Poland

For my first trip of 2018, I went with my buddy Rick to Poland, which has experienced plenty of events in the last hundred years. From the 1918 Independence day, to the 1939 invasion of Nazi Germany, to the 1989 Revolutions, Poland is relevant.

Krakow

We experienced everything we wanted to do. After discovering Old Town and the Main Market Square of which I found the mood and setting to be romantic, we danced the first night away at Frantic Club with local Polish people.

We then explored the center of Krakow further, as we went to Wawel Castle, the Jewish Quarter, Oskar Schindler's factory and we also saw plenty of impressive buildings and monuments along the way, such as churches and medieval outposts.

The daytrip towards Auschwitz 1 and 2(Birkenau) was the most impressive and memorable for me, as the horrors of the acts done by Nazi Germany's SS division became very imaginative upon seeing these former concentration/execution camps.

It's quite surreal walking around there, going inside one of the actual gas chambers and realizing that this all still happened very recently in human history. I have seen acts of horror before in Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan, but this might over top them all in terms of human cruelty, hate and the enormous numbers of victims.

We also took a day to experience the Wieliczska Salt Mine, a unique attraction, and a major reason for Poland's national income.

Warsaw

At the capital, which is a modern, large and hip city, I had a reunion with one of my former Super Smash Bros. "partners" named Pawel, as we had brief evening dining and talking about transhumanism, technology and the future most of all.

We really wanted to see the Copernicus Science Centre, but we were told that the tickets were sold out, we had to make a reservation three days before hand, and our plane was leaving the day after tomorrow.

Still, just like Krakow, we explored the Old Town and it's Royal Castle, while we also visited the Polish Army Museum, of which I always try to include and experience in any country I visit. It consisted of recent times, but it seemed like there was also a medieval section.

While my buddy walked towards the largest park of the city, I instead went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, where the ghetto jews did not get much love from the Nazi's, or sympathy from Joseph Stalin.

For the final evening, we decided to visit our local shot bar and get ourselves in the Polish mood by drinking over 15 amounts of vodka shots each. After exploring the night ourselves further and walking aimlessly while enjoying ourselves, we went back to the shot bar.

There we briefly befriended a group of Polish guys who were also drinking, and the alcohol did it's thing, but we also had a jolly good time. We actually wanted to go to some techno party, but soon after, I lost track of time and consciousness, and the hangover started kicking in :)

Perhaps it was a fitting ending towards this country in the end. Poland is a modern country nowadays and cheaper to consume than other European countries. It's definitely not only associated with alcohol, but also with beautiful people, and impressive sightseeing's.

E3 Thoughts

This time I won't go through each of the headlighted video game or press conference, instead I will only focus on the games and companies that got my attention, with good or bad vibes. And I will put my thoughts into 1 post for this year.

Nintendo

A rather safe presentation from Nintendo with not much new announcements, and no footage of Metroid Prime 4!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's promise that every fighter returns as well as the inclusion of Ridley gets me excited, tempting me towards buying the Switch again, perhaps this upcoming december I finally will.

Fire Emblem Tree Houses is looking traditional and similar to Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, and the subtitle implies that it will be another long game, perhaps similar to Fire Emblem Fates on the 3DS.

Super Mario Party looked good, but it's too bad that we can only play the mini games online, and not the other major part which is of course the board segment. Daemon Machina looked like Custom Robo, but it seems it is a new IP after all.

Hollow Knight is a great game, but is there really no physical edition coming for it?

Sony

The Big Four delivered!

Death Stranding finally shows gameplay in a growing cryptic world, Spider-Man is looking action packed, The Last of Us II's gameplay felt stellar and tight, and Ghost of Tsushima's art style engrossed me.

Control by the developer of Max Payne looked generic, but third person shooting with anti gravity control looks fun to try out. The big reveal of REmake 2 revealed that the perspective would be over the shoulder in RE4's style, and it looks promising despite the new faces of the well known characters, but I am most of all interested if there is any new content.

There is an overload of Samurai representation, as not only did Ghost of Tsushima show this theme, but the surprise announcement of Nioh 2 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice did too, all 3 of them look great!

There were some nice musical relevant introductions as well.

Square Enix

I'm eager to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider as the reboot series just handles the gameplay with solid content and controls to me. Babylon's Fall, Platinum Games's latest, showed too little. Is Octopath Traveler similar to Chrono Trigger's gameplay?

