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HEAD CUT OFF FOR CHEATING: Mexican Guy Cuts His Wifes Head Off WTF
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Al Salah: Shut the freak up and show the video
Yariel Calloway: HE'S A FREAKING DUNCE
Mercedes Morgan: Oh my god that is so Freaking scary to hear about that or watch it like omg
JohnPKnuckles: I wanted to see a woman get her head cut off. Instead I had to listen to this coloured man talking. Needless to aay I am offended and wish there was a trigger warning.
RedDragons: @Mireya Gonzales: You're a stupid nigger lovin' bitch! That should be your ass getting your head cut off you freakin' ho ass bitch!
" I love when black people talk." "That's my nigga."
Shut the freak up bitch! I bet you have like 5 nigger kids from 3 different black dudes you freakin' wannabe nigger!
RedDragons: The bitch wanted to freak with the Mob (The Real Muthafreakin' Mob!) and got caught up tryin' to play some real gangsters and got her crap torn off!
It's that muthafreakin' simple! And to all you bitch ass people saying freak Mexicans for this video...how about when white boys cut their mom's head off for asking them to do their chores? You don't have crap to say,huh? Or how about when black cats rape lil girls and decapitate them? Nothing,huh? And all this crap happens in America you dumb freaks!
My point is this crap happens everywhere so quit acting like where you come from is just so civilized because it ain't.
fandore12: ok, first she killed a commander from the zetas, that was her crime. they killed her with a machete, cutting through the neck bone and doing all the "hard" work before time. after the girl was dead, they cuffed her hands in the back instead of the front like they normally do and set it up to appear as a simple process. the video is to warn others out there to not interfere with their business or this will happen to you! purely to insight fear. then they did the actual shooting on camera. to be honest though, they have done a LOT worse. most common way for them to kill you is to get a 55 gallon drum, stick you in, pour gas on ya and then light it on fire... not a nice way to go and is a hell of a lot longer way to die...
Daniel Martinez: maggot
aj percie: Dude, holy crap. That was the most disturbing thing ever. Looked fake, but i guess thats how real it is...
Winardi Kesuma: This guy is so stupid....
BACON VLAVORED Serrano: didn't seem really he cut threw it like a slice cake. No bones I guess.
NEVER "JB" MIND: freak YOU ! UGLY NEGRO .. ALL NEGROS ARE UGLY !!!!!!!!
HELLKNIGHT167434: It could of been worse. Imagine cutting a woman's head off. Writing a letter on her forehead and cheeks. Tie her hair in front of the door knob front of the family front door. take off and make a run for it! Now if it was a man head. A lot of writting all over his head then throw the head at the front window. and make a run for it!
Eric Whitfield: Real as freak in Mexico.
Eric Whitfield: Yop.
Hector Dominguez: Dude you're an idiot she wasn't cheating she worked for a rival cartel, they were sending a message to that rival cartel by beheading her
Ezequiel L: She probably stole from the cartel
HR Konigsleiten: Stupidity has a face (with two drops) now...
Danise Louise: Michael Medina...about you go freak yourself little bitch
HEAD CUT OFF FOR CHEATING: Mexican Guy Cuts His Wifes Head Off WTF 5 out of 5


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So I just got a Citibank credit card. In order to prevent theft, they will put my picture on the credit card. I'm hoping that they think I look like a blue neon sculpture
So.. if anybody has a reasonably sharp picture of the man's head, about 1000 pixels x 1000 pixels, please email me.
Many thanks

subset: commoncrawl


text: Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 is an amazing book for Halo fans. Published by Titan Books, The Art of Halo 4 contains 192 pages of art work from various stages of the game's development compiled by Paul Davies with a foreword written by Kenneth Scott, the Senior Art Director at 343 Industries. 5/5


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Book your room at Little Inn by the bay
Standard Room, 1 Queen BedMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 1 infant)
Deluxe Room, 1 King BedMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 1 infant)
Deluxe Room, 2 Queen BedsMax Occupancy: 5 guests (up to 4 children, 3 infants)
Get an overview of this hotelBayside motel in Newport Beach with free parking
Situated near the bay, this motel is 0.4 mi (0.7 km) from Newport Pier and 2.1 mi (3.4 km) from Balboa Pier. Hoag Hospital and Newport Harbor Nautical Museum are also within 3 mi (5 km).
Property Features
This motel features free use of bicycles, concierge services, and a 24-hour front desk. Free WiFi in public areas and free self parking are also provided. Additionally, free newspapers, multilingual staff, and free wired Internet in public areas are onsite.
Room Amenities
All 18 rooms provide free WiFi and free wired Internet, LCD TVs with cable channels, and conveniences like sitting areas and refrigerators. Guests will also find pillowtop beds, DVD players, and microwaves.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Little Inn by the bay features multilingual staff, concierge services, and complimentary newspapers in the lobby. High-speed wired and wireless Internet access is complimentary. Complimentary self parking is available on site.
- 24-hour front desk
- Beach sun loungers
- Beach towels
- Beach umbrellas
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Concierge services
- Free self parking
- Free WiFi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Multilingual staff
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Number of floors - 2
- Total number of rooms - 18
- Year Built 1999
Business Travel Amenities
- Dry cleaning or laundry services
- Concierge services
- Free parking
- Free WiFi
- Multilingual staff
Family Friendly Amenities
- DVD player
- Free Wi-Fi
- Microwave
- Refrigerator
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Cable TV service
- Ceiling fan
- Coffee/tea maker
- Free weekday newspaper
- Daily housekeeping
- DVD player
- Free WiFi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Microwave
- Phone
- Pillowtop mattress
- Premium bedding
- Refrigerator
- Separate sitting area
Nearby Things to Do
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Kayaking nearby
- Sailing nearby
- Water skiing nearby
- Windsurfing nearby
- Free bicycles on site
- Mountain biking nearby
- Scooter/moped rentals nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
- Parasailing nearby
- Ecotours nearby
- Golf lessons available nearby
- Segway rental/tour nearby
- Bicycle rentals on site
- Surfing/boogie boarding on site
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible bathroom
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Deposit: USD 100 per stay
- Breakage deposit: USD 100 per stay
Hotel Name
- Little bay Newport Beach
- Little Inn bay
- Little Inn bay Newport Beach
- Little Hotel By The Bay
- Little Hotel Newport Beach


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Jason Aldean to play Summerfest on June 29
Summerfest officials have announced the first headliner for its 46th year. Country star Jason Aldean, whose first headlining amphitheater tour in 2011 included a stop at the Marcus Amphitheater, is returning to the Big Gig on June 29, a festival spokeswoman has confirmed.
The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, because it was announced Oct. 18 that Aldean would headline Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 20. Several acts in recent years that headlined the approximately 41,000-capacity ballpark, including Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney and the Police, opted to skip Milwaukee on those tours. »Read Full Article(9)
'Anchorman 2' is kind of a disappointing deal
Laughter is the best medicine, but "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" is a placebo.
TV news anchor Ron Burgundy has come down in the world in more ways than one. In the new film formally opening in theaters Wednesday, a jobless Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, ends up working the graveyard shift at a new 24-hour cable news station. The usual hijinks prevail as he stumbles his way back to the top. »Read Full Article(32)
Milwaukee Public Museum discontinues free Monday admission for county residents
Milwaukee County residents take note. Free Mondays at the Milwaukee Public Museum end this month. The longtime policy will be replaced by a Thank-You Thursday program.
County residents will receive free general admission on the first Thursday of every month as part of the new program. The museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each Thursday. Adults residents must present valid photo identification showing residency and children must be accompanied by an adult showing proof of residency to receive free admission. »Read Full Article(1)
Cafe Vocar opening in Riverwest on Friday
Cafe Vocar photo »Read Full Blog Post
George Zimmerman sells art to get out of debt
George Zimmerman, Florida's most known neighborhood watchman, is trying to get out of debt by selling original artwork on eBay, according to the New York Post and Vanity Fair magazine.
The painting, which looks like a detail of the American flag in monochromatic blues, went from an original bid of 99 cents to nearly $100,000 by Tuesday morning. So far, there have been 98 bids on the work. The auction ends Saturday. »Read Full Article(82)
Remembering Ray Price
Country music lost one of its finest voices Monday with the death of Ray Price. Living to the age of 87 years old, Price was one of those rare bona fide legends whose life reads like a time capsule, yet he remained relevant in the genre that he helped shape right until the end. »Read Full Blog Post
On Tap Today: Milwaukee hip-hop, Straight No Chaser, Christmas movies and Marquette basketball
The state of Milwaukee's hip-hop music scene - and how to connect underground artists with audiences - will be on the table from 5 to 8 tonight at Translator, 415 E. Menomonee St., in the latest installment of the TAG Talks networking series, featuring the owners of local label Uni-Fi Records. Admission is free.
A cappella specialists Straight No Chaser bring their holiday harmonies to the Riverside Theater at 7:30 p.m. »Read Full Blog Post


