Well I had a jolly weekend. The big cat sanctuary I worked at roughly two years ago had a special open day for it's supporters and obviously I went over there. The thing is almost a 1.5 hour drive from my house though so I had to leave early to get there in time and although I expected the drive to be pure hell I have to admit it wasn't halfway bad. It was a nice sunny day, the road wasn't to busy and I had a nice time enjoying the surroundings of open fields and big lakes. I was there before I knew it and had a bite to eat at a nearby cafe before I drove back to the sanctuary and went inside.
Since it was over two years ago and I only worked their briefly the owners didn't really recognize me anymore but that wasn't such a bad thing since I don't think I left on the best terms back then. The day I left I kinda threw down work in the middle of the day which, looking back at it, might not have been the best course of action and I'm not particularly proud of it especially since I regretted doing it the second I walked out the gate. But since I can't change the past, I can only hope for the things to happen right in the future, which it did since they didn't remember me :).
It was really nice to be back there again, lot of memories came back and I genuinely missed working there the instant I went inside. To bad I don't have the time at the moment because of school but should time offer itself in the future I'm definatly going to work there again. I'm guessing somewhere in June or July. Anyway I got a tour around the place, got some updates on the animals which were still there and on some that died in the two years that had passed. I was glad to see my two big buddies were still there, Rasputin and Alexander, who are two HUGE Siberian Tigers which are extremely cute and cuddly and quite often in a playful mood. Today however they were being lazy in the sun and only made for a couple of funny pictures. After a short time watching the animals and having a chat with the owners of the sanctuary I chose to take my leave and said they would hear from me in the future. With that I started my way home and this was only part one of Saturday. Total bugs killed on windshield: At least 2 dozen.

After getting home and taking a relaxing shower I prepared to go out with my friend Neo. We have a national holiday here called Queensday which is celebrated with a lot of music and drinking, in the case of our little city also in combination with the yearly fair. The evening before Queensday went pretty much like it should have except for the fact that I don't drink for a few reasons such as: I don't like it and both my parents were alcoholics. I did have a sip of beer but I came to the conclusion it was still as disgusting as when I tasted it 10 years ago. All and all I never came further then enough cokes to chemically dissolve my teeth.
The street, as usual with events like this, was littered with teenage idiots bouncing to a beat which was merely a modern version of cavemen banging on a rock wall. Non the less I'm not one to complain so despite the overwhelming presence of The Ikú* I had a very good time. We even made fun of them of multiple occasions.
The next day the real partying started during daytime and we went past a few partying spots to see if it was even worth it to go anywhere. In the end we concluded that it was just to crowded and to hot remotely enjoy being there and after visiting one place which was totally engulfed with the Ikú (including behavior that would make a caveman look behaved and dance moves that would make Darwin turn around in his grave) we decided to leave. The fact that my intestines were being bounced up and down by the extremely high bass didn't help either.

All the Money in the World
Neo and me made our way back to my house and spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the backyard, reading some books and enjoying the sun. After a while however, relaxing became hilarious laughter after we started fantasizing about what we could do with all the money in the world at our disposal. Now we had discussions like this before and the outcome usually was that we'd buy an airstrip, a few fighter jets, get pilot training and have simulated fights above the city. What separated this from all the others however was the idea I had about buying myself in with the Catholic church as the pope. Can you imagine me as the pope? Exactly, so could we! The outcome was hilarious so let me share with you guys what would happen if TigNeor** would become ruler of the planet:

1. There would be only 1 supermarket on the entire planet and it would be located in Friesland (most idiotic province in our country). It would be as high as the WTC and the rest of the province would be turned into a huge parking lot.

2. Prices in that supermarket would obviously be huge.

3. On the top floor of the building we would sit around and have huge comfy chairs from which we control the entire planet.

4. All around this supermarket are machine guns mounted on the ceiling which are used for our own entertainment.

5. For example, shooting the first person to come in the door wearing a striped T-shirt.

6. We'd recruit all Catholics in the world as our own huge army.

7. I'd make a bet with Neo as to whether or not he would be able to invade America, just for fun.

8. And after he would succeed I'd owe him a million.

9. After America I'd make a bet about Russia...

10. Against Russia we'd use a new weapon system, which would exist of catapults and new born babies.

11. Just for a laugh we'd rig a few catapults to release it's payload into the ground instead of in the air...

12. We'd also stuff some C4 into crying infants and launch them at weeping mothers just to make em go boom when they catch em.

13. To make it complete, every hospital will have a missile silo which will be used to launch new born babies into orbit.

14. All the world's leaders would be our servants, including Bush who would be cleaning toilets around our huge ass house.

15. For relaxation we would get said airstrip and said plane and fly around without getting any pilot classes.

16. When we need to exit the plane and don't know how to land we'd just eject and buy a new one...

17. With the plane going right into a church...

18. Fun!

19. In time we'd control earth from orbit around the planet.

20. For fun we'd launch random objects like piano's and marble plates into earth and see how many people we can crush at a time.

21. Events like Queensday are extremely suitable for this.

22. The marble plate would be an often reoccurring event which people will always be fearing.

23. With reason because you don't want to know how heavy those things are...

24. By the time our life is over we would launch the entire nuclear arsenal at once...

25. Which would put a whole new meaning to the phrase; going out with a bang.

So yea, it would be seriously bad if we were in charge of the planet, so lets hope that never happens :).

I will have some pictures of my trip to the sanctuary up tommorow I hope. So sit tight my friends!!

Tiger

*The Ikú: A name made up by me and Neo for the biggest part of the teenage population which are often found at parties, hanging around bars and fast food joints and listening to rap music and generally attempting to be cool.

**TigNeor: The collectable name of the infamous duo TigerXtrm and Neo.

Oops, havn't had a daily tube in a few days now. Party weekend and everything. We're back now though!

Micheal Shanks (actor who plays Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1) talking about the special Daniel/Jack relationship that's sometimes seen in the show. Quite funny.



Enjoy!

Tiger

Hilarious Amish spoof by Weird Al' Yankovic.



Enjoy!

Tiger

The things you can do with your body. Imagine having to chase these guys as a cop...



Enjoy!

Tiger

A Taco Bell commercial featuring some funny lions. Additional bloopers can be found here.



Enjoy!

Tiger

A funny take on the song 'Before I Forget' by Slipknot. Pay special attention to the guy in the back playing the guitar.



Enjoy!

Tiger

The best moments in the Fox series House MD, which is a very awesome series btw.



Enjoy!

Tiger

It's been the first time in a long time that I have visited the zoo again. Of course the weather is getting nicer so the choice to go is made much easier. I grabbed my camera and drove to the Amersfoort Zoo, a place I have been going since I was about 3 and where I have been coming a lot the last 4 years to take pictures and follow the lives of some of the feline inhabitants of the zoo.
There was a large gap between the last time I went there and now and in that time gap something nasty happened. Tientsie, the male Siberian Tiger in the zoo everyone following my pictures and adventures in the zoo has come to know and love, died of a kidney infection a few weeks ago. He reached the age of 13 and since I have seen him for quite a few times it's a rather big personal loss for me. I liked Tientsie most together with Brooklyn, so it's a shame to see him go.
As for the pictures I took on my last zoo trip they can be found on my DeviantArt account.

Apologies
I read quite a refreshing and interesting post in 2 the Ranting Gryphon's journal just now. It's about whether or not people should apologize for things in life they had nothing to do with. It's quite an interesting read. Go check it out.

David Armand showing off his interpretation of the song 'Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia. Must watch!



Enjoy!

Tiger

So it's Saturday and shopping needs to be done because stores are closed on Sunday and it's a nice day. The sun is shining, it's 25 degrees celcius in my house, 20 outside and holy craptastic 600 f*cking oven degrees celcius in my car. But hey, I need to the car to transport the heavy stuff like... drinks, drinks, drinks and stuff like that you get the point. You could also say that I'm lazy, but I'd simply deny it.
Anyway, I head over to the store and its the first time in a long time that I am confronted with the stupidity that is people in a busy store. Everyone is doing groceries for the weekend and stuff and no-one and I mean absolutely no-one is keeping the other persons around them in mind. So I got my cart and went inside the store, first encounter.
There is this woman standing next to the fruits and vegies, looking for something healthy to eat apparently although she could use a few thousand hamburgers to replenish her fat supplies. Next to her is some kid screaming in a kid trolley which is conveniently parked in the middle of my fucking path. The alternative path was fat guy looking for something healthy and whiny kids running around, so I waited a while untill this woman finally made a pick. Not even a second did it cross her mind that she was blocking the path for a whole bunch of people. But okay, I'm patient (and stupid) and don't say a thing. Finally she's done and I can continue my journey.
After getting some yum yum chicken and some bread for lunch tommorow I head for the fast food section. But not before my entire path is blocked by another mom with her two whiny kids, blocking not only my passage but also that of at least 5 other people standing on the other sides of her. I find another way around and look at the other people who are clearly as annoyed by her as I am but say just as little. The fast food section was surprisingly quiet so I quickly loaded in some bags of chips and moved on to... hit another full out traffic stop. This time it's an entire family blocking everyones path. Father, mother and two kids are COMPLETELY blocking the entire fucking isle with their kids and their cart while they are going over their 1 mile long shopping list to if they have everything. I dunno why no-one complains about this, including me, but it must have been the weather or something because everyone was once again taking a major detour around these people.
After another 4 of this kind of encounters I finally reach the kass register line where, unlike usual, everything seems to go like it should for once. No-one has some last minute stuff to grab, everyone has enough money to pay their stuff, the girl actually knows what she's doing and people are quick... no wait damnit, thats whats wrong. People are SLOWWWW!!!!! Somehow it takes 20 minutes for someone to fit a cart full of stuff into a couple of bags. Even if it's just a few things people somehow take extremely long to put it in a bag. But sure, except that it went pretty smooth.
Finally I could get the hell out of there and back to my car, which was by now probably passing the 1000 degrees celcius mark so if I wasn't fast my car would start melting. And since my car was parked on the roof of the store I had to get the elevator up there since I had a cart with me. So I push the button... and I push it again... and again... and the damn thing won't come down! I can see it trough the glass shaft being at the other floor. Eventually it comes down and 3 guys step out. No cart or anything, just to lazy to take the bloody stairs and holding my elevator for 4 fucking minutes.

Well I made it home luckily. God I hate Saturday shopping...

Havoc

The original Ghost Ride tapes are funny but not funny enough to share here. This on the other hand, is something that people need to see... and laugh at... hard.



Enjoy!

Tiger

So, Friday the 13th. The historic horrific day where everything is bound to go wrong. Funny thing is that things usually only start to go wrong after people realize it's that specific date. Things already started to go wrong for me before I realized what date it was.

First off I had an appointment at my school... which is already bad enough but the teacher who I had the appointment with didn't show up so I went there all for nothing. When I wanted to go there though I learned that my car wouldn't start and I did not have any membership with the car trouble thing we have here so my initial thought was... FUCK! If there is something seriously wrong with my car I can go pay a lot of monies to get this thing fixed. Luckily all it turned out to be was a broken key. The sensor in the key that confirms this key is the right key was busted, so the car no longer recognized the key and would thus not start. The spare key I had luckily did work.

King's Baby
Okay so... our king-to-be just had his third kid and for some reason the entire country is happy about this. I dunno why people are happy when a kid is born in the first place, but even less when we are the ones paying for their three kids. The kid's food, bed, school, golden clothing and goddamn bath water is all payed from the taxes we pay. OUR TAX MONEY IS NOT MEANT TO GO TO YOUR BLOODY CHILDREN! GO GET A REAL JOB!
Why are these people having 3 (!!!) children in the first place. The people taking care of them are probably the nannies working at the palace or something. I hate it when people have more then 2 children. After the first time you go trough 3 years of middle night feeding, hardly any sleep, endless crying ect. you'd think any couple in their right mind would NEVER do that again. The fact that people are willing to go trough the hell of having and raising a kid OVER AND OVER again is just showing how retarded everyone is. Message to the general population of planet earth: STOP BREEDING!

Reading
I have been reading a book the past few days which has fascinated me quite a bit. In The Last Confession of Mable Stark the best and most well known tiger trainer of the world has her story told in an almost novel like form. The story of her life is very interesting,
describing how she met, married and left at least 5 men and changed her identity to escape her past.
I have been enjoying the book very much, the humorous way it's written is something I like a lot and the general story of her life is just fascinating. I can also find myself in a lot she does concerning the tigers, which is also pretty cool.

Well, I'm quickly going back to my book!

Tiger

A 7 minute video of someone drawing a freehand image of Hugh Laurie (the actor playing Greg House in House MD). Absolutely worth the watch, this guy has got mad skill!



Enjoy!

Tiger

The things you can get away with at the DMV...



Enjoy!

Tiger

This will be the first of probably many entries that will directly deal with how to write a story. I'll explain certain ways of writing, certain ways of gaining ideas and creativity and I'll explain why I write the way I do and how. Right now I'm working on a story myself and as soon as the first chapter is done and posted I will make a sort of 'behind the scenes' editorial, for those who would like to know why I chose to write certain scenes the way I did. Until then, I'll start with a few basic things.

1. What to write about.
2. Working out the details.
3. Writing with or without a timeline.

So, let's start with the most important one of all for any writer. You can't write a story if you don't have a story to write about.


What to write about?
Before we do anything we need a subject to write about. You can't just sit down, start writing and see where it goes. Imagine reading a book that was written that way. You'd be subjected to the impulses of the writer, meaning that one second little jimmy is eating a sandwich and the next he's saving the world from invading aliens and... stuff. And that could work out, if you want to reach out to a public that likes aliens that can only be defeated by a sandwich, but that public isn't all that big, trust me.
You need a steady subject, a red wire which the entire story evolves around. Since it's going to be the foundation for your story you will have to put some serious thought into what you would like to write and read about and when you think you found something think about who will be reading it and if they will like it too. You're always primarily writing for your own pleasure (unless of course you have a contract with a publisher in which case you probably wasting your time reading this) but if you intend to share it with an audience you might want to find something that your audience can also relate with if you want them to enjoy it just as much as you are. Of course you could also just be picky about the audience and post your story about animals on a website dedicated to animals, you can't really go wrong that way but it cuts up your audience quite a bit.

So what should a good subject have if you're going to write a story about it? One would be tempted to say that it should be interesting, but any topic is as interesting as you can make it out to be. With enough imagination and creativity you can even make a football an interesting topic so thats not what you should be bothered with. What you do need to ask yourself is if the subject you chose has enough 'juice' in it to write a decent amount of chapters with. You could choose to write a novel about a sandwich, but the juice in that subject would run dry after about 3 short chapters, unless you're writing a cook book. If you write a story about a war however you could write for hours on end and still have enough juice left over to start your car.
You might ask yourself; "What exactly makes a subject 'juicy'?".
Well, good question. What makes a subject juicy depends largely on how much plot twists it allows you to make. War for example offers an unlimited amount of plot twists you can think off before you even start writing and more will offer them selfs as you write. A sandwich... well there might be a dilemma over whats on the sandwich, but that's pretty much the only plot twist you'll find in a sandwich. Also, can you relate to the subject? Can other people relate to the subject? You could be writing for hours on end about how you once made a sandwich in the middle of a war while bombs were going off everywhere but I doubt anyone can relate to that on a serious level besides yourself.
Of course no one story needs to be confined to just one subject, but be careful you don't use to many subjects. You could of course write a story about the sandwich AND the war, but writing a story about a sandwich in a war on a burning ship where a presidential election is being held while the ship is being attacked by a giant wale which was shot by Moby Dick who is enjoying a cup of coffee on his own little boat... while eating a sandwich... might be overdoing it. Limit your story to one or two main subjects and then use secondary chapter by chapter subjects to keep the story interesting.
Last but not least, don't be afraid to ask for feedback on ideas. Post your idea about the sandwich in a war on a message board like Writing Forums or ask friends what they think about the idea or what could be better about the idea. They might come up with good ideas you overlooked, like adding ketchup to the sandwich for the war effect of the sandwich being shot or something.

Working out the details
So you have your subject, now you need to form it into something people will like to read about because this is not going to work:

"There once was this sandwich and he was in a war and he was shot and he got ketchup all over him."

Obviously that's also a very horrifying way of writing, but what I wanted to point out is that we don't know what kind of sandwich we are dealing with, why there is a war and why the sandwich got shot. Details are the most important thing in a story next to a subject because without them a story will be extremely boring. For the next example I'm going to leave Sandwich for a bit, don't worry, he'll be back.
Let's say the man who made the sandwich is called... Bob. You could write:

"This is Bob, Bob was making a sandwich when the sandwich was shot because of the war."

While this leaves room for the readers imagination (which is also something a story needs) this particular piece of text leaves a gap bigger then the Grand Canyon. So lets try adding a few details:

"This is Bob, a chef on board of a warship. He was making a sandwich in the middle of a horrific war which lasted for centuries because of the peoplez fighting the poople. Suddenly a peoplez stepped in the kitchen thing and shot the sandwich, laughing like a maniac."

This already leaves a lot less room for imagination. We now know what Bob is doing in the war and somewhat why there is a war in the first place. It also explains why sandwich got shot and that the people is obviously some kind of idiot, judging by the laughter. What we could do to make it even more detailed is describe what Bob is wearing while making the sandwich, what kind of sandwich he's making and a small description of what the kitchen looks like. After that we could describe how the peoplez entered the kitchen and what he is wearing. Then you could continue to describe what he uses to shoot the sandwich. A gun? A rifle? A bazooka? Maybe a crossbow?
Read over your text on a regular basis as you write. Since you know what the story is about it's easy for you to picture everything like it should be in your head, but someone else reading your story probably isn't a psychic so make sure that all crucial elements in your story are actually there for the reader to pick up. The description of the kitchen is not needed perce, it's something the reader could fill in for himself, the weapon used to shoot the sandwich however is something that absolutely needs to be there. Not because it might be a huge plot element, but mostly because the reader will stop reading and go: "Well WTF did he get shot with?!!" if he can't find the cause in the first few lines following the shooting. This will in turn ruin the experience and the mood of the story so be sure not to skip any important things in your story.
Details are good, but to many details are bad. For instance we do not need to know Bob isn't wearing underwear while making the sandwich if it isn't a major plot element. And if it is I urge you to go back to the part where I told you how to pick a subject because you obviously didn't read it right.
Leaving room open for the readers imagination is something I personally like to do because it allows the reader to give certain parts of the story their own little label, making the story something they can relate with. For instance you can choose to describe the room in every single detail, including the carpet and the wallpaper. But you could also vaguely describe some items in the room, tell the reader what certain things look like and where they are and stop there. This allows the reader to fill in how the rest of the room looks and will in turn involve the reader without the reader being aware of it.
Also don't put details in the middle of an important scene. This for instance, won't work:

"Carl shouted at Bob for letting sandwich be shot.
'He got shot?! How bad is he?! Did he survive?! Is he still eatable?! Tell me now!!'
Bob looked at Carl and saw he was wearing a red shirt. The shirt had thin white stripes on it which made the entire thing look like a red chess board. Also he was wearing blue pants, which was just SO last year. Behind Carl was a desk, with a computer on it which was playing a nifty screensaver of a ball bouncing of the edges. The ball kept changing color, from blue to red, from red to yellow and from yellow back to blue. It facinated Bob too see this untill he was distracted by the bird in the cage behind the desk.... ...when he was done looking at the brown book case and reading every single title of every single book he looked at Carl.
'No, he's fine.'"

Here I put a F'ing long description in the middle of an important moment. And while it does kind of make Bob look like a total retard, it's not something you should ever do in an important scene. Either do it before or after the moment, but never in the middle.

Using a timeline or not?
By timeline I mean if you will describe the story being set in a specific year, like 1944. While this adds a certain level of detail to the story, it might come back and screw you over later, especially if your story is based on a non-fictional universe. AKA, if you are using the real world as a setting for your story. Unless you decide up front which events in history did and did not happen, you have a risk of it coming back and getting you when you have an idea. For example if you wanted to have a scene where Bob is relaxing on a beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944, then you'd have a problem because he'd be in the middle of a firefight.
While by itself this would not be a very big problem (since you can after all change the date a little), if you made earlier unchangeable references to D-day AND to the date and place Bob would be on the beach then you'd be in for a serious problem. Obviously you'd plan things a bit more careful in a real story and the above scenario is very unlikely to happen, but the basic principle of overlooking certain stuff and getting in trouble for it can. You reduce this risk by eliminating specific dates. Instead of naming the date, you could just use the time the story is set in as a point of reference to go back in time. Example:

Present time is the moment where Bob's ship is being attacked and the sandwich shot. While he's making the sandwich he's thinking about the time where he was relaxing on that beach in Normandy two years ago.

This implies that it happened quite a while ago and that a lot obviously happened in the meantime, but doesn't pinpoint the exact date and thus does not tie it to a specific event. This can help you avoid a lot of trouble in dealing with time paradoxes and stuff like that.

Well, so much for this part of my tips and tricks section. I'll follow it up with another article in the future, probably after I finish the first part of my story. I'm hoping it to be quite a long chapter so it might take some time. But those who are patient will be rewarded. In the mean time, I'd really appreciate it if someone could write a story about Bob and Sandwich. I've come to like them.

Tiger

A wise song about the saddest little hooker in the world.



Enjoy!

Tiger

Quite funny rant on a Macintosh sucking badly. I agree...



Enjoy!

Tiger

After putting in a good 50 hours into Tiberium Wars I managed to complete the game and am now thus able to write a full, all covering review about the game. I will be dividing it into 3 parts:

1. First Impression
2. Gameplay
3. Story

Note that the story part will be one huge spoiler for the game, so if you haven't completed it yet I would recommend not reading that part.

First Impression
I got the demo of Tiberium Wars pretty much the second it came out and started playing it instantly after it was done installing. At first glance everything seemed to check out like a classic C&C game. Just starting up the game and being presented with a menu that has a Tiberium infested earth in the background is already enough to get you back in the mood. It kind of takes you back to the days of Tiberian Sun, where you were confronted with those kind of images almost every mission.
The first time you enter a game in Tiberium Wars you will have to adjust yourself a little if you were expecting classic C&C controls; it's been 8 years since the last C&C and some things have changed, such as the Sage engine EA has been working on so hard the last few years and that single thing you will have to get used to is right clicking to give orders. Those of us who played Generals would already have been kind of used to it, but when you see the sidebar and feel like your back in the classic C&C game again, the urge to left click it quite large at the start. But like every other thing in life you'll get used to it fast enough.

First item on the agenda, the structures and units of C&C 3. I have heard a lot of people tell me their awsome, I have a lot of people telling me they are just more of the same, copied directly from Tiberian Sun or even Tiberian Dawn. While this may be true for some units and structures, it's also what makes C&C be a C&C. You can look at a GDI MCV and instantly go: GDI MCV! You can look at the Hand of Nod and instantly go; Hand of Nod! And so forth. Also some old units from Tiberian Sun have returned, such as the Juggernaut which also had a small fashion upgrade. I think that, in the entire game, the Mammoth Tank and the Juggernaut have to be the most cool looking units in the game.
In short it's a lot of the same mixed with some new ideas and new designs. And it's not at all a bad thing, because it makes you remember you are playing a C&C game. Besides, if they would have gone with something totally different, everyone would have been anal about everything being different and it not feeling like a true C&C blabla.

The graphics of the Sage engine look absolutely fantastic. Lighting, shadows and explosions are all so well done you'd wish you could blow stuff up all day long just for the effects. Blow up a tank and parts will fly everywhere, you'll see the barrel flying off in some random direction while other random parts fly everywhere. Shoot down an air unit and it will explode in the air, making a desperate attempt to land before crashing and burning into the ground and causing a second explosion. Buildings no longer have 3 kinds of graphical status (Full health, half health and destroyed) like in the previous C&C games, but now break down bit by bit with every shot they take until they finally explode into tiny pieces when completely destroyed. Blowing up bases and units becomes so much more fun with the graphic advances the Sage engine has provided.
Next to all that, the enviorment now also directly influences the lighting off the map. Playing in a blue zone where everything is peaceful will result in a clear battlefield and you'd imagine a blue sky over it. Play in a yellow or red zone however and you'll instantly notice how the Tiberium there affects the weather. Gas fumes are everywhere, it's dark and whatever light there is mostly green, shimmering off the huge Tiberium crystals that are growing in the ground. When you look around a red zone a bit you'll even see the reflections of the Tiberium shine into the camera as you pan over them. It's that kind of detail that makes it all a very nifty experience.

The music however is as bad as the graphics are good. While EA did promise to do everything they can to make the music 'C&C worthy', they never even came close to the quality Frank Klepacki once made C&C standard. All in all, there are maybe 1 or 2 tracks that pass by every now and then that make you go 'hm, yea that does kind of have a C&C beat to it', but the rest is not really something you would download a soundtrack for. I understand that Frank was employed with another company and that it would have initially restricted him from doing tracks for EA, but you'd say that a big company like EA would find a way around that. I mean they also got an actor from Lost so why not Frank. Buy him out for a few months or something, would have made a hell of a difference, but aw well. What's done is done. Music could have been better, but hey, who buys this game for the music?

Gameplay
The gameplay of C&C 3 is smooth and the tons of improvements they did to the Sage engine since Generals are clearly noticeable. Units no longer hump each other trying to get somewhere and appear to actually have half a brain to work with. Even the harvesters seem to have a decent comprehension of what is going on around them now, even though the idea of going back to base when being attacked is still something they have never heard of. That and taking turns with unloading Tiberium... the bay is designed for only one of you guys!!!
Another big change is the principle of Fog of War. In the old C&C games you could scout the map and what you scouted would then be available to you for the duration of the match. In C&C 3 they took a different approach and already gave you the entire map, but added a fog of war over it which you have to scout. It's a welcome change, for me anyway, because I used to hate the total blackness around me and knowing how the map looks without having to scout is much more useful.
Production cues is another new concept which also adds a whole new strategic side. You have to option to build a crane, which is basically a second construction yard and gains you access to one extra building tab. You can build two power plants at the same time for example and that concept is extremely handy for defenses and it also speeds up the entire match because bases are built more quickly. In turn, the way you build units are also changed. Where the speed of building used to be increased with each production structure you had, you now build units sepperatly at each structure. Say you have 5 war factories, you can build 5 tanks at the same time, speeding up the production process just the same or maybe even more as with the old method. Again, it speeds up the battles and how fast you can have an army ready. All you really need is money.

The Story

Attention! This part of the review contains HUGE spoilers to the story as a whole. If you have not completed the game entirely and don't want to know the story, don't read on from this point!!


Command & Conquer always had an epic story and it was the question of the community if EA would be able to continue the story without screwing it up. So lets have a little flashback first.

Great World War II had just ended when the Global Defense Initiative was set up in the wake of the now eliminated Soviet threat. While their initial goal was to be a global military organization under the command of the UN, their objective suddenly changed when an ancient cult came back from the ashes and made a huge push for power. The Brotherhood of Nod and it's leader who is only known as Kane rose up and started propaganda against GDI long before Tiberium manafested itself on earth. However it was not until a mysterious meteor impacted earth near the Tiber River in Italy that Nod became a more serious threat. The Brotherhood seemed to have a very high interest in the alien substance the meteor carried with it and quickly saw it's potential while scientists of GDI discovered the substance was in fact mutating the earth slowly. In the first Tiberium War GDI focused primarily on halting Nod as a group as the recommendations of scientists to make Tiberium the top priority were dismissed with a small thanks. Tiberium would continue to be very valuable substance, having the unique ability to leech minerals out of the ground, it was no wonder no-one wanted to get rid of it.
At the end of the First Tiberium War a GDI Ion Cannon was detonated over Kane's temple in Sarajevo and Kane was presumed MIA and most likely dead under the rubble of the temple. Video footage recovered from the temple later confirmed Kane was killed in the blast and there was no possible way he could have survived.
In the decades that followed GDI started to focus more on Tiberium, with the Brotherhood without a leader it was no longer a serious threat. Tiberium however was slowly taking over the planet at a faster rate then anyone could have predicted. GDI was using most of their resources at countering the effects and stopping Tiberium in it's tracks. It wasn't until early 2030 that Kane resurfaced, just as young as in the first war, and the Second Tiberium War had begun. Tiberium had by now manifested itself in the biggest part of the planet, mutating wild life and plant life everywhere. Next to that new strains of Tiberium were discovered, such as blue tiberium and Tiberium veins. Kane was determined to speed up the growth of Tiberium while GDI was doing everything in it's power to eradicate it. In the middle of the battle however, an alien space ship was discovered by Nod which was claimed by GDI after a fierce battle. Inside they found something which would be known as the Tacitus, a collection of background information on Tiberium specifically. After a long and fierce battle Kane was killed once again, this time for sure, the GDI commander responsible for his death assured. Shortly after Kane's death, his AI computer CABAL came in uprising, wanting to claim the two halfs of the tacitus for himself to unveil the secrets of Tiberium. Eventually GDI and rough Nod forces managed to destroy CABAL's core and recover the tacitus which their AI EVA was able to translate. That was the end of the second Tiberium war.

It was quiet for almost two decades before trouble once again arose.
Kane is back, alive and kicking almost 60 years after Tiberium first arived on earth. Before GDI got their hands on the Tacitus back in the Second Tiberium War, CABAL managed to translate portions of it, revealing information about the aliens who sent Tiberium to earth. It revealed that, when enough of the planet was covered in matured Tiberium, a chain reaction would cause an explosion that would alert the aliens and make them come to earth. Kane's faith in the aliens and in Tiberium drives him to lure the aliens to Earth in an attempt to steal their technologies and knowledge about Tiberium. In order to do this, he needs GDI to fire an Ion Cannon strike at Temple Prime in Sarajevo where a Liquid Tiberium Storage is being held in a bunker. A strike from the Ion Cannon would detonate the Liquid T, causing a massive chain reaction that would alert the alien visitors. And what better way to piss GDI off then by killing all the world's leaders in a single blow?
After a successful attack on GDI's ASAT facility, a nuke is launched against the Philadelphia, an orbital space station where all world leaders reside, far away from the Tiberium threat. With the destruction of the Philadelphia, GDI is fast to retaliate; taking back Washington before pushing into Sarajevo to crush Temple Prime and end the war quickly. The battle was short, while Nod managed to hold off GDI for some time, the Ion Cannon was eventually engaged and Temple Prime (and the Liquid T stored underneath) destroyed. The chain reaction that followed engulfed the entire planet, killing thousands of people in the process but completing Kane's plan to attract the aliens to Earth.
The aliens manage to penetrate orbital defenses and set up camp in England and Germany as a diversion for their bigger plans but are quickly taken by surprise as they come to realize that the Tiberium explosion was way to early. Tiberium, known to the aliens as Ichor, was for the most part immature. The planet was supposed to be dead and overrun with Tiberium by the time a liquid tiberium explosion took place. Instead, the world was still heavily populated. While the alien military adviser suggests aborting the mission and to wait until the Tiberium has done it's job, the foreman responsible for the Earth Harvesting Operation demands to continue harvesting operations.
While GDI is busy fighting the aliens in England and Germany, the aliens are building massive towers all over the planet which Kane believes to be intergalactic portals to other worlds when completed. Wanting to get this technology in his own hands, Kane manages to acquire the key codes to activating a completed tower. GDI however is pushing to destroy all towers, seeing them as a serious threat. They manage to wipe out all but one, which Nod is heavily defending alongside with the aliens. As the last parts of the tower are being completed, GDI manages to destroy the last remaining relay node of the aliens, sitting right on top of ground zero in the Tiber River. It stops all aliens on earth dead in their tracks, but not before the alien foreman escaped the planet trough the by now completed portal.
The alien invasion was stopped dead in it's tracks, be it with a final casualty rate of over 25 million people thanks to GDI's Liquid Tiberium Bomb which they used on the last relay node. Kane secured the tower, activating it soon to explore their faith. All meanwhile the Supreme Commander in the home galaxy of the aliens has intercepted footage of Kane, how he knew about the Tacitus, the aliens. This man knew to much, further investigation is required. As the last words are spoken by the alien Supreme Commander, we have to sit tight and wait for the expansion pack.
"Prepare a full invasion force. We WILL take earth..."









