BrainHurtBoy...2

Was going to buy Tales of Xillia, but chickened out and ended up spending sixty bucks on a three-volume set of Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, instead. I regret my choice.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-31-fear-is-the-path-to-the-dark-side KotOR 2 is, to me, easily the high point of the IP, much more so than Star Wars or Empire. When I finally got Bao-Dur to put on the sick facepaint... One of the most memorable moments in gaming, for me. The KotOR 2 cast has to be my favorite from any game, ever. But God damn those last two hours. God damn them to hell!

Playing a lot of Shin Megami Tensei IV, but tomorrow I'll pick up Tales of Xillia and, at long last, Crusader Kings II. I'm considering grabbing Fire Emblem, as well, but am worried it might be too much to properly ration.

The opening scene to Chungking Express. There are many incredible scenes in this movie, but the tone set in this scene, compounded with the pillow shots of the muted, starless sky above the Mansions, along with the forced-Gestalt, pseudo-pointillist perspective realized through deliberately limiting the viewer's sense of continuity establish the moods of longing, ambition, quietly smothered emotion, and pathetic sadness that pervade the film. You owe it to yourselves to watch this movie.

I've played, like, a single hour of D4, though I own it. I have a shitton of free time, these days, and will continue to have free time for about a month longer, but for some reason I can't coalesce the energy to play any game other than Shin Megami Tensei IV, right now. I'll hopefully finish it before October 8th, though.

Anyone notice the weird, meritocratic, Randian "play-to-your-biological-strengths" thing in Monsters University? It was in the Incredibles, too. Is one of the Pixar writers a hardcore libertarian, or something?

Question. Spoilery. Followed by non-spoilery comments. The action wrote a check the plot couldn't cash. How was Man of Steel good when it lacked any sort of internal consistency? Look, I often like movies that are "just for fun" or "just for entertainment". I don't think Man of Steel was trying to be that sort of movie, but that's aside from my point. Can't movies have good or great action while actually making sense on their own terms? Iron Man did it. The Dark Knight and (sort of) Batman Begins did it. X-Men: First Class did it, I think. We can't excuse movies from internal incoherence by saying they're "just entertainment"? I think Star Trek had the same problem as Man of Steel, in this sense.

These sorts of tensions bear out relentlessly wherever there is enormous disparity of wealth. Brazil is a rising power, but Lula and Rousseff are treating a post-colonial country like a European one (just like India and South Africa are). Brazil's "rising power" status has been given to it by economists and academic analysts of various stripes; the BRICS countries are meant to represent the success of the "developing world", when really anybody with a shred of reason can recognize that the form of "development" seen in said countries is obviously not sustainable on a global scale. The objective conditions are here. "The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership." - Leon Trotsky P.S. Helloooooo, NSA.

Oh, God, Pacific Rim looks so good. I will be so disappointed if it doesn't work out. I ache for western kaiju.

30385 http://www.geoguessr.com?v=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 JESUS that took a long time.

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It's bizarre seeing the game gradually get less and less interesting. The first version at least looked interesting in its weirdness. This seems generic and boring, to me. Also seems a bit similar to some levels in Resistance 2.

Perhaps it's because I live in a largely secular city (read: not College Station), but that idea is completely foreign, to me. I live in a Western culture and never picked up on the notion. Localized, I suppose.

Kingdom Hearts 2. Okay, but really: SMT: Nocturne, FFX, half of Dragon Age: Origins, Final Fantasy VI, probably Bioshock, HL2, Xenogears, Dark Cloud 2. This topic makes me really wistful, for whatever reason. I powerfully associate games with their openings and endings.