything anybody says. I talk to a lot of people, some because of my job, most of them however are…how should I put it, casual? social? friends? Something like that, not work related, I’m talking to them because I or they want to, not because I am obligated to because of my job. So, again as I’ve said before, I am not a good liar. Or perhaps I’m lying even when I say this? I could be for all you know, but I’m not. I am a bad liar, but I deceive a lot of people. Can you count deception and lying as the same thing? I believe everyone does it to a certain extent, sure, deception is a nasty word but I’m just using big words to describe small, common things. We all have two faces, so to speak. I’ve touched on this in the past so there’s no need to go into any great detail. My point is that while I am a bad liar, the deceptions are perhaps far more believable. Hell, if you’re reading this and you know me personally, you’re probably one of the few people who I am honest with.

What it all boils down to, ultimately, is manipulation. Another big word, sure, but it’s a simple idea. A lot of the time, when we talk to someone, work related or otherwise, we are manipulating them. That’s not always a bad thing – it could be a tiny thing. Maybe you want somebody to ask you something, so you manipulate the conversation in such a way as to gently suggest and nudge them onto topic. Or it could be something far more complex. I believe I can loosely categorise people into three separate types. First off, there’s the people I don’t need to manipulate, the people I can be honest with. Second, there’s the people I manipulate, maybe I act less intelligent than I really am, maybe I act more friendly than I really am. These are all well and good, it’s the third that presents the problem – the people I can’t be sure of. These are people who I feel may be trying to manipulate me – without my knowing. That worries me. These are people who may be doing what I am, feigning. In a sense, I’m my own worse enemy.

What caused all this? Oh it’s been a stupid issue I’ve had for ages, but today was a perfect example of why it bothers me. So I was talking to somebody who I occasionally chat to now and then, I don’t know this person very well, nor they me. Or so I believe. Now if you read this blog, if you know me at all, you’ve probably figured out I’m not a very nice guy, that’s true enough, I’m an asshole. I have a bad personality that does not mix well with others, it is…abrasive. That’s why there’s so few people I can speak honestly to, speak my mind to. So anyway, this person, let’s call them Bob, gradually begins moving this conversation in a very bizarre conversation, manipulating it if you will. I was confused so I eventually managed to move it to a more random topic; breakfast. Bob describes what she’s having and I’m all “That sounds tasty” to which Bob responds, “Not as tasty as you [random emoticon]” sure, alone that could just be a stupid joke or something, but it was more or less at that point that I realised Bob had been flirting with me for the past few hours.

…Why?

I was disturbed, when gradually the conversation became more, let’s say…graphic. Now I’ll point out that, contrary to most of my conversations, I’m the listener in these talks. I’m usually the one screaming and ranting about crap, but here it’s the opposite, because frankly, I don’t know how to respond. So for some reason, Bob  is now flirting with me, using rather uh, colourful language shall we say. Oh Lant what’s wrong with someone flirting with you? Well, nothing I suppose. I was just confused, there is no possible way this person could be interested in me in that manner – we hardly even know each other. I found myself wondering if they were trying to ~manipulate~ me in some way, what possible reason? What outcome could they possibly be hoping for? Was I reading far too much into this? Probably. I jokingly reminded Bob that she had a boyfriend, to which she replied “So?” further confusing and disturbing me.

Simply put, I don’t like being confused, I do not like when I cannot understand what other people are doing, I couldn’t figure out why they were saying this. I have met Bob in person twice, her boyfriend? No, I know of him and know his name, but I have never spoken to him, does he even exist? I can’t be sure, if I was really worried about something like that, if I cared about such pointless things, I’m sure I could find out. No that was besides the point, why were they doing this? I began to think they were just, to put it simply, trolling me for a reaction, of any sort. What if they were being serious though? I have no reasonable response to either. Hell, if they are trolling me I can laugh it off, but Bob does not strike me as a smart enough person to do this – which is worrying as I may have completely misjudged them. Yet it would be rude to confront them over that if they were, for some bizarre reason, serious.

Thus I found myself in a dilemma. I am an asshole yes, but never without reason or cause, I don’t like to intentionally piss people off unless they deserve it, right? It’s not the first time a person has flirted with me, although I basically never reciprocate anyway. Just this one time, something seemed odd, and if my suspicions are true, it is very disturbing. It’s not the flirting itself, that’s irrelevant, it’s that I completely misjudged someone, and they then began running verbal rings around me. Why is that a problem? As I said, I don’t like being manipulated when it’s not clear, I don’t like talking to people when I cannot understand them. It just…annoys me. Maybe that’s not the right term, but it unsettles me.

The chances of this all being a result of my overactive brain are 99%, if that’s the case, all well and good. There’s still that 1% though, if you were aiming at a gun at a man who intended to kill you, and you had a 99% chance to hit, you would still worry over that 1% minute chance that you miss, and pay for it with your life. Sure the stakes are all but nonexistent here, but…I don’t like to be wrong. I don’t like to misjudge somebody.

So how did I actually escape this confusing and awkward situation? Why I picked one of two options, the one every man would likely pick when faced with a dilemma. I ran away, namely I faked a disconnect. Considering I’m on British Telecom, that’s not hard.

The alternative, if you were wondering, the option 2, was to blow up the dilemma and then walk away from it, not looking back and putting my sunglasses on, possibly whilst lighting up a cigar. Understandably, that wasn’t really an option here.

To summarise, people are like books. Some are easy to read whereas some are hard, and some you just cannot understand because they are written in Chinese. In the end, there’s always more than you can ever possibly hope to read in a lifetime.

Lant @ E3 2010

I’ll go into more detail later, but to summarise:

Microsoft

Shit.

Sony

Even worse than Microsoft. Spent at least 20 minutes talking about adverts and giving some pointless speech which fanboys are wanking over.

Nintendo

Good, I will most likely be buying a 3DS. I was biding my time, I got the DS in 2004 and skipped all the pointless upgrades, but now the time has come. Golden Sun 3, OOT3DS, Lylat Wars 3DS, Samurai Warriors 3DS. Oh yes.

Others

Ubisoft and Konami? Oh my GOD were they bad. Breathing games? EA weren’t too bad, interestingly enough. I couldn’t care less about Activision. (THAT’S COULD NOT, NOT COULD, FUCKING AMERICANS, HOW DOES GRAMMAR WORK?)

DOA5

Apparently Dead or Alive 5 is going to be at E3, I am very worried about the direction it could take.

As has been said, it’s my favorite 3D fighter, but now that Itagaki’s gone…

(FFID 21 is up, I didn’t miss the date, but let’s just say my motivation to get them out on time is somewhat non existant considering I finished FFID months ago, now I’m taking a WRITER break to prepare for FFID2 and then…the big one. FI.)

Byeeeeeeeee!

You ever wonder what my mouse looks like?

Well TOOT, there it is.

I thought I’d leave IOgraph on for like a whole day.

So that huge circle in the top leftish bit is when I went to sleep, the ones near the bottom are when I was watching FMA/Darker than Night Raid and stuff. There’s also a few times when I went afk (like when I made my destruction omelette: most tasty dish in the world) top right seems to be the main focus, as you can see, that’s where I have firefox (FUCKING FIREFOX I HATE YOU SO MUCH) positioned. I imagine most of the stuff on the left side, especially the uber squiggles are from when I was drawing in photoshop.

Uh yeah.

Bye.

…I really need a new desktop, I’ve had this one for a year and a half.

Yes, alright then, I accept the position of Wallpaper Commander.

No.

Oh my gah

http://twitter.com/SouljaBoy/statuses/15273922108

Why the fuck would you get some worthless and talentless celebrity like him to come try out your game? I hope he’s lying or got tricked or something, because that is just awful.

Frankly, if I didn’t love Gears, I would be put off from the franchise and hate it on principle. How can you justify associating with people like that? Marketing? I just don’t know, do you really need to market Gears 3 like that? The first 2 games sold millions without resorting to retarded crap like that.

I’m just embarrassed and ashamed to be a Gears fan now, quite frankly.

