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So, what does the sixth movie hold for us ?

First I'd like to briefly expose my sentiments concerning Harry Potter and the first five movies. I'm a huge fan of the books, I especially like that they are so immersive. While the first movie is clearly inferior to the book, it's actually quite good. Second movie is also not bad, but could be slightly beter. The third and the fourth however are total rubish. It's more a juxtaposition of key scenes, which totally breaks the immersivity. The movies have notably less "school" scenes and a broken rythm when compared to the books (and don't get started about the tree going trough the different seasons - sooo clever ><). That brings us to the fifth movie, which is actually quite similar to the sixth.

Those two are similar because they are more rooted in the schoolyear routine than the previous episodes. The final events aren't straightforward consequences of the things that happen during the year. There are lot of tips of course - but those are mingled with "normal life". I'll stop a second to note that this kind of detail-mingling is one of the great strengths of JK Rowling's writing, continually giving tips about things to come and a wealth of information that the reader is always delighted to know. This is an aspect the movies don't capture very well, rather treating each clue given to the viewers as a separate block, to be appended to other blocks.

I consider therefore 5 and 6 to be superior to 3 and 4, not due to better filming, but rather due to the content of the books. David Yates (director of 5 and 6) can definetely not beat the work done by Chris Colombus on 1 and 2. He's in many regards event worse than Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell (respectively directors of 3 and 4). I'll even go as far as to say that he's a total morron. Cause it's now time to expose griefs.

While the change introduced to the book by Chris Colombus where mostly sensible, his successors insisted to add stupid "cinematic" sequences (mostly stunts and special effects ...) and to drop more casual parts of the story - parts which as I said earlier made the book interesting. This has reached ridiculous proportions in episode 6, where capital scenes are awfully truncated, many subplots removed and even more useless scenes added (most notably death eaters burning down Weasley's house and 5 whole minutes spent mending a room).

Conclusion, Harry Potter 6 is not a total waste, but it's not the movie it could have been if confied to competent people. A waste, but if you're a fan you'll probably watch it anyway. If not, you might as well stay home. It might be worthwhile to add here that if you didn't read the book, understanding the plot might be quite complicated (this totally struck me afterwards).

As a side note, my initial reaction was to say "Well, it's not spectacular, but it's not that bad". But that was before I re-read the book (I re-read the seven books, but had only begun the sixth when I went to the theater).

Heroes of the Valley is a book written by Jonathan Stroud, who also wrote the Bartimaeus Trilogy. It's fantasy, of course, tough it's quite different from what you'd expect from this kind of books. Just like the Bartimaeus Trilogy, the story features an untypical hero, but the ressamblance ends there.

The most striking caracteristic of the book is it is written in the style of a tale. The actual stories is mingled with tales of the old heroes (at the beginning of each chapter). The universe is very interesting. It features a norse-like civilization stuck in a valley because it's people fear to be killed by the Trows - creatures that lives under the earth - if they cross the boundaries guarded by the graves of their ancestors. The story is whitout frills and the focus is really set on the story.

The story itself is surprising. The developments are well tought and make you want to read further. I do not want to reveal the story, but it's about a boy, Halli Sveinsson, whose assumptions about the world and morality are going to be challenged big time. Following the periples of the hero, and how he will change his mind about things is really interesting.

One thing the book has wrong however, is that it begins too slowly. It might even seem boring. But when you reach the turning point of the story, you won't be able to detach from it. Another default is the lack of love story, there are two character of the opposite sex, and they are obviously into each other, so where is it ? There are, I must add, obvious opportunies missed. It might stem from the book targeting children - tough it is suitable for older people, nothing childish about the book. If it is the case, I think this kind of writing-for-a-target think is kinda lame. It's a shame because it really would have made the book better.

Let's leave it here. I just wanted to write something about this great book, however incomplete I might be. You can find another good review - tough too spoiler-ish in my taste - here.

Here is something I've been thinking about for a while, regarding World Of Warcraft. Blizzard sells you a game, then make you pay for playing on their server. The key here is that you purchased two different thing : first the game client with all of it's content, then the right to connect to an infrastructure to enjoy this game.

Now, can they really (and by that I mean legally) prevent you from playing on private realms (also called "pirate" realms). Since you purchased the game, you should be able to "plug it" wherever you want, not only on the servers owned by Blizzard.

While Blizzard would like to make you think that their position (private realms are illegal) is right and obvious, they fully realize that it isn't so simple. If it was, why didn't they sue private realms owner ? I think they fear that they could loose and that it could cause an explosion of the number of "private" realms and of their popularity. They might also fear giving free advertisement to those realms with a legal action, and getting hit by some kind of "pirate backlash".

While the legal situation of private realms remains unclear, few people dare launching their own servers - especially paid ones - because they fear a lawsuit from Blizzard. But if it was deemed legal by a court decision, then there would be a huge market opportunity and lots of people would fly in to try getting a slice of the pie.

Recently I played trough Star Wars : Knight of the Old Republic. I had started it long ago, but I stopped midway for no apparent reason (given the game is awesome). So I corrected this gruesome mistake. I played a light side character, tough I've started quite neutral, some of those dark side answers are just so amusing ! But I felt I had to make a choice, and going dark side is ... disturbing (for the good guy that I am, deep inside). If you want to go dark side, you have to commit a 100% to it.

(For those that have no clue, you play a character that will eventually become a jedi and each of your choices drive closer to the light or dark side of the force.)

And ... what can I say, thirty hours later, here we are. The games starts off amazing with star wars theme and scrolling text, and end equally amazingly. When everyone acclaims you and that master Vandar congratulates you for your actions, and add a mythic line about jedi knights, you can't help it but to say "I did it, bitches, I'm a jedi !".

Spoiler alert : here's the light side ending :



So while it has it's glitches, Knight of the Old Republic is most definitely a game you want to play trough, especially if you're a Star Wars fan or a RPG lover. If not, well it's a good place to start off.

Most games can, one way or another, be played for what we call "the fun", the thrill of learning and mastering new skills, being able to beat challenges that keeps getting harder. Required skills vary quite a bit from game to game, and that's what condition our like or dislike for some of them.

But that's not what makes video games so distinct. It's story and ambiance that make a game really worth it. Each game has it's own universe you may interact with. Sometimes you play a key part in the story, other times you may even change the story and thus the universe by your very own choices.

When the universe is great, you feel dragged into the game, involved. The games stops being only about fun and skill mastering but it start also being about emotions. In some games theses emotions even call for choices, choices that will affect the universe, and yourself trough it.

Video games let you project yourself or who-ever you choose to impersonate into their universe, thus effectively becoming a part of it. And that's what great about gaming. Being emotionally involved in the universe allows you to feel things you wouldn't or couldn't have felt otherwise due to physical limitations, risks, moral consideration, etc...

You can now see why video games are different (and in some sense, superior) to books and movies. They  also have their universe, but they don't allow you to be a part of it, and even less to influence it.

If I may summarize, for me gaming is about being emotionally involved in a universe and feeling great things trough it. Isn't that finally what life is all about ?

Let me just add that most players do not play to escape reality, tough it might seem like that at first, but to circumvent all kinds of limitation. It's like having all the goods things, the  great feelings, without the drawbacks that may arise if done in real life (if that's even possible). That's  also why video games are full of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, for the rest might already be done in real life.

F.lux is really one of those software treasures you sometimes stumble on. What it does is very simple : according to the time of day, it changes the luminosity of your screen to accomodate your eyes. You'll notice little change during the day (tough the screen appear a little more blue if you pay attention), but in the evening, the light gets "warmer". See the two photos (before and after) above to illustrate this effect. As explained on the website, monitors mimic daylight, and you shouldn't be looking at the sun in the evening. Great if you do lots of late surfing.

While I always thought Clint Eastwood was cool, especially as actor, I must say I wasn't convinced by Million Dollar Baby and The Changeling. Gran Torino however, is pure genius. I really enjoyed the old school, delusional and a bit racist character impersonated by Eastwood that becomes friend with a Vietnamese family and eventually protects them from a gang.

The movie is at the same time touching and captivating. Moreover it's just done right all along, like a carefully crafted piece of art. It doesn't lack any coherence, and that's a rare enough quality in movies to be noted.

The original theme song by Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood is also stunning. It really fits the end of the movie, making it the perfect finish for a nearly-perfect movie. You can listen to it here.

I've beaten Max Payne and Max Payne 2 : The Fall of Max Payne in less than one week, and I really enjoyed it, it's a shame I didn't tried the game earlier.

The story, true cement of the games, is told through a graphical novel. It's style is very dark, or "noir" (English speaking bastards stoling our French words !) if you prefer. But the games are also wonderful to play, with slow-motion time (really, it's not bullet time) at their core. You die a lot, but thanks to the quick save, it's isn't that bad.

What I really liked about Max Payne is that I kept wanting to improve at it. In the end, managing to do a perfect slow-motion carnage (read : taking out a bunch of bad guys with style, and whitout losing life) is really delightful. I can't help but to recommend it to any gamer out there, especially to shooter fan, but also to rpg lovers, since the game successfully manage to create an amazing atmosphere of it's own.

Note : The title for this post is actually taken from the game itself, see the very begin of this video to hear one of the most mythic vocals of video gaming. Yes, it's a WoW footage, but I couldn't found the line in any Max Payne video. It's also give a good overview of the game's atmosphere since it's basically a WoW remake of the graphic novell from Max Payne 2 featuring the original soundtrack.

You can also check Max Payne 2 in 60 seconds (spoilers warning, better to watch if you've actually finished the game).