A collection of six lengthy essays on race, history and misconceptions. The “Black Rednecks” essay is probably the most important of the lot. In it Sowell demonstrates that much of what we stereotype as black cultural norms are actually the continuation of Scotch/Irish herder culture. The key to improving their lot in life is replacing this culture with one that embraces learning and puts aside the misguided tropes of honor culture. The rest of the book is similarly insightful and provocative in it’s subject matter: racist attitudes towards middleman minorities, the worldwide roots of slavery, education of blacks in America, etc. Filled with examples and statistics, and the general theme here is that institutionalized racism isn’t the primary thing holding back minorities.
It’s been a little while since I’ve played a current generation FPS, so maybe I just impressed with the slickness of it all, but I enjoyed this one. The New Order, unlike the 90’s Wolfenstein, is very story focused. The premise here is that Blaskowitz got konked on the head, woke up a decade later, and found out the Nazis had won World War II. So, first things first, get a gun, join the resistance and shoot everything that moves.
The action is paced so that you aren’t blasting everything Serious Sam style. There are stealth tactics and lots of hidden extras to be found through exploration. A big part of the game is the new welder gun thingy. You can use it to cut through metal fences, chains and crates. This adds to the exploration but it’s not that impressive as a weapon or new game play mechanic. I usually stuck with the standard machine guns, shotguns and silent strikes. All the weapons can be dual wielded and there are bonuses for pulling off specific types of kills.
As I said before, there is a big emphasis on story here. The situations are pretty ridiculous and over the top. However, there is a seriousness to many of the character interactions that just seemed out of place. This included a couple of embarrassing “love” scenes and a side story about a Jimi Hendrix wannabe who won’t fight because Americans are just as bad as the Nazis or something inane like that. In the very first level you are given a binary choice which doesn’t really affect the story path much, but it does set up Death’s Head as a great villain.
Witcher 2 takes what was a sprawling and somewhat unfocused RPG and refines almost everything to create an excellent role playing experience. They have kept many of the best elements from the first game such as its action oriented combat, limited gear choices, and adult tone. On top of that they added a much refined leveling-up system, better crafting/potion creation, and loads of interface tweaks.
The real improvement here is the cohesive story and characters. The game gives you a big mission right from the get go—capture the assassin and prove your innocence—and it keeps that focus even through the multitude of side quests and distractions. The narrative is filled with distinct and interesting characters, many of which are returning from first game. Most importantly, there are points within the game in which your choices matter and shape the tone of the experience. Things do get a little deep in the political weeds near the end of the second act, but the epilogue does a good job at explaining everything and tying it all together.
Once again Geralt can have his way with the ladies and it still feels corny, but at least you aren’t collecting victory cards for each person you bed ([un]fortunately, the GOG version comes with a “Triss Playboy Session” to re-sleazify the whole affair). I am now tempted to dive into the third game, but hearing people say, “I have already put 1200 hours into this game!” doesn’t bode well for my already minuscule social life.
This is a strange Gordon Liu movie in which he wants to avenge the friends who died at the hand of The White Lotus. He keeps having fights with the old guy and losing. Each time he learns a new technique and gets closer, but it isn’t until he incorporates his sewing skills that he ever has a chance. The film was goofy (but not really funny per se), and has some good fight sequences and sharp visuals.
A compilation of humorous essays by eighteen conservative authors in which each tackles the merits and faults or various virtues. Overall it was a pretty good collection that doesn’t get terribly political or partisan. However, it doesn’t quite rise to the “Funny as Hell” tagline on the cover. Of the eighteen, my favorites were from Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, Dave Burge and James Lileks (Sadly, I think P.J. O’Rouke has lost some of his edge these days).
Watch Dogs 2 is pretty much a straight up Grand Theft Auto clone. But instead of playing an immoral mobster who kills and destroys to achieve his goals, you play a righteous hacker who kills and destroys to achieve his goals. I think the game is going for a light-hearted tone, but all the indiscriminate murdering kinda gets in the way of that. Mowing down waves of security guards doesn’t strike me as a appropriate response to an Internet company knowing your search history.
I suppose the humor is directed at Millennials, with their social medias and unending quest for likes and shares. The main characters are fashionable hipsters who trounce around pointing their phones at anything electronic in order to “hack” it (and if that doesn’t work, kill, kill, KILL!). You are literally causing all this mayhem in order to gain “followers” which will somehow strengthen your cause… I guess? I don’t know. The primary story line was goofy and not that interesting.
The main attraction here is the vast, open-world recreation of San Francisco. The detail is just astounding. The city is filled with collectible items and the usual sort of side quests that all of these open-world games have (the last three Ubisoft games I’ve played all feel like re-skinnings of the same system). This formula is getting pretty stale and without a catchy gimmick or an engaging story, these games can become a bit tedious after a while.
The main twist here is that you can use your mad haxxor skillz to make machines do your bidding. A scissor lift can take you to a rooftop, cars can crush foes on their own, junction boxes can be remotely blown up, and you can do something useless with traffic lights. The problem is, in most cases a gun did a better job at getting things done. I wanted to use stealth and tactics but it seemed like every time I used my “stealth” zapper, a guard on the other side of the map would hear me and then all bets were off. Maybe I just suck at the game, but at least I could buy Crocs™ foam shoes with my in-game earnings.
My first thought after walking out of the theater was, “huh, I don’t know a single character’s name from the movie I just watched.” This Star Wars spin-off is heavy on plot and light on characterization… and fun. I guess they were trying to make a more adult Star Wars, but, in-the-process, they lost a lot of what made the best of the series so good. Fortunately, there aren’t any embarrassing Jar-Jar moments and I have a feeling I may enjoy this more on second watching, but for me this was just so-so.
Johan Norberg wrote one of the clearest accounts of the 2007 financial meltdown and, after that dismal tale, he’s back with a more uplifting story. Politicians and partisans constantly tell us that things are worse than ever: more violence, more poverty, etc. Progress goes about showing that, in just about every important metric, the world is a measurably better place than it ever has been in the past. Fewer people die in wars, the world is cleaner, we are better educated, live longer, and the percentage of people in extreme poverty has dropped by double digits. So everyone just calm the hell down.
A forgettable Italian police drama starring a guy who looks like a young Victor Davis Hansen. Plot was something about prostitutes and petty thieves and rich guys and cops who steal and frequent prostitutes to solve a case. Rule of law was probably new to Italy in 1975.
I’m a sucker for these top-down shooter games. This is the type of game I imagined playing back when the cutting edge AAA title was Berzerk for the 2600. I have yet to find one that actually rises to my expectations. Shadowgrounds is okay, but there is a clunkiness to the whole package that keeps it from being a great game.
Aside from the wooden voice acting and forgettable story, the combat needed to be amped up a little more. Enemies take several hits to kill and the battles all feel like your just running backwards and shooting. Maybe some better designed environments, with more options for exploration and interaction, would have made the difference. Or maybe just a more massive onslaught of easier to kill enemies and a more arcade feel would have been better. I don’t know.