E2 2010 Hopes + Ramblings

Last year I was pretty much right, but then most of the “secrets” were not secret at all, this year there’s not really much that’s been hinted at, so I’ll go wild with my hopeful prediction:

• Saint’s Row 3 (okay more or less confirmed but whatever)
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
• Zone of the Enders 3 (multiplatform)
• LOTR: War in the North
• Devil May Cry 5
• Dead or Alive 5
• Itagaki’s new project

I’d like to see a few co-op games announced too, but what with Gears of War 3 and Bulletstorm being confirmed to appear at E3, I think my co-op shooter needs are more or less fulfilled for the next year or so. I’m very cautious about War in the North right now, I’m hoping that it’s just going to be Dark Alliance 3, just with a LOTR setting. I’ll wait and see what the gameplay looks like, which will hopefully be shown at E3. Zone of the Enders is very unlikely, being multiplatform even less so. Devil May Cry has a good chance I think, as Capcom don’t really have much else on their plate right now do they? Marvel VS Capcom and Dead Rising is all I can think of anyway. As for Dead or Alive 5, I’m not sure if I want it or not, after what Hayashi did to Ninja Gaiden S2 I just don’t know. On the one hand, DOA is my favorite 3D fighter…but will I buy it if they are going to ruin it? Probably not. There’s always Soul Calibre V, sure the fighting is pretty lame but I had a lot of fun with SCIV just fucking about.

I didn’t list any Koei projects as they usually have a very minimal presence at E3, but I think they might be showing that Warriors: Troy game this year, as that’s being developed by Koei’s Canada team I thiiiiiink? Shit, I wouldn’t say no to a SW3/DW7 360 game which is a real next-gen DW, not like DW6. Personally what I’d really like is a Samurai Warriors: Strikeforce/Multiraid. I think Strikeforce’s gameplay suits SW a lot more as it’s always been more mission based and less “kill all sons of bitches.”

I’m beginning to ramble now as I tend to do when I have a headache, but with Saint’s Row 3 and Gears 3, I’m sure this years E3 will be fine. Hopefully Natal and other motion controlled bullshit won’t be too prevalent, but that’s wishful thinking. I’d love to see some new franchises. Bulletstorm is looking very cool, it looks like it’s a proper shooter game, fun with stupid bullshit weapons like with Turok 2. Hopefully you can carry like 10-20 weapons at once. There are rumours of Borderlands 2 being announced in the form of a teaser trailer but…I don’t know, Borderlands was fun but it didn’t live up to the hype.

These last few years have made me realise how bad it is to hype things, there are very few games I have been hyped for in my life to an absurd level, they are:

• Dynasty Warriors 4 – letdown
• Smash Bros Melee – lived up to every expectation and then some
• GTA San Andreas – did not disappoint
• Fable 2 – letdown
• Smash Bros Brawl – letdown (still a good game just…sigh)
• Borderlands – letdown, but still enjoyable

There was the Wii as well, that whole console was a letdown with the crappy motion soaring, I try to not get hyped over things. Still, there are some games that don’t let me down, like Gears 2 and Red Dead Redemption, even if Gears 2 had horrible online, the campaign was just what I wanted, as the first “next generation” game I ever played, Gears 1 will always have a special spot in my gaming heart, and I hope Gears 3 will do it justice.

It’s funny, everyone has games that are important to them, the popular ones are Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy(7) and for the younger people, Halo and Call of Duty. For me? It’s Mario, Smash Bros, Dynasty Warriors and Gears of War. It was when I played Mario 64 that I realised that gaming would be my hobby for possibly my whole life, or at least for the next 10+ years. Before that, I had played my Master Drive now and then, and even earlier, my Commodore, but I never really got into it. Smash Bros is the first fighting game I ever enjoyed, before playing that, all I had touched was various Street Fighter games which I just couldn’t get into. Dynasty Warriors 2 was the first PS2 game I ever played, and it blew my mind, DW3 picked up the fragments of my mind and then sellotaped them back together before throwing it into a star. Gears was, as I said, the first next generation (aka current generation) game I played, it came at just the right time, it came when I was depressed at more or less everything, gaming included. Playing WoW will do that to you. Gears managed to re-spark my interest in gaming.

Let’s hope this years E3 can KEEP IT BURNING, SINCE THE WORLD’S BEEN TURNING.