Just Cause 4 reminds me to start on this good looking series, as does Dragon Quest XI, but I still need to decide if I will play the grind heavy originals or the DS remakes. Kingdom Hearts 3 finally has a release date and is looking good, but will the overall story ever make sense?

Bethesda

Rage 2 looks stunning and crazy. The Wolfenstein Youngblood and Doom Eternal teasers sound good but with Todd also teasing Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI, I feel like Bethesda's press conference felt more cheap than others.

I'm finally working through the Elder Scrolls franchise, and I will be able to talk about this and Fallout in the nearby future.

Ubisoft

Beyond Good and Evil 2 looked flashy, but it's so different and so much more grand compared to the original, I wonder how it will feel upon playing it.

Skull & Bones is shaping up to become the next upcoming pirate themed video game. Also nice to see Star Fox, Donkey Kong and Miyamoto supporting this conference similar to last year.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey reminds me to return to this massive series as I have only played 1 and 2 so far...

Microsoft

I remember the world premieres and exclusive meme from last year, and it continues here. It's as if Microsoft is desperate for attention... they managed to announce Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 4 and Gears of War 5 this time, Sea of Thieves gets more DLC, and Terry Crews sold Crackdown 3.

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E3 2018 in overall barely had any surprising announcements for me personally, only Nioh 2 came out of nowhere for me, and leaks seem to be more present than ever each year. Perhaps next time we will see major surprises, and most likely our first look at the next generation of consoles and handhelds.

Shout outs go to Cyberpunk 2077 and Devil May Cry 5 from CD Projekt Red and Capcom!

The New Human Rights Movement

 

Reinventing the Economy to end Oppression.

This is Peter Joseph's latest work, an activist which I admire, for his Zeitgeist trilogy, Culture in Decline TV series and his overall intelligence has given me numerous foods for thoughts about the present and future world.

It describes structurally and in depth as to what is wrong with global society's current systems, such as the free market, capitalism, business, the terms "Freedom and democracy" and negative terms such as poverty, terrorism and cultural violence.

While citing other prominent figures such as Martin Luther King, Noam Chomsky and James Gilligan, Joseph lets the readers go through 5 chapters which are about Socioeconomic inequality, Social mythologies, a Spectrum of disorders, Interconnected systems and how to Transcend into a better efficient, sustainable and designed system.

It's more or less recognizable content from his previous work, but more updated to present developments, while he continues with his Zeitgeist Movement to spread awareness of what is really wrong with the world today.

The New Human Rights Movement is a resourceful and well thought out book that is essential into identifying how complex institutions and ideas work, and it also offers a proposal of ideas on how things can improve globally.

Rating:***

Pre-E3 2018

 

As always, the rumor mill is running high in these final moments before E3, and plenty of leaks have been rumored, and some have been confirmed. Whether you like it or not, it remains the most popular gaming press event annually.

I won't be able to watch any of the press conferences live this year as something else catches my eyes, and I might not even watch all of them because for the last few years, several more have popped up, including Bethesda, Square Enix, Devolver Digital and PC Gaming Show, and not all of them are interesting.

Sony and Nintendo are equally anticipated by me, as the former's confirmed Big Four will most likely swoop the press and the online audience, while Nintendo's recent huge success and the confirmation of Super Smash Bros. , whether it's a new title or an enhanced port, means that it will be worthy to watch their shows unfold.

Ghost of Tsushima, Spider Man, The Last of Us Part II and the enigma named Death Stranding will either break or seal Sony's show, with Kojima's current project still being a trigger for numerous theories as to what it actually could be. The most interesting theory I witnessed is that it could actually be a code name for Metal Gear Solid 0.

As for the rest, I'm also looking forward to Shadows Die Twice, REmake 2, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Metroid Prime 4, but there is no possibility or confirmation that any of these will be shown.

The usual sequels I dream about from Nintendo are towards Advance Wars, F-Zero, Paper Mario and Wario Ware, of which the latter will get a best of edition on the 3DS later this year. As for a dream regarding Sony? I hope that they will announce the successor towards PlayStation Vita, hopefully with backwards compatibility!

I will report back to you regarding E3 for this year after it has wrapped up!