Who says video games are all about violence and gore? Or about lame things such as cooking or horse riding? Cooking Mama, I'm looking at you. Anyway, video games have potential to be much more than mindless pass times. Enter Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. That's right, you play as an attorney and defend clients in the court of law. Sure, it may sound like the lamest game concept ever, but this game is surprisingly fun.
This game is composed of two stages: the investigation stage where you wonder the crime scene looking for clues and talking to witnesses, and the court stage where you cross-examine witnesses and look for contradictions in their testimonies. By exposing their lies, we can bring the truth of the crime apparent to the judge so he can make the correct verdict.
This game encourages careful observation and logical reasoning skills, not an itchy trigger finger. It's a great game to play if you're tired of all those first person shooter games out there.
There are many times when we wish we could go back and change what we said/did. Unfortunately, time doesn't seem to know how to move in reverse. But what if you were given the chance to make the choice again? What would you do? This has been the tagline for many movies, the latest (or at least one that came out a couple of years ago) is 17 Again.
The difference here, however, is that he literally becomes 17 again. He doesn't go back in time and chooses a different path, go through some trouble, then learns that his life was wonderful the way it was and suddenly wakes up, learning it was all a dream and he goes on with a new appreciation with life. Nope. In 17 Again, Mike just loses 20 or so years and everything else remains unchanged. This becomes pretty humorous at times when he talks to his children in father-tones, forgetting he is now the same age.
This movie still explores the question, "what if I could do it over?" But in a slightly different way than, say, A Wonderful Life. This is a story of a dad being given the chance to connect with his kids at a different level and helping them (his "spirit quest," an idea given to him by his dorky best friend) as they struggle through high school. It's also a story about love and never giving up on the one you love.
Oh viral videos. How we love them. Or in the case of Rebecca Black's Friday, it's the video everyone seems to love to hate. As of this post, there are 34.5 million views and 90% of the ratings are dislikes. As of March 18th when ABC did a report on this song, it held the 31st spot on iTunes. So despite the overwhelmingly negative response to the song, it's getting out there fast.
I must admit I am one of the naysayers. After hearing the lyrics of "we so excited" and "tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards," I just couldn't take any more. Also, eighth graders should not be driving OR going to parties. Much to young for that.
Just in case you haven't had the pleasure/displeasure of viewing this video, here it is!
And the ABC report on the popular opinion that this is the worst song ever:
That only leaves us with the question: How DO we decide which seat to take?
In an attempt to be "culturally relevant," I finally succumbed to watching Glee. Not too much though, as I've only watched one episode. For those who watch Glee, it was the one about the Beiber experience. For those who don't, some guys in the Glee club decide to imitate Justin Beiber (ironically much younger than they are) in order to score it big with their girl friends.
It was definitely an interesting experience. The music was good, but everything in between wasn't particularly engaging for me, especially since it proposed such a strong secular world view. I'll have to watch more episodes before decided whether I actually "like" the show or not, but either way, it does say a lot about what our society values and how they think.
Interestingly enough, this episode of Glee was the first time I've ever heard Beiber presented in a positive light.
This is a bit of a tribute to an entire album, rather than just a single song. I randomly purchased (read: convinced my mother to purchase) an album which piqued my interest.
This is the album that got me interested in music. It taught me that there is cooler Christian music out there other than the boring hymns at church or goofy songs at camp. There was actually stuff that I liked and wouldn't pollute my impressionable young mind like that secular stuff (which I still don't really listen to very much).
One song on this album particularly stuck out to me:
Don't ask me what the video is about, because I have absolutely no idea. It was the only YouTube video with this song. This quickly became my favorite song and led me to become a rabid (ok, semi-rabid) FFH fan. The song was upbeat, about God's love, and it had to do with raining. Since I lived in Forks at the time (one of the rainiest places ever), it must have resonated with my connection to the rain.
This song is about the deserts and trials we go through and how we pray for God's healing rain, but seem to get no answer. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to pray for God's showers of love and willingness to "fall in over our heads" for God. It's a beautiful song about faith in the midst of adversity.
Why channel surf on TV when you can just Netflix? After all, it can introduce you to all sorts of entertainment, such as the show Psych. This has quickly grown to be one of my favorite shows with the unique and quirky personalities on the cast, especially the smooth-talking "psychic," Shawn. It's entertaining to watch as he talks and bluffs his way out of all sorts of situations his "powers," i.e. photographic memory, get him into.
Not only that, but they have great stylists. I mean, look at his hair! And see how their shirts match the logo?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Psych
Although this show is enjoyable to watch, it does present a very loose and free morality when it comes to lying. Instead of just telling the authorities he has a photographic memory when he's about to be arrested, Shawn decides to pretend to be a psychic. The whole premise of the show is Shawn lying his way through social interactions to get to the bottom of the crime. In one episode he even holds a fake seance to milk his clients for information while sounding very psychic-y about it.
The audience never looks at Shawn and think about how horrible he is for lying all the time. We feel that it's justified because those police just wouldn't understand his abilities and if Shawn isn't going to solve their crimes, who is? This show really expresses a utilitarian ("the end justifies the means") sort of morality. This is a very pragmatic approach to morality that many people ascribe to without really thinking about it. As long as it turns out alright in the end, we really see no problem with all the lying and cheating that it took to get there. Unfortunately for those who ascribe to that view, it flies in the face of God's absolute moral laws. He said, "you shall not lie," not, "you shall not lie unless it gives you free reign to solve crimes."
This is why it's important to study and develop a system of morality in light of God's commands rather than allow others to develop it for you through televesion.
With that, I'll leave you with the opening credits for the show. It's a really fun song, even if it is about lying to someone to his face.
Despicable Me is one of the most popular to come out recently. Partly because of the adorable minions. I mean look at him. He has a cow print coffee mug.
If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommended it.
The movie is about a villain who adopts three girls in order to retrieve a high-tech device from the clutches of another villain (it's an ingenious plan). It isn't exactly easy to get rid of them, and he ends up loving them and adopting them in his heart and not just on paper. But in the process the villain side of him and the paternal part are in constant conflict. It's a touching story of love and unicorns.
This movie shows the inner conflict we all have between being evil and being loving. In the idealistic scenario, aka in movie land, good triumphed in the end and the villain sacrificed his life's ambition to save the girls he had grown to love.
A recommendation from Netflix and a weird smiley face led me to watch Evolution the other night. The title suggested it would be horribly offensive to someone with a Christian worldview, while the disarming smiley face suggested it was simply a comedy. It WAS simply a comedy.
The basic premise of this movie is: what if a meteor from outer space crashed on earth carrying microorganisms that evolved about a million times faster than we do? Obviously they take evolution for granted at this point, but they had fun playing with the idea. Since evolution is all about adapting and survival of the fittest, these aliens quickly become a problem for all as they begin to assert their dominance over us silly humans. Oh, and they're nitrogen-based (whereas we're carbon-based) so that has some important implications as well.
This movie definitely carries evolutionist ideology with it, but it doesn't strongly push it down the audience's collective throat. It's more used as a foundation to work from, not a point to prove. Not exactly what I was expected, but the movie, though cheesy at times, was fairly entertaining. Of course, evolution is false, but denying it isn't nearly as fun when making a movie about aliens taking over the planet.
And yes, that smiley face only appears on the box as a promotion device to catch your attention. It's no Ghostbuster insignia used throughout the movie to exemplify a cause.
The World Ends With You came out a few years ago, though I've only played it recently (Black Friday deals go!). It didn't have huge commercial success, but it developed a smaller, devoted following. It's a really fun game and incredibly difficult to get the hang of, but it's also packed with modern values, especially in the opening scene:
This beginning monologue portrays a very relativistic attitude, that we each have our own values and we can't force them on anyone else. Neku is a very antisocial person and always has his headphones on to block out other people. Although we don't block others out to the level Neku does, with our technology we try to control our social environment. No longer must we talk to the people sitting next to us on the plane, but we can plug in our headphones, our kindles, and escape into personal bubbles despite the people all around us. With the internet we can connect to people who share similar values all across the country or world.Neku radically demonstrates how we isolate ourselves from other people and their values. He believes that other people just drag him down and he's better off without wrestling with the values of others. Although Neku may not be exactly likeable to everyone, he is very relatable.
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The game doesn't stick with the antisocial image for too long: When Neku is forced into a "game" with life-or-death consequences, he's forced to interact with others. Through this more ideas are introduced and the characters grow as they rub against each other. Neku learns about friendship as he works with his partner, Shiki. She has her own issues: she struggles with self-image and jealousy.
The title of this game, The World Ends With You, relates to everyone's personal "world" or experience. When your world ends with you, it's not a very big world at all. Ultimately, Neku comes to learn, the only way to "enjoy every moment with everything you got" (the motto he adopts from his favorite designer, CAT) is to expand your world a little bit at a time as your world interacts with the worlds of others.
As a sidebar, this game turns fashion into an interesting game concept. Each area of the city in which the game takes place has a "brands chart." If you equip the characters with the popular brands of clothing, they will receive stat bonuses. If they wear the least popular brand they'll receive negatives. As such, the player needs to go on shopping sprees in order to stay fashionable to get those stat bumps.
One last sidebar: The music in this game is very pop/hip hop. The art style is graffiti-esque and looks like it targets the same audience as the music.
