Finally, a moral dilemma.

I don’t know what’s going on in this little pea-brain of mine, but I have had absolutely no desire to play video games of any kind recently. NONE.

I think it has a lot to do with all the shitty things that are happening in the world. Apart from the wars in Africa and the Middle East, the violence in Chechnya (yes, it’s still going on), and bombs in Mumbai there are still tons of other equally shitty things happening ALL THE F*CKING TIME.

I don’t know if it’s the violence, riots and starvation in Haiti or those Blackwater assholes who killed over 30 civilians for no goddamned reason, but something about the current world-state makes me feel really stupid for caring about games at all.

I feel like instead of wasting time with a tv screen and controller, doing things that aren’t even REAL and have no affect on anything (except my brain, I guess), I feel like I should be doing something, anything that would help other people. What right do I have to a good life? What made me so damn special that I should have food and technology and a safe home at my disposal, while so many other people don’t? I’m not saying I want to punish myself in some daft effort to balance out the social scale, but only that maybe I could help make things better for other people instead of sitting in a papa-san chair, eating doritos and shooting things.

I know, I know – tons of other people must go through this moral crisis all the time, although probably not as many as should.

What would happen if we all stopped playing video games for a week and, instead, used all that time to build a house or send out packages of food to people who don’t deserve the condition they’re in? How much would we get done?

-BM

This is a monkey as a dog-jockey. He races.

And these are done by a guy who made skull a day, for a full year.

and THIS is a real, working mouse constructed in “steampunk” fashion – in other words something the Decemberists would make.

In general, just some cool stuff I saw online. Thought I would share.

-BM

whining.

It’s hard to write about fun stuff when your life has been overrun by NOT fun stuff. So, I’ve decided to write about the shit and, for once, leave the video games to people who aren’t seniors in college and have nothing more pressing to do.
Finals week is fast approaching and I, like everyone else, have a ton of stuff to do. Is any of it fun? Nope. Do I want to do it? Nope, nope. Do I have to do it? Ugh.. yeah.

First, a 6-8 page paper about Robespierre – you know, the guy during the French Revolution who had everyone’s head cut off. That guy.

Or rather, this guy:

Pretty hot for a stinky tyrant, I think.

The paper won’t be that hard, but I JUST got done writing a 12 page paper for the same class. Seriously, I turned that thing in on Friday.

Then there’s a data-based project about this stuff:

Cervical cancer - gross AND depressing!

And finally, I have to redesign an entire issue of this:

The most boring magazine EVER.

Granted, redesigning a magazine that’s already really bad shouldn’t be incredibly hard (nowhere to go but up, right?) but it’s more the fact that I have so many other things to do. Oh yeah, and I have to find a job before Christmas. JOY!

Wish me luck,

-BM

biffmeister = KerkerMeister ?

I’ve decided that I’m especially intrigued by a game called Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War. It’s coming out on Dec. 9 for the PSP.

There’s already been one Dungeon Maker, and it got panned pretty universally with most reviewers giving it 75 or less on a scale of 100. Therefore, people seem to have reservations about the making of a second. Despite the negativity, I think the concept sounds pretty cool.

You, the protagonist, have to clear a kingdom of evil monsters/forces by building a dungeon and luring them in. The more elaborate and awesome the dungeon, the better you do. Killing monsters gives you everything you need, from spells to money to items that help you further trick out your prison. To me, it sounds like a mix of the Pied Piper and the tower decorating of Overlord (note the throne/stone griffin/battleaxe combination). In other words – potentially sweet.

The problem with the first Dungeon Maker, however, lay in fact that you had to do that same thing (i.e. dungeon-making) over and over again. Many people also complained that even though certain dungeon features were supposed to attract particular monsters, those features didn’t necessarily work. Reviewers said that the number of monsters in a given area seemed to be random, rather than something the player could strategically control.

I’m not sure how the developers fixed those problems, if they even did. In fact, even though it’s set to release in about a week, I haven’t heard any comments on it at all.

Sony obviously has pretty low hopes for the game, as evidenced by their complete lack of advertising or, for that matter, caring. Even their own page for the game has zero information on it (mass consciousness of the game is best summed by the one measly review of “idk?”). No one seems to know about it, which makes me wonder – does it really suck THAT bad?

