GammaTesting.com’s fourth episode is a classic romance: boy loses donkey, meets girl, fights demons, releases evil god. All for love. We also love — mostly — Prince of Persia’s seamless gameplay, capable writing and gorgeous Disney atmosphere. Almost enough to marry it. But is there enough going on to resurrect the game after the first play through? Hmmm.
In this episode, the GammaTesting.com guys discuss the fine art of ignoring accuracy while wielding dual SMGs, groove to Overkill’s fantastic soundtrack, accuse Headstrong of (possibly) using the Grindhouse style to mask bad dialogue and voice acting, and, finally, confront those mommy issues we’ve been dealing with. Well, dealing with since watching the end of Overkill.
SCREEN DOORS OF PERCEPTION: “Video Still Sheet #4, Information Series”
“Information Randomized Mix-up #4″ is an encyclopedia. The artwork, a scintillating grid of tiny inkjet images by Atlanta video artist and VJ Ben Worley, contains a world.Everything from elephants to earthworms to an ironic-looking guy with a beard rolls across the surface in a Red Bull- and NoDoz-fueled mesh of nervous animation. The work also happens to be a literal encyclopedia — at least in part. The piece re-creates elements from Worley’s earlier works, which used images from an actual encyclopedia to explore fractured, unassimilated visual data in constant flux.
In Information, the artist’s master’s thesis show at Get This! Gallery, Worley continues his examination of the explosion of information occasioned by digital media and a networked world.
Worley also goes by the nom de plume Bean Summer. Like his names, the artist’s work concatenates random elements to hint at secret meanings hidden in the spaces where objects collide and images jostle one another in an aggressive, energetic dance.
I typed two completely different versions of this review — one last night that was full of love, and one this morning that was full of hate. (*Spoiler Alert*!) The swap came after some rumination over “The Variable,” set up to be an epic “Lost” classic. (The show’s 100th episode to follow Obama’s 100 days speech? Come on!) It succeeded and it failed in its attempts. I’m mostly frustrated for myself and every other nerdcore Lostie out there who’s sat through recent episodes this season saying “Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK we know, we know … but now what?”
“The Variable” belonged completely to Daniel “Twitchy” Faraday, fan favorite only behind his oft episodic-counterpart Desmond “Motorboater” Hume. Some questions of Faraday’s history were answered (yes, Widmore is his father); his present revealed (Why we saw him in the Dharma mines to open the season; Why it was so important to find Eloise Hawking), and his future decided (gunned down by mother as an adult in her past — would anything less complicated do?), all of which played out good guesses with a few twists that, in typical “Lost” fashion, both satisfied and beguiled.
The GammaTesting.com guys go in depth on Resident Evil 5, and talk about how amazingly beautiful a war-torn African town filled with zombies can be when rendered by the Xbox 360. The zombies are kinda pretty, too, until you shoot them in the head with your pistol. But does shooting uncountable numbers of infected undead make you a racist, thanks to RE5’s japanese developers? Listen up and see.
The GammaTesting.com guys reminisce about the stacks of quarters they spent playing Street Fighter II at the arcade, then declare their undying love for this latest incarnation of the SF franchise. You see, Street Fighter IV is the same as SFII, but better looking, better playing (as long as you dump the Xbox 360 controller), and the online system is like taking a trip back to 1999 to take challengers at the arcade. Except you’re in your underpants, on your couch. Better!
WAR GAMES:A reinterpretation of "Spy vs. Spy" by Chainsaw Chuck
A timely, almost bittersweet subtext informs The Mad Generation: A Lowbrow Tribute to the Art & Artists of Mad Magazine at the Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo. The 56-year-old satiric humor magazine goes from monthly to quarterly publication with its April issue. Sometimes it’s hard to see the lighter side of the slumping print business model.
Nevertheless, Mad shaped generations of creative sensibilities, as proved by the more than 30 artists who pay affectionate homage to its daffily iconic images at East Atlanta’s self-styled lowbrow gallery. Curator Dirk Hays clearly struck a chord with the gallery’s stable of artists. Most of the pieces tend to avoid complex deconstruction or politicized interpretations, but will tickle people who are already fans of Mad’s mildly subversive cartooning.
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
Rated M for Mature
Released Feb. 17
Xbox 360
Published by Rockstar Games
If you were to look over my favoritegames of 2008, you might be surprised by the absence of Grand Theft Auto IV. True, the internet uni-mind has invariably done five or six about-faces on the game by now, but GTA IV generally racked up in the year-end accolades department. It’s not one of my favorites, though, despite some of its more amazing capabilities. The dialogue and voice-acting are some of the best you’ll find, and Liberty City’s the most immersing virtual urban environment since whatever that town was in Final Fight (New Mechadetroit?). Like previous GTAs, IV excels at presentation, making a good impression even if you don’t enjoy the gameplay.
GammaTesting.com’s fourth episode is a classic romance: boy loses donkey, meets girl, fights demons, releases evil god. All for love. We also love — mostly — Prince of Persia’s seamless gameplay, capable writing and gorgeous Disney atmosphere. Almost enough to marry it. But is there enough going on to resurrect the game after the first play through? Hmmm.
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned