They'll make pigs of you all. (spoilers)

So, a few days ago I got the new sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Now, I was very, very pleased with this game. The graphics were amazing, the story was morbid, suspensful and the overall gameplay itself was riveting and filled with that same kind of dreadful terror that Frictional Games has managed to conjure up in all of there games since the very first Penumbra game. 

Now, a lot of people were displeased with this game, complaining that it wasn't as scary. I have to disagree with these people, for I think that AMFP wasn't focused on the horror like the first Amnesia was. Amnesia: The Dark Descent was the first installment in the Amnesia series, and Frictional Games had a good story line, but it focused a lot on the feeling of terror. I think AMFP was focused on the feeling of dread, suspense, just that overwhelming feeling of fear that lingers for a lot longer than sudden terror does.

The story line is about a man named Mandus who's returned from an expedition to Mexico, only to wake up in bed with a terrible fever, no memories or knowledge of how long he's been out.  He does find that his children are gone, and something's not quite right. Feverishly beckoned by the voices of his children, he sets out on a quest to find them. A mysterious voice over the phone frequently contacts him, warning of a saboteur who's been busy destroying the machine that Mandus had built. 

Now, later during the game we come to realize that Mandus himself was the saboteur all along, trying to undo the mistakes he had done. It turns out that he had seen the future of the coming century (1900) and had sacrificed his children to save them from the coming wrath. 

I won't reveal too much about the machine, since it's just a little too much to just ramble on and on about, but I did find some /very/ interesting connections to the first game. Mandus created the machine using two of the orbs that had previously ruined Daniel's life from the previous game.  But there's no shadow in this game, no, instead the monster that has created the entire destruction is Mandus himself.

Also, Brennenburg is noted once or twice in a letter, and they mention Mandus's uncle's experiments with vitae, hinting that Alexander might have been his uncle, or something along the lines. They also mention something along the lines of an "egg" which makes me think about the orb as well. 

The gaming company TheChineseRoom collaborated with FG on this game, and I don't think a better match could have been made in heaven.

Dear Esther by thechineseroom had captivating graphics, riveting voice acting and gorgeous music.  All of that returned in AMFP, with Jessica Curry as the writer of the soundtrack.

In the first game, the soundtrack had been composed by Mikko Tarmia, but I don't think I could ever choose between the two on who did a better job. Then again, it's a little more difficult to compare the two of these games.  

The Dark Descent had some morbidity in it as we saw with Daniel's ritual of "Paint the man, cut the lines." but AMFP totally ups the level, involving massive dosages of morbidity throughout the entire game.  From the brutal descriptions that we see in the notes to the scenery itself, AMFP certainly has gotten a handle on macabre. 

The entire game had a very occultish feel to it, which I think introduced a different sort of horror that is barely scene in games these days, if not at all. (Especially in the church level where it was explained where whole congregations were kidnapped to feed the machine.)

However, there is one thing that I want to touch on AMFP. The monsters. From what I gathered, there were 4 in total (types). There was the Wretch, the most commonly seen one throughout the game. A grotesque, piggish creature, it's appearance wasn't as intimidating as the previous games mosnters, but the noises it made certainly made up for it. You knew you were in trouble once you heard a piercing squeal ring out from behind you. There was a larger version of the Wretch, and then there was a sort of mutated electricity beast which only appeared twice.  We even saw the kaernk again, but this time with only very limited interaction (except for when the catwalk on one of the levels breaks and you are chased by it.) I thought the monsters were a little lacking, but in their own way, absolutely perfect for the game.   But the wretches, somehow, I felt the game let us get a deeper connection with them. In The Dark Descent we knew our monsters origins, but that was it. In AMFP, we see their behaviours, how eerily human they are, yet how twisted they are at the same time.

Another thing I've heard people complaining about was the lack of character appearances. In The Dark Descent, we get a good feel for our character's appearances (official art of Daniel having been released as well as pictures of Alexander lining the halls of Brennenburg.) However, this all changes in Machine for Pigs, where the appearances of all characters are kept to extreme minimums. (However we do see Mandus's children a few times, even though they're a bit.. unrecognizable.)

The entire game, if I were to rate it, I would give it a 4.5. It's something I'll definitely be re-playing in the future, and I'd highly recommend purchasing it if you're looking for a new experience in the horror genre.

I know all I've been doing is writing reviews of things lately and rambling on and on, but to be honest there's just not really a lot happening in terms of life. Except for a few things.

Besides getting my finger bitten by a strange teapot, I've been dreadfully idle.  School has taken a grip on me and is dragging me down into it's murky depths. No time for much of anything anymore, but I have still found time to draw thankfully. 

Drawing however has seem a little unsatisfying lately- I feel as though all of my characters are boring, too mainstream or just.. Shallow in general. I always have a clear vision of what I want to draw, how it will be drawn, etc. But I can never find a character to incorporate in that drawing.

So I've decided on a mass clean-out of all of my OC'S, removing the old and bringing in the new! 'v' However, there are some old ones that will still be staying. (Quinn, Nuntior, Tora, Octavius, etc.) Some of them are actually recent.. I suppose. 

I've found myself of instead of being productive, just rotting away and watching evangelion.. then re-watching evangelion.. Then double re-watching evangelion.. then crying away my life. So, you know, the usual thing. i'm impatient for 4.0 to come out (2015.. come soon..)

But my entire year has not been uneventful. That's right, I got out of my little cave and saw the world. I went to seattle to visit a friend there who lives on Bainbridge. We went to a ton of places, and met up with some of her friends. It was quite the trip to remember. 

In other news

Today I'm going to talk about good music. Well, not all of the good music in the world, but a handful of my current favorites.


But before we jump into the topic of music in general, I'm going to shamelessly advertise my music.  Recently, a friend and I have been working on a project. I can't say much about it, but it required music and she heard some of my old music. I was going to retire from my experimenting with music and just call it quits, but apparently people like whatever the noise it is I make. 

So, I present to you "MUSIC FROM DEAD HOSPITAL HALLS"

It's a work in progress, the album gradually updating as I create different tracks. I'm posting them there because, well, I'm picky about my storage on my computer. 

click here to listen

I must warn you though, the music really isn't.. well, musical. It's repetitive, dark, droning ambient... well, whatever it is. There's no flying notes and colors, it's made to make you feel uneasy. I hope this is what I have accomplished. Essentially, it's going to be an OST for a game, but that's all I'm going to reveal to you right now.

Now, moving on to people who /actually have talent./

Daft punk has recently released their album- Random Acess Memories.  These guys have been around for a while, and to be honest, they inspire me... A lot. 

They've always been pioneers in music, exploring and creating new sounds that people have been addicted to countless times now.


They've inspired me to create, not in the musical sense, but in artistic sense. They did what they wanted to do- found out that they liked doing that, and that they were good at it.  I respect it when people have that sort of attitude about music. It's quite inspiring, and I hope that somewhere out there, someone else has been as inspired as I am.

I guess my love for the french-duo-robots goes a little deeper than the artistic sense too. They're pretty adorable, despite their shyness.  Their over all personalities have helped them out in music too, I think.  They're charming, to put it simply.



If electronic isn't quite to your tasting, and you're more of a musical person, well, I suppose you're missing out.. Just kidding, I have something for you too. 

Recently, a friend introduced me to a musical called Razia's Shadow. It's a very interesting tale about a man bringing a great discovery to his people- only to have his talents misused. In the end, he ends up feeling bitter, mistreated and taken for granted. And well, to be honest, he is. So he brings destruction to his land and people, thus splitting the land into two halves- one would be the dark, one would be the light.

There's an intermission, and when you come out of it you're 100 years in the future, the story of his descendant now taking place. He's from the dark half, but realizes that there was a prophecy that someone would re-unite the halves. When he discovers that he is the one who is supposed to do this. I'm too lazy to tell you what happens next, but you can listen to it on youtube. There's creepy doctors, which makes it 100+ better. In fact, I don't think I would have even listened to it if it weren't for the doctor. 

And last, but not least, I would like to introduce you to a band that has shifted my art style for a while now, who's lyrics have inspired me, who's voices have.. well, sounded angelic upon my ears.  

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not a big fan of "indie" "alternative" or whatever this is classified as.. But The National has been an exception for a while now. Like most fans, I discovered them through the game Portal 2. In one level of the game, there's a hidden area. In this area, there's a radio playing a song that they had especially written for the game, the song "exile vilify."  The song capitvated me, and I immediately ran to youtube to find it.

It wasn't until about a year later when I started listening to the rest of their music. I found out that they'd been around for a long time now, and that, well, their other music was just as good, if not better than their song Exile Vilify. I was thrilled to find a band that I liked so much, so I pumped their music into my head as fast as I could. 


There's quite a few albums out by them, my favorites being High Violet, The Virginia EP,  Boxer, Alligator and Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. 

But recently, a new favorite has been added to that list. Their newest album (just released yesterday), Trouble Will Find Me has been the only thing I've really been listening to since yesterday.  Every song is a work of art, with captivating sound and lyrics. 



It's late, and I guess I should get to bed.  But for now, I'm going to leave you with my favorite song from each of these albums.

Daft Punk- Get Lucky

The Exit- Razia's Shadow

Sea of Love- The National

I heart serial killers

Especially ones named Dexter Morgan.

Okay, so before you attack me, I'm talking about the fictional show that's showing on showtime called Dexter. No, it's not about a little red-headed boy and his annoying sister who constantly comes into his lab, Well, this Dexter does have a lab, but it's a forensics one. 

Season eight of Dexter is going to be premiering soon and to be honest, I'm sad to say that it's going to be the last season as well.  The show focuses around Dexter Morgan, dad, brother, forensics worker by day, serial killer by night. He targets killers or other criminals that have fallen through the system of justice, thus giving him a reason to justify his killings. He was orphaned at the age of 3, and was adopted by a cop named Harry Morgan. His foster sister, Debra Morgan works with him at the Miami metro. 

I'm not going to spoil anything for you since that's the show's job to stomp all over your heart.

The show's very suspenseful and you'll be surprised to find yourself on Dexter's side, and well, even feeling sorry for him.  

Scratch that, he has no feelings and enjoys what he does so I don't feel sorry for him. Yeah.

In other news, Daft Punk is coming out with a new album soon. If you've been friends with me for a long time, you'd  know of my long-lasting love for those french electronic dance music robots.  So far they've released one song this year after a very long period of silence called Get Lucky.. and I have to say, I like it very, very much.

However, what I don't like is the whiny retards complaining about the style of the music. It's a little bit more traditional, old-school daft punk, that wonderful mixture of electronic and rock. However, there's a small percentage of the DP fandom who expect them to be 'drawpinn da bassss x333' like skrillex or whatever. Grow up already.

Now I'm going to do something a little different. I've been following this musician for a while, around the time he released his album "Soundtrack for a Film that Doesn't Exist". His name is johnny_ripper, or more plainly, Jean.  His music is a very unique style, a crisp, clean sounding kind of music that you can listen to in any mood.

He's very underrated, and his music could be much more recognized. He's inspired my art ever since I discovered him and I'm sure it shows in some pictures. He just recently released his newest album, 'Outsider' and it's free for you to download.

click here for Jean's music.

I'm afraid it's time for me to leave you now, but I'll return soon, I promise.

I leave you with:

INACTIVITY (YATTA)

hi my name is skye and i'm notorious for being inactive

Not much has really happened since the last entry i've made, however, I guess that's a major contribution to the lack of activity on this blog, but I can't sleep and my stomach hurts, so what better way to try and lull myself to sleep than to write a blog entry.

I made a few changes to the blog, i.e changing the player and that's really it.

Yesterday night I went to see Oz, the Great and Powerful. 
To be honest, I was a little dissappointed. It started out with great potential and sort of ended on a fuzzy-cuddly "oh how nice" note. It was like Despicable Me, but that movie was about 500x worse than this one.

I didn't really /hate/ the movie, but I wouldn't add it onto my favorite movies list. I'm not going to spoil  anything for you, so go see it if you really want to, but if you're expecting a steam-punkish fantasy movie then don't even go.

I saw it in 3D, and I still have a headache from the glasses. Not to mention all the 11 year olds who had punched out the lenses and were wearing their "Edgy-cool hipster glasses". I'm sure those contributed to my headache as well.

There was also some guy who passed out on the way out of the theater and there were paramedics everywhere. I'm not going to lie, it was really awkward. 

I went with my friend Lilly and a few of her friends, and some lady randomly leaned down and told my friend Madison "If you don't shut up, you won't get to see the rest of the movie." 

This would have been 100% less disturbing if no one had been talking and everyone in the theater was dead silent. 

So besides schizophrenic old ladies and people falling out, there was a few things that I liked about the movie. Who doesn't like an adorable china doll waving around a knife? 

However, the movie did mis out on a lot of it's potential. It had so many good paths it could take and it took one of the worst ones it could. Unless if you like movies that are feel good and unrealistically happy-ending-y, I really don't reccomend the movie.


But then again, since when has this blog been about movies? That's right, never. 

I've fallen into a bit of an art slump lately. I opened commissions and then lost track of them, and nobody's telling me whether or not I owe them something. It's really irritating, but since they haven't paid yet I don't have to finish them if they can't tell me what they want. 

I guess you can be pleased to find that my art is as weird/terrible/morbid as always, nothing has really changed here I guess. 

The only change I have made was i've begun to draw more humans, but I have no pictures drawn digitally of them. One day I'll make some especially for you, Blog. 

SKYFALLSKYFALLSKYFALLSKYFALL

you'll never guess which movie I went to see. -obvious sarcasm.-
it was a great movie, and if you saw it and didn't like it then we need to have a long talk.

I'm not going to talk about it much because it would bore you if you've already seen it and I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. the movie theater smelled weird. good, but weird.  I really do think that Daniel Craig is the best james bond so far. if you're going to argue with me and say sean connery is, I'll agree with you that he was the best one- for his time. but daniel craig really pulls off the whole hitman look.

okay, enough about james bond.

this fellow right here is a new character of mine. he's a sad angel that likes to mope around a lot. his name is nuntior, and he has a brother that's a demon but I only have one picture of hime (stansque) and it looks stupid, so I'm not going to put it on here.

this was just a quick sketch, trying to work with using color to draw the eye in. I really don't think I did too good of a job on that, considering you're going from his eye to his chest. 

























okay, so I guess I really have nothing else to write about. I hope everyone had a splendid thanksgiving and gorged themselves on turkey, gravy, potatoes and the like. mine was relatively calm, I had my grandparents come in and stay with us for a few days. (we went to see skyfall.) 

and as always, I leave you with some enjoyable music. ladies and gentlemen, please lend your ears to Holobody.

WEEB WOB

Good afternoon, evening, morning, whatever, wherever you are.  How are you doing? I'm doing better now that someone is reading my blog, thank you. 

Nothing has really been going on lately, besides my steady decline on art. oh, and I did something to this blog, but I really can't remember what... could it be that.... I remodeled?

yes, now everything is nice and white.  I thought it would be a nicer change for the skin, so... why not?

oh, and I sketched you a this guy. I'm not sure if I've introduced my blog to this character, but if I havent then...well, here he is, in all of his... oddness.  

Alright, since I really have nothing else to say, I am now going to leave you. unfortunately, I do not have a video or a song to throw at you. so in the meantime, just enjoy this dumb site's new skin and playlist.

YOU'RE LIVING A REALITY CREATED FROM FICTION

If you have not seen this movie yet, I suggest you go and watch it now. the link is out there on putlocker, somewhere. it's like a twisted version of inception, but no worries, it came out before inception so it's not like it's some rip off or anything, and both movies still vary greatly in their differences. the animation was rich and it flowed well.


....anyways. 

this was some fanart that I drew for =cptGUTS on deviantart. I've been trying to get out of drawing animals so much but... it's not working. oh well, draw whatever you want to draw. if that bothers someone, then tell them to go away and then go eat cookies.



speaking of cookies, I got shot in the face today. just kidding, not really, my face is still in one piece.

if it ever was in one piece to begin with that is. 




well, I guess that's just really all I have to say today, sorry my entries are becoming shorter and shorter and more and more boring. remember when they were filled with interesting things? me either.