Okay, calling the Yahoo homepage an outlet for news may be pretty generous. But I still thought it was interesting that someone wrote an article about something as trivial as a costume change on a superhero. You can read the article here:
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93808?fp=1
It's as though this guy was looking for something to write about and decided to look at a comic book for the very first time in order to find a story. I could be wrong, but he didn't seem to consult with any comic book fans before writing. He loses some serious points on his research credibility.
My hope is that with a new writing team taking over what has been a very well-written book, gimmicks like this are not an indication of what they hope will sell future issues. Dress these folks in whatever you want. Just give me interesting characters and good stories.
Regarding the Yahoo article, Wonder Woman changing her costume is not even worthy of a light entertainment news story. It just ain't news in the comics world. And below I've pasted the comments I left on that article to explain why:
An "obsessive comic fan" probably should have told Mr. Krumboltz that he doesn't really have a story here. These kinds of changes happen all the time and are eventually reversed. (Superman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern. It's VERY common.) The only costume changes that stick are the ones where the updates/modifications are very subtle. This one will be fun for a while and get reversed just like all the others. It's only a matter of time. Oh, and her civilian name is "Prince", not Price. That one you can even find on Wikipedia.
Oh yeah. And Wonder Woman has already had her costume changed a few times as well. Switches back to the classic look every time.
I'm about 5-6 hours into Mass Effect 2 and I'm loving it. But MAN, it's harder than the first one! Shots are harder to line up and the AI is smarter and more aggressive. Cover is a little harder to use now and then and I've come closer to dying more often so far than I did my entire time playing Mass Effect 1. (Well, except for in some of those land-rover sequences. Thresher Maws are lame.)
It hasn't gotten to the point of being frustrating yet. But the intensity is seriously cranked up, which means I'm not always in the mood to play. For me, ME2 means sitting down prepared for an emotionally draining experience!
Okay, for those who spoke up...here it is! I've FINALLY posted again! :-) I have a TON of pictures to choose from (as I'm sure you can guess), but here's the one I chose for now, and hope to have more follow soon. Here's Asher playing with his new water "table." It's really a big plastic sink and he LOVES it! Of course, Asher still loves pretty much all things water, so this was a pretty safe bet. So, now that I've posted, I better get some comments to know that there are still people out here who check this blog!
That's right, you're getting TWO posts from me today! Who knew such a thing was possible??
My bro-in-law sent me some links to a game type I never even knew existed. And in keeping with the "Summer Of Free", these games are all free and legal to download online! Woohoo!
My first impression is that the unique gameplay (and not the graphics) is the chief draw here. I'm just checking them out myself now, so I can't really comment, but here is what he sent me. Next time you're bored and need a free way to pass some time, well here ya go!
Thanks, Sean! You rock, bro!
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 9:32 AM
Hey bro,
I've been poking around on the internet for the last couple days, looking into a genre of game called "roguelike"... These games seem to be sort of the precursor to modern RPGs and are largely inspired by D&D, so I immediately thought of you. They have a few defining characteristics: Randomly created dungeons, permanent death (i.e., you can save your game as often as you want but once your character is dead, that's it), and turn-based play. Anyway, I'm not really qualified to do a review for your "Summer of Free" because I'm just messing around (and I'm not very experienced in terms of RPGs), but I thought I'd shoot you some links if you wanted to try any of them out. We're talking super old-school here... the simpler ones (graphically) require some imagination but seem like they could be pretty cool once you're used to them. Most of them are keyboard-controlled so if there's a tutorial or instructions I recommend reading them to learn the shortcuts.
And now the games... I checked to make sure there are Windows versions of all of these, and they all seem to be still pretty widely played and/or updated: http://rephial.org/ ("Angband")
So far I've played "NetHack" and "Crawl Stone Soup"... There are tons more (such as the original "Rogue") but these should get you started... :) Besides, the older ones would be more of a hassle because they'd probably require a DOS emulator like DOSBox (http://dosbox.com).
Today's challenge is "figuring out forums". I'm attempting to launch a forum website for the Spirit Blade Productions community. The biggest and most vital ingredients are in place. A listener put together a fantastic looking site for the forums and has volunteered to be technical administrator, and I've got at least one person who has expressed willingness to moderate.
But now it's up to me to fill in all the little holes. Namely policy. I have to figure out what ground rules to establish for forum discussion and how moderators should respond to rule violations. I have some great examples to follow and model the forum after, but I still need to put it all down in my own words for the site. That is my challenge for today.
[Note: this was edited from an e-mail I sent to my brother-in-law, which I thought deserved some space on the blog since I haven't talked about games much on here yet.]
I’ve been poking around on the internet for the last couple days, looking into a genre of game called Roguelike, a.k.a. dungeon crawlers. These games seem to be sort of the precursor to modern RPGs and are largely inspired by Dungeons & Dragons (a role-playing board game). They have a few defining characteristics: Randomly created dungeons for maximum replayability value, permanent death (i.e., you can save your game as often as you want but once your character is dead, that’s it), and turn-based play. I’m not really qualified to do a full-on review of them because I’m just messing around (and I’m not very experienced in terms of RPGs), but I thought I’d throw out some links if anyone wanted to try any of them out. We’re talking super old-school here… the simpler ones (graphically) require some imagination but seem like they could be pretty cool once you’re used to them– and the purists say the DOS-style graphics are the only way to go. Most of them are keyboard-controlled so if there’s a built-in tutorial or instructions I recommend going through them to learn the shortcuts.
And now some games… I checked to make sure there are Windows versions of all of these (there are, of course, Linux versions because the whole phenomenon began on Unix mainframes), and they all seem to be still pretty widely played and/or updated:
So far I’ve played NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. NetHack was my first venture into the genre, a few months ago, which ended badly and left me somewhat disinterested — the learning curve on these games is a bit steep for us modern gamers with our fancy “plots” and “controllers”. But earlier this week I played a few rounds of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and found that there was a tutorial built-in, which helped me grasp some of the basic concepts (and keyboard commands). After quickly killing off the first two characters I created (Rigot the Mountain Elf and Buttons the Minotaur), I finally got into the swing of things and completed my first dungeon level. So the seed has been planted.
Besides the games listed above, there are tons more — such as the original Rogue, the one that made the genre popular-ish, and a vast swath of games created by an online community of Roguelike fans. They even have create-a-Roguelike-in-a-week competitions, called 7DRLs.
Some of the older games require a DOS environment, which you can get by using DosBox. I recommend grabbing a frontend for DosBox from their download page as well, which allows you to save per-game configurations and launch them with a few clicks. There are also Roguelikes available for other systems, such as Commodore 64 and Amiga (for which there are also emulators available).
As a side-note, another game that is more of an old-school action/adventure RPG with pre-made levels (and was written because the author didn’t like Rogue), is the Kroz series, which 3d Realms (formerly Apogee) recently released as freeware — you’ll *definitely* need DosBox for these. I remember a friend of mine playing this on his wicked fast Pentium computer under DOS 6 back in elementary school.
Have fun… or maybe you’re not really into these old games… That’s cool too. :)
Although I’m a big fan of DC comics, I’ve never followed the Jonah Hex comic book, so I can’t speak of this movie’s fidelity to the source material. And normally I wouldn’t review a western, but the previews for this movie indicated some clearly supernatural elements that made it a good fit for the kind of movies I review.
Jonah Hex is about a man in the 1800’s whose family was killed in front of him and who is now a bounty hunter, trying to punish criminals to make himself feel a little better. But when it is revealed that his family’s killer, once thought dead, is still alive, Jonah drops everything to hunt him down. Oh yeah, and a hooker with a heart of… well, she’s got a heart and she’s tagging along because she likes Jonah, or something.
This is going to be a short review because I found this movie extremely forgettable. I don’t remember a single interesting character. Hex was most interesting in the flashbacks dealing with the death of his family. Otherwise, he showed no depth of character. In fact, every character in this movie was pretty flat. John Malcovich plays the villain, Quentin Turnbull, but because of his “unique” style of acting, it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s phoning this one in. Either way, Turnbull was flat and boring in nearly every scene he was in.
The explosions were fine, the effects were fine. Everything was fine. But nothing was great, or even very good. Predictable plot, flat characterization, conventional shooting style and set/costume design. This movie might have been something special if it had used more supernatural story elements and been more creative in its visual design.
As with any story that deals with communication with the dead, this movie could potentially lead to conversation about the afterlife. But the movie is so bland that you’ll probably be ready to talk about something else before you even get out of the theater.
At least it’s short. From opening to closing credits, I clocked the movie at under 80 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if some good material was left on the cutting room floor.
MPAA- Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual content.
Just got back from a GREAT weekend up in the mountains! I'm not really a "naturey" kinda guy. Hate bugs and they all seem to hate me. Actually, "hate" sounds a little too macho. I honestly don't know how bugs feel about me. But depending on their size and/or flight capability, I have a crippling fear of them.
But we had relatively few bugs at the cabin we stayed at. (Thanks, Kelly!) And I was able to spend the weekend relaxing with my wife and son. We took a walk, ate a big pancake breakfast, roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows, ate s'mores and I even finished playing "Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age"! (C'mon. You can't go camping without an xbox and tv!)
The weekend was JUST what I needed and I'm excited to be back to work with the built-up stress of last week far behind me.
My parents will be buying a massive camper next week and are looking forward to going camping with me, my sister and our families. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to it!
Every year at the electronic gaming expo known as “E3”, video game makers gather before legions of journalists to unveil the latest and greatest of what they are or will be bringing to the gaming world. In the last few years, E3 has become more accessible to the common gamer through TV and internet broadcast of the event, and so I’ve taken to watching the expo and this will be the second year I’ve collected some thoughts and reactions to share about the big three (Xbox, Sony and Nintendo).
First off, it’s always interesting to see the big suits come out and try to talk about their products. There words sound so rehearsed and their presentations so formal that I have to wonder if they have any genuine passion for video games themselves, or if they would gladly be the CEO of a successful knitting company just as easily. In fact, I’m nearly convinced that some of these suits don’t even play video games.
It’s a constant reminder that this isn’t a convention designed for the consumer. It’s for business owner considering what products they want to carry and journalists trying to figure out what the new trends will be. A convention “by the suits, for the suits”. But the artificial, awkward nature of the thing has a certain charm that adds entertainment value in my opinion.
XBOX
The big suit for Microsoft started the presentation by saying that this year Xbox was all about transformation. Transforming this and transforming that. They’re all a bunch of transformers at Microsoft. But unless you are interested in controller-free gameplay, they aren’t transforming much this year.
After showcasing some great looking games like Gears Of War 3 and Fable 3 (neither of which currently interest me) they spent the rest of the time talking about new functionality for the Xbox that has nothing to do with the core gaming market. ESPN on Xbox? Yay. Just what this sports-obsessed jock was waiting for. Okay, yes. I understand that many gamers are into sports. But I’ve never been one of them.
Last year’s “Project Natal”, the controller free sensor-based control system for Xbox, came back this year with a new name: Kinect. (A “cool” combination of the words kinetic and connect.) In many ways the hardware is impressive. It aims to be user friendly and intuitive and I think they nailed it on the head. With simple and obvious voice commands and hand motions, one can navigate menus and play games. (At least games designed to be played this way.) The novelty is pretty interesting, but in my estimation that’s all it is. Why?
As the technology was demonstrated, the coverage would often switch between showing the game screen and showing the player, but they didn’t show both together as often. This is probably because every time they did I noticed an obvious 1 second lag between what the player did and what happened onscreen. The “players” chosen to demo the hardware were Microsoft employees who had clearly had time to adjust to the lag. They smiled and “laughed” and had a grand ole time. But if it would have been me, I would have found the delay very frustrating. I’m assuming that games for the Kinect are designed forgivingly with this delay in mind, but that doesn’t change the fact that a 1 second delay creates significant distance between the player and the world he is interacting with. Look at your watch and think of almost any video game you’ve played requiring hand-eye coordination. One second is a long time.
When something like Kinect can read my body motions and process the information fast enough to reproduce simultaneously onscreen, then we will have made a significant jump in game play. Not to mention that several of the games demonstrated for Kinect could largely be played with a peripheral as simple as the original nintendo’s “Track and Field” mat. (They had a track and field hurdles game that I’m nearly positive could have been played using the NES play mat controller.)
So this is one Xbox owner who will be exclusively placing his gaming hopes in 3rd party developers this year.
PLAYSTATION
Playstation wasted no time in taking an aggressive attitude toward their competition, delivering not so subtle jabs at Nintendo several times throughout the show. But I can see why their confidence would lead them to be critical of Nintendo. The demonstration of the Playstation “move” controller looked remarkable after watching Microsoft’s “Kinect” demo. The “move” boasts nearly perfect 1 to 1 responsiveness and makes gameplay more interactive than anything I’ve ever seen.
PSP games seem to keep looking better, and Sony is clearly going to be putting more effort into their handheld device. But otherwise nothing really grabbed my interest in their exclusive games and content.
NINTENDO
With Xbox and Playstation both unveiling new technology, Nintendo naturally started their press conference by de-emphasizing technological advancements, claiming that ultimately the experience is what is important. Slick, Nintendo. Of course next year when you introduce the Wii motion “plus plus”, or the wii motion “multiplication” you’ll be saying that technology is the most important thing.
Nintendo got off to a rough start demoing the new Zelda game. After the sleek one to one controlling power of the playstation “move”, the interface between the wii remote and the game looked sluggish and even more delayed than the “Kinect”. Add to that some glitches in the operation of the controller that they blamed on “wireless devices” in the audience and things were looking pretty awkward. Really guys? A wireless phone way down in the audience messes up the wii remote? How about the one I have turned on in my pocket? If that’s the case, then Wii could only be enjoyed by people living in the stone ages!
Nintendo’s chief focus was games. Although they did reveal a new handheld device called the Nintendo 3DS, which they claim provides a 3D game experience without any glasses. Of course, there was no way for me to see the 3D for myself, but I’m very curious. I have to assume the 3D tech they are using is in some way similar to those 3D stickers that appear to move as you rotate them from side to side. Could be cool, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Personally, I don’t need to become more physically involved with video games or see them in 3D. I’d rather play games with better graphics.
STAR WARS MMO
One game definitely had my attention. In recent years, my RPG loyalty has shifted from Square Enix to a company that it would appear can do no wrong. Bioware. As the geniuses behind Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, I felt confident that they were the best ones to create an MMORPG based in the same well-known universe. But I have to admit that my first impressions were pretty tame.
The graphics for Star Wars: The Old Republic honestly looked unimpressive to me. I’ve never played an MMO, but if weaker graphics naturally come with the package, consider that yet one more reason why I’m uninterested in the genre. I also wish I could have gained a better understanding of the combat mechanics. Is it real-time, or something like the systems used for KOTOR and Dragon Age? The fact that the game can be played and enjoyed as a single player experience certainly caught my interest, but I suppose if I want a single player experience, I should just stay off of the internet, right?
As a whole, I really didn’t have any “wow” moments watching the coverage this year. Maybe it’s because I’ve had an insanely busy week and watching E3 coverage was just “one more thing”. But I think much of it comes down to the games. And this year, I saw almost no RPGs to look forward to. Not a good sign. Then again, I’ve already got some great ones worth playing again (and again and again! Thanks, Bioware!) and I could always stand to save some money!
Last night I just finished reading a fantasy series by Robert Newcomb. I didn't actually finish the series, but I did finish reading it.
I had read on Wikipedia that he was having trouble finding a publisher for the remaining books he has planned for this series. But I could have sworn I read later that he finally had. And so I foolishly kept reading what has been a mediocre series, only to find that it will, in fact, remain unpublished for the foreseeable future.
I can't think of many more reading scenarios more frustrating than reading a mediocre series that you only realize you'll never be able to finish after starting the sixth book in the series. I thought it would have been worth it if I could get to the end of the story. And I thought the 6th book WAS the end of the story. But just to put my fears to rest, accepting the risk of spoiling the story for myself, I skipped ahead and read the last three pages. I'm glad I did. I was able to move on to my next book much more quickly.
So what was mediocre about the experience? Well, Newcomb does some things that I really like as a reader. His writing takes you inside the minds of his characters, helping you to feel what they are feeling. This is a must for any fiction I read. His stories also dealt with mature subject matter and dark happenings. Evil was VERY evil and the lines were drawn clearly. And in the first two books, the bad guys were easy to hate and made my blood boil.
But after that, the motivations of villains vanished in favor of cookie cutter villains who were bad just because they liked being bad. I stopped hating them because they didn't feel real.
Additionally, Newcomb VERY often keeps things from his readers. Whenever a siginifcant plan is cooked up by the heroes to "save the day" or get themselves out of trouble, Newcomb handles it by saying something like, "They talked about the plan and all agreed that it would probably work." The reader isn't let in on what the plan was until it is executed, at which time it also comes off without a hitch.
I'd rather know what the plan is in advance and then see it not work perfectly so I can freak out along with the characters as they try to improvise a solution. But Newcomb keeps me at a distance, as though he'd rather I try to guess what the plan is before they pull it off. Not interested. Especially since I know it will always work.
Of course, there is the exception to this rule from time to time. It almost always happens at the climax of each book. The plan to beat the bad guy is revealed, and then it doesn't work. And then something strange and random happens that takes out the bad guy anyway. The characters don't know what happened. They just thank their lucky stars. Then a little epilogue reveals to the reader a new villain that caused the weird randomness. A villain which will be the focus of the next book and will be defeated in the same way. Rinse and repeat.
This repeated use of the Deus Ex Machina plot device in his writing at the end of nearly every book leaves them feeling very anti-climactic.
So despite having several of the traits I really like in a writer's general style, Newcomb veered drastically away from my tastes in several consistent ways.
I can only hope that the book I just picked up from Sara Douglass will treat me better. (At least I know this series has an ending that is available in paperback. I double-checked.)
Okay, calling the Yahoo homepage an outlet for news may be pretty generous. But I still thought it was interesting that someone wrote an article about something as trivial as a costume change on a superhero. You can read the article here:
