Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio
…up to 200,000 people angry with high costs and poor public services took to the streets. Protesters in Rio de Janeiro burned cars and looted buildings as police attempted to disperse them with teargas and rubber bullets. Aerial images showed thousands of people attempting to storm the congress building in Brasilia. The rallies…are some of the biggest ever seen in the country…
more.
You know what series I miss dearly?
Tenchu. Dear lord I loved those games. I only had 2/Birth of the Assassins, 3/Wrath of Heaven and Fatal Shadows, but man they’re such great games, particularly 2 and 3. They’re really dated now especially in the AI department, but at the time they were top notch games where you actually had to be stealthy if you wanted to make it to the end. But I think the thing I loved the most about them was the general art direction and tone of the series. I’m listening to the soundtrack of 3 right now and so much of it’s coming back to me. It was like a Japanese Gothic Thriller or something, sometimes going into properly scary territory (dat motherfucking graveyard, holy shit). There was a real sense of stillness with that game that would increase the tension of being a sneaky ninja trying not to be seen.
I’d really love to see it move into the next gen. This gen all we got was Tenchu Z and that Wii game I don’t remember the name of, and neither were really as good as the old ones from what I’ve heard. But man, if you could somehow translate the overall style of 3 (and earlier) into bigger sprawling maps or an open world, then give enemies the AI to match, just imagine how fun that would be. MGSV is going set a real standard for open world stealth when it comes out, but Tenchu could give it it’s own spin and make players feel like an actual ninja with only small amounts of fantasy mixed in. JUST IMAGINE acrobatic freerunning across rooftops in a way similar to Assassin’s Creed, but with much harsher penalties for falling and the grappling hook mixed in. Imagine an open world game that’s not about bombastic action, instead opting to be a real sneakfest where the shadows are you friend. Imagine the kind of things you could do with dynamic lighting, and weather, and disguises. Imagine it was one large map and the plots of the first three games were retold using it, giving you a real sense of Rikimaru and Ayame’s growth as ninja.
