Ladies of Interest (12): Marina & the Diamonds

"I am Marina. You are the Diamonds."

I just have to use the momentum of her gig in Berlin a few hours ago to add another Lady to the illustrious group of the LOI. Because she rocked the house ;).

You can read all the biographical info about Marina Diamandis over at wikipedia, I'll just keep to my personal thoughts and stories and stuff. I saw the music-video to her recent single "Hollywood" a few months ago, and since I'm a sucker for pop-music it kept stuck in my head. Unfortunately not long enough to remember title nor artist. Lucky me went by a turned on radio at the doctor's and the non-geekess' flat and got the much needed info. Instant legal download of single followed. Infinite looping of the title did as well, very much to the displeasure of the flatmate. I discovered the ingenious "I am not a robot" and other songs of the 24-year-old Welsh girl - and the fact that her album was not out yet in Germany. Hrmph. Three weeks ago it was, I bought it and the Marina fever hasn't left me ever since.

The critics are very fond of Marina, Spiegel Online wrote a piece about her today. Her voice is just amazing, her album is a great mixture of fast tracks and ballads (I just LOVE "Numb") and since it's both mainstream-compatible and very special at the same time, I have no doubt in the predictions of her beeing the next big popstar. So I'm especially happy that I had the chance to see her perform in a small club today. Next time, she'll probably fill much bigger halls and I won't get the chance getting that close to her.

Speaking of close: Second row, right before the mike. Behind three guys one head smaller than me. So basically like one meter away from Marina, unblocked line of sight. [D&D-mode] That's threat range with a standard weapon (in fact, if I had stood a little more to the right, I would have succeeded in a touch attack when Marina decided to touch a few hands in the audience). [/D&D-mode] I definitely pays being an early bird. I swear she was looking right in my eyes (and mine only!) for a couple of seconds several times ;). Marina's outfit was surprisingly "normal" (compared to some very, very... strange ones I've seen) and she got rid of her sunglasses at the end of the first song (I hope I can show some pictures soonish, I let a norwegian guy in front for the first three songs to took photos; he gave me the internet-adress of the site where the pictures will be published). She performed all songs of her new album ("The Family Jewels", go buy it on amazon, it's just 7 Euros) with the exception of "Hermit the Frog", plus two older ones I didn't know (one a cover of "Starstruck"). It was phenomenal, the whole audience sang along most of the titles. After a few of the more exhausting titles, she replaced her keyboarder and played "Numb" and "Obsessions". Unfortunately she was done after one hour, including one encore. *sigh*

"I will definitely be back, I've got a soft spot for Germany." I'll be there (and selfish as I am I kinda hope, she'll not get THAT famous, so she will continue playing in small clubs like the frannz).

UPDATE: Thomas Olson was so kind to upload some of his pictures to flickr, one is shown and linked above. If someone speaks Norwegian, here's the article to the pictures.

Babsi 2.0

Guilty-Pleasures-Alarm! Auch wenn die Non-Geekess bisher als Mitschauerin schändlich versagt (weil nicht nicht in Berlin), komme ich meiner Pflicht nach, den Möchtegern-Models beim Kreischen zuzuschauen.... und ja, ich schau das wirklich gerne ;). Nur Final-Fantasy- und BSG-Board-Game-Sessions haben mich ein paar Sendungen verpassen lassen.

Zumindest hab ich mittlerweile auch eine klare Favoritin, die laut BILD-Insider-Informationen (die wissen ja bekanntlich ALLES! ;)) wohl auch unter den Top 5 sein, also mir noch ne Weile erhalten bleiben wird (wenn ich richtig gezählt hab, sind noch 14 übrig im Moment).

Hanna Bohnekamp (18) hatte ich schon seit der ersten Sendung auf dem Radar, doch heute hat sie sich souverän direkt auf Babsi-Niveau katapultiert. Folgende Szene: Die Mädels müssen schauspielern und nacheinander aufgebrezelt aus einem New Yorker Club kommend sich einer Verhaftung durch zwei Polizisten erwehren. Der eher niedlichen, zurückhaltenden Hanna (nach dem Umstyling heute auch rothaarig, echt Babsi 2.0) ist das Ganze etwas zu realitätsfern, entsprechend ist ihr Einsatz im Vergleich zu den restlichen schreienden und um sich schlagenden Mädels eher verhalten. Einspieler-Kommentar:

"Ich mein, wenn da Polizisten sind, die mich verhaften wollen, da schrei ich doch nicht rum... da.. da frag ich... ' Wo... soll ich einsteigen?'"

Haha. Geil. Wenn zur niedlichen Optik solche hochsympathisch-down-to-earthigen Sprüche kommen... DAS ist der Babsi-Faktor, den ich will! Go Hanna Go! Netterweise kriegt sie verhältnismässig viel Screen-Time, was mich hoffen lässt, daß was an den BILD-Gerüchten dran ist. [Ha, eben die originale Babsi in der Müller Werbung gesehen! Schön, daß sie immer noch gut im Geschäft zu sein scheint.]

Rein optisch find ich Pauline Afaja noch sehr ansprechend, die ist aber nicht auf der BILD-Liste. Schaut ein bisschen aus wie eine jüngere Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who: Martha Jones). Da es mit Sara Nuru erst letztes Jahr eine dunkelhäutige Gewinnerin gab, rechne ich ihr aber kaum Chancen aus. Mal schauen, wie lange sie bleibt. Sehr sympathisch finde ich Miriam Hüller, auch wenn sie optisch gar nicht mein Fall ist. Ich hab keine Ahnung, was die verhaltenstechnisch komplett unweibliche Stuntfrau geritten hat, plötzlich Model werden zu wollen, aber ihre deutlich kritische Haltung zu dem ganzen "Weiberkram" (O-Ton) passt super als Kontrast zum generischen Kreisch-Rest. Sehr sympathisch (zumal sie auch regelmässig die recht nah am Wasser gebaute Hanna wieder aufbaut), aber steht nicht auf der BILD-Liste. Schade, aber nachvollziehbar - so "richtiges" Model-Material ist sie nicht. Überhaupt nicht leiden kann ich die eigentlich gar nicht unhübsche Ego-Zicke Luisa, die gottseidank auch nicht auf der Liste ist. Drauf ist dafür leider die durchs Makeover noch mehr verunstaltete Neele (dürre, kantiges Gesicht, und nu noch ein Pony - grausam, wie Maria letztes Jahr). Bah nee, die kann ich nicht sehen.

Na mal schauen, was da noch so passiert. Bald guckt ja vielleicht auch die Non-Geekess wieder mit.

Ladies of Interest (11): Alyx Vance & Chell

Hmm. Cyber-Ladies again. Next one will be a "real" Lady again for a change, promise! (A certain neighbour of two certain Geeks in a certain show is certainly overdue).

Alyx Vance is the daughter of Dr. Eli Vance, one of the researchers of Black Mesa responsible for opening a portal to another dimension. Though Dr. Gordon Freeman could close the portal and defeat the alien invaders who poured through it single-handedly, earth came into the focus of yet another alien force: The Combine. So when some twenty years later Dr. Freeman returns, he has to rescue an enslaved earth. This time not single-handedly but with the firm hands of Alyx by his side.

Although Half-Life 2 is "only" a First-Person-Shooter, it was a revolution for the genre just as Half-Life was several years ago. Not only does it take the player beyond "normal" gameplay with some clever uses of the engine, but offers also a set of very believable characters and a thrilling story with an unique method of including the player.

Gordon Freeman (the player) doesn't speak (but is spoken to a lot). There are no scenes in which the player doesn't look out of his eyes and in most of them the player keeps moving control over him all the time. I really like that kind of "thrown-in-the-middle"-storytelling, where you have to puzzle everything together from several chunks of information throughout the game. And Valve did an excellent job of conveying the complex story and universe that way. I won't spoil anything, but Half-Life 2, HL2:Episode 1 and HL2:Episode 2 were an intense experience. So intense that I didn't mind to play Ep1 and 2 again after finishing with the build-in "audio-commentary" of the developers.

Valve does know how to develop and evolve a game. Take Alyx: She's a part-time supporting character in HL2, a very much needed ally in combat in Ep1 and a central story element in Ep 2. Valve did immense amounts of playtesting through all phases of the game(s), including behaviour routines for Alyx. According to the audio-commentaries at one point in development she went ahead of the player and asked him to hurry - resulting in a nagging character. Playtesters hated her. So now she's following the player and lets him move at his own pace.

Beyond that Gordon and Alyx develop a charming relationship (he's just a good listener I guess... ;) ). Hope that Episode 3 will be announced soonish.

