inFamous- a Sucker Punch Production

Haven't been on here in a long time... Sorry 'bout that. I've been busy plugging away over at Defenders, and haven't really thought about this blog in some time. Oh well, here goes- what has been consuming my time over the last 4-5 days? inFamous, a game by cult favorite developers Sucker Punch.

For those unfamiliar with Sucker Punch, they have a very small library of games, so I don't blame you. They made the surprisingly awesome Sly Cooper series, a trilogy about a raccoon descending from a line of raccoon thieves- the first game is all about getting back your family's book of thieving secrets, the aptly titled Thievius Raccoonus. A childish premise, but quirky and entertaining no less. SP has been inactive until recently, when they declared the development of inFamous, a superhero game in the same vein as Fable, in that you get to choose between good and evil based on what actions you chose throughout the game.

You are Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger in Empire City. After unwittingly delivering a bomb to the heart of the Historic District of Empire City, you wake up with superpowers based around electricity. Starting out, you can survive large falls (in essence, you can't die from jumping off a building), shoot bolts of lightning from your hand, cause a "Shockwave" (a concussive blast that can flip cars and send people flying) and draining electricity from any source of power- a lamp post, parked cars, or one of the power lines that litter the city. Eventually, you learn how to snipe (Precision), grind on power lines and railroad tracks (Induction Grind) and, my personal favorite, fire massive rockets of electricity that cause spalsh damage, plus an extra spalsh if the guys happens to blow up. Many more are unlockable, from offensive to defensive, and each carries it's own role in the game.

I am a man impressed by details, and one that stuck out is that they explained everything. EVERYTHING. Cole can climb buildings like Spiderman. Why? He was into "urban exploration" before the blast. He can also jump over cars, climb just about anything in the city, and sprint for miles without stopping. They provided a semi-logical explanation for his powers, and even made getting new powers a plausible experience. The city's power grid is almost entirely out, and by re-connecting high-voltage underground transformers (by hand) your powers increase from the sheer force of energy flowing through you.

Plot: 10
The story is excellent, in my opinion. Betrayal, love, time-travel- all your basic plot-points are covered. The story is told through short cuts scenes and scripted gameplay, a'la Half-Life. Appropriately, the cut scenes are more like a comic panel than movies (in most cases) and are well drawn. It has enough twists that you may not see these things coming. Also, the plot goes one of two ways, depending on the path you choose (Good or Evil).

Graphics: 10
Solid graphics, without the ridiculous amount of bloom found in EVERY GAME nowadays. Even for a 720p game it still looks great. Cole actually changes appearance depending on the path chosen, and noticeably too. The lightning powers are awesome to look at, and the explosions are nice as well.

Sound: 9
Good to see they didn't sell-out and put T.I. as the sole soundtrack. Very atmospheric, changes with the circumstances, and never overbearing. The voice-acting is good (not notable, but sufficient). Essentially, the standard you've come to expect with next-gen consoles.

Mechanics: 8
Don't get me wrong; on the whole, the game plays smoothly. There are just a few points around each district that glitch horribly. For example, you lose the ability to walk in any direction but off a building, or you might find that walking through certain walls is not a problem for the Human Lightbulb. It's more of a nuisance than anything, but otherwise the game is superb. The aiming is great, the platforming is great, just the random glitches.

Atmosphere: 10
Do I feel like a superhero when playing this- kind of. Does Cole seems to be aware of his surroundings? Yes. Are people in the city aware of Cole? Yes. Does this feel like a city where a superhero might be needed? Yes. Problem solved.

Overall Experience: 9
Worth the $60, but not without flaws. A must have for current PS3 owners, but not a reason to buy the system itself.