Suck or no suck, I figure I win either way – if it’s good it’s good, and if it’s horrible then its price will drop precipitously after a month or two. I’m kind of hoping that it will be this mysterious dark horse that takes the game market by storm, but it probably won’t be.

At this point, I’m really just hoping that I like it.

-BM

Prince of Persia? More like Crap of Persia.

Historically speaking, I’m a huge fan of the Prince of Persia series. Action, adventure, and beautiful scenery, all narrated and acted out by an incredibly hot lead character. But to the newest installment of the franchise I say – What the fuck? Since when is the Prince this anime-strange hair gel addict? I dig his getup in a Tokyo pop, acting out to make up for centuries of personal repression kind of way, but the truth is that he looks ridiculous. He is literally not the same Prince as was in the rest of the games, and this disappoints me.

Secondly, the Prince doesn’t die at all in this game!? Instead, some secondary character bitch named Elika grabs him and takes him back to the last save point. IMO, falling into dark crevasses and hearing the Prince scream for his life was one of the main incentives NOT to fall in the first place. And what about the Sands of Time and time reversal? Are they GETTING RID OF THE SANDS? If they are, I call bullshit.

This Elika girl is also supposed to help the Prince with magic and complimentary melee. Magic? Seriously? Whatever. I don’t think the Prince even NEEDS a second person. Sure, it makes it more interesting but why is it necessary when it doesn’t even give the game a two-player option? Gah, I’m so angry. I’m done.

-BM

Best game ever.

When we were kids (and when it was cold outside), my cousin Lucas and I would amuse ourselves by playing games on his SEGA Genesis. I remember Zombies Ate My Neighbors!, all the Sonic games, Beavis and Butthead, The Lion King (!!!), and Mortal Kombat being particularly well-played. One game though, Echo the Dolphin, was terrifying. Every time you ran into something in that game Echo would squeeeeeaal like he was dying and in retrospect I guess he was, but when you’re a kid you don’t really want to hear realistic animal death noises. BUT, my favorite game was Pirates! Gold. I would still call it my all-time favorite.

It was only one player, and Luke’s system was screwed up so I could never actually save my game, but it was all worth it. Here’s the gist: You are a pirate and you get to pick the time period and flag you’re sailing under, as well as a predominant skill (swordfighting, mapreading, romance, etc.) and then you sail around and find treasure! You go to different towns in the Caribbean, gather pieces of treasure maps, talk to heads of state, woo mayor’s daughters, battle ships with cannon-fire or by crashing them into each other, plunder, pillage, capture other pirates, and all the while you have to make sure your ship’s crew is happy or they’ll maroon you on a deserted island.

We stopped playing games together once we got older, but I still try to steal away and play it when I’m bored at family functions. Now something a bit personal –

Lucas was my playmate, but he was also one of the best friends I had when I was young. Despite my being a girl, I was always just like another of his guy friends – especially when it came to competition. I remember we had a folder full of papers where we wrote down finishing moves and combos for Mortal Kombat. I used to get so mad at him because he was always better than me, but he would still always help me learn the moves when I wanted him to. It’s because of him that SEGA games (Sonic in particular), Warcraft and Diablo have special nostalgia for me. When Lucas died this past August, all the memories of being a kid with him filled my consciousness and they haven’t left. I think about him every day – every time I think about video games, really.

You know how sometimes people say that you never think to tell a person how important they are to you until they’re gone? Well, that’s one of my major regrets, not telling him how much I loved him before he died. I don’t normally involve much emotion on this blog, but seriously – if there’s someone you know who has made a big influence on you, TELL THEM. If you love someone, let them know.

-BM

more catching up

So, the Mirror’s Edge demo came out and WHOA, it is intense.

While my reaction to the realistic heights and acrobatics wasn’t quite this bad, the game did induce a little bit of vertigo.

Like I expected, it’s a bit like Prince of Persia, only a lot more time based. In ME you’re actually trying to escape your enemies, as opposed to running into a whole group of them and brawling it out. In fact, ME pretty much avoids violence unless necessary, encouraging the player to knock enemies out, toss the gun, and keep running. I’ve actually never played a game anything like it.

It’s been getting pretty good reviews and now that I’ve played it, I’m really anxious for it to come out.

BM

back, finally.

