A Youtube Revelation

I went into the bowels of youtube to see the kind of humor that certain people enjoy.  It was the kind of brutal, violent, shock humour held in high regard by some of most detatched and unempathetic members of society.  I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite though.  I do enjoy a decent episode of Southpark here and there which has been known to have some seriously terrible toilet humor.  If that is all there was then I wouldn't watch it.  Fortunately Southpark is genius.  So I put up with the gore and shock to be rewarded with solid satire, a decent laugh and food for thought.  To me, Toilet humour is detrimental, discouraging and not all that funny.  I guess that's the difference.  So who are the people who watch this stuff exclusively? 

In a nutshell (although does not apply to about 7% of them)?

You know that thing in your drain that catches all the stuff that isn't water?  Over time it just gets nastier and happens to attract other scum that just seems drawn to it until your drain is clogged?

Well that is the 'Toilet Humour' subscriber.

'Psychicpebbles' makes a series of videos aimed at appealing to certain tastes in comedy.  As a young man making high-quality videos, although the content is garbage humour, this is quite a feat.  He is exploiting a tool so as to gain viewers in order to make money.  Why not?  Popularity gained from providing simple things to simple people makes perfect sense.  With a minimal amount of creativity, you can reap massive rewards.  Does it take a comedic genius to make a cartoon showing old women's faces getting ripped off or them being baked alive? 

What it takes is a desire for money and a disturbing lack of empathy.  An audience that appreciates this type of humour has no empathy as well.  I walked in on over a million psychopaths.  That's fucking scary.
 
The idiots in question are the Psychicpebbles fan base.  They are almost like religious zealots in their passion to defend this crap as the best humor on earth.  They will use their words like bullets in order to barrage any detractor and are completely immune to reason.  Actually 'Bullets' is a faulty analogy as in implies swiftness and the ability to strike to the heart of the matter.  Perhaps a more accurate analogy would be lemmings who bash their soft, yet many heads against the stone wall of reason.  As long as there are more lemmings, their brain damaged viewpoint makes them think they are winning.

They do not even see the paradox of  "wouldn't be so funny if it happened to you".  You flame one for an ignorant or threatening comment which shuts him up and 5 more see the flame and figure you are being a jerk.  Eventually you realize that no one is going to listen to your point of view as they have become the Internet version of a 'Gang'.  Individually quite weak, they attack single people with the advantage of numbers.  In the midst of this, I got Psychicpebbles himself to stick his own foot in his mouth...and pointed it out to him and 200 others who applauded both sides of his contradictory statements.  Mission Accomplished.  That was the original viewpoint that got me after him in the first place. 

But if a point falls in a forest of morons...will anyone get it?  They say they don't but who knows?
 
I went back to my usual stuff.  A live rendition of Blind Faith singing 'Can't find my way home' for the first time in Hyde park 1969.  There I found the people I wanted to be with.  No anger. No sarcasm.  No antipathy.  I shed the dealings of the last few days with one saying from that channel:
If it's heavy ... put it down (Thanks Brother).

Painkiller - Black Edition

So for $10 on Steam...you can't go wrong, right?  Well...actually you can. 

I'm a fan of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw.  He is a Online game critic.  He is good in his own way.  Though extremely opinionated to the point of ridiculing those that would have differing personal preferences.  He does so with a wonderful creative wit, humor and passion.  I enjoy listening to him and watching the animations he puts together.  Yet as much as I enjoy these reviews he puts together, sometimes he is just plain...not objective enough.  Like most young people...he thinks that his point of view is the only one anyone should ever have unless they are stupid.  With a passion and the wit to back it up, it makes you presume that he is right...but that is the point about opinion; it actually comes right down to individual preference.  For instance...Yahtzee did not like the fact that RAGE had both an FPS and Driving elements in one game; I fucking LOVED it!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation?page=2

First Person Shooters (FPS) range from:

     'Tom Clancy': Where the enemies and you can be put down with one shot.  Reloads happen often with these type of games.  Realistic damage.

To:

   'Serious Sam' Where waves of enemies run at you and you mow them down with a truck load of ordinance and ammo and you take about as much damage to kill as an Abrams M1 with regenertative capabilities. 


Yahtzee despises 'Cover based Shooters'.  He wants his FPS to be a rocket jumping, circle strafing, action packed hop a thon.  Fine for him.  I don't mind it either...some times.  I do prefer the battlefield series...which is more about tactics and strategy and less about hopping and reflexes.  Each to his own.  Of course my 20 something is trying to get me to say:  "Yeah I prefer thinking to just running and jumping like a Fairy.  Maybe you should take up Ballet and forget gaming all together." 

Moving right along.  One of Yahtzee's favorite FPS is Painkiller.  I looked it up on Steam and picked it up for $10.  What the hell.  Driver:San Francisco sucked ass (his recommendation)...maybe Painkiller will be better.

The beginning levels were grey and dull and the AI was unimaginative.  There is no intro or explanation about any of how to play or what anything does for you.  You pretty much have to figure it out on your own.  You kill demons and collect their souls.  With enough souls, you turn into a really nasty demon yourself...if you are lucky, there is someone left to kill at this point.  Hit the tab key you see a summary of the level.  At the bottom there is a condition that, upon fulfilling it, you get a card.  There are 2 types of cards.  Silver cards are active all the time if they occupy the center area.  You can drag and drop them to the center area.  That makes them active.  Gold cards can be used all at once (once per level) in the game if they are in the center area.  Yeah...not tutorial - however rudementary was put in.  You play the game...kill stuff and say 'What are those glowing things'. 
 
It almost seemed like the levels get better and better as you play it.  Almost like the designers were learning as they went along that they didn't have to make shit-brown caves.  So about the 'Train Station' I'm getting to feeling pretty good.  "Not a bad game" I thought.  Decent music.  Enough strategy to keep my mind occupied.  Then...>Crash<.  Oh well...that was an aberation.  I'll restart it and everything will be right as rain.  Ok...got this got that.  No souls captured as per the requirements to get a card this level...I better save >Crash<.  Looked it up online.  Oh!  You can't get past the Train Station on a PC...unless >this<.  Oh...so I do >this<...>Crash<.  Eventually you say to yourself "Do I really want to spend my time fixing this thing or having fun"

Point is:  The game is unstable.  In all the years it has been out, this issue has not been corrected and it probably won't be now.  Don't get me wrong 'People Can Fly' (the company that put this out) did a pretty good job for a couple of guys in some basement in Poland...but it lacks support and polish (groan) that a big name company would provide.

So basically Painkiller IS a decent game.  The music is decent hard rock (I like that).  It's like dancing with guns.  Strategy...you have to think on your feet sometimes...I like that.  The AI is a little predictable and I didn't care for the 'We made a game...use the 'REadme.txt. to know how to play it' (what...is this the '80s?).  The early levels were plain and boring...which is just plain stupid because you want at least >those< levels to be the most exciting so the player gets into the game.  The production smacked of a spaghetti programmer with a limp wristed effort towards the finish like a car washer that happily suds up your car and leaves it that way because he doesn't like rinsing.

It's with much disappointment that I give Painkiller a 2.5/10.  -4 points for being unfinishable.  It would have been a 6.5.  It's worth $10 but nothing more.  Now if I saw more of the game past the Train Station...it might have changed my opinion....