Voxels - that is volumetric pixels - make up the entirety of this fantastic one level game where you play a young, portly ne’erdowell who physically manifests himself from the realm of shadows into the sewage system of some kind of Nazi fortress. You break your way out of a grating in a wall and you proceed to stab people while jumping from tree to tree with a knife in hand like a spastic monkey (see image) …
At least that’s what I gather.
It’s like Wolfenstein, but the environments are COMPLETELY destructable. Good fun to be had. As you can see, I didn’t actually do a lot of killing in that run. I just stabbed three guys, ran through a door, took a piece of chicken, and broke out a window - THE END. You can see my young, portly child’s glee for having escaped.
The claim is that the voices were not heard until they listened to the tape afterwards - several “heavenly/otherwordly” harps and bass being played, a male solo voice towards the end, voices being sung in harmony - well, just watch the video. It says everything.
Lyrics of supposedly angelic male vocalist .. or at least what it sounds like:
Hallelujah, ringing across the land
Everybody’s singing at the Lord’s command
All the saints and the angels up in glory wait to hear the news
of Jesus and his children as they’re coming through
Hmm … interesting … Do you know what time it is? AH SAID! … DO YOO KNOW WAT TAIM IT AIS?! That’s right, debunking time!
Okay, so this video alone didn’t give me a whole lot to go on - but - let’s see what we can derive from what’s been given to us so far …
1. The voices aren’t heard until AFTER they check back on their recording. This could signify a problem or malfunction with their recording equipment. What we could be witnessing here, is one recording overlaying another one. Maybe what’s being heard is a previously recorded song.
2. hmm … what else? Well, let’s try to do some research … Hello, Google … angels … singing … hallelujah … supernatural … ah-ha!
…. Okey dokey. Apparently, this all originated from a Jim Bramlett, former vice president of the Christian Broadcasting Network. His claim is that this is real … however, there are some discrepancies to his claims and the ones made in the video …
a. The guy in the video claims the video is from Kansas
b. Mr. Bramlett himself doesn’t know where it comes from. He says he’s had reports of it originating in other places, but then he’s quick to offer, “It is within the realm of possibility that that God allowed this manifestation in more than one place!” Yeah, because the angels are too busy singing around in churches to be making new songs. Listen to that funky beat they have going. That sort of quality musicianship and artistry takes time.
(This is where one paragraph ends and another one starts. For some reason, this thing doesn’t want to space them out even if I go back, edit, and put space in between the two. I cannot figure out what’s wrong.)
3.The words in the song are reportedly from a song recorded years ago by the late Tennessee Ernie Ford (”sixteen tons, what do you get?”) - unfortunately, I cannot seem to find any evidence of this to verify this (Google, you’ve failed me once again), but then, why would Mr. Bramlett try to counter this by saying that since the tape has been around for such a long time, maybe Ernie Ford got the song from the angels or maybe the angels were simply repeating Ernie Ford’s song … man, the more I research, the more lazy these angels seem. What a bunch of freeloaders, singing at churches around the world and whatnot (Mr. Bramlett has several other recordings of supposed angelic choirs. And they all seem to be connected to him - they’re not just collections of other people’s findings, they are his own or through people he knows..)
So, yeah. Singing angels. What’s the deal? Why don’t you get a job like the rest of us? Slackers.
As are a lot of webcomics. OK, me, personally - I’ve read a bunch of Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD) comics before - mostly because the first one I read was actually pretty funny - so I went ahead and kept on reading a bunch of them hoping that they were all magic. They weren’t. So, with a “meh,” I moved on and never visited the webcomic again.
But then, I read this on Fully Ramblomatic (written by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of Zero Punctuation and overall internet tomfoolery fame) and thought it made a very good point that I’d like to make. But I won’t because he already did for me (and I’ve got other projects to tend to). Perfectly, too, might I add.
I want to share! However, I don’t know exactly how to link directly to that one post he made so I’m going to have to link the entire page and you’ll have to scroll down (a monumental task for your heavy lead-filled hands, surely).
I especially like the part where he takes a jab at DeviantArt. So true …
You see, I have this theory that the internet is causing a general mediocritisation of human culture, because you can put pretty much any piece of work on the internet and no matter how hugely it sucks dolphin jizz you’ll find some dick who’s prepared to tell you it’s brilliant. This is the principle on which Deviantart appears to be founded.
The following is a true real life consumer horror story … well, it’s not exactly horror, and it may not seem to be a big deal at first. But really it is.
OK. Some lady goes to Macy’s and finds a cast-iron pot on sale for $19. She decides to buy it, finds that they are out of stock, and asks if she can buy the display one. They told her she could so she heads towards checkout and when she’s only 5 feet away …
i’m stopped by an employee, this one all decked out in a suit (I believed him to be the manager). He tells me, “You can’t buy that, because another customer wants it”. Huh? He’d apparently been in the back looking for more, and realized that the display one was the only one left, so he was going to give that one to the customer. I haggled with the guy for a bit, but got nowhere.Some random customer on the opposite end of the department wanted it, so I was out of luck. I an effort to not cause a scene, I handed it over. He said nothing, walked off, and I stood there confused. It’s not like I can’t find another one, but it’s the principle of the thing. I had it in hand, so it should’ve been mine, right?