Spoilers end here!!


Well, that was my review of Command & Conquer 3. I hope you enjoyed it. Have fun playing the game if you have yet to play it!

Tiger

Me and Neo had a poker night Saturday evening along with his girlfriend, father, sister and her boyfriend. It was an awesome night, especially because I pretty much whooped the floor with everyone twice.
We started out with Texas Hold 'em, after a few rounds of explaining to those we had yet to be explained, we started the first serious match. Lost some, won some, played some people bankrubt and eventually went bankrubt myself when I went all-in against impossible odds.
After the Texas Hold 'em game we did a few matches of real 'old fashion' poker; 5 closed cards and you get to swap cards twice to make good combinations. Whooped everyones asses in that game twice with two flushes, including the final pot which was all or nothing. I got it all and they got nothing. It was a very successfully night, especially because me and Neo visited the Mac at 1 in the morning after we dropped off his girlfriend. Hamburgers just taste that much better when consumed in the middle of the night, also there were a lot of KITTAH's there eating all the left over food. Probably stray cats or something, they didn't like it when I came close but they were cute :P.

Command & Criticize!
EA has established a new record for itself. If you thought having 3 patches in a period of 2 months (BF2) was bad, then you're not going to believe this. The new record is now set on 3 patches in 3(!!!!) days, and all very needed might I add. The online mode was hardly accessible for a lot of people and I still have no clue how the development team working on the online mode managed to fuck up like this. Aren't you supposed to test for exactly this kind of stuff? Make sure the game DOESN'T crash when it can't connect, make sure the server ISN'T overloaded because the game is just released and everyone is hanging out in the same damn room? Isn't that just common sense? Especially for a team that is hired to do specifically these things?
The people who designed the online part for the game deserve to be bitched at, but when I hang around in the C&C 3 lobby and some of the developer team members are online chatting with the users, I see everyone bitch at them. Remember that the people responsible for the game physics (engine, gameplay, units, buildings, blablabla) and the people responsible for the online function and smoothing everything out are probably two different teams all together. Team 1 did an awsome job, I can't say anything less about C&C 3 by itself. It plays, looks and feels like a real C&C game. The story could use a LOT of work but I'll go into that in some other post when I complete the game entirely.
The point is that you're all bitching at the wrong people. The people responsible for the multiplayer enviorment are responsible for all the stupidities and I will bet you money that it's not the same team that made the biggest part of the game. If you want to bitch at someone, bitch at the management, they are the ones who don't care if a game is working properly, who don't care if beta testers have a mile long list of bugs that needs some serious fixing before shipping the game out. Every other developer would not even THINK about sending out a game with more then 3 serious bugs. But not EA, their attitude is to 'patch it later'. And hey, it works, cuz we're all still buying their shit arn't we? Well can't really blame us, since they buy up every major title available we don't really have a choice anymore.

The writing's on the wall
When you think up a good story and you have it all in your mind, the hardest thing to do is convert it to words. I dunno about everyone, but whenever I think up a story I come up with it in my head like it's a movie. I could be a script writer and film director no problem, but I'm not. Problem is that converting an image like story in your mind to something that reads pleasant but also describes exactly what you picture in your head, is EXTREMELY fucking hard. I mean I have the entire first scene of my story all thought out. I could probably fill 20 pages without stopping, if I could actualy come up with the words! Eventually they will come to me, all you really have to do is start on it and the words will start flowing, like me writing this blog entry right now. But starting... you need to be in the mood for it, and I'm not always in the mood.

Tiger

Implosion of the fictional Montecito Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from the season 2 finale of 'Las Vegas' the TV Show.