"Survarium"/STALKER 2 (Vladimir)

In not so long March 2007, before DayZ was even planned, Ukrainian developer GSC World published S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, what I would call, the most successful ancestor of all FPS Survival horror game genre in the open world that feels and run like an RPG. Mutants, anomalis and interactive and fighting with each other NPC was the perfect match that gave that game that feeling of belonging to the world.

7 Years past S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl had few as it is believed less successful predecessors (Clear Sky, which is my personal favourite, and Call of Pripyat), GSC World fell apart and we didn't get to see the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 and we completly have lost hope in the release. Untill the March 2012, former employees of the GSC World came together and started the new team called Vostok Games that currently works on the Online adaptation of the Stalker-like universe with the new name.

Survarium is based around the ecological catastrophe that took place in near future, where the exosystem technically declared war on the humanity. You objective is fairly simple. Survive. How you going to do it in the world full of anomalies, mutants and other players that only want to get your loot, will only lies in your hands.

There is a chance to get yourself involved into the project that is going on already. After registration on the official website you will be put into the lottery where each minute the website anounces a new participant in the beta test or by purchasing the beta key for only 9.99$. Can this be called a DayZ killer? Not at this current stage, but if the Vostok Games will take the experience it gained with the 3 STALKER games, it sure can DayZ off the stage. No doubt about that.

ATTENTION: The on going beta is currently played only on one game mode (teamplay=capture the flag).

more information could be found at the offical website and forums.

Here is some video of how the game actually looks like, right now.

Screenshots that were used in this blog can be found in the next links:
http://www.hpnot1q-gaming.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r/new-game-nether-survarium-igromir-2013-dayz-standalone-grim-misadventure-30-and-more/
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/18/vostok-aiming-for-survarium-beta-by-the-end-of-2013/
http://games.mail.ru/pc/articles/preview/survarium/

Movie Review: Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino (Sophie)

I like the way you die boy

Source: http://hdw.eweb4.com/search/django/

Django Unchained is another one of those Quentin Tarantino master pieces and some even say the best he did since Pulp Fiction in 1994. Released in late 2012 it grossed an estimated $162.8 million at the US box office alone! It stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and even Samuel L Jackson, who is in my opinion unrecognisable in this movie in character and mask.

The movie is set in early America just before the Civil war and can be divided into two sections. The first part a mock western and the second a trail of revenge, probably because Tarantino loooves revenge.

The story line starts with German-born bounty hunter Dr King Schultz, posing as a dentist, freeing (or more or less stealing Django) from slavery, as he is n need of his help find the runaway gangster by the name of the ‘Brittle Brothers’. So the two go off and do the Western thing, hunt the bad guys and collect the bounty. Django, however has only one thing in mind, finding his long lost love Brunhilde, who is lost in the slave trade. This quest to find Brunhilde and take revenge on those keeping her in slavery takes part in the second half of the movie.

My favourite scene of the movie is the one where the African-American housekeeper Stephen, played by Samuel L Jackson, questions the validity of Django, played by Jamie Foxx, to be riding on a horse. I have not yet count how often the N-word and some deem the frequent use of it in the movie to be controversial, but after 180 minutes running you do get used to it.

The movie not only ends with, but has throughout, this violent absurdity of people dying in the extravagant, obscene, over the top, profound ways, which bring you to the point where you either switch off or laugh it off. After Inglorious Basterds, this makes me believe that this is, where Tarantino like to push the audience right to the edge of what’s funny – what’s artistic and what’s not. This is where he seems to be most comfortable in his film making, meaning gets a very good movie out of it. And that this is in fact what makes a Tarantino movie a great movie – the utter and complete nonsense of it in its entirety. Django unchained is being sadistic and pushes moral boundries and ambitions at the same time.

The cast of this movie, just as in Inglorious Basterds, is define. Christoph Watlz for the second time starring in a Tarantino movie goes on to win an Oscar for best actor in a supporting role for the second. Even Tarantino himself makes a cameo appearance, as an Australian Cowboy. Gold.