Virtual Paradise

Just a guy who likes to talk about stuff. Pieces on my favourite games, TV shows, movies and music. https://thevirtualparadise.wordpress.com

[thecollectibles]

Art by lhebrard robin

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Damn, this art is amazing. I don't know anything about the person who did these, but i'm definitely gonna look into it.

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New post!

Watch Dogs 2 is waaaaaaaaaay better than the original. I wrote about how surprising that was for me, and how much i like it.

Check it out!

thevirtualparadise.wordpress.com

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So i decided to make a WordPress site where i could do some of my longer posts. I'll still be using Tumblr, but probably smaller things and reblogs. Check out the site! Hope you like it.

[zeniks]

if you didn’t get the grades you wanted today just remember: uni is much easier than a levels :))))

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These are some of my shots from when i recently went back to Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy. These games are seriously gorgeous. Look at these damn screenshots. What the artists and designers behind these games do to make them look this good is just jaw dropping. Genuinely. The level of detail and realism in some of these screens is.. almost unnecessary. I love the Uncharted series for a lot of different reasons, though - Naughty Dog's ability to develop and evolve their characters over the course of a story is incredible to me. And the way they balance a story rich in history and myth with incredibly tense, fun gameplay is just stunning at times. I respect naughty dog a lot for all of their work. And i haven't even touched on The Last Of Us yet, which is my favourite project of theirs, and one of my favourite games ever. I can't wait for the sequel. Thanks for reading. Hope you like what you see!

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Flower Boy - Tyler, the Creator

This is my favourite album of the last couple years. I always thought Tyler was good at his craft, but this album is masterful - i love it to pieces, and he's now one of my favourite artists.

The whole thing is like a weird, melodic road trip; the songs are continuously laced with beautiful, unique instrumentation, as well as subject matter that goes from crucial ideas about loneliness and self-evaluation to things like individuality and acceptance. It's a beautiful journey through his psyche, and one that i enjoyed so much for being really relatable at times.

Beyond that, it's just a lovely sounding album. The songs are all so creative, and Tyler uses really beautiful sounds all over the place. The features are perfectly chosen and used in interesting ways that make each track feel more thought out and dynamic. I honestly can't name a skippable song, personally. I love it. My favourite songs are foreword, see you again and who dat boy.

Thanks for reading!

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So i've actually been going back and playing a lot games where the artwork has blown me away, and i've been using photo mode a lot more.

I think i took some really decent shots that i can talk about in more detail, so i think i'll start posting some of those.

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Artwork in games.

I'm always one to stop and take a moment to appreciate the beauty of what i'm seeing on screen while playing games, whether that be a beautifully realised art style, incredible character detail, or stunning environmental design. I've always had an interest in art and design, so when that collides with my obsession for games, it's a beautiful feeling of awe.

I'm not one of those people who won't play games if they don't look good, because i think there's a lot more to making a good game than just the artwork. but i will admit that even though it doesn't take away from my experience if it's not there, beautiful design almost always adds to my experience with a game.

I love that feeling so much - being blown away by how good something looks, to the point where it's unbelievable. There are so many examples that come to mind where i really did have to stop for a second and take in what i was seeing.

Like this moment in Uncharted: Lost Legacy. The environmental design and use of lighting in this whole game is a technological feat.

Or the first time i saw Columbia from BioShock: Infinite. Seeing that concept of a flying city, a utopia above the clouds, come to life.

Or even something like the absolutely jaw dropping pixel-based art style of fez. Which was crafted by one person. One.

It's something i don't think i'll ever stop appreciating. Games can really be art, and there is no way to change my mind.

If you see this, thanks for reading!

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Currently Playing: Ghost Town by Kanye West

I actually didn’t like this song at first, but it grew on me, and now it’s one of my favourites so far this year.

Kid Cudi’s vocals here are really good and Kanye doesn’t do such a bad job either, but they aren’t really the highlights of the track for me, even though I love Cudi’s small hook throughout.

The production is so big and booming; it sounds like there’s a whole orchestra behind it, but knowing Kanye, that wouldn’t be a surprise. The electric guitar chords and the heavy drums are really unique to this song, and not something i expected myself to like.

But the true high point of the track is the female vocals by 070 shake, a young artist on Kanye’s label. Her lyrics are powerful, and her voice is just stunning. She gives the song such a strong, memorable finale and should really be respected for her work making this song so great - she’s only 20 years old.

Great song, beautiful message, incredible vocals. Thanks for reading!

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I had some technical problems with my last account, so I had to start a new one. Everything is still here! I moved over all of my posts, but the God of War piece got a lot of support, so I just hit reblog. Thanks for reading my posts!

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God of War: an incredible sense of scale

The new god of war is fantastic.

It’s set in a beautiful world, full of incredible environmental detail and excellent choices in colour and composition.

Powerful acting performances and smooth animations help to tell an endearing, personal story about a grieving, angry character, haunted by demons, who needs to evolve in order to protect his son - from the surrounding dangers, and from himself.

