Half-Life 2 Thoughts

City 17, setting of much of the game.

As I've written about before, I'm catching up on one of the most iconic video game series ever made, the Half-Life games.  Today, I finished up what is arguably the greatest video game ever made, Half-Life 2.  I'm only ten years behind on this one, and so much has already been said about this game, I'm not sure what more I can add.  I'll give it a shot though.

This game took me a month to play through, but honestly, I went through most of it in less than a week.  It was incredibly addicting and very fun to play through.  The only reason it took this long is because I took a self-imposed break from computer gaming to work on other things.  I'm not sure if I would consider this the greatest game ever made, nor is it my favorite game (Ocarina of Time and Portal 2, respectively, if you're curious) but this game is certainly up there.  Thankfully, this game is much, much easier than the original Half-Life, and it also has an easy setting.  Yes, I used the easy setting.  Sure, I could have played on a harder difficulty and easily beaten the game.  But that would have meant playing in a way that I don't really like.  I like brazenly walking into rooms filled with enemies, walking up to some poor saps face and shooting him with a shotgun.  It's a very straightforward approach, and perhaps hard to believe considering that my favorite game is essentially a puzzle game, but that's how I do things.  That's what makes gaming fun for me, and I'm glad this game could accommodate that playstyle.  The original couldn't, which is why it took me so long to get through.

This game has received all sorts of awards and praise, so I don't feel like saying anything about that is necessary.  Unlike the first game, this one doesn't feel dated at all, the graphics may not be up to 2014 standards, but they still look good.  I was worried about this game even working on my not-very-powerful laptop, but it worked just fine, which I was very happy about.  I've written extensively on Team Fortress 2, which of course utilizes the same engine as Half-Life 2, but that game is newer and has gotten much, much bigger in the seven years since its release, so it doesn't work nearly as well as Half-Life 2 does.  I won't pretend like it's got the world's greatest storyline, because it doesn't.  Video games seldom do.  But it's told in an effective manner, and the lack of cutscenes is always nice.  So, Half-Life 2, not my favorite game, but it's still really, really good.

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Against the Dawn by Soviet Bibles: A Review

From left: Brian Wengert, Alex Wypijewski, Michael Garrett

I've never done any serious criticism of music before, and while this may be a review of music, I don't think this will be particularly serious.  So, out of all the college bands out there, why this particular band?  Well, all those other bands didn't practice in my apartment for a year and a half.  Soviet Bibles consisted of Alex "My last name is impossible to pronounce" Wypijewsky on vocals, Michael "Worst person in the world" Garrett on guitar, and Brian "I'm ridiculously attached to my beard" Wengert on bass.  They're all friends of mine, and I've known Michael since high school, and and Brian since middle school.  So, I felt like this had to happen. 

Since this is my story, I get to lead off by saying that I named the band back in the summer of 2012, back when the band was just an idea Brian and Michael had while a bunch of us were driving to Ohio for what were supposedly the greatest hot dogs in the world.  I thought I heard Michael say the phrase "Soviet Bibles", but he didn't.  When I asked about, he immediately claimed it as their band's name.  Anyway, those two were at it for about a year, playing and writing on and off, and it might have been fun for them, it wasn't really going anywhere.  Michael was singing back then, and while he is many things, a singer he is not.  Sorry, Michael.  Here's a link to a song from those days so you can judge for yourself.  I'd like to embed that link, but Blogger couldn't find the video on Youtube, so you'll have to settle for just the link.

The band took a big step up in the second half of 2013 when Soviet Bibles added Alex on vocals, who is actually a very good singer.  With this lineup, they went into overdrive and produced a very respectable album whose vocals were definitely not recorded in a bathroom.  Definitely not.  The album, Against the Dawn, has 12 songs.  If you want a genre, the best I can give you is what they called it: prog-punk, or as I liked to call it, prunk.  Yes, I think that's the best term for it.  Soviet Bibles was definitely the best prunk band out there.

