Merry Christmas

"we made it, WE MADE IT"

"son we just crossed the street"

Seems this game will be awesome, but son beware the cry of the Witch !!

HD in English here

Zombie Apocalypse

I read some reviews about Far Cry 2, and as I liked its predecessor (hmm may be not much the Sci-Fi part, the monsters were much less convincing that the humans), I began to be interested.

But although the game exteriors seem to be really gorgeous, it also seems to fail in a number of ways:

• Character models really look like some cheap plastic. This was not a problem in a game like Doom 3, because monsters were much more important than the (very) few humans, but here it seems odd in this recreation of Africa. Also Interiors impressed me much less than landscapes,


• No real story, enemies annoyingly respawning when you should have killed them minutes ago, and cheap tricks such as malaria bouts in the middle of action, or jeeps needing repair much too often to be real, enough to be annoying),


• Long, long trips without real action / story, save maybe (over and over) the same checkpoints, over and over,


• It seems you only see soldiers in the map, no villagers at all in 50 sq km ?


• Why having a real map in your hand if this is a magical map ?

This does not impress me at all. I don't mind not super-high realism (even if it was advertised), but I mind getting bored but a non-existent story and long minutes of nothing.

And now for something completely different: The game I'm eagerly waiting for now is: Left 4 Dead, from Valve, of course.



Being in the middle of a zombie movie as one survivor really seems to be a great idea, especially if the zombies are of the speedy kind as in 28 Days Later. Having the game deciding the mood and drama depending on how you are doing so far is a feat. If it works, it is really the beginning of a new era in gaming.

What Ubisoft seem not to have understand is the fact that a video game (or a movie) is not about reality, and the world it paints for us is only a prop. Wanting to have the maximum realism at all costs is a mistake (and especially in the case of this game, because it is hindered by many other bad game decisions). Players (or film viewers) don't want realism, they want the illusion of realism. This is not the same thing at all.

Shazam

I just tried the free Shazam application on the iPhone (available through the AppStore), and it's really really great (even if I don't know if it could be really useful). In case you don't already know what it does, here it is:
You point your iPhone microphone in the direction of any music playing, wait for approx. 10 seconds, and it gives the title of the track, album, and even the cover... Some people commented that it could only recognize mainstream, but it's not true: although it failed on Neurosis, Asphyx, and 1349, it had absolutely no problems with random songs of Emperor, Zyklon, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Marduk, Celtic Frost, or Arkhon Infaustus.

I don't think this list can count for only mainstream ;-)

Interesting times

I just bought the last Bloodbath album: The Fathomless Mastery , featuring the return of Mikael Åkerfeldt. For me, it is a really good Death album.
All this will be followed, by:

• Primordial on November 9th


• Enslaved on November 18th


• The last Satyricon album, The Age Of Nero, followed by the tour and the concert on November 23th


• Morbid Angel + Keep of Kalessin + Marduk on November 28th


• Cradle of Filth + Gorgoroth on December 2nd


• Asphyx and Hail of Bullets on 11th and 12th December near Amsterdam


• The Pagan fest (with Aes Dana, Eluveitie, etc...) in Paris on December 20th

Do I really have to choose ?
This was the good. And now the bad and the really really ugly: Vorkreist should have played near Plaisir this Week-end. But the sucker who is the director of the venue cancelled the gig because of possible troubles (sic) with Metalheads, whereas he organized another fucking French song concert took place near the venue the very same evening.

My new Phone

You already know of course, I could have titled this My New iPhone. I have the new iPhone 3G since Tuesday, and I have only one thing to say about it: This is really a killer. No need for a user manual, internet navigation and mails as simple as on PC - no much more simple in fact, SMS dangerously simple to write and send, google maps (even with satellite view, and very very fast !!!), plenty of cool apps for free or a few euros, and oh it can be used as a phone too.

How I was happy to click on the youtube icon, search for Emperor, and be able to watch almost immediately one Wacken video of Inno A Satana (among many others, of course).

1942

No I'm not blogging about WWII history. You just should check out Dead to this World, a really excellent Black / Death Metal band from Bergen, Norway (of course, what would you expect ?). And 1942, from their album First Strike For Spiritual Renewance is really a masterpiece (and it's available on streaming on their myspace page). Iscariah, the leader of the band, is a former member of Immortal.

And on WW II-related subjects, you should also check out the first album from Hail Of Bullets, a Dutch Death Metal band which shares a lot of members with Asphyx. They will tour in Europe and USA beginning on October, and I may go see them in London ;-)

As for my Scandinavian trip, it was very very very rainy but cool (and not only with the not-so-hot heat). I met the ultra-cool members from Blood Tsunami and saw them performing on the small but well-known Oslo venue Elm Street Bar. And talked with them, and shared a few beers - hmm more than a few, a Friday night in Oslo, just think about it !!!.


Also I was able to see the famous graffiti made by Euronymous, in the basement of the late Helvete record shop, which was in the 90s' one of the meeting places for the Black Metal scene in Norway (the so-called "Inner circle"). It has nothing to do with Black Metal anymore now, as it has become a bakery, amusingly called Var Daglige Brod (our daily bread). The owner was cool to allow me to see it, because of course normally you do NOT visit this place.


I also went to the Neseblöd records shop, which holds loads of extraordinary local or historic Black / Death Scandinavian metal stuff (which I'm sure you can only buy there), but unfortunately it did not accept credit card, and I did not have enough cash on me when I went there :-( I must go there another time (maybe for Inferno Festival, next April he he).

Of course as the average tourist I also visited some less-metal places like Fjords of course

BTW, you may be interested to know that the Bergen-Oslo railway line is a feast for the eyes for approx. 7 hours, so don't be afraid to take this by daylight if you are in Norway, and also it is not a tourist-specific line, you will not encounter a lot of tourists there).

But also random cool people, be it in Norway or Sweden.

Tattoed for ever

I bet you already know this, its everywhere on the web: A young Swiss sold a tattoo made on his back by a Belgian artist to a German art collector.

For 150 000 euros.

The owner has the right to exhibit this work of art three times a year, to sell it.

Oh and after the his death, the tattoo can be removed from his back and give back to its last owner. If I'm right, it is called a flayed ;-)

And yes I did not forget about my trip to Scandinavia, but all in due time ;-)