---------

Chell (surname unknown) is maybe the daughter ("... It says so right here in your personnel file; 'Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned.' SHALL NOT BE MOURNED. That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny too.") of an employee of Black Mesa rival Aperture Science who visited her father on the annual "bring your daughter to work day". She awakes in a sterile testchamber and is greeted by a annoying female computer-voice commanding her to partake in a series of tests ("Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an "unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!") involving Aperture Science's portable portal technology. Soon she gets the device and faces mind-bending challenges involving the loveliest Weighted Companion Cube ("The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube cannot speak. In the event that the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice.") ever, neurotically sweet machine gun turrets and the ever-helpful ("The Enrichment Center promises to always provide safe testing environments. In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, the floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it.") voice of GLaDOS who got a morality core installed after she flooded the enrichment centre with a deadly neurotoxin to make her stop flooding the enrichment centre with a deadly neurotoxin. Also, there's cake. But the cake is a lie!

Portal is... undescribable. I played it again yesterday in one long run (3 hours with audio commentary) and I'm still shaking my head. GLaDOS is the most disturbed AI you can imagine (she's singing the now nerd-hymn "Still Alive" during the credits roll), the environment is a mixture between creepy, weird and hilarious and the gameplay is waaay cool. And challenging. ("Momentum; a function of mass and velocity; is conserved between portals. In layman's terms: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.") Everything for the cake! ("There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I even invited your best friend the companion cube. Of course he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends because of how unlikable you are.")

Half-Life 2: The Orange Box containing HL2, Ep 1, Ep2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 is a very good deal. Own it and be rewarded with hours of great gameplay. And cake.

Rise of the Adamas

[This is a loose summary of the key-events of our first Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game session. I'll try to not use any game mechanics terms since it's much more fun this way ;). The setup: President Roslin (the flatmate - who would've guessed that?), Admiral Adama (the non-geekess), Tyrol (the doctor) and Apollo (me).]

The fleet is in turmoil. Humanity's last bits survived the fall of the Twelve Colonies just to find itself on the brink of extinction by the hands - or claws and missiles - of an all-open cylon attack group! A basestar and three raiders are attacking Galactica - panic rises. The Admiral declines to call Martial Law though that would've been a much more funny exposition. ("The cylons attack! FRAK! I don't know this female president yet, but I'm pretty sure she's not helping much. Better get full command of the whole fleet..."). Tyrol mounts a cannon and damages the basestar. The first cheers are silenced when Galactica gets hit and the Command Center is blown to smithereens - no way to tell those Vipers where to go! Thank the gods that no civilian ship is in range and Apollo is out there in a viper ("Hm. The Raiders are attacking Galactica instead of me... Look how they miss again and again... I think I'll stay right here, not endangering myself and my precious viper. I'm much too pretty.")

[stuff happens, that I don't remember]

6 undefined distance units (UDU) from Kobol - the fleet has jumped two times yet with travelling only one unit per jump... is the Admiral sabotaging the journey and choosing the wrong jump destinations? - the situation is much graver. Two basestars have popped up and are sending wave after wave of raiders and heavy raiders to galactica - this time threatening civilian ships! Though brave Apollo is able to shoot lots of them down due to his superior piloting skills, flight is the only chance of surviving. Since Roslin's chickens out of risking a fourth of the population with a preemptive jump, Apollo has to shoot down even more raiders, buying more time for jumping preparations. Of course he then has to crash land his viper into the launching bay and rush into the FTL-room to start the (still kinda preemptive-ish) jump into safety. Phew. Had to leave some of the fleet behind, but that's just the tip of the frak-berg...

4 UDU before Kobol, Admiral Adama comes to an epiphany: He kinda likes the Cylons. Hell, he probably even is one. He tells the whole fleet at once, is executed immediately and wakes up in a resurrection chamber. Smooth! Thank gods he's still cozy with the humans and sorta phones it in, not using the full arsenal of cylon-bad-assery. To brighten the day, he leaves a message for the humans: There's a real bad ass sleeper cylon agent in the fleet who just got activated. And it's either Roslin, Tyrol or Apollo. Dun-dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnn.

Everyone sleeps with one eye open since that optimistic new premise. Newly promoted Admiral Lee Adama and President Roslin are pretty sure that Tyrol is the Cylon because the last ditched rescue mission [I can't remember what crisis-card it was, so I'm going for a rescue mission] reeks of engineering sabotage. But since it could have been the agents of the Old Man as well or even destiny itself, no one dares to put him into prison. No Cylon-attack at the fleet between two jumps lure humanity into a false sense of security.

About 2 UDU before Kobol the frak hits the fan. Due to one Zarek's intervenion Roslin has to give away presidency and after a short struggle chooses Admiral Apollo, who now holds all the military and political power in the fleet. Guess who's a cylon? Since Apollo's former framing and sabotaging attempts didn't seem to come to fruition, he decides that this would be the perfect time to reveal himself as the Cylon agent and blows himself up. Thus damaging Galactica's defensive capabilities and leaving the fleet defenseless without their finest pilot in the middle of a massive Cylon attack and the knowledge that they trusted the titles of both Admiral and President to their sworn enemy. VERY smooth.

The reunited Adamas try to beat Galactica and the fleet to a pulp by sending more and more ships into the fray but underestimate the power of the gods: 12 (TWELVE!!!) Cylon raiders are just able to damage (!!! NOT EVEN DESTROY!!!) ONE lousy viper. In an act of desperation Tyrol is able to somehow activate the FTL-Engines and brings the fleet into safety - leaving half of it behind to the mercy of the pissed Cylons.

With two Cylon agents working against them, food, fuel, morale and population low and key defense-systems of the Galactica still on the fritz, the fleet finds itself just one jump before the praised old homeworld of Kobol, holding the map to Earth. Alas, the last glimpse of hope shatters to tiny bits when Roslin has a very reliable vision of an inescapable attack of another massive Cylon armada.

And so humanity comes to a cold and silent end when the last civilians are shot down by a single Cylon raider.....

[Very great work of game balancing, by the way. Until the very end no side seemed to have a clear advantage. Although the Cylons had lots of firepower, the humans found ways to stall for jump preparations and escaping time and again.]

New Year's Resolutions 'n' stuff

Yeah, I'm still alive, dear reader(s). (Hope you guys DO notice the nice "Twitter Updates" sidebar - at those times it sucks to just follow the RSS feed of that blog ;) ).

Anyone thinking the title of this post implies that I'll plan to blog more often like in the olden days of tweetlessness - don't hold your breath, you may suffocate. I'll try to do more updates here than in the last year - which shouldn't be that hard when looking at the shameful number of 2009 posts - but the peak of my blogging frequency lies far far faaaaaar behind. Damn you, employment!

But alas, it's a new year, even a new decade (yeah I know, the decade does start NEXT year, but no one cares about that ;) ), so I'm willing to use my blog again for drooling about Ladies of Interest ... bragging with my awesome amateur art... geeking around collecting my thoughts and plans for future reference. So when I lay down my astonishingly precise and realistic resolutions in the next paragraphs, you all may come back to me in a year pointing fingers at the guy who didn't even try to accomplish them ;). (To speak the truth, some of my goals are quite important to me and I hope that I'll be able to stick to them - probably won't happen without some serious time management though). So in the order they come to mind - so not at all ordered by priority: Batch's resolutions for 2010 (excerpt):

Keep drawing. I'm not under the illusion that I'll ever be able to compete with professional or semi-professional artists. I'm not that talented at all and I don't *want* it hard enough to put myself in the process of endless practicing. I continue to improve very slowly, but I'm still completly lost in the woods when working without reference. I'm good at copying, I suck at imagining. But: I found some nice tutorial for drawing heads/faces from different angles after some kind of formula which really helps understanding what I'm drawing and bringing me a small step closer to really creative drawing without depending so much on a reference. More details in a future post maybe. There will be opportunities galore with FedCon coming up and lots of drawings to be made.

Get back to miniature painting. Before I went to Berlin, I used to paint miniatures (mostly those Games Workshop Lord of the Rings guys) and I think I wasn't that bad. I really felt I should do that again, so I bought lots of colors and brushes and tools, I de-colored some of my early works (a terrible, terrible Legolas for example) and even primed them - but now that almost everything's ready I feel kinda afraid or intimidated of actually starting to paint again. I may suck hell after almost four years of not-painting and feel deeply disappointed when things don't go smoothly. I'll need to buy the remaining stuff and force myself to spend a complete day for that. Poor Legolas may suffer a fate worse than death but let's face it: He never was the prettiest ;).

Get this homepage thingy working! It's a shame for a studied computer scientist to not have a real self-coded homepage. I have the webspace (thanks to klti), I have the domain, I even have some content (my drawings) - but I can't find the time to think of a concept for some small but nice web appearance. The avoider of final episodes and I will have to brainstorm at some point in the near future.

Software development skill enhancing. Same thing. I start to hate my old Comic-Database-Application. Every time I catalogue the latest additions to my collection with the old and ill-coded system I notice the shortcomings and long for a complete overhaul. But it's pretty hard to find yourself in the mood to continue programming and/or software developing after doing that the whole day at work. But due to the limitations of technologies I have to work with at my job, I think I really have to do an independent software project for myself to preserve and enhance my skills in software development and object oriented programming. So it's not only a question of finally improve the administration of my comic collection but to keep up with my area of expertise. Needs lots of time, though. At least I started to put my requirements and first brainstormings on (digital) paper, so a first specification is on the horizon.

Do more sports! I have to face it: I'm turning 30 and the years of eat-what-you-want-and-do-no-sports-but-still-stay-relatively-slim are over. I gained a few pounds this year and that are a few pounds to much. They have to go. I refuse going to the gym though. I'm absolutely no gym guy and I won't spent my precious time pulling some weights in a sweaty training room. I will try to do some more biking at least after the winter. I'm even desperate enough to think of jogging. And giving up Fast Food ;). I'm open for suggestions.

There are more points left ("girlfriend","less gaming" and the like ;) ) but I think that suffices for now.

Ladies of Interest (10): Lara Croft

At last! The hot female Indiana Jones (Indy can go HOME by the way) and one of the (if not THE) first kick-ass cyber-girls of the entertainment industry gets her own LOI-Entry! Yay!

Reason for this: I have been playing the last three Tomb Raider Games on Xbox 360 kinda on a row for a month or so and finished the breathtakingly cool last installment "TR: Underworld" today.

For those few who don't know Lara Croft (being some hermits in a cave... with internet-access, reading my blog...): British Millionaire follows foot-steps of her late parents by hunting antique artifacts and raiding dangerous tombs wearing ridiculously short outfits, equipped with two big guns and even bigger boobs. One of those things (or maybe two) hit a nerve on the (I'm wildly speculating: probably essentially male) customers, allowing Lara to star in almost a dozen games, two movies and 50 issues of her own (canceled) comic series.

"Tomb Raider Anniversary" - initially released as downloadable content for the first "new" Tomb Raider "Legend" - celebrated the 10th Anniversary of 1996's first game being a remake of the latter. The unlockable bonus material contains comparison-screenshots of scenes from the original in contrast to ones from anniversary: It's hard to imagine 16-year-old Batch finding Tomb Raider I the high peak of PC gaming graphics. Nonetheless, I really liked Tomb Raider I and simultaneously hated the hundreds of horrible deaths my Lara had to succumb to due to misplaced jumps. I played number II as well, but lost track and/or interest in the later games - my interest just got fueled again by a low priced copy of "Legend" (thank you, ebay).

Nowadays ("Underworld") Lara doesn't fall to death so often (being able to wallclimb, using a cool grappling hook and holding AUTOMATICALLY onto ledges), but essentially does the same old thing: Jumping and climbing on, under, above and in mysterious tombs and other archeological sites, occasionally shooting some bad guys or wild animals. Oh, well, she kinda looks better now (see Lara's evolution on the left. Lots of breast operations.)

I'm a little ashamed though, that I - testosterone-driven as I usually am - have to admit that despite her looks "Underworld's" Lara is far exceeded by the environmental graphics. I played the whole Raising and Racing into Xibalba Part 4 or 5 times, just because it's so frakkin' damn cool. Or the sunken entrance to Helheim. The holding place of Mjolnir at the bottom of Valhalla. The final showdown in the hall of Jörmungandr. The shiva/kali-statue above Bhogavati. And yeah, it helps, that I'm into that old-mystic-gods-underworlds-and-stuff-theme. A very big plus for "Underworld" in comparison to "Legend" - more complex riddles in ancient tombs instead of linear running through cities and the like. Could have been a little longer though. Took me just a week, maybe 8 or 9 hours.

But hey, I just downloaded the first of two extensions "Beneath the Ashes": Lara revisits the catacombs under Croft Manor to find an old artifact hidden there. Should be cool. Especially for Lara who will be doing the dungeoneering in a bikini.

.. What? All this tomb raiding in the main game has to be rewarded... can't leave that unlocked outfit untouched, can I? ;)

Update to "Beneath the Ashes": Hmm. Challenging (especially the dragon puzzle where you have to use the grappling hook creatively), sexy (with Lara doing all the dirty work in her bikini as announced), but rather short. Three hours at best, and that includes a few minutes of rotating the camera to examining Lara's problem zones (that don't exist) from different angles ;) plus some want-to-throw-gamepad-into-screen-frustrating scenes near the end. "Landscape" pretty boring, being just a big dungeon. Not completly worth the 800 Microsoft Points (9,60 Euro).

Downloaded the second DLC "Lara's Shadow", where you control Lara's doppelganger. New combat system, wallrunning and stuff - reviews are better, I hope, this pays out more. Paid more for two DLCs than for the main game ;).

Welcome to Rapture

Since I'm sick anyway - headaches, coughs and sneezes kinda take the fun out of everything - I can as well do something productive with my downtime, resulting in this here fine post about one of the greatest game evah: Bioshock.


"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well."

1960. After a planecrash in the middle of the ocean, the player in this First-Person-Shooter can save himself to a strange tower, leading directly to an underwater city - aforementioned Rapture. Build by Mogul Andrew Ryan, this Ayn-Rand-like Utopia should be a place where the inhabitants would be free of social and political, even ethical rules. But as the player can see and hear over the radio by his mysterious self-acclaimed new mentor Atlas, something went terribly wrong.

Since the backstory of rapture, how it came to be into this devastated state and what the frak all those strange creatures are, is told mainly in scattered audio-tapes or over the radio, the player is thrown right into a very very strange and scary environment with little to no clue to the bigger picture. The city is in ruins and plagued by it's former inhabitants turned into zombie-like "Splicers". Little girls with yellow eyes wander around, poking red needles into the dead. They harvest the so-called ADAM which could be used to genetically upgrade a person with plasmids (active "spells" like firing electroshocks or using telekinesis) and gene-tonics (passive "buffs" that raise abilities and probabilities). It would be easy to free those girls or harvest them for ADAM for yourself, if it weren't for their protectors, the hulking Big Daddies.

"You think that's a child down there? Don't be fooled. She's a Little Sister now. Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster. Whatever you thought about right and wrong on the surface, well that don't count for much down in Rapture. Those Little Sisters, they carry ADAM- the genetic material that keeps the wheels of Rapture turning. Everybody wants it. Everybody needs it."

As if the dwelling creatures wouldn't be scary enough, the darkness is accompanied by a very strange 50's style in everything. Cartoonish Vending machines, neon-lit signs, black and white "infomercials", horrible jingles... this tainted version of the perfect city would give the Stepford Wives the creeps.

Before I venture further into the atmosphere and story, a few words to the gameplay. As in most FPS the player has a constantly growing arsenal of pretty standardy weapons (which can be upgraded later on in a very cool way: the bigger clip-size of the revolver is realised through a second big roll glued right onto the gun) and the plasmids. The usage of the latter require doses of EVE, a blue liquid, that has to be injected directly into the arm, health is restored with First-Aid-Kits. The player can hack security turrets, flying drones, cameras and safes to make his life easier. The Ammunition limit is pretty low, I usually was out of electric-shot-gun-ammo after one fight against a big daddy. Later in the game, the player can photograph enemies to research them to get boni and special tonics out of research, and he can produce his own ammo with found materials. The player can't really die, when health goes out, he's resurrected in a Vita-Chamber (which could be pretty far away from the spot the player went down). But as cool as the gameplay is, let's get back to Rapture.

"When Picasso became bored of painting people, he started representing them as cubes and other abstract forms. The world called him a genius! I've spent my entire surgical career creating the same tired shapes, over and over again: the upturned nose, the cleft chin, the ample bosom. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could do with a knife what that old Spaniard did with a brush?"

Though it's sometimes hard to follow the storytelling, I found the way it's done pretty genius. You're completly alone in a hostile environment, even the few non-spliced people you meet are lunatics and you're best friend is the radio. The two plotlines - one recapturing fragments of the events before the arrival of the player, the other the mission of bringing down Andrew Ryan (voiced by Armin "Quark/Principal Snyder" Shimerman, btw.) - are solely (with few exceptions) told through the radio, so that the scary loneliness is almost never disturbed. Little after the middle of the game, the story takes an interesting twist, that left me jawdropped - how nice that the roommate is playing the game now so I can rewatch some of the earlier scenes from a different angle.

After reading this post I kinda realize you just have to see and play the game for yourself, you can't describe it very well. Maybe try a demo like I did. Oh - part two is announced for later this year, and there are rumors of a movie. FYI.