Masters of the Universe is all about Teela and Spoilers

 I am a sucker for good animation and I love the stories told and watch them unfold. Even if a lot of them are very cringy and have sketchy transitions. Some say it is for kids, and to those I say pox upon you. Animation is just a different medium of storytelling, just like books, games, comics and whatever else we can get our grubby mitts on. He- Man is no different. It is an amusing show that plays fast and loose with the rules of what the main protagonist is capable of achieving. It seems mostly related to throwing rocks and punching things hard. The animation was simple and clearly based on a limited budget and those weird rules american television imposed upon shows. Characters rarely died, suffered any fatal wounds and pretty much every episode was a standalone story that never went anywhere. Just like kids playing with the toys the show intended to sell.

Skeletor attacks the castle Greyskull in his latest plot to become a master of the universe. By tricking He-Man into stabbing the source of magic and opening up the conduit by impaling Skeltor. Then a brawl for the power of magic ensues and He-Man absorbs the power with his sword, which splits in half as he himself reverts to Adam and is turned into black smear on the castle floor. Skeletor vanishes as well and Teela is turned into a bit of a bellend and Man at Arms is punted out of the castle and Teela quits. Now magic is dying and if magic goes, the universe ends.
First we have to turn the heroine into a ruthless mercenary with a fairly pleasant and likable companion that brings a bit of levity to it all.

Eventually Evil-Lyn join in on the action, because magic is her thing and because she is evil, and evil is always looking for more power. 

Teela is turned into a snarky asskicking asshole, I suppose it is an improvement from what little I have seen of the original show. It was never televised in Norway as far as I can tell, probably for the best, localized dubs tend to be of inferior quality. A bit like nails on chalkboard, plust it often deprives children of the joys of being exposed to another language. Anyhow Teela has turned into a generic fanfiction stereotype. Moody, broody, with a tough exterior that kicks ass, is snarky as heck and quite unlikable. Sure the secret of Adam being He-Man was kept from her, but apparently the betrayal turned her sour. Why he kept the secret though is just due to bad writing in the original I dare say. Anyhow this type of character is so common these days it is getting stale like milk. Oh and they killed He-Man in the first episode to make the story all about her finding herself and becoming a strong female hero. To make the story even more generic, they killed off Orko, because that is edgy, right? From the mouth of the writer no one liked the character in the first place.

Man at Arms just kicks ass and is a caring father and at least twenty years older than before.

Cringer is just being a coward and is mostly ignored, which is for the best. I have no idea why these shows insisted on a wacky animals sidekick with a speech impediment. 

Evil-Lyn shows signs of becoming good, until Skeltor returns. Now if the writer keeps this up, I expect her to eventually backstab Skeletor and claim the power for herself. Because the age of a bulky purple man with a skull for a head is problematic. Female empowerment I suppose. Oh and Adam returned from the afterlife, only to get penetrated from behind by Skeletor's phallic spear.

Aside from killing off characters and making the story into one long continuity that is intended to put a coherent end to the Masters of the Universe, or is it a new beginning? I honestly can not tell. I have to give the animation praise though it is absolutely gorgeous and the action is top notch. The minor villain turning people into cyborgs is fairly interesting. The body horror potential itself is just fantastic. The scenery is also breathtaking and I hope the animation studio was paid handsomely for their superb work. All in all I was entertained and the show is not bad, but the main character leaves a lot to be desired.

Njål #Zaceron Signing out

Back of the head love tap

 Tropes are good, tropes are bad, but one trope that really grates on my nerves is one that is as old as humanity itself. For some unfathomable reason heroes always have to be knocked out and captured. If there is action it is virtually guaranteed to happen. It is a very convenient way to put the hero at the place of the plot required to progress the story. In stories such pesky things as physics and logic take a back seat to reality. I know this fact well, especially since I’m an author myself. In stories getting a good knock on the back of the head is always enough to put someone in a well timed coma. Yes according to human biology and the sturdiness of the human skull, getting hit in the back of the head might in fact be lethal. The good old blackjack used to give someone a good knock on the noggin can kill a human, or at least cause irreparable damage and bleeding wounds, the kind that requires stitches. Essentially there is always a chance that any sort of way to make a human fall unconscious will have a fatal outcome. We are all remarkably fragile after all. This also ties into the old cliche of the damsel in distress, with a chance of a villainous dialogue once the character wakes up, or a conveniently slow death trap to escape. You have seen it, I have seen it and quite frankly in my opinion it is getting very old. I mean seriously I grew up on this crap and have been guilty of doing it myself. There are two comics I grew up on that is especially guilty of this. One is Conan the Barbarian, he is way too often knocked out at the end of a story as the perky female of the story walks away with the loot. The other series is that of Tintin. The story of a perky adventurer and his white dog, allegedly he is a journalist, but I’ve yet to see him write an article. Unlike the dynamic duo of Spirou and Fantasio. The reason for this rant is that I recently watched Resident Evil on Netflix and this trite and slock plot point happened towards the end. Also sorry for spoilers of the most cliche franchise ever. are you in Bergen at the right time and love comics? Visit the Raptus comic expo this year.

http://raptus.no

Njål Signing out #zaceron

Army Men - Plastic, War, Murder and Fun?

 Hi my name is Niall #zaceron

Army men is a very weird franchise that is perfect for making a game series about. Which is exactly what 3do did for better, or worse. The concept is stupidly simple. Green american plastic soldiers fight tan soldiers that look identical, sometimes grey ones and blue shows up as well. The series starts off with animated war times propaganda videos, before throwing the player into a pre rendered world of plastic men murdering each other. Just like children does in a sandbox. Eventually a portal is opened up to the real world and toys are brought into the mix. Because giant laser beam firing teddy bears is the natural enemy of toy soldiers after all. 

The thing most people recall is that one level that takes place in a kitchen, where the soldiers can melt into molten goo on a frying pan. Flamethrowers also do this job really well, it is not a war crime if there is no Geneva convention.

Losing usually plays a defeat video, where the soldier is peeling potatoes and looking depressed, or other maniacal downers. Remember to peel your meal!

The Tan army is led by a mustache twirling evil man named Plastro, an evil toy that is an amalgamation of various despot stereotypes.

The two first games are fun but seriously flawed. Essentially the camera is fixed, but the player can roll, crouch and go prone, which is very frustrating. Eventually they condensed the experience into army men 3d, a third person shooter on the PlayStation. Which works well enough, is competently made and fun, despite the amount of junk information and obviously cut content. Seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to spawn pickup crates out of bounds?  The biggest issue I personally have with the series in general are the numbers of escort missions. The only reason I could complete anything in army men 3d was being able to park the VIP in a corner, then clear out the map.

Eventually 3do churned out more games in the series which all suffer from various levels of quality. Such as the fairly fun and frantic army men air attack. Where the player is a helicopter pilot picking up things and dodging incoming enemy fire. The last boss on the other hand was just a chore and I said no more of this.

Sarges heroes that did an attempt at making them all look like action movie heroes and act like stereotypes. It worked fairly well and many people have found memories of said games.

If their attempt at telling a decent story worked, or not is purely subjective however, I will give them an A for effort. 

However it was quite clear that the model quality began to notably drop a lot. The overall polish went down the drain along with the graphics and game play. For some reason they decided it was a good idea to make a on rail shooter, starring a super soldier made from DNA from heroes. It is a rather rubbish game where I have to run in circles to avoid enemy fire, while aiming roughly in the right direction of an enemy hoping to hit them. The RTS game was apparently just fine, only ever tried a demo of it.

Music is the worst and most disappointing aspect of the whole series, if they’re not using classic music loops, they’re mangling war film themes from decades past, or it is just some random thirty second music drop. A stark contrast to the fairly decent sound effects that serves their purpose. 

