Swimming with Sharks

You think you know it all, don't you? You're 25 years old. You're a baby. You don't know shit. Look, I can appreciate this. I was young too. I felt just like you. Hated authority. Hated all my bosses, thought they were full of shit. Look, it's like they say. 'If you're not a rebel by the age of 20, you got no heart, but if you haven't turned establishment by 30, you've got no brains!' 

Because there are no storybook romances, no fairytale endings. So before you run out and change the world, ask yourself--

What do you really want?

Don't come preaching to me about your idea of what's fair. Because you're no martyr here. You're no hero. You're just a fucking hypocrite. You're just like any other punk kid out there, looking for a way in, any way in, and you need me. What, you think someone just handed me this job? I've handled the phones. I've juggled the bimbos. I've-- I've put up with the tyrants, the yellers, the screamers. I've done more than you can even imagine in that small mind of yours. I've paid my dues--

Dammit, it's my turn to be selfish. It's my turn.

See that's the trouble with your fucking MTV, microwave dinner generation. You all want it now. You think you deserve it just because you want it? It doesn't work like that. You have to earn it. You have to take it. You have to make it yours.

But first, Guy, you need to decide what it is you really want.

You wanna go back to your shitty little existence? Go ahead, leave. There's the door. No one's stopping you. You could have left any day, but you stayed. So let's forget the Dudley-damn-do-right crap. Because out here its kill your parents, fuck your friends, and have a nice day! Look, I don't make the rules. I play by them. What, your job is unfair to you? Grow up, way it goes. People use you? Life's unfair? Grow up, way it goes. Your girlfriend doesn't love you? Tough shit, way it goes. Your wife gets raped, and shot, and they leave their unfinished beers--

Catherine: when Tetris meets manga

The cover. You see a girl who looks at you with those eyes... with visible bra-straps, her red cheeks... what would you think of? 'Oh, yeah, this is the psychological horror adventure game I heard about'

I've been waited for this videogame for years. I still remember the first time I read the news about: "a new erotic game, where a boy cheats up her girlfriend, where there will be sexy pictures, sexy story, sexy..." and so on.
Come on, I though, would it possible a videogame with a sexy plot?
Now, it's arrived. I played it. I finished it.
There's no sexy stuff. Nothing.

In description you can read: "psychological horror adventure game".
It's not psychological.
It's not horror.
It's even not adventure.
Maybe, it could be a game. Could be, but in 'Tetris' idea of game.

The story is: a lunatic boy, Vincent, one of those who prefer to drink beer with his friend dreaming about fantastic girls, motos or other. One of those who live in a bar.
This boy has a girlfriend who's completely different, squared, workaholic, with her head on her shoulders. Her name is Katherine.

I'm Katherine, you're fiancée. Ok, I'm beautiful, charmed, I'm successfull, I'm smart, I'm the best but, anybody knows why, I stay with you, such a failure guy, without a future, without an idea about what the life is. Or better, what the life is outside the bar where you spend the 99% of your time.

One day he meets another girl, Catherine, who's completely different than Katherine. She's funny, she's sexy (I mean, she has hair, eyes, look and behaviours a bit sexy).

Don't be excited. This is the maximum you'll see on the videogame. If it's enough for you, well, maybe you have a problem with your sexuality.

One morning he finds out he had sex with Catherine.
The same day Katherine finds out to be pregnant and announces it to him.

Stop. This is the plot. And here the story finishes. Cause, ok, put this story in a child hand and he will write exactly the followed story of the game. Evertyhing is easily comprehensible. No shocks, no coup de theatre, nothing.

And this is the story that we can see it watching a manga. Interactive manga? No. A normal manga.

The gameplay.
There is a mountain of blocks, a lot of blocks. You're at the basement and you must arrive at the top just using the block to climb. A block after another, one after one, you must avoide some obstacles to arrive at the top.
There are a lot of these block mountains. At least 30 but maybe they're more.

At first it's funny to find the right way to climb up. At first. Maybe the second. Even the third. At the fourth you start to doubt it. The fifth you look at yourself in a mirror and you see a strange face. At sixth you ask yourself: 'where is the game?'. Be quiet. This is the game. For a lot of times.

This is the game. You must find the way to go from the base to the top climbing these mountains.
Stop.

So. The game is: a manga for 5 minutes. A mountain. A manga for 5 minutes. A mountain. A manga for 5 minutes. A mountain. And so on. For at least 10 hours. Ah, yes, the game lasts 10 hours. Somebody from the web complaints about the duration but, you know, 10 hours of manga plus mountain.

Ah, there are few curiosities. Nothing important. Just some curiosities like:
- when you play with the block you're dreaming and you're a sheep. Yes, a sheep, with the horns and others. And all the others people you see in this phase are sheep. This should mean that people who cheat on their wives are like sheeps.
- at the end of each stage the computer will ask you a big moral question like, 'would you habg out with the fiancée of a friend of you?'.
Has it any importance for the game? No. It's just for the online. Ahahhah no no there's no playing online. There is a statistic: you can see how people all over the world has answered to that question. Only this. Or better, your answers will charge your karma: depends on it you will have a different final. There are 8 different ones.
- When you're in the bar you can drink and every drink gives you an information about that. For example: what is the difference between Cognac and Brandy?
Just curiosities.

Do you like Tetris? You like it. Do you like manga as Lamù? You like it.
Do you like every other kind of videogames? You don't like it.




CATHERINE
Atlus Persona Team
Rate: 25%

Devices: Xbox 360 - PS3
Genre: Puzzle - Adventure

Nostalgia vs. Creativity 3-0

John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and all the other music stars would be happy to hear their songs are best sellers. No, not in 50', 60', 70' or 80', no, now, in 2012.
Last news gives us a panoramic view of a strange situation: according to Nielsen, the old music republished has sold more than the new ones. The old musics republished in cd, mp3 and vinils work better. 51% against the 49%. In Italy is the same story, even worst: 65% old and only 35% new.
So, Lady Gaga? Coldplay? Maroon Five? Nothing. In the youngers' Ipods it's easier to find Beatles or Pink Floyd than Katy Perry.

Maybe John's happy. People continue to dream peacy thanks to his music. In 2012.

But the issue is another one. It doesn't matter what people listen, the question is... why?
Let's try to answer.

1) Music is not only a bunch of notes. Music is the powerful way our mind use to write informations. Those informations are our events, our life, our memories. And thanks to the music we can easily remember an event from our past.
The first love? 'No limits' by 2Unlimited.
The first kiss? "Short Dick Man" by... i don't know.
The first sex? "Smack my bitch up" by Prodigy.
Ok, maybe my favourite music is not the best... ehehehe... but do you understand?
Why our teenagers should prefer "Hey Jude" or "Heal the world" or "Love me tender" as the soundtrack of their first kiss?

Answer: nostalgia is better than creativity
A song from the past has a story. Listening it you can dream a world, you're able to go into a specific world. A past world. For example. Close your eyes and play a song like... you know... "Imagine". Suddenly you see hippies, flowers into guns, John Lennon who says 'Make love don't make the war".
Now.
Close your eyes and play "Call me Maybe", this summer success: what do you see? Nothing. Maybe dark because of your eyes closed or maybe the memory of this afternoon while you were reading "50 shades of Grey" on the sands or in the subway.
This is the point: a song from the past remember you something. A song from the present doesn't remember you anything.
Nostalgia vs. Modernity (that means Creativity): 1-0
Cause this means remember an event is better than creating a new one.

5 seconds: who's this completely anonymous girl? 

2) Once upon a time the top ten was made by artists like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Acdc, Queen, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Police and so on.
Everyone of these has changed the music. For their political involvement,  for their talent, for their new way to make music, for their creativity.
Now the top ten is composed by Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and so on. Everything seems a copy. Everything looks like something already heard. Not original, funny music, yeah, but anything else.

Answer: new music is rubbish.
The moderns are just a copy remastered. Infact, it's easy to hear musicians tell they have myths from the past.
So, Beatles remastered are better than 'One Direction'

Music is emotion. This is from Woodstock... it wasn't music. It was story. Could we say the same for a Rihanna's concert like... this?

Is she touching herself? Is she masturbating? I don't know. But this is from a concert of her.

3) Especially during the teenage is important to create our own personality. So, for having an independence, for feeling nice and smart it's easy to go over what others like.
Come on, it's cool say 'Oh my gosh, do you really listen to Carly Lae Japsen? Come on, she sucks. She's just a copy. Patti Smith or some other Woodstock's stars are better'.

Answer: new artists aren't credible and fashioned.
They work a lot on their public image, on their style (Lady Gaga... uff.. she doesn't know what else to do, she's done everything possible to catch the general attention) but the misterious alone around the legendary myths from the past is very difficult to destroy.

Wearing meat. Ok. What's the next step? Walking with her pajamas o naked? Already done.

No memories, poor quality and no credibility.
What should modern music do to have new chances to survive? I don't know. Surely, the past is better and this should be a big alarm for the major. They shouldn't think about piracy, they should think about quality, creativity, a new start. Or accept that past is better. It's already happened for jazz & blues music (where there are thousand artists who produce new cds, but the best sellers are still Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and so on) or Classic music (how many orchestras? How many composers? And every camera in the world plays Mozart, Beethoven Tchajkovsky and so on: is it possible anyone has composed something better than "The Nutcracker"?). The same will be for pop music.

Or not?