I’m the type of person who gets obsessed pretty easily. Especially when it comes to music (did I mentione that my dad used to be a DJ?). On my second year of High School, a friend of mine introduced me to artist called IAMX. He’s incredible. Totally different from mainstream, but it might be connected with the genry of his music: indie-electro. Still, he has his very own style and, as my friend pointed it, Lady Gaga could, at most, clean his shoes.
Anyway, he’s the type of artist who is fully dedicated to his work: he writes the music and the lyrics, he makes the mastering of  his music, he directs the videos. He even moved from England to Berlin, where he has found “the spirit to care less about the music industry and take an independent route.”

As for my epic failure, with all my love to this guy, it wasn’t until just yesterday that I found out he has released third album: Kingdom of Welcome Addiction. In May 2009.

. . .

I wonder how on earth my yesterday’s head-desk did not leave any bruises.

As for the album itself, IAMX himself described it as being “like Disney World but with lipstick, cynicism and wit”.

In my opinion, this might be his best album so far.

I can’t say that this album is revolutionary. Same heavy beats along with synthpop and classical additions such as piano and violin. Psychodelic underground. Lyrics concern obsessions, abstruse human-relations, death and politics.
People describe IAMX as Shadow Theatre of Chris Corner. This is exactly what Kingdom of Welcome Addiction is like. It’s murky and dramatic, both calm and full of expression. It’s intensive and addicting. I guess Chris’ voice never sounded better than now, especially when accompanied by anothergreat vocalist – Imogen Heap.

If I were to choose the best song, that would probably be My Secret Friend, which features Imogen Heap. I’m just not dead certain if it’s only because the song itself is amazing or is it because of the magnificent video. I can’t even count how many times I’ve already seen it. But tell me, isn’t it simply gorgeous?

Before I start: yes, I am aware of the fact that this is the 7th Silent Hill game, yet the one called Origins is number zero.

Back on subject.

The story follows Harry Mason, who wakes up after a car accident to find that his daughter Cheryl is missing. Harry will wander the snowy streets of Silent Hill searching for answers of her disappearance, but when the world freezes over, he will need to escape the lumbering demons that haunt his steps. Harry will need to navigate both worlds to discover the truth; not just about his missing daughter, but also the type of person he actually is.

Silent Hill’s debut on the Wii makes the fear more real than ever before. Players will be drawn into the mysterious town using the Wii Remote as a flashlight and a cellphone as they search for clues. Choices they make will shape Harry Mason, as well as the people he meets and the places he visits. The enemies evolve as well, taking the form of the player’s deepest fears. Silent Hill promises to be more terrifying than ever, bringing the fear to Wii, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system.

As you can see, Shattered Memories is based on the first part, but it’s not an actual remake. We may meet the same characters, but in different order. The game will track our movements and progress and put the plot according to our style.

The “enemies evolve as well, taking the form of the player’s deepest fears. Silent Hill promises to be more terrifying than ever” part sounds promising yet there are few things about this game which make me nervous.

The most important one is the console: Nintendo Wii. I’m not quite sure it’s a disadventage. Playing on Wii gives you more freedom and might be a really good solution for a horror game where you can’t even kill the monsters, because  “Combat has been removed from the game with emphasis placed instead on evading encounters with monsters entirely.” At least we will be able to break through the doors and windows while we run, but it’s not this much fun if you won’t play it on Wii. It will be simply boring. It also means that the whole sight thing might be a real pain in the ass on Play Station 2 or PC. On the other hand, just imagine playing Silent Hill on this!

I’d deffinitely want to try it out!

Secondly: “Harry will wander the snowy streets of Silent Hill searching for answers of her disappearance, but when the world freezes over”. Like what? What about rust, grunge and blood stains? Those are things which I will always associate with this game! They can’t just get rid of them so easily!

Another thing is that “we will be able to open every single door”. Guys, come on! It was so much fun when you had only a few doors open and everytime you tried to get somewhere you had to spend some time on finding the right path. And if it, for example, were the alternative school from the first part, you never knew if something was about to attack you or if you were safe, because the enemy was stuck behind the fence (and the radio told you it was close…). Oh, I will miss such things so much! I really feel an urge to play it once again…

Next change: cell phone. You will just keep using it for everything: taking photos, calling, finding way (GPS),  saving game or keeping track of the notes. This might be interesting, because some clues will be visible only on the photos and sometimes a ghost or two might also appear on them.

So will it be any good? There’s no rust, no blood, no combat, no closed doors. There’s one thing which remains: Akira Yamaoka and his music. The song from the trailer is called “Always on my mind” and you can listen to it here:

OST has 21 tracks, 4 with vocals. Marvelous as always. I guess I don’t have to encourage any of the game fans to get this OST. Music has always been one of the most important and the most impressive parts of the game.

Overall, this will be a very good game for Wii players (and I wish to become one of them soon ;)). Those who are as obsessed with SH as much as I am will enjoy it as well. Or at least this is what I hope for.

Rest of the world? We must wait and see. It should be released in February 2010. You can be sure I will get it soon after and tell you if my fears were groundless. If I won’t die of heart attack somewhere in the middle, that is.

Don’t tell me that this song doesn’t deserve a prize. Or three.

And here’s the one and only MUSE which was nominated in “Best Alternative”:

Paranoia is in bloom,
The PR transmissions will resume,
They’ll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down,
And hope that we will never see the truth around

(…)

They will not force us,
They will stop degrading us,
They will not control us,
We will be victorious.

[Yeah right.]

As a side note: MUSE’s next single “Undisclosed Desires” will be released on 16th Novemenber! The video has already been out:

Yup. My MUSE obsession is getting stronger and stronger. Especially after I put my hands on their latest album: “The Resistance”.
Do I really have to say how much I love it? Or that I would trade my soul just to get to their concert in Barcelona? (Well, ok it’s Badalona, but it’s right next to!)

*sigh*

Well, well, well, finally something more optimistic ;D.

If you remember, three weeks ago I was writing about my studies. My best opinion was about Multimedia Devices. Now it’s even better ;).

Like I said before, we already had classes with tablets. People had such a great time playing with them that our tutor decided to repeat the classes. This time Wacom lent us some tablets.

On Monday, the tutor asked if I’d like to make a short presentation on how to use tablets, meaning: I was supposed to sit and draw something in more or less an hour. With a use of Cintiq 12WX, not my regular Intuos3. As you probably guessed, I agreed.

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with my tutor and a representant of Wacom. I was told that my presetation will be open to public. It was the first time when I started panicing. Just a bit ;). It was kind of too late to withdraw, anyway. Second good news: presentation shall be in Painter X, not Photoshop. Yeah. All I knew about Painter was the fact that it actually existed.

Thursday: me and Cintiq, together for one whole day. I must say that it’s really great and I enjoyed working with it, though I had 12 inches version and it was a bit small. Working with it, looks just as if you were using paper. A big advantage of the device is also a fact that after 12h of working my eyes weren’t tired. And I guess it’s just more comfortable and natural than regular tablet. Though I am really happy with my Intuos3 A3 ;) and I deffinitely do not regtret buying it. As Wacom’s representant said: “Cintiq is just Intuos3 with LCD display.” When it comes to pen pressure and pen tilt sensitivity, they are exactly the same.

If you’re thinking of buying a tablet, Wacom is the only option ;). All you have to think of is what you want to use it for. If drawing than what? Vectors? Digital paintings? Photomanipulations? Or maybe you just want to write on it and make your computer navigaion easier? Whatever your choice is, Wacom has a tablet which will satisfy your needs :).

Ok, end of this shameless advertising. No, Wacom didn’t pay me for it ;D. It’s just my honest opinion, since I had a chance to work on other tablets as well.

Back on presentation. Thursday + Cintiq + Painter = Panic! (not really at the disco). I had no idea on how to use Painter and I couldn’t find any good tutorials. I was messing around, trying new things and writing down the tools which might have been useful.

Friday: day of presentaition and my great failure. A word “panic” doesn’t really explain what I felt.

I sat in front of Cintiq, started working and were supposed to comment what I was doing. Unfourtunately, all I could have thought of was “OMG, why isn’t this piece of crap [meaning: Painter] working?! It did just yesterday! How shall I fix it?”. I was like this for almost an hour, or at least up ’til I moved to Photoshop and my picture actually got a little better.

After an hour I was done. Applause. I truly believe that most of the people clapped just because they were happy that it’s finally over. I didn’t even bother to stand up and take a bow. I just wished the ground would have swallowd me up.

Here’s what I did:

I’m not happy with the picture, I really am not. I know that it will be coloured again (because the lineart is the only thing I like here). Just imagine how bad it would be without blood splats and those dark/dirty stains all over his… clothes.

The first time I opened it at home, was late Sunday evening.

Now as I think of it, I know that I simply was too ambitious. With my knowledge of Painter X, I should have chosen a more simple theme than Pyramid Head. But I just couldn’t resist ;). I didn’t even manage to actually finish the whole picture. He is done, but where’s the background? Vision of another hour spent on this image simply made me sick ;).

When RT will be up (hopefully in few days) there will be a section with Illustrations. Pyramid Head will be my first or second piece in there ;).

Now, I said that this post will be optimistinc. Yes, I am happy that I took part in it. I might not be happy with the outcome, but at least I got to know mr. Wacom’s representant ;), which I wish to shamelessly use in near future (and I mean the acquaintance here ;)).

It really was a great fun after all, not to mention the fact that from my whole group the tutor have chosen me for the presentation. And I’m glad I did it. Seriously. Oh, and I got a leash ;D.

As a side note. Remember my project on CG&M? The game whatsoever? Well, in the end we did a short Flash animation and you can watch it here. It doesn’t really end, so when you see the “The end” screen you can turn it off. When we tried to make it stop it didn’t even start >_>. And if anyone wondered: the music is Franz Ferdinand’s Do You Want To. Enjoy! :D