Bioshock Memories

A trip to the Powerhouse Museum's Love Lace exhibit brought back memories of Bioshock, specifically the music:



Kinda creepy.

Music Blog, Part 2: The Songs and Sounds of New Vegas

I was playing Fallout: New Vegas this morning on my laptop. I had my iPhone on the speakers. I got a series of songs that I felt fit the western vibe of the game very well. I present those songs to you here:

The Raconteurs - The Switch & The Spur

Mark Lanagan - The Man In The Long Black Coat

The Dead Weather - So Far From Your Weapon

The Joel Plaskett Emergency - Written All Over Me

Hate Then Love - The Dears

Yeah. The last one doesn't quite match, but the next song that came on was Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and that sort of broke the mood.

Anyhow, I'm still really early into New Vegas, but I'm finding it much easier to be a bastard in this barren Western-style world than in the Capitol Wasteland of Fallout 3. Shooting & looting are a higher preference.

Because I'm too lazy to type or write*.

*but not too lazy, it seems, to do 4 hours of video editing while being increasingly frustrated by Windows Live Movie Maker. Multiple crashes, one bad enough to restart my computer for me, and and file issues made this extremely frustrating. Enjoy.

Pac-Man Kill Screen

Day 13. Unlucky for some.

This is my Pac-Man kill screen shirt (bought from Jinx, it's officially a Jace Hall Show shirt). You should all see King of Kong. Someone asked me if my shirt had a virus. I explained in too much detail. I do that.

All that stuff from the doc and the physio did not help. Still got headache last night. No fun. Also, bruised from the physio. I've taken headache tablets, some valerian root, and my migraine wafer (don't worry, I checked with the chemist, they're non-reactive). Hopefully I'll sleep through the night, as I have an interview tomorrow, and a team outing following that.

I will do you a favour.

I shall recommend you go and download (for free) Super Crate Box. It recently won Free Indie of the Year (on Bytejacker) and it has casuall sucked up about an hour of my time today without even trying. It's basically a metroid-style platformer, but you're confined to one room. Your little dude has to run around collecting crates, each of which gives him a weapon upgrade. Problem is, it's a randomised weapon upgrade (so you might trade a bazooka for a weak-ass pistol), the enemies you don't kill get faster and angrier, and even if you sit and plug away at the enemies, you don't advance to the next level until you get a certain number of crates without dying.

It's addictive. Play it.

This is the link.

Now the game is on the other foot.

So I've finished Bioshock 2. Don't worry, gentle reader, I'm not going to do another "Lucas goes in-depth in pros and cons of a game" post. It's just that while I was playing Bioshock 2, I told myself that I'm not going to even look at other games until I finished it. So as Dead Rising 2, Fallout: New Vegas and other new and shiny titles went by, I stuck with it. Now that it's finished, and I'm done with that universe, I can play other. But I have to buy others first. In the meantime, I popped Borderlands back in.

And had zero fun. I'm a god-like level 61 with no missions left. Sure, there's the new Claptrap DLC, but meh. I was running around shooting Spiderants when it hit me why I wasn't liking this game I got so many hours of joy from: There's no meaning. Nearly every action in both Bioshock games meant SOMEthing later on: whether you harvest or rescue little sisters, what you spent your money and Adam or, what Plasmids you outfitted, every audiotape you listened to... whereas the complete open world freedom of Borderlands is without meaning. Nothing I do has any impact.

Also, the Bioshock "change weapon" button is the Borderlands "throw grenade button." Stupid muscle memory

Return To Rapture

So I finished Bioshock this week. I looked about for some sort of celebratory dance to do, but it seems none have yet been invented. As I mentioned in this post here, the game initially frustrated me. However, I can go down my list of gripes nearly point for point and say that nearly all of them are vindicated by later gameplay. It seemed to be one of those games that got way easier as you went along.

So I thought I would give Bioshock 2 another go, after Rage-Quitting due to lack of fun all those months ago. I like it much better now. It plays very much like the first game, but have streamlined a few things, and needlessly complicated others. Hacking, instead of being a pipe-based puzzle, is now a swinging needle you need to stop in the right place, and can be done remotely with a dart. Security robots are not the incredibly persistent little buggers they were, only doing one sweep before leaving. The initial guns are fun and powerful (a rivet-gun instead of a pistol, a gatling cannon instead of a tommy gun) and the enemies come at you in droves. The rivet gun has a trap feature that is like the crossbow in the first game, but you can deactivate the traps (and it's the first gun you get, as opposed to the last). As for the complications... your main weapon is a spinning drill instead of a wrench. Drills need fuel. Feh. Remote hacking needs darts, but happily you can just walk up and do it the old fashioned way, hand to motherboard. So I'm optimistic. So optimistic that I didn't even need to point-form this list.

So there you go.

Gremlins, Timezone Displacement, and YOU!

Tanja and I were discussing Gremlins on the way home from the grocery store.

I first saw Gremlins at my friend Matthew Harding's house. I think most kids have a friend like Matthew: I never would have met him had he not lived next door, and he often had things that even my fairly-permissive folks would not get me. It was in this very same house where I played many Nintendo games for the first time, where I first beat a game (Guerrilla War for the NES, though we had to use a Game Genie and a 6-hour marathon session), where I first saw many PG-13 films (such as Stay Tuned, Back to the Future 2, and others that blew my 8-year-old brain), and ate too much junk food (like the discovery that if you bite off both ends of a Twizzler, you can use it was a straw)*. The reason Matthew always had new games and movies was because his parents were divorced, and his dad indulged him on the weekends he was these by renting him anything he wanted from the Shell station down the block, which was also our video store (it was the 90s, shut up).

So I find it fitting that it was here I saw Gremlins. Gremlins is also one of the few films from my childhood I have not revisited as an adult. I'm not going to go in depth about how I reacted to the film's plot, etc, but I will bring up a few key ideas I came away with. Warning, spoilers, if you've lived under a rock for 20 years.

• The death of the old lady via stair-lift was far scarier than anything in the much-more graphic kitchen scene (though, of the kitchen scene, the microwave was scary, while the blender went past scary and into funny). Possibly because we had one of those stair-lifts at our church, whereas we had no blender.
• You're not to feed any Mogwais after midnight, lest they turn into Gremlins. Simple, right? No. My 8-year-old brain instantly came up with "After midnight? Technically ANY time can be after SOME midnight. And when does "after midnight" become "next day"? 5am? Daybreak? What if the Mogwai is on West Coast time, having recently gotten on a long flight? So if all times are post-midnight, how could a Mogwai eat at all without transforming? Tanja and I discussed that, as the Mogwais and Gremlins are mystical creatures, they may not need food at all to sustain their lives and power their actions. But then, why give Mogwais the urge to eat, and thus give them the means to fall into temptation? And if that IS the case, is starving a Mogwai an act of cruelty, or pure practical safety?
• Also fitting the mystical angle, is the spell that changes Mogwais into Gremlins dictated by the perceptions of the owner, or the Gremlins? One could posit that the owner's time-zone and interpretation could determine what constitutes the post-midnight-danger-feeding-zone, or PMDFZ. Otherwise, the "it's always after midnight somewhere" rule could apply. Then again, the film itself contradicts this: one of the Mogwais unplugs the clock, making it stay on a pre-midnight time, so Billy feels safe to feed it. Had his perception shaped the spell, they should not have changed. However, we are discounting the perception of the Mogwai itself, which was stronger than Billy's, due to his knowledge of the true time, through the fact that he unplugged the clock. Perception+reality+willpower overrides perception alone. And speaking of willpower...
  
• Why is Gizmo the ONLY good Mogwai? All the other spawned Mogwais are seeming little bastards right from the start who actively want to become Gremlins. We're past discussing the urge to eat. We're now into "actively practicing deceit to transform into a more powerful creature and wreak havoc." All Mogwais we see in both films act this way, except Gizmo. Is it because Gizmo is special? Is he Mogwai Jesus**?
  
  Although, how cool would that be?
  You could continue the intellectual fanwank into the fact that Gizmo himself was good, but his earthly spawn were thus tainted by the sinful nature of humankind and their actions. They had the urge to be bad, but not the willpower to control it, thus precipitating their collapse into anarchy, chaos, and sin. Repent, ye sons of Gizmo, the wrath of Billy & his mighty Blendtron 3000 be upon you! The light of his eyes shall destroy ye!
  
  Ahem.
  

You know, once I'd like to do an in-depth look at a film without it descending into religious allegory and spouting Scripture-sounding gibberish.

*incidentally, I also saw my first pin-up calender there, in his basement. It disappeared after we saw it, and whenever I asked Matt about it, he looked hunted and said he wasn't allowed to talk about it.
**Okay, a google search for "Mogwai Jesus" just got me a bunch of Mogwai album covers, so I made my own.


EDIT: And of course, TVTropes provides the answers for a few of my questions:
All There In The Manual: The Novelization has a prologue that explains that Mogwais were genetically engineered by an alien race called the Mogturmen as the perfect companion. However, the vast majority of Mogwais turned out to be dangerous, not to mention the unforseen Gremlin problem. Gizmo is one of the few Mogwais to turn out right.
Always Chaotic Evil: Any of the Mogwai/Gremlins who aren't Gizmo.
Fridge Logic: Don't feed them after midnight? Since the day technically begins at midnight, would that mean you're just not supposed to feed them? Obviously, you can't feed them at night, until the sunrise. When the dark forces are strong in the world and all that.
Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: One particular Mogwai, stated as Earl in official media, is hinted in the film and novel as being one of the few Mogwai blessed with a more docile personality similar to Gizmo, that is until he is taken to the university to be experimented on and then happening on that sandwich, destining him as another psychotic Gremlin and to the same ill fate as all his other bretheren.
Fridge Horror: What would he have been like if Gizmo had become a Gremlin?

• Possibly shown with "Earl". The novel states that even good Mogwai are converted into murderous sadists upon transforming into a Gremlin.
  

Oh, and it reminds me of this brilliant line from the second film:
"Incredible as it seems, ladies and gentlemen, after their bizarre, bloodcurdling rampage of destruction, these strange creatures now appear to be mounting what seems to be... a musical number."

Thank you and good night.

The Sliding Scale and Perpetual Overcome-ances of Frustration and Anger

Overcome-ances is totally not a word.

I am finally playing Bioshock.

I downloaded the demo when I first got my PS3, and was intrigued by the art-deco steampunk feel of Rapture and the story. What I didn't like, and frankly, it's what I never like, is when games try to scare me.

Okay, seriously, video games. I'm 28 years old. I've lived on two continents where much of the wildlife is actively trying to kill you (like mosquitoes in Canada, and everything in Australia bar some of the sheep). I have enough actual phobias to fill a textbook. You don't need to foist a fear of the dark, fear of creepy children, and fear of disfigured monsters into my head. It won't all fit, like when I took that home-brewing course and forgot how to drive. But I digress. FEAR, that's it. Basically, video games, creepy children and disfigured monsters don't scare me. They won't scare me. So you shoving them into my face going "See? SEE? You have to harvest the Adam while horrible clown people try to eat you." is just annoying. I feel like I have to wade through the attempt at scaring me to get to the actual game.

So the game, and the titular sliding scale. Bioshock, you are a good game. Sometimes. However, you are also an extremely difficult game. Even on Normal mode. Ammo is scarce and occasionally non-effective. Your plasmid attacks use so much of your meter that you only get a few shots before you're out. I didn't discover the fine aim/zoom button until 6 hours in. Hacking the machines is hard and frustrating. And if you DON'T hack, you're killed by rapid-fire machine-gunning robots. The respawning system seems to choose a point at random when it brings you back, so you have to spend ten freaking minutes going "No, it wasn't this destroyed, dripping corridor, it was another destroyed dripping corridor." Early in the game, you have only two plasmid spots. One is electric, the next is fire. Then you're offered a telekinetic one. "Cool, says I, "I'll switch out for a second and if I don't like it, I'll switch back." WRONG. Once I swapped out the electric, it was gone. And did I mention electric is the handiest non-hacking way to kill the robots? Because it is. And now that's gone.

I also reached breaking point when facing one boss (the doctor). I fought him, dying 5 or 6 times, then running back and attacking, then dying again. He'd regenerate health in between. There was a point where I stopped and realised that I had little-to-no-health, little-to-no-Adam, no first aid kits, no syringes, no ammunition, and no money. I actually, physically sat back on the couch and said "No, I don't want to do this." and turned off the game.

Later, as I was playing again (shut up), I fought a Big Daddy for the first time, dying 7 or 8 times, then running back. Happily, he did not regenerate. I defeated him. "YES!" thought I. "Now where's that Little Sister?" She was gone. I combed the level, but all I found was another Big Daddy, who happily began to slaughter me again. WTF, Bioshock? I beat your hurdle, and then you glitch out my reward? You know what? Fuck you!

