Movie of the Year

The best film I've seen all year was also the last one I'll see this year. It's based on a true story, stars an Oscar winner who deserves another, and is about a man who, I'm ashamed to say, knew absolutely nothing about before seeing the film.

That film is Milk. It is one of those movies that everyone should see, but those who truly need to see it will not. It is a movie that I wish would have came out just a little bit sooner. It is a movie that makes me sad, hopeful, angry, and contemplative. I wonder where we might be today if Harvey Milk had been allowed to continue his career, and his activism. I think about the events depicted in the film, and realize that 30 years later, the specific issues may have changed, but the arguments haven't.

I urge you to go see Milk.

2008 NFL Playoffs: Wild Card Weekend

And another NFL regular season comes to a close. Hell of a final weekend, with two playoff spots in each conference up for grabs, and a handful of teams fighting for them. But the matchups are now set, so here goes my predictions for the Wild Card games in the first round.

NFC

5 Atlanta Falcons at 4 Arizona Cardinals
The Falcons came out of essentially nowhere with a no name QB and finished with a better record than all but two teams in their conference. Arizona won their first division title in more than 30 years with an all but washed-up QB enjoying a second go-round in the spotlight. However, the Cardinals lost 4 of their last 6 games and beat only one playoff team during the season. The upset goes to the Falcons.

6 Philadelphia Eagles at 3 Minnesota Vikings
The Eagles started the season well, and if only for a couple of plays, could have been 6-0 going into their bye week. They weren't, of course, but they did finish strong, with decisive wins against the Cardinals and Giants, and an absolute demolishing of the Cowboys. The Vikings have ridden "All Day" Adrian Peterson into the playoffs after squeaking out a win against the Giants in the last game of the season. Smart money's probably on the Eagles, but I'm picking the Vikings.

Byes: 1 New York Giants and 2 Carolina Panthers

AFC

5 Indianapolis Colts at 4 San Diego Chargers
The Colts are without a doubt the best wild card team in the playoffs, and except for a stunning 10-0 run to start the season by the Titans, would have yet another division title under their belts. The Chargers, on the other hand, are without a doubt the worst division champ in the playoffs. They beat one decent team all season (the Patriots, who, by virtue of the rule that division champs have a guaranteed spot in the playoffs even when they're 8-8, missed out on a postseason berth), and needed to beat the Broncos in the last game to even get in. Plus, Indianapolis is not going to get embarrassed by a team that wears powder blue unis for the second year in a row. Colts win.

6 Baltimore Ravens at 3 Miami Dolphins
The Ravens came out of essentially nowhere with a no name QB and finished with a better record than all but three teams in their conference. Miami finished first in a division that had been dominated by the Patriots for nearly a decade, and was competitive from top to bottom for the first time ever. The Ravens will be tough, but I think Miami comes out with a win.

Byes: 1 Tennessee Titans and 2 Pittsburgh Steelers

Check back next week for results and more predictions.

Christmas Haul 2008

Merry Christmas, bitches! Hope you all had a great day, cause I sure did. I ran down the fat loot I gathered last year, so I think I'll do it again this year, in no particular order.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (PC). The second expansion to the second installment of the best fantasy-style CRPG currently in production.

Kung Fu Panda (Blu Ray). Jack Black, Kung Fu, and animation. What's not to like?

The Dark Knight (Blu Ray). My second favorite superhero movie of 2008 (first was Iron Man).

Batman: Gotham Knight (Blu Ray). Batman rocks.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Blu Ray). Indy still kicks ass and takes names, I don't give a shit what anybody says.

Freakazoid! Season 1 (DVD). What do they call poo-gas in Scotland? Crud-vapors.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS). The fourth in the Ace Attorney series. Yelling "OBJECTION!" at your DS is more fun than it sounds like.

Rock Band 2 (PS3). I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Didn't you get this as soon as it came out?" And the answer is yes, I did. I got it the day before it came out to be exact, but it was just a rental. They wouldn't sell it to me a day early, but they'd let me rent it. Whatever. I now officially own it, so it's all good.

Raiders 60"x80" Fleece Blanket. Great for watching football on the couch.

Raiders knit cap. Great for keeping your brain pan warm when it's cold as fuck outside.

And that about does it for another gift-giving season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Peace, bitches!

If You Build It, You Will Bleed

So Bill Harris posted today about building computers, and it made me want to talk about my own experience building computers. Specifically, about the blood involved.

You see, I've built every PC I've ever owned myself (with the exception of one, a store-bought Compaq that I shall never speak of again), and in every one I've put a little bit of myself. Literally.

One time I was reaching in to the case to plug in a cable and scratched the shit out of my knuckles on a sharp edge. I don't know if you know this, but knuckles bleed. A lot.

Another time I was screwing in a drive, slipped, and jabbed the screwdriver into my palm. That brought blood, but mostly pain.

Finally, there was the time that I was trying to pry out a drive bay with my fingers, slipped, and sliced my finger open on a protruding metal tab. I still have the crescent shaped scar just below the second knuckle on my left index finger. It matches the one in the same place on my right index finger that was made through a completely different and unrelated accident, but that's a story for another day. Regardless, there was much blood, much pain, and probably some stitches if I had bothered to seek medical attention. Remember, there was a computer that needed to get built.

I haven't built a computer in a few years now, so who knows what's next. But if it's sharp, pointy, jagged, or even blunt, you can bet I'll slice, stab, tear, or crush myself in some way that brings the blood. Oh yes, there will be blood.

Prop 8: The Musical

Starring Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, and John C. Reilly (among others), it's Prop 8: The Musical!

Left 4 Dead (PC) Impressions

I got a chance to check out Left 4 Dead tonight, for about an hour. These are very early impressions; I'd have liked to play it a little more before giving them, but the game wouldn't let me.

My computer can handle it, and it runs silky smooth and looks great, but for some reason it's still crash happy. Not sure why, it runs great, and then all of a sudden decides to crash for no apparent reason.

Anyway, it's the very definition of twitch finger action, very cinematic, and incredibly fun. It's old school shooter and new school shooter wrapped together in one tasty package. I can't wait to play more, if I can just get it to stop crashing to the desktop every twenty minutes.

War Never Changes

After nearly 70 hours and almost a month, I've completed the main quest in Fallout 3. I took my time, explored, did a lot of side quests, and really immersed myself in the world, but I didn't do everything and see everywhere, nor did I talk to everyone and complete everything I started. There's easily another 10-25 hours of content I didn't see, not to mention another playthrough being a completely heartless, no good, evil bastard (I played my initial run through as a paragon of virtue). Perhaps the best 80 bucks (I got the collector's edition lunchbox on the PS3) I've ever spent on a game. I'm not prepared to say it's better than Fallout or even Fallout 2, but it is definitely a worthy successor and an incredible addition to the franchise. Bring on Fallout 4!

A Musing on Technology

Here's a hypothetical situation: Say you've got a fancy pants HDTV, and a fancy pants Blu Ray player, along with a fancy pants HD satellite TV connection. You want all this stuff to work together with a fancy pants surround sound system, connected by HDMI cables, but you don't want to bother with a separate switcher (one more remote, one more thing to turn on before you can watch TV, movies, or whatever).

Why, then, do almost all the "home theater in a box" surround sound systems that actually have HDMI inputs (why all of them don't have HDMI inputs is beyond me, I mean, anyone getting new tech right now should be in the digital age with their peripherals, and as such, need HDMI inputs) not include audio decoding? What I mean is, if those HDMI inputs are used to connect a Blu Ray player or HD satellite TV connection or game system, the audio is not carried through the surround sound speakers, but simply passed to the TV speakers. In order to get true digital sound, extra cables are required.

Allow me to repeat: in order to get audio from a peripheral to the surround sound speakers, a separate connection is required, in addition to the HDMI connection that is capable of transmitting both audio and video. That is fucking retarded. What's even more retarded is that this is actually touted as a "feature." That's not a feature, assholes, that's a limitation. Jesus Christ.

Fallout 3 (PS3) Early Impressions

I sat down to start playing Fallout 3 about 6:30, and then noticed when my eyes started hurting that it was 11:30. Yeah, that about covers it.

Prop 8

For those of you who don't live in California, Prop 8 amends the California State Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Last week, a writer for my local newspaper wrote a column about how Prop 8 is wrong and everyone should vote no on it. Here's a link to that column.

Not surprisingly, it brought out the idiots. Let's see what they have to say!

"It has nothing to do with rights or anything. I has to do with disobeying God's order. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong."

Actually, it has everything to do with rights. And whose God? Your God? Certainly not my God. Repeat after me, legislating religion: it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong.

"The California Supreme Court overturned the vote of the people on The Defense of Marriage Act (otherwise known as Prop 22 in California). One old gasbag with a swing vote changed the lives of millions of people, and many feel their vote didn't count."

Let's get one thing straight. The California Supreme Court overturned the vote of the people on a clearly unconstitutional amendment to California law. That's exactly what the courts are supposed to do. If a proposition allowing slave ownership passed "the vote of the people," I and everyone else better damn well expect the courts to overturn it. Also, no one's lives have been changed by allowing same-sex couples to marry. Except for theirs, of course.

"Given God's creation of male and female, I'm sure his plan was for male and female to be productive. Now answer this: how can the same-sex marriage reproduce?"

Ok, asshole, instead of dismissing you immediately as a bible-thumping fundie moron, I'm going to humor you. So God created male and female, alright. What makes you so "sure" his plan was for male and female to reproduce? Are you really so arrogant to believe that you know God's plan? Hell, are you God? I'm pretty sure that qualifies as blasphemy, fuckstick.

"I am not opposed to gays or lesbians based on their character or abilities. I just don't want to explain to a 6-year-old why two men are kissing!"

Your inability to explain healthy relationships to a child is your problem, not anyone else's.

"What makes you think that gay marriage is a rights issue? It is a moral issue. Once we start down that slippery slope, it will affect your kids and your grandkids."

Finally, someone whom I agree with! Of course it's a moral issue! It needs to affect our kids and grandkids, so this sort of bigotry and hatred never...wait, hold on. You're saying it's a bad thing, aren't you? Nevermind, my bad, you're a dumbass.

"To change the meaning of this word, marriage, would only cause confusion and chaos."

Hold the phone. I've always wondered what the definition of marriage actually is. How could I find something like that out? I know! The dictionary! Let's check our good friend Merriam-Webster, they'll know!

Main Entry: mar·riage
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English mariage, from Anglo-French, from marier to marry

1 a (1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage b: the mutual relation of married persons c: the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage

Would you look at that. It's right there, plain and simple, black and white. The definition is already such that it covers the union of same sex people. Confusion? Chaos? Not here.

So, in conclusion, I'm voting no on Prop 8. It's not about protecting marriage, or children, or family values. It's about what's right. It's about what's just. And it's about saying that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Rock Band 2 (PS3) Impressions

Best. Music Game. Ever.

RB2 is like a 13. Everything great about Rock Band plus more. The new track list is great. Created characters can play any instrument, and be in any band. The world tour is now single or multiplayer, online or off. Finding the song you want is much easier, and the ability to make setlists is fantastic. And there's trophies. Sweet, sweet, trophies.

I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing a full review, so in case I don't, know this: Rock Band 2 is worth every cent of the $60 asking price.

Rock Band 2 (PS3)

Guess who has two thumbs and got a copy of Rock Band 2 early? This guy! *points to himself with both thumbs*

Yeah, yeah, I know anyone who has a 360 could have had and been playing RB2 for about a month now, but seeing as how the PS3 version doesn't officially drop until tomorrow, I think the fact that I snagged a copy today is pretty damn cool. So without further ado, I'm going to commence melting faces.

Burnout Paradise (PS3)

I finished Burnout Paradise today. If you're a regular reader of this blog (god help you) you may remember I talked about Burnout Paradise earlier this year (if you do, you have my thanks, but also my pity) when it first came out. I had rented then, but I decided to buy a few weeks ago when I realized a used copy could be had for 25 bucks, and there had been some free content upgrades made to the game.

