Poetry Retrospective #3

England on the plane back to the UK next Thursday...let's fucking hope not.

Sun Downer*

It's bloody,

whole generation.

This generation

is vain,

sun drown.

When everything burns

against you,

society blankets

and begs...

hold onto the feeling

of the time.

This generation

is vain.

Orange shower

sun drown.

*first published 1995 in a limited edition collection, 'Polarise'.

Week 22 in subspace-urbia

Can a post-season get any worse?

Benitez had been manager at Liverpool FC for nearly as long as I had been married but after a very poor EPL campaign('09-'10) the pressure was on for something to give. Shamefully, the cancers(as one blogger nicely puts it) are still there as owners of the club. I can only hope that Mr Dalglish picks very wisely in the coming weeks/months!

I've reached a point in the main storyline of Red Dead Redemption where I feel a break from the game is needed - I do this often with games that have an open-world setting and while some have not been revisited yet, I did crave a return to an unfinished ACII. I'm making some nice progress there and only have the last upgrade to the off-hand hidden blade to go - the pistol. Leonardo hasn't requested any MMO style hunt & gather type quests, so I take it he's come to the conclusion that the proposed Sforza horse project is just never going to happen - shame that. I'd have loved to have seen a giant bronze horse placed within the grounds of Ezio's villa.

My first ever game for my MacBook Pro has now been downloaded from Steam. Impressed by the trailers and by some of my peer's experiences of the game, I took a stab in the dusk and installed Torchlight. Although I have yet to give it a run for its money, it has spurred me to go back and look at Raptr - not entirely sure why it did but am glad all the same. I had been less than impressed by it when I first gave Raptr a look over but I didn't remove myself from the beta and it has been collecting my gaming data ever since 2008. Looking at Raptr now, there's a very clear and easy to use interface with some nice touches and I'm hopeful for it's future. Include to that that a iPod app. is due to released very shortly, and I may just stick with Raptr.

On that final note, I am curious to know what my gaming readership think is the currently the best or their favourite system of recording their gaming achievements etc. I have added a poll to the sidebar for you to cast your votes.

18 months in a sealed container

Bliss?

...4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42...

Rockstar and the Sforza horse

I have never been on horseback - riding around in games like Red Dead Redemption are no way a substitute, but I can appreciate the love that these animals give to people and how different the world can look from the saddle.

So it comes as no surprise when artists, like Leonardo da Vinci, spend a great proportion of their lives trying to replicate a larger-than-life impression of such an elegant beast. The ill-fated Sforza horse project, that Leonardo undertook to honour Ludovico's father, took many years of his life to realise and due to the restrictions in technology and the lack of resources, it was never completed in his lifetime but that never stopped him from dreaming his dream.

Thinking in more modern terms, where would fantasy movie-making or gaming be without the love of the horse? Riding horseback is an essential ingredient to the whole fantasy world experience without it we'd be stuck with fast-travel and waypoints - goodbye exploration!

It's also good to see Rockstar making the horse a seriously proposition with the open-world of Red Dead Redemption, as they developed the game. To a different degree than compared to Leonardo da Vinci, Rockstar have obsessed over the idea of the horse in an artistic form and it rightly shows. There maybe a few things that Rockstar could have added into the mix(i.e naming your horse, branding, stabling etc) but we don't know to what detriment to other areas of gameplay these would have caused. Let's not forget that Assassin's Creed also gave us a better feeling for horseback riding than any of the MMOs on the market at that time and I would still argue that it still does today.

I wonder what Leonardo would have made of these digital representations of his beloved beast? More importantly, will he be making me run errands to collect bronze for his Sforza horse project in Assassin's Creed II?!

Ezio and Leonardo

He(Leonardo da Vinci) maintained his repugnance for weapons used treacherously or for assassinations, such as poisoned arrows, but designed many ingenious and deadly devices himself, offering them to the warlords who were his patrons.(Vezzosi, 1997, p.63-66)

Currently, I am studying through the OU short course, A178 Perspectives on Leonardo da Vinci. It's a very well designed course that gives the student a fuller and more rounded appreciation of the works of Leonardo and the time that he lived in.

When I initially began playing Assassin's Creed II, I was dubious over the use of Leonardo da Vinci as an outlet for your character(Ezio) to procure weapons and assassination devices. I began to think that Ubisoft had created a darker side to Leonardo to suit the game's background and storyline. But as I have progressed through the said OU course, I can see that Ubisoft have been clever and utilised a side of da Vinci's character that many may not have realised he possessed.

I have yet to complete the main storyline in ACII but have acquired a few items for Leonardo, who has in turn helped Ezio with weaponry etc. Not sure if the following guide is correct, maybe you can confirm this if you've finished the game, but I'll be interested to see how other items are incorporated into the game world of Assassin's Creed II(especially the infamous flying machine):

Hidden Blade	Enables Assassination Technique	Sequence 02, Memory 03
Hidden Blade Armor Plate	Deflect weapons with the Weapon Hand	Sequence 03, Memory 02
Double Blade	Hidden Blades in both hands – EnablesDouble Assassination Technique	Sequence 04, Memory 01
Poison Blade	Second blade for the Empty Hand – Enables Assassination by Poison	Sequence 05, Memory 07
Pistol	Firearm added to the Empty Hand	Sequence 09, Memory 01

Bibliography
A.Vezzosi (1997) Leonardo da Vinci - Renaissance Man, London, Thames & Hudson.