Tag Archives: Arts

One Year

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Today marks the day of my first blog entry last year when I made a resolution to start and keep one. It’s been a pleasure writing for all of you who read my blog every week, and I want to thank you all for reading!

I look forward to a new year full of awesome stuff to write about!

Just Sayin’.

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Marble Hornets

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After a couple months of tweeting, Entry 53 of Marble Hornets has finally come out! I’m really excited because we’re going to now see behind the scenes footage of the titular movie Alex was making in the series and hopefully get more answers. I want more answers!!

Let’s talk about one of my favorite web series: Marble Hornets.

About a year and a half ago, my good friend Brian showed me a web series called Marble Hornets. To preface why I accepted to watch this, it’s because I had recently started playing Amnesia: the Dark Descent, and had grown to love horror. I’m not talking about pop up in your face horror – I’m talking subtle, imagination-driven horror. The kind of horror where you know something’s coming, but you don’t know when it’s coming or where it’s going to come from.

So, with that in mind, he had suggested I watch Marble Hornets, a web horror series. Before we began, he asked me if I knew anything about Slender Man. I had heard the name tossed around on the Internet and in random chit-chat I heard a few times, but I didn’t know who or what Slender Man was.

So, for those of you who don’t know, here’s a brief history of Slender Man’s conception.

He was created on the Something Awful forums in a thread where pictures were posted of him being in them. Most of them were around children, and it’s described that he’s thin (hence ‘Slender Man’), and he can stretch out his limbs to inhuman lengths. And they’re tentacle-like.

The reason I’m explaining this is because Marble Hornets uses Slender Man (known as The Operator in the series) in their web series as an ethereal being who is the primary antagonist of the series. The style of the series is like that of How I Met Your Mother. Instead of most of the episodes (entries, as the series puts them) being in the present, they’re in the past, forming a story through the entries to reach the present. The entries are not in chronological order, so part of the fun of watching is trying to figure out what happened when. Sound cool? You bet it is!

But, it’s not just cool – it’s scary. The camera work is absolutely fantastic in this regard. The first-person style really helps the camera, because the small, jerking movements when you see The Operator come on screen, only to see him much closer when they go to take a second look satisfies your own curiosity and scares the living hell out of you.

The effects work really well with the camera, and the sound effects are, while loud and screeching, done in a way that’s absolutely terrifying instead of just plain annoying. Combine that with the already impressive camera work, editing, and a kind of mystery element added into it, and you’ve got yourself one awesome, super-scary web series!

Just sayin’.

If you’re interested, I’m giving you the link to the Introduction. Grab a friend (or not), watch in the dark, and enjoy!

LINK TO INTRODUCTION:

Loop Knight

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My apologies for missing Thursday’s entry, but I wanted to write about Brawl once more and there was simply no better time than to after attending my local scene’s tournament series, Don’t Blink ~After Story~, which occurred last Saturday.

Overall, I’m a little disappointed in my performance, so I’ll be putting in a lot more work from now on to get myself back to where I was before.

But enough about me, let’s talk about a character that was recently banned (and is being hotly debated about whether he should be unbanned already), Meta Knight.

In my previous entry I said I was for the MK ban only because of his staggering over centralization. My stance still stands, but there is one move I think is truly broken that is a part of Meta Knight’s arsenal of fantastic moves.

Shuttle Loop.

Yes, Shuttle Loop (or, for those who don’t know where the name comes from, Meta Knight’s Up+B Special (recovery) move). I think this move is leaps and bounds above all other moves, and while his Mach Tornado shuts down a slew of the cast, Shuttle Loop shuts down all of the cast’s recovery moves, gives Meta Knight insane mobility, and works as a dragon punch (a dragon punch is defined as a move that is invincible on startup but is (usually) easily punishable when blocked).

I firmly believe that, without Shuttle Loop, Meta Knight wouldn’t be nearly as good as he is right now.

Shuttle Loop is the reason many characters can be gimped at 50% or lower. I’ve seen someone killed at 45% because of a mistake DI’ing. It’s disgusting for a game where the earliest kill percentage is around 80%. Anytime someone hits MK’s shield he can use Shuttle Loop to counter it. He can use it, and even if he messes up it’s relatively safe. Why? because he can cancel it into a lagless landing and use a defensive maneuver. It puts him in a glide state so he can glide over his opponent if he so chooses, and if he touches ground (say, a platform), while at the peak of his move he lands laglessly.

Just watch Nairo vs Otori from Apex 2012 and you’ll get a good sense of what I’m talking about.

MK is relatively slow in the air, and while his moves are fast, certain characters can shut him down when playing properly. But when your perfectly spaced aerial or tilt is interrupted by a 100% safe Shuttle Loop, you come to realize that nothing can stop the move except for baits, and that’s dipping into player territory (where MK’s Shuttle Loop isn’t as powerful, but still ridiculous.)

Obviously, a lot falls to the player, but on paper, where we’re talking strictly moves, Shuttle Loop is dominating.

What do you think? Is Shuttle Loop MK’s only truly broken move? Or do you think his entire arsenal is a little too good for your liking? Let me know!

It’s funny because, even without Shuttle Loop, his recovery is stellar.

Just sayin’.

LINK TO NAIRO VS OTORI: