Well, we got Season 1 out of the way, now on to Season 2, appropriately titled “The Second Barrage.” There are spoilers here.
Anime Review – Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Anime Review – Black Lagoon: Season 1
Having watched both seasons of the show on RPG.net for a Where I Watch thread, I’d say it’s about time to pass judgement on the show, and how good it actually is. There’s enough of a difference between seasons for me to split the review between seasons as well. I’ll get the second season’s review up tomorrow.
Movie Review – Out For Justice
A lot of Steven Segal’s movies are getting released on Blu-Ray. Now, I like martial arts movies, I recognize that Segal is crap. However, I do also recognize that, like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, there was a time where Segal was not a joke, and his movies were coming out in theaters rather than coming out directly to video. So, I’m giving those movies a shot. I’ve reviewed Under Siege elsewhere, so I won’t be reviewing it again here. However, what I will be going with is Segal’s 1991 “classic”, Out For Justice.
Review of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and other Notes
Before I get into the movie review, I just want to mention that I have gotten approved for a press pass to cover Kumoricon in Oregon for Bureau42.com. So, if any of you reading the blog will be attending Kumoricon, I will be there. Now, I just need to finish getting Linux installed on my notebook and getting it up and running with my Wireless card so I can more easily live blog during the convention. Anyway, on with the review.
So, my thoughts on XIII
Being that I don’t, generally, listen to popular music, I didn’t watch the Grammy’s this year. Instead, NBC is running a mini-series based off the French comic book XII. I decided to give this show a try, mainly becuse I hadn’t read the comic book, hadn’t played the video game based off the comic book, and, frankly, I wanted to give a mini-series based off a non-Supers comic book that wasn’t from the US or Japan a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. There are some spoilers below the cut, so be warned.
How Blu-Ray is dropping the ball w/ Special Features
I’d like to take a moment to rant a little bit. Recently, I took advantage of the clearance sales at Circuit City to pick up some Blu-Ray movies – specifically, upgrading some of the titles in my collection – Patton, A Bridge Too Far, and Black Hawk Down. Of these movies, only Patton matches the special features of it’s DVD release. The DVD release of Bridge Too Far has commentary by World War II Veterans who participated in Operation Market Garden, as well as documentary material. The Blu-Ray release has the theatrical trailer. That’s it. The Blu-Ray release of Black Hawk down has all of the commentaries from the Special Edition release of the movie (director’s commentary, writer’s commentary, and commentary of people who actually participated in the events depicted in the movie) but none of the other special features exclusive for that release (an episode of Frontline and History Channel documentary on the events as well).
The big selling point of Blu-Ray is that there is more storage on the disks, so you can have more information on the disks, so that which once took two disks now takes only one (for example, Batman Begins Blu-Ray release). So, why the fuck can’t you take all the special features that were on the special edition DVD release of a movie, and put those on the Blu-Ray disk, so we can leave those imbecilic shenanagans behind us! You do that, so that the special features of the Blu-Ray release are equal to or superior to the DVD release, while retaining picture quality, and you will get more people to adopt the format. If people feel that they’re getting more with the existing format, then they won’t switch.
So, stop ripping me and other customers off by scrimping on bonus features!
RPG.net’s WWE Know Your Role Netbook
In the past few days I’ve been trying to unclutter my room. I have various e-books for Role Playing Games printed out single-sided and bound in, three-ring binders and taking up space. So, to try to free up some space, I’ve been getting those books printed double-sided and bound through Kinko’s – but they need PDF documents. So, I’ve taken just about all the articles from the RPG.net Wiki for WWE Know Your Role – match types, maneuvers, and wrestler stats, and using OpenOffice I worked some Desktop Publishing Fu (Table of Contents, adding pictures, etc.) and whipped up a PDF, giving us the Great RPG.net WWE: Know Your Role Netbook!
I am making the netbook available under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licence version 3.0. This means you can feel free to share it, make changes to it (add content to it, correct content, etc.) but give credit where credit is due for your changes. Make sure the RPG.net wiki remains credited. Other than that, have fun, that’s what gaming is for.
Oh, and if you don’t have WWE: Know Your Role, Comic Images (the publisher) has stopped printing the book. However, there are some people selling the game used at Amazon.com and on eBay. Feel free to check your Friendly Local Game Store as well to see if they have a copy.
Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #4
On to Issue 4 of EGM, for November of 1989. Before I get too far into this, I’d like to give a shout-out to Retromags.com, as I’ve gotten a lot of these magazines through them. Their collection is insanely expansive, and keeps growing every day. I encourage all of you, gentle (or not so gentle, depending on how you roll) readers, to head over to them, and contribute, whether to discussion or, if there’s a hole in their collection which magazines in your own will fill, scanning your magazines and contributing them to the collection. Which leads me to the gap from Issue 4, which I’ll be covering today, to Issue 25. If anyone reading this has those issues, please contribute those to Retromags – it’s easy and fairly painless to do. So, on with the show.
Video Game Review – Narc and 1942 (Both Arcade)
Having beaten both games, now would be a great time to give my thoughts on both of these classic arcade games. I figure I’ll go with 1942 first, and then Narc. Both of these were played through MAME, not on an actual machine, but still, I’m going with an arcade game here.
The irony…
Remember when I did that run-down of old game manufacturers in my first EGM recap, and covered which ones were still in business, and which ones had folded? Remember how I said that Jaleco was still in the games business?
Not anymore. (Link is to Kotaku.com)
Ahh, well, that’s life.
Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #3
EGM Issue #3 review
We’ve got our first Fabio cover, for Wizards and Warriors II: Ironsword, that is also their game of the month. Now, the game is surprised me as that was reviewed last month, which makes me wonder, somewhat, why they didn’t choose a game that was reviewed this month, but, anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #2
Alright, and now we begin with Issue 2 of EGM, where some giant steps have occurred with the magazine bringing it towards the format which we’ve all come to know and love. Just a quick mention on the masthead changes before we go to the cut – Ed Semrad is now an associate Editor, and they’ve changed how the game reviews work by rather than separating the reviewers by console, they’re separating them into a console group and a PC group. The Console group is made up of Donn Nauert, Jim Allee, Ed Semrad and EIC Steve Harris. The PC group is made up of Brad Andrews, David Harris, Brad Walker, and K. C. Maxwell. Oh, and now the US National Video Game Team are now the only Strategy Consultants (though, on the other hand, maybe their previous strategy consultants who weren’t on the US National Video Game Team joined the team).
Albums that need to be in Rock Band
Somehow, WordPress ate this entry, so I’ll do the list again, but you’ll lose all my insightful and deep commentary, but that’s okay. There wasn’t much of it. Here is my Shortlist of albums that need to be in Rock Band, either as DLC or as Track Packs released in stores (ala AC/DC)
- Rush – Vapor Trails
- Rush – Snakes & Arrows
- Rush – Presto
- Rush – Roll the Bones
- Rush – Counterparts
- Genesis – Invisible Touch
- Pink Floyd – P*U*L*S*E
- Pink Floyd – Live at Pompeii
- Pink Floyd – The Wall
Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #1
In memoriam for the death of EGM, I hunted down a whole bunch of old issues of EGM through *ahem* various means, so I figured I’d go through some of those magazines and go through the evolution of the magazine. So, we’re going to begin at the beginning, Electronic Gaming Monthly #1.
Some quick background – EGM was originally put out by Sendai Publications, and was born out of a series of annual game buyers guides. This lead to the magazine. The journey begins below the cut.
Video Game Review – Yakuza (PS2)
This review is going to contain some spoilers for the game. I’m going to try to refrain from spoiling the biggest plot twists in the game, but I’m going to give you a heads up anyway, as well as putting the biggest spoilers below the cut.
The “Video” in Video Games Journalism
As you probably already figured out from my last blog post, I’ve been thinking about the end of 1up and EGM as we know it. With most of the GameVideos staff getting the chop, I’ve started to think about the role of video in Video Games Journalism and how to handle it.
Video Games are a visual medium. Duh. Consequently, when you’re talking about video games, it really helps to see the game. Before high-speed Internet, the standard way of going about this was through putting screen shots on your web pages, or in the magazine articles about the game. Later, as Video Games became moderately mainstream, and we got Video Game related TV shows, like Gamespot TV (later Extended Play) and Electric Playground, we finally got to see the video games in motion before we bought them – and consequently we could get a good look at how good or bad the graphics were, and how good or bad the controls were. As an example, from seeing gameplay footage of Enter The Matrix on Extended Play before the game was released, I was somewhat able to tell, in advance, that the graphics weren’t very good, and that the control wasn’t very good. Surprise, surprise, when the reviews came out, the game was panned for, among other things, poor graphics and poor controls.
As broadband proliferated, using video to talk about games became more feasible, and higher quality video files became more feasible as well. This lead to the Video Review, where the reviewer got to stand in front of a camera, with footage of the game edited into the review (and possibly also playing behind him) and talk about the game. This turned game reviewers into recognizable personalities, the same way that television made Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert recognizable to people outside of Chicago.
Once you’ve got personalities, you’ve now got a way to support a TV show, first with just streaming programming on the web pages for sites like Gamespot.com, and later to (once Podcasts started catching on) video podcasts, from On The Spot on Gamespot.com, to the 1Up Show on 1up.com.
This brings us to now. Gamespot has On The Spot. They still have video reviews, but their reviewers don’t appear in the actual reviews (possibly as a way to, well, make it easier to get rid of reviewers if they need to – or if publishers want them too). GameTrailers makes it’s living out of video, but with the exception of Geoff Keigley (sp), Amanda McKay, and David Kayser, they don’t have any first party personalities. There are 3rd party personalities, like those through ScrewAttack (Stuttering Craig and the Angry Video Game Nerd), but that’s about it. The fate of video on the 1up network is in doubt. Giant Bomb is, really, the last bastion of the classic Gamespot video review, with the reviewer on camera.
So, what I want to know is this – how is the video in video games journalism going to pan out in the future. Will video reviews go through a voice-over person or through similar steps to make the people reviewing the games more faceless, or will the concept of the visible video game journalist move to smaller sites, as major sites like 1up and Gamespot.com become homes for the faceless, voiceless, disposable reviewer?
I’m putting an open call for comment by people in the games press, particularly those who used to work for 1up.com. Am I going in the right direction? Am I totally off base? Or is it a mixture of both?
ATTN – Steam: My Game Isn’t Working
I got the Quake Pack from Steam a while ago, and finally gotten around to playing Quake III arena, except I can’t play it. When I try to join a server I keep getting prompted for a product key, and in Quake III Team Arena, the last portion of the product key is blank.
Now, I have contacted Steam for support, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.
So, Steam, are you going to get this fixed, or not?
Why Media Providers Don’t Understand Game Reviewers
For those of you who don’t read Kotaku, here’s the link to the article. In short, Hearst Publications Group, which owns UGO, has bought the 1up Network from Ziff Davis. They then canceled EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly, their only and flagship gaming magazine) canceled just about all of their podcasts, and then fired most of the staff, including James Mielke (I can’t believe I spelled that right), Shane Bettenhausen, Skip Pfister, Ryan O’Donnell, among 30 other staffers and the GameVideos team, in a purge that I might call, and will call, Stalin-esque.
Aside from the tragedy of Vampire William Randolph Hearst draining the life blood out of the 1up network, leaving only a lifeless husk, hopefully there will be a lesson to be learned from this, but a costly one. You see, people in the business of reviewing film and reviewing video games like to talk about how different reviewing games and reviewing movies are, but they actually have a great deal in common, in certain respects.
Adaptations I’d like to see made.
My last couple articles, on the opera Doctor Atomic, and on Wired’s recent article about Max Butler’s hacking scheme got me thinking about adaptations, and stories that I’d like to see adapted from fiction or non-fiction to another medium, be it film, television, or even the stage. This is a topic I’ve thought about in the past on other forums, from “Movie’s you’d most like to see re-made” threads to “Novels you’d most like to see turned into movies” to “Anime adaptations you’d most like to see.” However, with all of these threads, they’ve been generally been tied to some sort of video media – anime, film, TV series. I’m expanding this list to address materials that aren’t video – the stage. My list of projects is below the cut.
Wired story about Carder plays like crime drama
One of my favorite kind of books to read are on the history of computing (and science in general), in particular ones which tell the story about not only the technology that’s developed, but the people who developed it, and how their personalities interacted. That’s why while the PBS documentaries “The Machine That Changed The World” and “The Shape of the World” are interesting, I like “Connections”, “Revolution OS”, and “Triumph of the Nerds” more, because in addition to playing off the technological aspects, the personal aspects come up as well, how personalities interact, how they play off each other, and how the meeting of two people can have as much impact on the invention of a piece of technology as a the invention of a previous piece of technology was.
I mention all that because I got tipped off to this article at Wired Magazine. Basically, it’s almost the cybercrime equivalent of GoodFellas. The difference being, Henry Hill realized that being the mob was more hazardous than it’s worth, particularly since there were no possiblities for advancement for him – being Irish on his dad’s side instead of Italian – so he told the law what he knew. On the other hand, this story is, a bit, the polar opposite – the guy the story’s about, Max Butler, basically becomes the man you have to go through (through his site) in order to buy-and-sell stolen card numbers, as well as the equipment needed to take advantage of those numbers – which I’d certainly count as advancement. Not to mention, unlike Hill, Butler didn’t talk to the Feds, tell them everything they needed to know and go in the Witness Protection Program – he was caught and sent to prison for life – the first Cracker (I’m not going to use the word Hacker for a crook like thim) to get that punishment.
Okay, yeah, so he can get 30 years instead of life if he takes a plea bargain, but anyway, the story is fantastic. It plays out like a crime novel (in this case a true crime novel). I doubt it would work for a movie, maybe a documentary – it would be extremely difficult to dramatize the hacking process – and a lot of the interactions here are between people who have never met each other face to face, only online. Still, it’s an amazing read.
Doctor Atomic – Not Quite A Review
I managed to catch Doctor Atomic on Great Performances today. I didn’t see the whole thing (I had to leave partway through the performance, but I made it back in time for the conclusion), so I can’t do a proper review, but I am going to give my thoughts on what I saw, making it close to a review.
I missed, frankly, much of the first and second act. I missed the majority of the portions with Oppenheimer’s wife, the other scientists, everything up to the final test. I did catch that bit.
Semi-Review for “Need for Speed: Carbon” (PS3)
For the record, this is a “Semi-Review” because I have not beaten the game, nor have I gotten 100% completion. What I have done, however, is get 55% completion of career mode, which is enoguh to give me a good grasp of single player, more or less.
Pictures and new Reviews
I’ve got a couple new reviews up on Bureau42.com, of the final installment of Project A-Ko: Uncivil Wars, and a review of the Quantum of Solace video game for the PS3.
Plus, it’s been snowing out here in Oregon, so I figured I’d give you some pictures of the snow for those from warmer climes. Pictures below the cut.
Another External Review
I’ve got another review up at Bureau42.com. This one is a review of Project A-Ko, the first of a series of reviews covering all 3 films. Read, enjoy, and, hopefully, comment!