RASTA-CATS

by sweep

The Humble Indie Bundle You probably have all been made aware of this stupidly cheap bundle of Indie games and it's hippy "Pay what you want" attitude. Someone at Kotaku wrote an interesting article about the purpose of the bundles conception: The idea being that blocking piracy does not automatically necessitate a consequential sale. If I want to play World Of Goo and I can't afford it my opti...

The Humble Indie Bundle

You probably have all been made aware of this stupidly cheap bundle of Indie games and it's hippy "Pay what you want" attitude. Someone at Kotaku wrote an interesting article about the purpose of the bundles conception: The idea being that blocking piracy does not automatically necessitate a consequential sale. If I want to play World Of Goo and I can't afford it my options are:

I could not play it
I could (hypothetically) steal it.

By removing the "steal it" option all we end up with is "Not play it", there isn't always a "go out and buy it" option. The concept behind the Humble Indie Bundle is to remove this choice entirely. There is no piracy because everyone can afford it. Also, by linking in a charity you effectively guilt people into contributing more. It's for charity, you cheap fuckers.

You pay what you want. Everyone get's to play it. Everyone is happy. We can demonstrate the happiness with handy graphs like this (stolen from Kotaku and, at first glance, completely irrelevant):

The counter argument is that people take advantage of the system and pay little or less than they would have had to pay at retail. I guess considering the ridiculous piracy rates for these indie games anything is better than nothing.

Speaking Of Indie Games

Flotilla was purchased earlier today after the healthy Quick Look from Snide. I'm having a lot of fun with it. It makes RPG questing disposable and enjoyable. The battles are harmonically slow, though this only contributes to their galactic intensity. Perhaps the show-stopper lies in the fantastic understanding of simple character design and, indeed, the individuals you encounter are hilariously intriguing. I got challenged by an Owl Warlord equipped with two ninja swords and a pair of Battleships. Only in Flotilla can such madness operate with such virtual grace and, hot damn, it's a madness I crave constantly.

True Story.

Just finished watching The Life Aquatic.

It's one of the best films I have seen for a long, long time. Beautiful cinematography, wonderfully dry sense of humour, great cast and acting all round. The Life Aquatic manages to retain a easygoing charm despite sometimes being hypnotically crude.

There's something about it I can't quite articulate. I think it's just the overall style of the film. Very similar to The Fantastic Mr Fox, cynically mature and childishly playful in equal measure. Recommendations go out to movie buffs everywhere.

In other news:

Sick Music 2

An album which you should buy. And then listen to, obviously.

Super Street Fighter 4

I'm giving up on El Fuerte. I thought I could somehow channel his awesomeness into something realistically lethal but apparently not. Back to square one...

Left 4 Dead 2

Working my way through the achievements, got something like 43/60. 50 hours played - not nearly enough.

The Election

We are politically fucked. Here's what I think should happen:

Labour and Lib dems merge and introduce electoral reform.
Having imposed Proportional Representation, another election takes place.
The Tories win but Lib Dems get more seats than the pitiful 57 from 650 they have, despite them getting 25% of the votes in the country.
While they are at it they could make sure there are enough fucking ballot papers this time. Bellends.

But then what do I know about politics. I'm just a talking hamburger.

Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep