Added a game review for vib ribbon, added a new rant, added some new art to my pixel art collection (well, it’s not new, but i forgot i still had it on my computer), and updated various other parts of the site.

Well, where to start…

Story 0/10
There was no story as far as i could tell.

Gameplay 10/10
Here’s the best bit about the game…you are vibri (a stick creature thing that can evolve into other things), and the idea of the game is to put a music cd into the playstation (yes, you can play your own music with this game!!), and you have to guide vibri across a level with your music playing in the background. But that’s only half of it, there are obstacles in vibri’s way, and you must press the appropriate buttons on the controller at the right time to avoid them. If you avoid lots of obstacles in a row then you will evolve into a new creature, and get lots of points, but if you fail to aviod something a few times in a row you will devolve into a lesser creature. When you put your own music cd into the game, vib ribbon automatically generates a level based on that music (ie… put some heavy metal in, and you’ll have a hard level, and put a slow song in, and it should be easy (it doesn’t always work out this way though)). Since you get a different level for each song, then the gameplay is only limited by your music collection!

Sound 10/10
Seeing as you can put your own music cd’s into the game, then obviously this is going to get a 10/10, but even if you play with the music that’s included with the game, i have to say that it’s probably the best Japanese pop music i’ve ever heard!

Graphics 8/10
These graphics are vector graphics (stick men), and by rights i should give a low score here, since there were games in the 80′s that had better graphics that this (i’m not joking!), but these vector graphics do their job beautifully, i mean would you want some supercool graphics, and techno colours floating around blinding you while you’re trying to avoid obstacles, i think not.

Overall 9/10
Overall, this is one of the most entertaining, and most replayable game for the PS1 that i own. The controls are easy to pick up, and it’s a great way to listen to music at the same time. All in all a very entertaining game, which i will continue to play well into the future.

Reviewer: InsaneLampshade

I added a new games review (it isn’t actually a review…but go read it anyway ), and updated various other parts of the site.

And, in other news…i have invested in some, err…how can i say this, some…home brewing equipment , i’m hoping to get a few bottles of wine out of it, i’ll probably post some more pics/info later and update everyone on the outcome!

I’m not having a go at people with phobias, because i’m sure everyone has something they’re scared of. But i am having a go at people who have irrational phobias.

People should have phobias about things that can harm them, like wasps (they sting), spiders (they bite), the dark/unknown (you don’t know what dangers lurk there), heights (falling and dying), the sea (drowning) etc. Those are all perfectally acceptable phobias, but there are some bloody stupid phobias going around, for example did you see the tv program a few weeks back about a woman who was scared of buttons (yes…buttons, you know, the things on your shirt that hold it all together), she couldn’t even go near a button. I mean what’s all that about, a button’s not gonna hurt you, you stupid cow!

Phobias are imprinted in our brains because we experience something bad, and want to prevent it happening again, or we’re clever enough to forsee something bad happening and we want to prevent it before it does happen. Now how the hell do you get scared of something like the number 10 for example??! How can you have had a bad enough experience with a number, that you never want to see it again? Or are you some psycic weirdo that “forsees” bad things with the number 10??

I feel my points here are well justified, and that phobias should only be allowed for things that can cause you harm, if you hear/see anyone with an irrational phobia give them a slap from me…ok?

Before i start, i’d like to say that this is probably gonna piss a few people off, so i’ll try and hold back on some things. And also, i’d like to say that this isn’t directed towards any religion in particular, it’s directed towards ALL religion (yes, including satanism and any other weird ones you can think of)!

Right then, let’s get started…I fail to see how anyone these days can believe that somebody “created” the universe and everything etc. It’s just plain stupid, that theory is full of holes, what was it doing before it created everything, why did it create everything, what’s it doing now?? Is there absolutly any proof whatever to suggest that someone created us, i think not! Whereas, there’s pleanty of scientific research into the beginnings of the universe (string theory, brane’s colliding, 24 dimentions etc.), and with our current knowledge all of the current scientific theories seem plausable. Altough at the moment we can’t explain everything, we’re getting there.

Another thing stupid people keep going about is “What was there before our universe?”…well…if our universe was created by two branes colliding in a higher dimention, then there would have been these branes floating about, and can’t you retarded people accept that not everything has a beginning and end…maybe those branes have been there all the time…it’s just something you’ve got to accept.

Religion Throughout History:
Back when man was first evolving, and began to think about things, i can understand why they thought that something had to have created everything, because they didn’t know much about the world, and they were basically too stupid to try and find out, so they came up with the best option available… “someone made it”.

Now…this crazy story about Jesus etc. i’m sure it’s just some guy that’s gone around claiming he’s the most religious person in the world and whatnot, and much like chinese whispers, the story’s got exagurated, and over time the writers have added bits and pieces here and there to jazz it up a bit. Much like the story of the monkey king, based the true story of a priest sent to fetch scriptures from India, but somehow turned into a rather entertaining legend about a priest, and an immortal monkey king and friends who fight demons etc.

In the middle ages, was probably first when people started to become aware that it was utter rubbish. The kings and queens of the countries around the world realised that religion was rubbish, and used it to their advantage, and told the stupid masses that they had been chosen by “god” and that they should listen to them. And also, they were using religion as a tool to control the stupid population, if they didn’t want the people to do something, or they wanted them to act a certain way, they only had to tell the churches/other religious buildings across the country, and the people would listen to them. Therefore religion was still useful as a method to control the populus in the middle ages.

After the middle ages, and the introduction of elected leaders and law, was when religion began to die out. Elected leaders could no longer claim to have been chosen by “god”, and since law and order was introduced, religion was no longer as useful for controling the populus. And this is why religion has no place in society today (except maybe in countries that are still ruled by a non-elected leader *cough*dictatorship*cough*)

Some More Potholes In Religion:
Why can’t we just ask “god” to give us a sign it exists? I mean what is it doing that makes it so busy that it can’t give one measly little sign, i mean, god isn’t stopping suffering, not answering peoples wishes, seems like god’s a lazy thing if it exists, and if it’s omnipotent and all powerful, you’d have thought it could do anything and everything all the time. So what the hell is “god” doing right now huh?

Bad Practices In Religion:
Why do some religions have to advertise themselves, don’t they have many people that believe their crap…aww…shame! It’s just so annoying to have certain religions (i can think of at least two), knock on your door, or stop you in the street to beg you to join their crap. I have a theory, that if they can get someone to sign up, then they’re allowed to be set free…and the person that signed up now has to go and get someone else to sign up before they’re set free…maybe that’s why these people seem so desperate?

There…finished, hope i didn’t offend too many people!

UPDATE 13th Jan ’05 (in light of new evidence):

Ok, so over christmas there was this documentary on channel 4 called “Who wrote the bible?”, and this has some very interesting facts, that even you religious people should know…yes…these are FACTS, the show was researched and presented by a christian, and featured pleanty of high ranking religious people (eg, some british bishop, some guy in charge of the oldest piece of the bible still around, some priest guy in charge of the place where jesus was supposedly killed, and later resurrected, some high ranking priest from the vatican city, and pleanty of other theologists, who ALL say that what i’m about to tell you is true!).

Right…here we go…the first part of the bible that was supposedly written by “moses” is not, it is in fact written by 4 different people, each telling 4 different views of god and creation. They were originally 4 different books, and therefore 4 different gods being worshipped at the time. The king of the time (somewhere around 3000BC *i think*) didn’t agree with this, so he consolidated the 4 different views of god into one book, and forced his people to worship one “god” (easy to prove this is true, near the beginning it goes on about god creating animals, then creating man in his own image…but then a little while later it talks of god creating adam & eve…the first people, there are other inconsistincies, where the 4 books weren’t mixed seamlessly, but i can’t remember them off the top of my head, and i’ve never actually read the bible anyway). Now, the rest of the old testement was gradually added by later kings over the years, because they were adding in what they wanted their people to believe, and how they wanted them to act (see…not the word of “god” atall, but instead; the word of a few kings basically writing a law book).

Ok, so now we come to the new testement, which was supposedly written by the disciples of Jesus. Well, in fact, it wasn’t, in fact the new testement was written decades after Jesus died, and not by any of his disciples. The chapters in the new testement are basically written by people who were trying to write a biography of the life of jesus, none of them ever met the man, it was all written down by hear’say, or chinese whispers, so the stories are pretty much only very loosley based on fact, and there’s not much point believing them word for word. Also, it’s worth noting that there were many more attempts at writing biographies for jesus at the time, but when the roman emperor converted to christianity he ordered his scholars to pick the best ones and discard the rest…and so, the new testement was pretty much made (obviously the emperor only picked the ones that sounded good, and fitted in with what he believed, he also rejected all of the biographies that were written by women). Oh, and also, that “threat” at the end of the book…something about not modifing the bible, adding or removing stuff from it, or thou shalt burn in hell…well, that was added (can you guess why?) to stop future generations from adding their own bits to it, like what had been going on for the past 3000 years or so, in an attempt to have a bible that would never change. (imaging what it’d be like today if they hadn’t done that…every king from 100AD onwards adding their own bits to it, it’d be a complete mess!)

Well, anyway, now you know, that the bible is not the word of “god”, it is but an ancient book of laws, and hear’say. Oh, also…this documentary also proved that that oh so famous exodus of jews from egypt never actually happened (something to do with the size of the cities and stuff mentioned in the bible compared with the actual archaeological evidence from israel). It’s also worth noting, that the conclusion the christian presenter came to after finding this out was that “the bible was never meant to be taken literally, and that it is up to us, as christians to see through the political propoganda and hear’say”…well, all i can say is, if you try to see through the political propoganda and hear’say there’s not gonna be a hell of a lot left of the bible, in fact you could probably knock the whole thing down to a couple of pages! “word of god”…hah…that’s a joke! If any of you want proof, i still have the documentary on tape.