Django Unchained. Simply Brilliant

A little while ago I got the chance to go see the new Quinton Tarantino film, Django Unchained, and holy crap was it a good one! I will admit that I have not seen all of Tarantino's films, only a handful of them, but I know enough about him to know that he doesn't like to scare away from what he wants the audience to feel when they see his films, and he has yet to disappoint me with the footage that I have seen of his.

The story is about a slave (played by Jamie Foxx) who gets the chance of a life time to go track down his wife, buy their freedom, and learn the ways of a bounty hunter, killing "white folk" for money. Now, being someone who is of African American decent, I cannot help but feel empowered watching these kind of movies. I'm sorry, it just happens automatically! I already find the history of slavery very interesting and something I like to educate myself on as much as I can, and even though this was very much so a Hollywood film, there were elements of the movie that I was actually really surprised to see in it. Now like I said before, Tarantino does not like to shy away from the details, and he does not in this movie one little bit. The amount of times that the world "nigger" was actually used in this movie was jaw dropping. I am not saying this as in it was jaw droppingly offensive, but as in "wow, this is what it was really like back then". Now I know that the word still uses the word in today's day and age, for multiple different meanings buy a whole assortment of people, but the way it is said in the movie is not directly meant to be offensive in the way that it is portrayed today. Yes, it was said with the meaning of inferiority in it, but it was such a normal thing back then, that whites and blacks used it in every kind of context. It is hard to say in words, but if you ever go and see the movie, listen to the way that they say the word and you will understand what I mean. It was a whole different world back then.

The last thing that I thought of after seeing this movie is just the changes in time in just a bit over one hundred years. Twenty years ago, this movie would have not been accepted at all to the general public. It would have been way to outlandish and totally offensive, but with the growing times, it has finally come into the light. This is what happened back then, we are showing it to you, deal with it. No more dancing around these subjects. They're being brought to the light and I think EVERYONE should be informed about it, whether its by a gun slinging, Tarantino western, or if it's even watching a documentary about it. Times are changing, and we need to change with them.

Out with the new, in with the old!

I am pretty sure that I am not the only one that has noticed this, but it seems with the whole "hipster" day and age right now is affecting more than just the social scene of certain individuals (which has now turned into a cult basically). But with the trend of loving underground, old school stuff that most people don't know about, it has spread like wild fire with a little twist on certain things. The topic that I am speaking of specifically is the oh so beautiful concept of steampunk. Now steampunk has been around for quite some time now. I have known about steam punk since I was kid (8-9) because my older sister was really into it in her teens, but I am sure it has been around for a lot longer than that. The concept of steampunk refers to the apparel of around the 1800's and everything is run off of steam power and gears. The art form of this is absolutely beautiful as shown in the picture below.

Now unlike the hipster scene, I am extremely excited that steampunk has started to reemerge in aspects across the spectrum. When I was a kid there was one game that I absolutely adored, it was called Syberia. It was a simple point and click puzzle game, where you play as a lawyer named Kate Walker. It takes place in a fictional French village and you have to go find the brother of the woman who you were supposed to close a deal with in the village. You must travel across Eastern and Central Europe in order to find him, but you quickly find out that there is more to finding this woman's brother than you first realized. So even if you are not a big point and click, puzzle gamer, I highly recommend just looking at some pictures of the game. It was released in 2002, but even though it came out more than a decade ago, you get immersed in the images and just the entire world as a whole. Quite a few hours of my childhood was spent in that world and I will never forget it because how magical and new it was to my eyes.

 

Trailer for Syberia

Now looking at more recent steampunk creations, one of the bigger ones that comes to mind is a game called "Dishonored" that just came out a little while ago. Now I have never played the game myself, but I have heard nothing but good things about it. You play as a man named Corvo Attano, who is a bodyguard for a legendary Empress. You later get framed for her murder and you have to become an assassin in order to seek revenge against his conspirators. (Definition found on Wikipedia) The one cool feature that is being shown in a lot of modern games today is that you get to choose your fighting styles, whether it is sneaking around unnoticed, hiding in the shadows, or in your face CQC.Choosing one of these approaches also alters the ending of the game. Which will you choose?! 

The steampunk world is vastly growing in popularity and I couldn't be more excited. It is such a beautiful world that can go in ANY direction, whether it is being a medieval assassin, or a now a days lawyer, trying to figure out a murder mystery. It will be interesting seeing what the future has in stock for the genre!

Counter Strike Global Offensive - Must or Bust?

 More info about Counter-Strike Global Offensive

Being the huge Counter-Strike fan that I am, I was a bit skeptical about playing CSGO when it finally got released. A lot of my friends were playing the beta and said that it has a whole different "feel" than Counter-Strike Source was, and considering the fact that I played over 400 hours of Counter-Strike Source and that I am relatively good at the game, I was scared to jump in the new. For those who do not know what Counter-Strike is, it is a first person shooter online game, where there are two teams, terrorists and counter-terrorist. The goal, depending on which team you are, is to either kill the other team, or complete specific objects given to you. I shall explain what those are in a bit.

 So after about 3 months after the game was released, I finally bought it and gave it a try. Playing the training tutorial was pretty good and the feeling wasn't THAT different, but at the same time I was throwing grenades into empty buildings and shooting spring loaded, wood cutouts of terrorist forces that slowly roll across the screen. After that, I was ready. Really excited to go at the world, I jumped on to a quick pub match (public match) on my favorite level from source, cs_office. It was chaos. People running around, shouting in their mics, smoke grenades going off and bullets flying through it with me dying instantly every 2.3 seconds, while I tried to buy a bloody pistol. The layout of office was roughly the same, but at the same time incredibly different! I remember all I could think to myself was "What have they done to my office?!" After about 20 minutes of me running around "trying" to get a kill and my score was already 0-17, so I gave up. I just thought I wasted $15 for a game that I really did not like compared to counter strike source.

 So I stopped playing it. It was only because of one of my friends, Zero, that got me to give it another chance. He kept pestering me to play GO with him that I finally gave in and said I would give it a second chance. But this time was different. He introduced me into competitive matches instead of pub matches. The difference there is that competitive matches consist of two, five man teams and you play 30 matches. You can play either hostage mode where terrorists try to stop the counter-terrorists from rescuing the four hostages being held captive, or search and destroy, where the terrorists try to plant a bomb at either the A bomb site or the B bomb site and the counter-terrorist either have to kill them all before they plant or defuse the bomb if it is planted already in a specific time limit. These game modes are also present in pub matches.

Now in order to play competitive matches well, you have to work as a team and estimate the enemies tactics. It is not about how many kills you get, but how many matches you can win as a team. Taking that one small detail away and adding the fact that you have to work as a team made the game WAY more appealing. You have to take your time and play smart. Sure, you still love getting the most kills on your team while also winning a match, but even if you are not playing that well, you can still have a lot of fun being strategic and helping out your teammates with where your enemy is coming from. I highly recommend trying at least one of the three counter strikes out there if you are looking for a good, competitive online fps, but remember, there are people on there that have been playing for more than a decade and they are going to be really good at the game. Don't be discouraged. It takes time, but practice and you will get better. Everyone started from square one at one point in their lives, you can become a pro too if you keep at it!

 The first time I played GO I would have given it a 3/10 for just it's pub matches (which is what I only played in source). Then playing it the second time around I would give it a 8-9/10 for a fun, competitive online first person shooter. Good job valve! And thank you Zero for getting me to go at it again! 

Boredom, it gets the best of us...

I know for a fact that I am not the only one out there that gets bored from time to time. When no movie appeals to you, no game interests you, and you have no desire to step outside into the real world. What do you do? Well I have found that most people, when they are bored, just surf the internet, hoping that some stray corner will entertain them in one way or another. Well, I may not have found it myself, but my sister stumbled upon probably one of the best boredom solvers I have yet seen. It is know as the Incredibox. Such a simple yet well thought out website that lets you create your own beats and jingles. I know this doesn't seem new to some and is rather quite old to others, but with the simple concept art of the Incredibox guy and as he changes his outfit with every beat, melody, or chorus, you will find yourself creating an infinite amount of combinations with its very own unique sounds. You can also record and upload them on the site and others can like it and drive its popularity up. $10 you will find yourself on there for at least half an hour fooling around with it. Give it a try!

Ready? Set. Boom!

Hello there my people!
So glad you could stop by and visit my little corner of the web. I am not sure how you ended up here and really I don't care, but I am glade you stopped by for you have stumbled onto an opportunity of a life time!.... Okay not really, but you have stumble onto something that may peek your curiosity depending on who you are. Now who am I you might ask?.... Who am I?! The name is Ethan Edwards. Also known as the BFG, Tropic-Thunder, and in my football days acquired the name Troy Polamalu for my long hair that stuck out of the back of my helmet. I am a 19 year old male who was born and raised in Ontario Canada and in the post that will follow this paragraph is a bit of who I am. From video games to movies to what ever is happening in life around me! So stay a while, and get ready... set....BOOM!