It is quite clear that at some point it all became an uninspired attempt at milking the brand until the company eventually went under. The concept of non descript plastic people waging war is not a bad one and really makes modelling simple, since every model just need a shiny plastic texture. The one thing 3d has always emulated really well. Njål Signing out

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince, so I Will Perfect My Magic as I Please - review....

Hi, my name is Njål #zaceron.

I do love me some good entertainment, asian or otherwise. In this case I am taking a bit closer look a manga with a very long and overly descriptive title  Tensei Shitara Dai Nana Ouji Dattanode, Kimamani Majutsu O Kiwamemasu, which roughly translates into. I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince, so I Will Perfect My Magic as I Please. Which is exactly what the munchkin of an overpowered protagonist does after getting reborn as royalty. As in all stories of this very videogame like nature, it has all the usual bells and whistles. Such as the main lead dying brutally in the first page. He was an underleveled pitiful time to practice magic. After all, only a spoiled rich noble has the time to study magic, let alone practice it. The title summarize the plot hook of the story after all.

Thus far the male lead has kicked the arse of everything he has encountered and used his prodigious magic skills to own the heck out of every encounter. Needless to say, to read this story for the plot is practically pointless, since it is filled to the brim with action. Infact everything and everyone in his increasing harem is a powerhouse of attractive female murder machines in attractive outfits. Whom all lust after the young boy, surprisingly enough it has nothing to do with his status as an affluent prince, I can only assume that is a bonus. The main draw of the manga is the really dynamic artwork, which makes the intense action scenes really pop out. Yes I simply enjoy this series for the action and the monster designs.

The characters are so powerful there really is no noticeable stakes at play. However it means that it just stays true to the title. It is indeed a story about a peasant reincarnated as a prince, that practices magic, subjugates demons, while attracting attractive action girls, and rip reality a new orifice. I can not complain about the translation either, it is competently done and due to the dialogue, it avoids the usual trappings of spamming names over, and over again. I do love strong female characters, magic, monsters and good art, so I can not complain about much, aside from the overly long, complicated and descriptive title. Seriously, I thought the idea behind a title was to keep it short, sweet and snazzy. Then again who am I to questions something that works. Oh and it is probably not safe for work and will gleefully put the women in erotic poses and situations and the main character is disturbingly feminine looking.

Signing out

Brigador is a blast

 Hi, I'm  njål #zaceron and I love giant robots, destruction and explosions. Brigador cover all of this and more. On a huge space colony, great leader has died and nature abhors empty spaces. So as a Brigador my job is to commandeer heavily armed vehicles, causing mayhem, while working for a shady gang that wants control. Revolution and invasion requires me to break a bunch of eggs to make a marvellous omelette. Everything in front of me on the battlefield is one explosion away from becoming debris. Yes everything can be smashed, crushed and blown up. It is very rewarding to boot, since everything is worth money. Currency that is used to unlock weapons, mecha and lore. Yes there is a story in Brigador, but there is a lot of it. However very little shows up on the briefing screen, so unless I actually look it up on another menu, I'm left guessing. 

The camera is set from an isometric angle and the vehicle uses tank controls. Which can be what makes or breaks the experience for most players. Mostly due to aiming and navigating. However it is easy to get around with a bit of presidency. Mecha comes in all shapes and sizes. From small frames, hardly bigger than the squishy men running around, to sturdy tanks, everyone's favourite flavor of chicken walker and hover vehicles. They all operate a bit differently and brings special abilities to the table. Each comes equipped with two ammo using weapons as well. Which can be restocked from destroyed enemies and dispenser towers, that ironically enough is a bonus objective to detonate as well.

Essentially every map is a sprawling city filled with small squishy humans and various mechanical enemies out for blood. Yes, I dare say that this is pure arcade action goodness to the core. It is hard to argue with fun after all. 

Outside of the main campaign there is an arcade mode where there is a ridiculous amount of things to unlock. It is also where the loadout is fully customizable and more fun weapons can be bought from the money gained when completing a mission.

The whole experience of Brigador is set to a wonderful retro style synth soundtrack. The only real drawback to the whole experience is how most missions boils down to destruction and navigating through the scenery. Given the price point and the polish the experience brings to the table, I have little ground to complain.

Tomb Raider 2013 is a forgettable game

Tomb raider is a very interesting series, one that has lived a long life costing on puzzles and the busty female lead Lara Croft. An alledged archeologist, which spend most of her time trashing temples, tombs and whatever else she happens to visit. Tomb Raider 2013 rebooted the franchise with a more down to earth looking Lara. However instead of unrealistic body anatomy and big boobs, they cranked up the sadism level to over 9000. However designed the every elegaorate and lavish action pieces kept comming up with new ways to hurt the her badly. Honestly I am not impressed with these action pieces at all. They're more tedious than anything and the amount of punishment I have to endure is just uncomfortable. The game suffer from a serious case of trying to be a Hollywood blockbuster. One that outstayed its welcome.

Tomb Raider is a contrived slog to play through and I can't suspend my disbelief, because of the silly action set pieces. There are only so many times I can be impressed by running through a burning building that is collapsing around me. Just like Uncharted, they go on for way too long. When comparing this to Romb Raider 3, or 4, something is clearly missing from the later instalments. Originally the series has some action and a lot of odd enemies to kill, but they were far and few between. The main challenge and enjoyment came from exploring the map and finding the way through elaborate puzzles and devilish platforming. However Tomb Raider 2013 just threw most of that out the window andmade the story more coherent. Somehow it is just as stupid as ever and absolutely bonkers. Filled to the brim with all manner of plot contrivances and cutscene incompetence. I also find pretty much the whole game forgettable. 

However the game looks gorgeous and a lot of care went into the design. Marred by the very remarkable music and a bit boring setting. One would assume that an ancient kingdom full of ruins from various ages would be more interesting, yet it is not. The obsessive use of quicktime events does not help me to enjoy it one bit. You see, I decided to play through it on stream over at my twitch channel, to compare it to the playstation titles. So far I find the playstation games better, despite how tough and rough they are. In this case it is not due to nostalgia, since I never owned any of the titles and have only seen bits and pieces of them. So the designers has this obsessive need to have me mash a button to operate a crank, or to pull something and that is just a pain since I can't toggle on an autofire function.

All of these big publisher titles are starting to become too similar to each other. Uncharted, Shadow of Mordor,  Assassins Creed and many other sandbox series where I can climb like a monkey on color coded surfaces. Automatically latching on to the surface when close enough is a treat, compared to the very rigid and precise Tomb Raider 4 system, even if it look very clumsy and extremely floaty. When lara sort of flails and floats onto an edge it gets a bit weird when she is magnetically attached to the surface. They sure put a lot of effort into the numerous brutal ways Lara can and will die. A bit too well animated. It is a bit gruesome to see her impaled through the skull, struggling to pull herself free, then expire a second later

I know at least one thing though, the world of Tomb Raider is an insane one filled with crazy people, people that can survive almost anything, and somehow can climb everywhere. Not to mention the elaborate deathtrap that somehow shows up all over the place. No matter where in their world I go, there is a man made murder contraption left by an ancient civilization. Which does not exist in our world. However this did not deter me from designing a workable rolling boulder trap which is triggered by opening a door. Anyhow, It's not at all clear how some of the bad guys get around. Many probably climb and crawl the same way Lara does, but it's not clear, and some seem to appear in places that would be impossible. The biggest offender is the scavenger at the very start of the game. He doesn't seem to be taking the same path through the caverns as Lara at all, yet spawns behind me as I crawl through a small space. Yeah, this game is very mediocre and a disappointment.

Njål signing #Zaceron

Profanity and world bulding

 All humans swear, all of us has an array of naughty words that exclaims discontent, pain and such. For example here in norway, my home country, christianity is the origin of pretty much all the swear words. Hence the name, I swear upon god, jesus and the holy ghost, or the devil to varying degrees of intensity. Words for naughty bits are also used as profanity, but for now let's look at the religious angle and how it will eventually tie into the topic of world building. Context is important after all.

Like I just mentioned, my vocabulary in Norwegian is built upon judeo Christian figures, I mainly use those when angry, or irritated. When I accidentally stub my toe into a table leg,  my response is usually "faen". Which is just another name for the devil living down below according to unreliable sources. Regardless, it is more or less the Scandinavian equivalent of shouting the dreaded F word, because bad words apparently makes people bad. "Think of the children." Is the usual argument, that or you're going to burn in hell.

A fellow I grew up with swore like a drunk sailor, one without a notable vocabulary, or creativity. He would quite often shout "faen i helvete faens fitte." Roughly it translates to "satan in hell, devils female reproductive system." I'm fairly certain he turned out alright. 

Essentially old folks from generations past have a very constrained relationship with these words and strive to avoid uttering them, or use less crass versions. I guess it is considered rude and unclothed to swear, which is probably the origin of the widespread bleeping of these words in televised media. Even youtube strikes down monetization when a video uses bad words too often and too early.

Anyhow, we have words like the Devil, satan, hell, anything that has to do with the devil and his home. We also take the lord name in vain. Technically we're not, because god is a title, not a name. Jesus is a very common word to shout when surprised.

Naturally this all ties into religion and our world, however in a world not unlike our own, or in a different reality there is no Chrisianity. If one of the biggest religions known to us is absent, swearing would, and should take another direction. Many authors are kinda unaware of this and just uses hell, because of familiarity, regardless if it makes sense, or not. The same holds true for various idioms and phrases. Seriously a lot of common phrases only make sense on our earth, some not even then.

Judge Dredd is one of these series that put a lot of effort into making the universe have its own vocabulary. Good God, holy Christ, Jesus jumped up Christ on a pogostick just does not hold up. Let alone putting the cart before the horse in a world with no equines. Though referring to a person being damned, and burn in hell does carry quite a bit of familiarity and does not require an ounce of brain power to use. Just like dropping the f bomb to be edgy as heck.

Essentially what I am getting at is this. A world without Jews and Christ needs profanity that fits the setting, and that all humans swears, some just more than other.

Njål #zaceron

Signing out

Aggravating architects

Architects is a rare breed of people, few can make such epic buildings that play an important part of our lives and the city skyline. Yet they are extremely rigid, and incredibly petty. Ot is almost like they are stuck in a grey box made of glass and their way thinking is very square. As an example of this, just look at the Oslo skyline down by the sea, next to the central railway. It essentially look like kids playing with wooden blocks and Lego. However the Danish produced plastic pieces at least comes with colours. Yes, I dare say that these professional building designers are suffering from being colourblind as well. Since almost everyone insist on grey, bland and boring concrete, huge glass panes and practically no decor.

From what little education I have on the subject due to the school I went to, I can only assume the design philosophy is directly inherited from funkis style. Where the materials are supposed to be part of the decor and the shape language. The sad thing about this is that this pragmatic style actually had a lot of round shapes and actually focused on a well thought out room solution. Modernist building designers does not it seems. A lot of these newfangled squares are not well thought out at all. Seriously, these monstrosities are hostile and dominating the city scene with their oppressive presence. To get back to the point at hand. When an architect focus on the inherit qualities of the materials and the surface is made up of a substance such as concrete, there is no room for colours. Only fifty shades of concrete. It honestly seems like a lot of architects loves concrete and cement to an unhealthy degree. I believe they're called by the affectionate nickname concrete evangelist. Because like a person quoting scripture, they are convinced their way is the best way, and if you dare to question their choices, or raisea complaint, they will go on the defensive. Research also indicates that the modernistic movement is fueled by a hate for classic styles. Yes, at one point in time decor, intricate shapes, and sculpted surfaces was a thing.