Anyway, my short take is: totally worth 25 bucks, extremely enjoyable for the 20 hours or so I played it (on top of the 10 or 12 I had put in back in January). Look for my full review soon over at Kitsune Games.

Christmas in October

Look at what comes out this month:
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 (360, PC, PS3)
Dead Space (360, PC, PS3)
Fable 2 (360)
Fallout 3 (360, PC, PS3)
Far Cry 2 (360, PC, PS3)
Ghostbusters (360, DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii)
Guitar Hero World Tour (360, PS2, PS3, Wii)
Jagged Alliance (DS)
Legendary (360, PC, PS3)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Rock Band 2 (360, PS2, PS3, Wii)
Rock Revolution (360, DS, PS3, Wii)
Saints Row 2 (360, PC, PS3)
Spider-Man Web of Shadows (360, DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii)
Wii Music (Wii)

Um, Mr. Video Game Publishers? I play games all year round, you know. I'm not saying all (or even most) of these games will be purchases, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they're all releasing within 3 weeks of each other. Spread those bad boys out, and I'd buy more games. Just a thought.

EDIT: Next month is...better? Worse? More of the same?
Alone in the Dark (PS3)
Chrono Trigger (DS)
Endwar (360, PC, PS3, PSP)
Gears of War 2 (360)
Left 4 Dead (360, PC)
Mirror's Edge (360, PS3)
Need for Speed Undercover (360, DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii)
Neverwinter Nights 2 Storm of Zehir (PC)
Resistance 2 (PS3)
Tomb Raider Underworld (360, DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii)

Jesus.

A Question for my Ghetto Neighbors

I understand you like to smoke and stay up late since apparently you don't have to get up early in the morning to go to an actual job, but is it really necessary to play your "phat beats" after 11 pm? Seriously. Knock it the fuck off.

Spore (The Final Word)

If you want to know all about my thoughts on Spore, go check out Kitsune Games.

One Quick Spore Note

I'm done with Spore, and I'll tell you why once I get around to writing up that other Spore post I've mentioned, but first I wanted to just say this. I remember Will Wright promising that the Space stage would be the ultimate sandbox, where not only could you reshape planets and all that, but you could also revisit the other stages of the game, i.e modifying creatures and civilizations and whatnot. While that's technically true, all the tools required to do those things cost outrageous amounts of money, and like I mentioned before, you can't do them at your own pace. You'll always be getting called back to prevent pirates or enemy raiders from destroying your shit.

So here's my question: why isn't there a special Sandbox mode that's unlocked once you "finish" the Space stage? One where you can freely revisit any of the prior stages and do whatever you want however you want, with no limits other than your imagination? I should be able to get to play around with creature building, tribal wrangling, civilization expansion, and yes, even get to blow up as many planets as I feel like while cruising around the galaxy in my tricked out spaceship with no limits or restrictions.

If Spore's primary tagline is "Not really a game," it's secondary tagline should be, "Untapped potential."

I Hate Sheep

I want to talk a little bit more about Spore eventually, but I might end up doing that in a full fledged review over at Kitsune Games. Dunno, we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, right now, I want to talk about how much I hate sheep. No, not the fluffy mammals, the people who can't think for themselves. Those people who read things on the internet and take it to heart, with no regard to what they actually believe.

Take, for example, television, which is a subject near and dear to my heart. New shows will come out, and they'll be great. Everyone will love them. A couple years will pass (or sometimes just one), and then all of sudden you hear people say, "Oh, that show? The first few seasons were good, but it's terrible now." What happened? The internet happened.

Here's some examples.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is somewhere on my top 5 list of the Best TV Shows in the History of TV Shows Ever. However, I disliked the seventh season, for reasons that are my own. I really, really liked the fifth, and especially the sixth, seasons, though. Seemingly everyone else on the planet hated everything after the fourth season. Why? Because the internet says so.

Heroes. Not in my top 5, but certainly in my top 10. The first season was fantastic. The second season, while cut tragically short by the writer's strike, was equally so. Everyone else? The last episode of the first season was terrible, and the second season was a mess. So says the internet.

Veronica Mars. Perhaps the single best TV show I've ever seen. Three seasons was definitely not enough time to spend with Ms. Mars. I can honestly say I enjoyed each successive season more than the previous one. I'm definitely a minority of one, though, because everyone else says things started to go downhill with season 2, and season 3 was nearly unwatchable. Blame the internet.

What I'm trying to say is that when some idiot on the internet blasts a TV show for a supposed drop in quality (either real or completely imagined), everyone jumps on the bandwagon. This type of behavior probably leads to quality shows getting canceled. Basically, morons bleating about "bad" TV shows gather others to their cause, they all believe the rhetoric, stop watching, the ratings go down, and the shows get the axe. I don't actually have any data to support it, but that's my theory. Fucking sheep.

Spore (PC) Impressions

I've been playing Spore for the past week, and have put in around 10 or 12 hours, enough to reach the final Space stage (the five stages are Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space) and play around in it. My initial thoughts about Spore since I first heard about it (some 3 years ago now, at least) were that it isn't a game in the traditional sense, and those are still my thoughts. There's no ending, no goals besides advancing to the next stage, and no real structure or story.

The most interesting part, the space stage, is fatally flawed. The general idea is to take over the galaxy, either by force or by economic means. You can complete missions for other races, establish trade routes, terraform and colonize new planets, buy out existing colonies, or blast them all to hell. The fatal flaw that I've found in this game that is very clearly marketed at the "casual" gamer, is that you can't do anything at your own pace. Let's say you want to explore the galaxy and do missions, and that's all you want to do. That's fine. Until you meet a warlike race, however, and they declare war on you with no provocation other than the fact that you were in their system. After that, they will relentlessly and tirelessly attack your colonies until there is nothing left of them. Sure, you can put up meager defense turrets, but they'll be blasted all to hell in no time. Sure, your colonies will purchase attack vehicles on their own, but not nearly as many as are needed, or often enough to turn aside a single invasion. Whenever your colonies are attacked, you must immediately drop whatever you're doing and return in your ship to help defend. Even if you're in the system that is being attacked, by the time you get to the planet and defeat the invaders, they will have wrought heavy damage to your colonies. Any buildings or turrets that were destroyed will have to be replaced by hand. You can choose not to replace them, but that simply means the next time you're attacked, the invasion will be able to destroy everything that's left more quickly, not to mention that your colonies will not be at full operating capacity.

What this boils down to is a futile exercise in micromanagement, something no casual gamer would ever find fun or interesting. Even I, as a self-described hardcore gamer have no interest in micromanaging my colonies. I'm off exploring the galaxy, goddammit, my people should rebuild those turrets and buildings automatically, and there should be an option to create a standing army so they'll be ready for the next invasion and won't have to whine that they're being attacked and plead that I come help them. That way, even if I'm in a war that I didn't start and didn't want, I don't have to scurry back and forth across the galaxy just to keep from being wiped off the face of the universe.

At this point, I had a lot more fun reaching the space stage then actually doing things in the space stage. Messing around with my creature and doing all of the tribal and civilization stuff was surprisingly fun, although I'm not sure I would ever want to do it again. The space stage, however, has the potential to be really, really good, and it's not. Kind of a shame, really, because I would have gladly paid $50 just for the Space stage that incorporates all of the interesting ideas it has with none of the bullshit.

Release Date Calendar

Rejoice! A comprehensive release date calendar, in easy to use calendar format complete with color coding!

I've been searching for something like this ever since Gone Gold went down, and the void it left was not sufficiently filled by the continuation of the community or the eventual resurrection of the sister site, Console Gold.

On a related side note, looking up Gone Gold for those links reminded me that it was at that site that I originally started reading Bill Harris' work, which he moved over to Dubious Quality just before Gone Gold closed. It's like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, or some shit.