Here's the link to download their album.  It's free, don't worry.

Songs

1.	Mercy and Grace 04:09
2.	Babylon 03:25
3.	Knives 04:29
4.	Halo of Colors 06:16
5.	Warsaw 05:34
6.	To Drown 04:00
7.	Explosions In Our Eyes 02:24
8.	Doubt 03:35
9.	Mercy and Grace (Reprise) 03:02
10.	Museum of Newark 06:40
11.	Babylon (Redux) 04:56
12.	Maps (Bonus track) 03:31

I won't do a song-by-song analysis, because frankly that would take too long.  I will say that the production is very good, considering this was absolutely not done in a professional setting.  The drums are all done by a computer, but you don't really get a sense of that, listening to the music.  Brian is a very good bassist, and Michael is...a guitarist, but the real highlight is the singing, which really does make the album.  It gave the occasionally silly lyrics some much needed gravity, although I'm still not sold on the "Ginsberg is dead" refrain.

This isn't normally my kind of music, but I do like this album.  There's some good music on here, which I never really got the sense of listening to their live performances.  Maybe it came with playing in bars, but this music came off much more punk live, but much more progressive on the album, which I prefer.  Anyway, there are two highlights for me, "Mercy and Grace" and "Halo of Colors".  "Mercy" is surprisingly catchy, even if I got confused about what the chorus actually was.  I asked them to reconsider making the chorus about punching God in the face, but they didn't go for it.  Oh well.  My favorite song by a considerable margin is "Halo of Colors", which I suspect is because I didn't have to hear the formative process.  Since I downloaded the album a few days ago, I've already listened to that song a dozen times.  Alex does an incredible job with the vocals, and the music flows along nicely.  Most of the songs have an intense energy to them, but this one is a bit slower, a bit less frenetic, and I appreciate that.

I won't give this a rating, since I have absolutely no idea what I would rate it.  I will recommend downloading it, since it is a pretty good album, and it sounds pretty good as well.  Just don't hold your breath for a second album, since Soviet Bibles is no longer together.  Yes, this review is a bit late, but better late than never, right?

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Putting Warning Labels On Literature

In the music world, albums get warning labels if there is anything graphic.  TV shows, movies, and video games all have a rating system for the same reason.  Books don't have anything like this.  Books can be just as graphic as all those other mediums, because unlike everything else, graphic acts happen in books for a bigger reason than themselves.  There's symbolism in every act in great literature, and this is even more true when it comes to violence.  That is the precise reason why books don't have warning labels, everything in the story contributes to the overall message of the book, to lose the violence would be losing something from the story.

Colleges have been discussing whether or not classic works taught should have warning labels on them.  That article is not in favor of warning labels, and laid out a very well-thought out, reasonable argument stating that the the burden of warning students about graphic content should rest on the professor and their ability to adequately prepare their students for anything unsettling.  In other words, teaching properly.  I agree with the author, and it really is the best course of action.

I'd be willing to bet money that isn't what happens.  Nothing is going to happen with this until somebody gets sued, a college gets found guilty, and we get warning labels on our books.  I can't believe it's taken this long, actually.  Maybe it isn't that big of a deal, but books are supposed to challenge the reader into thinking new thoughts, and slapping a warning label on a big ruins the book a bit.  You know that there will be something upsetting in the book, and it loses some of its impact when you get to it.  It also isn't good news for younger people, who are going to be discouraged from reading any sort of challenging literature because the rating isn't appropriate.  They'll get stuck reading books that are below them, get bored with books, and potentially stop reading altogether.  It may seem reasonable to give books ratings, but I just don't think it is.