So anyway, I found, like I said, some bits of the game to be immensely satisfying. The minute you get the shotgun, the fun multiplies. I've also heard from others that the upgrade system late in the game is interesting. But why do I have to grind and grind through endless frustrations to get to the fun?

I had a similar moment in God of War 3. It's a game I've come back to a few times, play a bit of, then put away for a few months. This latest time, I was slashing along, having fun, when suddenly I get to a puzzle. Most puzzles in God of War are hard, but you can work them out.

This was not.

This was a version of Guitar Hero, using a controller. You have to get 45 consecutive button presses correct, including some two-button presses. Any mistake knocked you back to the start.

After 15 attempts and not getting more than halfway, I walked up to the TV, put down my controller and turned the game off. It's now sitting on the shelf, mocking me. I know that any time in the future that I want to play that game, if I want to progress the story, I'll have to beat the stupid mini-game.

Frankly, I couldn't be fucked. There's a moment Tycho from Penny Arcade describes in one of his posts about WoW, where he refers to the moment of transfer between leisure and obligation.

I've transferred.

Bank Holes and Revalations

Hey Lucas, you know what everyone wants? Another post about Borderlands.

Well, okay, Brain, maybe I will!

So anywho, I reached Level 50, which was the level cap in Borderlands midway through my second playthrough. At first I didn't care. Then I noticed that all the XP I was getting was just evaporating with nowhere to go. So I purchased the three DLC packs, one of which gives an 11-level bump to the cap (the cap now goes to Eleven).

Also, I played my first online co-op. I jumped into the game of a Level 40 early in her second playthrough. It was fun, backing her up, and letting her get the loot (which was not as good as what I had). Then a Level 61 joined in. He was leveled WAY above me with weapons and firepower. Then something strange happened. He walked over to one of the corners of the room, and one at a time, dropped 15 weapons. It was like his backpack exploded. I wandered over and my eyes bugged out: all these weapons were at his level, were worth 3-5 million dollars each, and outclassed all my weapons 2 or 3 times over. I dumped some myself and grabbed what I could, ran to the store and sold them all (I would have used them, but Borderlands has level-prerequisites of weapons of a certain power to stop nebs from getting guns like this and breaking the game's already tenuous balance).

While I was doing this, I noticed little bits of XP were continually being added to my meter. "Aha," says I. "When you're co-op-ing, you XP must be shared." And suddenly I was angry. I had scratched and clawed my way through 2 playthroughs on my own to get good weapons, XP, and enough money to get by, and situations like this make it all worthless, as selling this guy's 4 weapons makes me just as much."

So I started playing some of the missions on the Zombie Island of Dr Ned pack, which are a heap of fun added onto the already satisfying shooting. The zombies travel in mobs and for the most part, just pile forward trying to get to you. The few who spit or throw things add variety ("Oh, what's this, Mr Defiler? You spit mud which blocks my view and spoils my aim? luckily my Incendiary Helix Rocket Launcher means I don't have to aim TOO much." *BOOM*). Partway through the mission I notice that my money-meter has turned to $9999999. Ummmm... okay? I run to a shop, buy a few things, and it stays at $9999999.

"Wow!" says I. "I must have unlocked an unlimited money challenge! No wonder that Level 61 was dumping his stuff. When you down need money, what's the use of a selling?"

I lived with this happy fantasy for a little while, until I bought a few upgrades and saw that my money counter went to $9995763. So it only goes to $9999999 when you pass what the meter can read. So yeah.

Commitment And More Lands That Border

More Lands That Border

More things that are satisfying about Borderlands:
1. The World is HUGE. I keep discovering new outposts with different mission, some as trivial as "collect 5 mission recorders and bring them back" to "collect 50 crystal samples, defeat the two giant monsters guarding the samples, refine the crystals into an artifact."
2. The Sorting Algorithm of Weapons: The weapon that was your best friend and most trusted problem solver will be nearly-useless later on, as all the enemies around you level up as you do. Even the ones with comically low levels (a Lvl4 Skag attacking you, a Level 30 Gunslinger Hunter) can still nearly kill you if you ignore them. Sure, they die comically in one hit and you get little to no XP for them, but if there's a pack of them, you can still croak.
3. Different experiences. I was discussing this game with Luke at work, and I had an experience I haven't had since Fallout 3: We were discussing the game and the environments, and we had had completely different experiences. He played as a Bruiser (a Tank class, with a berserk ability and a love of fisticuffs and rocket launchers, quite the opposite of my Hunter's love of ranged weapons and one-shot kills), and as such had a different playstyle and strategy, and in the end, got a different result.

This segues me nicely into the unsatisfying thing about Borderlands, though, the more I think about it, it's something that's wrong with me. I had the same issue with Fallout 3, and in discussion with Ted, that many people had with Diablo. The inventory.

Now, in Borderlands, you're given twelve slots in your backpack for weapons, shields, grenade mods, health kits, and class mods (which give bonuses to skills). You also have two equipped slots (later four), which are mapped to the D-pad. You can complete Claptrap side missions to increase your carry capacity.

Here's my issue. I'm a hoarder, and a worrier. I try to carry a mixture of weapons, so I can be covered in any situations. My twenty-seven slots are filled with, currently:

-6 revolvers (two normal, one with zoom, one without & four elemental)
-6 sniper rifles (two normal, one with a stupidly huge zoom, one with massive damage, and four elemental)
-3 shotguns (two elemental, one automatic and fast-firing)
-2 submachine guns (one with scope, one that does 4x projectiles & reloads super-fast)
-2 repeater pistols (one with Shock damage, and one with a scope)
-3 combat rifles (one with large magazine for support firing, two elemental)
-1 rocket launcher (after much deliberation)
-2 shields (one high-capacity with corrosive resistance, and 1 medium capacity with fast health recharge)
-1 grenade mod (changed often, depending on the situation)
-2 Class Mods (Gunslinger & Ranger)

Now, where this gets frustrating is that when I find a piece of loot that I like (or just one worth a lot that I can sell), I then get to spend loooooooong minutes, staring at my inventory screen, agonising over what to leave behind, the distance to the nearest shop ("If I pick this up, then drop it, then run to the shop to sell something, can I make it back so that the thing I dropped is still there?")... I'm also a cheapskate, so the idea of dropping a weapon that's worth four thousand dollars bothers me. I'll occasionally do an inventory cull, leaving a few spots open for sellables, but the minute I find something decent, it becomes "Well, I have a Shock Revolver already, but this one does more damage, even though it's got a lower fire rate and only holds three bullets... it has a higher accuracy and zoom, though... I could do more damage more accurately, but if I miss, I'm screwed..." For ages.

I was the same with Fallout. Most people I talked to customised their character with a persona, based upon the upgrades they took and the skills they developed. My overarching ability? I could carry a lot. I took every Strongback upgrade to the pount where I was carrying 300 pounds of gear on my back (mostly weapons and armour, with some space for things I wanted to sell). Doesn't make for a memorable character.

Think of it as a video-game based fear of commitment. "Do you take this sniper rifle, to have and to hold, in sickness, and when something better is dropped by a dead Rakk?"

Things that are satisfying about Borderlands

(Note: I'm playing as Mordecai, the Hunter class (read: sniper), and Borderlands is the type of game to cause spontaneous markup in my writing.)

1. Pipping an enemy from half a world away with a sniper rifle.

2. Using that same sniper rifle, firing from the hip, to cut an enemy
in half at close range.

3. Shock repeaters. Tiny little gun, tiny small-calibre bullets that
do hardly any damage... ...that can short out an enemy's shield,
causing it to shock him to death.

4. The first time you find a revolver, and discover it's essentially a
high-powered sniper rifle in a pistol.

5. Skags (combination wolf-boar-armadillos with Predator faces)
launching themselves at you, mouth open... Only to be shotgunned in
midleap and slide to your feet, dead as a doormail.("ROOOAaA-*boom-
thud!*")

6. Using exploding ammunition to snipe Crab Worm Larvae (which are the
size of a golf cart) and watching them go boom.

7. Psycho enemies; they rush when they can, or throw knives when they
can't. If the knives miss, they pull out a grenade, pull the pin, then
charge you for a suicide attack. Gets really funny when where you're
standing is more than 3 seconds away.

8. Rakk-hunting. Rakk are this game's Goddamned Bats. they circle, usually in pairs. If you hit
one of them by accident, they fly out of sight... Then you'll turn
around to see the entire flock swooping down at you screaming. If you
have a shotgun, you'll probably be okay. Where it gets awesome? When
you've denuded the flick and the stragglers dwindle to specks, firing
your shotgun and watching that speck suddenly drop.

9. Running outvof ammo, pulling back, frantically reloading; your
enemy rushes in, turns the corner to kill you... ... only to be hit
full in the face by the talons and beak of your trained hawk
Bloodwing. "Good boy! Someones getting a treat!"

There's more, but I'll stop there.

More good deeds.

Playing inFamous again, I was killing time and roaming the city, avoiding a story mission that was frustrating me. I wandered into a part of the city I had previously passed and heard shots. Thinking this to be an enemy encounter, I ran over. Now, in the game, you can run police missions that gain you territory and reestablish police presence in the city (which then help you attack enemies when nearby). The city also has defensive machine gun turrets at certain spots. The shots I heard were coming from one of these turrets being manned by a cop. He was shooting at nothing, so I figured it was either a glitch, or there was an enemy on the other side of a building he was aiming at. So I healed a few people that had got in his way and went to leave. That's when I noticed that the cop was purposefully aiming at the pedestrians, mowing them down. I continued healing. The cop began to target me. I avoided the gunfire, but was nearly killed. I decided "Okay, that's enough." I got behind the turret and knocked the cop down with a kick. He got back up and ran back to the turret, resuming his shooting spree. I eventually had to stick a grenade to the turret, killing the cop.

This gained me negative Karma, if you can believe it.

But wow. An NPC cop in a ruined city, having a mental breakdown and shooting civilians?

That's too heavy for my Sunday morning.

Funny Aneurism Moment

I was playing InFamous this morning and had an odd moment. I had taken a side mission involving a poison vat atop a water tower, defended by bad guys. I defeated the mooks, then approached the tower, which was on top of an apartment building. As per the game's morality system, I was given a choice: use lightning to overload the tower from a distance, thus sparing myself from the poison, and causing the poison to flood the water tower (that's bad); or using a shockwave to explode the tank close-up, which aerates the poison, saves the water, but doses me fairly severely (that's good, I guess).

So I chose the second option. I got close, let off a shockwave & destroyed the tank. I was dosed with the poison, but in an unforseen consequence, the canister exploded, knocking me off the tower and the building. Mid-plummet-to-my-death, a legend appeared on the screen: 

"Congratulations! Your actions have made you slightly more Good."

Legend disappears. I continue falling. 

Splat.

I feel gooder already.

Drum Hero

So I got the Guitar Hero World Tour bundle with guitar, drums, and microphone yesterday (which is a major feat: ordered Thursday morning, shipping Thursday evening, arrived Friday morning). The idea, as I originally planned it, was to use it as a surrogate drum kit for when I can’t get to Ted’s. I also wanted to us the GHTunes recording suite to lay down some tracks, and learn new songs. Once I got it set up and gave it a shot on Drums on Easy mode, I fell into what I’m told is a common musician’s trap: I tried to play what I was hearing, instead of the extremely limited notes they were giving me. I also lost points for hitting the bass drum for each cymbal hit. Once I upped the difficulty, it got better. What I didn’t expect was how much I enjoy the guitar part of the game. Especially with songs you know, you feel like a freakin’ rock god when you finish one. It’s a lot of fun, and I finally figured out why. The Guitar Hero version of playing guitar is essentially a non-musical kid’s view of playing guitar: one button per chord, then move to the left or right. Making that motion taps into something childlike and imaginative (if you’ll forgive me for a moment) that allows you to create music by pushing buttons.

Well, it makes more sense in my head.

Watching Men

I’m not going to spoil. Promise. I’m not even going to dissect. The only thing I didn’t like about the film is that they’ve basically given the various heroes superpowers without stating it to be so. They’re meant to be good fighters (even scarily so, in Adrian’s case), but they’re not supposed to be leaping up to the second story or, in one egregious case near the beginning, pressing a huge guy up over their head and throwing them in a way that a wrestler would have difficulty doing. It took me out of the film.

Also, I played the demo Watchmen downloadable game for PS3, which was an okay beat-em-up in the style of Ultimate Alliance, but without the squad aspect. What got me about the game, though, was it had new writing, comic panels, and a narration from the guy who played Rorschach in the movie. Listening to it, I realised something: Sin City is like a whole movie/Comic Book series written/starring characters like this. No wonder I like the Sin City movie less and less each time I watch it.

On a completely unrelated note, I can barely watch the Transformers movie now, despite it looking lovely on an HDTV and played on a PS3. The plot just seems full of holes and meandering, and the stuff with Anthony Anderson and Sam’s parents just grates and then… yeah.

Haiku Saturday

Cert Four Assignments
With their endless navel-gaze
Make me want to cry.

Tanja posts way more
On her blog than I do on
Mine in the last month

Think you’re good at the
Warhawk Demo? Buy the game.
Blown to smithereens.

It's 12:30 and
Apart from one done before
I've finished no work.

Demos and Trials

Last night we had some people over for one of our dinner/movie marathon nights. The theme this time was Hellboy and tacos. I made beef tacos, chipotle roast pork tacos, and chicken fajitas. Booze flowed freely. We warmed up with the Predator Rifftrax and then rolled on to both Hellboy movies, the second in Blu-ray (whose audio we had trouble controlling; the dialogue was quiet, but the music and effects were loud enough to shake the walls!). We all got very sleepy as the night moved on. I totally blame the food. Fun was had by all.

So this morning, Tanja goes up to the mountains to see her ma, and I get a bit of a lie-in (and checking of my Twitter feed from bed, hee). I decided after a morning of updating album art on iTunes (yes, I'm that kind of user) I'll check out the demos I downloaded for my PS3. So, my thoughts, in my patented bullet-point-style:

[-]Bioshock: Adored the story and the look and the steam-punk feel of the game, but hated, HATED the game play. I ended up using all my special weapon energy just trying to stun someone or all my bullets trying to get a headshot with the revolver to the point where I fall back on the basic wrench weapon 9 times out of 10. It does however, make a satisfying *thwack* when you wallop someone. And like I twittered, wrench don't run out. I might see if Tommy or someone has this for me to borrow.

[-]Kane & Lynch: Dead Men: third-person shooters have never been my forte, but this one lost my interest immediately by not letting me invert the y-axis, so i couldn't FIND the enemies, let alone hit them. Oh, and the squad AI? Boneheaded. NEXT!

[-]Soul Caliber 4: Very pretty! However, as I explained to Ted yesterday, I haven't enjoyed buying a fighting game since Mortal Kombat 2. Possibly because I don't play much versus, so it's just me bashing my head against the single-player mode. This was the problem I had when I (briefly) owned Virtua Fighter 4. Might rent this (along with DC vs MK) but would never buy.

[-]Lemmings: 2-d Lemmings! But it's so hard to play without a mouse and I'm not buying one just for this.

[-]Timeshift: ZOMG did I love this. It's a shooter, but you have the ability to stop, slow, and reverse time. Think Prince of Persia with guns. You can take the gun out of someone's have, move behind him, and see him realise what's happened before you cap him. Also, the guns are great, in particular, the sniper-crossbow, which fires glowing arrows that explode after a 1-second delay. So you get to see the guy react before he explodes into a pinkish mist. All the explosions look shiny in the slow-mo as well. I was shocked Gamespot gave it so low a rating (6.5!) when it's one of those rare shooter that I actually have fun playing. Definietly looking for the full version.

[-]Warhawk: See previous entry. I've got the full version winging its way to me now, but I could have happily played the demo forever.

[-]Wipeout HD: Gorgeous-looking and smooth-as, and I was a HUGe fan of Wipeout on the Saturn, but I just can't seem to get into this. Also, Ted is better than me at this/all video games ever.

[-]Dead Space: Creepy, scary look, caused a funny aneurysm moment when I "killed" something, only to have it cut me in half as I walked past its "corpse". Ted response: "Yeah, those'll do that." Not sure I could stand a whole game of it, though.

[-]Lego Batman: Cute, funny, like the look of it, but ugh, jump puzzles. Freakin' jump puzzles. Never mind. And only 1 punch and 1 throw button? That's it for combat?

[-]Pixeljunk: Eden: Very wierd, and seemingly simple game. Not sure if it's hooked me.

[-]Killzone 2: Blah. Boring shooter.Guns are so "accurate" that YOU have to be a staggeringly good shot to hit ANYTHING. Although Brammall at work just thinks I don't like it because I suck at it.


Oh, and without warning, Firefox has gone back to have the "open background tab" option, and opening a new tab when I click a link and write in an address. Thank Moby.

Warhawkin'

So I've been playing a lot of the Warhawk demo for my brand spankin' new PS3.  I've never played any Halo-type games before, let alone on multiplayer. This is that sort of game: you spawn into a camp with a bunch of other guys to protect your flag using guns, turrets, and vehicles, including tanks, jeeps, and the titular Warhawks, plans that can switch from VTOL hover mode to jet mode (no complain). Even though I only have the one demo level, I've been having a lot of fun. The fact that every other sprite I see is another human player makes things really interesting as a human is unpredictable.

 

I can recall watching an episode of the Totally Rad Show where Alex Albrecht was talking about Star Wars: Galaxies. He said multiplayer online games of that sort are made up of moments that you can talk about for days afterwards. Warhawk is no different. In the one day I've played the demo, I've had no loess than three such moments:

 

• [-] I spawn into the camp, along with a few other guys. I get into a jeep, manning the machine gun turret. Another player hops into the driver's seat and starts motoring towards the enemy base. I spend most of the ride firing to the sides and rear of the jeep, giving him cover. So I'm strafing behind us into a group of infantry when the jeep fishtails to a stop. Then I see my driver running away from the jeep in a big old hurry. "What the fuck does he know that I don't?" So I rotate the turret to the front...
  ...to see a tank ten yards directly in front of me, and a shell leaving its cannon. Kaboom.
• [-] I spawn, but there's no vehicles around, just a few people mining the place and a few on turrets. So I climb the sentry tower to look around. I also grab the sniper rifle that's up there. No sooner have I stood up from the ladder when the tower is strafed by machine gun fire. I hide in the little shack on top of the tower and peek out the window to see an enemy Warhawk hovering in the middle on the camp, laying waste to the turrets and my teammates. I aim through the window of the shack, fire two sniper rounds into the undercarriage...
  ... and the Warhawk disintegrates into a chrysanthemum of flame. Awesome.
• [-] I actually get ahold of a Warhawk that's not instant destroyed by flak fire and streak towards the enemy base. I see one of them get into their Warhawk, and try to take off. I know he's not used to it, because he bounces off a few buildings getting off the ground. I lock on with a homing missile and blow him to bits. I then see another enemy Warhawk flying off in the distance. I give chase. He immediately goes evasive, zipping through canyons and around mountains. I'm right on him, trying for a missile lock. Out of nowhere, he darts around a corner. I follow...
  ...only to see him nipping around a weather-balloon/obstacle in the way. I have time to realise I can't  avoid it, and think "Clever girl." before crashing and burning.

And that's only after one day! Amazing.

 

 

You've been swindled by...
Lucas Brown
Team Leader/Tiki Bartender/Big Boss Man
Got your nose. Got your wallet.

 

Hell of a Day

Today might have been one of the greatest days ever. Like for serious.

Wake up, don't have to be at work. Good start.

Have two cups of coffee and peanut butter of morpeth sourdough bread.

Head out with Tanja to Powerhouse Museum to see the Star Wars exhibit. Awesome. Got tons of pictures of the ship models.

Afterwards, walking in the 39.5-42 degree day to the Heritage Belgian Bier Cafe. Have a porterhouse steak, medium-rare, chips and salad with a Hoegaarden & a Kwak.

Head out from there, and go to Myer to look at outdoor furniture (we've been planing to use some of our wedding present money to get an outdoor lounge). Found one we like. It's $300 cheaper than usual. Buy it.

Meanwhile, I start explaining to Tanja how I've been thinking of trading in my PS2 and all my games for a discount towards a PS3. She inquires if I've done the research. I have, saying JB Hifi has the best deal because you get an HDMI cable with it. We go to JB Hifi. I show her.

"Well," says she, "you should probably get it now. You've got some good PS2 games, I'd hate to see you get rid of them."

So I bought a PS3. With Little Big Planet (it's so cute!) and GTA4 (when you hit something high speed, you fly out the windshield like in Tom & Jerry).

On the way home, walking back in a now-cool evening (lovely breeze) we bought a six-pack of Stella. Tanja made pasta and we watched the first bit of our new season of the Wire.

In the running for best day ever. Hell, it's in the top 3.