EA games for the Mac: beware
I have two of the new releases for the Mac. And let me add only for the uber-scale Macs as the ole’ iMac and Macbooks won’t run them. I have Need for Speed Carbon and Battlefield 2142; ordered them the day they went on sale. I needn’t have bothered. They both are serious let-downs.
First of NFS: Carbon is unstable and has the habit of randomly crashing during races. This is especially annoying if you are in the lead or accomplishing something important. It got so bad that I had to reinstall the whole game. Not how you want to spend your time.
Then we come to Battlefield which has a learning curve which is vertical. The game has no tutorial and even at the bots easiest setting is too damn hard. To be playing a game for 15 minutes and being on the winning side but get no points is pretty lame. This game only suits FPS players who are very patient and don’t mind spending a lot of time getting no where.
I have not heard any reports on CoCIII for the Mac yet. I do hope its a better game that either of the ones above. If you are interested in the EA games for Mac I would wait a while for the early adopters to work out the kinks. EA games always used to be full of bugs when they were on Macs all those years ago. It seems old habits die hard.
No commentsMMM up for the week
Music Review: Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe, Earthworks, Keith Richards, Phil Varone, and Dan Mahar
Another round up of rock and metal in this week’s Marty’s Musical Meltdown.
Book review: Culturism
Culturism
by John Kenneth Press
There was some worry on the BNN list that his book might be racist of some sort and I can report that there is not a hint of racism anywhere in this book. In fact it goes to great length to decry racism in all its forms. Which as one might imagine is a good thing. About the only good about this book to be honest.
First of all the author praises the Puritans. Yes that lot of evil zealots who were so bad that they were driven out of England after Cromwell & Co killed the King and plunged the nation first into two bloody civil wars and a wave of cultural destruction not seen in England ever again. It rivalled the Taliban in Afganistan once they took over. The Puritans executed whomever they didn’t like, were misogynistic, barbaric in their punishments and about as authoritarian as one could imagine. The Puritans are not be admired but scorned as the evil they were. The US nation grew out of the settlers in the 13 colonies not thanks to the Puritans but despite that branch of Protestant lunacy.
It is this cultural authoritarianism that Press admirers so much in Puritans and those that followed them in American history. He adds the Abolionists to those who were inspired by the Puritans; however that does not save the rest of those who the author admires. In addition to the Puritans he admires those zealots that managed to persuade the nation to ban alcohol in the early 20th century. Funny he fails to mention that organised crime and drug smuggling as it now constitutes itself was born during Prohibition. There was no such thing as organised crime before that era and we never got rid of it.
The other fails to distinguish between those that use & abuse the power of the state to control people’s behaviour ala the Puritans and praise-worthy organisations like “Friendly Societies”. It seems groups of people getting together to force everyone how they see fit is all good.
This is new face on paternalistic authoritarianism. While the word freedom is mentioned in this book very often; there are more calls for the limitation of it. The author believes that individualism is a bad thing and that the culture should dominate all aspects of life. Hence his praise for the Puritans.
Ironically the Conservative Party of the UK would find much to like in this book as this is the approach they are taking currently under Cameron’s leadership. Like all paternalists, the author believes that individuals are incapable of making correct decisions for themselves and thus the hammer of the state to make it for them.
Once could even see what Press is proposing as a cultural fascism. The scary thing is that he has written this book as a “text-book” of sorts. You know one of those text books that makes the same point over and over again?
Yes, American culture is worth defending but not at the cost of everything that makes America a great country to hail from. Mark this idea down as one of the many bad isms out there.
Crossposted @ BNN.
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.
Happy Birthday Pater
He turned 75 yesterday but we are having the party today. Its pretty good to make it to 75. He is a slouch compared to the women in our extended family; but he is trucking on. Here’s to another 25 years plus!
No commentsWhy You Don’t Want To Get Lost In Mexico City At Night
Or for that matter, in the daytime. Talk about your twisty little mazes, all alike.
Photograph by Scott Peterman (slightly larger version here) of the Ecatepec district (I’ve never been there, but judging by a quick skim of this Wikipedia article, the city is divided into different administrative sectors, not unlike New York City’s boroughs.) of Mexico City.
