Binary Bonsai

Thanks.

You may have heard that Little Big Planet was recalled due to references to the Qur’an in one of the music tracks accompanying it. Now, you’re free to opine in whichever direction with regards to the idea of recalling something to avoid offending the members of a religion. I live in Denmark, I’ve been through the wringer on this, so I understand why Sony would chose to do so, and I empathize with their decision.

But I haven’t seen this particular aspect discussed anywhere:

It’s quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammed,” Diabate explaine. “It’s my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam. #

I don’t know how it was a part of the music, what language it was in or what it said, but isn’t there something fundamentally wrong with the notion of ‘attracting’ the players of a family title — that is, in particular, children — towards religion?

Now I hardly think it was the intent of anyone involved to evangelize in Little Big Planet; instead I guesstimate that Toumani Diabate, the musician behind the track, took some liberties — perhaps without even considering it. Very unfortunate, not least because a recall costs one hell of a lot of money, but also because that sort of thing simply doesn’t belong in a child-friendly title.

Regardless, I’m very much looking forward to the game, though I at the same time feel my economy strained under the weight of games coming in the next month or so.

So it’s that time of year where the deluge is about to hit, and I’m afraid it calls for some serious choices to be made. Not only about which games score high enough on Meta Critic to get to adorn the shelves and which on the same bill are left behind, out in the cold; but for those of us who run dual systems — that is, both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, nevermind the Wii — it also means figuring out which system to get said games for.

For me, this is the first time this has actually posed a problem as such. There simply haven’t been any games on the PS3 I’ve wanted to buy… Whatever has seemed mildly interesting — like Uncharted, which is recommendable — I’ve borrowed from friends.

But now, between Dead Space¹, Mirror’s Edge², Fallout 3, Far Cry 2³ and of course later this year plenty other cross-platform titles, I now get to choose which of the two consoles I want these games for.

And despite the fact that the 360 outnumberes the PS3 some 7-to-1 or so, in my circle of friends, and despite the fact that I’ve bought only 360 games so far, this time around I’m going to go with PS3 for the majority of the games.

It’s the noise.

It ruins all mood, chases my girlfriend out of the room and causes my stress-levels to rise far above healthy levels.

I can’t even play GuitarHero without thinking how nice it would be if the music wasn’t being drowned out by this damned thing.

I may be getting old, or I may have enough respect for our neighbors to not drown out the incessant fan and drive noises by cranking the volume, but I find myself using the 360 less and less, simply because I don’t want it dominating our living space.

And meanwhile, next to it, the PS3 is silent like the tomb.

So I’m getting my games for the PS3 this time around; and I guess I’ll just have to live with the fact that I actually like the 360 controller much more than the DualShock (or Sixaxis or whatever the hell they call that sized-for-Japanese-hands ‘thing’).

There’s Gears of War 2 of course, which is only coming out on 360, but other than that, the only title I won’t be getting for the PS3 is Left4Dead. Because after all, that is primarily a multiplayer game, and I want the Xbox Live network for that. Oh, and it’s not available on the PS3…

Hm. Maybe I should just buy it off of Steam?

Choices, choices.

1. I’m not too impressed with what I’ve seen to be honest, but it’s the vanguard of the deluge, so I have to get it just to get warmed up. Besides, it’s gotten pretty good reviews so far. ↩


2. I swear, the major design influence on this game has got to be Darude’s Sandstorm music video. Tell me I’m wrong. ↩


3. Well, I’m holding out for the reviews; I wasn’t too impressed with the first Far Cry really, and I have a history with Crytek, but it looks like it might be good. ↩

Few things that have been put on this earth as as hideous and vile as James Cameron’s first outing, Piranha Part Two: The Spawning. That film has only two brag-worthy qualities, one of which is the fact that it manages to make its 90-minute running time feel like that of a three hour epic. Though that only goes for the running time. Everything else is exactly as shoddy as it actually is.

The other thing, which is much more commendable, is that it was the launch pad for James Cameron, which, having grown up in the 80’s, almost relieves it of any other responsibilities.

Anyway, I bring it up because I’ve touched on Piranha 2 before, and wanted to share a clip of Jim — I call him Jim — in a rare instance, talking about what happened (or what didn’t happen, it’s all very confusing), on that shoot.

At 6.15 this morning, I had my first driving lesson, which, yes, at the tender age of 30, might seem slightly late in life, especially for you pesky American’s. But if you’ve ever lived in Copenhagen, you’ll know that really, a car isn’t the best way of getting around anyway, so why bother?

That was until I saw this little flick called Mad Max. I like dogs. I can get behind Vengeful Vigilantism. Shucks, I think I’ll get myself one of them there drivin’ licenses (licensi?).

It was an interesting experience, not least because it was still dark when we started, and rush-hour had set in when we ended. A friend of mine compared it to playing the drums on a track you’ve never heard before, which seems pretty accurate (crutch-ridin’ since ’08, and proud of it!). Though I’ll add that it’s like that, only you’ve also never played the drums before, and you’re doing it in front of an audience of some 50.000 metal fans.

It was a little tense.

But I didn’t cap any cyclists, bump into any cars or accidentally run over any pedestrians (whom I then subsequently sped away from, paying the instructor generously to overlook this minor accident, stopping at a gas station to wipe the blood off the hood, all the while grinning nervously and explaining to passerby’s how the ketchup truck had spilled its load on my hood).

So that was great.

They all look so frail from the inside of the metal monstrum. Those poor meatbags, their meat so tender and their lives hanging capriciously in the balance as I go from one to the other ‘not that one, not that one, not… no, not that one either… That one is good, I’ll take him!’.

Well, I’m not actually scared of driving. But it is pretty stressful finding yourself suddenly behind the wheels of a car in heavy traffic for the first time, thinking to yourself that the car is apt to run amok, Christine-style, with you powerless to stop it. But then you turn the key, and it mostly does what it’s told after that.

Mostly.

Next week I’ve got 5 hour and a half lessons, so be careful.