“Misinterpreted Movie Titles
What happens when you strip away a movie’s title and replace it with a literal description of what its movie poster looks like? We’ll probably never know. I mean, Jesus, why would anyone care?”

>>Something Awful’s Photoshop Phriday - 14/10

I completed Fable a couple of days ago. That is to say that I finished the central storyline (actually the only storyline..), although I haven’t finsished all the mini quests and whathaveyou. It raised some questions.

I’ve rarely had as much fun playing games as I had during the first twenty hours or so of playing Fable. Just like Black and White. Then gradually I started to compare it to what I was led to believe it would be pre-release (ie, truly revolutionary) and to a certain extent it spoiled everything. Should we criticise a game because it fails to live up to what was expected of it, or what it should’ve been like? I do believe that you can’t criticise a game on what it doesn’t do, because the process of games creation is a refining of a vast central vision down to a playable size. Thus things get taken out. Fable is utterly playable, it’s just rather simplistic and it’s not a true RPG because there are no real role-playing elements. Even if you have a giggle prancing around the village in the naked, imagining yourself some kind of deranged flasher (with a fantastic body), it has no effect whatsoever on anything. Really. Thus you’re not playing a role in the game, only in your head. Yet Fable (or Project Ego, anyway) was meant to take all these little (supposed) ‘inconsequentialities’ and wrap them up into the game and say “These have a real effect on the world.”.

In his review at Eurogamer, Kieron Gillen ends with

“For those of us who understand that while true non-linear storytelling is never going to happen, personalising a linear narrative in meaningful ways according to your own inclinations is far from inconsequential, then it’s another significant step into the future.“

And he’s right, of course. Fable is a step in the right direction (towards “personalising a linear narrative”), even if it doesn’t really succeed in the ways that it originally set out to. It aimed for a much greater level of freedom, and a wider range of ways of expressing oneself. As it is, though, it’s hard to criticise these steps - even if they are just baby steps - towards this personalisation.

MINE, ALL MINE! I’m a long-standing X-Philer, but I still have managed to restrain myself (actually quite easily..) from spending £50-£70 on the previous existing box sets. They’re now being gradually re-released (1-3 out now, more in December + March)in kinky little boxes (very swish, they are too) for the grand price of £25. Bargain.

Didn’t get to watching any episodes tonight, mind. After a few hours Fable-age (still brilliant) I watched this beauty:

Flipping masterpiece, that’s what it is. Best Shakespeare film ever :)

Gone Fishing*.

* actual game looks 1000 X more gorgeous.

No, Fable didn’t arrive. I’m just lazy. I never expect Amazon to get me things on the day it comes out, whatever that thing might be, but I just can’t help tiptoeing down to the ol’ intray, despite knowing in my heart of hearts that when they say “we will deliver when we get it”, they mean it. I hope it arrives in a few hours time, otherwise I’ll have to wait til Monday. Which is likely. Still..it was a birthday gift, so I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Anyway, where were we?

Hero wowed the pants off me. Quite literally the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen (Christopher Doyle, the Cinematographer, is an utter GOD when it comes to making use of setting, lighting and colour), with an awesome Rashomon-styled semi-historical story about the foundation of the Qin dynasty in China. Utterly unmissable, and too deeply poetic to go into in massive detail here.

To continue this brief recap, amongst the trillions of films I’ve been watching I recently saw the ‘92 Director’s Cut of Cinema Paradiso, a film about a young boy’s love affair with the cinema, and his friendship with the aged projectionist. It instantly entered my favourites list - subjective and mutable as it is - because it’s an utter masterpiece of emotion, character and direction. Gush gush.

And it’s 4.26am. Time to go to bed…or wait for the post. Hmm. BED.

Ye gads! This desires an update. Word Brain ON. Fingers READY. ENGAGE AUTO-BLOG. GO.

Firstly, film splurge-o-rama. As much as I’d love to turn this into a film blog, it’s not going to happen. Frankly I just don’t have enough variations on gushing hyperbole to do it justice (but littleeye will soon return with lots of penned reviews, yes! [go figure]) - and since every single film I’ve seen for the past X days has been nigh-on perfect, all passengers are warned that we may experience some turbulence over the coming paragraphs.

The Star Wars Trilogy 2004 Revised Edition arrived on my birthday, and I have since tucked into tasty helpings of A Newer Hope and The Empire Restrikes Back. I do have qualms with Lucas’ tinkerings (not the tinkerings themselves, but the fact that he’s tinkering at all and blocking the originals’ simultaenous re-immergence. It seems a little weird to me from a directorial persepective.), but not so much that I’d ever moan about them in any fanboyish manner. The new version of Greedo Shoots First does look ridiculous, but when the film print is so utterly, utterly gorgeous and the sound is mastered in 5.1 surround, you’d be a tosser to give a toss. Obviously.

ANH is still a far better story for me, even if ESB Irvin Kershner’s consumate direction maintains better control of the multiple plotlines. Nothing beats Luke whizzing along the Death Star run with Darth Vader in hot pursuit, although Luke calling Leia - my favourite moment from ESB - and Luke and Vader’s duels in both sequels do follow close behind.

For now, check out this link, click SWF and brave the longish load time. It’s possibly the Best Thing Ever. Behind Star Wars. And Fable.

Last night I managed to catch the first debate in the US between Senator Kerry and President Bush. Now, I’m not exactly anti-bush, but I disagree with most of his policies and his character traits. That said, I agreed that war on Saddam was a just war, just a war taken at completely the wrong time. As far as Kerry goes, I knew little about him; I liked what I’d seen, but I didn’t know whether he had the goods to manage a country. If I was American I think before the debate I’d have been a middle-ground voter.

Not so anymore. Last night, to any objective eye, Kerry romped away with the debate glory. On every point he was pressed on he answered in a concise, cogent manner and had an array of supportive facts. Bush looked befuddled and flustered on many occasions, and only really attacked strongly when he was able to take advantage of Kerry’s self-set trap: that he changed his mind over the war. Even so, on this point Kerry was no where near defeated. He said that as people we have to change, that our politics have to change in light of the facts. He countered that Bush didn’t acknowledge that it was not the right time for war despite the facts, and that whilst he [Kerry] thought war was just, he would not have staged such an attack.

In terms of manner, the two combatents behaved in completely different ways. Whilst Kerry was a calm, extolling, even profound speaker, Bush gave way to rhetoric and campaign points when he ran out of the facts. He swaggered and grinned and gesticulated, and seemed to aim his speeches at the converted Bush-ites rather than the swing voters, which in my eyes is a huge tactical flaw. I don’t believe he knows how to appeal to anyone other than the base of war-mongering idiots that are largely his supporters. On his final summation speech, Bush gave way to religious-styled rhetoric and smiles, where Kerry was compelling:

“I know that for many of you sitting at home, parents of kids in Iraq, you want to know who’s the person who could be a commander-in-chief who could get your kids home and get the job done and win the peace.

And for all the rest of the parents in America who are wondering about their kids going to the school or anywhere else in the world, what kind of world they’re going to grow up in, let me look you in the eye and say to you: I defended this country as a young man at war, and I will defend it as president of the United States.”
– [full closing statements and summation @ BBC Online]

Kerry 1, Bush 0.