After a long break between video game reviews, I’m back with a review of Record of Agarest War for the Xbox 360 and PS3. I’m also using a new video editing program, Sony Vegas, for this video, so bear with me as I work on improving the sound and picture quality in future installments.
Book Review – The Dervish House (and my Definition of Cyberpunk)
I’m finally getting topical for once, with my review of the Hugo Award nominated novel, The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald. I also give my definition of what I define as cyberpunk.
Where I Read – Computer Gaming World V. 1, #1
I’m taking a break from Analog Computing this week to instead take a look at the first issue of Computer Gaming World, for November-December of 1981.
We start off with an ad from SSI, hyping their port of their Civil War Strategy game “Battle of Shiloh” and the World War II game “Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow.” It’s kind of interesting. Nowadays we’re used to strategy games which will take either larger battles or even campaigns and allow the player to control them from the strategic level all the way down to the tactical level, like with the Total War games. Whereas here, on the other hand, you’re either on the strategic level, or the tactical level. If you’re on the tactical level you’re controlling a fairly generic fight or only one battle, and if you’re on the strategic level you’re either controlling a massive battle (like the Battle of the Bulge), or you’re controlling an entire theater of operations. Read more
Book Review – “The Diamond Throne”
This week I have another book review for you, covering one of David Eddings’ fantasy novels, “The Diamond Throne” – part one of the Elenium.
Movie Review – 9 Songs (and brief thoughts about the King Kong Game)
Well, my original plan of reviewing King Kong didn’t pan out for reasons I explain in the video. Instead, I’m giving my thoughts on the film 9 Songs.
Review – Splinter Cell: Conviction
Well, this is my first go at the new video review format. Please feel free to give any constructive feedback in the comments.
Brown Vs. EMA Verdict, Comment to Sen. Yee
Now that we’ve gotten a verdict in the Supreme Court case of Brown (nee Schwarzenegger) vs. EMA, I’m going to give my thoughts on this very happy occasion, and a response to comments made by Senator Leland Yee.
Who Is This Count Zero Person Anyway?
So, I’ve been blogging on this site for several years, and have never done a proper introductory post. Perhaps now it’s time to fix that.
E3 2011 – Unsold, and the Shame of the Show
Well, at long last I’m finally done with my E3 2011 videos, with my thoughts of the games which turned me off from them, and the shame of the show – a title that disgusted me to the point that I threw up in my mouth a little.
E3 2011 – SOLD!
After much delay, it’s now time for me to talk about the games from this year’s E3 that caught my interest. Specifically, I’m referring to titles that I wasn’t already sold on coming in to the event (like Uncharted), or that were announced at the event (like Hitman: Absolution).
E3 2011 – Sony & Nintendo Press Conferences
E3 2011 – Ubisoft Press Confrence Round Up
I actually uploaded this on Thursday, but I didn’t get a chance to properly get a blog post up for this until today. Here’s my thoughts on Ubisoft’s E3 Press Briefing, and the horror that was Mr. Caffeine. So, let’s make like Wayne’s World and go Doodlo-doodlo-doodlo.
EA E3 2011 Press Confrence Recap
Now more than a little late to the party, I’m moving on with my thoughts on EA’s E3 Press Briefing from Monday.
Microsoft E3 2011 Press Confrence Recap
I’ve set up a Blip.tv channel recently (which is also why I changed the name of the blog), and with my acquisition of a webcam and lapel mike, you can look forward to seeing more video content on the site soon. First up are my thoughts on Microsoft’s E3 press conference.<
Quality Control – Rock & Roll Racing
To be absolutely blunt, Rock & Roll Racing is like RC Pro-Am with some Heavy Metal & Hard Rock music, plus a psychotic announcer. To be fair, this isn’t totally a bad thing – RC Pro-Am is one of the best racing games of its period, with pretty solid controls, a game-play style that keeps you hooked, and decent racing, though the game had some problems with its learning curve.
Rock & Roll Racing basically fixes those learning curve problems and makes the gameplay a little more combat focused. You get more weapons for your car, and they automatically re-stock every lap. The majority of upgrades you can purchase between races are more ammunition capacity for your weapons, plus additional armor. Read more
Thoughts on the “war” within Anonymous
So, this interesting little article from Ars Technica came up on my Digg feed, and I felt like commenting on it – and I felt like commenting on it outside of a forum site like RPG.net.
In a nutshell, a turf-war has started among Anonymous. One faction favors the group’s current anarchic “Anyone who wants to be part of anon can be part of anon, and use our big DDOS Of DOOM” (no, they don’t actually call it that). The other faction feels that Anon should be limited to those whose Kung Fu, if you will, is strong enough. Prove your worthiness, you are admitted into the ranks of Anon. So, this second group has basically pwned Anon’s two main IRC chat rooms, as the guy running the Way of the Closed Fist faction, if you will, was the guy who was handling domain registration. Read more
Where I Read – Nintendo Power #52
It’s been almost a month since my last Where I Read, so to make up for it here’s my Where I Read for Nintendo Power issue #52 for September of 1993. This issue’s cover game is Super Mario All Stars, with Mario jumping and hitting a block. However, the inside includes guides for Final Fight 2, Rock & Roll Racing, and Enix’s RPG The 7th Saga. Let’s read on, shall we? Read more
Quality Control – Goof Troop
Capcom’s 16-bit Disney licensed games are widely regarded as being among the best platformers in the 16-bit console generation. However, of the successful titles, like Mickey Mousecapade, that they released, lurking in their shadow was a little game called Goof Troop, which has remained fairly obscure to this day. The reasons for the title’s obscurity are two-fold.
- It was based on a show that was only broadcast on cable (Goof Troop aired only on the Disney Channel).
- While all the other Disney licensed games were platformers, Goof Troop was a top-down puzzle game. Read more
Movie Review – Buena Vista Social Club
Concert films tend to follow a very specific formula: Band does stuff before performing, audience eagerly awaits performance, band performs, band and audience leave. Buena Vista Social Club follows that formula somewhat, but with some tweaks that makes it stand out. Read more
Book Review: The Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors
Movies set in historical periods or otherwise based around historical events will never go away. We will always have Victorian tales of class-based angst. Same with tales of valorious (or conniving) knights in medieval Europe. For Eastern cinema, we’ll probably always have samurai films of various stripes, and the same with various Wuxia films, discussing various martial artists and their exploits in Imperial China.
To get try and some background on wuxia films and their I recently read The Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors by Ann Paludan. The book gives an overview of the reign of approximately every emperor in Chinese history that is considered to be “officially” an emperor. Officially is in air-quotes because the book appears to defer heavily to the official Imperial histories. Read more
Manga Review – Red Hot Chili Samurai Vol. 1
Red Hot Chili Samurai is a manga that feels like it’s not sure what it wants to be. The manga follows samurai Kokaku Sento as he fights various criminals in rural Japan during the Shogunate. Kokaku’s strength and weakness is his dependance on hot peppers, which he eats regularly, and which strengthen him, like Popeye.
Like Kenshin, Kokaku and his comrades, bespectacled Ento, ninja manservant Shou, and girly-girl of action (if that makes any sense) Ran refrain from killing at all times, even if by all rights it doesn’t make sense for them to do so. However, like Samurai Champloo, the series is filled with anachronisms. Ran is introduced wearing spike-heeled knee-high leather boots with stockings and garters under her kimono. Kokaku is also introduced to a young kid who invents the Polaroid camera, the squirt-gun (modeled after the Colt M1911A), and aerosol pepper spray. Additionally, Kokaku wears a distinctive tattoo, something that would have been taboo for a historical samurai.
With the various chapters in this volume, they all have a comedic tone. Even when Kokaku is infiltrating a brothel which is drugging the women with opium (and occasionally over-dosing them), and whose owners are responsible for several murders, the tone of the story tries to stay incredibly light. This leads to a cognitive dissonance, particularly when it comes to more serious subject matter. Hopefully later volumes will take things slightly more seriously, but this volume is simply average. It’s not great, not terrible, just average.
Where I Read: Nintendo Power #51
We have another recap of an issue in Nintendo Power, just in time for a significant, coinciding event in the modern video game industry.
The issue is Nintendo Power #51, for August of 1993. Our cover game for this issue is Street Fighter II Turbo, which introduces the ability to have same character matches in the game, as well as the ability to play as the bosses, coinciding nicely with the release of Capcom’s latest fighting game to include Street Fighter characters – Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
In the letters column for this issue we have a letter from a 47 year-old chuck driver, looking for assistance with Blaster Master, and who has also been having problems with Final Fantasy Legend for the Game Boy. According to the writer, he got so frustrated with the game, that he nearly ran over his Game Boy with his big-rig until another driver stopped him (I presume this was at a truck stop). The writer discovered that the other driver had been stuck in the same spot in the game he was, and he got some instructions about how to get past that part of the game. I have to admit that I never thought of big-rig drivers as hardcore portable gamers before, but now that I’ve been exposed to the concept, I’m not too surprised. I wonder if the portable game systems are still popular with long-haul truckers today, and if so, I wonder what systems are popular? Read more
Book Review – The Rough Guide to Anime
Finding a “canon” of important works in any field is generally difficult to settle on. Do you go by popularity, artistic merit, influence on other works, early works of prominent creators, or a combination thereof?
The Rough Guide to Anime, by Simon Richmond – in Penguin Books Rough Guides series, probably has the best “canon” list of anime titles available, and certainly makes for the best English language primer to anime currently in print in the US, and makes for interesting reading for long-time fans and newcomers alike. Read more
Anime Review – Area 88
In the anime portions of Gainax‘s OVA series Otaku No Video, there’s a sequence where the main character is being shown the various types of Otaku that the members of his friend’s club are part of. There’s the vehicle and mecha otaku, who is a geek about engines and how things work, and so on. One of the members of the club is an animation otaku, and he demonstrates his affinity for animation by pointing out the detail in an animated sequence (taken from the DaiCon IV video). I, personally, haven’t had many moments in animation where I felt compelled to freeze frame a video and stop to appreciate it – until I saw the OVA Area 88.