Baroque Painting from Antwerp

So, Easter Sunday was a calm and relaxing day, and I went to the National Gallery in Oslo to check out an exhibition they are having there - which still will be up until 22nd of May:

Rubens – van Dyck – Jordaens. Baroque Painting from Antwerp

The museum is divided into six different sections with different themes - Religious and Allegory, Mythology, Portraits, Daily life in Antwerp, "City, land and ocean" and Still life

In addition to Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jordaens, 15 other masters are presented, among them Jan Breughel the Elder, Jan Fijt, Theodor Rombouts and Frans Snijders.

Seeing that Rubens (1577-1640), van Dyck (1599-1641) and Jordaens (1593-1678) were the three masters that brought prestige to the Antwerp School of Painting, there is no doubt that this is an interesting exhibition.
Thus, two of the more particular paintings, were "A concert of Birds" by Frans Snyders (1579–1657 - Also know as Snijders) and "Bouquet of Flowers in a Sculptured Vase" by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). They seemed kind of "out of place" compared to the other paintings that were exhibited, but nevertheless gave life the exhibition itself.

The portrait of Frans Snyders and his wife by van Dyck was stunning, and Venus Frigida by Jacob Jordaens was the one that reached out to me the most, taking interests in consideration.

I have to say, it was a rather interesting trip which gave me several flashbacks to the time I was in High School and had art history.
We had a teacher that had traveled a lot, and therefore had pictures of almost everything we ever talked about in class - except the things you cannot take pictures of anymore mind you. She showed them on slides in class, as she told stories regarding seeing the paintings and such live - being able to study the details and the craftsmanship.
It is not difficult to understand her fascination regarding traveling around seeing the paintings in real life after an exhibition like this.

And there is one - actually two - conclusions I can make from this trip:
I yet have to see a photography of one of these paintings that justifies them, and if you are in Oslo before May 22nd, you ought to pay the national museum a visit!

Links:
The National Museum homepage
Jacob Jordaens on Wikipedia
Rubens on WikiPedia
van Dyck on WikiPedia
Frans Snyders on WikiPedia
Jan Brueghel the Elder on WikiPedia

Fin Serck-Hanssen

Selected works by the Norwegian photographer Fin Serck-Hanssen (Born 1958) can currently be seen at the Henie Onstad Art Center at Høvikodden, Norway.
The exhibition is ongoing between 24th of March and 29th of May 2011, so if you are in Oslo between these dates, get on bus 151 from Oslo Bus terminal (which departures every 15 min during daytimes) headed for Rykkinn, and get off at Høvikodden, and check it out. The trip is only 25 min, so you'll be there in no time.

Fin Serck-Hanssen had his first solo exhibition in 1983, and is still going strong.
Already in the 70s, he was working as a photographer for the Norwegian music magazine Nye Trakter, and have been working with great names as Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Divine, FGTH and Nina Hagen - as well as more obscure punk bands.
Through his career, he has also contributed in/published a total of 6 books, wherein "Homage to Nora" in cooperation with Yoko Ono based upon Henrik Ibsens novel is one of them.

Another book-project - "Normalizing Judgement" - interpreters the Norwegian prison culture through images/artistic illustration and place descriptions of 8 Norwegian prisons. The result is a book that questions the culture, and how this aligns with the Norwegians society, and its reputation as including, understanding and forgiving.
Sadly, I yet have to get a hold of the book, so I cannot give a personal impression of it, but it can be ordered from the publisher Teknisk Industri AS
There you'll even be able to buy some of his prints unframed for the price of NOK 4.500,- (€580/$840).

Fin Serck-Hanssen is a man with a lot of interesting photographies over the years, that is for sure. Check out his galleries on his homepage.

Bacon and Warhol

Francis Bacon (1909–1991) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) in one exhibition?
yes, indeed it can happen.

The Norwegian museum Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art will make this happen with their exhibition "Surrounding Bacon and Warhole" which will go on 5th of May 2011 and last until 25th of September 2011.

Andy Warhol (Born Andrew Warhola August 6th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was one of the leading artists in the Pop Art-scene.
He's known as avant-garde filmmaker ,Record Producer, commercial designer, author, and not to forget painter.
Andy Warhol was credited as a producer on The Velvet Underground & Nico, which was a self titled LP that have come to be know as the banana album due to the design.

He joins the line of the renowned painters Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning with achieving the benchmark "Selling a painting for $100.000.000", which he achieved when his canvas titled "Eight Elvises" from 1963 was sold. The transaction was reported in 2009, so sadly post mortem.
His merit list is way to long to be mentioned here, but as he was an awesome man, I suggest that you read more about him on WikiPedia as well as check out some pictures on Google Image Search


Francis Bacon was born on October 28th 1909 in Ireland.
His breakthrough came in 1944 with his triptych (A painting divided in three parts, hinged together and folded) Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (Tate Collection homepage).
He was a figurative painter "known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery."
Once again, check out his page on WikiPedia and Google Image Search

And check out the presentation on Astrup Fearnleys webpages, and do check out the exhibition between May 5th and September 25th!