I’ve been sick for the past week or so, and obviously haven’t updated at all.
But there’s so much to talk about!

First and foremost – LITTLE BIG PLANET.

I’ve played it a lot since it’s been out and yes, it does live up to the hype. I haven’t had the patience to build my own level yet but I’ve seen it done, and when done right it works out really well. There are hundreds of new levels built all the time. Some aren’t that great, but others are amazing. Just the mass of creativity that the game has spawned is amazing.

The only problem I’ve seen so far is the moderation of the user-created levels. My boyfriend made a particular level with a zombie theme – very innocent, no profanity or vulgar language. A few days went by and several people played it and some even hearted it. Then, about a week later, the entire level was frozen by one of the moderators. No one could play it and he couldn’t edit it. Worst of all, all he got was from the moderator was a PSN message saying that the level had violated some part of the agreement he signed when he got the game, but it didn’t say what the violation was or give him a chance to change it.

The mods posted a message few days ago saying that they had gotten a lot of complaints about issues similar to this one and that they’re working on it, but it seems like something they should have talked about before the game even came out.

Mod probs or no, I still love the game and I’m SO happy it’s here!

Will write more later,
BM

Peace works.

For my civic meeting, I chose to attend Peaceworks’ monthly meeting, held in a back room of Peace Nook.  I already had what you might call a semi-active interest in them (meaning that I’m on their email listserv) but I had never been involved with them before.

The experience was a little bit trying, but only at the beginning.

 

There were only about 8 members there when I arrived, and once I entered the room I felt that I was a stranger in a group of very familiar people (turns out I was right). The several occupied couches held people who were conversing and eating food that a few of the Peaceworks members had brought to the meeting. It was a very personal atmosphere that I wasn’t at all prepared for.

I didn’t want to take anyone’s seat so I sat on the emptiest couch, next to a girl who, like me, looked rather out of place. I smiled stupidly as I held up my notebook and mumbled something about online journalism. She showed me hers and said she was there for sociology research.

Then Bob walked in. He, too, sat awkwardly, notebook in hand. Looking back, it’s obvious to me that our poised pens gave us away as students, whether we wanted the others to know or not. 

One of the leaders of the group walked around, greeting other members. He got to us, the sofa-full of outsiders, and paused. He looked sort of concerned at our presence, so I tried to be as warm, open and transparent as possible by explaining why I was there – that I was there for a journalism class assignment, but that I also had a personal interest in the group.

Turns out journalists aren’t incredibly welcome at the meetings. He was sure to say that he didn’t want to intimidate us, that the public was welcome at the meeting, and he didn’t want to inhibit free press, but his conversation with us gave an entirely different message.

 

The world is Faith’s playground.

I have the video game attention span of a sugar-smacked toddler, so I always need to be looking for something newer and more interesting than what I’m currently obsessed with.

The latest development is Mirror’s Edge for the PS3 (EA), a first-person action adventure/sometimes-shooter that has the main character (Faith) using skyscraper parkour  to escape from agents of a despotic, Big Brother-esque government.

I’m not usually one for first-person games – I find them disorienting and way too limiting (You can only see what you’re actually looking at ? Ridiculous!).

But this one seems different, mainly because it is.

Ubisoft did the whole parkour thing with Prince of Persia, and they did it quite well. But with PoP there was one set way to get where you were going, and if you didn’t go that way, you fell to your death.
This game has several different routes that all go to the same place, making it more like Assassin’s Creed. But most importantly, it seems that the majority of Mirror’s Edge consists of you escaping people/situations, making it even more crucial to choose your way correctly AND quickly, all the time.

Take too much time, you lose.

Travel efficiently, you escape.

This added element will, I think, make the game nerve-wracking, but also more exciting in the process.

Along this same vein is another element that uses the environments in a different way. There is a competition-based portion of the game called “Time-Trial Mode”, in which there are several checkpoints that you must pass. You can replay a particular course, but each time you will be accompanied by the “ghost” of your best time. This red human-shaped figure will run the course the exact way you did, allowing you to change your route and shave seconds off of your time.

This video shows Sebastien Foucan, parkour legend, mimicking some of Faith’s moves while also demonstrating the Time-Trial feature.

Mirror’s Edge is apparently the first game of a trilogy. If the first one is as good as it looks, I’m going to play all three.

-BM