games

953 – Saints Row IV (2013 video game)

joc-pc-deep-silver-saints-row-iv-178770Saints Row IV is an open world action-adventure video game with third-person shooter elements developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the fourth title in the Saints Row series. In the game, the playable character is the leader of the 3rd Street Saints, a street gang that has become the world’s most powerful and popular organization, and must fend off an alien invasion after becoming President of the United States and receiving superpowers.

The player is free to explore their environment while completing main and side missions at their leisure. The game incorporates elements from science fiction video games and films, and continues the series’ reputation for over-the-top parody. It was released in August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and was later ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Linux in 2015.

The game is set in a nearly identical simulation of Steelport, the fictional city setting from Saints Row: The Third, though individual story missions have new, custom-designed levels. 

Saints Row IV‘s story parodies science fiction video games, especially Mass Effect 2, as well as films like The Matrix and Zero Dark Thirty, and other “nerd culture”. Some story missions are propelled by individual characters’ existential crises, as each Saint character is stuck in a personal simulation of their own hell, and must be rescued by the player. Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances games and a Metal Gear-style mission with an unhelpful partner.

Saints Row IV received several limited and summative edition releases, and was briefly banned in Australia.

System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | AMD Athlon II x3. / OS: Windows Vista (x86 or x64) / VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 260 | AMD Radeon HD 5800 series. / FREE DISK SPACE: 10 GB. / DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 896 MB.

steam

documentary, Uncategorized

922 – A Beautiful Planet (2016 documentary)

.beautifulplanet posterA Beautiful Planet is a 2016 American documentary film that explores Earth by showing IMAX footage that was recorded over the course of fifteen months by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The filmmakers who created the movie and the astronauts who filmed it and starred in it intended to help viewers experience the awe and wonder that come from looking down on our planet from space. It is narrated by Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence; she has called A Beautiful Planet “a love letter to Earth.” 

The film also examines some of the daily experiences of the astronauts, who represent the respective space agencies for the United States, Russia, Europe, and Japan. This multinational crew lives and works on the Space Station, an orbiting symbol of cutting edge technology and peaceful international cooperation which is presented as “a truly awesome example of what we can achieve when we work together.” (wiki)

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imdb   skyglow

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games

0863 – Time Commando (1996 Computer game)

timespace coordinates: 2020 @ the Historical Tactical Center > Prehistoric > Roman EmpireFeudal JapanMedievalConquistadorWild West, Modern Wars (World War I and supposedly World War III), Future (Stanley’s era) > inside the main computer (Virus World)

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Time Commando (originally released for the PC on 31 July 1996) is an action-adventure computer and video game developed by Adeline Software and published by Electronic Arts in Europe, Activision in America, and Virgin Interactive (PlayStation version) and Acclaim Entertainment (Sega Saturn version) in Japan. Time Commando was re-released for modern computer systems on 6 January 2012 by GOG.com. (wiki)

PSX Longplay

animation, movies

0808 – Gravity (2013)

timespace coordinates: Earth orbit, mission STS-157 to service the Hubble Space Telescope in the not too distant past

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Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film directed, co-written, co-edited, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as American astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and their subsequent attempt to return to Earth.

Visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film’s visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes. (wiki)

Although Gravity is often referred to in the media as a science fiction film, Cuarón told BBC that he sees the film rather as “a drama of a woman in space”. According to him, the main theme of the film was “adversity” and he uses the debris as a metaphor for this. Despite being set in space, the film uses motifs from shipwreck and wilderness survival stories about psychological change and resilience in the aftermath of a catastrophe. (read more: Themes)

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scientific accuracy

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movies

0590 – Galaxy Quest (1999)

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Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American comic science fiction film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of science fiction films and series, particularly Star Trek and its fandom, the film stars Tim AllenSigourney WeaverAlan RickmanTony ShalhoubSam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell as the cast of a defunct cult television series called Galaxy Quest, in which the crew of a spaceship embarked on intergalactic adventures, who are suddenly visited by actual aliens who believe the series to be an accurate documentary, and become involved in a very real intergalactic conflict. Star Trek fans voted it the seventh best Star Trek film of all time in 2013.

Impact_and_legacy   //  sequel   //   imdb