May already? Let’s pretend I did this four months ago.

Games

1. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (Rockstar Games; Xbox 360)
2. Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward; Xbox 360)
3. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve; PC and Xbox 360)
4. The Beatles: Rock Band (Harmonix; Xbox 360)
5. Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal; Xbox 360)
6. Torchlight (Runic Games; PC)
7. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Rockstar Games; Xbox 360)
8. Trine (Frozenbyte; PC)
9. Batman Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady; Xbox 360)
10. inFamous (Sucker Punch; PlayStation 3)
11. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds; Nintendo DS)
12. Prototype (Radical Entertainment; Xbox 360)
13. The Conduit (High Voltage Software; Wii)
14. MadWorld (Platinum Games; Wii)

Films

1. The Hurt Locker
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. District 9
4. Public Enemies
5. Avatar
6. A Serious Man
7. Watchmen
8. The Wrestler
9. Moon
10. Mysteries of Pittsburgh
11. Sherlock Holmes
12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Albums

1. Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective)
2. Fall Be Kind (Animal Collective)
3. The Hazards of Love (The Decemberists)
4. Noble Beast (Andrew Bird)
5. Hospice (The Antlers)
6. The Resistance (Muse)
7. Embryonic (The Flaming Lips)
8. Up From Below (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros)
9. Manners (Passion Pit)

Photo: AMCTV.com

Note: Huge spoilers abound in this post. The show is definitely worth watching, so if you haven’t seen all of them yet, I recommend you read this only after doing so.

Over the past three nights, I’ve watched the re-envisioned miniseries The Prisoner on AMC.

The last two episodes obviously do a lot to uncover the biggest mysteries of The Prisoner: what/where is The Village, who are Two and M2, why can’t 11-12 go to the Other Place, and most obviously, why is 6 there and why can/can’t he return.

Basically, the show operates on two levels of consciousness: the conscious world, which is set in New York, and some level of the subconscious, which is The Village. The Village is not actually a physical place, but instead is contained within the mind of Helen (so named in New York, or M2, the sleeping woman and Two’s wife in The Village). Helen in the conscious world (which I’m just going to refer to as “the real world” henceforth for simplicity) is some kind of psychotherapist or mental health researcher. Summakor, where Michael (Six in The Village) works, is owned and run by her husband, Mr. Curtis. In the final episode, Mr. Curtis meets with Michael in his New York highrise apartment and explains all this to him. Many of the people who work at Summakor or surround Mr. Curtis, like his driver (147) or the access card guy at Summakor (The Shopkeeper) were those selected to enter into The Village to be treated of their actual mental ailments. Simply put, The Dreamers in the Village are those that are people living in the real world, but entered into The Village through Summakor’s program.

The most poignant and extreme case of this is Sarah, or 313. She suffered constant humiliation as a child which has left her completely withdrawn from society in the real world (as evident by her sitting alone, talking to herself in the church in New York at the end). In the subconscious Village, however, she can live a normal and productive life, and is able to essentially be “treated” for her mental illness. It seems interesting, the occupations that “The Dreamers” in The Village take up; the driver as 147 becomes a taxi driver, not too surprising. But Sarah as 313 is a doctor who is able to help others most in need. In doing so, she’s sort of curing herself by turning herself into a productive member of a society that is dedicated to helping others.

We see Six spontaneously switching back to the real world, most often when his experiences in The Village mimic his real experiences (looking around his apartment in The Village and noticing that it closely resembles his Manhattan apartment, the background slowly fades back to the interior of the latter. This also happens when he kisses 5-14 and has a kind of “déjà vu” moment to when he spent the night with Lucy in his apartment.

What Lucy says at the end of the fourth episode, “Darling,” is true. She is Lucy, for all intents and purposes, and was hired by Two (or more accurately, Mr. Curtis) to enter into the Village, make Six love her, and then break his heart.

But getting back to that “switching,” 313’s connection is even more tenuous, and seems to deteriorate as the show continues. This seems to be largely Two’s doing, he almost provokes her into it. Recall the scene in which she’s sitting in front of the mirror in her apartment and she “switches” back to the vision of Sarah, looking back at her in the mirror. The images in her dreams in the Village of the Other Place are indicative of her earlier memories; that of being forced to stand with a bag over her head and of the church in New York.

One of the more interesting cases that proves all this is the suicide of 2 and M2’s son, 11-12. M2, when she meets 11-12 in the penultimate episode, explains to him that there is indeed another place, but that 11-12 can’t go there. The reason for this is because 11-12 was “born” in The Village, that is to say, Helen’s subconscious willed him into existence due to her inability to have a child in the real world (this is mentioned briefly in a scene between Mr. Curtis and Helen in their apartment near the end). 11-12 conscious-self (or, more simply, 11-12 as what we would collectively refer to as a “real human being”) doesn’t exist.

In the end, Six’s coming to The Village proves to be Two’s doing. Two brought Six to the Village to replace him as the new Two, with 313 becoming his “wife” and the new M2. Back in the real world, Michael takes a seat in the center of the room in the Purpose Floor at Summakor’s headquarters. He’s taken Mr. Curtis’ position as the man in charge. Back in The Village, this cycle seems to have come to fruition in the final scene, with Six (although perhaps he is now he is just called Two) sitting in the dunes admiring the beauty of The Village and discussing his plans to improve the place, with an almost comatose 313 looking mournfully. It’s a pretty dark conclusion.

Again, I could write a lot more, but I think this should give you a pretty good idea of what the show is basically about. There’s still plenty of stuff I don’t understand or don’t fully understand yet. I will definitely be rewatching soon though for answers.

One of the things that is vexing me the most right now though is the inability to find a meaning or overall theme in this whole thing. Most literally, the show seems to be anti-therapy, or, perhaps even worse, anti-self exploration. It’s saying “don’t look too deeply into your subconscious for self-improvement or meaning, because you might literally get stuck there.” There is only in.

I went to New York Comic Con 2009 and wrote some stuff and filmed some videos and took embarrassing pictures like this one.

Rebellion Media Blog

• Never Compromise: A Spoiler-Filled Review of the First 20 Minutes of Watchmen

Primotech

• Battlefield 1943 Video Interview
• Prototype Video Interview
• Ghostbusters (Wii) Video Interview
• Velvet Assassin Video Interview with Actress Melinda Cohen
• Velvet Assassin Video Interview
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Hands-on Preview
• The Conduit Video Interview
• MadWorld Video Preview

One Sentence Game News

• Stuff filed under ‘New York Comic Con 09′

Ta-da.

New York Comic Con attendees were treated this past weekend to the first twenty minutes of the upcoming Watchmen movie. Original Watchmen artist David Gibbons appeared on-stage to thank the over 2,000 people in attendance and introduced the footage we were about to see. Within minutes, the crowd was witnessing the opening scenes of this year’s most anticipated film as it will appear in theatres on March 6, plus a never-before-seen clip from later on in the movie.

SPOILER WARNING! The following contains spoilers from the Watchmen graphic novel and reveals specific plot-points as they appear in the movie. Read on at your own discretion. I will not provide any further spoiler warnings during this piece SPOILER WARNING!

The movie opens with faux vintage TV clips of a Nixon speech, a political roundtable discussion (with a young Pat Buchanan), and an advertisement featuring an attractive young couple reclining poolside. The camera pulls out to reveal Edward Blake lounging in front of his television set, chomping on his trademark cigar and beer can in hand.

His gaze is drawn toward the front door of his well-appointed apartment, where he notices a shadow projected onto his floor. Just then, the door splinters open with a powerful kick and a shadowy assassin stands in the entranceway. Blake rises from his chair and in determined resignation grumbles “Just a matter of time, I suppose.”

He somersaults for a handgun lying on his coffee table, but the assassin is too quick, disarming The Comedian instantly. An extended, original fight scene not present in the beginning of the book (but alluded to) unfolds, and it’s positively brutal. Blake gets thrown through tables and against walls like a ragdoll, as his assassin savagely beats him. The cinematography here is jaw-dropping; in one shot, we see a cross-view of the apartment from outside the window, New York City skyline reflected in the glass, and Blake getting thrown through the air in slow-motion.

The Comedian puts up a hell of a fight, but the sheer speed and strength of his adversary is too much. The assassin grabs Blake by the neck and pulls him in close. “It’s a joke,” he chuckles with his dying breath. “It’s all a joke.” A single drop of blood falls from his face onto the smiley face button pinned to his robe just before he’s thrown through his plate-glass window, hurtling to the street below. The pin lands beside his body in the gutter and the camera zooms in close as the blood pools around it.

The opening credits play to Dylan’s mournful acoustic “The Times They Are A-Changin.’” Each scene (many lifted directly from the book, but some original) in the credits is a slow-motion work of art in itself. It begins with the original Minutemen and their successful campaigns during the World War II years to thwart bank robberies and arrest criminals. But for every scene of triumph, comes one of defeat. Mothman being dragged off to a mental institution. Silhouette laying in bed beside her lover with their throats slit.

Things don’t fare much better for the Watchmen. Dr. Manhattan shakes hands with JFK on the White House lawn in one clip. In the next, the President’s head is blown open on a sunny day in Dallas (the camera pans out to reveal Edward Blake packing up a scoped rifle). A small, redheaded boy standing in a hallway gets a pat on the head from a man leaving his mother’s bedroom, only to be replaced immediately by a second man entering (the crowd loved this one). Other notable moments: A police officer stumbles upon two criminals bound with rope to a fire hydrant, with a scrap of paper bearing Rorschach’s signature insignia lying at their feet. Dr. Manhattan films man’s first steps on the moon (without a space suit, of course). The attention to detail Snyder has captured with each and every shot is simply mind-blowing.

After the credits, we get our first real look at arguably the most beloved Watchmen character, Rorschach, whose gruff, clipped voice is perfectly matched in the film. He recites his now infamous October 12, 1985 journal entry as he picks the Comedian’s pin up out of the gutter.

Rorschach uses his grappling hook to launch himself through Blake’s broken apartment window. The scene that follows is essentially exactly that at the beginning of the graphic novel, so I won’t delve any further here, other than to say, it’s recreated exquisitely

The scene that plays next is from about 2/3 into the movie. Rorschach has been apprehended and is incarcerated. He waits in line at the prison’s cafeteria, his face emotionless. An inmate in line behind him makes quips about wanting Rorschach autographs, and exposes a metal shiv to the camera.

The man lunges to stab Kovacs, but he blocks the attackers jab with his tray and delivers a crushing blow to the man’s skull. He then swiftly breaks a glass display window on the counter and hurls a pan of hot oil at the face of the criminal. The man falls to his knees, screaming in agony, and the camera focuses in on the grease literally melting away at his skin.

Both the other inmates in the cafeteria and the audience that surrounds me go wild. Several prison guards intervene (in the movie, not at the Javits Center), grabbing Kovacs by the arms. Rorschach snarls at the criminals “None of you understand! I’m not locked in here with you…” A guard delivers a rib crushing blow to the captive with a nightstick, but an unshaken, Rorschach barks “You’re locked in here with me!” Cut to black. Further cheers of joy from the crowd.

David Gibbons answered questions from the audience following the screening. I wasn’t able to record the session and didn’t copy any direct quotes, but these are some interesting things that were said:

-Gibbons met director Zach Snyder around the time that 300 was released. Gibbons was blown away by Snyder’s dedication to capturing the visuals of Frank Miller’s graphic novel on-screen and immediately thought he was a great choice for a Watchmen film.

-Gibbons described Watchmen author Alan Moore as the most “rational” man he knows. Even though Moore has distanced himself from the project and clearly resents Hollywood for its treatment of his properties, the two men are still close friends.