Trolls & Legends Festival

To start this post, I should give a quick resumé of my intrest, and I will do so using simple words:
Music, Festivals, Traveling, Paganism, Folklore, Dragons (heck, I even have a dragon tattoo, and more planned), Mythology, RPG, Fantasy, Beer, Reading and Gaming.
So, that should more or less cover it, shouldn't it?

This Easter April 22nd-24th, Trolls & Legends Festival in Mons, Belgium will be arranged for the 4th time.
And the theme for the festival: Nothing less than dragons.
So basically 3 days of pagan and folk-inspired music, literature and more in Belgium - a country know for its good beers amongst other things - with Dragons as the theme.
I can only say one thing: Darn that I didn't find out about this before the holidays already were planed and payed for.

It is nevertheless amazing to check the site for the current and past line-ups, as there are a lot of bands focusing on Medieval, Pagan and Folk-inspired music.
One of them, is a German band named Faun. Check out their webpage. They even have this cute MP3-player at the bottom there.
I'll also embed a YouTube-clip from when they perform Egil Saga live, and one without a video with one of my favorite songs named Satyroso.

The ensemble was founded in 2002, and have since then released 6 CD's and 2 DVD's, sold more than 100.000 CD's worldwide and performed on more than 600 venues.
They are released on the labels Screaming Banshee/ALIVE (Germany) and "Noir Records" (USA).

Quoted from their official webpage:

FAUN combines medieval & ancient instruments with modern influences to create an enchanting and powerful atmosphere. The band's performance incorporates many different instruments, including the Celtic harp, nyckelharpa, various lutes, the bagpipes, large Japanese taiko drums, cister, the violin, flutes and even Arabic instruments like dombra, rebab, riq, oud, darabukka and bendir, as well as the melodic vocal section going from solo folk-like and often ambient melodies to chant-like and always enchanting vocal performances with the two female and frontman Oliver s.tyr vocalists combining something truelly magical.. Influences of Celtic folk and medieval music fusing with driving beats draws an ever fast growing crowd of followers.

Enjoy, and perhaps I'll see you at Trolls et Légendes 2012? =)

Klaus Nomi - Angel of Suburbia

Today is the premiere of a show named "Klaus Nomi - Angel of Suburbia" @ Dramatikkens Hus in Oslo, Norway.
Sadly - as todays show was sold out - I will not be able to see this show myself, but for those of you that are in Oslo the coming week, I suggest that you go see it.
The show is a tribute to Klaus Nomi written by Sven Henriksen, based upon the idea of Øystein Elle, and the concept is created by Øystein Helle and Karstein Solli.
All honor to them to bring fort such a great man - or a creative life force - that lived on this planet way too short. (More information regarding the show @ Dramatikkens Hus - Norwegian only)

Klaus Nomi (born Klaus Sperber, 24th of January 1944) was a great performer and musician that sadly died at the age of 39 due to AIDS in 1983, when HIV hit NY with full force.
As he was getting sicker and sicker, the doctors could not tell him what was wrong - have in mind that HIV and AIDS first was discovered back in 1981, and still was poorly understood at the time.

He was a countertenor know for his amazing scene performances, heavy make-up and special costumes as well as hairdo.
The debates have been hot under different clips on YouTube whether he was an alien sent to save earth o a divine entity of some sort. One thing is certain: Na matter who or what he was, he was an outstanding performer, and his time on earth was way too short. A gap is left that likely never will be filled.

Thanks to Øystein Elle, the show goes on, and his memory will arise once again, and I am sure a lot of people that grew up in the time Klaus Nomi started to get know, will have tears in their eyes and will look back to the time when this musical entity roamed the face of the earth.

My friend DJ Deadswan a.k.a. Reidar have written an article regarding this for the Norwegian LGBT magazine Blikk (Norwegian Only)

I'll embed a video where Klaus Nomi performs his version of the song "Cold Song" from Purcell's "King Arthur". This was one of the last performances he gave, and he was already at this stage dying of AIDS. If the audience knew, that I do not know. Amazing performance nevertheless!

FFXIV and the future.

I had some thoughts regarding FFXIV that I wrote some weeka back

Don't get me wrong; I love the game,the graphics, the music, the quests that does exists, but it is way to repetetive in the long run.

For the time being, I've set myself goals to get CNJ to 36 (perhaps 40), THM to 30, WVR and GSM to 30, ALC, LWR and CRP to 25 and the rest to 20 (Except Discipline of War). At that point, I really hope that they have gotten their act together and coughed up some more quests/content. If not, I'm afraid I'll take a break untill they do.

I love the story lines for the different jobs, and the base of the game. And the way that I make the days go by, is by setting goals on a daily basis. E.g. ranking up one class one rank, complete leves, be able to craft a particular piece of gear and so on.

I really find the thought to be a sad one, but there are no longer any friends of mine that plays, and spending time crafting/grinding alone or with random people really don't do it for me, especially when there is so little to do...

Well, things are to change, amd several of the issues are to be addressed.
At the beginning of the year, Square Enix released a survey for the players to fill out regarding what they felt were lacking in the game, what they would see implemented first and so on.

What can one say? SE that have been rather lousy at listening to their customers in the past, have suddenly started to talk to them, end showing that they can be at the same planet. No more cryptic messages, no more hidden agenda, and a proof of good faith that the customers know what they want.

In a rather long letter from the producer presented on the Lodestone, they reveal several of their plans for the future, the first one being a big update in February. This update will include upgrades to the playability, as well as quests and miniquests to the world of Eorzea.

I quote:

In line with the above results, we will be bringing quests and miniquests to Eorzea sometime after the beginning of February. Along with this, all of the changes being worked on during the end of last year and the beginning of this year to improve the games playability and user-friendliness will also be released around the same time.

The future will be interesting, and I will not abandon the world of Eorzea for some time still it seems.

For fellow players: I'm know as Tamlin Vangar on the Palamecia-world.

Dan Colen - Peanuts

So, Thursday evening was the opening of Dan Colens exhibition "Peanuts" at the Astrup Fearnley Museum.
This is his latest and biggest exhibition so far.

I arrived a bit late, so the artist talk had already begun. Curator Hanne Beate Ueland was doing the interview, which was a nice one.
She seemed a bit tense from time to time though, and I got the feeling that she had a set of questions she had to get through no matter what. For Dan Colens sake, he didn't seem all to comfortable at the end of the artist talk, and was rather satisfied when it was over.
But it was an interesting and good interview in total, and we got a good feeling about Dan's thoughts regarding his art.

You can see an interview in two parts at Astrup Fearnley site: Part 1 & Part 2

After the Artist talk, we were informed that there would be a 15 minutes break, where we were welcome to enjoy some wine and mingle, which always is nice of course.

After the break, we were all seated again - well, at least the ones that were lucky enough to get a seat, as it was crowded way beyond the number of available seats.

Then curator Gunnar B. Kvaran held a minor speech introducing the art and artistic life of Dan Colen, and after a while presented Dan Colens good friend Aaron Bondaroff a.k.a. A-ron, the man behind the brand "aNYthing" (An awesome article about him in the NY Times)

A-ron held an awesome speech accompanied by an image reel that was showing in the background. As he said himself, he had asked several friends of Dan Culen to share some images, as he wanted to present the man Dan, and his life, not only the art he makes. The speech was awesome, and I figured that Aaron Bondaroff was a man I wanted to learn more about, as he seems like an interesting guy.

After the awesome speech, he introduced the band i.U.D., which performed two tunes, and in between the two, we were asked to get up on our feets, and closer to the stage, which sat the mood before we headed downstairs to take a closer look at his art.

For the sake of the art, and for the artist, I can only direct you to SLAMXHYPE, and the pictures they have presented there.

I have to say though: I really enjoyed the evening, so thank you Dan Colen, Astrup Fearnely, Aaron Bonadroff, i.U.D. and everyone else that made the evening to be awesome!

Art, and Music

So, today seems to be a great day.

In aprox 5 hours, I'm off to the opening of the Peanuts Exhibition by Dan Colen at the Astrup Fearnley museum in Oslo.
What I have seen of his art so far, is amazing, and I am really looking forward to this

First there will be an hour artist talk where we get the possibility to get a bit under the skin of Dan Colen and his art, which is going to be interesting.

From New York, he has also brought the duo I.U.D. which will have a mini-concert.
I have to admit that I hadn't heard about them before, but after reading a bit about them, as well as listening two of their tracks at their Myspace-page, this is set to be a an awesome evening.

I will post some pictures (if allowed) and thoughts regarding the exhibit later tonight or tomorrow.
In the meantime, you can see some of his art at the Saatchi Gallery

And if you are in Oslo, come down to the Astrup Fearnely Museum at 17.0 GMT+1 tonight.

Here is a live performance by I.U.D. recorded in 2007, enjoy =)

Top Ten Apps all-time

Apple have released a chart of the Top Ten Apps of all time, as they're having their countdown towards the 10.000.000.000 (Tenth Billion) download mark.

The list looks like this for the time being:

1. Doodle Jump
   
2. Tap Tap Revenge 3
   
3. Pocket God
   
4. Angry Birds
   
5. Tap Tap Revenge 2.6
   
6. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
   
7. Traffic Rush
   
8. Tap Tap Revenge Classic
   
9. AppBox Pro Alarm
   
10. Flight Control

I reckon there's no surprise that there is only one App that is not a game - 9. AppBox Pro Alarm. For the other games, I have yet to try out most of them. As I got to know about Doodle Jump, a colleague of mine also told about how hooked a friend of her was, and I figured I should stay clear of it. Doodle Jump got a lot of press coverage when it was released and hit the "App of the Week"-list, and rather quick hit the top list over most-selling App to the iPhone. Touch My Apps gave a warning when they wrote their review

WARNING! Doodle Jump is addictive and will cause you to lose large amounts of your day.

Touch My Apps gave it 4 out of 5 according to their rating system, with the only negative comment being: "You will become addicted to Doodle Jump"

Angry Birds also got massive press coverage. But then again, there was this colleague - another one though - that spent a lot of time playing Angry Birds, and I felt that I shouldn't get into something that was so time consuming. But the game looks great and fun nevertheless.

For Bejeweled 2 + Blitz, I know I am - or at least was a huge fan, and still pick it up from time to time.
Now that the App Store for Mac have Bejeweled 3, I reckon Bejeweled 2 have come to pass for me, but still worthy to be on the list, and gem-matching have never been boring, and works great if you're after something to consume time with.

It will be Exciting to see how Bubble ball evolves though. The game is created by a 14 year old kid, and is free. The game hit 2 million downloads within the first 2 weeks, and at this speed, it will most likely take the throne from Doodle Jump in the future. Time will show.

What's your favorite game for iPhone?

Square Enix Event part II

The day have gone by (at least in Tokyo), and the internet is starting to fill up with information regarding what happened at the SE event today.

First of all an unrelated announcement: Kingdom Hearts Re:coded for Nintendo DS is out for sale.
So if you are a fan of KH and the owner of a Nintendo DS, what are you waiting for?
They also had a debut for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance trailer. Check it out on YouTube.

In three days, MindJack will also be released.

And what next?

The rumors were true! Final Fantasy XIII-2 wa s announced. It's due to be out already next winter.
I know there are a lot of people that loved FFXIII, and I was one of them. It was a beautiful game, and a good story. Sadly for my part, it's not a game that I would want to play over again, as the story was rather straight forward - at least untill you got to chapter 11.
As a fan of collecting trophies and achivements, some of the places were of course rather time-consuming.

SE says that the game will be a direct sequel to FFXIII, and Lightning will follow.
This is the second time SE makes a sequel directly related to another game in the series, the first one being FFX-2. The critics regarding FFX-2 were somewhat mixed though, will they succed this time around?

The release of the trailer for FFXIII-2 will be released January 20th, so hold your horses untill then.

For Final Fantasy Versus XIII, there is still no release date set, but they did show up a new trailer for the game. Check it out! (Japaneese only though)
And it seems like it will be exclusive for PS3 still.


For the mystery surrounding the "Final Fantasy Type-0" trademark and registery of the site http://www.finalfantasytype0.com/, they announced that this is the title formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito III for PSP.
They also mentioned that this will be a spin-off series, and is to be released in Japan this summer.

As for Final Fantasy XIV - that I were hoping for some news on, there was none as far as I have found, other than the fact that they will keep on enhancing and updating the game throughout the year.
Rather sad that there wasn't any more information, taking in consideration that they also had a Player's Poll in the begining of 2011.
Time will show what happens though.

Well, those were the news that I have stumbled upon after the event at least.
One cannot say that SE haven't been productive lately at least.

Square Enix Official Event

Square Enix are holding an Official event today January 18th of January.

There is said to be 7 titles to be shown at the event, and I'm really excited about this event.

There are rumors going about a sequel to FInal Fantasy XIII, as the domain http://www.finalfantasy13-2Game.com have been registered.

As I'm sitting at work, there's limited how much I can find out about this event at the time being, but will post some updates later tonight.

I know one thing I hope for though: Upcoming changes/updates to FFXIV.
Final Fantasy XIV is a beautiful game, and the core of the game is strong, innovative and fun, but it completely lacks content at the time being, so the progression feels slow, and the game ends up way to repetitive
I know several people that have gone back to FFXI, or even other MMO's, and are waiting for some major updates to FFXIV. So fingers crossed.

Time will show what the event brings, and I'll post a summary as soon as I've been able to read through the information later on tonight.

Infinity Blade from Epic Games

So, what's the deal?

Everyone is talking about Infinity Blade these days.
As IGN have given it 9 out of 10, and stated "iPhone game of the year", I had to check it out.
So I enter the App store, find the game, and tap my way through to the start screen.

And I'm blown away. The graphic is outstanding! I really didn't expect this kind of graphic on a game made for my iPhone. And of course, the retina display makes every detail so nice and smooth, so I find my self staring at the screen, feeling the joy and excitement.

After a movie sequence with a minor tutorial, you find yourself killed, and the king says that he shall be summoned again when the bloodline have matured.

Then 20 years later, the son looks over an amazing scenery, and states "Father - I shall avenge you!"
So it begins. The game is truly beautiful, and the gameplay is designed for a touchscreen, you swipe your fingers, touch different parts of the screen to perform different actions and so on.
The thrill when starting to play is overwhelming and exciting. You learn new moves along the way during the first battles, and you look around the scenery in this beautiful castle

Then, all of a sudden, you're face to face with the mean guy from the intro movie, and the time to avenge your father is upon you.
Of course you get killed, the guy is insanely though. My thoughts at that point were: "So, I have to get stronger".
And my reaction? "Oh, the sequence 20 years later popping up again?"
The plot of the game then reveals it self': you try to avenge your father, you fail, and you start over. But as you start over, you keep the loot, the money and the advancement you have made on the character. And then you do the entire same routine again.

There are a total of two paths to the throne room, so after two times, you have explored what there is. Then it's just all about being able to fight. So: fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! From the top: Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!

After some time, you master your weapons and accessories, and move onwards to new ones. You do not keep the effects from the items you have mastered, so it'd basically about mastering something for the sheer joy of it, as well as getting one extra attribute point to enhance your character with for every item you have mastered,

Indeed, the game is beautiful, the plot is good, but I have to say:
When it comes to repetitive games, where you have to do the same over and over, I actually want to start all over every time, and see if I can beat myself, not do the same over and over and over to get stronger to continue to do the same over and over and over.

I have to say: Try it out! Either you love it, or you don't. Playing through a couple of times will kill an hour at least, and it's worth the money just for the beauty of it. And the experience of fighting using different moves with your fingers at the right time, is indeed a good one.

In other words: I loved the game, but got tired of it way to fast.

Dungeon Hunter II

Nå som jeg sitter på bussen på vei til Oslo for helgen, og tenker på hvordan jeg skal få tiden til å gå. Skal jeg se på Breaking Bad, eller kanskje se en film?

Så slår det meg: Gameloft lanserte 9. Desember 2010 et fantastisk spill til min iPhone, som også er lansert til iPad. Og dette spillet har jeg allerede kjøpt, men dessverre latt ligge for lenge nå, så da bestemmer jeg meg for å spille det.
Og navnet på herligheten? Dungeon Hunter II! Til den nette sum av NOK 39,- kan det også bli ditt.
Selv om det hadde kostet 100,-, så hadde det vært verdt pengene. Det er et fantastisk gameplay - du kan selv velge om du vil spille med en virtuell joystick, eller om du vil styre med touch-metoden. Om du velger å styre med touch-metoden, så er det enkelt og greit bare å dra fingeren rundt omkring på spillebrettet, eller bare trykke der du vil gå til.

Det er et stort utvalg av quests og side-quests, og ettersom det er en del av GameCenter, så finnes det også mange achivements man kan oppnå.

Jeg har allerede lagt ned en del timer i spillet, og jeg kommer ikke til å la det bli med det.

Så all ære til Gameloft for å ha skapt et fantastisk spill som både er underholdene, har bra gameplay og som ser urolig lekkert ut på retina skjermen til min iPhone 4!

Spillet kan kjøpes her, og under har jeg lagt ved en liten trailer.
Enjoy, og husk at det er et virkelig liv der ute også.

Delerium

Nå som det er natt og jeg er klar for sengen, så må jeg bare dele en fantastisk låt fra gruppa Delerium.
Låta heter Euphoria (Firefly), og er hentet fra albumet deres Karma som ble utgitt i 1997, og er den første låta jeg hørte av dem.
Etter det har de fulgt med meg hvorhen jeg har gått.

Lytt, svev og drøm!

Velkommen til min blogg!

Hei hei.

Jeg tenkte jeg skulle opprette en blogg rett og slett for å ha et sted å skrive litt om hva jeg tenker på innenfor elektronikkens og musikkens verden, dette være seg spill, musikk, filmer, data, gadgets, konserter, klubbkonsepter og festivaler.

Hvor mye jeg kommer til å skrive, eller om det kommer til å være interessant for allmennheten - det gjenstår jo bare å se.

Ønsker dere alle en riktig fin Tirsdag, og håper det nye året har startet bra for dere alle.

Vangar er forresten hentet fra Tolkiens univers. Det er en gruppe Lysalver som i følge mytologien lever i luften, og er en undergruppe av Calaquendi.

P.S: Jeg hadde først en blogg på blogg.no, men etter et par dager valgte jeg å bytte, og flyttet dermed over gamle innlegg også som dere kan lese i arkivet.

FunCom

Ett selskap som virkelig har lært av sine feil, er ingen ringere enn FunCom!

Da Age of Conan ble lansert, tikket det inn med fantastiske anmeldelser om flott design, inovativt system, brått og brutalt, og ikke minst en verden som gikk som hånd i hanske med historien. Spillet var myntet på voksne spillere med sin 18-årsgrense.

Det høstet 6'ere hos VG og Dagbladet, BA ga det en 5'er, Gamereactor ga det 9/10. Men dessverre skulle ikke lykken vare lenge. Det tok ikke lang tid før spillerne begynte å svikte spillet for fullt, og krisen var en realitet. Børsnedgang på 60 %, sviktende salg og sinte forbrukere.

Dette i sin tid førte til utskiftning av ledelsen i FunCom et halvt år etter lansering, og med tid og stunder har AoC tatt seg opp til å bli et bra spill, og mange kritikere tror de har lykkes med Rise of the Godslayer.

Men at de har lært av sine feil, er lett å se. Det kommende spillet "The Secret World" har vært spilleklart i over ett år mer eller mindre, men det jobbes med finpussing, og for tre dager siden kunne vi lese at EA satser stort på "The Secret World" hos PressFire, og i dag har PressFire kommet med et dybdeintervju med administrerende direktør Trond Aas hos Funcom.

I tillegg til dette veldig lovende intervjuet som speiler at FunCom nå kommer til å lansere et sterkt produkt - som i tillegg har EA i ryggen, så slapp de i dag sitt gratis online-spill "Bloodline Champions".

Bloodline Champions er et arena-basert PvP MMO-spill som er gratis å spille. Det eneste man behøver å gjøre, er å registrere seg på nettsidene til FunCom  og laste ned spillet for å komme i gang.

Selv har jeg aldri vært en veldig fan av PvP, så dette er nok ikke spillet for meg, og da heller ikke spillet jeg skal uttale meg om, men hva jeg har lest om og sett av det, så virker det bra for de som liker slikt.

Kan dette bety et vendepunkt for FunCom? Vil de nå klare å bli en lysende stjerne på MMO-himmelen?

Jeg vet jeg i alle fall gleder meg til The Secret World kommer ut!

Machinima

Machinima har gitt ut en app til iPhone ved navnet - ja nettopp - Machinima.

Dessverre har jeg ikke fått mulighet til å teste det ut enda, men som VG nett skriver, så er dette appen for deg som er over middels interessert i TV-spill og kulturen, så er dette en App man må ha.

Appen tilbyr trailere på spill, artikler om spillhistorier, intervjuer, gameplay-videoer med mer.

I tillegg kan man abonnere på nyheter, favorittshow fra Machinima og motta Push Notifications til iPhone og iPad.

Dere kan forøvrig sjekke ut den offisielle YouTube-kanalen til Machinima for å se litt hva de har å tilby.

Jeg vet jeg gleder meg til å leke med denne i kveld!

Good morning

Eller Good Morning Happiness som Grant-Lee Philips synger.

Jeg kom over denne låta da jeg så Bones episode 9 av 6. sesong i går, og kan ikke annet enn å tenke at det er en fantastisk låt å høre på når man står opp, da det er en skikkelig feelgood-sang.

Grant-Lee Philips er en songwriter som er bosatt i Los Angeles. Han slo virkelig gjennom med trioen Grant Lee Buffalo, men har etter det prøvd å bli mer og mer selvstendig, og gått solo.

Han spilte på Betong i Olso 13. November 2010. Dette ble dog den siste konserten på en stund, da han på begynnelsen av konserten fikk store smerter i ene benet, og fikk hjelp fra en i publikum til å sette seg ned på en stol - hvor han spilte videre i halvannen time. Senere viste det seg at han hadde røket akillessenen, og må derfor ta det rolig en god stund framover.

Så er dere i stemning for litt feelgood songwriter-musikk. ikke nøl med å sjekke ut mer av ham.

 

 

Slipp løs din indre superhelt

En ny stjerne har dukket opp på MMO-himmelen  - DC Univers Online.

Vi alle kjenner til DC Universet på en eller annen måte. Om det er gjennom Batman, Superman, The Joker, Catwoman - eller hvem du nå er fascinert av. Og stedsnavn som Gotham City, Metropolis og Arkham azylum er noe de fleste burde ha et forhold til.

(følgende innlegg er kun basert på rask lesing på nett, og ikke fra egne erfaringer)

Her kan du selv velge hvilken superhelt - eller skurk - fra DC Universet du vil spille. Selvfølgelig kan man skape en avatar etter eget ønske, og selv velge hvilke superkrefter du vil ha. Du velger også hvem du vil ha som mentor, f. eks. Batman eller Superman om du skal være en superhelt, og f. eks The Joker om du vil være en skurk.

