Rasmussens extended recommedations

I'm a heavy abuser on entertainment, and in this post I'm gonna recommend a few different upcoming and running things in different medias.

TV

I don't really watch much television as most of it is shite, but I love a well produced and written series. I'm watching two very different shows right now, both brilliant in their own way.

The First is Lost season three which started running a few weeks back on American television. The first two series where highly succesfull comercially - and in my opinion artistically. It's about the survivors of a plane crash, who are stranded on a tropical island. The island is already inhabited by a group they call the others, and a lot of mystical stuff happens on the island which is slowly unveiled in the show. It's recommended to start from the beginning if your interested.

The second series is Weeds. Which Parkov has also raved about (it's through him I learned of it). It's an extremely funny show, about a suburbian mom who deals marihuana. As Parkov said, it's very liberal, always taking the piss on the Bush government, which any European would (or should) like. It doesn't get to political though, and the dialogue, story and actors are excellent. (fans of the series Angels in America will recognize actor Justin Kirk in a new brilliant role). I saw the first season in one go, now that's a serious recommendation.

Film

There's just one film I feel i should mention, and that's A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater (Before Sunset), based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. Philip K. Dick was a brilliant science fiction writer, who has supplied the story to such movies as Blade Runner, Minority Repport, Screamers and Total Recall. This movie has a very unique visual style, in that all the pictures have been rotoscoped, that is made so they look graphical.

Keanue Reeves and Winona Ryder in the rotoscoped style





Besides those two it stars Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, and has been rated 7.4 so far on IMDB. I personally can't wait to see this film.

Games

There is a lot of exciting releases on the computer game front.

Neverwinter Nights 2 from Black Isle (creators of the greatest RPG's in computer game history)have just been released, and has so far scored 88 % on gamerankings. Built on the very good pen-and-paper RPG Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, this title is a must for all RPG fans.

Medieval: Total War 2 is due out this friday in Denmark. The game is of course part of Creative Assembly's total war series (Shogun, Medieval 1 and Rome), and looks amazing. You command huge medieval armies on european battlegrounds, as well as running your empire in a strategical mode. A friend of mine got a prerelease version, and has told me that the AI should be very formidable (it always was the soft spot in the total war series).

Guitar Hero 2 has been released in USA today, and will come out in Denmark late november. More of the same guitar gameplay that I loved in the first, but with a more polished gameplay and of course 40 new songs, including Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Jane's Addiction, Primus and many more. This time you can play cooperatively, with one playing bass or rhytm, and the other playing lead which is gonna be so cool. It also has a new practice mode, where you select the hard part of a song and then train it in a slower tempo. I'm getting it with a new guitar controller, so that I'll have two for the coop mode, can't wait! So far it has recieved a 99& rating (!!) on gamerankings.

Crysis (finally not a sequel, well actually it is kinda). The developers of FarCry - Crytek - the excellent FPS, are due with a new FPS in the beginning of 2007. The looks of this game is just amazing, my teacher showed me a close up of a face today, and I actually mistook it for a photo! The hardware requirements will probably be equally amazing, but if you got the gear, this is a title to remember.

Yes this is graphics (the lack of a body is a giveaway)

















That about sums up my recommendations for this time. Here at the end I would like to recommend an article on Sunn o))) and Boris from NY Times, read it here. And let's finish with some entertainment, in keeping with the theme of this article. A short video from youtube, showing how Mario & Luigi fare in GTA's Vice City. Enjoy.