Bergen for example has a lot of old and insanely decorated buildings. I do believe this is known as the empire style due to how every structure look like a small palace. This is too much and sign of excess, but also a showcase of skill. If nothing else these buildings are wonderful to look at and makes the city a lot like walking through a cozy museum. The decor and the colours improve peoples lives and brighten the day. Concrete kills the mood and is depressive, oh so terribly oppressive. It seem like the current thought process of the modern architect is to loathe the endeavours of the past, by building buildings that mangle the city aesthetics. Where am I getting with this rambling you might ask, it is mostly due to my fascination with architecture and getting my voice out there. Because I find most architects to be a buch of eself absorbed bellends that only care about their stylistic impressions, while raining the reason people come to a city in the first place while patting themself on the back and giving the middle finger to colors.

Njål signing out

Vikings in the Middle world - Valheim Review

A viking is sent to Valheim and in the name of Odin, said viking has to fight nature itself and overcome some really big bosses. Valheim is one of the nine realms in Norse mythology, the home of the Vanir which lives under the world tree Yggdrasil. A world between afterlives it seems. In this case it is a procedural generated environment, composed of several unique interconnected biomes. Each one has a new resource and enemies to fight against. From a dark forest, to a boggy swamp, up a frozen frigid mountain, of windswept plains. Each location in Valheim is visually beautiful to gaze upon. Thrust far it is missing waterfalls and lakes though. However that is a minor nitpick if anything.

This is Helga Hjulkaster, she is a strong viking woman made of true grit and muscle. Her goal is to sacrifice various trophies on an altar in the middle of a biome. Which will call up on a mighty warrior that has to be beaten in combat. In order to have a chance, I have to take charge and start collecting wood and stone, which I can craft into rudimentary tools. After all, I can not cut down trees with my bare hands. I tried and it did no damage whatsoever. While I was busy chopping wood a tiny creature made of sticks and stone assaulted me. The rude little bugger fell swiftly to my axe. Then I fell to the tree, brought down on top of me through gravity. Yes falling timber hurts anything until it lays still on the ground. This includes other trees, vikings, enemies and anything not made of stone. After I gathered enough wood, I began to cobble together a flimsy hut, with a thatched roof and a bed made of straw. Which serves as a spawn point and it gives a well rested bonus. But only if there is a fireplace nearby. However a badly placed one will slowly choke me to death, or get blown out during storms and the rain. The next step to survive in the wild was to hunt down a huge amount of wild boars to craft myself a bow and a workbench upgrade. Then I stocked up on arrows and killed a whole flock of frolicking deer in the forest. Their bloody skulls made for an excellent trophy to summon the guarding spirit of the meadows. A huge lightning infused elk. A fierce battle ensued, but eventually I won the battle and I got myself a huge head to bring back to the starting area. The totem allows me to call upon the spirits power for a while. The beast also dropped a horn that must be used to make a primitive pickaxe. Because bronze and tin ore is needed to make copper.

What I just described is the general gameplay loop of Valheim. Romp through a biome, then fight a boss, which drops the ingredient needed to farm for upgrade materials in the next biome. This is a survival sandbox after all. Luckily hunger does not kill me, but a properly fed viking regain stamina a lot faster and has a huge health pool.

Combat is a simple and smooth affair. I can block, parry, shoot enemies and make things to throw at them. Bringing home the bacon is easily done with more than one player, through the easy to use multiplayer system, where I can run a public, or private instance. The caveat is that a password is required, so at the moment no random stranger can join a public server. For an early access game on Steam I have not encountered any game crashing bugs, or anything that would ruin the experience for me. The only issues I have encountered thus far is the game stopping up a second, or two when saving the world. There have also been several cases of boats getting destroyed the moment I exited a portal. Biomes being a bit out of whack.

