There’s a large part of me that is envious of people who can draw. I look at the work of people like Neil Gaiman, Alecos Popadatos, and TheNintendoTheory and wonder why I can’t do that. Perhaps I lack the patience, perhaps I lack the skill, perhaps I lack the artistic vision but I simply can’t draw to save my life. I can craft a pretty good story, I seem to have the patience for that, but drawing fails me.
I should probably develop the skill to draw, if only so I won’t have to contract my book covers when I do start getting published. Or perhaps I should develop skills as a psychic. Then I could get away with crap like this.
No-More (Really? A Pun? Really?) On March 10th, All-Star shortshop Normar Garciaparra officially announced his retirement from professional baseball. When asked what he plans to do with his time, Mr. Garciaparra said, “I’m going home to fuck my wife, Mia Hamm.”
My Video Game Diary- 3/10/10 Final Fantasy games are what I cut my teeth on as a gamer. Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy X still rank among my favorite games. There was a time where I owned every Final Fantasy game released in North America. Hell, I bought a PS3 three years ago to play Final Fantasy XIII. So, in keeping with my Final Fantasy fandom, I spent Tuesday, March 9th playing the beta for Blur. Blur is such a blast. It’s like Need For Speed: Underground with elements of Mario Kart if it was done well. The races in Blur are fast, competitive, and filled with action and explosions. I do plan on starting Final Fantasy XIII soon, assuming I don’t get distracted by another exploding game, but for the rest of this week I’m playing Blur.
Tulsa Who? On March 10th, Olympic sprinter Marion Jones announced that she had signed with the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA. Miss Jones said of her motivation to play professional basketball, “I needed money to afford another cycle of The Clear.”
My Video Game Diary 3/11/10 Wait- Blur is an Activison game? Damnit! After the Infinity Ward incident I vowed to boycott all Activision products until the lawsuits are settled! Final Fantasy XIII, here I come!
You Will Die Trailer
My beta key for Blur came courtesy of DerrickH of Dead Pixel Live. Here is a game he made that is available right now on the Xbox Live Indie Game service. Enjoy!
Heavy Rain First Impressions I bought Heavy Rain on the day it was released. The first thing I needed to do upon putting Heavy Rain into my PS3 and starting it up was to download an update. If this was a 360 game and I was dealing with Live, this process would have taken just a couple of minutes. Unfortunately this was a PS3 game and I was dealing with PSN.
The first time I tried to download this update the download started but stopped and didn’t get started again for seemingly no reason at all. The second time it stalled before even starting the download for, again, seemingly no reason at all. The third time the download started and kept on going, but the speed at which it was downloading was unacceptable. I was able to watch an entire episode of The Dish in the time it took to download the update. Once the update was downloaded the next thing to do was install Heavy Rain to the PS3’s hard drive. Unlike other games where they give you a progress bar or Old Snake to look at, Heavy Rain actually gives you something to do. Included in the package with Heavy Rain is this square piece of paper. During the installation process, you are given instructions on how to turn this piece of paper into this. By the time you are finished crafting this piece of origami, the installation should be complete. This whole process, infuriating at first and somewhat rewarding at the end, took about an hour. An hour I could have spent playing the game. Let’s just hope the actual playing of Heavy Rain offers more rewards than just a paper artform to put next to my Modern Warfare 2 night vision goggles.
Shawn I remember happier times with my dad. In the backyard playing helicopter and airplane with him and my brother. Watching him draw buildings that people could live and play in. Even him comforting me as I mourned the loss of my pet bird are things that I look back on fondly now.
After the accident that took my brother away, my dad never seemingly got up. He looks depressed, isn’t maintaining himself the way he used to, and even walks around like he doesn’t quite have a handle on how to do so fluidly. He doesn’t even eat well, not that the microwaved chicken is anything to salivate over.
I know he means well, I can see the remorse for his failings in his eyes as he tucks me in at night. Perhaps one day he will pick himself up and find a way out of this perpetual downpour. At least then he might shave off that short scruffily beard he’s grown.
Heavy Rain Second Impressions Video games tend to follow a similar basic structure: Level, level, boss, level, level, bigger boss, level, level, bigger boss, level, boss, bigger boss, final boss. Nearly every video game does this. Mario, Metroid, Mega Man, Zelda, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and on and on and on. Before its release, Heavy Rain was talked about not being a video game. I don’t know why this is because Heavy Rain follows basic video game structure, it’s just presented differently. Inner monologue, dialog between characters, fight scene, discovery of a plot point, discussion of the plot point, fight scene, character development, plot development, fight scene. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. This kind of basic video game structure can produce a challenging and compelling video game experience, if it is done well. Heavy Rain appears to be utilizing this structure very well, so far…
Heavy Rain Review Among the shows that I watch on a regular basis are Rescue Me, Burn Notice, Skins, and Mad Men. These are dramas with deep rich characters, multiple slow developing plot lines, and performances that are nothing short of brilliant. These shows stimulate a part of my brain that craves smart, funny, romantic, and, most importantly, adult entertainment. These are shows that I would have found absolutely dull as a teenager. I look back at the shows I watched as a young teen, compare them to the shows I watch now, and marvel at how much different they are. I'm truly embarrassed by that which used to entertain me compared to what now entertain me. Heavy Rain is the kind of entertainment I would have found dull when I was a teenager but find enthralling now. Exposition about how they feel about minor things in their environment, subtle facial ticks that give away true feelings about someone or something, and contextual swearing all serve to create a deep and compelling narrative for those mature enough to appreciate it. If you're not mature enough yet, Heavy Rain can serve to teach you about what storycraft is. Heavy Rain: A
A New Evil Empire Emerges Amid the devastating earthquake in Chile, the ongoing healthcare debate, and the hype surrounding Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, one story went unreported this week in the general media. A tactical military strike took place on several military bases in the South American country of French Guiana on Tuesday, March 2nd. As previously reported on The Four Stars Blog, French Guiana is the headquarters for the military wing of Electronic Arts. Previously the EA Army has butted heads with the Church Of Scientology’s Sea Org. In the days following the military strikes, speculation was that this attack was a first strike by the Sea Org against the EA Army. This speculation disappeared after a post on Megalomaniacal.com was made public. This post was attributed to Bobby Kotick. The post reads as follows:
“The military strikes carried out in French Guiana on Tuesday were not the acts of the Sea Org, the US Military, or even god. These attacks were carried out by The Great Empire of Activision. The Great Empire of Activision is asserting its dominance in all things in all ways. Anyone that stands in the way of The Great Empire will be crushed. We easily destroyed a part of ourselves, don’t think we won’t do the same to you. Quote the Kotec, nevermore.” There has been no response from Electronic Arts to Activision’s attack on their military headquarters in French Guiana. This was to be expected as EA has never publically acknowledged the EA Army. No one knows what the next move will be from The Great Empire of Activison, although the presence of a panel truck with the Tony hawk Ride logo on it sitting outside the offices of the Redertainment Corporation of America does concern me.
The Plan Of Nintendo Rumble Salvation Rumors have been flying recently about Nintendo’s plans for a possible DS 2. After digging around in a 2005 patent filing, a diagram has been found that could possibly be a schematic for a rumble system for a handheld console. Now this diagram may be too complicated for people with limited knowledge of electronics and the trade of electrical engineering. So, after asking several electricians for a more approachable way to explain this, the following diagram has been produced.
Apparently the whole rumbling system begins even before the player plays a game. However, due to a “Veil of Failness”, not much is known for certain about this aspect of this rumbling process. When the player starts to play the game the player must meet a certain number of parameters to achieve even a small level of rumbling glory. All can achieve rumbling glory, but only a select few can achieve the full glory that is Perfect Rumbling.
After several more steps, including the possibility of being saved after the character you portray unfortunately dies, there are three levels of rumbling glory that can be attained. The first is the previously mentioned Perfect Rumbling, which is hard to achieve and may never be realized by most gamers. The second is Acceptable Rumbling, which is all right, but given the awesomeness of Perfect Rumbling, Acceptable Rumbling is barely acceptable. The final is Fail Rumbling, which feels like nothing more than a slight tapping and actually makes more noise than movement. Fail Rumbling is reserved for the worst of the worst, the baddest of the bad, the most failtastic of the fail. You’d have to be a pretty fucked up player to achieve Fail Rumbling.
As a Nintendo DS 2 has yet to be announced or even acknowledged by Nintendo, it is unknown where, when, and how this new rumbling system will be implemented. It is also unknown if the rumbling system mentioned in this story will actually be like this when gamers encounter it. I guess we’ll just see whose system of lemming like belief is correct.
Dear God Why?
Another Reason To Avoid UAE, other than the whole being a searing desert thing. On February 22nd, the United Arab Emirates banned the importation and sale of the PS3 title Heavy Rain. In a statement on this ban, UAE Culture and Communications Minister Farooq Aziz said the following:
“The reason the Culture and Communications Ministry has banned the video game Heavy Rain is not the fully nude woman you can view at about three hours in. Nor is it the naked man ass you can view at about ten minutes in. Nor is it that you can make the playable characters urinate on a frequent basis. The CACM banned Heavy Rain because of Quantic Dream’s flagrant and grotesque depiction of women as humans.
“The United Arab Emirates hardline interpretation of the holy Qur’an dictates that we treat all females as objects with no more rights and privileges than a fern. The UAE CACM also insists that all media that is imported conforms to our interpretation of the Islamic faith, the one and only true faith as revealed to the prophet Mohammed, praise be unto him.
“Quantic Dream’s depiction of its female characters with realistic emotions and realistic drives and desires offends us deeply as it runs in conflict with our preferred depiction of women. That being emotionless vessels for our male heirs and unworthy female subjects. Untill Quantic Dream conforms to that standard, Heavy Rain will not be permitted in our country. That, or until they bribe me.” In other news, the state of Utah has also banned Heavy Rain for similar reasons as the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday, Dead or Alive Paradise director Yoshinori Ueda stated that his upcoming game is not softcore porn. As a result, ,many pre-orders for this game on Amazon.com have been cancelled, resulting in the game moving from 14th most popular to 2,456,744th.
Heavy Rain First Impressions I bought Heavy Rain on the day it was released. The first thing I needed to do upon putting Heavy Rain into my PS3 and starting it up was to download an update. If this was a 360 game and I was dealing with Live, this process would have taken just a couple of minutes. Unfortunately this was a PS3 game and I was dealing with PSN.
The first time I tried to download this update the download started but stopped and didn’t get started again for seemingly no reason at all. The second time it stalled before even starting the download for, again, seemingly no reason at all. The third time the download started and kept on going, but the speed at which it was downloading was unacceptable. I was able to watch an entire episode of The Dish in the time it took to download the update. Once the update was downloaded the next thing to do was install Heavy Rain to the PS3’s hard drive. Unlike other games where they give you a progress bar or Old Snake to look at, Heavy Rain actually gives you something to do. Included in the package with Heavy Rain is this square piece of paper. During the installation process, you are given instructions on how to turn this piece of paper into this. By the time you are finished crafting this piece of origami, the installation should be complete. This whole process, infuriating at first and somewhat rewarding at the end, took about an hour. An hour I could have spent playing the game. Let’s just hope the actual playing of Heavy Rain offers more rewards than just a paper artform to put next to my Modern Warfare 2 night vision goggles.
Shawn I remember happier times with my dad. In the backyard playing helicopter and airplane with him and my brother. Watching him draw buildings that people could live and play in. Even him comforting me as I mourned the loss of my pet bird are things that I look back on fondly now.
After the accident that took my brother away, my dad never seemingly got up. He looks depressed, isn’t maintaining himself the way he used to, and even walks around like he doesn’t quite have a handle on how to do so fluidly. He doesn’t even eat well, not that the microwaved chicken is anything to salivate over.
I know he means well, I can see the remorse for his failings in his eyes as he tucks me in at night. Perhaps one day he will pick himself up and find a way out of this perpetual downpour. At least then he might shave off that short scruffily beard he’s grown.
Heavy Rain Second Impressions Video games tend to follow a similar basic structure: Level, level, boss, level, level, bigger boss, level, level, bigger boss, level, boss, bigger boss, final boss. Nearly every video game does this. Mario, Metroid, Mega Man, Zelda, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and on and on and on. Before its release, Heavy Rain was talked about not being a video game. I don’t know why this is because Heavy Rain follows basic video game structure, it’s just presented differently. Inner monologue, dialog between characters, fight scene, discovery of a plot point, discussion of the plot point, fight scene, character development, plot development, fight scene. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. This kind of basic video game structure can produce a challenging and compelling video game experience, if it is done well. Heavy Rain appears to be utilizing this structure very well, so far…
Take your normal superhero origin story. Guy gets powers, guy realizes he has powers, guy goes out to save the world. Now factor this in: the guy has a score to settle.
Everybody wonders what it is that makes them who they are. The Hawk thought that question was securely answered. However a meeting with a boy in a hospital causes him to question everything. Why he is, who he is, what he is, and even if he is.
Eleven years after the events of Consequences Of Mayorust, The Hawk finds himself dealing with many of the same issues that many of us deal with: A less than satisfying job, co-workers of variant annoyance, and a romantic life is unhealthy at best. Thrust into all this is Madison Medina, a well meaning woman who's adversarial relationship with The Hawk morphs into a kind of friendship. Madison, in addition to learning more about herself and her abilities, help to reveal deeper problems inside the organization both she and The Hawk work for.
In every workplace there is a person. A person who doesn't talk to anyone, has walled themselves socially, and seems openly hostile to everyone. Every workplace has this person, even if you don't know of such a person, they're there. The Black Robin Christmas Carol is the story of one of these people. It delves into who this person is, why this person is, and how this person can change for the better.
There is a story. A story of pain, a story of loss, a story of unspeakable horrors, a story that has not been given it's proper attention. Some are ignoring this story. Some are unaware of this story. Some know of this story but are complicit in it's darkness. This is a story that must be told. Told so that the good can stop it and the bad can feel shame for it.
When I thought up thig blog, the name I first thought up was "Random Bullshit". Quickly I recognized that this name would put some people off. Then I thought of the name "Random Bull****". That seemed to be to much clutter. Then I was inspired with the name that dons this blog today.
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