I Have Not... Come This Far... To Die Now

Awesome Left 4 Dead 2 trailer.

This guy needs to get a life, maybe

However, at the end he did not seem to suffer from playing Left 4 Dead during some 8 hours on a row approximately ;)

Left 4 Dead 2 is not an expansion

There have been a lot o whining lately from Left 4 Dead gamers about the fact that Valve announced a new Left 4 Dead 2 game in late 2009. They say they feel that they were cheated because the new game should have been released as free DLC, and that Valve has abandoned Left 4 Dead support and development. Some of them even say that the game is unfinished or unplayable.

Just immature whiners.

Valve do not owe them anything:

• The game is very much playable, on the contrary it's one of the games I played the most I think


• Valve already released DLC and SDK for Left 4 Dead. The Survival Pack is a great addition to the game. If some people don't like it, that's their problem, but saying that it's nothing just because they prefer to play versus (or play versus only) is twisting reality. Left 4 Dead is not only Versus (even if Versus is cool). And for those who say that releasing new Maps (or even adapting existing Maps to a new game mode)is really zero work, they should begin to Map themselves


• Valve has the right to develop a new game when they want

Beside, judging by the additions in A.I. Director, game engine and gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2, it could never be an expansion on the first game. Expansions are when you add limited new content and stories without changing the game engine itself. here we have (and I think it's just the beginning):

• New special infected (and even new special normal infected) with the consequences on the A.I. Director, not mentioning how the Versus mode will evolve because of that. It's much more than only tweaking the characteristics for one class like in Team Fortress 2.


• The new evisceration / gore effects in the game engine (beurk !!)


• New Dynamic weather, and dynamic path, all handled by the new A.I. Director

Without Pride Mourned The Loss Of Freedom

Steingrim Torson was the talented vocalist of the Norwegian Black Metal band Celestial Bloodshed. He was shot to death in the stomach by his best friend, who happens not to remember why he did that...

Revelations of the Black Flame

An update about the upcoming 1349 album: It is still not available on amazon, but it seems it has been already released on iTunes. However, you can already listen to samples of the album titles and buy them (or the whole album). I will still wait for the CD ;)

This is a long time...

...without any post. Considering the excellent gigs where I have been the last months.

Shining was playing at Glaz'art in Paris (a space increasingly used for extreme metal shows) on March 2, with support from Sarkom and Koldbrann. Shining was as good as ever. And if you really want to know, this time Kvarforth did not cut himself but burned himself with cigarette butts.
.
However, I was impressed by Koldbrann, a raw Norwegian Black Metal band, faithful to the beginnings of the genre. You should check their 2006 album Moribund for example, after seeing them I bought it from amazon of course !!!



And in the middle of April I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Inferno Festival in Oslo. This is a great festival, this is (very well) organized indoors in a building in the center of Oslo with two venues. Obviously, this is a Norwegian festival, so you have to expect a lot of Black Metal. Such as Carpathian Forest as headliners, ending the festival on the big stage !!! A sick performance !!


Or Pantheon I, their performance on the small stage was excellent !!

By the way, Koldbrann were there too, and on the big stage!! Their performance was really really good, with a support from Kvarforth himself.

It was their big day, they ended destroying on stage a part of their gear. But I can assure you that their whole set was not only showoff, this band is really very good.

There were a lot of other Black Metal bands there, such as Krypt, Code, Root, Kampfar, Troll. I was even able to see King Ov Hell without corpse paint on stage, performing with Sahg. A great festival, the only downside being the fact that all is expensive here in Norway ;)

Revelations of the Black Flame

Judging by the first who were lucky enough to be able to hear the new 1349 album, it seems that it will be another extreme achievement of extreme Black Metal !!

All indications are that 1349's forthcoming CD, "Revelations of the Black Flame" (Candlelight), will still sound like Satan hammering on a ax borrowed from Dimebag Darrell, as vocalist Ravn screeches all manner of abomination and apocalypse.