There are a couple of things I would really like to see in the game. Sailing leaves me to the mercy of the four winds, until a certain power is gained. However I would really love to have oars in the boats. A true and tested invention that would be very easy to implement. When the wind is going the wrong direction, it is faster to push the vessel by swimming behind it, and climb aboard when the stamina runs out. And some sort of brass, or bone horn. Because it sounds badass to charge into battle tooting my own horn. The music is fantastic, especially the sound effects are top notch and sets the mood perfectly. Graphics convey the moody and enhance the atmosphere brilliantly. The simplified art direction makes Valheim run fantastic and look better than most other games of this nature on Steam. 

Njål sand

#zaceron

A leasion in bad game design. Firo & Klawd

 Hello, my name is njål and Let's talk game design. Fire & Klawd is a game released on playstation in 1996. It was a game  friend of mine had and all I know is that it was  difficult experience and that has not changed. The story is about a street running cat that got frisky with some crime lords money and the gorilla cop that he has teamed up with to catch the crock. The rest is some dead ends, silly cutscenes and weird enemies. Everyone is armed and dangerous, even the blind, the infirm and the old.

From a game that can be played it works as intended and is kinda fun, but very flawed. First let us take a close look at the mechanics involved. The camera is always at a fixed angle when the player moves about. In this case everything is painfully isometric, the biggest flaw by far, more on that later. A second player can join in, otherwise the partner is controlled by the AI and sometimes shoot at the enemies, so the bugger is not a hindrance. When alone the two character can be switched in between. 

The fat donut chomping cop gorilla Firo, or the blue street cat Klawd

Aiming is done by pointing in the general direction of the enemy and shooting many times, then hope that the auto aim does the rest. Unless the enemy is too close, then an unreliable melee attack is performed. Mechanics like strafing are non-existent, but I can duck under bullets, unless it is a blast from a rocket, or pesky grendes. Yes explosives work well, both for me and the enemy. Which is why I like to hoard grenades and get hurt by them. Surprisingly enough, there are homing missiles to be found as well. Picking up is done the moment I touch a pickup, such as posters and special ammo. Due to the arcade nature of Firo & Klawd, there is a rather arbitrary high score and collecting extra lives. A sorely sought after resource, mostly because it is stupidly easy to get hurt and falling usually lead to instant death. Something often caused by ladders, since no one told me as a kid that pressing X and holding it at the right spot and at the right angle made the protagonist descend. The fixed angle does not make this action any easier. 

Jumping is somewhat pointless but possible for better or worse, some secrets and glitches can be exploited by this fact. In theory there are multiple path choices, but they all lead to a dead end. The moment I waltz out of the precinct I can enter the squad car which takes me one direction, or I can enter a pub further down the street, then there is the subway station. These options are poorly marked though. Which means there are two separate endings to unlock. However New York traffic is murder.

The first and most irritating issue is the isometric illusion, an  effect that leads to inconsistency when interacting with anything. Especially multiple floors and heights are hurt by this fact. Combine this with the fixed camera angles and off screen enemies for maximum player torment. It is quite clear to me that the developers never considered a lock on function, outside of the shooting gallery sequences. Knowing what I'm shooting at is too much to ask for after all. A couple of places the geometry is designed to kill me, like walking across a plank over instant death mud. 

Seeing the early attempts at 3d in action is fun, despite the very flawed animations and the terrifying character models. But it is clear that they did the lest they could. For some very odd reason they insisted on animating the cats ear piercing when he walks, but omitted shadows. Early 90s 3d is very wonky indeed, however the prerendered sprites looks quite okay. I mean they have put a serious effort into details, Easter eggs and making everything look distinct. Clearly the team behind the game had a vision. One marred by self imposed limitations and poor controls, but I digress.

There is also at least one level where I only see the crosshair and random fiends emerges, crawling out of the woodwork like maggots. These sections are helped with the addition of actually having a lock on that is visible.

It is somewhat fun, and fairly forgotten game that is a pain to find, which is most likely why the angry video game nerd has never touched this one. He really should, but I highly doubt he reads the mail.

