Edward's April 2017 Mix

Someone once told me the Chinese have a most interesting statement they oft cite to an enemy: “May you live in interesting times.” It looks like those interesting times are upon us in the guise of North Korea’s deranged dictator, Kim Jong-Un, with all his porcine gracelessness. The interesting part however, is how he’s become China’s embarrassment. The threat of a nuclear emblazoned WWIII looms. I’m working many 12-14 hour days as of late. And yet, it’s a been a great month for my Monthly Mix.  Best of all? I’m now one of the self chosen few who walk the earth. I defeated Dark Souls!

1.      Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC: I finally did it. It took me 168 hours and I had leveled up to level 108? Yet I accomplished an almost insurmountable challenge in beating this game. It was an amazing feat, watching my character start out as a level 1/1 wimp and grow into a man fashioned by his environment into a bold, august, stoic killing machine. Fighting the brothers, Smough & Ornstein and defeating them, I swear earned me real life fortitude. And the environment of Dark Souls, sheesh, it’s like winter afternoons when it’s freezing outside, yet you see the sun setting through the naked tree branches. And you know you have school or work the next day, and that feeling of depression sets in. The whole world of this game was like that for me. And now it’s behind me, and oddly I feel a bittersweet melancholy that the experience is over. No small wonder I found my eyes welling over as I read through the end credits.

2.      A Song of Fire & Ice: Clash of Kings (Book 2) by George R.R. Martin: I have a friend who is the biggest fan of this beloved genre, and he refuses to delve into this series because of the length of the books (tomes?) I can relate, the depth of the books are intimidating, but I was seduced into it. I have no regrets. Martin, pulls no punches, he kills his mains off with the best of them, and often just when you find yourself getting attached. Martin’s writing is proof that magic does indeed exist. The characters in this book are so plentiful I find myself constantly thumbing through the appendix at the family tree section to determine who is who, and jarring my memory of who they were and how they came into play from the first book. If you’re a fan of The Lord of the Rings or T.H. White’s celebrated The Once and Future King, you owe it to yourself.

3.      Rise of Nations: The Extended Edition on PC: Back in 2003 I had an interest in Age of Empires, but I didn’t like the restraint of only playing in one age. I had been playing a lot of Empire Earth but was hungry for something more. I stumbled upon Big Huge Games’ Rise of  Nations and never looked back. I used to play with my longtime RL friend, Vic Berwick, and lo and behold those days are upon us again. Steam has released an updated version of this wonderful old game. Vic and I played our first game in over a decade, and not surprising, our game was a draw. This, my friends, a testament as to how well and thorough our battles were against each other. If you like Real Time Strategy with a slice of Risk style board gaming thrown in for good measure, you might want to check this game out, and then hit me up on Steam. I’ll take the world out from under you.

4.      Kings of Leon Walls on CD: I was cruising down a US Indiana highway in a company car at the mercy of the radio stations, and a certain song came on that I couldn’t shake from my brain. All I could do was hang onto the chorus of the lyrics and commit it to memory. To my benefit I was able to conjure that chorus and through the lyrics discovered the song was called “Find Me” and the band was Kings of Leon. And so began a hardcore listen on Spotify and YouTube. The following week I went to three different stores to find the album “Walls” sold out everywhere. I snagged a copy from eBay, and boy am I glad I did. This is a superb album from this quad of southern boys raised in a strict Pentecostal environment. Caleb Followill, who looks like a lovechild of Kevin Costner and Christian Slater, has an amazing singing voice. And the band’s sound is remeniscient of the mid 90’s stuff I used to love in Texas and the great indie stuff that came out during the RIAA/big record moguls/Napster explosion (and incineration. Check out the songs, “Find me,” and “Walls.” You’ll like them. Promise.  

5.      James Seven on CD: It’s been a while, and I’d forgotten how good  England’s James sounded. And once again, listening to it a few times over reminded me of how much I really dug this album. The Album is a smorgasbord of delectable slices of jazz, alternative 90’s and soulful vocals. I suppose James is a band I’ve always liked, but when asked who my favorite bands were, they just never came to mind. Yet, I could listen to them all day long. And who can forget the X-Files season 3 episode in which Jack Black opens an episode by playing James’ “Ring the Bells” on a jukebox before being killed? That song is on this particular album, but it lacks the musical grace of the live version depicted in the X-Files episode. I had to search and high and low to find the live version. I found it on a Greenpeace concert album.

6.      Hell on Wheels: Season 5 on Netflix: Well, it’s getting down to the nitty gritty in AMC’s original hard western set amongst the creation of the Union Pacific Railroad pre-1870. I watch these episodes while spinning on the exercise bike, and let me tell you, I’ve never enjoyed exercising more. Cullen Bohanan gets himself in more messes while trying to do the right thing more than any other television character I’ve come to know. Now he’s becoming involved with a Chinese girl who is posing as a boy (to escape the attention of a Chinese warlord demanding her hand in marriage.) And his association with President Ulysses Grant has forced him into a stance of propriety far flung from his beginnings of the show as a Civil War criminal out for revenge against the Northern Army vigilantes who butchered his family. I’ll hate to see this season, the finale one, end.

7.      Fahrenheit 451 on Blu-Ray: An out and out ripoff of an Alfred Hitchcock film. By golly, even the film’s score is done by Bernard Herman. Don’t get me wrong, though. This movie is an homage to Hitchcock in the best of ways. I loved the book, years ago, and honestly, I didn’t know this movie existed. It’s done quite well, set in a future where having books is a crime against the state. If ownership is found out firemen are sent to your house to take care of it. But instead of fighting fires, they burn houses that have books in them. It’s the colorful cast of characters and the aforementioned score by Herman that really drove the film for me. I watched an interview afterwards by Ray Bradbury who adamantly approved the film and admitted after watching the final scenes still finds it tearful. (As did I.) He said, “If you have a good film with a bad ending it becomes a bad film, but if you have a mediocre film with a beautiful ending it becomes a beautiful film.” Truer words were never spoken, Mr. Bradbury. This particular edition is beautifully rendered on Blu-Ray. The stark colors, especially the blacks and reds stand out magnificently.

8.      Player Uknown’s  Battlegrounds on Steam: And the award for the stupidest title for a game this year (thus far)  . . . (drum roll please . . ) goes to THIS game! The game is still Early Access and it’s truly an alpha, the optimization is crap, it lags from time to time, there are frequent crashes. The graphics look like mud hand scooped from a sewer after a hard rain, and at $30 it’s not the cheapest EA game out there, but you know what? The play’s the thing. It’s a simple concept. You parachute into island villages along with a hundred other guys with nothing but the clothes on your back. You pick up guns/loot from houses and shacks and then it becomes a free for all death match. Last man standing wins the game. I watched my buddy, Dillon Gard, stream it on his Steam broadcast and I was hooked. And now I’ve turned two other friends onto it . .and now the four of us play together! It’s like selling Amway, only tons more fun! Pick the game up, and we’ll play. But it’s a sleep-killer. You’ve been warned.

Edward's March 2017 Mix

High spring is in the air! Time for changes. I’ve been seriously taking a hard look at Facebook. I’m really tired of my liberal “friends”  who hold me hostage depending on my political leanings. I’m tired of FB being a portal for false news. I have other online social venues; perhaps it’s time to use them. I started running (again?) I ran competitively for years and when I stopped it always haunted me. Perhaps the patter of my shoes on the pavement will be the true test as to whether this holds out, but we shall see. Oddly, this month seems to be a carryover of everything I did last month, and it’s probably my shortest mix on record.

1.      Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC: This, truly, is the most grueling and difficult action RPG I have played, and I’m still trudging my way through it. I’ve tried to convince friends to play it, but no takers. It’s truly a character builder. I’m still having fun with it despite its difficulty. I beat The Ceaseless Discharge in my first attempt. I beat  the Chaos Witch Quelaag (basically a giant spider) in three attempts. I defeated Crossbreed Priscilla in five attempts, and I slayed Great Gray Wolf Sif in 13 attempts. Iron Golem took two attempts. I’m now battling Ornstein and Smough which have thus far proven to be the two toughest bosses in the game. And when you kill one of them, the other recharges to full health and additionally takes on the traits of his fallen brethren. I have fought this nefarious duo 24 times. I shall press on; I’ve not given up yet. My prediction is, when I beat this game it will probably be one of my proudest moments in the history of my 28 year PC gaming tenure.

2.      Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition: I’m still engrossed in this collector edition magazine I picked up from my local Walmart store several months back. I’ve been reading more into it, and this is what I’ve learned about the band Pink Floyd. Their later years stuff e.g. Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall) was all written about Syd Barrett, their founding father lead singer. But the thing that baffles me is, when he was with the band they really didn’t sound good at all. They sucked! And yet each of their albums is a testament to this man of theirs who went off on a drug tangent and lost touch with them. What I find most interesting is the band’s take on The Wall. People think it’s the ultimate drug album, (in Australia, it was voted the best album to make love to) but none of the members thought this way about it at all. They just thought it was good music. And another great impression of the band, whilst reading their interviews, they are all eloquent in speech, no vulgarities, and all of them exude a grand humility.

3.      Dirt 3: The Complete Edition on PC: I’m on the last season, finally. It’s been a wild ride, not my favorite, but nothing too harshly to complain about. Just glad to get this one beat and under my belt. It has been great to drive a Mustang though in some of the races, a rendition patterned after my own sexy little beast.

 4.      Breaking Benjamin: Phobia on CD: The epitome of mid ought rock music. I spent 6 months unemployed in 2006 and this was about the best 6 months of my life. This album, and the big hit song from it, “Diary of Jane” will always stick with me. The album, truthfully, isn’t much different than most other teen angst/angered music produced in the same time frame. But this album isn’t a bad listen.

5.      The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy on Kindle: I’ve always been a fan ever since The Hunt for Red October. I loved Rainbow Six (which I read out of chronological order) and thus far all of Clancy’s books have been interesting. This one is moving rather slowly. I’m 25% into it and not sure where it’s all going. I do love Clancy’s use of modern technology and his seemingly exposure of modern government utilization of technology, which is in fact, open unclassified information.

Edward's February 2017 Mix

 

I state each year I’m going to move away from Indiana because I hate the winters so much, but this winter sets a personal record for the mildest winter I’ve ever experienced here. And I could easily change my paradigm now and say I’m here to stay because maybe, just maybe,  the winters aren’t so bad after all. But that’s the thing, see? You never know until you’re on the other side of it. You have to experience the winter and come through the other side to determine whether or not it was in fact a bad winter. Even when it is bad, it’s just that much more time I can stay inside and do my hot chocolate and coffee and immerse myself in my media cultural quicksand. Despite this winter’s warmth this time around I still stayed inside and indulged in a great many things. Oh yes, busy month indeed!

1.      Dirt 3: The Complete Edition on PC: As stated before, my least favorite of the Dirt series. (I’m really looking forward to Dirt Rally which I’m told Codemasters really redeemed themselves.) I’m on my last season and I’ll be glad to get this one behind me.

2.      Once Upon a Time in the West on DVD: I’m the world’s biggest fan when it comes to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. His “man with no name” trilogy is by far my favorite, although this one is quite spectacular on its own. I had seen it way back in 2005 or 2006, but for whatever reason wasn’t that impressed. This time around, however, I fell in love with it after watching it that I watched it again with the commentary by numerous directors (including John Carpenter) and saw the movie in a whole new light. Leone was famous for inferring inspiration from the great sprawling westerns from the 1950’s and adding his own unique spin on them. His gunfights were up close and violent, often including full frame close ups of the participant’s eyes moments before the guns were drawn. There is one such scene of Charles Bronson’s eyes that, as John Carpenter stated, was probably the most up close of a gunfighter’s eyes in any movie. This classic tale of man VS man in which there is no solid line of good and evil, still holds up today as one of the better westerns ever made. And casting Henry Fonda as Frank, with his cold blue eyes and black clothes works as one of the best movie villains in the history of film. And of course, the icing on the whole cake is Ennio Morricone’s haunting score. I couldn’t help but get emotional each time I heard it in the movie.

3.      Running Blind (Jack Reacher #4) by Lee Child. Just completed this one. This one was not Child’s best. We find Reacher reluctantly assisting the FBI who is tracking down a serial killer. We find each victim in a bathtub filled with olive drab paint. I’m not going to say the ending was a deus ex machina, but it did seem to be a stretch nonetheless. I don’t think we’ll be seeing this one as a movie.

4.      Interpol “El Pintor” on CD: Interpol caught my attention way back in the early oughts with their song, “Not Even Jail.” It had one of the best haunting guitar solo endings in a song I’d listened to. I picked up the album and really liked it. I found “El Pintor” at my local Half Price Books, and despite every song is similar, the album is a good one. Emerging from the post punk era of the early 2000s their sound is reminiscent of notables such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division. Give “My Blue Supreme” a listen if I’ve piqued your interest.

5.      Dark Souls  on PC: This, truly, is the most grueling and difficult action RPG I have played. Getting its source from traditional Japanese fighting RPGs, this game is considered to be the paragon of difficult PC games. PC Gamer called it “our favorite PC game.” And in 2016 the game was reverently included in their list of “the top five RPGs ever created.” There is no storyline. The world’s history is mostly inferred by what is left behind in the dialogue of NPCs. The player creates a character and grows up with this character from level 1 to infinity? The setting is bleak, dismal, gray, lonesome, sad, depressing, forlorn, and just about any other gloomy adjective you can come up with. The game’s bosses are notoriously famous for how hard they are to kill. I’ve talked to numerous people who gave up after ragequitting. I have 90 hours into the game and I’m about ½ through the game. This past week I dispatched the Great Grey Wolf, Sif. Sif is a giant wolf who fights with a giant sword in his mouth. His strikes are delivered by swaying his head back and forth. One strike easily takes ¾ of one’s life away. It took me 13 times to dispatch him. And that is where the joy of Dark Souls comes through. After so many defeats come victory: taking out a boss . . .finally. There is nothing so satisfying in nearly any game I’ve ever played before, where my buddy, Tommy Stevens says, “Even the camera in the game is your enemy,” an allusion to how viewpoints can change, tricking you into falling from ledges or into deep water from the shallows ensuring instant death. Interestingly, the spidery boss, Quelagg only took me three attempts to kill. I had two people watching my Steam broadcast when I did this. I felt pretty elated to say the least. Bragging rights ensued. I’m currently playing a knight decked out in the Stone Armor set, which is perhaps the strongest (and heaviest) armor in the game. True, I’m on cloud 9 right now, riding stately upon my high horse. But I know that’s going to change. Like the silly Facebook meme says, “You never beat Dark Souls, you just get better at it.”

6.      A Song of Fire and Ice: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. This is the second book of the series. Each book is a tome that in size rivals the complete works of Shakespeare. Martin’s writing is super compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed Tolkien’s venerable Lord of the Rings, but I have to be honest. This is more enjoyable to read. And what’s with everybody calling it A Game of Thrones? I’m thinking that’s HBO’s faux pas that started this. (A Game of Thrones is simply the title of the first book in the series.) Characters you love to hate, and love to hate against a backdrop of an impending winter that lasts 400 years in the age of dragons. This is good stuff. It’s like The Edge of Night soap opera for fans of RPG games, or fantasy readers, or anybody who appreciates well written stories. I’ve heard the HBO television series is good. I won’t watch it though, not while I’m reading the series, and by the time I finish it I’ll probably find the books leave the show far behind in quality.

7.      Wolfenstein: The New Order on PC: I’m still engrossed in this remarkable homage to old school shooters from the early nineties. Nazism meets Sci-Fi in an alternate 1960’s universe in which Germany stormed the world and won WWII. Playing as special forces (back before they had “special forces,”) B.J. Blascowitcz, I’m heading a one man full force resistance against the whole Nazi regime. Hey, just like Jakob Dylan from The Wallflowers said, “We can be heroes.” The gunplay in the game is a blast, and the stage sets are good enough that they seem to be real places I often day dream about while I’m at work. The only bad thing is when I beat it, I will have had the experience and there is no first time experiencing it ever again.

8.      The Iron Giant on Blu Ray: I found this sleeper of a movie on Amazon on Blu Ray for a great price and couldn’t resist. It’s sad this movie was so invisibly critically acclaimed. I watched an interview in which after its release in 1999, Warner Bros. decided to put all of their marking into The Wild, Wild West and left this poor movie out in the cold. This had a harrowing effect on the film’s release. When the movie was released on DVD and Blu Ray it became a cult classic and is now regarded as one of the best animated films ever made. The animation itself, the voiced characters, the setting of  the cold war 1950’s, but above all, the story. If you’ve not seen it, watch it.

9.      Larry Crowne on Blu Ray: I’m not a fan of romantic comedies, well, let me rephrase that, not a huge fan. This particular one though, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts took me by surprise. Hanks is a company man summarily fired from his job and tuns to a local community college to become educated, “so this will never happen to me again,” he tells the school’s dean. He signs up for a speech class and things develop with his teacher, Julia Roberts. I’ve watched this movie three times since I acquired it and it warms my heart every time I watch it. My parents liked it, and in this viewing I shared it with my sister and her husband. I glanced over to see my brother in law smiling the whole time.

10.  Black Rain on Blu Ray: Released way back in 1989, and directed by my almost holier than thou, Ridley Scott, this is an action crime drama set in Japan. When it was filmed I had moved away from Japan a mere five years earlier, so the movie brought back many memories of my time there. Filmed mostly at night against neon backdrops the film has all of the trappings of Syd Mead’s fantastic art design from Scott’s magnum opus, BladeRunner. Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia shine as police partners involved with a member of the Yakuza, with Douglas trying to redeem himself after some crooked shenanigans involving confiscated money from a drug bust and an ongoing internal investigation. The transfer to Blu Ray isn’t quite as color bold beautiful as John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, but if you like action movies with character, you could do much worse than this Ridley Scott vehicle.

Edward's January 2017 Mix

December was quite the busy month for me. Crunch time at work, my daughter coming up for a much needed (and long overdue visit), and the holidays. I got little time for gaming and actually closed the year out completing a paltry 8 games! That’s pathetic. Last year I finished 20. I need to get on the ball. The throes of winter have been frightful, and this being the start of a new year it’s the perfect time to step up my game. (So far I’ve finished two games this year, not a bad start.) I’m still trudging through XCom: Enemy Uknown and Dark Souls, but I have started a few new games. We’ll see where that takes me.

1.      The Appleseed Cast Mare Vitalis on CD: I purchased The Appleseed Cast’s 7^th album, Sagarmatha after hearing one song on Pandora or GooglePlay (don’t remember which now) but the whole album was love at first listen. It was the best post rock band I’d ever heard. The 3 man ensemble has some of the prettiest chorus/reverb guitar out there. So, I took a gamble and picked up this, their second album released in 2000. To my dismay, it sounds totally off kilter with Sagarmatha. The band, originally from Lawrenceville, Kansas started as an “emo” band. And I do love the way they blossomed out from that into a post rock band. But I think this release leans much more to their emo roots. Definitely not my thing. It pains me to do this, but this album is eBay bound.

2.      Lost: Season 3 on Blu-Ray: I just wrapped this up about a week ago. In traditional Lost fashion, the series ended on a cliffhanger. And boy, was it! Are our much loved island denizens being rescued? It would seem as much, but of course with 3 more seasons to visit, I’m sure a rescue is out of the question at this point. This season revealed so much about ‘The Others,” and how there really isn’t black and white good and bad on the island. I’ve seen John Locke who I thought was the strongest character on the island suddenly quite vulnerable and indecisive. And I’ve seen my first brush with the enigmatic facet of the show where we see Jack and Kate in an alternate existence outside of the island. And then, Charlie’s demise. Heart rending.

 

3.      Dirt 3: The Complete Edition on PC: I thoroughly enjoyed racing through Dirt 2 with its splashy graphics and exciting “sim-arcade” physics. Shoot, even the music was good (and prompted me to buy two CDs by bands who performed on the game’s soundtrack. But this game is somewhat lackluster. It’s still fun with an Xbox controller, but I absolutely abhor the “Gymkharta” antics in which you perform car acrobatics in sport arenas with drifts, donuts, sign bashing, and aerial jumps in near impossible time constraints. To me this is just total killjoy, and its saving grace is being allowed to dumb down the difficulty level on the fly. Fortunately, this game is only four short seasons and then it will be over with.

4.      XCom: Enemy Unknown on PC: I’m still struggling in this acclaimed TBS game. I’m not sure whether I’m progressing or not, truth be told. I’m attacking my first alien base and so far each bout is a less than epic failure. Most of the major countries in the world are still under Project: XCom’s control, so I must be doing something right. Still, if I could just take this one alien base! I have a feeling once I accomplish that the game will take a turn for the better and I will have broken through a strong slow point. The game despite its difficulty is fun. PC Gamer magazine said this about XCom 2 and it really holds true in this game as well, "This is your favorite action figures battling it out in the living room on a Saturday morning." Wonderful summation of this game.

5.      The Wake of the Red Witch on DVD:  John Wayne, always the white hat good guy, brings to the screen something different. A sea story in which Wayne’s character is more like a movie version of Jack London’s harsh and cruel-like whaler, Wolf Larson in his great novel, The Sea Wolf , John Wayne is anything but good. He double crosses the merchant he sails for, scuttling the rich merchant’s ship and sinking millions in gold bullion. Interestingly, not out of greed, but over a broken heart. The woman Wayne loved fell into the clutches of the merchant and became lost to the sea captain forever. This movie isn’t quite swashbuckling jolly roger pirate fun, but close enough. And it’s the third movie I know of where John Wayne dies in the end.

