Nasty Business, Really...

This is the title screen of a new game I'm working on with Game Maker. People complained (truthfully, I'll admit) that I never finish any of my projects, so I decided to make a short game based on a simple idea that wouldn't present too many challenges to make. As soon as I decided on my idea, I couldn't wait to finish. I seldom feel this motivated by a project, so you can actually expect to see this completed someday. With my exams all over next week, I've got a long time to work on this, so with a bit of luck it might be done by the end of July.

In case you're wondering who the heck Del Preston is, and why he deserves his own video game, I'll give you a piece of advice that I give to pretty much everyone: watch the Wayne's World films.

If you don't have time for that, then at least watch this:



The story of my game is entirely based around that heroic and heart-warming tale.

What's black and white and blue all over?

Okay, I know I've not been updating this thing too often. My loyal readers must be quite annoyed by my inactivity, and I apologise to both of them. So, without further ado...


This is my result from the Political Compass test, not as left/lib as I thought, but it still pretty much explains why I wasn't crazy about either of the main candidates in the US election. Still, it seems that the US is gradually shifting to the left... or maybe "away from the right" would be more accurate. Maybe Obama seemed like the USA's only hope in these dark times (no pun intended), but I think they're just fed up with the Republicans. It could've been the last eight years which brought that about, but it could equally have been the last few months.

In other news, I went to see Tropic Thunder at the cinema recently, and it was refreshingly good. I went in expecting another mediocre Ben Stiller film, but I was pleasantly surprised. It could've been a little shorter, in my opinion, but it's generally agreed by many that I have a below average attention span.

[Insert clichéd "ooh, a butterfly" joke here.]

The Matrix in three panels

MS Paint, 10 minutes.

A Long, Dark, Dreary Knight

So it all started a few years ago when I went to see Batman Begins at the cinema. I went in expecting a fairly decent movie, and I came out having witnessed a masterpiece. To this day it stands as one of my personal favourite films, and naturally I was excited but nervous when I heard that a sequel was on the way. Sequels, as I'm sure you've noticed, have this weird habit of being terribly disappointing, with a few exceptions. My nervous thoughts were cast aside, however, when I heard from a few, very reliable friends across the pond that it surpasses even the brilliance of its predecessor. Even Yahtzee praised it as being, and I quote, "absolutely fucking legendary".

If I have ever felt like the subject of some massive, Truman Show-esque social experiment, it was in the few seconds after having finished watching that film. I literally had not read a single review of it, official or not, that didn't shower it with praise, and yet not for one moment while I sat in front of that screen did I once think "this is a good film". I went to see it with two other people, and the average opinion upon leaving the cinema was "below average".

This is where you'd probably expect me to do some explaining for myself, since I seem to be the only blogger who isn't currently kissing that film's arse until it's red raw, but to be honest, I have nothing to say. That's exactly why I didn't enjoy it. There was nothing to particularly like about it at all, with the possible exception of the late Heath Ledger's impressive performance as The Joker. It seems somewhat of a mistake that they took the only remarkable thing about the film and did a completely half-arsed job of it, then. I'm pretty sure that at the time of his death, Heath had already finished doing all of his scenes for the film, so there's no excuse for the fact that Joker fades into the background around half-way through, and becomes a secondary character to none other than Burnt Face Man.

Upon retrospect, The Dark Knight is not a single film, but rather the beginning of one film, and the ending of another, connected tenuously by a run-of-the-mill-American-action-movie middle section in which each minor character is kidnapped or killed at least six times.

If I could somehow construct a time-machine and deliver a message to the film's director before the filming began, I would tell him to leave Two-Face out of it whatsoever, because, much like said villain, the film tries to be two things at the same time and ultimately ends up as a wet, half-baked mess on the floor. So, my time-travelling message to the past would be this: keep it simple, because sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I suppose while I'm there I ought to give Mr. Ledger the same advice.