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Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Children
- Adoptions
Overall Client Ratingin Family Law5.0 out of 5.0Communication Ability5.0Responsiveness5.0Quality of Service5.0Value for Money5.0
- Data based on 1 reviews
- Recommended by 1 Client(s)
- Last reviewed on 09/30/13
Overall Peer Rating5.0 out of 5.0
No feedback is available.The individuals that have reviewed this lawyer have not provided any additional feedback.
- Meets very high criteria of general ethical standards
Experience & CredentialsPositionChester Co. Ct. of Com. PleasAdmission DetailsAdmitted in 1987, Pennsylvania and New JerseyLaw School AttendedVillanova Univ.
Class of 1987
J.D.University AttendedDouglass College
Class of 1984


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With 1.7 million freelancers, we'll match you with the perfect talent.
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Being extremely novice to the game development field, we are looking for someone to help us develop a project plan from start to finish for game development. We will need a process flow chart with the typical expected costs and time frames associated with each step of the process. We will provide details to the concept of the game, but please anticipate and bid accordingly for some emails back and forth for us to provide the details necessary for am accurate project plan and for you to ask the necessary questions to provide a solid project plan for it. The game concept is fairly in depth, a game more along the lines of a game where you can build structures and upgrade them, not a simple arcade style game. Please note this is for the project plan only but when we approve budget for parts or all of this we will have preference to companies we are familiar with and have helped us along this stage.
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Speed and adrenaline combine for an explosive race track story
Ron Howard tackles a tough script in the movie Rush where he deals with not one but two protagonists. And although they are polar opposites, it's hard to feel empathy for either. Based on the real lives of Formula 1 race drivers James Hunt (played Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (played by Daniel Brühl), the script details their careers over a period of years during the 1970s when they were staunch opponents on the racetrack.
Lauda comes from a wealthy family that is determined to stop him from participating in the expensive sport by using their influence to keep him from obtaining the money he requires. Unabated he manages to get the cash together without their blessing. Never a man to soften his words, his single-minded determination eventually leads him to the Ferrari company where, after taking one of their prized vehicles around the track, he tells Enzo Ferrari (Augusto Dallara) his vehicle is (substituting for a scatological term) akin to garbage. But Lauda's skills behind the wheel also extend to his technical abilities under the hood. After tinkering with the Ferrari he squeezes out an impressive performance improvement and wins the founder's approval. His acquaintance with others at the corporation eventually brings Lauda into the life of Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara), a woman who proves to be an understanding support for a man afraid happiness may distract him from winning.
On the other side of the track is the passionate James Hunt. For him the appeals of the sport are entirely different. They include fueling his need for risk-taking behavior, speed and—possibly the biggest benefit—attracting women wherever he goes. (These exploits are depicted in various sexual scenes, some of which include nudity). After his sponsor stongly encourages him to settle down and lead a more responsible life he marries Suzy Miller (Oliva Wilde), a beautiful woman with a modelling career. However the relationship does little to mellow the man who can't leave danger alone.
Race after race these two competitors come to the finish line one behind the other. Lauda's consistency, ability to manage risks and his inherent interest in the sport—from the design of the tracks to the intricate mechanical nature of the cars—provides a solid foundation that delivers positive results. But Formula 1 racing is a sport that demands fearless participants and Hunt, either through stupidity or an overdose of testosterone, drives like he's immortal. That gives him the edge just often enough to keep him in the running.
Then a fateful day arrives. It's been raining on the already difficult track at Nürburgring Germany. Even though Lauda holds the record on the course, he's convinced the race should be cancelled for safety reasons. Equally bold in sharing his opinion, James Hunt uses his swagger to persuade the crowd of other drivers that the Austrian is only using the weather as an excuse to eliminate a potential loss. The majority agrees and the race is run. As feared by Lauda, the treacherous conditions do lead to a horrific accident—one that leaves him nearly dead. While the incident forever alters Lauda physically, it also emotionally scars Hunt and his perception of the "enemy".
Positive messages are available in superbly crafted movie with solid performances and incredible makeup effects and cinematography. However parents should carefully heed the film's R-rating. Violent depictions of racing accidents include what appear to be a decapitated corpse and a partially missing leg with a bone exposed. Medical procedures are depicted graphically, and aren't for the faint of heart. Off the track a character beats another, leaving him with bloody facial injuries. If that's not enough to flatten your tires, you'll also be privy to various sexual encounters that include breast and buttock nudity, scenes of illegal drug use, lots of drinking and tobacco smoking. (In one instance Hunt partakes and then hits the course—don't try this at home kids.) Finally expect over a dozen sexual expletives (one in a sexual context) in addition to other crude anatomical, scatological and religious terms.
More than a movie about racing, Rush delves into the intricate relationship between these very different men and the unappreciated benefits of their ongoing friction and rampant competition. In the end Lauda sums it up best by quoting Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Braciá: "A wise man gets more from his enemies than a fool from his friends." While Rush may not teach us to love our enemies, it certainly reminds us that we can appreciate our opponents.


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My husband and I stayed for 4 nights at the beginning of June and had a great time. We didn't want to leave and I already want to return. The hotel was clean and comfortable and the staff always keen to help. Every room has a balcony with a great view of the valley. The beds are on the hard... More
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In 2008, two long time, childhood friends and university roommates, Dr. Garry Saran and Gary Prihar, collaborated on an idea. An idea to start a multi-disciplinary and holistic health care clinic to serve the Surrey/Delta community as Viva Care. Today, Viva Care is an innovative health care provider who provides access to many health services being offered in over 10 clinic locations.
Our growing network of family physicians, specialists, pharmacists, optometrists, rehabilitative team and other health care providers are bound by the common purpose of helping communities on their path to better health.
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Take a tour of one of our state of the art Viva Care clinics. They are designed to maximize patient flow and meet the needs of both our patients and physicians.


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TJ Roberts, Ranch Manager
TJ was born and raised in Merkel, TX. He grew up loving horses and cattle and learned many valuable lessons about the cattle industry from his Dad. TJ started his first job at 17 working for a cutting horse facility. He later started training horses for the public and himself; along with doctoring wheat cattle for Sellers Cattle Co. for 10 years. In 2009 he went to work for Spires Ranch as a camp man and became manager in 2010. He worked for Spires Ranch for 4 ½ years before coming to Tongue River Ranch in April 2014. TJ has been very blessed in his life. His biggest accomplishment is his family and watching his kids grow and their love for Jesus Christ. TJ says that his wife Kristin, daughter Bailey (15), and two sons Brazos (9) and Blaine (6) have always supported him in everything he does. He gives God the glory for everything that has come his way including working for Tongue River Ranch and being a part of a wonderful group of people. He enjoys team roping, showing horses and loves to snow ski. TJ and his wife Kristin take great pride in being a part of the Tongue River Ranch, its premier Quarter Horses and cattle operations, its heritage and its families.
Tyler Weatherford, Wagon Boss
Tyler was born in Amarillo, Texas and spent most of his childhood in the North western Panhandle town of Channing, Texas. It was there that he began learning the value of hard work and the importance of family. He moved his family from the Long X Ranch to Tongue River Ranch in 2010. He and his wife, Tabitha, have three handsome boys, Weston, Hagen and Corbin. Tyler really enjoys working with leather in his spare time. He likes to build chaps, headstalls and one day would like to build saddles.
Quentin Marburger, New Mexico Cowboy
Quentin grew up on his family cow/calf ranch, Windmill Ranch Cattle Service, in Central Texas. After graduating from Lewisville Christian Academy in 1999 he worked for the Quien Sabe Ranch for a couple of years and spent three years at the JA Ranch. Quentin returned to his family's outfit for four years before coming to Tongue River Ranch in the Spring of 2012. Quentin is married to Angella and they have three precious girls; Grace, Paisley and Bentley. He enjoys playing the guitar and spending all the time he can with his family. Quentin says that he is truly blessed. He thanks God that he has such a wonderful wife who is truly a gift and that he gets to do what he loves every day.
Kye Brandon – Scott Camp Cowboy
Kye grew up on a ranch between Albany and Abilene, Texas helping his Dad at the Alexander Ranch where he helped take care of a yearling operation and trained colts. He has worked for the Spayberry, JY, 7-Triangle, Davis and Hanes and Slant B Ranches. Kye, his beautiful wife Tanya along with their daughter Brylee Bo and son Bronc came to Tongue River Ranch in March of 2015. He enjoys riding and training horses, roping, hunting, fishing and spending time with his family.
Zack Peters – North Camp Cowboy
Zack was raised on ranches in the Texas Panhandle. He spent summers and most weekends on the Quien Sabe Ranch until his junior year of high school and graduated from high school in New Deal, Texas. He has day worked for ranches including the 6666's Ranch, Spade Ranch, Moorhouse Ranch Co, La Mejor Livestock and Swenson Land and Cattle. He had full time positions at the Y Ranch, Quien Sabe Ranch, Lee Francios Cutting Horses, Curtis Bass Quarter Horses, Lawrence Cattle Co, Circle Bar Ranch and Pitchfork Land and Cattle before coming to Tongue River Ranch in May 2015. Zack is a 2015 Graduate of TCU Ranch Management. He and his wife Danielle have a beautiful daughter named Hazlie. Zack enjoys football and going fishing in his spare time.
J.T. Schuringa – Horse Trainer
JT grew up on a yearling operation outside of Weatherford, Texas. His wonderful parents supported him with whatever he wanted to do. He has worked for the Twin V Ranch, Clark Cattle Company, Haythorn Land and Cattle and the Muleshoe Ranch. JT joined the Tongue River Ranch rodeo team in Spring of 2015 and often-times rides the bronc where he has had great success. JT enjoys roping, training and riding young horses, and enjoying whatever he is doing.


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Franchise reboots are all the rage lately. Apparently Spider-Man is getting one in a couple years after three outings with team Raimi and Macguire. I was originally going to take this paragraph in the direction that "games don't actually receive the reboot treatment all that often," and then I wrote the following paragraph and cut all that because, well, you'll see.
The game industry, up to this point at least, appears to have a keen eye for focusing on what gameplay systems form the foundation for a franchise and dialing those in for the supposed reboots. Far Cry 2 took little more than the notion of being a mercenary amidst beautiful vistas from its forerunner. Red Faction: Guerilla took the free-form destruction from its franchise namesake and ran with it. Resident Evil 4 took the mood, universe and applied to a wholly new game. Team Fortress 2 took the defined roles in a fast-paced multiplayer game. Bionic Commando took, uh, the bionic arm and, well, put it in a game wholly unsuited for it, but it's the thought that counts. There's Fallout 3, every subsequent Sonic game in the past five-six years, Grand Theft Auto 4, and so on.
Splinter Cell: Conviction is one such reboot. Ubisoft took Sam Fisher from the sulky, quiet super-spy in Splinter Cell (and its sequels: Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory, and Double Agent) into a Jack Bauer-esque action star. Fisher is now a fleet footed, agile force to be reckoned with as he bounds into a room and instantly executes up to four enemy marks in the span of five seconds with pistols, submachine, and assault rifles. He can dash around the level, jump and slide over obstacles, take cover behind anything with planar surface, and generally move like no "over-the-hill" man should. Not content with solely bolstering his abilities with gymnastic prowess, though, Fisher is also a brutal, violent force who learns what he wants to learn by bashing your criminal head into toilets, mirrors, doors, and electrical equipment until you speak your peace.
And the brutality fits, because Splinter Cell: Conviction took one thing from its predecessors: form.
Prior Splinter Cell games were always known for the flexibility and variety of ways that players could architect their sneaky, violent little activities. Sam Fisher could jump up walls and take down enemies from a barely-elevated position, he could kill someone and hide their body in closets, he could throw an object to distract a guard into exactly the right spot before snapping their neck and tossing their body into the darkness, and one of any other actions. Fisher's arsenal of moves, gadgets, and tricks grew with every new game in the franchise. He was a swiss army knife of violence, capable of killing a single enemy in a multitude of ways, all of which allowed players to live out the ultimate spy power fantasy.
Despite the depth of the system, Splinter Cell was never able to quite do one thing: make it easy and fluid to be a spy. The series has always been about trial-and-error, frustration, and those moments in gameplay where a player was so close to pulling off an incredible series of actions but slipped up due to some systemic imprecision or a single screw-up. The franchise was and is the greatest, most thorough stealth game design to ever grace the industry, but it was never for the impatient nor was the easily-frustrated. It was a brutal, hardcore, unforgiving game that rewarded only those players willing to sit down, learn the ins and outs of the game systems, and tolerate the tough love the game dished out like it was nothing.
And let's face it: we, as hardcore gamers, eat that shit up.
As the reboot, Splinter Cell: Conviction changes all of that. Within minutes, the game introduces players to the mark-and-execution system. Hit the right bumper on a target using the third-person camera reticle, mark a few targets, then hit the Y button. The player is then treated to a stylish, slick presentation of Sam Fisher dispatching all of the marked enemies with brutal efficiency and breathless effort. In a similarly changed fashion, interrogations are no longer about grabbing an enemy and slowly choking him to reveal information as Sam Fisher holds a man while he confesses what he knows; no, that would simply not do for Conviction. Sam Fisher now relies on the environment to do his dirty work; urinals are used to brace the impact of heads, doors are used to reinforce Fisher's menace, and stove tops are used to Gardocki someone's face with a spiral burn pattern. The relentless violence is cringe-inducing as Sam Fisher conducts these scenes in a cold, detached manner.
It fits, though. The current cultural scene is filled with a new breed of spies. The Ethan Hunt that hung from a ceiling and worried about a drop of sweat triggering an alarm has been replaced by an Ethan Hunt that runs down a bridge from a fighter jet shooting missiles at him. Jason Bourne kills people with dozens upon dozens of stabs with a single pen in a trilogy of movies with a camera that shakes almost by pure force of habit. The new James Bond is cold, unfeeling, and humorless. Jack Bauer practically has a decade of experience in stopping nuclear bombs, using hack saws as interrogational equipment, and throwing suicide bombers in hyperbaric chambers as their payload explodes. Spies aren't spies anymore, they're action heroes. The Sam Fisher of yore would probably seem out of place which, really, is a shame.
He's not the Sam Fisher we're used to, but that's okay. Everything about Conviction is about form and fluidity, and it executes these qualities effortlessly and routinely. The incredibly powerful, rewarding mark-and-execute system requires a valid melee kill in order to activate it. These melee kills force players, at times, to rely on something other than a silenced pistol shot from across the room and, instead, enact actions which give glimpses of the Sam Fisher we all grew of age with: the one who shimmies around on pipes and the outside of buildings to pill enemies out of windows. Stealth isn't dead in Conviction, it's simply less appealing and not as immediately obviously valid.
The brief co-op campaign reveals the genius of the Conviction encounter structure. Levels in both single-player and co-op are essentially divided into discrete encounters that players move through one-by-one until the level end. There are often a number of different ways to approach encounters in single-player, but in single-player there is, more generally, two valid approaches. Seemingly naturally in my experiences so far, players diverge onto their separate paths leading into each encounter. Marks from both players fill up the screen as each scouts out the area from their positions. The communication comes through the microphone: "Ready?" "No, wait–" but the other player assumed the answer was yes, and the two players go into a dual-execution phase, each taking care of whatever marks are in range. And that probably clears out most of the room, but not all of it. The three enemies remaining, all lethal, probably have about fifteen seconds remaining in their lives, at the most. The two players scramble into new positions as Conviction ghosts their characters on the screen (serving as the "your last known position" indicator) wherever they were last sighted. Communication runs rampant as the pair scramble to improvise in a game where two-three shots generally equates to death. A set of new marks are laid out by the player in a secure position; execution is gone, but the players still have their weapons. One of the players sets off a remote EMP, the other tosses a flash point, the pair roll in to the nearest enemies in range and melee kill two of the three, the other player deals a quick headshot to the remaining enemy just as he comes to. Room secure.
Splinter Cell: Conviction is about those ten-fifteen seconds after a plan goes awry. The mark-and-execute is powerful, but what it really does is impose upon players a harsh limitation: we have this many enemies in the encounter, you have these two-four marks as gimmes, but as soon as they're dead you're on your own. As I played through the single-player and co-op campaigns, I came to relish the intensity of these short windows of imminent death following a botched plan because that's where the fluidity of Conviction's game systems really excelled. The compelling player-narrative of the game is not the smooth executed plan, but the response to a poorly-executed one. And that intensity is the mark that the current scope of spy and action movies have left on the venerable Splinter Cell franchise as it gets a reboot in its fifth iteration which, unlike so many of my plans, actually worked out pretty well.
Bayonetta is a game where the left-shoulder button, on the Xbox 360 controller, has Bayonetta striking a pose and saying:
"Do you want to touch me?
Bayonetta comes from Platinum Games, a studio formed from remnants of Clover Studio. Bayonetta is preceded by Platinum Games' first release, MadWorld for the Wii, out in early 2009 (a day before my birthday, even). Having never played any of Clover's games, MadWorld was my only real experience with either Clover or Platinum Games' works and, as such, my expectations for Bayonetta going in were rock bottom. MadWorld was a vile, repetitive, and thoroughly unenjoyable game for any play session lasting beyond five-to-ten minutes. In my mind, Bayonetta's sole hope was the direction of Hideki Kamiya, whose fingerprints are all over numerous major Capcom titles since the late nineties. Heralded as a spiritual successor to Capcom's Devil May Cry series, Bayonetta received an abundance of pre-release attention and a fair amount of hype as the next great Japanese action game. As an additional strike towards Bayonetta, Devil May Cry was a series I found consistently uninteresting and unenjoyable and, especially true of Devil May Cry 3 and 4 (games which Kamiya did not play a role) which failed to live up to any aspect of the far superior 3D 'reboot' of Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden series.
This is my long-winded and historically informative way of saying that, going into Bayonetta, I knew with false, presumptuous certainty that the game would not live up to my favorite action game of this console generation, Ninja Gaiden 2. This would not stop me from buying Bayonetta without so much as a single clue as to how the game played. I'm a very optimistic consumer muppet.
Bayonetta is one of the few games in the last few years that I instantly knew was brilliant. It's a game uniformly centered on a single mechanical concept and Platinum Games designed it to support that concept in every aspect of the game. Bayonetta is a game about flow. Gameplay segments are divided into verses which are filled with snappy J-Pop soundtrack, and a protagonist whose last line before the player receives control for the first time: "As long as there's music, I'll keep on dancing." Every verse is an encounter (either combat, natural disaster evasion, or on-rails vehicle segment), and the time spent traveling from verse-to-verse is minimal. From this point on, if there's not a cut scene playing, the player is constantly involved in some task. At the end of chapters, players take part in a shooting gallery for additional items/currency. Players remain active even during loading screens, where a slick combo list responds to player input to show what combos the player can execute from any given button press onward.
Combat is paced appropriately for the energetic J-Pop background tracks which accompanies it. The emphasis is placed on combos and the stringing of combos together. Bayonetta has an expansive move list across all modes of combat for all experience levels. Button mashing works well enough, but it's very likely that players will quickly move beyond it due solely to a simple and reliable set of core input styles. The game is quick to instruct players as to the fact that one attack button defines one type/power/speed of move (punches/hand guns or other equipped weapon), another defines another type/power/speed (kicks/leg guns), and another is always the use of guns.
No matter what combination of hands and leg attacks, the player always feels like the buttons he/she presses will yield some sort of combo. Likewise, a slight delay between any two button presses will always allow for a slightly different combo than one where those two buttons are pressed sequentially. The difference between a new player and an experienced player is familiarity with combos and the timing and what combos chain well into others for maximum verse rank/score.
Combat effectiveness in Bayonetta is more about movement and dodging than the memorization of combos. A well-timed dodge will activate "witch time," which is a state of action in which the world and its entities slow down but the player moves and acts at standard speed. Dodging is mapped to the right-trigger button and is not the very strictly timed-out trade-off as counter maneuvers in games like Ninja Gaiden or Assassin's Creed; numerous dodges can be strung together with ease and the timing for an effective dodge is forgiving. Whether a dodge is successful or not is more about whether or not Witch Time is activated; merely avoiding damage is, often, the sole result of a poorly-timed dodge.
Getting damaged is the result of making no attempt to react to an enemy's attacks or, for certain enemies (namely fire enemies), attacking with close-quarters attacks outside of Witch Time. Bayonetta is not one to annoyingly punish players during active combat. A side effect of this is that, often, there is very rarely a time in the game where dodging does not help the player. The worst the game does is to momentarily take control away from the player after four unsuccessful dodge attempts.
Beyond the basic modes of combat, namely the punches, kicks, and guns attached to all primary four limbs, Bayonetta also allows for a host of play style customization via arm/leg weaponry and three optional accessories. For my first play-through of the game, I largely stuck to the aforementioned standard weapons and used my alternate equipment slot to hold a sword (which behaved strikingly and pleasingly similar to Ninja Gaiden's Dragon Sword). When I started my Hard play-through, however, I wanted to mix things up a bit. I used a whip for my arm/hand slot and my standard pistols for my leg slots in my first equipment slot and a sword and fire/ice claw boots (which can, alternatively, be used as fire/ice claw gloves). While the specialized techniques I purchased all had unique, but similar feeling attacks across all of these forms of weaponry, the feel and flow of combat was dramatically altered. It's truly remarkable how much work Platinum Games put into each of these weapons and their effects on standard combat and further demonstrates their commitment towards allowing players to flow through the game in a style which personally suits them. During my normal play-through and now just a brief bit into my hard play-through, I have yet to come across a combat encounter which truly demanded that I use a specific weapon type.
Bayonetta's boss enemies are a somewhat refreshing inclusion in the genre in that, in almost every case, defeating a boss does not rely on contrived executions of actions that are overly reliant on pattern recognition. It's very apparent what players have to do in order to efficiently tackle a boss, but in most cases the process of attacking and damaging a boss was done using standard combos and attacks. There are exceptions to this where Bayonetta has access to a more powerful arsenal of attacks which constantly employ the Wicked Weave (powerful, hair-based attacks) or run a gauntlet up to an enemy's weak point, but these are the exception. Where the game goes wrong is in the Japanese design habit of tasking players with defeating all of these boss enemies again later in the game. Never has there been a game in existence where the re-use of boss enemies from earlier in the game strung together as a late-game challenge felt like anything other than a cheap means of extending gameplay. This technique is used, in theory, to allow the player to feel like he/she has gotten to the point of a skill where taking on these once-feared foes is now trivial, but these psychological benefits do not outweigh the tackiness necessary to actually design such late-game encounters. Nor does a player's presence at the end of the game necessarily imply that the player ever either enjoyed the boss battle the first time around or, in the worst case, revisit frustration in a particularly nasty boss battle (which Bayonetta does almost entirely avoid in its boss encounters).
One gripe I continually revisit when playing these third-person Japanese-designed action games is the evolution of encounters as players make their way through the game. With Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and, although to a far lesser extent than either of those titles, Bayonetta I always feel like the early game encounters are generally more fun than those in the mid-to-late game. If a game's combat system is enjoyable, needlessly complicating encounters with overly gimmicky/pattern-based enemies amidst unnecessarily "clever" level designs is showing a lack of faith in one's own game design. If an encounter is fun for, say, thirty seconds, why throw as unnecessary complications into the mix? Fighting ninjas in Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 was always more enjoyable than fighting crazy demons much like fighting the Covenant in the Halo games was always more enjoyable than fighting the Flood. Bayonetta doesn't succumb to any major late-game missteps in the same way as these game but, rather, for a lengthy portion of gameplay around the 70% completion mark, tosses a series of boss battles and vehicle segments at the player for the sake of pacing and "variety." These segments were, surprisingly, never "bad," but they were unnecessary deviations from gameplay that I by no means wanted a respite from in this game; however, on the plus side, these segments never violated the pacing and gameplay flow.
Where Bayonetta truly breaks down is when it severs its excellent gameplay flow and pacing with unnecessary, poorly-placed, and surprisingly lengthy cut scenes. The story is at best entertaining and sometimes cute, but more often it is incredibly repetitive and slow with the information it provides players. There were numerous times where the cinematic director wants to remind players that Bayonetta is a cool, sexy, and incredibly talented protagonist who can execute insanely well-timed combat maneuvers with ease. In order to achieve this goal, the player watched scenes which extends upwards of one to two minutes straight where Bayonetta does nothing but kill enemies in cool/sexy ways. While this worked stylistically in the introductory cut scene, it quickly becomes grating as its quantity exceeds one cut scene. These could be forgiven, though, if the game didn't pair such scenes with plot scenes which continually touched on the same three or four plot points over and over again. The insanity and quirkiness of the Bayonetta plot is endearing and well-fitting the universe and tone of the game, but the gameplay does not only disallow such gruelingly lengthy cut scenes but also discourages breaks in game flow in general.
Much has been made of the hyper-sexualized image and form of Bayonetta. Platinum Games is unabashed in their glorification of the female forms they have constructed. As far as I'm concerned, the prominence of the primarily-naked and suggestive Bayonetta imagery throughout the game does nothing if not support everything Platinum Games has constructed. Bayonetta is clearly a game designed by a male development team, but at no point do I feel that it was chauvinistic or demeaning. If anything, Bayonetta is a game which feels like it was developed by a team who is comfortable with the sexuality present in the game and in using that as a driving for for their protagonist rather than a marketing team. Platinum Games understands that their leading lady is as fictional and fantastical as the universe she exists within. For more along these lines, read: "Her Sex is a Weapon", "Bayonetta", and "If You Run Out of Ammo You Can Have Mine".
I'm planning now to revisit Bayonetta a playthrough or two down the line when I have a more full grasp of the game's various modes of combat and the items which the game didn't seem to fully intend me to possess on my initial play-through. For now, Bayonetta is a one-of-a-kind action game with a superb execution of its paramount design tenet of fluidity.
"Two men took down an entire base. I ask much more from you now." General Shepard says as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 loads the upcoming mission. Shepard goes on to tell the player about the danger of a Russian named Makarov who has "no rules. [And] No Boundaries." Shepard says "You don't want to know what it's cost already to put you next to him," insinuating the lengths which this special fictional task force has gone to in order to get the player in deep cover alongside a Russian terrorist. Shepard then says "It will cost you a piece of yourself," and "It will cost nothing compared to everything you'll save."
The screen fades to black and the game pops up a "Disturbing Content Notice" window detailing that "disturbing or offensive" content is forthcoming. You hit "Continue." Modern Warfare 2 asks "Are you sure?" You hit yes. The sounds of an elevator descending or ascending are heard alongside the unzipping of backpacks and the loading of magazines into weaponry. The details of the new mission slowly appear on the screen. The name of the mission: "No Russian." Makarov's face comes into view, alongside three other people dressed in body armor wielding large machine guns and M4 assault rifles. Makarov says "Remember – no Russian." The five of you walk into what is revealed to be a bustling airport terminal as the objective is displayed on screen: "Follow Makarov's lead." Civilian men and women are standing idly in lines while security guards watch on; the audio scene is that of typical airport noises, conversations, and general foot steps all around. And then you have access to your weapon and Makarov and his henchmen open fire on the crowd. Dozens of people are mowed down, you hear screaming in the background, see some people fleeing the area.
Checkpoint reached.
You walk slowly, forced into a slow speed by the game, making you wonder if the name of the mission, "No Russian," is some sort of bad pun. You set off a metal detector as you progress while your "teammates" continue to fire on any civilians or security guards in sight. Someone is crawling on the ground in pain in front of you and one of Makarov's men shoots him down. Someone is stumbling and breaks into a run near you, he too is gunned down. And the mission continues like this, with the very detailed gore and civilians crawling on the ground (trailing blood), for about three or four more minutes. Dozens upon dozens of dead civilian bodies later, the typical Call of Duty gameplay kicks in against the very well-armed and bullet-resistant Russian equivalent of a SWAT team comes in with riot shields.
This is a mission that is given to players under the conceit of "the ends justify the means," a popular theme amongst antiheroes like Jack Bauer and Vic Mackey throughout the decade. The problem with this is that Infinity-Ward tasks players with having faith that both the ends, the means, and the entire premise of the game will all come into focus at some point. "No Russian" is the fourth mission in Modern Warfare 2; preceded by a training mission, a generic trek through a village in Afghanistan in a jeep with a minigun, and a trip into a heavily guarded Russian base to get an ACS module (which is…?). By the time players get to the airport scene, they know all of nothing about Modern Warfare 2's overarching plot other than that it involves Russians and a secret task force that may or may not be part of the CIA. Yet, the game tasks them with this mission under that ever-tenuous veil of the greater good. The mission is intended to be shocking, confusing, dark, and controversial. And this mission exists in the same video game that has an entire mission which is essentially a recreation of Michael Bay's The Rock.
As I went through the mission, without killing a single civilian until I got the point where I would die if I didn't fight against the SWAT-like "enemies," I thought only of one thing: why do I have to do this? Why can't I make the rational choice to kill Makarov then and there? Maybe the greater good will suffer, but I want to make that simple, very obvious choice. Games as an interactive medium can't get (and shouldn't) away by providing purely shocking or horrifying content even if it's handled expertly; there has to be a ludic reason for a mission. I applaud Infinity-Ward for keeping "No Russian" an interactive mission where I have the kind of agency the game has accustomed me to, but by not making every target on the screen someone that the fiction supports me wanting to shoot, it opens up door that it needs to have keys to.
Modern Warfare 2 doesn't have the kind of interactions necessary for the interactions I naturally desire in "No Russian." At no point did I want to shoot a civilian in this mission. And I actively wanted to stop the ones who were shooting them. "No Russian" is not like Grand Theft Auto IV, also a very graphically realistic game, where I'm goofing around and accidentally run into a civilian and laugh while the impressive physics send the civilian flying. In GTA4 when I kill a civilian, it's purely an accident or just random messing around with game systems, but it's never something the game has its fiction enforce and reinforce. There is never a mission in Grand Theft Auto 4 where I'm tasked with killing a completely innocent civilian and I cannot progress unless I do so. And, if anything, I should be more okay with that game asking me to kill a civilian as my character has a very defined personality and role in that world. Infinity-Ward asks me to act as the character I'm playing (though they do try to dissuade that feeling by having Private Allen, the character you play in "No Russian," talk in a preceding cut scene). For "No Russian" to work, I have to buy into the premise fully. I have to know that what I'm doing is vile but necessary. I have to have Vic Mackey's conviction that what I'm doing is the right thing to do, as hard as it is.
Being only the fourth mission in Modern Warfare 2, though, "No Russian" does not have the luxury of my trust or belief in its world. The mission comes out of nowhere with only the setup I gave at the beginning of this piece as reason to kill innocent civilians. I don't even see a single shred of logic in what the game did offer me for reasoning. How does killing hundreds of people in cold blood somehow prevent a later atrocity? I don't believe that doing any of this brings me closer to Makarov's trust, but I do believe it makes me just as awful a human being as the game is telling me my enemy is.
Maybe that's the point. I got it wrong: the ends don't justify the means but, rather, I must become as evil as the worst men in the world in order to save the innocent. It's a flawed concept, but I can almost see what the mission is constructing if that's the case. I'm supposed to be revolted, I'm supposed to hate the game for giving me this task, I'm supposed to have no way out, and I'm supposed to feel that my only purpose is to have faith that the task I'm given will work out in the end. Okay. I can almost see that. It's a flawed idea, a flawed execution, and a contrived situation which takes the fears of the modern world and preys on them… But, okay. I'll try and buy into this. And so I do. I finish the mission. And when I get to the end of the mission and get into a van with Makarov and his men, one of Makarov's men says "That will send a message!" Makarov says "No, this will send a message" and he shoots my character. And I'm dead.
So now I feel dirty for everything I have done and for attempting to reason my way out of the terrible position the game illogically and undeservedly put me in… And it ends with the game twirling its metaphorical mustache by pulling a plot twist lower than even 24 would ever go by having my American character get framed for the killing of all of these Russian civilians and igniting World War III. To make matters worse, the game never ends up actually justifying the actions of my character at the Russian airport. The airport terminal massacre sets the game's overarching events in motion but no more. The game simply raises the stakes from mission to mission until I am to the logical extreme of battling in a war-torn Washington DC, popping green flares (The Rock, again) from above the West Wing. And, what's worse, Makarov is never heard from again other than two lines of dialogue at the other end of radio chatter in a mission in the game's final act.
The issue being raised by journalists and gamers is whether or not this kind of content has a place in games given the incredibly varied audience of a game like Modern Warfare 2. And, definitely, more games should attempt to portray controversial and mature content in interesting, relevant ways. To boil the issue down to as clear a point as possible: the problem with "No Russian" is that Modern Warfare 2 doesn't earn the fictional right to present the content that it does. Whether this specific mission is well-executed or not, and I don't think it is, if the reason for its existence is not contextually supported then its presence is gratuitous and its intent lost.
In "No Russian," Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 compromised the integrity of its gameplay, its narrative, and my implicit trust solely for the sake of a macguffin.
I started Forza Motorsport 3, the sequel to one of my favorite racers of all time (only behind the original Gran Turismo), with one of my favorite cars in existence: the Audi R8 v10. It was a gorgeous car and I got to drive it on a gorgeous track. Forza 3 won me over at "Go!"
The car above is not that car, but one I later acquired and put some LightBox Interactive make-up on. The reason the car above is not that car is because Forza 3 is like a drug-dealer. The first hit was free. After that introductory race, the game took my beloved from me and gave me a list of cars I could choose from. Let's see here. A Nissan Versa, a Ford Fiesta, a… Oh my god. What is going on. These are all. They're all… Hatchbacks. Cue Darth Vadar.
My first poor choice was the Versa.
While I was fighting up the ranks of Forza 3 with my hatchback, I noticed the extensive amount of assists that the game offered players. It basically allows players to choose a spot on the spectrum from bowling with bumpers to bowling without bumpers or a bowling ball. The analogy broke apart a bit there. The game allows for the traditional driving assists: traction control, anti-lock brakes, stability management, and driving line (full driving line or braking line only). Those are vanilla assists. Forza 3 takes things a bit further, though, and has options where the game will auto-brake for the player, making the turning and accelerating the only thing that players have to do. This is on top of Easy/Medium/Hard difficulty settings. And the brilliance of the whole scheme is that Forza 3 offers incentives for turning off assists and increasing the difficulty in the form of monetary compensation. Every race has a baseline cash award and the assist incentives work off of that. Turning from Medium to Hard, for example, offers 10% more money than the event baseline. Turning off the driving line maybe 5-15% more. Turning off all assists up to 20-25% more. It's a fantastic way to allow players to get a base experience and earn money, but still provide gameplay-relevant reasons for players to try and make the game more difficult (and, hopefully, more interesting).
As I was driving up the ranks with my Versa I was rising in driving level. Eventually, the game awarded me with a car to tide me over until I had enough money to make my first major purchase. The Forza 3 benefactors decided I deserved a Vauxhall VX220. It was in this car that I started to feel like a real driver. I took this yellow mini-beast through the second of my World Series events:
The thing that Forza 3 does that its predecessor didn't is to provide meaty rewards for every new driver level. And the rewards are meaty. As players level up their car level, they receive part discounts on upgrades by that car's manufacturer. That's neat and all, but as players level up, uh, themselves, they get entire new cars. The reward cars start out somewhat modestly, but as players go through the game, the gift cars get substantially more worthwhile. That Vauxhall VX220 was one such gift car and it was my go-to machine for an entire class event series. That VX220 treated me so well that midway through the event series I gave myself a little automobile treat; I had to choose between buying an Audi R8 of my very own and blowing all of my earning up to that point (which would prevent me from upgrading the new car) and something slightly more "modest" that I could upgrade a bit. I decided on the BMW Z4 in a sexy black color after hearing Brenda talk about her car so lovingly. The Z4's a beauty, ain't she? Like what a panther would be if wasn't a car. Or if it was a Maximal.
Time goes on, though, and even the Z4 can't fulfill my needs forever. Eventually I had to move up in the world. So I got my Audi R8 (pictured at the beginning of this article) and I drove the crap out of it. I love that car so much that after a series of upgrades, I ripped out the engine, bought a new one, and upgraded that one to R3 racing status so I could use the R8 in another series event. Having seen a Ford GT lying around Austin one day a few weeks ago, though, I decided that I should get one of those. The money was flowing in virtual Trent's pocket. Of course I can get a Ford GT. I can even upgrade it. And probably get a nice smelling Christmas tree to hang from the rear-view mirror. Did I mention that Forza 3 is a gorgeous game yet? No? Well, it is. It also does not use its powers for good. This is my Ford GT moments before I flipped it:
Forza 3 is nice enough to include a rewind feature which lets players rewind time to a point where less awful and painful looking Ford GTs exist. It's a fantastic feature that allows me to actually play the twelve-plus minute races that fill the upper-tier event series without cursing endlessly. The rewind feature fits into what seems to be the hallmark feature of Forza 3: letting people play the game they want to play. Turn 10 Studios (the developer) seems to understand that even people who love racing games may, generally, never "finish" a racing game due to the rapidly increasing difficulty/time investment. As such, while the time investment for a race may not change, the ease of finishing a long race is mitigated as much as possible. So much, in fact, that the only penalty for rewinding during a race is that the lap in which you use one of your infinite rewinds on simply does not "count" for leaderboard times. It's a strangely non-punishing feature that I'd, frankly, expect to be in the same list of options as the assists (but is not).
It is, however, through the use of these features that I am able to continue to play and greatly enjoy Forza 3 beyond the period where I'd normally give up in similar racers. I'm even to the point in Forza 3 where leveling up gives me a free batmobile (Lamborghini Reventon):
I am Batman. Vroom vroom.
I've been playing so many games over the course of the last few weeks that I really haven't felt like (nor had any particularly strong inspirations for) writing. This makes me feel like a bad person. So, instead of some targeted design or critical piece, I'm just going to write about some of my favorite moments from the games I'm currently playing. Well. Four of them anyway. I play a lot of games at once.
Going through Borderlands with my friend Mike and the ever-fantastic Simon Ferrari was a very hectic experience. It was clear to all of us that this scenario is the way to best enjoy the game, but at some point the gameplay was incredibly trying and hollow. The three of us were running around just doing dirt-simple and quick quests that took us from very poorly-organized waypoint to waypoint.
And then we met this fella:
Skagzilla is simply a ginormous version of the Skag enemies that overpopulate the entire first third of Borderlands. This guy was enormous, had an abundance of health (too much, in fact, as this segment did get long in the tooth), and required the constant attention of all three of us. The crazed communication over our Xbox Live headsets, however, was both crazy and hilarious as we scramble to find ways to hurt Skagzilla while we avoided his incredibly painful attacks. I kept switching between three different guns of wildly different uses just to feel like I was trying new strategies to kill this guy faster. Skagzilla's health was depleting so slowly, in fact, that I started getting a bit bored. I turned my attention to observing the actions of my co-op buddies; Simon and Mike were frantically running and jumping around this arena while frantically trying to coordinate via headset. I ended up just chilling in the corner of the arena for about two minutes, taking pictures of the screen with my iPhone and enjoying their interactions. I'm a fantastic co-op buddy.
Half-Minute Hero
After trading in my PSP and some other games to get my long-desired PSP Go, I have found a wealth of games on PSN to play. One of which is XSEED's Half-Minute Hero, a game which I excitedly read about a couple of weeks ago and was incredibly interested to see its concept in action.
The game is really based on thirty-seconds of gameplay for a given level and there is a timer constantly displayed on the screen reminding players of this fact. If it hits 0.00, then it's game over. I was running through one of the earlier levels in the game that required me to repair a bridge before I could get to that level's boss and in constant fear of this timer hitting zero. I tried to balance the frantic pace of leveling up, earning money, getting an item I wanted, and then securing a hammer for one of the level's characters so this guy could repair the bridge and I could complete the level. I kept running out of time, though. On my fourth try and with only four seconds left on my timer as I dashed into a village with almost no health in order to compose myself and strategize the hell out of this level, I noticed a statue in the village that I hadn't interacted with up to that point. Turns out, this statue allows me to punt the timer back to the thirty second mark (for a fee). I did that, took some time to level my character up and earn some money so I could get all of the items in that level, and then killed the level boss.
The game's summary for that level encapsulated the entire experience perfectly:
The path closed off by the evil lord… Trent gave the carpenter his hammer and the bridge was reconstructed. The evil lord was then soundly defeated! He actually fixed a bridge with one hammer. He's much more amazing than the evil lord.
Forza Motorsport 3
Pretty much everything.
Specifically, I was playing my first multiplayer race with the aforementioned Mike a few guys from Shacknews on my most-hated of race tracks: Laguna Seca. I started out the race in the first grid position and was quickly overtaken by all but one of the other four racers in the race. The fifth-place racer decided to try and overtake me just as I was preparing to drive into a turn, so I was maneuvering to the outside lane in order to aim myself for an easy inside lane transition into the corner, and I, accidentally, side-swiped the fifth-place racer just as he was overtaking me. I was completely amazed. I turned on my rear-view viewing mode and watched as he did a series of spins into the sand; I laughed maniacally over the headset as he cursed at me.
And just as I switched out of my rear-view mode, I realized I was driving straight into a wall. It damaged my engine and I had no chance to beat anyone the rest of the race.
Racing games and hack-and-slash games are two game genres I get unconditionally absorbed by. Torchlight is game made by parts of the same team that worked on the ill-fated Mythos — one of the only MMOs that I ever really liked, even in its early alpha/beta stages. Torchlight is a very intentionally-designed clone of Diablo. Unlike games like Dungeon Siege and Titan Quest, which share a very similar basic structure of hack-and-slash gameplay based on item collection, Torchlight manages to capture just the right balance of combat, dungeon crawling, story (the lack thereof), and item collection. It absolutely nails it.
My favorite moment of Torchlight, though, was when I realized I could give my pet cat spells. He was already an incredibly useful cat that could take a bunch of vendor trash items back into town and sell them all while I stayed and explored dungeons. When I gave him the ability to summon skeletons and cast ice shards, though, he became a valuable ally who I fought side-by-side with. He's the Blood to my Vic, except instead of finding women he summons legions of undead to join our dungeon-crawling team.
Video games are rad.
I usually relish taking screen shots of games as I play them, but since most of my gaming has been on consoles for the last couple of years, my screen shot taking has died down a lot compared to my primarily PC gaming days during college. When I got my beloved iPhone over the summer, though, and wanted to show Twitter a pixel or two, I got in the habit of taking awful screen shots with the iPhone's camera. I put some of these in a gallery that I hope to update often. They may involve mild spoilers. Some of the highlights:
Couple therapy through equal-opportunity dismemberment in Dead Space:
Someone was artificially trying to get a head in life:
Half-Minute Hero is amazing:
It's a trap! (Wolfenstein):
Eek (Demon's Souls):
hahaha (50 Cent: Blood in the Sand):
Handling micro-transactions the classy way in Need for Speed: Shift:
what (Final Fantasy Dissidia):
A proper update will be forthcoming. Probably about Half-Minute Hero.