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Godzilla Review

A theater nearby had a special showing of the new Godzilla movie at 7 this evening, so I went out and saw it.  This was a big deal for me, I've been watching Godzilla movies for a long time.  I saw the first American Godzilla movie back in 1998, and back when Blockbuster was still a thing, my family rented a bunch of the old Japanese movies.  They were cheesy, with bad acting, terrible plots, and at least until the 1980's reboot series, the monsters looked really dumb.  But that was part of their charm, and the fights were pretty good.  Of course, I've seen the original, which is actually a very good movie.  As for the 1998 Godzilla, well, let's just say the best thing that came out of that movie was the cartoon they followed it up with.  It was very Saturday morning, but the Godzilla in that actually did things, actually fought monsters, and didn't get killed by a couple of missiles after getting tangled in some cables.  Honestly, the bar for this Godzilla wasn't very high after our last attempt.  Even so, this was a big deal for me, I really, really wanted this movie to be good.

Fortunately, it was good.  The story wasn't the most compelling, but Godzilla movies have never been about that.  I don't go to a Godzilla movie to care about the human characters and whatever nonsense they get into.  Actually, I thought there was a little too much human action in the second half of the movie, and not enough monster action.  There was a thing with the nuclear bomb that needed deactivating, but it kind of detracted from the main attraction.  I suppose it was necessary for the main character to be there so that he could torch the eggs of the Massive Unknown Terrestrial Organism, or MUTO.  There won't be any more of those things running around.

Enough about the people though.  Some people might care about the actors and the acting, but I don't.  What I care about is the monsters.  We're introduced to the MUTO's first, and yes, there are two of them.  They're a male and female of the same species, the male flies from Japan to San Francisco by way of Hawaii, stopping there long enough to torch Honolulu, and the female, who was stored in Yucca Mountain with a bunch of nuclear waste, crosses the desert, runs right through Vegas, and to San Francisco.  When I heard there was a flying monster, I thought immediately that it was going to be Rodan, but I was wrong, and I'm glad I was.  If there are sequels, then maybe they can go to the old monsters, but I think it was good to bring in new ones for this movie.  I'm not sure I agree with the design, they were a bit weird, but they worked.

Godzilla is unamused by tiny monsters

And now to the main attraction.  It was almost exactly one hour into the movie when he first appears on screen, aside from a brief moment in the opening credits.  He looked good, very reminiscent of the Japanese Godzilla from the 80's and 90's.  For some reason, we seem to like giving our Godzillas a square head, but that was my only complaint.  He was big, and interestingly enough, not all that mean.  He wasn't really all that interested in humans, and he never actively destroyed anything.  I like that, I like that this Godzilla wasn't a bad guy, and I liked that the military didn't even try to fight him.  There was one scene where the Navy is following Godzilla to San Francisco, and they are right there next to him, not more than a couple hundred feet away.  They must be brave people, even if Godzilla wasn't trying to kill me, I would maintain a bit more distance than that.

With multiple monsters, a fight is inevitable.  Godzilla is presented as a balancing force, who is bent on destroying these new monsters, who are disrupting the order of the world.  So, he's the good guy.  The battle goes down in downtown San Francisco, and while I wish there was a bit more of it, the fight is very, very good.  This Godzilla fights like the Japanese version, which is to say, a bit dopey.  He forgets multiple times about the flying MUTO and is constantly being surprised by it.  He lets a building fall on him for no good reason.  I chuckled at that, because I don't know how many times I've seen that, and it's never worked once.  The entire fight is very well done, but there are several points of levity in there, especially if you know Godzilla.  Minor spoiler if you don't know how these movies work, but Godzilla finishes off the second monster with one of the greatest moves I've ever seen, in any movie, anywhere.  I won't tell you what it is, but it was amazing.

I guess I've come to the all important rating part of the review.  I'll give it an 8.5 out of 10.  When it was good, it was very good, but I got too much people stuff, and not enough monsters beating each other up.  That's a shame, because when we did get to that part, it was very impressive.  I would recommend watching it, and I'll probably go again.  And buy it on DVD when it comes out.  I do love me some Godzilla.

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A Trip to Troegs Brewery

Some of my friends and I recently went up to the Troegs brewery in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  We got a tour of the place, got to taste some very good and rare beers, and then went to the bar there for more beer.  I was surprised by the size of the place, the brewery was in a very large building, and the size of the operation inside was equally large.  This was only a microbrewery that produced about 60,000 cases a year, I can't imagine how big the operation is at a much bigger brewery.  Sure, they probably have multiple factories, but still, its a lot of beer.

One of the tanks where the beer-making process begins

The tour was very informative, and of course, there was plenty of beer.  Certainly one of the highlights was getting to try a beer before it was completely finished, or what they referred to as green beer.  It still tasted like beer, and it was beer, but at the same time it was completely different, and actually not too bad taste-wise.  There were a whole lot of fermenting chambers, and they were very big, and very expensive, apparently.  

A few of the fermenting tanks

Through a happy coincidence, we went on the brewery during Craft Beer Week.  None of knew that was a thing until our tour guide mentioned it.  What it meant was that we got to sample some very special beers.  Troegs makes their primary beers, but they also make what they call their Splinter series of beers.  We got to have two of those, Gold and Brown.  The Gold was particularly interesting, it tasted like apples and was more than a little reminiscent of white wine.  We had two other special kinds of beer, one of which is aged in old bourbon barrels, and that was very good too.  You could definitely taste the bourbon.  I enjoyed all the special beers, although I think there were quite a few of my friends who did not.  I got to have a bit extra because some people didn't finish, which I was perfectly okay with.

Barrels in the tasting room filled with beer.

This is where the Splinter beers are brewed.  It's a much smaller operation.

Next we moved to the bar, where I had a Sunshine Pils, their summer beer, and a Belgian Saison.  I preferred the Belgian over the Pils, the Pils had a wheaty aftertaste I didn't care for.  Of course, you can't go to a brewery like that and not bring back any beer.  Well, I don't, anyway.  So, I've got a 6-pack with 6 different beers just waiting to be drunk.  I've never had Troegs before this trip, so these will be all new experiences for me.  This is a lot of ado about beer, but hey, enjoying a good beer is one of life's great pleasures.
















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Another Ultra Short Story

These really are kind of fun to do.  They don't take very long either.

The breath caught in my throat as the pines gave way and I got a good look down into the valley.  The setting sun had colored the canyon walls a brilliant red, and far below I could hear the river churning through fearsome rapids.  I hadn't been sure if I had the time to take this hike out here, but the solitude and the beauty was incredible.

Music started blaring from my pocket.  I answered the phone and walked away.

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Thoughts on State College

I've spent most of the last four years of my life in State College, but that time is coming to an end.  I went back home for a few months after I graduated, but I've spent the last month and a half in State College as a non-college person, so the experience compared to when I was in school was a bit different.  I'd like to say that I've enjoyed this town, and going to school here, I know there's a lot of people here who could say that, but I just can't.

The problem is that State College has a ton to do, a lot to see, and all sorts of people to talk to.  It's perfect if you're the sort of person who can strike up a conversation with anyone, who can find a friend anywhere you go, but I'm just not that sort of person.  It doesn't help that I never really felt connected with my peers, and there's a very good reason for it.  I didn't connect with them because I'm not connected in general.  I don't spend the day with a phone glued to my hand, I don't know what social media site is in fashion because I just don't care.  Also, I don't really care about sports, and up here, sports is a big deal.  I like a quiet bar, but finding a quiet bar in State College is not easy, because so many of them have loud music going, or have a band, and I don't want to listen to either of them.   Well, unless it was my friends band, but they're the exception.  I really do have to review their album at some point here, I'm writing down now, it'll have to be done now.

Anyway, I don't want to get down on State College, I think it's a really good town.  It just wasn't for me.  I could have dealt with it if there had been an affordable nine-hole golf course in town where I could have spent a couple of hours by myself.  I think I would have had a much better time if I had played golf regularly, living here made me realize that golf is something that I need in my life, it really does make me much happier.

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