-Gibbons revealed that the Ozymandias’ “squid monster” does not appear in the film’s finale and described it as something that would have been “just another special effect in a film full of special effects.” He is adamant, however, that the overall message and storyline present at the end of the novel is maintained in the film. (In my opinion, the number of extraneous and oftentimes confusing scenes needed to make the squid work would probably not been enjoyable for moviegoers)

-Gibbons said that he would not endorse or help develop any future Watchmen films and that doing so would only dilute the story and brand. According to Gibbons, Snyder also has stated he will not sign on to do another Watchmen film should Warner Bros. intend to make one.

Watchmen opens in theatres on March 6.

Games

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games; Xbox 360)
2. Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks; Xbox 360)
3. Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal; Xbox 360)
4. No More Heroes (Grasshopper Manufacture; Wii)
5. Left 4 Dead (Valve Software; Xbox 360)
6. Dead Space (EA Westwood; Xbox 360)
7. Braid (Number None, Inc.; Xbox 360 Live Arcade)
8. Rez HD (Q Entertainment; Xbox 360 Live Arcade)
9. Gears of War 2 (Epic Games; Xbox 360)
10. Mirror’s Edge (DICE; Xbox 360)

(I did not play a sufficient amount of the following titles to properly rank them: Sins of a Solar Empire, Fable 2, Midnight Club Los Angeles, Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, Saints Row 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, Crysis Warhead, Ninja Gaiden 2, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and Prince of Persia. Had I spent more time with them, perhaps the above list may have appeared differently)

Movies

1. The Dark Knight
2. Australia
3. Blindness
4. Iron Man
5. Cloverfield
6. Burn After Reading
7. American Gangster
8. Tropic Thunder
9. Quantum of Solace
10. Death Race
11. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
12. In Bruges
13. Choke
14. Step Brothers

(I still haven’t gotten the chance to see a lot of well-received films from this year, like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Wall-E, and Frost/Nixon, so again, this list may have appeared differently)

Albums

1. Third (Portishead)
2. Vampire Weekend (Vampire Weekend)
3. Raise the Dead (Phantom Planet)
4. At Mount Zoomer (Wolf Parade)
5. Water Curses (Animal Collective)
6. A Mad and Faithful Telling (Devotchka)
7. Dear Science (TV on the Radio)
8. Vivian Girls (Vivian Girls)
9. The Seldom Seen Kid (Elbow)
10. The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV (Various)
11. The Odd Couple (Gnarls Barkley)
12. Ghosts I-IV (Nine Inch Nails)
13. Nouns (No Age)
14. Rock N Rave (Benny Benassi)

(There was some absolutely fantastic new music released this year, but I spent the majority of my time listening to older albums I missed from bands I discovered or rediscovered, including Sigur Rós, The Decemberists, Wolf Parade, Pixies, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)

Tracks

1. Water Curses (Animal Collective- Water Curses)
2. Magic Doors (Portishead- Third)
3. Kissing the Beehive (Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer)
4. Grounds for Divorce (Elbow- The Seldom Seen Kid)
5. M79 (Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend)
6. Transliterator (Devotchka- A Mad and Faithful Telling)
7. Dropped (Phantom Planet- Raise the Dead)
8. No Sex for Ben (The Rapture- Grand Theft Auto IV OST)
9. New World (Devotchka- A Mad and Faithful Telling)
10. Going On (Gnarls Barkley- The Odd Couple)
11. Threads (Portishead- Third)
12. Some Riot (Elbow- The Seldom Seen Kid)
13. Halfway Home (TV on the Radio- Dear Science)
14. Wild Eyes (Vivian Girls- Vivian Girls)
15. Mansard Roof (Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend)
16. Do the Panic (Phantom Planet- Raise the Dead)
17. On a Day Like This (Elbow- The Seldom Seen Kid)
18. Run (Gnarls Barkley- The Odd Couple)
19. Undone (Devotchka- A Mad and Faithful Telling)
20. Raise the Dead (Phantom Planet- Raise the Dead)
21. Crying (TV on the Radio- Dear Science)
22. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Weezer- The Red Album)

I dug a little bit and found out that that’s a newish feature available to WordPress.com users. It requires a paid space upgrade of either 5 GB ($20/year), 15 GB ($50/year), or 25 GB ($90/year) to your WordPress.com blog. Users have access to unlimited bandwidth, which seemed a bit suspect to me, but I got in touch with a WordPress rep and was assured that “unlimited bandwidth” really means exactly that.

So I bit the bullet, created a new WordPress.com blog under my existing site account, and dropped $20 on 5 GB of space, just so I could check out what the video service was like. I filled out my credit card information through a subsequent Paypal screen and my account was credited with the space instantly.

After messing around with the video functionality for most of the day, I feel like I can present a reasonable critique.

The Good

-It’s incredibly easy to use. From the ‘Post Screen’ of your WordPress.com blog, hit ‘Add Video’, navigate to the file with either the Flash or traditional uploader, and watch as it uploads and crunches your vid. You can also upload from the ‘Add Media’ screen in the dashboard, but it lacks the fancy progress bar that’s present from the ‘Post Screen.’

-I tested about ten different videos, all different bit-rates, resolutions, and file types. The system uploaded, compressed, and outputted eight of them without incident.

-Shortcode WordPress.com embed is a nifty feature.

The Bad

-The system had trouble compressing some .wmv files. I converted them to .avi in VirtualDub first, which WordPress had no issues with.

-Wordpress does a great job with documentation in general, but there’s very little in the way of documentation for the video player. It might just be because there’s not a whole lot of customization you can do anyway…

-There’s no way to customize the player itself; you’re stuck with the default layout and color. Which means you can’t get rid of the WordPress ‘W’ overlay. Which means it’s not practical for anything other than some minor personal applications. The only options you can change in the shortcode are the width and height of the video (w= and h=). It doesn’t feel like it has a very well-rounded feature set.

-Shortcode doesn’t appear to work on WordPress blogs not hosted on WordPress.com

Conclusion

For 99% of users, the WordPress.com video player is perfect. The uploader/processor handles almost anything you can throw at it, the whole system is easy and intuitive to use, and it creates an attractive and functionality player. Unfortunately, my major issues with the player preclude it from serving as a fully-functional video service. But then again, WordPress doesn’t claim it’s built to serve this purpose.

For the amount I’ve used WordPress over the years, I don’t feel too bad about sending $20 their way. I also now have a pretty useful video player at my fingertips whenever I want it.

But for some of the bigger, more commercial projects I have in mind that this service would have been extremely useful for? It looks like I’ll have to continue looking elsewhere.

Examples

Here are two videos I uploaded to my WordPress.com blog. I’m embeding them here with the included shortcode. These videos were provided directly from 2K and Valve, respectively. I haven’t compressed or edited them before uploading them to WordPress.com

BioShock PlayStation 3 Trailer (Standard Size)

Shortcode: [wpvideo rpEWDx0K]
Link to post, with forced size adjustment examples: rebellionmedia.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/bioshock-playstation-3-trailer/

Left 4 Dead TV Spot (Standard Size)

Shortcode: [wpvideo LaWm5JN7]
Link to post, with forced size change examples: rebellionmedia.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/l4d-tv-spot/

The most recent post, “Friends Like These”, on Duncan Fyfe’s Hit Self-Destruct concerns itself with the believability and limitations of NPCs. He uses a game that’s fresh in all our minds, Fallout 3, as a means of example, first considering the general NPCs scattered throughout the D.C. Wasteland, and then specifically the various companion NPCs, both human and non, that can accompany the player.

The crux of Fyfe’s argument is such:

Any NPC is believable to a point, and as soon as their scripted routines are disrupted all the flaws become quickly apparent. Bethesda largely prevents that from ever occurring, except, inexplicably, in this case. It’s a technical issue. The companions can’t be programmed to exhibit a convincing array of responses to all the emergent possibilities conceivably generated in an open-world playground. Games aren’t able to simulate human behaviour at the level which Fallout 3 requires to be consistently credible.

This is a point that I’ve personally been struggling with for some time. The question that remains is one I posed to Fyfe: Is this truly a technical restriction or a limitation inherently present in the medium itself?

Let’s imagine, for arguments sake, that we can create a game with perfectly photorealistic graphics. Let’s also imagine that any and all NPCs in said game have somehow been programmed to react realistically and with a full range of responses to anything the player says or does to them. Of course it’s debatable whether or not we’ll ever be able to accomplish either, but this whole scenario is purely hypothetical for a reason.

The characters we interact with in this imaginary futuristic game, will we somehow treat them differently than how we’re inclined to treat NPCs currently? They may be capable of exhibiting a full range of human emotion, but can we actually empathize with them? Or love them? Or hate them?

My guess is no, and that it’s an inherent limitation in gaming. We will continue to recognize that these NPCs, no matter how believable within the confines of the game, are still non-sentient. They may be programmed to have a rich and extensive backstory or to interact in a meaningful and enduring way with the game world or the player’s own story, but we will never consider them even remotely human. It’s because they exist in the world only during the time when we’re actually interacting with them; we don’t really care what they’re doing during the moments we’re not talking to them or during the moments we’re not trotting off together into combat.

I realize it’s probably in poor form to conclude by contradicting myself, but it bears mentioning that we have begun to reach a level of believability, even sympathy, with our NPC interactions, as Fyfe himself points out. How many of us refused to harvest the Little Sisters? Or felt remorse over killing Colossi? Or sought to find the most diplomatic solutions to Fallout 3’s moral quandaries?

Are we all being conditioned in some sort of modernized Milgram experiment? (Not so much Milgram’s hypothesis with regards to the acceptance of authority, but more of the experimental method itself: could a human inflict pain on a completely believable AI?) When will a game developer force us to torture or kill an NPC we’ve grown to “love” over the last fifteen hours of play? We have games in which the player is penalized for acting evilly. When will we have games that punish the player for making a decision that’s morally right?

http://fuckyeahsharks.tumblr.com/

Alternatively, you can attempt to set your date on fire, however this may result in jailtime if there are too many witnesses present. If she manages to escape before being engulfed in flames by fleeing the restaurant/movie theatre/nursing home, I guess that works too.

2. Speaking of physical pain, try stabbing yourself in the eye, throat, or ear with your salad fork. If you’re feeling particularly courageous, try using a spoon instead.

3. Recite The Aristocrats.

In Spanish.

Unless she actually speaks Spanish.

4. Casually mention that you were visiting a nursing home earlier that day. When she inquires as to which of your relatives or friend’s relatives you were there to see, correct her by saying “No, no, I was just scoping out the ladies in case you were into geriatric threeways.”

5. Provide an accurate and exhaustive account of when, how, and from whom you received each of the sexually-transmitted diseases you carry. If you’re not certain you carry any sexually-transmitted diseases, you should provide her with a urine sample at the dinner table. Better safe than sorry!

6. Ask your waiter to bring over a whole stick of butter and bet her $20 that you can’t eat the whole thing without puking everywhere (be sure to emphasize “everywhere” when you say it; you want to conjure up images of The Exorcist).

7. Invite her to the live musical rendition of 2 Girls 1 Cup, which you naturally have advanced tickets for.

8. Talk about your World of Warcraft guild raids non-stop.

9. Anything involving a nursing home really.

10. Here’s a technique if you determine very early on in the date that you’re not particularly fond of the girl: Pretend you’re being very gentlemanly by holding her chair out for her as you two are seated for dinner. Right as she bends to sit, quickly pull it out from under her. Laugh uproariously as she picks herself off the floor and give yourself a pat on the back as she storms out of the restaurant.

If however, she casually laughs it off, you should strongly consider marrying her.