De reklamerer med at det er det eneste MMO hvor du har kontroll over hver eneste bevegelseog hvert eneste slag avataren din gjør - ikke noe auto-attack her med andre ord. Og med tanke på filmer jeg har sett av gameplay, så går det tidvis nok så raskt for seg, så her gjelder det å holde tunga rett i munnen under de større kampene.

Historiene og oppdragene er skrevet av DC's egne skribenter, deriblant Geoff Johns og Marv Wolfman.

DC Uniivers Online ble lansert i går til PC og PS3, og jeg legger her ved en trailer om prosessen for å skape en avatar.

Kom gjerne med feedback om det er noen der ute som spiller og har erfaringer, det ser i alle  fall kjekt ut!

Lett latter - Easy A

Nå har det seg slik at jeg har sett en film som jeg overhode ikke hadde noen forventninger til, og det viste seg å bli en suksess. Særlig i disse dager hvor det kanskje er litt tungt å komme seg opp og igang etter ferie, treg start på jobb/skole og i det hele tatt, så trengs en riktig god latter.

Fredag 14. januar har filmen Easy A med Emma Stone premiere på kinoer i Norge, og jeg kan ikke annet enn å si: Gå og se den!

Emma Stone spiller Olive, en high school-jente som ikke er den mest populære ellerden som har flest venner, foruten bestevenninen sin Rhiannon.

En helg vil Rhiannon ha med Olive på camping-tur, noe Olive ikke er så interessert i. Hun lyver dermed på seg at hun har en date med en kar som går første året på college, og lyver uka etterpå at hun hadde seg med daten sin.

En liten løgn sprer seg dessverre innimellom som ild i tørt gress, og Olive takler ryktet så godt hun kan.

Resten får dere selv se, jeg kan garantere artige episoder, sprø foreldre, og en vending du kanskje ikke forventer deg.

Sjekk ut traileren på Filmweb.no, og kom deg på kino i helgen!

LittleBigPlanet - en hype eller en farlig trend?

Jeg ser stadig fler og fler skrive om LittleBigPlanet I & II, om hvor fantastisk det er, hvor for tiden går, og hvordan man kan sitte time etter time etter time (...)

Spillmagasinet har nettopp skrevet en saftig anmeldelse av LBPII, og ikke minst nevnt at det finnes utrolig mange muligheter, for det finnes så mange baner som er skapt av brukerne selv. PressFire skriver at alt er bedre.

Ja, LBP var et friskt pust i bakken, og jeg satte stor pris på det, barnet i meg våknet virkelig til liv ved å utforske verden etter verden, klistre opp store merker her og der etter eget ønske (svøpe meg selv inn i en stor, grønn sko f.eks.). LBP2 har jeg ikke testet ut, og skal derfor ikke uttale meg, og mine tanker her er kun på hva jeg har lest.

"Create" fulgte opp ideen med ett spill hvor du skulle løse oppgaver for å få tilgang til nye lekeklosser som du kunne leke deg med, og leverte hjernetrim på et litt annet nivå, men mottok dårlige kritikker like fullt. Æret for god idé, men når ikke helt opp sies det.

Men her begynner jeg å se en skremmende utvikling. Jeg husker de første kommentarene jeg leste på LBP2: "Nå er nesten alt opp til spillerne selv". Er det slik at spillprodusenter skal sette seg ned med en god idé, lage noen enkle oppgaver, og la resten av spillet være elementer som spillerne selv bygger opp? Når det er mer fokus på å lage egne baner som man kan dele med andre, enn å spille gjennom selve spillet. Til og med GT5 (som forøvrig er et genialt deilig spill!) åpner for muligheten til å konstruere egne baner. Hva er poenget med det? Jeg er interessert i å kjøre på kjente og kjære baner i omgivelser jeg kjenner meg igjen i, jeg vil bli dyktig på kjøring og bruker allerede nok tid bare på å få gode resultater på førerprøvene, og det er tidkrevende nok fra før.

Selvfølgelig syntes jeg det er fantastisk at spill setter spilleres egen kreativitet på prøve, men før i tiden gjorde man dette ved å lage krevende oppgaver som krevde kreative løsninger. Hvor ligger utfordringen i å skape noe på en eksisterende motor, og åpne for løsninger som kan løses på alle tenkelige måter, hvor det kun er fantasien som setter grenser? Hvilke krav stiller det egentlig til spillprodusentene, og hvordan ser da framtiden til spillindustrien ut?

Om jeg setter meg ned med et spill, så er det for å spille og ha det kjekt, følge en historie samt å bli utfordret på flere nivåer. Vil jeg skape noe med farger og få utløp for min kreativitet, så setter jeg meg faktisk ned med fargestifter og blanke ark. Og trenger jeg inspirasjon der, så finnes det et hav av kreativitet på internett, i kunstverdenen og ute i naturen.

Dermed sitter jeg igjen og lurer på: er dette en hype som kommer til å gå over, eller er dette en trend som kommer til å henge ved?

The Dø - A Mouthful (2009)

God morgen.

Nå som jeg straks er på vei ut døra til jobb, så er det en CD som går på iPoden min:

A Mouthful av The Dø.

The Dø er en fransk/finsk duo som ble startet opp i 2008. Med albumet A Mouthful toppet de franske lister i 2009, og ble dermed de første franske til å synge på engelsk som oppnådde denne plaseringen.

Passe sær indiepop som får meg på godt humør, og gir meg en god start på dagen.

Låta Unissasi Laulelet (som forøvrig ikke er engelsk) er kanskje den som får meg til å smile mest der jeg går.

Håper den faller i smak =)

Freezepop - Imaginary Friends

I disse grå dager, så var det godt å komme over rytmer som varmet hjertet litt.

Freezepop er en synthpop/electropop-gruppe fra Boston, Massachusetts.

Den nye skiva deres - Imaginary Friends - var akkurat det jeg trengte nå. Fine rytmer som tar fram torockefoten, og gjør at man har lyst til å hoppe rundt opp og ned. Låta "Special Effects" gjør at man får lyst til å stelle seg midt i roimmet og spinne rundt og rundt til man ikke klarer mer, og bare være litt smågal.

Den kvinnelige vokalen passer perfekt inn med de søte tonene fra synthen, og jeg kan ikke annet enn å beskrive deres musikk på noen annen måte enn hva de selv gjør:

"sweet and cold and fruity and plastic-y"

Deres siste skive valgte de å gi ut selv, og finns å kjøpe digitalt samt bestille CD fra hjemmesiden deres.

Jeg legger her ved en video fra låta Swimming Pool. Den er fra et tidligere album, men kanskje en låt flere kjenner igjen, da den ble brukt i episoden "Liquid Heat" i 5.sesong av "The L Word".

Dragon Age II: Destiny

Dragon Age II: Destiny er allerede forhåndsbestillt, og ved å ha forhåndsbestilt før 11. Januar, så får man automatisk oppgradering til Signature Edition.

For noen dager siden sendte EA ut en pressemelding hvor de sa at den første utvidelsen til spillet allerede er planlagt,ogheldigvis for meg, så får man da denne utvidelsen gratis.

Utvidelsen heter Dragon Age II: The Exiiled Prince, Her treffer vi en bueskytter ved navn Sebastian Vael, og gjennom utvidelsen kan du få med ham som følgesvenn i spillet. Ikke bare åpner det for å bli kjent med Sebastians historie, men dette kommer også til å videreutvikle historien til Hawke - hovedpersonen i Dragon Age II.

Det ser ut som om våren kommer til å bringe med seg nok å sysle med, og alle barna (over 18) gleder seg!

Guillermo del Toro lager spill!

Mannen bak filmer som - for å nevne noen - Pans Labyrint (2006), Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) og Mimic (1997), skal nå lage spill.
Med kult- og skrekkfilmer bak seg, så er et nervepirrende spill noe han sikkert med enkelthet klarer å skape en god historie til.
Release er først i 2012, så fortsatt litt ventetid, men jeg kjenner det kribler i hendene etter å få sett mer på denne godbiten. I mellomtiden får vi kose oss med en liten preview

Dette er «Jurassic Park»-spillet

VG nett skriver i dag om at Telltale games nå laserer et spill basert på "Jurassic Park"-filmene under overskriften "Dette er Jurassic Park-spillet".
I det jeg så overskriften, så tenkte jeg at de skulle skrive en liten retro-artikkel om en godbit fra 1993, nettopp spillet "Jurassic Park" utgitt av Ocean Software.
Følelsen av å møte på en Velicoraptor når man løp rundt med first person-view i Visitiors Senter henger fortsatt i. Med filmen friskt i minne på den tiden, så visste man veldig godt hva man skulle passe seg for, og når man gjemte ansiktet i hendene fordi man visste at dette ikke kom til å gå bra. Særlig var det dramatisk når den fryktede Tyranosaurus Rex (T-Rex) dukket opp. For dere som ikke har spilt spillet, så husker dere kanskje følelsen fra filmen? Den var ikke særlig bedre i spillet, hjertet slo ekstra fort og man så seg fort etter nærmeste sted man kunne gjemme seg.
All ære for å lage et nytt Jurassic Park-spill 18 år etter at den første filmen kom ut, og ved at den tydelig er inpirert av Heavy Rain-spillet (skal jeg tro VG Nett), så er dette et spill jeg gleder meg til å teste ut. Det lanseres til PC og MAC våren 2011.
PressFire skriver også om spillet her.

Les litt mer om tidligere Jurrasic Park-spill som er gitt ut på Wikipedia (Engelsk)