Concert Preparations: Compiling the Perfect Playlist

With the first in our concert trilogy fast approaching (2 days out as of post), I need to kick into prep mode. There are certain things I make sure are set- rides, tickets, and homework, among other things. Entertainment it key as well, namely the music for the ride up and back. Last thing we need is a boring ride up, or the driver falling asleep from Thrash Deprivation. I sat down about 3 hours ago and meticulously crafted a playlist based heavily around bands we will be seeing, along with bands that are sonically comparable. Here it is.

(a * denotes a band on the bill for any of the 3 shows currently on the radar)

Accept- Balls to the Wall
Airbourne- Running Wild
Alice in Chains- Dirt, Facelift
Amon Amarth- Discography
Annihilator- Alice in Hell, Never Neverland, Metal, The Best of: Annihilator
Anthrax- Spreading the Disease, Among the Living, State of Euphoria, Persistence of Time
Anvil- Metal on Metal
Arch Enemy- Wages of Sin, Anthems of Rebellion, Rise of the Tyrant, Doomsday Machine
*As I Lay Dying- Discography
Atheist- Discography
At The Gates- Slaughter of the Soul
Austrian Death Machine- Discography
Bathory- Bathory, Under the Sign, The Return..., Blood Fire Death, Nordland I & II, Octagon
Behemoth- Demigod, Satanica, Thelma 66.6, Zos Kia Cultos
*Belphegor- Blutsabbath, Bondage Goat Zombie, Goatreich-Fleshcult, Lucifer Incestus,
Black Sabbath- Paranoid, Heaven and Hell, The Mob Rules, Dehumanizer
Blind Guardian- A Twist in the Myth
Bloodbath- Discography
Blue Oyster Cult- Agents of Fortune, The Revolution By Night
Bolt Thrower- Warmaster
Bootsy Collins- Back in the Day: The Best of Bootsy
Buckethead- Crime Slunk Scene, Buckethead and Friends: Enter the Chicken, Decoding the Tomb of the Bansheebot, Population Override
Celtic Frost- Morbid Tales
Chrome Division- Discography
Dark Angel- Time Does Not Heal, Darkness Descends
Dark Tranquility- The Gallery, Damage Done, Haven
Death- Human, Individual Thought Patterns, Scream Bloody Gore, The Sound of Perserverance
Death Angel- Killing Season
Deep Purple- Shades (Disc 2)
Demolition Hammer- Tortured Existence
Demons & Wizards- Discography
Destruction- D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N, The Antichrist,
Dethklok- The Dethalbum (Special Edition)
Dio- Holy Diver, Last In Line
Dragonlord- Discography
Dublin Death Patrol- D.D.P 4 Life
Ensiferum- Discography
*Epicurean- A Consequence of Design, V.II R.VI
*Exodus- Bonded by Blood, Shovel Headed Kill Machine
Evile- Enter the Grave
Faith No More- The Real Thing
Fastway- Fastway
Finntroll- Nattfodd
*God Forbid- IV: Constitution of Treason
Gojira- The Way of All Flesh
The Haunted- the Haunted Made Me Do It, Versus
Headhunter- Parasite of Society
High on Fire- Discography
Iced Earth- Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Tribute To The Gods, The Glorious Burden
In Flames- Colony, Clayman, Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance
Iron Maiden- Number of the Beast, Powerslave, Piece of Mind
Judas Preist- British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Painkiller, Jugulator
Kalmah- Discography
Kamelot- Dominion, Eternity, The Fourth Legacy, Karma, Seige Perilous
Kataklysm- In the Arms of Devestation, Prevail, Sorcery/Mystical Gate
King Diamond- Abigail, Them, Voodoo
*Kreator- Coma of Souls, Endless Pain, Enemy of God, Extreme Aggression, Hordes of Chaos, Pleasure to Kill, Terrible Certainty
Lacuna Coil- Comalies, Karmacode, Unleashed Memories
*Lamb of God/Burn the Priest- Discography
*Lazarus A.D.- The Onslaught
Led Zeppelin- Early/Latter Days, Led Zeppelin II
Lordi- Deadache, The Arockalypse
Marilyn Manson- Antichrist Superstar
Megadeth- Countdown to Extinction, Hidden Treasures, Killing is My Business... And Business Is Good!, Peace Sells... But Who's Buyin'?, Rust in Peace, So Far, So Good... So What?, United Abomination, Youthanasia
Mercenary- 11 Dreams
Mercyful Fate- Melissa, Don't Break the Oath, The Beginning
Metallica- Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All
Michael Schenker Group- Michael Schenker Group
Morbid Angel- Alters of Madness, Blessed Are The Sick, Covenant, Domination
*Municipal Waste- Discography
Nailbomb- Point Blank
Necrophagist- Discography
Obituary- Slowly We Rot, The End Complete, Xecutioner's Return, World Demise
Paul Gilbert- Solo Discography
Possessed- Seven Churces
Primus- They Can't All Be Zingers
Rainbow- Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
Riot- Thundersteel
Sabbat- History of a Time to Come, Dreamweavers
Scar Symmetry- Discography
Sepultura- Roots, Chaos A.D., Arise, Beneath the Remains, Schizophrenia
Shadows Fall- The War Within
Sigh- Hangman's Hymn
Slayer- Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss
Sodom- Agent Orange, Code Red, M-16, Persecution Mania, Masqeurade in Blood
Strapping Young Lad- Alien, City, The New Black
*Testament- Discography
*Unearth- The March
Venom- Black Metal
*Warbringer- War Without End
Wintersun- Winter Madness
Zimmer's Hole- Discography

Comment with any Suggestions!

Hypocrisy and the High School Mind

Hypocrisy is everywhere; everyone has been guilty of it at some point. However, this bugs me a little bit, and I need to get it of my chest.

Our school has a fairly loose dress code, but there are a few rules that I personally refuse to abide by, due to a lack of coherent reasoning behind them. Namely, the wearing of camouflage is banned district-wide, due to "encouraging militant and/or gang activity". That would make sense, if we weren't a 97% white school situated firmly between a long row of fast food joints and Suburbia. I'm not racist, so don't take my comments as such. If we were a 50% white, 50% black school, the likelihood of crime or violence would be much greater, more so if we were an inner city school. But what do our administrators hope to prevent with not allowing camo?

It's supposed to be the "banning of wearing 'colors'", if I'm not mistaken. Essentially, they are wanting everyone to stop wearing camo because that's a traditionally militant symbol. The funny thing is, we don't get in trouble for wearing all black. If the teachers see a group of students wearing black outfits with evil-looking designs or something of the sort, not a word is spoken. I'd think that would be the first thing on the chopping block after Columbine. Yet camo is banned. What if it's not a military pattern? What if it is hunting pattern, like Mossy Oak Breakup? That's not militant, it's hunting. (By the way, no popular company/department store sells a military camouflage pattern.)

The next one is the wallet chain. I wear one roughly 2 feet long all the time. If a teacher asks me to put it in my pocket, I do. But I will not take it off. Teachers haven't told me to take it off this year. Yet today, I got stopped by an administrator for the camo and got yelled at for the chain as well. I'm not a troublemaking student by any means, but I will fight this just for the hell of it.

One thing every administrator failed to notice was the fact that my new Watchmen t-shirt has a photo of The Comedian on it, holding a sniper rifle, with a flask sitting on a foreground table. Not a single person metioned it.

The administrator that originally busted me for it was in the office, and I was making copies in there. She came up and asked me how many people had also talked to me about the shorts. When I told her "None whatsoever", she looked appaled. She brought in another vice principal to see, an with both of them there, I said this:
"Well, no one has talked to me other than you about the shorts and the chain, but it seems like you didn't notice the most egregious violation I'm wearing. My shirt clearly shows a man holding a rifle, pointed out the window at a crowd. There is also a flask sitting on the table near my waistline. Not to mention, not a single person in over three weeks has noticed that I wear my (I pull back my hair to show) headphones all day long."

Their collective looks of shock were priceless. Honestly, so worth it. They were speechless, so much so that all they could do was walk back to their offices, heads slightly hung in unadmitting shame.

I will be wearing the shorts again next week.

Concert Month: A Preview

Alright, so all last year I bitched about how few good shows came around here: Gigantour (April) was in Louisville, Behemoth (May) @Bogarts in town, and Children of Bodom (Sept./Oct, I think) was in Columbus. And that was about it. It sucks being a metalhead resident to Cincinnatio, due to an unspoken "Fuck playing near Ohio- Cleveland sucks enough, fuck the rest of them" pact taken by most notable bands. Matal Masters was closest in Philly and Cleveland, and Iron Maiden was in Cleveland as well, a show only our devoted Maiden fan Jake went to.

This year is looking right the hell up, folks. Great shows, both festival and headlining tours, are headed within 150 miles of the good 'ol Nati. First up, we have the month of April. Headlining at the Madhatter across the river, Napalm Death are tearing up the (513) with support from Kataklysm, Toxic Holocaust, and Trap Them. That's the 13th. Then, one week later on the 21st, the No Fear Energy Tour hits Columbus- HARD. Lamb of God headlining to support Wrath, As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, God Forbid, and Municipal Waste supporting. This is a can't-miss-show for me, because I love LoG and MW, and the rest will be fun to see live.

May rolls through, and hits us like a brick. Back to back are Paganfest and Testament, both in town, both amazing live shows. I love Testament, and I love the Paganfest lineup this year. Then the Thrash show to end all Thrash shows: German legends Kreator are playing over Exodus, Belphegor, and newcomers Warbringer. If you haven't checked them out, I give my highest recommendations to fans of old-school thrash records like Darkness Descends and Bonded by Blood. Their debut was one of my top picks for 2008, and their new album due out this year shouldn't disappoint.

Alright, barring some scheduling conflicts, I can hit most of the shows listed, and I'm psyched as hell for them. If any locals are reading this blog and thinking of attending, comment of what shows you'll be seeing. I may see you there.

Scapegoating: In Reply

(This post is a response to The Mosh Pit's post about censorship.)

I must wholeheartedly disagree with you, Garrett. I don't see censorship as a major concern in today's more tolerant, liberal society. The far more important issue is that of constant scapegoating of vaguely controversial media, like music, movies, and video games. However, even that is coming to a bit of a finality. Still though, it is far worse for fans of these media than censorship because the majority of censorship comes from this baseless blame.

See, the art of scapegoating is essentially a means of deflecting blame to someone/thing/where else. For example, rather than admit their fault in the shambles they called an economy, post-WWI Germans were eager to blame someone else. Hitler came forward, spouting off about the Jews' supposed control of the banks and all the world's money and claimed conspiracy. Thus, in the minds of common Germans, the concentration camps were at worst a neutral issue in their minds; an "out of site, out of mind" policy, if you will. Things have changed in Germany, but the example remains as relevant as ever.

Parents began straying from traditional punishment-based parenting around the 60's and 70's, in an effort to "not become their fathers". However, once is came to punishing their kids for ill behavior, they were unwilling to take necessary measures. Their unwillingness culminated during their children's teen years, when the lack of punishment for misdeeds resulted in children everywhere (in the U.S.) taking an attitude of "You can't punish me". Teachers everywhere lost faith in humanity, parents lost control of their kids, and politicians looked (like they commonly do) for a way to spin a negative into a positive. In comes, first, heavy metal.

What could be easier to blame than a music teaching kids to question the world as it is handed to them? "We're Not Gonna Take It". "You've Got Another Thing Comin'". The "KISS Army". These kids are obviously the scum of the Earth, and violate every human right known to man... right?

Except that they dont. In fact, they go with tradition: when your reality sucks, do what you can to positively alter it. History supports me on this, many times over. Being American (and not having ever taken a serious World History class [not my choice, by the way]) I think I'll use American History to support.

Reality: A king 3000 miles away is taxing the shit out of everything you buy, making arbitrary rules just because, and making YOU pay for wars you aren't fighting.
Alteration: Form your own country after fighting your American ass off for it.

Reality: Economic sinkhole just opened up and swallowed the world market.
Alteration: Join a growing war that we (thanks to an attack on our soil) have a stake in, convert factories and such at home into a war economy, make money, end war by using history's first true "Super-Weapon".

But, of course, the blame is on metal, simply because it talks about issues politicians would rather we were in the dark about. The music isn't aggressive, it's violent. The lyrics aren't political, they're anti-government. The appearance isn't about evoking a good fear in fans or about attracting attention to increase record sales, it's about worshiping Satan. Everything is twisted, everything is distorted, and everything about us is EVIL.

Video games come along and, with each generation of consoles becoming "more realistic", the blame shifts to them. Jack Thompson made his entire law career (which is over now) on fighting video games. Suddenly, in ten years time, games go from cute little hedgehogs and plumbers to unstoppable killing machines and psychotic serial killers. Suddenly, they aren't games anymore; there is no entaertainment value to them. Now, according to politicans, they are "murder simulators". They are "death trainers". Rather than provide a means of stress release in a controlled, implication-free environment, they teach that the real world is just as the game world- without law, order, or punishment.

In this Digital Age when an artist can attract an audience no matter how controversial their work, censorship is not the problem. Blaming real world problems on entertainment media instead of accepting that the true nature of these problems lies with how children are raised is the REAL issue.

I have a twitter Now.

Yeah. So, not much to this one... I have a Twitter now. check it out: www.twitter.com/thetompkins

Wisdom Teeth, Delta Blues, and Droogies

Okay, so for my first major surgery in 4 years, I have three (luckily not yet impacted) wisdom teeth removed today and well, it wasn't as bad as everyone seems to thing it is. I took some Valium about a half an hour before my appointment, and was drowsy on my on my way there (I was driven, don't worry). I got there, and the went through the mandatory "Are you nervous? Do you need me to numb where I'm gonna place the IV?" thing and went into the operating room. The last thing I remember was the nruse saying something to the effect of "You're going to start feeling more and more relaxed until yo-".

Out cold.

I wake up at home,mouth stuffed with gauze, with only a minor headache and an insatiable craving for Vanilla pudding. Thankfully, one of the foods you're allowed to eat is in fact soft pudding, so lucky me. I started watching American Psycho, and it is a spectacular movie in much the same vein as Metamorphosis, a novella we recently read in AP English. I finished it, and watched possibly my favorite dystopian future movie ever, A Clockwork Orange. An adaptation of Anthony Burgess' legendary cult novel, it is by far one of the most twisted movies ever. Hell, less than 30 minutes in, Burgess/Kubrick manage to work in two completely logical rape scenes (I say logical in the sense that they don't fee forced in any way). I recommend both movies it you like twisted storytelling at its finest.

One other thing I did do in preparation was to download some eerie music to accompany my downtime- namely Blue Oyster Cult, The Sword, and Robert Johnson, the most legendary bluesman ever. With only one known song stretching over 2:59, his 29 original recordings are must-haves for aspiring blues guitarists. In general his music is above anything I have ever heard in terms of feeling, soul, and that sense of "He poured his heart into this song" that accompanies blues like a shadow.

It's been about 14 hours since the surgery itself and, other than a dull ache in my lower jaw and one loose stitch end on my top left, I'm actually feeling back to fairly normal.

Gods of Metal, grant me a way of convincing my parents that going to two concerts in Louisville two school nights in a row is a good idea?

(Post- publish: I apologize for the numerous grammatical mistakes in my last post, but the sedative hadn't quite worn off yet.)