6.      Running Blind (Jack Reacher #4) by Lee Child. Former military cop, Jack Reacher is still enjoying a settled life with a Wall Street lawyer girlfriend and a nice house bequeathed to him from the girlfriend’s father when a series of unfortunate events trap Reacher into being blackmailed by FBI agents and coerced into helping them track down a killer who preys upon military service women who’ve brought up sexual harassment charges against their male counterparts. Child’s Reacher novels are difficult to put down once started, and this one is no exception. Part Leroy Brown, part Big Bad John, seemingly part T-1000 Terminator, and as tactical and fast thinking as Angus MacGuyver in an enemy fortress, Jack Reacher is a hero for the modern man.  

7.      The Brothers Johnson Right on Time on CD: Back in 1977, being the invisible kid as a sophomore in high school, I fell in love with a song on the radio by these two esteemed godfathers of funk, The Brothers Johnson. That song, “Strawberry Letter 23,” epitomized that year in high school for me, accompanying my friend Mike White who worked as a pizza deliverer on Friday nights, going to English class after gym class, my hair still wet from the shower, always picking pizza and fries to eat in the cafeteria instead of eating the nutritious stuff. Back when the Saturday Night Fever disco soundtrack blocked the horizon, this duo exuded much more in the cool factor department. Propelled by famed producer, Quincy Jones, this is a band I’m honored to say contributed to the soundtrack of my youth. This CD is as pure as it gets with the aforementioned, “Strawberry Letter 23,” and “Brother Man” unremixed, unremastered and virtually untouched by a “Sound Wars” engineer.

8.      Fallout on PC: I had the original big box and the stoutly manual back in 1999 two years after its release by Interplay.(Which now sells for well over $100.00 on eBay.)  I started the game, but didn’t get far. I was too captivated by the likes of Half Life and Rainbow Six. I started it again some years later, but got snagged in a game crashing bug and stopped playing it. And then I installed Fallout 3 and loved every single moment of it. Being the purist I am, I don’t have the heart to undertake Fallout 4 with having another college try at the game that started it all, the one game my favorite former Computer Gaming World Magazine writer, Jeff Green quipped as “the best RPG on the planet.” With its third person isometric over the shoulder view and its action point movement/combat system and its default difficulty, definitely not a game for the squeamish. But like the hellishly difficult Dark Souls, this is one you can truly be proud to say you’ve finished. Hopefully, I’ll get there.

9.      Penny Dreadful Season One on Netflix: Recommended by my friend, Neil Campbell, this darkly disturbing series has seduced me into its sinister spell. I remember reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the 8^th grade, and I immediately discerned I was way in over my head. I remember spending most of the book with an accompanying dictionary, but then years later as an adult I tackled Bram Stoker’s Dracula and found it wonderfully entertaining. Now, couple those great books with Jack the Ripper’s Victorian slummy London, and insert Oscar Wilde’s self incarnation in the guise of Dorian Gray who is also a character in this series and it makes up a compelling serial. There is a scene in episode 3 that’s really stuck to me, and not in a good way. Dorian Gray takes the show’s main character to a shady underground club in which we see a rat terrier tossed into a pit with a hundred rats. The dog chomps, shakes, and eviscerates the entire group of rats in minutes. Digital trickery has become the new magic of the medium because the scene looks so real I can’t stop thinking about it. And Josh Hartnett, the aforementioned character who is a former Indian fighter who is led to watch this spectacle has to leave to go to the bar to chase two whiskeys. The cruel sport is even more than he can bear.

10.  Wolfenstein: The New Order on PC: I remember delving into Wolfenstein 3-D way back in 1994. I don’t even think I beat it entirely, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. And then in 2002 I played through Return to Castle Wolfenstein twice. 2009 saw the release of Wolfenstein which I also revered, although I do remember a horribly difficult final boss fight I struggled to beat. And now I’m playing an alternate version of Wolfenstein occurring in an alternate universe where the Nazis win WWII. This game is why I love First Person Shooters, and in that they offer a sense of place for me quite unlike anything else. I can come home from work, dim the lights, don the headset, and suddenly I’m actually in a bleak gray stone castle commandeered by Nazi henchmen. This game has all of the trappings that make my high end system glow, and yet it’s a homage to its old school roots to Wolfenstein 3-D, often called “the grandfather of FPS games.”