skate.Reel finally works for me

And here's my first skate video.

I thought I'd editted the first half out... it was only supposed to be the last long grind. Oh well, it's Beta right?

Catching up with the Gaijin

With all this extra time sitting on my butt at home this last week, I've been catching up on a few things. Some anime I'd not watched, som comics I'd not read, some games I'd not played much lately (set new high scores in Pac-man CE and Geometry Wars, woohoo!) and today, thanks to an offhand comment from Erich, I thought to get caught up on Gaijin Smash. This week's stories about the train and the $1200 Cell Phone Porn bill are classics.

If you're not familiar with it, start reading now. You'd benefit from reading some of the early posts. Especially the first one. It really sets the tone for whole blog.

The Inevitable

VGChartz announces the Wii has finally surpassed the Xbox 360 in total sales.

After next year I fear a drought of epic games. Why should anyone bother but for the love? If casual gaming pulls in these kinds of numbers for such ridiculously low development costs, where's the benefit to the company? *shrug* I love the Wii but in some ways I fear for the future.

What a week

Last Wednesday at work I started receiving files for a big project that warrant speedy attention. I'd been anticipating their arrival for some time. They are part of a larger issue that has been going on for years before I was even in this position and there's some pressure to get it resolved.

But, of course, last Thursday I had ankle surgery. Off Friday and Monday for recovery, back on Tuesday. By which point MORE files on the project had arrived, also needing review. Fine fine, I got some work done Tuesday, but was still a little bit behind.

Wednesday morning I get up and my car won't start. Quick clicking sounds emanate from the dash... I figure it's the batter, alternator, or starter. Nothing much I can do while I'm still on crutches, though, so back in a go and wait for Anna to get home from work. The car is parked in the carport with no good access to the front though, and there's no way we're moving it out on our own. Any normal day would be fine, but while still recovering from ankle surgery? No, I think not. So she goes to bed, and that night we go out and buy one of those portable jump starters so we can get it moving. That done, I get the battery replaced and the charging system tested the next morning (Thursday) and all is well.

But Thursday I also had another Doctor's appointment so, between the battery and that, it's another day off. Only the Doctor's office disagreed. They didn't have me down for an appointment that day. In fact they didn't have me down for any upcoming appointments at all. Thankfully the physician's assistant is sweet and saw me anyway.

This morning I planned on returning to work... lots to do ya know? Get in my car and realize it's been broken in to. My fault, I left it unlocked, but now the car is full of the out turned contents of my glove boxes. I don't think there was anything in there particularly worth stealing, but I called all of my financial institutions anyway. Got new CC numbers, put a credit alert on file with credit bureaus, and file a report with the police. If I were to leave for work now I wouldn't arrive until almost 11 o'clock, half the day wasted, vacation leave taken for the morning. The heck with that, I'm staying home.

And I have another doctor's appointment on Monday. What a week.

Chibi Block Dropping Salvation: SPFIITHDR Dated

Thanks to my friend Nick for pointing out Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has finally been dated. And it's coming next Wednesday! For what will most assuredly be the best XBLA release ever. I really can't wait.

2k, really?

What do you do when you have one of the hottest selling games of the year?

First, allow direct2drive downloads with a preloader from IGN, then start threatening to sue customers who discover you put the authentication server up early.

Second, implement widescreen incorrectly, making it show LESS than the 4:3 mode.

Third, implement draconian DRM requiring an internet connection to register and play, and only allowing 2 installs of the game, ever.

Fourth, explain to all your customers why they are wrong, and widescreen really shouldn't give them more picture.

O_o

skate.

The demo finally was released yesterday and it's great. Really everything I wanted it to be. It's such a pleasant departure from the Tony Hawk trick chain fest bs. It was awesome to grind on telephone wires at first. But really, telephone lines? Ridiculous. EA's skate. feels like skating, and I couldn't be happier.

Out of surgery.

I've been out of surgery for 26 hours, and my leg is still numb from the nerve block. Apparently I'm a complete lightweight because I was out way before they expected me to be. They gave me a light sedative to get me loose for doing the nerve block on my ankle because they said I couldn't be completely under when they did it. Yeah, well, I remember rolling on my side for them to start the block, the next thing I know I'm waking up in the recovery room.

The numbness is wearing off, but all that means is the pain is setting in.

Countdown to Cancellation

Countdown just isn't working out for me. For all that I enjoyed 52, I certainly wanted it to. I've given it 14 issues now, however, and it still isn't clicking, so I think that's enough. I've actually removed it from my weekly lists in various discussion forums, but have failed to make the change to my pull list at the comic shop. That changes today, however, as the book is officially pulled from my list.

The biggest problem for me is that too much of the book is given over to fleeting glimpses of events occurring around the DC Universe. I understand the logic behind device: in the stated goal of the series to serve as a spine for the DCU books for the coming year, it gives readers a look around at events important to the eventual 2008 big crossover. However, these glimpses often glaringly contradict the events in the books for which they are considered home. Ostensibly they are shown in Countdown to round out the important events for readers not following the "home" titles, but at times they never receive closure in Countdown leading to narrative discontinuity. It would be far better if Countdown formed a backbone storyline for the DC Universe with everything tied up neatly in Countdown, allowing the monthlies to tie into events when it makes sense to demonstrate the far reaching implications.

One of the most problematic storylines running through Countdown is the search for Ray Palmer, which involves Donna Troy, Jason Todd (who I guess at this point has dropped the hood from his "Red Hood" disguise so I guess he's just the "Red Mask" now?), and current Atom Ryan Choi. The story is billed as an important one, developmentally, for the DCU. The problem is that it's occurring in both Countdown and All-New Atom. With entirely different events. At a completely different pace. Maybe it's working for some, but it isn't for me. So as of now Countdown is dropped and I'm officially adding Booster Gold, Brave and the Bold, and Flash to my pull list.

Booster Gold is a welcome return. Booster was a favorite of mine as a kid and well into my teens as part of the Giffen Justice League. He was mishandled terribly in the 90's, but after a rough ride last year in 52 through some dubious moments, I think it's time for the Goldstar to shine again under the guidance of Geoff Johns and Dan Jurgens, Booster's creator.

As excited as I am for Booster to be back in the spotlight, I'm also ecstatic by the creative team leading it. Geoff Johns rarely goes astray. His DC books of the last few years have been some of my favorites of all time. His run on Justice Society is unmatched, his Teen Titans were as definitive as the Wolfman/Perez years, and his work on Green Lantern has been a renaissance. I have no doubt in my mind that his Booster will be of similar quality.

By contrast, Dan Jurgens has been something of an unknown quantity over the last few years, at least for me. The highest profile work he's done has been the History of the DCU back in 52, and the History of the Multiverse backup in Countdown. I do count this as a negative against him… only by virtue of the fact that I hold him in high regard as an artist. Jurgens is a remarkable representation of the superhero illustration classicist. His figure work is dramatic, his lines are clean, his anatomy is solid, and his backgrounds are anything but neglected. I'm very happy he's not only on a monthly book, not only on a monthly book that I want to read, but he's on a monthly book that I want to read about a favorite character which he created, written by a man I consider to be, perhaps, the best new comics writer of the last decade. I really couldn't ask for much more.

Rounding out the additions: Brave and the Bold I've been buying since it first started four or five months back and for some reason never got around to putting it in the list. Waid and Perez's BATB feels like every good DC comic I've ever read rolled into one. Classic comics in a modern format. Love love love. However, Waid's return to Flash in #231 has me a little on the cautious side.

The basic concept is that Wally West, the third man to bear the Flash name, returns with his family to the DCU after what was apparently about 10 years in some alternate dimension. Does anyone see the immediate problem readers might have? Many people hold the aging of previous Kid Flash Bart Allen to the twenty year old Flash (only to then kill him off at the end of a year when it wasn't working) as the biggest mistake DC comics has made recently. When last we saw Wally the kids were infants, now they are preteens. The implementation of the son's abilities has me the most doubtful – he can temporarily accelerate myofibril hypertrophy in his body (his muscles get big). It can look a tad ridiculous. Still though, Waid has a proven track record, so I remain optimistic. Acuna is definitely a rising star as well, but I think his style is better suited to special projects than a monthly periodical. I look forward to this continuation of the Flash, though, and if nothing else it will be interesting.

XBL Download Assortment

• Bioshock Demo - Thankfully it completed over night, I had my doubts for a while. It's an impressive effort in world design but it plays much like a dozen other FPS games played over the last ten years. It looks to be worth a play through, but not the hype being built around it in fan circles, both amature and professional, across the internet. A pretty game, a moody game, but a game I've played a hundred times over without any real new mechanics.

• Beautiful Katamari Demo - It's three minutes of the game you've already played on PS2. Fun, and prettier, but the same game. And only three minutes. Not that it was a masterwork of coherent story telling, but I doubt someone unfamiliar with previous versions would walk away with any clue as to what was going on.

• Guitar Hero II download packs - I've said before I'd never buy one of their download packs. This conviction was built upon a strong foundation of pathetic and random groupings of songs, and the exorbitant pricing of 500 points per three-song pack. The new pack is a My Chemical Romance song, and I do like the MCR. It's still over priced at 500 points, but I have a feeling this is a concern that will never be addressed, so I might as well enjoy the result of one adjustment to the norm. (And yeah I know blah blah blah emo sucks... tell it to someone who buys into the emo-hate bs).
  

A New Direction... and a few words for the passing of a great

Sometimes there are things I want to say that have nothing to do with gaming, and sometimes I have nothing to really say on gaming for months at a time. Witness the two month gap in postings when I first began. So why define the blog so rigidly? From now on it'll be a general blog... probably with mostly video game content for the time being, but lots on comics, toys, anime, and other subjects wondering in and out.

Yesterday afternoon I learned that comic book artist Mike Wieringo passed away on Sunday August 12 of a massive heart attack. He was only 44. He maintained a healthy diet and exercised every day. He didn't register in any risk group. But he's gone from the world, when he still had so much to give. By all accounts, he was the best this industry of prima donnas has to offer. He was kind, humble and generous, constantly denying his own importance and artistic brilliance. He lived and breathed comics and his death is a loss for anyone who loves comics, whether they knew him, knew of him, or had never heard of him. He is already greatly missed.

Bioshock Demo

It was my intention tonight to play the Bioshock demo.

Since it's been going for almost four hours and is barely past 25%, I think I'll pass on that tonight.

Very frustrating, though it did force me to finally sit and finish out the achievements on Pac-Man CE.

Stranglehold Demo

After an excruciating 1.3 GB download last night, I spent the scant few minutes before needing to be in bed, having past the "should be in bed" point by nearly an hour, with the John Woo 'presented' Third Person Shooter, Stranglehold, based on the continuing adventures of the lead character in the modern classic, Hard Boiled.

I've said before that a console shooter really has to work hard to make me care. The diversity of control on a PC makes the basically simple premise of a first or third person shooter feel a little too shallow and clumsy on a console. Proponents argue that reliance on the console controller introduces a higher degree of challenge and strategy to the mechanic. There is a boon, they suggest, to the inability of the opponent to simply whirl around double jump off a wall and pop you down instantly with a rail gun shot to the face, denigrating the game play as "twitchy." In this argument all I hear is "waah waah my reaction time sucks and I get owned!"

Not that all FPS games should be lightening fast frag fests but let's not pretend that slowing the competition down creates a superior environment. A different environment, yes, but that's it. It's just something different. Nor does it necessarily make it more strategic. There's something to be said for strategy in an FPS, but Halo isn't it.

I'm rambling. Where was I? Console FPS games, right. Generally I have no interest. It takes a special play mechanic to get me interested.

Stranglehold delivers. It's not an FPS game, and really doesn't even feel like much of a shooter in general due to the emphasis being placed less on the shooting and more on the movement of the player. Certainly the gunplay is an important part of the dynamic, but it is far from the whole. As important as your ability to aim and shoot is the players ability to negotiate the various urban environment obstacles that clutter the game's landscape. Sliding across table tops, diving through the air from around corners, sliding down banisters and riding on dining carts kicks you automatically into a bullet-time (called Tequila Time after the protagonist) slow down transforming difficult to impossible kills into manageable shots, while simultaneously creating around the player the feel of a Hong Kong action flick. This game has a style all it's own.

Now I may be biased on console shooters, I'll give you that. I once turned to my friend in college in the middle of a round of Quake II mod LMCTF and said that what I really needed was a girl who appreciated the aesthetic value of a quad damage rocket gib (luckily for me six years later I found one, and life is now quite perfect). But it's not that I find no value in console shooters, it's that historically, I've found them ill-suited to the control and wanted something a little different that took advantage of the differences in setting and interface. Gears of War did, though it was sort of on the cusp. Stranglehold does it in spades. It doesn't feel like a PC game trying to sell itself to the console market. It feels like a console game. And for a shooter, I can't give it any higher praise than that.