text:
Sometimes ME/CFS emerges after mononucleosis, or glandular fever. Simon McGrath shares results from a long-term follow-up study from Haukeland University Hospital in Norway...
Discuss the article on the Forums.
Nature article about Judy Mikovits and XMRV
Discussion in 'Media, Interviews, Blogs, Talks, Events about XMRV' started by Jemal, Mar 14, 2011.
Page 3 of 10
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See more:Captain Morgan®, Rum,
Made from the finest of our reserves and married with mellow island spices. It's perfect for sipping on the rocks with a twist of lime.
Captain Morgan® Private Stock Rum
club soda
Add Captain Morgan Private Stock and club soda in ice-filled glass and stir.
Garnish with lime.
All drink recipes within this site contain no more than 0.6 fl. oz. (14 grams) of alcohol per serving, equivalent to one standard U.S. drink. For more information on alcohol content, please visit http://www.drinkiq.com


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38 year old woman | Fort Collins, CO, United States | Seeking men 32-45 within 50 miles
So you're saying there's a chance?
I've dated some great guys in my life, but I am still looking for that something special. I want someone who can make me laugh hard (sometimes at myself), someone who deeply values family and friends, a man who likes to challenge himself, and one who has an adventurous spirit. I was an outdoor educator for 9 nine years, then went to law school, and now work on social justice issues. I moved out to Fort Collins in September after living in Alabama for 2 years and am loving it here so far. I love being active - whether hiking, running, climbing or doing yoga. I also enjoy live music, dancing, cooking, and college sports. (I'm an avid Michigan State sports fan, although I didn't go there- more on that later). Family and friends are my first priorities and I work hard to maintain relationships. I am equally comfortable on a three-week backpacking trip, dressed up at a wedding, or at a jail counseling kids. I could list all sorts of qualities that I think would make a person a good match for me, but ultimately it comes down to chemistry. I'm looking for a person that I spark with…the kind of thing that you can't describe, but you know it when it's there!
Camping , Cooking , Dining out , Movies/Videos , Museums and art , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Performing arts , Playing sports , Political interests , Religion/Spiritual , Travel/Sightseeing , Watching sports , Wine tasting
Cycling, Dancing, Running, Skiing, Swimming, Walking / Hiking, Weights / Machines, Yoga
I exercise 5 or more times per week.
I like Dogs
Lake Keowee South Carolina, Jackson Hole, WY, Boundary Waters, MN, Rome, Kenya, Austin, TX, the Santa Monica Mountains
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
Live music, skiing/snowboarding, camping, travel, The Daily Show, Michigan State Football & Basketball; Black Olives, Cheese
Rock climbing, cook dinner, go to the movies, go for a run, play pool, Ms pacman
The Alchemist, Born to Run, The Impossible Will Take A Little While,
Z{{Cta}} {{#if HasMoreInfo}} ?{{CtaSecondary}} {{/if}}
|What she is looking for
|5'9" (175cms)
|5'10" (177cms) to 8'11" (271cms)
|Body type:
|Athletic and toned
|No preference
|No preference
|Light brown
|No preference
|No Way
|No Way, Occasionally
|Social Drinker
|No preference
|No preference
|I'll tell you later
|No preference
|Never Married
|Never Married, Widow / Widower, Divorced
|Have kids:
|No preference
|Wants kids:
|Definitely, Someday
|White / Caucasian
|No preference
|Christian / Protestant
|Christian / Catholic, Christian / Protestant, Spiritual but not religious, Christian / Other
|English, Spanish
|Graduate degree
|Bachelors degree, Graduate degree, PhD / Post Doctoral


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« Wu-Tang played Hammerstein twice, and other news | Converge - 2008 Tour Dates with Baroness, The Red Chord, Genghis Tron »
Posted in metal | music | tour dates on January 18, 2008
by Black Bubblegum
Gigantour in Luna Park, Sydney Australia (geeewocka)
Gigantour is back! Mustaine & co will bring his traveling circus (think EVIL clowns) to the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC on April 22, with swede-death monsters In Flames, Children Of Bodom (not the coffee press), the devastating High On Fire (also on a seperate tour near you, and now coming through NYC), young'uns Job For A Cowboy, and of course, Megadeth. Tickets are on sale.
Megadeth (with the newly recruited Chris Broderick from Nevermore and Jag Panzer) will also embark on a short UK tour in February before hitting the US & Canada in April. All tour dates below.....
GIGANTOUR - 2008 Tour Dates (All dates with Megadeth & Job For A Cowboy)
Feb 17 UEA, Norwich, UK
Feb 18 Rock City, Nottingham, UK*
Feb 19 Academy, Glasgow, Scotland*
Feb 20 Academy, Newcastle, UK Academy*
Feb 22 Academy, Birmingham, UK*
Feb 23 Academy, Manchester, UK*
Feb 24 Brixton Academy, London, UK*
Apr 19 Louisville Gardens, Louisville, KY**
Apr 20 Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA**
Apr 22 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY**
Apr 24 Palladium, Worcester, MA**
Apr 26 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Baltimore, MD**
Apr 28 Pavilion De La Jeunesse, Quebec City, Quebec**
Apr 29 Bell Center, Montreal, Quebec**
Apr 30 Arrow Hall, Toronto, Ontario**
May 1 John Labatt Centre, London, Ontario**
May 3 DTE Music Centre, Detroit, MI**
May 4 Time Warner Cable Amphitheater, Cleveland, OH**
May 6 Aragon, Chicago, IL**
May 7 Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI**
May 9 Myth, Minneapolis, MN**
May 10 Winnipeg Convention Center, Winnipeg, Manitoba**
May 11 Prairie Exhibition Hall, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan**
May 12 Shaw Conference Center, Edmonton, Alberta**
May 14 The Corral, Calgary, Alberta**
May 16 Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC**
May 17 Salem Armory, Salem, OR**
May 19 Event Center@ San Jose State, San Jose, CA**
May 20 Cox Arena, San Diego, CA**
May 21 Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles, CA**
May 22 Mesa Amphitheatre, Mesa, AZ**
* with Evile
** with In Flames, Children Of Bodom, High On Fire
more metal news in the latest edition of "This Week in Metal"
Comments (7)
keep in mind megadeth won't play any songs that mention the devil, hell or anything evil. check the wiki page.
so as for evil clowns, maybe, but this is as gay as metal gets.
Posted by Anonymous | January 18, 2008 6:16 PM
mustaine, right? that's one hairy sob. yeah, like that's his real hair. har-dee-har-har. my ass prob'ly gots mo hair on it than his bald head. puh-leeze.
Posted by drunkenstepdad | January 18, 2008 7:16 PM
fuck yeah bodom, in flames, jfac, megadeth and high on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 looooooooooooool
Posted by jamie | July 16, 2008 10:50 PM
when is gigantour coming to australia in 2008 please let me know
Posted by Kahana Godfrey | October 2, 2008 6:08 AM
drukenstepdad, that is his fucking real hair because i met dave mustaine and he is the most outstanding songwriter and guitar player that there is so who gives a fuck about his hair
Posted by kari | October 17, 2008 3:13 PM
thaaankess for all http://www.kw-girl.com
Posted by بنت الكويت | October 26, 2009 5:02 AM
Posted by Active | March 15, 2010 8:26 PM
Leave a Comment
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The Eagles' kickoff coverage was a big problem on Sunday, allowed Giants kick returner David Wilson to average 36.2 yards on six returns, including a 53-yarder. The Giants' average starting field position throughout the game was their own 30-yard line, and it was their own 33-yard line after kickoff returns.
This was significantly better than the Eagles' kickoff returns, in which Brandon Boykin averaged 16.7 yards per return. The Eagles' average starting field position was their 20-yard line, and their 19-yard line on kickoffs.
"There's no reason we should be playing like we are in those spots," Reid said.
Reid met with special teams coordinator Bobby April about the issue on Monday morning and said the Eagles must correct some issues. It also hurt that the team was missing Anderson and Jordan, two of their better special teams players. And Reid said Alex Henery's kickoffs weren't the issue because the Eagles had players in position around the 25-yard line at the catch.


