Baines

The Black Sun's Mary Sue

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:12:21 GMT

When I read M.L.N. Hanover's Unseen Spirits, I was struck by how much I disliked the main character. She was just so annoying. My brother just lent me the second book, Darker Angels, and now I know why.

The day before I started Darker Angels, I happened to read through the website Too Good to be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue. Main character Jayné is a freaking Mary Sue. When her uncle, who was a big tough guy in the spiritual world, is killed, she inherits all his wealth, his job, his friends, and finds that he'd also laid some serious magical protection on her. And isn't she just the most specialist girl in the whole wide world? She even gets a pronunciation guide for her name (zha-ney, not Jane).

The realization got more entertaining when I remembered something my brother said. Hanover's real name is Daniel Abraham. Abraham once had a fantasy. There is a comic called Hellblazer. In one issue, readers are briefly introduced to main character John Constantine's niece, Gemma. Abraham's fantasy was that he'd write Hellblazer, and the first thing he'd do would be to kill off Constantine in order to make Gemma the main character. That's what Unclean Spirits is. It is his freaking Hellblazer fanfic with the character names changed.

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:37 GMT

It might take a little time to get used to a 1600 x 900 display. Funny, but XP's gigantic default window size almost makes sense at this resolution.

In related news, my old monitor died last night, so I had a forced upgrade to a cheap 20" LCD. And a display resolution upgrade from 1024x768 to 1600x900. Unfortunately, finances have continued to put off the complete computer replacement that I wanted to perform. (Note that mention of XP before?)

Sigh, now I'll have to look up all that old info about color, gamma, brightness, and contrast adjustment again, too. I've never been entirely happy with factory settings for all of those. And I'm going to have to find someplace to start dumping all the old computer junk that I'm building up, like old monitors and printers and the like.

been a while, again

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:37:33 GMT

Yeah, a month since my last post and time to find an excuse to say something again. Why not manga this time?

So, Berserk is still averaging what? Around nine chapters a year? And several of the last year have been a textless string of splash pages. Guts is perhaps nearly to Elfheim, but then again, he's been heading there for the last nine or so years. (He sets off for Elfheim around the middle of Vol 22, and the chapter itself probably dates to around late 2000?)

For anyone who stopped reading Black Lagoon because of the El Baile De La Muerte storyline, that arc finally ended. What was probably supposed to be some epic event bringing many characters and plotlines into one big story devolved into never-ending suck. Even the writer apparently realized it was spiraling into nowhere, as the series was put on hiatus, then restarted with most of the characters and plotlines silently dropped. That was a very good idea, as the story wrapped up fairly quickly once it was jumped to outside the city and with only the key characters present. Plus Roberta was put back into her maid outfit and the modified rifle, originally played up as important before being forgotten entirely, returns to play a key part in the battle.

Ginchiyo

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:42:38 GMT

I always felt Tachibana Ginchiyo was something of an aberration for Koei. Most of Koei's female characters suffer a combination of short range, low damage, weird attacks, and girlish outfits. When a female character turned out to be powerful, it seemed more accident than intention. Ginchiyo was the exception. Heavily armored, sporting a sword with attacks competitive to the male characters, and just all around pretty darn good in each incarnation.

So, is it just me, or has Koei made her girlish for her Samurai Warriors 3 incarnation?
Ginchiyo - Samurai Warriors 2
Ginchiyo - Samurai Warriors 3
Dark purple replaced by purplish pink? A lot of the armor detail and hard edges are removed, making it look softer? The torso/chest looks more like cloth than armor? The armor skirt replaced with something that looks more like cloth and is made more like an actual skirt?

Assorted opinions

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:30:49 GMT

[DVD] SWAT -- More generic than the average generic cop movie. Best thing I noticed? Bad sign that the most entertainment I had was going to the Special Features, simply because it played the theme song to the old TV show there.

[DVD] Watchmen -- Not bad. Long. No giant squid, but including it would have likely have made the movie even longer. Hard movie to recommend, but that is due to the source material itself.

[DVD] Coraline -- Nice. Lots of strange departures from the book. With all the departures and relocating from England to America, it felt strange keeping the idea of shopping for a school uniform.

[Xbox Live Arcade] The Warriors -- Supports four players. Don't try it with four players. Playable characters all look alike. Hard to keep track of where you are and what is happening. Combat is kind of boring. Animation looks stiff.

[Xbox Indie Games] Streets of Fury -- Supports four players. Unlike Warriors, you can keep track of where you are with four players, even when playing identical guys. Looks like Pit Fighter was turned into a side-scrolling brawler. More entertaining than it looks. Fun enough with three or four people. Seems more fun than the more expensive Warriors game.

[Wii] Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga -- Entertaining so far. Character models look like a PSP game. Color palette consists of brown and shadows. Kind of Monster Hunter without visions of grandeur, considering two of the first field monsters are immobile life-size mushrooms and life-size leeches.

Nintendo update bricks Wiis?

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:10:13 GMT

So, Nintendo has released the 4.2 system update for the Wii. People have looked at the details of the update and the only thing it does (despite Nintendo's PR claims of improving performance) is to attempt to disable homebrew exploits and some piracy methods.

Oh, it does do one other thing. It risks bricking your Wii.

When the guys at hackmii.com were working on their HackMii installer, they tested Nintendo's code to update the boot2 firmware. They found Nintendo's code to be buggy, resulting in potentially incorrect ECC data being written for the updated boot2, which could brick a system.

Guess what Nintendo has decided to do for the first time? If your Wii has boot2v2 or boot2v3, the 4.2 update forces an update to boot2v4. And guess what the result is? People are posting about Wiis getting bricked.

Oh, for extra fun? The anti-homebrew part of the update:
1) Failed to address one of the currently known exploits to get code onto a Wii
2) Deleted existing homebrew programs by noticing their IDs, meaning said programs only needed an ID change to avoid deletion.
So even if you update your Wii regularly (and people who pirate games use other methods update methods anyway, if they update at all,) you were probably stopped from running homebrew code for roughly one night.

Muramasa - Shigurui difficulty

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:58:21 GMT

Got Kisuke's 3rd ending to finish the game. Better than Momohime's 3rd, at least.

Started a new game just to see what Shigurui difficulty was. It's a one-hit kill mode, capping your life bar at 1 HP. And while you can switch freely between Muso and Shura difficulties, Shigurui removes that option (which is why you have to start a new game to switch to it.)

Muramasa, Oboro Muramasa

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:54:28 GMT

Beat the bosses for the second time with both characters in Muramasa: The Demon Blade, which gave me the last sword needed to forge all the way to the Oboro Muramasa.

Wow, what a disappointment. Yes, it has the highest attack in the game, but the special is just... "Disturbance" is just a bunch of other lackluster specials combined into one chaotic, ugly, and arguably underpowered package. Sure, it hits full screen, but it tends to miss enemies and you can't even use it in the air.

I also beat one the end bosses on Shura difficulty so that I could unlock the next difficulty level, though I'll probably never play the game under it.

Now to just finish the game a third time with both characters to get their final endings. I wonder if it will be the second version boss again, the first, or a new boss? (EDIT: Only Kisuke left now. Preferred Momohime's 1st ending to her 3rd one. Yukinojyo is a jerk.)

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:29:52 GMT

Started playing Muramasa today. Looks pretty like Odin Sphere.

I'm not sure what to think of the combat. Despite Muramasa having more options inside battle, the combat itself feels more shallow. Muramasa characters are larger than Odin Sphere characters, meaning you have less screen space in battle. Much more limiting is that, rather than Odin Sphere's free run of the entire stage, Muramasa locks battles to a screen-width. While it may be an illusion caused by the size difference and lack of free scrolling, the Muramasa characters feel more agile. Their attacks certainly seem more agile, but Momohime can also cross the width of the screen with a single air dash attack.

If anything, the characters feel too agile and too large for the confines of battle.

EDIT: Okay, not all battles are locked to the same screen size. That goes rather a way to improving things.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:18:24 GMT

[DVD] Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
When I talk about things here, I tend to come off as negative, even of things I like. So here's a review that should buck that trend.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a short (40 minute) musical starring Nathan Fillion, Neal Patrick Harris, and Felicia Day. Quite entertaining, it is available for low price in DVD form and for free viewing through Hulu, so if you haven't seen it, you don't have much of an excuse to not be watching it right now. If you have seen it, you can watch it again.

If you do pony up the minor sum for the DVD, you get the bonus commentary track musical "Commentary! The Musical". Yes, the DVD features two commentary tracks, one real and the other consisting of fourteen songs that vaguely relate to the kinds of things you'd find on a commentary track. You can learn the story of the writer's strike in "Strike," thrill to Nathan Fillion comparing himself to Neil Patrick Harris in "Better than Neil," and give a few minutes attention to the actress who played Groupie #2 when she pays director Joss Whedon ten dollars to sing the solo "$10 Solo".

Okay, you can probably find the entirety of Commentary! The Musical for free on places like YouTube, but if you like the show enough to listen to it, then why not throw a few dollars towards the people who created it? (The DVD also contains a three part "Making of" featurette, and also subtitles in many languages. But not Wiccan subtitles. The Wiccan subtitles option is just there to offer one of the DVD Easter egg clues.)

[DVD] Kiss of the Dragon

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:42:55 GMT

[DVD] Kiss of the Dragon (imdb entry)
According to the opening credits, this movie is based on a story by Jet Li. If so, then Jet Li should stick to action rather than creating stories. Action movies tend to play loosely with details like logic and common sense, but this may be one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen.

Basic story: Jet Li plays a cop from China who is sent to Paris to assist the French police in capturing a Chinese drug lord and his French connection. Unknown to Li, the French inspector in charge of the case is also the connection (and also runs a prostitution ring). The inspector sets up for a couple of his prostitutes to kill the drug lord. The inspector kills the drug lord and one of the prostitutes with Li's gun in order to frame him for the murders.

The stupids: Oh, where to begin...

The inspector lets the second prostitute live for no sensible reason. He just dopes her and dumps her back onto the streets. He does this *after* pissing her off by not living up to his promise to let her go *and* ranting to her about how he cannot afford to ever let her go because she knows too much about his criminal activities. This is all clearly so that she can later help Jet Li attempt to prove his innocence later, but it makes zero sense inside the story.

The inspector has just killed the drug lord and first prostitute. He presumably plans to kill Li, but Li escapes. Now, as far as the inspector knows, at this point there is no evidence to support Li's side of the story (other than the prostitute that the inspect lets live and later dumps onto the street.) It won't be the end of the world if Li escapes, as long as the inspector keeps things calm. So what does he do? He orders his troops to break out the heavy weapons hunting for Li in an expensive hotel. He's firing automatic weapons out of the windows. He intentionally shoots one of his own guys with his own gun when the guy refuses to potentially fall to his death going down a laundry chute. He throws a live grenade into the laundry chute. Guys are firing automatic weapons in the hallways (and shooting each other.) One of the guys, upon seeing Li in the lobby, stands up and opens fire with two machine pistols. These are the kinds of actions that you don't just brush over in a police report, regardless of whether or not they managed to kill Li. And particularly not when you are also trying to convince the Chinese government that their cop was the criminal.

In the chase at the bridge later, the police inspector is pretty much blindly shooting civilians in his attempts to kill Li. Even if you are supposed to be the best cop on the French police force, how are you supposed to cover up this kind of insanity?

It isn't just the bad guy who acts so stupid, though.

Li's contact with the Chinese ambassador gives Li a key code to a locker. The locker has an emergency phone and a second key code. The second locker is lined with enough weapons to start a small war. With the locker door open, these weapons are in plain sight. Now in what universe was that a good idea? Why that many guns? And why in the world, after bringing these weapons into a public station, do you proceed to stack them one by one into the locker? Presumably you had them concealed when you brought them into the station, so why not keep them concealed for the guy who might need to take them out of the station? And note that Li has no idea that the second locker is stocked with highly visible weapons. This stupidity exists entirely for story purposes, as it is used to make a joke of the expressions of the two station guards who are standing next to Li as he opens the locker.

Note that Li's contact conveniently proceeds to not contact Li by phone until *after* the bad guy police inspector decides it would be a good idea to tap all the phones available to the Chinese ambassador and his entourage. When he does contact Li, instead of talking on the phone, he sets up a secret meeting with Li at a boat. Why not talk over the phone? If the contact realized that bad guys might be listening in, then surely he'd also realize that he just told them exactly where he'd be meeting Li in an hour. Or they could have just followed him. And to have the meeting on a crowded public boat might seem slightly intelligent, but he did just give the bad guys an hour's notice to get people there waiting. And being as the bad guys are cops, even if they had just followed the contact to the meeting place, then they could presumably just as easily follow onto the boat itself without having to buy a ticket.

Oh, let's not forget the start of this movie plays around with what is shown in order to make it a surprise when the viewer finds out that Li is a cop instead of an assassin and the inspector is a cop instead of a mob guy. We get a scene of Li using a knife to cut open his luggage in order to trigger a secret compartment that holds his gun. So think about it... The Chinese cop had to sneak his regulation side arm into the country, despite being their through diplomatic channels in a joint operation against a major criminal empire? (And why sneak a weapon at all when his allies have managed to stock a public locker full of guns?)

Or how about when Li meets the inspector, again before we know that either are cops? Li goes through a complicated series of steps to secretly meet with the inspector, including being frisked and having both his gun and passport being taken away. He is then led to a kitchen where the inspector, surrounded by goons (subordinate cops), is beating an unresisting guy pretty much to death. Li of course says nothing, because the movie is still playing him off as a bad guy at this point. The inspector takes Li's passport and gun, and then the movie finally does the reveal that the inspector and Li are cops... So... uhm... Yeah...

Yeah, just stupid... Everywhere...

[books] Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:04:15 GMT

[books] Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Anita Blake books are often described as "vampire (and werewolf) porn". If you have never read the books, then this is both more and less true than you probably believe. It is best to describe the series in eras.

Books 1-9 are the police/vampire hunter era. Hamilton has created a world mostly like our own, except the supernatural is real. Vampires have recently been legally declared "alive" in America, and St. Louis has embraced vampire culture in an effort to boost tourism. The main character, Anita Blake, juggles three jobs: raising the dead, legal executioner for rogue vampires, and consulting with the police on supernatural crimes. The books focus on the crimes as well as the supernatural differences of the book's world. Anita's personal life has her boyfriend troubles as well as her growth towards becoming an emotionless killer.

Books 10-12 are "Anita Does St. Louis". Hamilton effectively says "Screw this world creation and crime work, I wanna write hardcore porn." Book 10 holds real a story, but sex scenes make an intrusion as well. Book 11 has a little bit of story, but is as much about Anita now having gained the requirement that she feed on "lust" every twelve hours. If she doesn't do it willingly, then she loses control and has sex with whoever happens to be near her (described in graphic multi-page detail by Hamilton.)

And then there is book 12... Book 12 has a token crime story about murdered strippers, but this is almost entirely ignored by the writer. I wouldn't be surprised if it only managed around four or five pages in the first four-fifths of the book. Instead, the bulk of the writing exists to move Anita from sex scene to sex scene (which themselves are presented in multi-page detail,) and to justify a once iron-willed monogamous and sexually conservative (back in books 1-9) character now having sex with every non-human guy she meets.

Some of the stuff is laughable, like when Hamilton has a character seriously praising how iron-willed Anita resistance to temptation is, right after she had sex with him and another guy that she had just met. It is almost equally as funny how the writing treats guy Richard being uncomfortable in sexual situations with guy Jean-Claude as some negative thing to be overcome while gal Anita doesn't want anything to do with another woman. (And it is strangely convenient that Anita, now hyped up to four sex feedings per day and breaking her taboos on an hourly basis, is never in a situation where she'd have to feed off of another woman.) Most is just extremely contrived, though. And the character conversations mostly come off as preaching towards the reader.

I'm not sure how book 12 ends, or what happens in later books. There just isn't anything there for me any more. It is nothing but a porn title at this point, with the story and world thrown out the window except as a setting for the sex scenes.

The Replacement Killers

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:48:00 GMT

[DVD] The Replacement Killers
For a movie with so much gunfire, The Replacement Killers is rather boring. I cannot explain why, but it never even grabbed, much less held, my attention. I found myself stopping repeatedly to do more exciting things, like washing dishes.

The action scenes are weak, there isn't much consistency in character skills, and the story takes something of a jump to set up the end piece.

At the start of the movie, John is a deadly assassin, calm and accurate even when faced by gun-wielding foes. Throughout the movie, he randomly switches between accurate and "frantic spray-and-pray", sometimes unable to hit even stationary targets. The other assassins seem as randomly incapable. Meg, a spray-and-pray character for most of the movie, manages to put every bullet she fires into the chest of a skilled gunman as he turns to shoot her.

I almost laughed when Meg, facing one of the replacement assassins, tells the cop to run while she covers him. Why so funny? Because the assassin is clearly reloading his gun the whole time. He doesn't finish reloading until after she's already fired all her "cover fire" shots and the cop is gone. I'm not even sure the cop was even visible to the assassin at any point of his flight.

John packs a lot of guns when he goes to kill his former boss. When he empties one, he just tosses it and draws another. Except when he's finally got his boss trapped. Here, he simply waits with two empty guns held. Waits for the boss to get out of the car, holds the empty guns on the boss, and only draws fresh guns in order to turn and kill more gunmen. Lucky for John that the boss's right hand man, armed with a loaded gun, apparently just decides to sit quietly inside the car for the whole fight.

The driver of the boss' car, with car running in an alley only as wide as the car itself, sees John standing only a few feet in front with two guns raised, and... starts backing up into the alley... The movie might have been much shorter if the boss or the driver had simply considered flooring it at that moment. Not to mention that the crime boss, who has a pissed off cop after him even before one of his own assassins turns, doesn't even bother to have bulletproof glass in his car. And has guards who just stand in place while a rogue assassin comes after their boss.

As for the story jump? John spends the bulk of the movie trying to get a fake passport so that he can fly to China and save his family before the crime boss gets them. He has turned to Meg, who seems okay with her role as a criminal forger, and who has no love for the cops. When she finally finishes John's passport, she suddenly decides to guilt him into saving a cop's son. She goes on about how she'd always looked for that one act she could take to make up for all the wrongs that she has done. She knowingly talks John out of going to save the lives of his own family in order to save someone else. Also note that at no point does Meg apparently consider "Hey, maybe I should just call that friendly cop and let him know that assassins are out to kill his son in his arms."

[manga] Eyeshield 21

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:21:52 GMT

So Eyeshield 21 has finally ended with chapter 333? Can't say I'm too upset to see it go. It was an entertaining series, but it became something of a mess with its last tournament arc.

I do wonder when it was decided that the series would be wound down. In the latter half of the series, it started setting up for a second school year with Sena as leader of the Devilbats. Even the set-up for the world all-star tournament seems to have some idea towards this, introducing a new character who intends to join Deimon next year. Time is spent setting up the world tournament. The opposing teams are introduced. But after the first round match that exists as a farewell to the characters that didn't make the cut to be on the main team, the tournament is thrown into fast-forward (with one chapter covering two full Japan games) to get to the finals of Japan versus America. But then the pacing returns to normal again.

And then it just kind of ends. In chapter 332, the Japan/America match plays to a time-over draw. Both teams, upset at the lack of resolution, choose to break the rules and play an unofficial overtime. But just as play restarts, the manga jumps ahead to Mamoru back in Japan looking at a photo album of the game. Chapter 332 shows the full page from the photo album, then jumps ahead two more years to show the various Japan all-star players have continued to be involved with football, with most ready to face each other in their university days. Several scenes are jokes mirroring scenes from the start of the series. The final chapter ends with the start of Sena's first university play.

There is never any mention of which team won the Japan/America overtime. There is no mention of who won the MVP award, despite that being a major focus of the world tournament. The hints towards a potential Sena/Suzuna pairing are never realized, being pretty much dropped in favor of focusing on games as the series wound down. There is no mention of the results of Sena's second year as Deimon captain, though his position as captain was confirmed. It just feels rushed.

Review: Flightplan

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:17:21 GMT

[DVD] Flightplan
Flightplan is the Jodie Foster airplane movie from a few years ago.

A paraphrase of my brother's description: "Interesting at the start, but becomes stupid."

My description: "If you know anything about this movie, then don't bother to watch it. Just remembering the trailers is enough to make the plot obvious within the first minutes. Honestly, even if you don't know anything about it, you probably shouldn't bother anyway."

I had a longer version of this post, but I deleted it. The movie just isn't worth it. To be blunt, if you've watched many movies or read many stories, the plot is extremely predictable. It relies on some extreme conveniences, and the writing thinks it is more subtle than it actually is. And is mostly just bad. If you wonder about the plot, just ask someone to tell you what happens. Even if you can watch it for free, don't waste your time.

Greg Land's art == Toothpaste commercial?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:34:28 GMT

It isn't difficult to knock Greg Land's comic book art. He is infamous for the "orgasm mouth." There are countless examples online of his shameless copying and swiping of images. His recycling is extensive enough that he fails to establish physical identities for his female characters, so that the only difference between his Jean Grey and Black Canary is hair color, and teenage Pixie looks like an adult because he can only draw one age for women.

I have a different complaint of Land which has only grown over the months. An open mouth can make an image of a face more dynamic, but Land takes this to extremes. He has an obsession for drawing people with their teeth showing. One or two people out of ten is one thing, but Land reverses those numbers.

Take the cover of Uncanny X-Men #510. The image is a large battle between ten characters. Eight have their faces visible, of which only one (Spiral) has her mouth closed. For bonus points, there is even a dragon's head in the background, its mouth wide open as well of course.

Inside the book is as bad. Page 1 has three sets of teeth with five faces. Page 2 hits five for five. Page 3 manages only one set showing of two faces, but does hit six for six when it comes to dragon teeth. Page 4 is two for three. Page 5 is a battle splash page, and is two for two. Page 6 is three for three. Page 7 as well, with a bonus one for one when it comes to open fiery phoenix beaks. Page 8 manages a relatively weak two for four, though it is arguable that the angle of view is obscuring an open mouth in the first Emma panel. Page 9 is four for four. Page 10 appears strangely closed-mouthed at first, with only four of twelve. But the eight closed mouths are all also supposed to be stationary mindless characters. The rest of the pages: 3/5, 5/7, 5/5, 0/3(!), 8/9, 4/5 (likely supposed to be 5/5, but one of the Cuckoos was too far away for teeth)(and 1/1 for dragons), 6/7 (+3/3 in dragons), 1/2, 2/5, 4/6, 7/7, 5/5 or 5/7 (Land may have considered two to be too far away for such detail), 4/5 (with another far away character who is drawn without mouth at all), 2/5 (the three closed all being of a character in a grim mood), and finally the next issue's preview page is one for one.

It sounds silly, but the results on pages range from annoying to borderline insane.

Reaper

Wed, 27 May 2009 01:08:20 GMT

If your show only managed a second season by being a mid-season replacement on a somewhat desperate network, then maybe you shouldn't assume that you'll get a third season while writing your second season finale.

WTF? Mature returns alive in King of Fighters?

Sat, 09 May 2009 22:19:27 GMT

Mature has been added to KOF XII?! Considered dead since the end of KOF'96, she's only appeared in dream matches since.

Okay, KOF XII is a non-story dream match. But the reason it *is* a non-story game is that SNK has completely recreated all the artwork, and they simply wouldn't have the time to do the characters that they desired for the next chapter of the Ash storyline. So even though XII is a dream match, it doesn't make sense for them to use characters that would not be seen again in future games.

She now sports a modified version of her original outfit from her role as Rugal's secretary, rather than the long dress used when she became an official fighter. And an eyepatch. So, does this mean she is returning for real? And what of Vice? Did she also survive?

SNK Playmore has added a character entries for Elisabeth and Mature
Game Watch Impress has high quality screens and character art

Edit: Replaced Famitsu link to small images with Game Watch link to much better versions

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:08:10 GMT

Heh, the title for tonight's episode of Supernatural is "The Monster at the End of This Book". That was the title of an old kid's book starring Grover that I used to own.

Nice bit of fun when Dean asks what "slash" means, when looking at internet pairings.

MadWorld early impressions

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:22:35 GMT

Played a bit of MadWorld, up until I died by walking in front of a train. So, some early impressions.

The black-and-white motif certainly gives the game a distinctive look, but it comes at the cost of making in-game objects less distinctive. If the game had used a normal coloring scheme, things like challenge stars would probably be a noticeable bright yellow with a glowing effect. Not the kind of thing you would accidentally walk in front of a train looking for, because you'd see it from a distance even if obscured. I had similar trouble recognizing an armory box.

The Wii finally gets a game with text designed for an HD screen? Kind of. Most of the text is quite legible. The exception is the text used to the side of the area select screen, which can suffer that annoying color blending effect on an SD TV.

As for the gameplay, I can already see the seeds of complaint that the game is repetitive. Even with a large number of ways to kill opponents, the fighting itself is pretty simplistic. Objects and the environment itself quickly becomes repetitive, since you keep running into the same objects and have only the most basic interactions with them, and those interactions are generally done with a single canned animation per object. I don't know how much it will wear out its welcome before the end of the game.

Motion control? Seems to be okay, but that may be because motion control is so basic. With only one or two motion options available at any particular time, the game can probably be pretty lenient on recognition.

And the Mature rating? Yeah, it probably managed to earn that by the time you finish the training area. Kind of funny that Manhunt took such heat, but make things more cartoonish and people praise you.

For anyone wondering, there is no online. Not even a score board. Hrm, maybe that means you can actually copy saves for this game. Split-screen multiplayer is limited to two players, and consists only of competing for score in the blood bath challenges.

The Cat in the Hat

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:19:52 GMT

ABC is showing the live-action The Cat in the Hat. Wow, it is terrible. The Cat has no personality. The acting is bad across the board. Even the people with actual talent are bad in this movie, and the rest are worse. It is everything that people feared live-action Grinch would have been.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:22:37 GMT

I don't generally do memes, but I haven't posted in a while and it is about games, so:

Taken from the_gel

1) What was your FIRST video game console?
Played: Atari 2600, or maybe one of those Pong knock-offs
Owned: NES (co-owned with my brother, actually)

2) Name a few games you played on said console.
Atari 2600: Breakout, Chopper Command, Stampede, Haunted House
NES: A lot. Pointless to name even a few.

3) Excluding handhelds, how many VG consoles do you own presently?
Six: NES (with flaky AC adaptor), SNES, Gamecube (with flaky power button), Wii, PS1, PS2 (can't handle even a slight scratch on a disc)

4) Were you a Street Fighter nut? Any character in particular?
Of course. It was hard to frequent an arcade in SF2's heyday without getting caught up in the flow.

Despite what friends might guess, I passed over Chun-Li for Blanka way back in the day. By the time of Super SF2, I favored Chun and Cammy, but had also switched mostly over to other fighters.

5) Do you think Capcom is a F***ING awesome company with kickass character designs?
Awesome company? No. Made too many decisions that I didn't like to be awesome.
Character designs? Sometimes. Sometimes not.

6) Here's the scenario.. You had some friends over and you all ate FRIED CHICKEN! After the meal you all decide to play some video games. As your friend reaches for a controller you notice his/her hands are very "greasy." Are you the type that would insist they wash their hands before pawing the controller, or is it no big deal?
You seen what can grow out of fried chicken grease? Stuff is a nightmare. Most people have enough manners to not do that in the first place.

7) What's your favorite RPG/Action RPG?
Tough call. I've somewhat soured on RPGs over the years. Chrono Trigger? Tales of Phantasia? I want to think that there is *something*, but I cannot think of what it would be.

8) Do you prefer 2D games or 3D games?
Depends on the game.

9) Are you an SNK fan?
Yes.

9) Are you good at DDR?
Why are there two 9's? Don't play DDR.

10) Who wants to kick that dog's ass from Duck Hunt?
My brother and I used to try to shoot him. But then, who didn't?

11) Have you skipped out on important events in life because of video games?
Considering how much time and money I spent playing Samurai Shodown 2 in arcades, I had to have skipped something.

Too much time spent on games in general to not have skipped something.

12) Do you listen to video game music?
Sometimes. What I listen to depends on my mood, and what might be in my CD player.
Game-wise, I favor: Samurai Shodown 1 arrange album, Wild Arms 3, Napple Tail, Eternal Darkness, Gitaroo Man, Valkyrie Profile Voice Mix arrange, some Silent Hill and Clock Tower stuff, bits and pieces from various games, and a few just for nostalgia sake.

13) Have you ever cosplayed a VG character?
Never cosplayed at all.

14) Have you ever been in an arcade playing a fighting game, KICKING ASS, and then some 6 year old Asian kid comes in and OWNS YOU??
No. Not even when people went to arcades.

15) Name three games you would love to see remakes of if it was done properly.
Clash at Demonhead
River City Ransom -- No, River City Ransom EX is not it.
Twisted Metal 2 -- No, Twisted Metal Head-On is not it. Head-On isn't a remake of TM2, it is just Twisted Metal Black reskinned as TM2.

Though I'd still like to see Resident Evil 1 remade with an enhanced RE4 engine. Tricky task to do right though, and many fans would probably still call it an abomination.

16) Mario or Sonic?
None of the above?

17) When a movie shows up in the theaters, let's use Spider-man as an example, are you likely to buy the GAME version?
No. Not unless the game is decent in its own right. Even then it isn't likely, because there are always other games that are likely just as decent that I haven't bought yet either.

18) What is your LEAST favorite genre of video games? (ex. fighting, sports, shooters, etc.)
Probably sports. Even if I don't like other genres, I generally don't even bother with sports games.

19) Is there a game out there that you feel was unique and didn't get enough love?
In the past, I'd say yes.

These days, I don't know. To be fair, there are generally good reasons why games didn't get love, even if they are unique. It gets hard to acknowledge a game's faults and still go "This game should have been more popular!"

Yeah, it would be nice if something like Carnage Heart had been more popular. But it wasn't just an odd idea, it simply wasn't that great a game. It isn't like I even liked it that much myself. I just liked the concept and disliked the execution. When you look at games like that, how can you honestly say that they didn't get enough love?

And how often can you say something didn't get enough love when there are better games that also didn't do well?

As well, particularly these days, it seems you can find fans of even the most obscure games if you just look for them. Makes it hard to judge how much love a game even got. Maybe Clash at Demonhead really did get love back in the day. I had no way of knowing back then, and these days you just can't tell anymore.

Though I do wish Earth Defense Force had a US sequel. And I long wanted a Mega Man Legends 3. Though I have to admit that Legends 1 & 2 didn't really deserve to do much better than they actually did. Or Tron Bonne 2. But the appeal of Tron Bonne ties at least a bit back into Legends.

20) Have you ever verbally abused a game because you couldn't beat one of the levels and/or bosses?
Yes.

21) Do you own any VG apparel?
No.

22) What are your thoughts on the live-action Super Mario Bros movie?
*laugh*

23) On that note, what did you think about the live-action Street Fighter movie?
Somehow at the same time both more and less watchable than the live-action Super Mario Bros movie.

I remember my brother and I went to see this for free when it came out, and I still felt ripped off. When Raul Julia as Bison is one of the best things about your movie, you should realize that you've done something wrong.

24) Who's hottest out of the KOF chicks?
Fave is Blue Mary, but it is hard to not acknowledge designs like Angel or Mai.

25) Do you say "old-school" a lot when you're having a VG conversation with others?
In conversation, no. Shows up more often when posting online, but I wouldn't really call that conversation.

26) Have you ever lent someone a game and they returned it to you damaged?
I've got a SNES Alien^3 cart that the person had to pry loose from the floor after letting it sit in a cola spill for I don't know how long. And a PS1 Armored Core that wouldn't play from excessive scratching.

27) Do you own any imported games?
Several for the PS1. I don't think I have any for anything else.

28) Are you ready for this meme to be over, or could you keep going?
*shrug*

29) In this scenario, let's pretend you're going to get a video game tattoo! What would you get and where?
No idea. Don't want a tattoo, don't know what I'd get if I did. I'm past that degree of fandom these days. Even a few years back, I'd have at least have had an answer. Even if it would have changed every few years. (In the past, depending on the month/year/random-thought, it would be anything from: Nakoruru, Megaman, Roll, Luigi, Daisy, Peach, Psyduck, something from River City Ransom, someone from Clash at Demonhead, or any of a variety of others.)

30) Have you ever cried after you beat a game? If so why?
No.

Batmanuel

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:17:15 GMT

Most overwhelming thought on watching The Dark Knight:
The mayor is Batmanuel, from the live action Tick TV series. (Nestor Carbonell)

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:37:11 GMT

Never on the cutting edge, some thoughts on Castlevania Judgment:

Getting the Death Note guy to design the characters was a mistake. It doesn't matter whether or not you think the designs are bad. Yes, Death looks like crap, Maria is Misa from Death Note, and the Belmonts are more metrosexual than ever. That isn't the problem. The problem is that this is a game that is being sold on the legacy of the characters, but the characters are not recognizable. At the very least, "classic" outfits should have been present for each character. Imagine if Smash Bros had only designs like t-shirt and blue jeans Mario, anthropomorphic Pikachu, white haired goth-loli Peach, and R.O.B. looking like Sentinel from Marvel.

The camera is bad. Too often one character is blocking the view of the other character. And heaven forbid when you might need to know where something is when it is too close to the camera to be seen, such as some of the crates in the "Don't break the crates" Mission Mode stage.

Castle Mode is the equivalent of Soul Calibur's mission modes, where you progress across a map clearing gimmicked match conditions such as "Pick up 7 items," "Beat enemy with a sub-weapon," and "Perform a 7-hit combo." As with such systems, matches range from easy to hard with a side order of randomly annoying. In an attempted nod towards the save room systems of Symphony onwards, Castle Mode has them as well. This is ultimately just another minor annoyance. You can still save after every mission, you just have to move back to a save room. To add some illusion of a reason to not save (and heal) after every mission, there is a random chance of an enemy "ambush" when moving to a cleared room. However, this chance is extremely low, and failure just gives you another shot at unobstructed movement, so the only real risk is that you might die between completing a mission and saving. If you are in such bad shape, then you should be trying to get back to a save room anyway, rather than facing new unknown challenges. So you might as well save between each mission. (The biggest save room annoyance however may be the lack of an immediate "Retry mission" option upon failure. Instead you choose to reload from a save room, have the map reload, run the map cursor back to the room you failed, then wait for the mission to reload. This process can be longer than some of the actual missions.)

Story Mode is generic 3D arcade game single-player mode. Story itself is nearly non-existent. Characters from different points in history are smashed together through a time rift, and beat each other up for the promise of eventually finding what they are looking for. Despite some character-specific pre-fight conversations, character interaction is itself nearly non-existent. It is pretty much just some people recognizing each other. Characters fight other characters for their boss battles, in any old stage, with a brief pre-fight conversation that might shed light on what they are after, and around a sentence afterward for their ending. If it weren't for the game ending, you might not even recognize that some of these were boss fights. Even for a time-line mash-up, so much more could have been done here.

Super animations are way too long to be both unskippable and so easy to encounter. (A single character can connect two in a single round?)

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:10:19 GMT

Sigh. What does it say when your parents are watching America's Most Wanted tonight because they've read one of their friends will be on it. As one of the "wanted"...

Though I think part of it is to see just how the law has portrayed the guy.