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The Tudors - Review

When we compare the present life of man on Earth with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like a swift flight of a single sparrow through a banquet hall on a winter's day. After a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man appears on Earth for a little while, but of what went before this life or what will follow, we know nothing.
- King Henry VIII / The Tudors

I recently finished watching The Tudors and I love it! Now I know that a lot of liberties were taken with history and events, a lot of characters got changed around to make a better drama or some were completely removed from history in order to make the show more accessible. All of that still doesn't change that it's a great show with interesting characters set in world far more dramatic than any soap you may watch today; history is just way more complex and brutal than anything any author can come up with I believe. In my opinion the show shines because they take liberties with history and authenticity; the creators clearly focused on making the characters accessible to a modern audience with our standards/values on how a powerful, young and beautiful King should look like - something the real Henry VIII was considered in his time but by today's standards he would just be considered ugly, fat and probably uncool.

The fact that I only knew very general things of the history behind the show worked great for me because most of the executions and betrayals I did not see coming and it added a sense of dread when you realize that real plotting in these past brutal times was not based on some master plan but rather on a chaotic mess of wills that caused a lot of innocent deaths. I would also recommend anyone to do like me and read Wikipedia while watching the show to get insight into the real history behind the characters; it really feels like a punch in the stomach when you read many of these tragic fates loosing their heads/lives on a whim in a time that makes fictional shows like Game of Thrones look like civilized times. The show is also smart to occasionally be extremely accurate to history by lifting dialogue and poetry from the real people behind these events which adds a sense of depth to the events.

What I love about the show is how by retelling history in a dramatic condensed way the characters naturally become very grey and multi-layered, for example King Henry is a murdering bastard and has the blood of many innocent people on his hands, yet with others he is this loving, funny and charismatic guy that you really like despite his other murdering side. The other thing I really love is a general liking of these kind of stories, when you follow a whole life from youth to old age and seeing what relationships remain (the reason Merlin 1998 ruled), in the end I really ended up feeling sorry for King Henry because so many people were dead and he was this sickly old man; a contrast that hits you when in Season One he is a very young, positive, idealistic, healthy man. Finally I also want to give the show credit for the handling of the Protestant vs Catholic conflict because I ended up sympathies and feeling infuriated with both sides at the same time.

The Tudors really is a show with many flaws (costumes, inaccuracies, dramatic license with supernatural elements etc.) but at the same time the cast has made these characters come to life in a way that it made me feel extremely sad when the show ended. I simply realized that I would miss Henry, Charles Brandon, Mary Tudor and the others and that if anything is a sign of a show that I can recommend. It's a show that starts of slowly (Season One being the weakest) and just keeps getting better and better with each season. Now I hunger for more shows set in this exciting time period but all I'm left with is The Borgias - The Subway of TV shows and that makes me sad beyond words. So if you're looking for an exciting show set in a time filled with intrigue, backstabbing, a lot of sex and some really touching scenes and moments then you should definitely check out The Tudors. I give you my blessing.

Why I'm a PC gamer...

I'm mainly a PC gamer and damn proud of it, especially now past this E3 and seeing the three major console manufacturers abandon more and more of what I consider core gaming with silly "cinematic" games that play themselves, series with complex gameplay being reduced to simple action games and being called "improved", where immersion is considered using whacky gimmick controllers to look like an idiot while sacrificing gameplay precision, not to mention calling 3D being the next step in graphics when it's running in 560p and 30FPS where as I run most of my PC games in 1080p and 60+FPS with field of view that doesn't look like I'm wearing blinders.

I've come to believe that consoles are silly locked systems that work with some genres but for the general core experience I think that any core game would fit much better on the PC with it's higher graphic fidelity, moddablity that allows you to customize most details of your game, and finally that it's an open system that encourages innovation and has always been known to push the boundaries. I'll point out that countless series that are huge on consoles today had their start on the PC platform, either as series or the developers started there, games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, Bioware, Rockstar, Epic Games the list goes on.

So in today's multiplatfrom climate where sadly the PC doesn't get to be lead platform that often anymore, it still baffles me how many of the best multiplat games end up having the best version on the PC. I can understand that PC lead platform games shine above the rest because of the push in technology the PC represents. However even games that were released in a gimped consolized form on the PC, such as Mass Effect 2 below for example, end up modded and improved with the result being that the console version looks worse than the PC counterpart.

PC version with texture mods:


Default PC/Console version:

BioShock Infinite E3 2011 Teaser

BioShock Infinite is an upcoming first-person shooter video game, and the third game in the BioShock series. Previously known as "Project Icarus", it is being developed by Irrational Games for a 2012 release on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. BioShock Infinite is not a direct sequel or prequel to previous BioShock games, taking place in an earlier period and different setting, though it features similar gameplay concepts and themes. The player controls a former Pinkerton agent, Booker DeWitt, as he attempts to rescue a woman trapped aboard the collapsing air-city Columbia in 1912.

Irrational Games is at E3 and they're demoing their current project BioShock Infinite, which comes out next year. They released this teaser trailer composed entirely from gameplay footage and I must say that this is looking like another masterpiece in progress from Ken Levine - the mind behind the System Shock games. What has me worried watching this is that it seems to good to be true, the amount of freedom and how large the areas appear with the seemingly insane amount of badass moments leaves me worried that this is just too ambitious to actually live up to it's vision. Still I simply adore the art direction which to me is on a different level compared to the dank and dark Rapture from the first BioShock; and then there is nothing more creepy than creepy stuff happening in broad daylight located in a place that looks like an utopian vision of the American Dream and patriotism.

Battlefield 3 - Shooter of the Year

I just finished watching EA's E3 conference and I am left blown away by the PC version of Battlefield 3 shown. Not only is it the best looking game I've seen to date (Yes, it makes Crysis look old!) but the tech appears to have been used in such a way to further the gameplay. I was also left feeling nostalgic about the time when I played Battlefield 1942 back in the day with huge battles containing 64 players, vehicles and how all of that was extremely impressive back in the day. Now today I got to relive those feelings in seeing Battlefield 3 and the push in technology that it clearly represents. It's something I've been missing for the past year in gaming - seeing technology used to further the experience and immersion. The game looked like a movie during a few select scenes for Christ's sake and I am now praying that my computer will be able to run it at an impressive setting or this might just be the game that will make me upgrade.

It's especially amusing with this presentation because I was watching the Modern Warfare 3 presentation on Microsoft's conference a few hours ago and being struck with how rehashed it appeared and looked almost exactly like the previous games (since 2007!!!). Now I am baffled at how old and silly Modern Warfare looks compared to what I saw of Battlefield 3 - it just appears to be a game from another level or even next generation of gaming. I can only hope Battlefield destroys Modern Warfare's hold on shooters today so we can have a higher level of quality from now on. Still I think that might be hard because it looks like the game will require a beast of a PC to play it on the settings shown at this conference and that kind of narrows down the audience if the console versions don't end up beings just as impressive on their platforms. I will say that today on National Day of Sweden it is appropriate that the Swedish pride developers DICE are really representing and showing that they have joined a select group of elite developers. Cheers!

Frostbite 2 Engine - Features Trailer
"Thunder Run" - Single Player Gameplay Trailer
"Operation Metro" - Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer