The Devil Wears Prada

Yes, another "chick-flick," but it was actually good and satisfying--it makes people feel good about themselves at the end. At the same time, I am not so happy with the movie, precisely because of the same reason--they made the whole movie a suck-up to general public.

The movie was good in that it showed me a world people envy. It takes us to the world that we only dream of, have all the fun, and at the end, make a stupid excuse about being good with where we are. While this does help people be happy with their lives, I don't like the fact that in the process, they downplay those who actually work their ass off for that something superficial, called fashion. Although I do keep myself on one side of the line, I do think there is more than just "looking good, be super-expensive, and be stupid" to fashion leaders. They are a form of art, and they drive the evolution (or revolution, if you will) in its own area. We are all enjoying the benefit from those fashion designers--whether we know it or not--and I think we should appreciate it, instead of making fun of it at the end, and say bye-bye cold heartedly.

Saying all this doesn't mean I chase designer brands around, wasting my precious money on them. If I were a rich, single man--which I hope to be before I get married--I would go out and buy those brands. But I just started earning money, and I still have tons to pay off. So, until that day, they'll just serve as inspiration for my clothing choices... Hope you don't use so much money on them, thinking they are "da shiz," like someone I know...

Some of Anne's outfits were... just too much. And it seemed like
they really wanted to show her big rack shacking
while she was running around, which was quite alot... -. -

Heavenly Sword

ZOMG! If they make animation just like this, maintaining the same quality and atmosphere, I'll dig this. Seriously.

Resident Evil... Racist Evil?!

When Microsoft played Capcom's crazily anticipated game, Resident Evil 5, at this years newly renovated(?) pre-E3 press conference, I was shocked. Not of the quality and the intense and gruesome atmosphere alone, but also with how this iteration of world's favorite zombie massacre game may ignite fire on something we're all too familiar to: racism. Why? Watch the trailer at the bottom, and you may see what I mean... or not, like one of my close friend. (Hint: Handsome and well-fit white guy vs not-so-welcoming-looking native Africans.)

When I told that above-mentioned friend about this, he, as other noble Resident Evil fans, defended the title fervently, stating if this one was to be questioned for being racist, then previous game should have been treated the same way. (Resident Evil 4 had a white dude from America hacking and slashing his way through Spaniards.)

However, it seems like I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Check out this posting on GamePolitics.com. Apparently, a very electric debate, if you will, on racism in this title has already been started, and it's not all pleasant to read what people say.

When I say that this game may spark the racism discussion across fellow gamers, I am not accusing Capcom or its title of promoting racism in anyway. I think, just as film industry has gone through long time dealing with racism issue, games should go through the same if the industry proves that it's impossible to learn from film industry's lesson. Racism within games isn't one of the topic I have ever thought of before, and I think many other gamers are the same. It needed something to be brought into spotlight, and Resident Evil 5 is that something. I hope game industry will wisely deal with this issue, and learn a great deal from it... and surpass where game industry is at...where ever that may be.

UPDATE: I guess I should add that being so realistic graphically (and in other parts as well) also brings more responsibility on developers' shoulders. People will start noticing things, small or big, they have been ignoring simply because they were so primitive. (In the same sense as how fairy tales or stories from Bible are overlooked of some of their intolerable settings if it was done today.) This is actually a good thing, in my opinion. This shows us that game industry is developing, and we are going somewhere. Through all these hardships, I think game will grow so mature that it will be accepted by general public just as cinema is today.

Project..What?

Have you guys seen this? Originally shown back in 2005, this largely hidden (or at least not-well-marketted) title, Project Offset is looking terrific. While all the other titles are focusing on visual fidelity only, this game (while not neglecting it) seems to focus also on motion blur capability. Take a look at their tech demo yourself.

I am really excited about this game not because it looks fantastic, but mostly because it finally brings believable, most natural motion blur that we see every second of our lives into its game.

I've been a believer that motion blur is the key that will make graphics more believable, and it seems like it's finally coming to reality.

My only beef is that even with that fantastic motion blur capability, they still use that unrealistic blade trail to signify attacks (which, I believe, should be used rarely, to make something stand out...as with the movie V for Vendetta). But hey, they can't get it perfect all at once.