Njål signing out

Streaming, The bad, the weird, the spam

Streaming is a very interesting and daunting prospects and few actually makes it. Personally I've been trying very hard, but I've yet to succeed. However that is not the topic this time around. People, let's talk about people, if these so called viewers can be called that. Cost of the people dropping by are nice, kind and interesting. The kind I want to keep around. Every now and then I get greeted by some truly heinous cretins. The kind I can only assume kick puppets and pulls the wings off flies.

One of the earlier streams I had was one where I worked on a cosplay prop. Nothing unusual there, but then a random stranger dropped by and wanted me to cut myself with my knife. Yes, some bell-ends will ask for such things.

Then there was this decapitated butt hole that started off throwing insult, after insult. A ceaseless discharge of rude statements. Needles to say I banned him and slagged him off like the kitchen refuse he was.

Some gets their kicks from finding ways to have me say racial slurs out loud, through obfuscation. Something i will not do. Not only is it rude, but it is against human decency and the terms of service. I will not go out of my way to have my service agreement terminated.

One of these peons opened up with a follow, which is always nice and welcome. Then he proceeded  to call me a dirty old man and several other, gendered insults. I'm certainly not a dom, let alone a sub.

However most of the people joining are simply spam accounts. Which try to sell me a service. The gall of these throw way accounts. Want to become famous vista our scummy page and buy fame, with your hard earned fortune.

Not everyone is rude though, some are just weird. I am pretty sure that one user I had on for a while was not being brat up by his father.

A ruddy shame that erotica of any sort is ground for being suspended, some people really like those double meaning innuendos. 

A lot of these curious creatures and cretins could easily be solved by simply having a verification needed to join. This might have the unintended effect of excluding children. But I'm not convinced teenagers should spend all day on twitch. Which makes me a bit of a hypocrite. Regardless there really need to be a system in place that needs out non human accounts. It would help a lot, especially on YouTube and twitter. Because on virtually all of these social media platforms creating an account is free, and only require a throw away email address and fake credentials. Which can be acquired easily at no cost at all.

My point is this don't be an anonymous dick that says things which most people would punch you in the face for.

Njål signing out.

Censorship is rubbish

Free speech alternatives to twitter, youtube, and facebook is a lie. At least publically available services. Because all of these services are run and owned by private corporations with way too much power. A bit like a maniacal evil genius that controls the strings. USA have this amazing thing called free speech, you might have heard about it. Essentially american can freely slag the government without being prosecuted. 

Meanwhile a service like youtube is free and makes their own rules whatever they are. They are terrible at consistency after all. Sure they are well within their power to do that, despite how inconvenient it is for everyone else. However these big technology companies have the power to eliminate any competitor, because they al use the same infrastructure and is beholdent to US rules and regulations. The other day parler got the boot, due to the recent kerfuffle in DC, after an influx of angry people. Gab had the same issue, but they managed to find a workable solution it seems.

My question is this though. Is there a way to host and run a service without hiding it on a private deep web service? Such as having a service run from a server in Uganda, or some such?

Is it possible to make a blockchain version of Twitter where there is no central server and service that can be killed by disgruntled censors? Gab apparently did this, after slagging of the concept for a while. They changed their tune when the big American tech companies gave them the axe. It seems a tad ironic that a service has to be hosred outside the land of the free, to avoid censorship.

The underlying question I have been pondering. Does excessive censorship actually work? Or does it just increase the problem in the first place, due to the inherent distrust garnered by hiding something.

In my personal experience, nothing makes a person more curious that what they are not privy to. Besides not does not fix the underlying problem, it simply hides it under the carpet. There is a reason the term skeletons in the closet exist as far as I know. Regardless this excessive censoring of speech due to political oppinions is what all despotic regimes does. From the third Reich, to Stalin.

Where am I getting with this ramble you might ask. To this I say, censorship of speech is bad, leads to dishonesty, and dissent.