Video game review: Mass Effect 2

Following the release of their epic RPG adventure "Dragon Age Origins" in 2009, Bioware released the sequal to the critically acclaimed "Mass Effect". Mass Effect 2, was released in Feburary 2010 on Xbox360 and PC, so how does Mass Effect 2 live up to the expectation? Or is ME2 another bad sequal? Let's find out.

Introduction:

I bought the collector's edtion of Mass Effect 2, the package is quite nice, comes with the game disc, as well as an addtional disc of behind the scenes bonus content for those who are interested in the process of game development. The collector's ediion also comes with a Cerberus network card, so owners of the collector's edition can access the and download bonus contents and DLC online.



In Mass Effect 2 players get to be Commander Shepard again to save the galaxy from a threat that endangers the human civilization. While the story sounds simple, the introduction of the game is certainly mind blowing. 5 minutes into the opening cinematic Commander Shepard died in action, when I played ME2 for the first time I was wondering where the story was going when my Shepard died 5 minutes into the game. Without spoiling too much storyline, Shepard is then resurrected by a pro-human organizaion called Cerberus, and started to collaborate with the mysterious "illusive man" on a suicide mission to save the galaxy from a dangerous threat to all.

Design and gameplay:

Having said this, if you have played Mass Effect 1 you will probably remember the game as a RPG, deep space adventure set in the future. Mass Effect 1 had a huge inventory system, and a traditional leveling up system for character progression as Shepard and his team mates gain experiences. In Mass Effect 2, the tiresome inventory system is gone, and instead of being able to change your armor and weapon half way throughout a mission by pressing the inventory key on your keyboard, now the players will have to visit the captain's cabin on Shepard's commanding ship prior to the start of the mission to choose the type of armor of weapon to use, which not only simplifies the inventory system, but also add a sense of realism. Bioware has claimed that the Mass Effect franchise will be a trilogy, and the choices and decisions you make in ME2 will be carried into Mass Effect 3 should you choose to import your commander Shepard in the future.

Mass Effect 2 is a very personal game, because if you have your saved game from Mass Effect 1, you can import your Shepard from Mass Effect 1 into Mass Effect 2 and start using that save file. All the choices you made from the first game will be carried into the storyline of the second game. This makes the game feel like "your story" and is a very nice feature.

Mass Effect 2 can be said as a real hybrid between an RPG and a 3rd person shooter. The combat system is very similar to "Gears of War" series, but only with more actions and biotic powers. The combat system is far more heavier than in ME1, which is a good change. It is also a very story driven game where every decision you make and very dialogue option you choose can have real consequences later in the game. The leveling up system of characters has been simplified a lot, instead of having a tedious and tiresome skill tree menu to add skills points to, now the player only have maximum 7 skills to level up, the skill builds are according to the character class. There are six character classes availiable in ME2: Soldier, Vanguard, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel, and Engineer, each character class has its own unique skill tress and the play experience is very different from class to class, adding tremendous amount of replay value.

For most of Mass Effect 2, the players will find themselves mostly doing quests for Shepard's comrades, from recruiting missions to special personal quest missions. This is a real nice change from ME1 because as Shepard, you really get to know your squad members really well, and by doing their special missions, you can gain their loyalty which is very important to as if they will survive the suicide mission or not, and minor spoiler here, if you are such a lame commander and no one is loyal to you, then your commander Shepard can actually die at the end of the game. That means no import game for Mass Effect 3.

Score: (5/5)

Storyline:

Mass Effect 2 has a very strong storyline, there are so many cinematics in the movie at times you feel like you are watching a movie, only that you are in the movie making choices. AS a Christian, I did not really find any objective contents, there were some spiritual contents in the game when a squad member was talking to Shepard about "cause and effect". One of the character, who is a cyborg is called "Legion", the cyborgs claims this name because they are "many", which is a reference from the Bible. The violence level is pretty high, as the combat system is very heavy. YOu don't see blood very often because it's all "laser guns". There are minor sexual contents in the game, as commander Shepard you can choose to "romance" different squad members, or you can choose not to, which is fair enough. All in all, I did not find many offensive contents, but those who are sensitive to the idea of "alien life forms" should be warned, as the game world is filled with alien life forms and most of Shepard's squad members are aliens. My take is that this is just a game, it's entertainment and that is as far as it goes.

(4.5/5)

Graphics:

Mass Effect 2 uses Unreal engine 3.5, the graphics in this game is jaw dropping, the character animation is particularily well done, Bioware once again lives up to its reputation in this area. The artistic design of the game world is beautiful, at times I feel like the different cities and worlds are something out of the movie "Blade Runner".

Score: (5/5)

Sound:

The music in Mass Effect 2 is a vast improvement to ME1, the music is less ambient and spacey compared to ME1. The voice acting is amazing, Martin Sheen's voice acting as the "Illusive man" is probably the best voice acting in all video games I've seen yet.

Score (5/5)

Final thought:

So far I have completed the game three times, that is a total hour of 96 hours. I am starting a new game on the 4th go and I am stll not bored yet. It's just that everythng about this game is so top of the notch and is highly enjoyable. No wonder why all the critics review Mass Effect 2 as a better game to the famous "God of War 3" which was released on PS3 in may this year. In my opinion, Mass Effect 2 is one of those games that can be seen as on par to the legendary "Baldur's Gate" series, and I can't wait for Bioware to release its finale "Mass Effect 3".

Final socre: (98/100), superb game, don't miss it!

Daniel's "game of the year" choice.

Book review: Legend of Drizzt book I: Homeland

Introduction:

Two years ago, as I was browsing in the bookshop, I came across a boxset of books that captured my attention. It was entitled "The Legend of Drizzt". My guess is, if you lived your teenage years in the middle to late 1990's and was into some sort of dungeon and dragon stuff (whether it be the boardgame or the video game), you will probably have heard of the character Drizzt. Initially, I wasn't really sure about these books, I mean, fantasy novels based on a character from the Dungeon and Dragon universe? My instinct told me do not pick up these books because they will probably have meaningless stories and empty characters with endless combat scenes.


However, I was really attracted by the cover design, so I bough the first set of Legend of Drizzt, and it costed about 30 bucks for the trilogy. Later on that night, I started reading the first book called "Homeland". I realized these novels are written more for young adults, but oh boy after reading a few chapters I was totally hooked, and went back and bought the next box set.

Up till now, I have all thirteen books of Legend of Drizzt on my bookselve, written by RA Salvatore. I haven't finish reading all thirteen books yet, but I will start off by reviewing the first book out of the thirteen.

First of all, I have to say, Drizzt is probably one of the my most favourite character of all time, and I will explain why in this review.

Amongst the Drizzt books I have read, Homeland is my third favourite Dizzt book. This is the "origin" story, the introduction of who Drizzt is, and gave a good background into his story. I am not usually the kind of person who will get very emotional from watching a movie, or reading a book, but here I admitt that tears came out of my eyes a few times while I was reading Homeland, especially at the end, I got really really emotional.

Story:

So what is this story about? Well, the story of Drizzt is set in a realm that is similar to the Middle Earth, so you have elves, human, dwarves, halfings, gnomes, orcs, goblins, demon kinds.. so on and so forth. In Homeland, the reader is introduced to the birth of a boy named Drizzt, who is born as a race of elves with ebony skin, his people are known as the "drow". The dark elves/drow are reputed to be the evil race of people across the world, their society is constantly filled with power struggles, death, murder and polotical conflicts arising for the sake of personal ambitions. The drow culture is a female dominant society, where the female children are raised to be priestees and usually hold high position in a house. All the drow worship an evil goddess which known as the Spider Queen. The male children, are treated as less important, and are usually trained to be fighters or wizards.

So Drizzt was born into the second most powerful house in the drow city, being a male he was treated with cruelty by his mother and sister, and at young age, he was sent to the fighter school, to be trained as a fighter so he can carry out his duties as an assassin or a solider for his mother. There he met the best drow weapon master who ever lived, Zaknafein, Zak trained Drizzt in the art of sword fighting, but also taught him in secret, moral codes and principles totally against the self centred culture of drow. As Drizzt grew up, Zak and him became very close friends. Also because the way Drizzt has been taught, when he left the fighter school to rejoin his family and the society he became foreign to the selfish and self centred cultur of the drow society. In other words, Drizzt couldn't fit into the selfish and self centred ways of his people because he belives in different things. The story then goes on to show Drizzt's struggle to keep up his principles, and there are some tear wrenching moments of sacrifices and determination.

What I got out of it:

To me, the main theme of Homeland is about the difference between living a real life and simply surviving. Towards the end of the book, as Zak, who turned out to be Drizzt's realy father sacrificed himself to save Drizzt, he said " Do more than just survive, my son, as I have done, Live!" Two years ago when I was reading this book, as I read this sentence it really put a question in my mind. What does it really mean to live? What is the difference between being alive and just survive?

I was thinking, I wonder if I am living in a society much like the Drow society described in the book, where every decision and acts from people are driven by selfish ambition and survival instinct. In the book, Zak, Drizzt's father realised something is wrong with the drow society, and therefore installed Drizz with different values and belief, but Zak ultimately was unable to live his life according to the values that he belives in, because he just wanted to survive in the Drow society by acting like everyone else. There was much regret in him, therefore at the end of his life, he called out for his son to "live and not to just survive". I think there is a lot of similarity between my situation and Zak's situation. This really made me reflect on myself as a Christian, was I really living for Chrit and is living out my live as a real Christian? Or was I simply trying to survive and fit in? Then I realized I was simply surviving more than really being alive, how many times had I taken short cuts to achieve a goal, and how many times have I decided to join the crowd instead of having the courage to speak out what is true? I was indeed, surviving more than living.

For me, even though this is a secular book written by a secular author, written for young adults, but this is also one of those stories that really challenged me and made me think about myself and where I was with God. I also have to admit, two years down the line, the challenge to be really alive for Christ rather than just survive is a daily struggle I am still facing, and i have no doubt that this struggle will continue till the day I die.

Writing and style:

The character of Drizzt is created by the author RA Salvatore, I have never heard of him unti I picked up the Drizzt books. Salvatore is really good at writing combat scenes, it's almost like if you can picture the dance of Drizzt's sword in your mind as you read the words. However, some people have said the first novel "Homeland" has a very slow pace and is difficult to get into. My view is that, if you get through the first 3 chapters, the pace picks up. However, Homeland also has a lot of character development and there are many things worth thinking about as you read it, so take it slowly. Having said that, I do have to say Salvatore is by no means a literature award winning writer, so do not expect to see use of wordy and complex words in his books.

Final verdict: (4.5/5)

As I said earlier, personally Drizzt is one of my most favourite characters. "Homeland" really is a great book to get insight into Drizzt's story, and a lot of the context reminds me of the things that I should be reflecting about, and things that I used to believe but don't believe anymore. Besides the action scenes and the cool characters, personally I was realy moved by the story and its underlying implications. If you are like me, the kind of person who enjoys stories about things taking place in a fantasy world, then you might find some heartwarming and tear wrenching entertainment about this very human character.

Game review: Assassins Creed

Assassins Creed, is a video game developed by UbiSoft Montreal in 2007. The console versions were first released in November 2007, the PC version, which is also a director's cut was released in the first quarter of 2008. This is an action/stealth game, where the player takes control over an Assassin (Alatir) during the 3rd crusade. The setting is basic in historical events and characters, with many elements of fictions involved.

Plot:

The story of Assassins Creed is an interesting one, it started with a character called "Desmond", being put in a machine known as the "Animus". In the story, apparently our ancestors' memories can be stored in our DNA, and by entering into this Animus machine, one can retreive and "unlock" these hidden memories in our DNA. So in this game, Desmond is being put into Animus after being captured by a secret organisation in 2012, and forced to re-live his ancestor's memory.



Then Desmond goes back to the 3rd crusade, where the Saracens controlled Jerusalem and Damascus. The player takes control of a character known as Altair, who belongs to a organisation called "Assassins', historically known as "Hashasins". Altair is one of Desmond's ancestors. The story started of with Altair in the temple of Solomon, tryinjg to retrieve a artifact known as "piece of Eden". The story then revolved aroud Altair trying to retreive the artifact in a race against the Knight Templars. The story is full of twists and surprises, and is quite orginal as it becomes clear later that the real threat is more than just the struggles between the assassins and templars.

Minor spoiler: As you play the game, you will realize that the story is using the same style as Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", and it involves conspiracy theories. Towards the end, people might find the story a bit offensive because it is almost as if the story writer is writing a story to say that all regligions are consipracies. Personally, I didn't find the story offensive at all, because I think it is important to remember that both the story here in this game and the novel Da Vinci Code are "fictions" rather than truth, and they are or entertaiment rather than truth searching. So as long as you can remember to seperate this fiction from reality, then you will find the story quite enjoyable and will keep you interested. However, do remember that Christians already know the truth, it is all written in the Bible. Otherwise, enjoy this game.

Gameplay:

Assassins Creed is quite original. The game design is really amazing, the cities are designed according to the real scale, and filled with citizens and ordinary people. The game world is set in the open world, meaning that you can go anywhere at anytime. As an assassins, you have many different abilities, such wall climbing, long distance jumping. You will also have a variety of weapons at your disposal to get your assassinating missions done. The sword fighting in this game is really good, the combat animations are amongst top in the games released in 2007/8,

You also get a variety of missions, such as rooftop races, assassination missions, protect the citizens, so on and so forth. However, the gameplay really suffers at this point because the missions are very repetative. While playing this game, I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. The counter attack move was not balanced well, as combat became way too easy and you can easily take down 20 enemies by using counter attack alog. The lack of mission variety and the unbalanced combat system can make the game seem pretty boring at times. However, just when you think you don't want to play it anymore, the main storyline will drag you in again.

Graphics:

The graphics is probably the strongest point in Assassins Creed, the movements are fluidic, the cities and environment loook amazing. It was an awesome experience to stroll through the cities.



Final verdict:

Story: 4/5
The storyline of Assassins Creed is really interesting and full of surprises (that's if you manage to sit through the repetative missions and get to the end), much more interesting than Dan Brown's Da Vici Code. However, if you are a Christian and playing this game, just keep in mind that this is ficiton, and is for entertainment. While the story is interesting, it is for fun only and should not be taken seriously.

Gameplay: 3/5
While it is fun to jump around on the rooftops and assinate your targets using cool weapons. The lack of mission variety and the easy combat quickly makes the game really boring and repetative.

Graphics: 4.5/5
The graphics is simply stunning, the city design is really, really good.

Final score: 3.5/5

I became quite interested with crusader history and actually gained a lot of historical and geographical knowledge after playing this game. The game is good, with interesting storyline and everything else. However, it is way to repetative and can be a bit boring. However, UbiSoft Montreal should be praised for its groundbreaking design and concepts.

Movie review: The Watchman

The Watchman is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder (director of 300). It is originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The original comic book is a series of 12 issues graphic novels. The movie, is an adaptation of the comic book. I remember seeing this film in the cinema when it came out a year ago in 2009, and today I'd like to review this movie.

The movie is set in 1985 New York in an alternative time line, when the Cold War was still going on. In this "world", groups of superheroes gathered and started to fight crimes in the 1930's, and they disbanded after one of the superheroes died a violent death. A few decades later, another group of superheores get together and formed the "watchman". These superheroes made some real impact on American history, such as saving JFK from being assassinated, and helped America to win the Vietnam war. In the 1980's the watchman was outlawed by the American congress, and they disbanded. However, the movie starts where one of the watchman member started to investigate the mysterious murder of ex-superheroes, and eventually it leads to a much bigger and deeper conspiracy.

So without spilling too much of the story, this is the general background of the watchman universe. Now, being a huge fan of superhero movie myself, I was anticipating this movie for many months before it came out in 2009. Especially after finding out about the setting of the movie plot line. However, when I finally saw the film I was not only disappointed, by greatly offended as well.

Let me get on to the bad:

1) First of all, in the movie there was a character named Dr. Manhattan, the leader of the watchman, he had a lab accident and became a God like character who is all powerful and immortal, as cool as it sounds the character design is extremely awful. In the movie, the good Dr. walks around stark naked with a glowing blue penis swinging between his legs almost all the time. I do not understand why this character has to be designed this way, why couldn't he just wear some underwear?

2) Seconldy, there is an very explicit sex scene in the movie, featuring two of the superheroes having sexual intercourse for almost 5 minutes. I have to say the content was really explicit, and it was like watching porn in a movie theatre. The death scenes are also full of blood and gore.

3) Thirdly, and this is the most offensive part, is the ending. I will not spoil the story or the ending here. However, I was greatly offended by the ending, because the ending promotes the idea of "the end justifies the means", and in that there is no good or evil, just what we do to benefit and ensure our continual existence. Personally, I think this is Hollywood at its best in promoting the post-modern culture. As a Christian, I found the ending totally against the teaching of Jesus and the Bible. I also do not understand why filmmakers are beginning to make movies that promotes post-modern cultures, nor the audiences that praise this kind of movie for its "deep and complex plot and meaning". Have people grown tired of watching good heroes fighting bad things? Are we a society that has reached the point when we have finally think we can make up our own standard to suit our needs? What does the Bible say about the standard of good and bad? If you decide to watch this movie, it might be good to think this over after the film, and compare the teaching from the Bible against the underlining meaning of the movie's final ending.

Now onto the good:

1) The special effects are quite good and very well done.

2) The movie definitively feels like a comic book adapation, Zack Snyder did a very good job in directing the movie, a touch of imagination meets reality, but still manage to keep the dark, graphic novel atmosphere.


3) Dr. Manhattan's philosophy about the universe and life is quite interesting.

In general, the ratings are:

Video and presentation 4/5: Zack Snyder did a good job in directing the film, the atmosphere and the special effects are very good.

Sound and music: 3/5 I cannot remember the soundtracks, however the sound effects were pretty impressive.

Story: 1/5 I was greatly offended by the final ending and its underlying implications, the story is full of twists and surprises, but I think praising God's standard of good and bad is more worthwhile than praising a complex and original story that goes against what Jesus teaches us in the Bible.

Final verdict: 3/5 I really like the film for its design and atmosphere, but I just hate the message of what this film is about. If you want to watch this film, it is fine as long as you don't get pulled in by the whole post-modern philosophy. Please note the nudity, explicit sexual content, violence and gore might upset sensitive viewers.

Movie Review: Wolfman (2010)

The movie industry loves making movies about vampires and werewoles. People seem to be really fascinated by these legendary creatures. In the latest addtion to the horror movie genre is the remake of the 1941 classical horror movie "wolfman". In 2010, the year of remakes, is this remake another worthy addition to the already existing classics or is it a flop?

Well, to begin with, Wolfman has solid casts. From the award winning actor Anthony Hopkins, Benicio del Toro, Hugo Weaving, and Emily Blunt. These are good actors, and the movie itself is directed by Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3, October Sky). Just by looking at the actors and the director, the team seemed to be going somewhere.

THe story of WOlfman started off by a character named Lawrence Tobolt going home to Blackmoor England to investigate his brother's murder. As he investigated into the murder he found out there is a nightmarish creature who has been killing people, and eventually Lawrence is bitten by the creature and turned into a werewolf himself. The story then goes on and gradually unfold, telling the bizzare tale of the origin of the werewolf curse, and a supposed "twist" at the end of the movie which is the typical Hollywood style "twist" that won't surprise the audiences at all.