Absolutely. If he already had it in mind to give it to another customer, he probably should have taken it off of display and set it aside to avoid this kind of situation … okay, minor mistake. He didn’t do that. So, the very least he could have done was offer an apology. At the very least. A good manager might have done something like on top of offering an apology, maybe give her some kind of coupon for a similar item in the store that was in stock, check if the item was in stock at another store … you know, something! But no. He just walked away without so much as a single word with the item in hand, causing an uncomfortable situation for a potential customer, and ultimately bad publicity for the store.
WHY? Why do jerks like this always end up in manager positions? Why are all managers the world over completely incompetent? I’ve heard so many stories about people who are in control/higher up being completely incompetent and/or suffer from severe mental instability. Not just online, either! It’s everywhere! Can somebody explain to me how this is possible? What is the root of the issue? How do these people always end up in the position that they are?
The Silent Hill series of games is one of my absolute favorite series of video games. They’re all like these Alice in Wonderland type trips down a rabbit hole to strange, confusing, and uncomfortable lands. The inhabitants are the physical manifestations of people’s fears, misunderstandings, and judgments (really? There’s no “e” after the “g” in that word? I think I’ve been spelling that word incorrectly for a long time, then). They are exaggerated and colorful. They are both beautiful and ugly. This coupled with the series’ trademark atmospheric, haunting, quirky, unique music makes for a really memorable, fulfilling and downright horrifying experience. I love the Silent Hill series!
Unfortunately I only own one of the games (Silent Hill 3). I have played Silent Hill 2 before when I rented it ages ago for the Xbox. I’d love to have them all, but 1.) money 2.) I’ve never owned a Playstation brand console. We were tight on money so we went with what we knew; Nintendo. And 3.) PC versions are nowhere to be found. I’m glad I bought Silent Hill 3 for the PC when I did.
So now, Silent Hill V - Homecoming (set for Europe release in September, God knows when everywhere else) … sadly, the original team that made the Silent Hill games have disbanded (again, I conclude that this is a result of them all hating me and not wanting me to play really cool games anymore. Jerks.) so they’ve outsourced development to another company - one with not so great a track record, and has merged into a new company called “Double Helix” even though their logo displays a single helix … And I’m just afraid that all they’ll do is rip Silent Hill’s spine out and lay down some new imitation vegan meat over it to create some kind of hollow flavorless creature. I’m afraid of them going,
“OK, let’s get some rusty metal, deteriorating buildings, throw in a tough guy with a troubled past, make him looking for something, and what are those - a bunch of evil nurses? I like the sound of that. Put a bunch of those in there - euch, those are the nurses? Artistic representation of what? Whatever, I’m not having any of that. Better give them more curves and make them look less … dead. HEY! Come on people! Let’s get some COMBAT in dis raht herre gaim. That James guy from that earlier game was a wuss! Let’s make him a … OOH! I KNOW! A SOLDIER. And he’s got all kinds of cool combat tricks he learned from the war. Yeah … that’s the ticket. This game is going to rock so hard …”
Surely, that is the worst case scenario, right? People aren’t really that stupid? No, they’re going to treat this series with the dignity and respect it deserves. This game is art, and they’re going to understand that. These aren’t just a handful of kids wearing sideways caps and some guys that could draw crazy-weird things who thought the games were, “hella tight.” No way. Come on. Have some faith, me. … *typed-out-sigh*
… then I saw this …
Okay, to be fair, they didn’t look like the sideways hat-wearing type … the problem may be that the people INTERVIEWING them were the sideways hat-wearing type. “Cuz when I think soldier … He’s gotta have GUNS!” … yeah … Woo. At least they got the original soundtrack guy … unfortunately, this does nothing to calm my fears. So what, it looks like all my fears are coming true, but they could still pull this off … the combat system … I never really had a huge problem with the existing one. I’m all for making things better, but I’m not sure what they have in mind is necessarily “better.” You were supposed to feel like you shouldn’t be trying to take these weird creatures on. You were supposed to be afraid of them. You were supposed to want to run away. It was supposed be clunky feeling. You were just some average person with a rusty pipe lost and isolated from the world you once knew.
I don’t know what to think. I want to have hope for this game … like I said, maybe the problem was the interviewers asking the wrong questions. Until I play the game, I won’t know.
This is one of the ones that creep me out a little. Notice how the reflected image blinks - this indicates that it’s not just an image edited in with video-editing-wizardry. That means that it could instead be … dare I think it … an actual video clip edited in with video-editing-wizardry! Wow! HA. HA. HAAAH! - still spooky.
What a creative ghost! I’m glad to know they have the kind of time to think of these inventive ways of creeping people out. Or at least this one does. All those other ghosts are a bunch of slackers. They just like … move/slide objects around (always just ever so slightly off camera, of course) or look like a hair passing by the lens of the camera. This ghost goes above and beyond. This ghost has class.
Here’s a pretty interesting story that my dad pointed out to me …
Scientists in Scotland explaced- placed explosives at the bottom of the Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. With the help of Scotland’s local wizards … No, not that one. Let me try again …
Years ago, in Siberia, a team of scientists were performing some kind of drilling project. You know, scientists and their hole-drilling ways. They had gotten miles into the earth’s crust. First, it was just getting really hot as they neared the core of the earth (14.4 Kilometers in - close to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit). At that point, their drill started going really fast and spinning with ease. There wasn’t any resistance. The core of the earth was hollow! Then, they started hearing some strange noises. At first, they thought the noises were coming from their equipment or audio malfunction (they had recording equipment used to monitor the earth’s movements at specific intervals), but they were greatly distressed by what they realized they were actually hearing.
Voices
Not just voices, but screaming ones. Hundreds, thousands of human voices screaming in the agony of Hell’s fire.
What really unnerved the Soviets, apart from the voice recordings, was the appearance that same night of a fountainhead of luminous gas shooting up from the drill site, and out of the midst of this incandescent cloud pillar a brilliant being with bat wings revealed itself with the words (in Russian): ‘I have conquered,’ emblazoned against the dark Siberian sky.
Here are the supposed voice recordings:
Spooky.
Of course, as all these things go, tracking down all these sources ended up being a wild goose chase for the good people at truthorfiction.com
The exact origins of the story are unknown, but all other evidence and reports are solely based on other people’s reports without any kind of fact checking involved.
The part about the bat? That’s definitely fake. They tracked down the guy that sent that bit in to a religious television program of some sort and he said right away that he made it up. He did it to see if they would do any fact-checking and research or if they’d simply just report the story. He provided his phone number and everything, and nobody contacted him.
Yay urban legends.
Supposedly, this painting is full of spoOOOoOOOoOoky! Well, it is a spooky painting, but what’s more is that it’s supposed to be haunted! *gasp* … or, you know … not.
The title of the painting is “The Hands Resist Him” and it’s supposed to be some sort of Carl Jung collective unconscious hey-let’s-reach-out-and-embrace-the-other-side sort of thing - which is a theme commonly employed by many artists, myself included.
The story behind the image is interesting, though. Apparently “both the owner of the Gallery where ‘Hands’ was displayed and the Los Angeles Times art critic who reviewed my show were dead within a year of the show.” Somebody else bought it (actor John Marley who ALSO DIED!! … but he was 77 so, yeah), and it ended up being abandoned *DUN DUN DUN!* So, after it was abandoned, some other nice folks found it and took it to their home. Their 4 1/2 year old daughter started claiming that the children in the painting were trying to get out, so they decided to get rid of it. EBAY TIME! And they got a bunch of moneys and everyone lived happily ever after. Or something like that.
What does the original artist of the painting have to say about all this?
Word up y’all, biscuit-heads. It’s time for another edition of … er … rather, introducing for the very first time, Impar’s Paranormal Pancake Parlor.
Now, I’m a big fan of paranormal type shenanigans and haunted pastry shops and what have you, but I’m not at all a believer in these sort of things - or at least, I’m highly skeptical of such things. I think the idea is fun, but my reasoning thus far is that with so many people on this earth with quick and easy access to technology that can capture images and record video coupled with how many people claiming to have a haunted house, one would think there would be a lot more evidence out there. But there just isn’t. The only place that I ever find halfway convincing evidence is on the show, Ghosthunters. Mostly because they try to take things from the skeptic’s viewpoint and try to debunk supposed paranormal activity, so when they find something that they’re like, “Yeah, I don’t know about that,” it seems more convincing. But it is a show, and as we all know, shows are there to make money and … well, please understand my skepticism. I still love the show and watch it fairly religiously. The investigators on the show strike me as genuine.
So, fake or not, I still love watching this sort of thing. And I’d like to share some of my more interesting or entertaining findings to YOU! YES YOU. Because I’m just that great of a person. I know! You could totally be doing something much more interesting right now - IN FACT, YOU PROBABLY ALREADY ARE! WHERE’D YOU GO? - but HERE! View this video! (no, I promise not to ever post any of those stupid SURPRISE LOL videos).
I love these kinds of games. Any games with horror aspects in them really, but I especially love the ones that the horror is more psychological instead of having things jump out at you all the time. In fact, I’m trying to make a game like that myself! But it’s going to have to play much differently from these as I’m restricted to RPG maker XP … (download link for my game - No, there’s still nothing new for those of you who’ve already played it)
Anyway, from the looks of this trailer, I want it. Unfortunately, it’s only coming out for the PS3 because the developers hate me. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. This means that there’s probably a good chance I won’t be playing it for many years. It’s too bad.
Hey, I’ve an idea! For those of you on the forum - BAM! Link - FORUM THINGY
Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death and we are the imagination of ourselves!
