Nau's reviews

Putting blog on hold

2011-07-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to say that, but I have to stop writing for now. I need to sort out my life first, cause it's in ruin right now.

See you some time in the future. Thanks.

-Nau

5 best looking BMWs

2011-06-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

BMW Z4 E89 - I was actually amazed how they managed to make it look great - after not so great previous Z4 and Z3. Very sporty, looks even better than new Audi TT.

M3 E46 CSL - actually looks kinda normal, doesn't it? But everything is so perfectly balanced in it - the proportions, the wheels, everything!

M1 - only 400 road versions were made, very unusual BMW - for this company, thats what I like about it.

Nazca C2 - improved version of Nazca M12, BMW supercar prototype from 1991.

M8 - 1990 prototype of an 8 series (looking completly diffrent than the base car), love it!

Plans for next few weeks

2011-06-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, first of all it's my 20th birthday today! Had a great time with my girlfriend and got nice presents :)
Secondly, this year exams are coming next week, so I might be very busy till July. It will be tough.

So! This and next week will lack content (well I got one thing unfinished, so I'll put it up). Keep tight.

Best Warhammer 40.000 characters

2011-06-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

All information, quotations and images from Lexicanum or Google.

Marneus Calgar (Chapter Master, Ultramarines)
The Ultramarine's current Chapter Master and the Lord of Macragge.
Calgar lost all four limbs, large areas of body tissue and his left eye, during the battle with Tyranid's Hive Fleet Perseus. He has been fitted with bionic arms, legs and other parts.
He killed Eldar Avatar of Khaine himself in close combat.

Calgar and his Ultramarines.

Bjorn the Fell Handed (Dreadnought, Space Wolves)
He is the oldest Imperium warrior (he lived before the Emperor was incarcerated in his golden throne - so over 10.000 years ago). His arm was cut off, because of life threatening, chaos magic, that's how he earned his title - The Fell Handed. During a siege of a fortress on M31, he was badly injured and crippled. Servitors took his body and entombed him into Deadnought - walking machine, controlled by half dead Space Marine.
Bjorn is so old and fought in so many battles, that he is awaken from his static sleep only in great need or at the beggining of the new millenium.

Before being crippled.

In his dreadnought tomb.

Azhek Ahriman (Sorceror, Thousand Sons)
Chief Librarian of traitor legion Thousand Sons and one of the best sorcerors in galaxy. His most famous spell was 'Rubric of Ahriman" which he and his sorcerors casted to prevent mutations of Chaos on Thousand Sons troops. The spell was so strong that even the horrible demons of Warp, run away from it. It indeed worked. But not how the Ahriman wanted. Blue storms and lightnings, hit every marine on the planet. Those who were not mutated, were safe and unharmed, but marines with mutation were turned into dust. Now most of the Thousand Sons soldiers are Rubric Marines, which are nothing more than animated power armours, without souls. Magnus the red - thr Primarch of TS, stopped the spell and banished Ahriman along with his sorcerors.

Thousand Sons on Prospero, before heresy.

Khârn the Betrayer (Champion of Khorne, World Eaters)
Khârn is the greatest of all the Champions of Khorne, second only to the Angron in power. He wields massive chain-axe Gorechild. Just like his fellow brothers, his brain was re-wired as a recruit, so that he finds joy only in killing the enemy. He actually has a kill counter in his eye lens. His title was given to him after the Battle of Skalathrax, when he entered so deeply in his bloodrage, he didn't care, who was his victim. He've slain fellow World Eaters, other Chaos Space Marines and the enemy alike.

Before the heresy.

And after.

Konrad Curze - The Night Haunter (Primarch of The Night Lords - deceased)
"Unlike many of the other Primarchs, Konrad Curze was not taken in by any family and was left to raise himself. He spent his early life surviving off his wits and determination, feeding himself by hunting the feral animals that roamed through the vast city of Nostramo Quintus. He was continually plagued by visions of the darkest possible future, horrifyingly potent waking dreams that would curse him throughout his life.
[...]
The Emperor landed on Nostramo, and led a delegation to the centre of Nostramo Quintus on foot. The citizens of Nostramo, adapted to the near-constant darkness, could not bear to look upon the radiance of the Emperor. Most wept as the healing light he projected reflected off the rain slicked streets into their faces. Those brave enough to look upon him directly were blinded.
At the end of the broad road leading to Night Haunter's palace, the Primarch stood, waiting for the delegation to approach. As they did, he succumbed to a vision so potent and horrifying that he tried to claw his own eyes out, but was stopped by the Emperor. Night Haunter then looked at the Emperor, and the following dialogue ensued:
"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."
"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you intend for me."
[...]
Night Haunter's terrible acts caused him to become susceptible to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became less justifiable, terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the galaxy. Night Haunter no longer crusaded in the Emperor's name, instead fighting only in the name of death and fear.
[...]
When the Horus Heresy broke out, Night Haunter was quick to swear his Legion to the forces of Warmaster Horus. The Legion sided with none of the Chaos Gods, instead using the forces of Chaos as tools to utilise in their terror campaigns. Slowly but surely, the Night Lords, now almost entirely comprised of murderers and criminals, began to carve a bloody path towards Terra.
After the invasion of Terra, the Night Lords did not splinter and flee like the rest of the Traitor Legions. Instead, they continued to attack the Imperium, however, their tactics seemed to change, betraying a self-destructive desperation. The Emperor himself, wishing to disband the Night Lords forever, dispatched half the Callidus Temple of assassins to terminate the renegade Primarch.
Night Haunter was eventually killed, assassinated by the Callidus M'Shen. It is believed she was allowed to infiltrate his palace on Tsalgulsa as she encountered no guards between herself and his throne room. Confronted with her, he simply said:
"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."