The story is driven by a cast of grounded characters that are so well written and realised that even the ones that are merely spoken of have a lasting presence throughout.

And all of this is held together by combat and game mechanics that truly make you feel powerful in a very satisfying way.

And hands down, the best feature - the camera is all one shot. This creates such somber, close up and personal moments between the main duo, while also creating such a monstrous sense of scale when larger-than-life things are happening - you always feel you’re seeing things as Kratos and his son would be. That was, genuinely, unforgettable. For example, huge moments like this:

And this:

It’s an incredible feat that Sony Santa Monica developed this work of art. And that’s truly what it is - art. And I loved it. It’s one of my favourite games, ever.

Thanks for reading!

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What a game. This was on my old blog - had to move here!

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BioShock: a beautiful horror

The original BioShock is one of the first ‘adult’ games i played, as i started to get older. It still blows me away, really.  It proved to me that games could be more than what i had perceived them to be at that time.

There’s a lot to say about this game, way too much for one post. To put it simply, BioShock was revolutionary in my eyes. It tells a gripping story, with twists and shock moments that stuck with me long after i’d finished the story. As a game, it makes you feel powerful without feeling overpowered, and plasmids are such a fun gameplay mechanic that ties in so well with some of the themes that the game deals with. And this game was also the first time i was give important, ethical choices that actually made me think about how i was playing.

Basically, BioShock is pretty great. Great story, fun gameplay, immersive world. It’s all there.

But the main reason i love it, the thing that always makes me want to go back and play? The city of Rapture. A towering city, dripping with 1950’s style, hiding a population of twisted people that drove themselves to insanity and deformation. The whole place slowly decaying away at the bottom of the ocean. The fact that the developers could take this idea and realise it as such a jaw dropping locale is what drives my love for this game. Rapture is the main character, and it steals the show throughout. That’s why BioShock rocks.

Not sure i’d visit the place though, to be honest. It’s pretty terrifying. Thanks for reading!

[starfruitnycarchive]

1999 WILDFIRE

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Just as i post about how much i love these guys, they finally come out with something new. An eerie, close up and personal video for another unique sound. They’re back, and they’ve evolved. Love it.

[cirifiona]

The Last Of Us + concept art: scenery

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One of my favourite games! I love concept art like this. 

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BROCKHAMPTON: a new wave of hip hop

So I love hip hop, and I’ll probably talk about it throughout the lifetime of this blog, but the first post I wanted to make around the subject is just something about my favourite artists right now. In terms of what I like most in the genre, my favourite stuff involves unique, creative production and smart lyrics and flow.

Brockhampton are my favourite artists making music right now. They’re an eccentric, self proclaimed hip hop boyband; a group of like 15 or so guys, made up of artists, producers, vocalists, writers, and so on. In 2017 they released their ‘saturation’ trilogy, a set of three critically acclaimed EP’s that go hard from start to finish, each with influences from several different corners of the music industry. They’re a machine, it’s pretty incredible.

I could talk about each of their songs and what they mean to me/how great i think they are for hours, but i think the main reason i like them is how unconventional they are. They have a distinct sound throughout their projects, but the amount of people working on things means every song is distinct and full of incredible sounds and creative beat switches. They can go from a powerful pop ballad to a grimey, dirty hip hop beat, and still somehow make it work.

The amount of vocalists that you find on each song is enough to keep replay value at an all time high for me, but there’s just enough of them that it doesn’t get overwhelming to focus on who’s who. And they’re all so different, too, each with their own stories, backgrounds, flows, and vocal tones. Their personalities each start to come through as you listen more and more, and the fact that it works so well with so many of them is really impressive and congratulatory.

All of that basically means I struggle to ever get bored of listening to them, which is something that starts to set in normally after listening to an artist for this long. They’ve carved out their own unique, brand new spot in hop hop, and damn, I love it. I’m here for it, man.

It’s a shame they had to deal with one of their members coming under some controversy, but they handled it well and I think they’re so much better off now. Shit like that can’t be tolerated.

I hope you enjoyed the read! If you’re into brockhampton, feel free to message me so we can chat about it!

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Welcome!

Hey there, and welcome to my blog! I’m a student from England with some spare time and some passion so i wanted to try this out.

Why did i make this?

To put it simply, i’m one of those people who can talk for ages and ages about the things i love, but i’m also a really shy person sometimes.

This means i don’t get to talk about my favourite things as much as i’d like, so i thought a blog on Tumblr would be perfect. Whether or not it becomes anything other than me just rambling about stuff, i don’t know. But screw it, really.

What will you see here?

The things i’m likely to post about are:

Games - i love anything to do with story, design, artwork, etc. But i’ll also probably just end up ranting about what my favourites are and why.

Movies and TV - i can talk forever about acting, direction, cinematography, and how incredible some films really are, in my opinion.

Music - i love hip hop, and can talk about production, rhyme schemes, flow and lyricism for hours.

So yeah. I like things, and here’s where i’ll be talking about them. If you like what you see, follow me.

Thanks for reading!