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|MU 230 - (UC) Music Theory I
|(3 cr.) This course is specifically designed to give the student a solid and practical basis for appreciation or participation in musical experience. Emphasis is placed on development in three areas: 1) music theory (rhythm, melody, harmony, modes, scales, key signatures, intervals, etc.); 2) its direct application through exercises in dictation; and 3) sight reading. Prerequisite: MU 130; Every Year, Fall
|This course is currently not being offered. Please try again next session.


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UFC and PRIDE legend Wanderlei Silva admits he may take Brian Stann to the ground
UFC and PRIDE legend Wanderlei Silva talks about fighting in Japan for the 29th time in his career, admitting that although the fight against Brian Stann is expected to play out as a stand-up battle, he may take the fight to the floor. He does, after all, have a black belt in jiu-jitsu. That said, he also says that once he gets into the heat of battle, he likes to prove things with his hands. Silva says while his body feels good, retirement is not on his mind, and he has been much more comfortable in this camp given that the fight is at light-heavyweight.
He once took a fight on two days' notice, but he says that was a different era, and that the sport has moved on enormously, and although there is always pressure on him to show his best fighting skills, he simply loves his job.
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March 27th, 2015 11:49
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March 15th, 2015 16:47
Duke Roufus on UFC 185: Anthony Pettis has GSP qualities, Dos Anjos perfect victim, Carl Esparza retains title
March 12th, 2015 2:13
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March 3rd, 2015 18:43


text: In response to George Simmons' letter to the editor, "How can driver see over dash?," Journal, Dec. 21: With the holidays literally upon us, I can't enjoy them knowing that I caused someone distress of any kind. Of course the picture was posed … I was parked in an uphill slant. I was bent over so I would see to put my key in the ignition and the photographer's angle increased the illusion that I couldn't see over the dash. When I sit up straight, engine on and am buckled up, rest assured all you little people and animals, I can see very well over the steering wheel, thank you! With an eye as sharp as yours, would you like to become a volunteer driver for Seniors First? We can use you. If so, call Seniors First, (530) 889-9500. Betty Powell, Auburn


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View This category in: Canada > Ontario > South West > Dufferin County
FamiliesFamily Transition Place
Family Transition Place located on Orangeville Ontario (Dufferin County) provides safe shelter, support and counselling to abused women and their children as well as violence prevention services ...
Organizations & associationsHigh Country Antique Power Club Show
Antique Power Club Show June 21 & 22, 2008. 8am-5pm, Parade at 4pm. Orangeville Fairgrounds, Orangeville. Featuring David Brown. flea market, demos, crafts
Optimist Club of Orangeville
Fellow Optimists and Friends Come to our new site at http://www.orangevilleoptimists.ca Thank you very much!
Optimist Club of Orangeville
Starthrower Foundation - Charities Canada
Visiting Ilna Following Ilna - she wears her new backpack with textbooks Entering Ilna's yard. The gate is made of bamboo, the fence is a cactus called 'raket'. Entering the ...
Personal PagesDovi, Frank
Dovi's Web Page, Frank, Dovi, Wolfpack Hockey , links, wedding pictures, The boys, family pictues, Email, www.doviswebpage.com.
Eric's 1982 Vanagon Odyssey & Journal
This is the story of a couple named Fischer who refused to conform to the mini-van mentality.
Religion - AnglicanSt. Mark's Anglican Church
This is the official site for the Saint Mark's Anglican Church, Orangeville.
Religion - ChristianGordon Williams Evangelistic Association
Rev. Gordon Williams, a Spirit-filled pastor and evangelist, preaches the Gospel and operates in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. He teaches on the Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Highlands Youth for Christ
Highlands Youth for Christ, a regional chapter of YFC Canada, runs drop ins, quality trips and events and provides a safe place for all teens
Singing Waters Ministries
About History Vision, Mission, Objectives Statement of Faith News Teachers Training Isaiah 61 Ministry School s Courses Conferences YLITs / Gideon's Army Calendar Register Personal Healing Healing ...
Religion - PentecostalBroadway Pentecostal Tabernacle
Quicklinks home faq's what we believe the church calendar events youth ministries pastors weekly bulletin contact us 556 Broadway Ave. W Orangeville, Ontario Canada L9W 2Z5 9:30 am Prayer 10:00 am ...
Religion - PresbyterianTweedsmuir Presbyterian Church
Home About Events Programs Contact Media Menu We are glad you found us and we hope you will find what you are looking for. Please take a look around to see what we can offer and be sure to join us ...
SeniorsSenior Moving Service Inc.
Moving at any age can be a very stressful experience. At Senior Moving Service, our caring and experienced staff can help you at every stage of your relocation.
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Canada > Ontario > South West > Dufferin County > Orangeville > Society


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Know Your Limits by Waterboy1992Watch
©2012-2016 Waterboy1992
Daily DeviationGiven 2013-01-14
Know Your Limits by ~Waterboy1992 is a wonderful graphic approach to typography. The subtle color scheme and variety of shapes and and lines, as well as the contrast between message and visual appearance, make this artwork really stand out. ( Suggested by kybel and Featured by pica-ae )
wow i really like this good job too!
This is superior.
From the film The Dark Knight:
Alfred: Know your limits Master Wayne
Bruce: Batman has no limits
Alfred: Know your limits Master Wayne
Bruce: Batman has no limits
Congratulation ^^
Congrats on your Daily Deviation!
Is that limits or llama's XD
Congrats on the well deserved DD!
Have a nice day!
Have a nice day!
the shapes and colors are tasty like candy cane
congrats on the DD!!! you really deserve it
that is to say, the human imagination and the human will.
uz v minulosti som u Teba videl grafiku v tomto style. Uplne ma to berie, je to perfektne!!!
Hello this is =Eitvys200 with great news. Your work was featured in #5-Stars-Artists journal project 5-Stars-Artists feature Here. Please fave it if you enjoyed.
Stay perfect,
Stay perfect,
very nice
Amazing piece of work!!
Thanks for sharing...
Featured in Amour de Typographie at hangaroundtheweb.com
Thanks for sharing...
Featured in Amour de Typographie at hangaroundtheweb.com
Brilliant, I really love this!
úžasné, ty máš vždy super zladene farby!
fantastic, love it
amazing work
paráda! vcelku mi to evokuje retro.
I ♥ it
What limits?? Your only limit is yourself. Anything is possible so long as you put your mind to it
Just the truth... in art way!
I love your style of work
Some people really have to know what their limits are xD!
Awesome work
Awesome work
i set no limit so i can find my limit then push myself to break it
then push them for all you're worth!
Really good!
Fantastic job.


text:
14 seconds with DOS 7.1.
The Impee3 Car Player
Well theres no CDROM in the computer. never was and probably never will.. never even been a floppy drive in it and probably wont (for drivers i copied the drivers disks of the video sound and network to the harddrive when i was copying the mp3s to it) (home computer to car computer).. so no cdrom, no floppy, no nada.
And as far as f8 goes.. I tried the step by step thing and it still hangs... you know the screen where you usually type in network or windows password, it sits there without the box up (i have no background pattern for windows, so the background is green... it just sits there on a green screen for about 20 seconds before winamp pops up. Right now only winamp comes up, dont have explorer as shell, dont have anything else like rundll or rnapp or systray or any of that junk... so i dont see why its stopping for a minute there.. and its not trying to load anything then, cause the hardrive isnt active then (led dont flash, harddrive dont spin) so its not a problem with loading winamp or mp3s or any drivers...
Any other suggestionsssssssssss??
I know 1min is decent speed for startup (15 seconds is right off the beginning.. 64mb memory test [even with POST] it takes a couple sec to test memory.. and right after that it stops for a few seconds while the "energy saver" crud logo fades off the screen and then it starts booting)..heres a sorta breakdown:
mem test/energy crud 15 sec, win98 screen 3sec, dos 2sec, win98 screen 8 sec, dos 7sec, green screen 25sec.. And then winamp pops up..
Any help to shorten these times is appreciateddddddddddddddddd.
O ya, and how can you edit the system.ini file if you boot up straight to winamp? U need to be able to be in windoze to edit the file... Or put the harddrive in other comp. and do it that way?
99 ram 5.9 turbo
P4 2.0, MicroATX, Audigy2nx, Monster Cable / Alpine.
Coming soon: Indash motorized, 5.1, dvdrw, gps, bluetooth, wifi, and more!
To edit your system.ini, press F8 on boot up,
Choose Ms-Dos prompt only
change to c:\windows using CD c:\windows
type edit system.ini
You have the good old dos ditor...
As simple as that...
My project isn't complete yet, so I can't post my boot time, but has anyone tried Suspend to Disk or Hibernation? I'm running win2k on my home system and the hibernation is great, it cuts my boot time just about in half. Would be even faster if I didn't have to go through loading the scsi bios.
Maybe a stupid question but oh well.
If you take out the explorer.exe and put in Winamp does winamp still come up with the GUI? If so is it possible to do this with other programs? What if the other program used MS Media Player .OCX's and .DLL's?
I have a p100 laptop with 24 megs of ram and a external harddrive running 95b and I boot up in about 20 seconds.
Yes, WinAMP still has it's GUI...but windows is nowhere to be seen. And yes, you can change winamp.exe to any other program that ends with EXE. As far as DLL's and OCX's go...I have no clue.
Do any of you believe that Win98/Win95 stripped down with winamp as the shell is faster than booting DOS 7 with sound drivers? Or if not, then what types of things are you using to boot more quickly in DOS? (e.g. smartdrive, emm386, etc).
No, I don't believe so. I have win98se stripped down (pretty much) with winamp as the shell and it still takes 50sec to boot.
Old El Paso:
Why type of HD are you using. I hope it is not MAXTOR! Cuz if it is, then there is your problem.
Author of CobraI,II,III and now CobraIV.
You can contact me on AOL instant messenger....nick is cenwesi or cenwesi3