The presentation of Wolfman is quite good, it is very dark and in the first 30 minutes of the movie the filmaker actually managed to build suspense, however it all goes downhill from there as the plot becomes very predictable. The biggest weakness of this movie is the predictability of the plot, the scipt writer gave away too many hints for the audiences to know what the ending will be like half way in the movie, and this really destroyed the film.

However, the special effect of the wolfman transformation is really good and realistic, the appearance and the transformation sequence of the wolfman is actually quite believable. I also like the dark atmosphere, the atmosphere really suited the theme of this movie. The sound effect is pretty good as well, however the score is pretty average.

Personally, I do not see any objectionable contents in this movie. Besides the violence and the gore might upset more sensitive viewers. However, because the movie is so dark, all the blood and gore cannot be seen clearly anyway, the blood actually appear black because all the werewolf actions takes place at night. However, I also did not see any contents that has anything to do with the teaching from the Bible. This is the kind of movie when you just walk in, eat pop corn and drink coke, turn your brain off and waste 2 hours for relaxation.

Final verdict:

I was pretty disappointed with the remake of Wolfman, because this is a movie with so many potentials yet wasn't realized because Hollywood decided to once again use the pop corn flick formula. The solid cast, special effect, and marketing promotion have sort of gone to waste.. The most frustrating thing is that, the result is not a good movie, but it is not even a bad movie because it is actually quite entertaining, this is something that could have been a classic, but reduced to an average 2 hour long pop corn flick. The director Joe Johnston have promised an extended edition of this movie when it comes out on DVD, and claimed the original cut has more character development, so if you haven't seen this in the cinema yet, and is thinking of seeing it, I'd say hold your horses and wait for the extended DVD version.

Score: 2.5/5 (average)

Book review: A brief history of time

As a follower of Christ, and also as someone who is generally passionate about physics and has a background in engineering, I really enjoy reading books on cosmology, because personally I find the more I understand how the universe is operating, and its origins and laws, the more it fills me with awe and admiration of how beautiful and powerful God is.

So today, I would like to review a book called “a brief history of time” by Stephen Hawking. Let me start by giving some info about Stephen Hawking:

Professor Stephen Hawkings, a British theoretical physicist, is without doubt one of the most brilliant mind in recent human history. He was also the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a position previously held by people like Isaac Newtown. His famous research works include the theoretical prediction that black holes can actually emit radiation, now days now as the “Hawking radiation”.

He wrote quite a few famous books about physics and science. From books for the general public such as” the universe in a nutshell”, to the more technical books such as “God created the integers: mathematical breakthroughs that changed history”.


So, what is this book “a brief history of time about? Well, as the title suggests this is a book that introduces the general public to many topics in cosmology such as: black hole, big bang, and light cones. I have to say that this book is quite well written, because Hawking really did manage to write and explain physics and Maths in ways that the general public can understand. Throughout the whole book, the amount of “xyzqed” equations are practically non-existent, except the famous equation by Einstein E=mc^2.

Having said this book talks about subjects in cosmology, essentially this layout of this book follows a very logical progression, I will list them here:

1) Hawking started off by introducing the history of mankind’s research on universe.
2) Then he started to talk about the concept of space and time, and then moved into Einstein’s special theory of relativity and why it is needed for us to understand what space and time is, and how this leads to the mathematical conclusion (from special and general theory of relativity) that the universe, has a beginning and will have an end.
3) With the understanding of space and time, Hawking then started to talk about the expanding universe based on our understanding of space and time, and provided some recorded experimental proofs of an expanding universe, in conjunction with the well know blue-shift and red-shift phenomenon (the Hubble’s law).
4) Hawking then started to talk about the uncertainty principles, and at the end conclude that although we don’t have a unified theory of general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, but we do know what the shapes of the unified theory should “look like”.
5) Next, the elementary forces and particles of the universe is discussed, and the fascinating subject of “black hole” is discussed, and the fate and the origin of the universe is discussed.
6) Hawking then started to talk about the arrow of time, by invoking the laws of thermodynamics, this is a very useful chapter for people who wish to know more about the arrow of time, and its implications such as why things decay, or why cold things can’t make hot things hotter.
7) Finally, Hawking concluded the book by talking about the unification of physics, and a “theory for everything”.

So yes, this is basically what this book is about. It is short, but gives really good general summary of where we are in terms of the discovery of our universe.

Throughout the book, Hawking shows that he has agnostic view about God. His view on God is probably more similar to Einstein’s view that God reveals himself through the physical laws that governs the universe, but does not intervene with the universe and its events.

As a follower of Christ, I believe that God is the author of everything we know and don’t know, but also God does care and His finger prints are in every pass moments in this universe. When I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but keep thinking, wow how amazing is our God, the creator of space and time, relativity equations, big bang, arrow of time, black holes, elementary particles and forces of nature etc., these are all very mind blowing things that really took my breath away. For me, it always fills me with awe how God can make everything out of nothingness. Just to think of how God can create a singularity that caused the big bang, and how that ties in with the laws of thermodynamics, and the elementary particles and forces so and so forth. It is like everything is created and written so the mechanics of the universe works like a perfectly designed engineering masterpiece that can harbour and nourish life on earth.

Therefore, if you have some interest in cosmology, or are just someone who wishes to see the beautiful mind of God and his design but doesn’t have good background in physics, then this is the book for you. Hawking is agnostic, and in the book he did not attack on any religious concepts of any sort, but simply stated at the end that, if we can find a unified theory of everything, then we can know the mind of God. I don’t want to comment on Hawking’s statement, but however I would like to ask, even if we know the theory of everything, isn’t it more important to know the will of God and His purpose for us in life? I always think after we know the purpose of the creator who made the “theory of everything”, then if we do discover the “theory of everything” one day, this theory would simply show us how beautiful and mighty the creator of everything is, and how we can apply it for the better of the world.

If you want to further reading, then I would also suggest “Just six numbers” by Martin Ree, and “The origin of the universe” by John D. Barrow. If you have good mathematical and physics background, you can also read “Anthropic cosmological principle” by Barrow and Tipler (this book is very hard to find, it took me a long time to locate it).

Book rating: 4.5/5 Strongly recommended

Movie Review: Requien for a dream

Requiem for a dream, is a drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky (the director of pi, and the wrestler). It is an adaptation from a 1978 novel by Hubert Shelby Jr.

First of all, a word of warning, this film is R-rated for drug use and sexual content. It is a movie about different addictions and how it can ruing people's lives. Personally, it was quite difficult for me to watch through the whole film, because some of the scenes are very painful to watch. However, I have to say the film is really well made, because the horrific images of the results of addiction, whatever addiction will probably never leave my mind. In this movie, the characters are all pursuing dreams that ultimately lead them into addictions and destructions. God said we should only worship him, and not idols. In requiem for a dream, it is really clear that all the characters are worshipping the idols such as fame, youth and beauty, money and how that destroyed them. As followers of Christ, we know that the consequences of worshipping idols is far worse than just the horrific results depicted in the movie, the consequences of worshipping idols is the eternal seperation from our creator, which will be our ultimate destruction.

The director did a really good job, the camera angles are very unique, much like the first 5 minutes of "the wrestler". I don't really want to spoil the story too much, all I can say is, if you see past the explicit sexual themes (not very long actually) and some difficult to watch wounds and grotesque scenes, then you probably won't regret watching this film.

Video (4/5): although made in 2000, the film is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ration, which is not bad and provides good contrast, the director Darren Aronofsky brings us his unique style of camera angle and works really really well.

Story (4/5): The story really shows the price and the consequences of addictions.

Sound (4/5): The soundtrack "Requiem for a dream", sounds very epic, one of my favourite movie soundtrack.

Overall (4/5): This is a good film, but if you are looking for entertainment you won't find it here. Also remember my warning that there are explicit sexual themes and horrific images of wounds that might upset more senstivie viewers.