The vid-log then shows M'Shen leaping forward, although the kill was never confirmed, as the video feed cuts out right before they fight. It is believed that Night Haunter allowed himself to be killed: he saw himself as a murderous and corrupt villain, the very thing he sought to destroy. Regardless, his final words are considered one of the great enigmas to the Imperium's history.
It is implied in the novel "Lord of the Night" that Curze had a dual personality. "He knew that he was two men. One was... just and righteous-" the daemon spat the words, disgusted "- whilst the other... mm... the other had felt the kiss of Chaos all its life. One thrived on focus. The other ate fear." "

His character is probably inspired by Joseph Conrad's character called Kurtz, from Heart of Darkness - which is very good novel by the way.

Exotic/Rare cars seen (part 8)

2011-06-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

Cadillac Fleetwood ('71)
Belongs to ambassador of Thailand in Poland (I was at a muay thai battle). Old, amercan, luxury cruiser.

Two engine choices: 7.7L and 8.2L - typical for amercian cars, devoloping respectively 375hp and 400hp. Quite a power, but since is weights 5,213 lb (2,365 kg) it wasn't very quick (especcialy with 4 speed automatic gearbox).

The car is for you if: you like old cars and woobly limousins from 70s and 80s.
Price: 6000$ - 13000$

BMW M3 E46 ('01)
Spotted at my university's parking - it must have been, some professor's car, cause students are poor and spend all their money on alcohol, not on cars like THIS.

3.2L straight 6 engine producing 338hp. This power helps this honestly great looking BMW to do 191 mph (delimited) and 5.1s to 62mph.

The car is for you if: you adore speeeeeeeeeed and naturaly aspirated engines. And german relability of course.

Price: 15 000$ - 26 000$

Jaguar XKR ('06)
With the new XK, Jags started to look good again. And it's not only the styling it's so exciting, it's the power!

5.0L supercharged V8, 510hp, 4.6s to 62mph, comfortable, luxury coupe you can use everyday - what more can you have? XKR is the middle model, between XK with about 385hp and the new XKR-S which has more oomph and unlocks the top speed limiter (to 186mph).

The car is for you if: you love british madness and luxury.

Price: 100 000$ (new) - in Poland it's 130 000 euro - which is almost 2 times more.

Bentley Continental GTC Speed ('09)
I'm aware that most Bentleys are driven by rich twats, but I quite like this car (even the looks). It competes with Rolls-Royce, but it's out of Rolls league.

Massive Twin-Turbocharged W12 (double V6) engine with 600hp, moves this moon-heavy 4 seater convertible to 62mph in only 4.5s. Perfect car for lazy and boring people, who occasionaly want to feel some excitment.

The car is for you if: you think normal Continental GT is not show-offy enough.

Price: 220 000$ (new)

Nissan GT-R ('07) racing Aston Martin DB9 ('03)

I saw this spectacular sight when driving 300 000$ Mercedes, from university. Unfortunately this Merc was a public bus. Anyway, White GT-R vs. Black Aston DB9, late at night, great speed though long straight, into the round-about, then pedal to the metal after. GT-R was winning by half a car, until they both disappered from my eyes.

Aston: 5.9L V12, 475hp, luxury beauty! My god, how this car looks! Slick, sporty and very elegant at the same time. Marvelous.

Nissan: 3.8L twin turbo V6, 480hp, japansese racing machine for suprisingly low amount of money. It lacks sense of humor, but still it's one of my dream cars.

Price - GT-R: 90 000$ (US), 70 000 pounds (UK), 160 000$ (PL) - of course we get ripped off.
Price - DB9: 190-200 000$ (US), 130 000 pounds (UK), 300 000$ (PL) - fuck polish prices.

Total sum for today: 640 000$ (by average US prices)

Top 5 Best E3 trailers

2011-06-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

E3 is almost ending today (or tomorrow if you are in the diffrent time zone), so let's look at some great trailers it brought us.

5. Tomb Raider

Impressive visuals, great atmosphere and Lara finally becoming a serious woman instead of plactic barbie doll. Still, her talking annoys my a little bit.

4. The Witcher 2 (Xbox 360)

One of the best RPGs coming to Xbox 360! (PS3 prolly later). Cool trailer made by Platige Image and Tomasz Bagiński (Oscar nominee) - the same guys that made an intro and outro for the first Witcher.

3. Dead Island

Remember the first Dead Island trailer? The one that shocked the world? This one is a little bit different. Still very emotional.

2. Prey 2

Prey wasn't very succesful game, but it was good. Hope the second instalment will be as good as this trailer.

1. Assasin's Creed Revelations

Ezio Auditore is back, going in footsteps of his great predecesor Altair. This is what excites me in this game - I really liked the story of Altair. Plus it has an amazing music: Woodkid - Iron

Youtube channels you can't miss

2011-06-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

1. TotalBiscuit
Gaming and commenting channel. Cynical, british to the bone, intelligent and entertaining TB, along with his crew do all sorts of gaming videos. Starcraft 2, WoW (cancelled), WTF is? (first impressions - mostly indie games) and co-ops with other gamers - Terraria with Jesse Cox, Magicka with Yogscast.

2. Yogscast
Another gaming channel. Humorous and again british Simon and Lewis are well know from their's Minecraft series - Shadow of Israphel and other. They also make some other stuff with Hannah helping them out. For example - Simon plays The Witcher 2 and many many more.

3. DragTimes
Crazy Russians and their supercars. Cool videos of drag races, drifting on the roads of Moscow and other russian citys. Great montage and festival of horsepower.

4. Gradual Report
One crazy bastard. Australian/Serbian/American (?) Danny makes videos of everything. It doesnt matter if the topic is: "Milking Cows" or "How to piss" it still will be funny. Be prepared for major brainfuck and absurd. Check his serbian lessons.

5. Day 9
Starcraft 2 enthusiast, ex-pro player, and one of the best known commentator of Starcraft. Cool guy.

6. RWJ
Most of the people know him already. Makes nice news-style overviews of viral videos. His humor gets tiring after a while and recently is out of ides, but still, he is great.

7. Ice Flows Studios
Makes great, useful photoshop tutorials. His radio voice and talent helps you understand this dreadful programme.

8. Zeitgeist Review
Normal american guy doing game reviews. What's unique about it, he never gives a score, just tells you if he liked the game.

9. The Gamestation
Huge gaming channel, featuring many well know youtube personas (TotalBiscuit, Yogscast, Husky). Plus it has a weekly (?) news channel with Layne Pavoggi.

10. Zero Punctuation (not a youtube channel)
"Zero Punctuation is The Escapist's groundbreaking video review series starring Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Every Wednesday Zero Punctuation picks apart the games so you don't have to. Called "hilariously cutting ... first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory" by Boing Boing, see why gamers love it and developers fear it." - prepare for really fast talking.

Game review n4 - The Witcher (Wiedźmin)

2011-06-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

I thought, after playing The Witcher 2, I'll make a review of it. (Pro Tip: It's awesome). But I forgot I didn't review the first one!

The Witcher (Wiedźmin), Enhanced Edition

Released - 26 October 2007 (EE: 16 September 2008) by CDProjekt RED, Poland

Genre -Pure blooded RPG

Multiplayer - No

Engine: Aurora

Requirements - PC: Minimal: Pentium 2,4 GHz, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 6600. Recomended: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 7900 GTX

Price - 10$ on gog.com (look what you get for your money)

Official website: thewitcher.com

Description:

Based on the works of the polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski - 5 book saga and 2 books of stories. Mature RPG game, telling the story of Geralt of Rivia, witcher, who slay monsters for money and are mutants, often unacceptable in society. Dark and unforgiving world. There's no black and white, there are diffrent shades of gray only. There's no good or bad choice. This is The Witcher.

Graphics: 8/10 - The game is 4 years old now and is based on Aurora Engine (Neverwinter Nights) which looks like this. CDProjekt squeezed everything from it to look like this:

So yeah it looks really good still. And what's great about it - the graphic style and architecture of the world is AMAZINGLY cool and atmosphering. The lack of epicness - no big castles and big battles - dark fantasy in it's esse
nce.

Music: 10+/10 - Easily one of the most amazing soundtracks I heard. It's diffrent. Without pathos and unnessecery epicness, like many other games (Mass Effect). Flutes, acoustic guitars and many ethnical instruments make an amazing slavic atmosphere. Composed by Adam Skorupa and Paweł Błaszczak.

Voice acting: 9/10 (polish), 6/10 (english) - I suggest playing with polish voices and english subtitles, cause polish voices are amazing, even if you don't understand them. I didn't hear much of the english version, but I think it's rather medicore.

Story: 9.5/10 - Very mature, deep, suprising, with many hard choices, which will affect the story. Addictive, memorable, with complicated characters and philosophical disputations. Near perfections.

Dialogues: 9/10 - intellingent, well writen, funny, mature - just like in the books.

Mechanics: 6.5/10 - Weak point of the game (although improved in many ways in EE). I liked the combat system, but it's a hate or love thing really. It's sort of rythm based and a little bit too static. You can still encounter technical issues from very old Aurora engine, even they covered it pretty well.

Difficulty: 6/10 - Not a very challanging game, if you know some tricks. Playing for the first time on normal, I died maybe 20 times. Even less on hard when I played third time - cause I knew how to play. Some bosses are piece of cake, some are hard. But there is a mod enhancing the difficulty drasticly, so feel free to use it :)

Price to value: 9.5/10 - Huge. It's very cheap in digital dowload and fully loaded (contains lots of goodies) in normal box for sth like 20$. With 40 hours of gameplay and massive replayabilty, it's one of the best offers you can have.

General Feel: 10/10 - I would say this in few words: it's crude, uncutted diamond with warm soul inside.

Overall: 9/10 - if you can see through the stone sheath to it's heart - it's a perfect game.

YAY & NAY

YAY:

- Based on my favorite novels - (better than Lord of the Rings for me)

- Amazing story

- Great audiovisuals

- Deep and complicated morally

- Atmosphere

- Mature, sex, blood and curse words implemented

- Fantasy world reflecting our world's problems - racism, poverty, crime

- Great characters

- Funny, with great amount of easter eggs and references

- Loooong

- Good price
- Nice combat system...

NAY:

- ...or not so much great

- Should be more difficult

- Technical issues

- Many NPC clones

- Not so many armour and weapon types

Exotic/Rare cars seen (part 7)

2011-05-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

Mercedes CLS 55 AMG - also known as "The Banana Merc"
- V8, 5.4L, 476 bhp, 700Nm
- 4,7s to 62 mph
- Only "fastback" car offered by Mercedes.
- 200 000$

Jaguar XJ L - extremely beautiful car! Also a V8, long version (not supercharged unfotunately)
- 5.0L V8 385 bhp, Nm? - a lot prolly
- 5.7s to 62mph
- 115 000$

Audi Q7 V12 TDI - ordinary Q7 is as rare as a tree in the forest. But that's a V12 version! And I doesn't care if it's a diesel.
- 6.0L V12 TDI, 500bhp, 1000 Nm of torque (!)
- 5,5s to 62mph - amazing for a car that weights more than a lorry.
- 220 000$

Mercedes S63 AMG x2 combo - another luxury Merc, times two! Bigger brother S65 AMG was featured in latest Top Gear series.
- 6.2L V8, 518bhp, 630 Nm
- pleasure will cost you about 240 000$

Combo: BMW Alpina B3 3.3 (E46), Lamborghini Gallardo(first one), Toyota Celica GT-Four (rally tuned), Crashed Maserati Quattroporte - a little trip to the shop and so many attractions.
- used Alpina about 20 000$, used Lambo 140 000$, Toyota maybe 7000$, Maserati few k since it was broken :<

Todays sum: 1 182 000 $
My fav for today: Jaguar XJ L

Game review n°3 - Gran Turismo 5

2011-05-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Gran Turismo

Released - 24 November 2010 by Polyphony Digital, Japan.

Genre - Racing simulator.

Multiplayer - Yes (PSN IS BROKEN, SO YOU CAN'T PLAY ANYWAY!).

Requirements - PS3, PS3 controller, steering wheel (optional), Playstation Eye (optional).

Price - 45$ on Amazon

Demo - I don't think so.

Official website - http://www.gran-turismo.com/

Description:

Long awaited continuation for one of the best and most popular racing simulators ever.

Over 1000 cars (over 200 premium), 26 different locations, and 71 different tracks are available in the game.

Graphics: 7,5/10 - Forget what you see on the screens. I doesn't look that good even on 1080p. Premium cars are beautifly done, but the standard ones vary from good to eyesore. Some look worse than in NFS: Most Wanted from 2005. Tracks look very good, especially in motion (nice blur effects). But what pains me the most is very poor antialiasing.

Music, Sound: 4/10 - Well, what more to say about the music, I hate it. Mostly. The menu music - groove, gets very repetitive and the racing one is dumb, also repetitive, when it should be energizing! It only has few nice d'n'b tracks, but that's it. (My Chemical Romance, really?). Engine noises are also not the best. At higher revs (80% of races) every car sounds exacly the same. Muscle V8, or howling V12 - doesn't matter.

Difficulty, Balance: 6/10 - The game is not balanced. It varies from very very easy to almost undoable. Which wouldn't be that bad, the easy races, licences were placed at the beggining and the hard ones later on. But for example some races in Expert Spec were very easy to do, but for example Top Gear challege on begginner is not doalbe for me (Gold Throphy).

Complexity: 9/10 - It has many cars (many of which are just diffrent versions of other cars), many options in tuning, many challages, licences, two specs - so yeah it has a lot of stuff to do.

Driving Model: 9/10 -The driving is hard. Like it shouuld be. Cars behave really realistic. The only minus is some cars are not imaged very well. For example - Murcielago LP670 SV is probably a car with the greatest grip force of all road cars, when in Gran Turismo it slides like crazy.

Feel, Gameplay: 7/10 - The thing about it is, that this game is rather only for petrolheads. My friend played it and said it was boring, when I had fun collecting cars, tuning then and so on. A- spec is enjoyable, licences are frustrating, but teach you how to be a better driver. B- spec is boring and frustrating, when your driver won't overtake a car, even if he has a chance. Also it's way to simple (only 4 commands).

Price to value: 6/10 - It's a console game, so it's expensive, but if you are a petrolhead and like fast cars, go and buy it. If you want a racing game, but you are not very into cars - go buy NFS: Hot Pursiut or Blur.

YAY & NAY

YAY:

- Carefully made premium cars, tracks and locations

- Lots of cars

- Very realitic driving model

- Quite nice tuning system

- Head movement tracking (Playstation Eye)

- Enjoyable, if you are a petrolhead

NAY:

- Not very good looking standard cars

- Lacks Porsche and some other cars (only one Bentley f.e)

- Antialiasing, and particle effects

- Music, cars sounds

- Boring B-spec

- Unbalanced difficulty

- Wierd damage model (scaling with your level)

Overall: 7/10 - twenty bilion years of work and only 7/10. Shame on you Polyphony!

Damn you holidays!

2011-04-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I had to leave my place for a week or so and I was totally out of the internet. Couldn't write anything, but I have an idea for few reviews (since I've got a PS3 from my friend) - Gran Turismo 5, The Witcher, Harmonic 313 album and I thought about doing sth like Nau's Awards of 2010-2011. See you soon.

Top 5 amazing woman on Earth

2011-04-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Weird topic - I know.

5. Piper Fawn/Faith Lightspeed/Ariel - Beautiful redhead model. Does mostly erotica.
http://www.arielsblog.com/

4. Sasha Grey - porn actress (finished her carrer recently). She was one of the most hardcore porn actresses, yet she was very inteligent, interested in art, psychology. Extremely interesting character.
http://www.sashagrey.com/

3. Emma Watson - I don't have to tell you who she is. The star of Harry Potter movies, grew up into a sexy woman and what's the most important - she doesn't act as a celebrity. She's still a normal person - respect.
http://www.emmawatson.com/

2. Kaya Scoldelario - star of Skins (UK) series. Played Effy Stonem (without any actor experience), one of the most amazing characters in movies I've seen.
http://kayascodelario.net/ (fan)

1. The one you love - you know the best, who she is :) She outshines all the woman above by miles, even if she isn't as beautiful or famous.

Exotic cars seen part 6 / Soz for the delay!

2011-04-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, 2 weeks being busy as fuck. Damn. But you'll get some more content. Book review, cars seen and something else - mysterious.

By the way, I added a my fellow blogs list on the left side - if you want to get there - be creative :D

Volvo S40 R - It may look like an ordinary Volvo, but it isn't!
*2.5l T5 (210-230 KM)
*No more data (can't find my Clarkson book, where he reviewed it).

Volkswagen Golf R - Fastest Golf ever made, you can spot it by R badges and double, center placed exhaust.
* R4, 2.0l, DOHC engine producing 270 hp and 350Nm of torque.
* Won many awards for the best hot hatch of the year.
* 5.7 s to 61 mph

Honda S2000 - Suprisingly rare car. Quite a nice roadster. And good looking.
* 2.0l 16v VTEC, 240hp, 207Nm at 9200 RPM(!)
*Produced for 50 year anniversary of Honda.

Older version of Honda gets trashed.

BMW 750Li - BMW. Yes boring BMW. But what would you say if I tell you what engine it's got?
*4.4l V8, with 2 turbochargers, 407hp and 600Nm of torque.
*5.3 s to 61 mph, 188mph top speed
*Younger brother of 760Li, which is even more exciting.

Watch the 750Li's older brother 760Li review by Top Gear

Ferrari F355 (GTS?) - Crown jewel in this part. One of the few properly looking Ferraris (forgot about it in my top 5). Second Ferrari seen. Altough I must say - it didn't sound like a V8.
*3.5l V8 DOHC, 380hp, 363Nm
*4.7s to 61mph, 295km/h top speed.

Upcoming book review and a song for you

2011-03-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

I started reading Gaunt's Ghosts saga recently. Currently at fourth book. It's on the Warhammer 40k license and actually is not as bad as I expected.
By the way - Warhammer 40k is the best SF/fantasy universe ever.

Also, here's a little song for you - from Skream and Example EP. Free to download HERE.

Album review n°2 - Baths - "Cerulean"

2011-03-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

Baths. My recent find.
Baths is Will Wiesenfeld from USA. This is his first album, and suprisingly good I must say.

Cerulean (2010)

Genre: Hard to tell - electronic, anticon, glitch-hop. It consists of a mild electronic sounds, with some dubstep, indie and ambient sounds.

12 tracks

01. Apologetic Shoulder Blades

02. Lovely Bloodflow
03. Maximalist
04. Love
05. Animals
06. Rafting Starlit Everglades
07. Hall
08. You're My Excuse to Travel
09. Rain Smell
10. Indoorsy
11. Plea
12. Departure

Total: 43:15

Apologetic Shoulder Blades - Intro-like song, at least I treat it like that. Basicly it presents the album very nice. You get break-beats usual to whole album, beautiful woman (?) voice soothing your mind.

7/10

Lovely Bloodflow - One of the best songs and I think the most popular. Has an AMAZING clip (which you can see below). Due to quite hard hitting beat in some moments Lovely Bloodflow feels energetic, yet mysterious and dreamy.

9/10

Maximalist - Chilling, but a little bit too monotonous. Has it's moments (1:51), but I can't call it anything special.

6,5/10

Love (♥)- Alongside with Lovely Bloodflow - my favorite song. Mainly because it's diffrent than others. This piano, with electronic oomph behind it! Excelent! For the best moment (1:57 - 2:02, so short but soo good) I give it:

9/10

Aminals - The girl at the start is cute, beat is impressive. But again - it's too monotonous sometimes :(

7/10

Rafting Starlit Everglades - Has a quite strong post rock feel to it - I really like that. Always good to hear some melancholic electronic music. Nothing moar tho.

6/10

Hall - Wierd, wierd, wierd. especially the start - that's a plus! Soft, but hearable breakbeat rythm, putting you in the trance.

7,5/10

You're My Excuse to Travel - Nothing really new hear here, except of really catchy and atmospherous vocals. Pity it doesn't use some fancy beat and more wierd stuff, that would be great.

6/10

Rain Smell - This song is very repetitive. But, I don't find that revolting. Maybe because it's beautiful and I like beautiful things in all shapes and forms.

7/10

Indoorsy - Oh the wierdness again! I like this song very much actually. It's peaceful and then it's awesomly energetic and spine-tingling! Very, very cool!

8,5/10

Plea - Classic guitar, nice vocals, exceptional mastering with heart is a recept for a good song. Trust me.

7,5/10

Depature - Hard to say anything about this song. I treat it as an outro. It's quiet and slowly paced. Not bad nonetheless.

5/10

Final thoughts: It really is a very good and solid album, especially for a young begginer . He needs to work a little bit on the subject of monotony (yes, I know all electronic music, it's always monotonous), sometimes it's not very good to hear. Also he needs to work on differing songs a little bit. Anyway, He did a really good job and along with Eskmo got mi into melancholic nature of dubstep and anticon.

Overall: 7,5/10 - I forsee you a great future.

Exotic/Rare cars seen (part 5)

2011-03-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

I decided to stay with an old form of ECS(well improved), but from time to time I'll be making overviews of interesting cars in an interesting way - like this one in a previous post.
So here we go.

We didn't have a music review for a long time, did we? Next stop - Baths.

2009 Dodge Caliber SRT-4 - Which shouldn't be there, but it the first time I saw it, and it looked kinda nice in black from a distance. Looks like a muscular van, but it isn't eyesore, thank god.
*2.4 L GEMA I4 turbo engine, producing a whooping (for 2,4L american engine) 285 hp at 6,400 rpm and 359 Nm of torque at 5,600 rpm.
*6-Speed Getrag Manual (what the hell, no automatic?), Front Wheel Drive.

*Prices in Poland start at about 30.000$ so, it's a bargain really.

2005-2010 Chrysler 300C SRT-8 - Muscle limo, I quite like to look at, actually. Don't know why.
* 6.1L Hemi V8 which produces 425 hp, 5 seconds 0-60mph.
*5 speed automatic.
*43,695$ + tax

2008-2010 Audi RS6 Avant - Most powerful (probably) wagon stock car in the world.
*5.0L V10 biturbo FSI engine, 571hp at 6,250 to 6,700 rpm, 650Nm of torque (it the same engine as in the Gallardo - but turbocharged)
*6 speed automatic, 4.6s to 62mph, speed limited to 250 km/h (155mph).
*565 -1,660 litres of space in the boot.
*From 130.000$

Porsche Party! Panamera Turbo, Panamera 4S, 911 Carrera S, Cayenne 2010.
Nice combo I must say. All in one place.

1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth mk1 - A legend. I didn't think I will see it, but I did. Pity it was spoiled with stupid aftermarket wheels.
*2.0L (?) engine producing 204-224 hp, sending this power to the back wheels.
*5 speed manual, 1200-1300kg of weight.
*Recognized mostly by "whale spoiler"
*Probably isn't very cheap if you want one.

	I've seen much more interesting cars, but I'll leave them for the next episode. And I promise you won't see Porsches ever again here (unless it's GT, 959, 918)

Exotic/Rare cars seen changeover - tell me what you think!

2011-02-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

This is what I would like to change these series to. Add a little more info, how to spot the car and some more interesting stuff. Obviously it takes much more time and this image below isn't finished, but you get the idea. What do you think?

Game review n°2 - Machinarium

2011-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Machinarium

Released - 16 October 2009 by Amanita Design from Czech Republic.
Genre - Puzzle, Point'n'click, Adventure
Multiplayer - No
Engine - Flash
Requirements -

1.8 GHz Processor
1 GB RAM
128 MB graphics card

Price - 14.99 euro on Steam
Demo - Free (also on Steam)
Official website - http://machinarium.net/demo/

Description:
An adventure point'n'click game with hand drawn graphics.
There a two type of hints while you play, first is normal hint recieved once per level, second is a minigame ("space"shooter in a book) after beating which you get hints.
Machinarium is quite difficult honestly - so you'll need them!
There is no text or voice dialogues - everything is presented visually by drawings in dialogue clouds. Works flawlessly.

A story of a small robot in a future, robot authocratic world. It concentraces on Black Cap Brotherhood who are three thugs trying to do something bad (no spoiling). You must stop them and find your girlfriend!

Story: 7,5 - The story itself is pretty typical (stop the bad guys), but it's the certain feel that makes it memorable. Also, the world is quite well designed too. I really like dystopian/dark stories and this one is rather more sad than dark. Still pretty impressive!

Graphics: 10+/10 - One of the best graphic styles in video game evar. Brillant hand drawn graphics, very detailed and makes the game even more spine chilling. (The game won "Excellence in Visual Art" reward in 2009)

Music, Sound: 9/10 - Great. Great. Great. Composed by Tomáš Dvořák. The music let's you relax, during solving hardcore puzzles and calms you down. Adds so much to this game. Reminds me a little bit of World of Goo. Not many sounds and voices in this game, but even the few are okay.

Levels: 8/10 - The game isn't the longest, if I'm honest, but certainly much longer than most FPS these days (and more enjoyable). But there are quite a few levels (you go back to many of them), they are designed beautifully. The puzzles are really different , so there's no time for boredom!

One of the non easy riddles.

Difficulty: 8/10 - It ranges from mid to hard. Some riddles are a little bit to obvious, but some are so hard, that after many tries you will NEED to look for a guide. I think it's a small problem - to much range in difficulty. But all in all it's a challeging game, and that's very good.

Mechanics, Controls: 7/10- Everything would be perfect, if they would make the robot height changing a little bit less annoying and easier. You drag the head with a cursor up and down and it changes height (to reach some objects for example). You move VERY slowly when high and small, so when you accidently click 'go' you can't stop it and you must wait until the robot will move to it's place. I found it pretty painful.
Everything else is very responsive and easy to learn.

The begining.

Feel, Gameplay: 9/10 - Nothing really to add, I said everything. I take back 1 point because...well it has not much of a replay value. You can play it once, twice, but not many times more.

Price to value: 9/10 - On steam it costs 15 euro or 20 dollars, I think. It's a small, small amount. In addition you could get it on steam during Christmas for like no money at all (1$). Also I found it for added to a video games magazine in Poland.

Oh look it's Jonas Brothers! Nah, these robots play quite nice comapred to them actually.

Overall: 9 - future classic.

If you prefer cool games with a amazing, mysterious feel to it, than ultra realistic boring shooters (looking at you CoD) or another addons for Sims, this is the game for you. Anyways, even if you prefer CoD, go buy it. Don't be an idiot.

OH EXCUSE ME!

2011-02-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF HOW AWESOME I AM.

Bjorn the Fell-Handed

PS. I passed physics (yay!) and prolly failed on analysis (nay!). So you will have to wait until the end for moar stuff to come.

Exams

2011-01-20T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's this time in my collage career, when I have to pass some exams. VERY SCARY ONES. I'll try my best, but for now, I can't find the time to sit down and write anything constructive.

Keep tight, and I'm going back to practising integrals...

I'M BACK - with Exotic cars seen part 4

2011-01-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry I couldn't wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, but I was out of town. But I really hope you had a great time spent with family and friends, because I definately had ;)

Now - quite lengthy list of new exotics in my collection!

Skoda Octavia vRS - Not an exotic, but quite a rare thing. 200bhp.

Ford Mondeo ST220 - Don't laugh. It's less common car in Britan than an Aston Martin DB9.

Mercedes CL 65 AMG (c215) - Another AMG.

Chevrolet Camaro - Yellow-black Bumblebee! Not a often sight in Europe, considering the gas prices.

Honda NSX -One of my all time favorite cars, a legend. Around 300bhp, but very nimble!

Jaguar XKR8 - Sporty JAAAAAAAAAAAG.

Corvette C6 Z06 - Fast, plastic, inexpensive car. Good. ZR1 is the best version though.

Porsche 911 Turbo - I'm used to seeing Porsches every day, but 911 Turbo is something fresh. Seen two already.

Maserati Quattroporte - Seen it milion times, on American plates, awesome sound, very elegant.

Maserati Grand Turismo - What a beauty! Amazing car, pity it only drove next to me very quickly.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 - Well. I saw it around a year ago, but still I haven't posted it.
Red one, 640bhp (as the name says). Looked astonishing, especially among everyday, boring cars. V12 hauling must have frozen the blood in everbody's veins. I know mine were.

Comments

2010-12-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

I want to thank you for the support and nice, interesting comments. Here I want to point out that, I'll be moderating comments and deleting these stupid ones. Don't think I'll check your blog, just because you say "LOL" under a post. If you are constructive, I'll gladly visit your blog and I'll leave a comment if I feel like it and have some time.

See you soon in the Machinarium review or maybe in a small post about cars!

Movie review nº4 - American History X

2010-12-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to see this movie. I did it few weeks ago, now I have the time to review it.

1998, Crime, Drama. Nominated for Oscar and another 9 nominations with 2 wins.

Starring: Edward Norton (Fight Club), Edward Furlong (Terminator 2), Ethan Suplee (My name is Earl), Stacy Keach, Beverly D'Angelo
Director: Tony Kaye (Lake of Fire)

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing three thugs who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

Screenplay, Story: 7/10 - It's solid. I woulnd't say it's the best story in the world (we've seen many redemtion stories through out the time), but it's good and well written.

Dialogues: 8/10 - Definately a strong point. I haven't spotted anything super fancy, but dialogues are like they should be. Filled with rage, hate, cursing and without any state of pathos.

Actor's play, Characters: 9,5/10 - Edward Norton as always - quintessence of actor's play. Very convincing, amazingly created character. Also I enjoyed Edward Furlong's (Danny) play very much. For a such young person, he did his job very well, without plastic pseudo acting. Actually all of the actors deserve a credit. There is no bad role.

Music: 6/10 - Sublime. Used as a background. Nothing to be remembered, but not bad, in some moments very nice. Can't add more, since I watched the movie a month ago.

Cinematography: 8/10 - Very good. I liked especially the black and white scenes (the color, not the race) like basketball. Also the last scenes are brillant in terms of pictures.

Meaning, Feel, Depth: 9/10 - At first I feared it will be a propaganda movie against nazism and racism, like Requiem for a Dream on the topic of drugs. But it wasn't. The movie presents the problem of racism and gives arguments against it. Real arguments. It does not present black people in holy light and nazis like a monsters. It just shows, that hate is not worth it. Nothing good comes from it at all. "Life's to short to be pissed of all the time".

Overall: 8,0 - almost as good as Edward Norton.

It's a great movie, presenting a real and very clear problem. Black people hate white people. White people hate black people. Americans hate Mexicans. It's always two sided. I think it's the best movie about this problem ever. But still I have some reservations. I love a movie, when I feel this "something" inside and when watched this movie I felt it "only" few times. So what can I say - I love this movie partially ;)

Writing and writing

2010-12-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

FYI I'm writing American History X review right now, but I don't know if you'll see it today :) Next stop - Machinarium review!

See you!

BANELINGS BANELINGS

2010-11-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

Anyone intrested in Starcraft? Husky has sth for you. Enjoy the epicness.