Shadow says Merry Christmas...

Pretty funny.

Not much happening during the holidays.

After the non-work - work I had during Christmas I am feeling a bit down during the holidays here.

Oh, and I am playing Oblivion now. It's Morrowind but without that annoying monetary system and the whole thing has been toned down. Now there are only 4 guilds and no temples.

I really like the scaled up enemy system. Morrowind got way too easy but this game seems to keep up with me. Alot of people complain that you level too fast, but that's bunk because you don't HAVE to level. You can just practice stuff that isn't in your field for awhile too level the playing field. Then you can raise your level by sleeping just a bit at a time. This goes against "gamer logic" that higher levels means an easier time killing enemies though so lamers bitch and complain about this feature. I like the increased enemy power though. I play a sneaky character who has to use pretty much anything from magic to Alchemy to level the playing field.

Alchemy is easier than Morrowind but still fun as hell. I think half my game time has been spent running around the woods looking for poisons to kill my enemies with. Did you know that strawberries can be made into a deadly poison??? Apparently they can. Anyways you can never go wrong with alchemy because there is NO FAILURE rate involved,. Kinda lame.

It's a pain that game developers seem to be simplifying games for consoles.

PC gamers can handle alittle complexity people!

In any case this game runs just fine on my computer.

Worst Dreamcast Hater Video Ever....Really.

First off this was his original text:

"wat inspired me to make this video was a dume kid who thought dreamcast could own ps3 well he can go to hell"

He will probably change it since I called him on it in a comment.

A few comments:

It's nice that this guys parents decided to buy him all this crap. It's too bad they don't spend as much effort on educating him. He is WAY to young to have remembered anything else but the newer generation of consoles which is a shame.

The great majority of his points make no sense at all. But that's mostly because he is young.

It's like this video is a compilation on every stupid Sony Fanboy, Internet loser, moronic Punk I have ever encountered on the net.

1. Young high pitched pre-puberty voice
2. Hyping up "online play" If dealing with losers like this is online then keep it.
3. Sony fanboyism for seemingly no reason.
4. Highlighting Multi-Platform Games as a reason to buy a PS3?
5. Calling people misspelled names.
6. Calling someone else "kid" when in fact this guy sounds 12 years old.
7. Making over-generalized points on technology he knows nothing about.
8. Making comparisons that make no sense in context.
9. Calling other people "lonely" and "sad" because they don't have the latest tech to play with people online with an earpiece. Picture this young kid surrounded by all the PS3 junk which probably cost enough for a whole semester's books in college. He thinks that online gaming on the PS3 is really social? Wow.
10. Under-age kid playing 18+ only rated games online where a lot of people use offense language.

The whole "online gaming" thing that crops ups with these kids is frankly pissing me off. These are the little jerks who use offensive language and racist terms because they don't know any better. They shouldn't even be playing mature rated games at all.

Instead of giving these jerks something to do until they eventually stop being completely annoying, parents give them high end video games and what seems like unfrettered computer access. And they don't learn about ways to lock the consoles so underage players can't play games that are not suitable for them. If this kid's parents did he wouldn't be able to play half those games.

Go outside and play in the snow or something kid. Go do anything until you grow up and hopefully learn to stop being such a annoying little pest.

Or at least learn alittle more about video productions and video games in general so you can make a decent video and stop bagging on awesome games people are still paying a premium for.

The Dreamcast rules.

Merry Christmas from future nuclear wasteland distopia!

From Kotaku

He is only called Vault Boy in the adverts. He was never mentioned by name in the game. Then in Fallout 2 "pipboy" was mentioned in such a way when you updated your PiP that I thought that he was called PiPboy. So that confused me for a bit. But PiPboy and Vault Boy are two different mascots. And Falloutboy is a band.

Merry Christmas. Don't let the mutants get you.

Small child kills prostitute with machete.

...in a video game.

From Kotaku.

http://www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us/missing/i_safety/videogame-flashpage.html

"prostitutes are super hard to kill"

WTF?

Kids should not be playing games like this. At all. It's the equivalent of giving a kid an R rated movie. But most people still equate ALL video games with kids. KIDS SHOULD NOT PLAY THESE GAMES. In fact I don't know who the hell WOULD play a game like this.

I know of very few games were you can do what this little kid is describing.

And in those few games it's generally NOT a good idea to go around killing everything.

It must have been one of the newer GTA games which I have not played.

Oh God they are wearing their armor...

I bring you this frankincense... of ETERNAL FLAME!!!

Hurrah For me! Mentioned on PBC-Productions!

Pbc-Production's member "Z." Briggs read my letter during the latest "Little-Miss-Gamer" web show!

I am so happy. This totally made my day.

http://www.pbc-productions.com/

(The end of the excellent pinball episode)

I am glad that other people liked the old PC game inserts. My trusty map of Ultima 6was the only thing that got me through that game.

Ah. Some games are getting better inserts though.

This cures my "Tuesday Blues"

More on Persona 3

So I was considering some of the imagery from the Persona 3 game I just got. Here is the Japanese intro

High schoolers shooting themselves in the head with what looks like real guns is pretty damn disturbing imagery for a game. In fact one could say that the highly stylized art of this game glamorizes it. I don't think it does. In fact I think any form of art, including games, should be able to use any kind of imagery without censorship. People's reaction to this video though confirms many of my personal beliefs.

I have always thought that society in general keeps suicide on too high of a pedestal. Imagery in a game like this is disturbing but what is even more disturbing is that some people don't see the real life act of suicide as the completely stupid act it is.

For example in college I did this skit:

The whole idea behind the skit was to put the idea of "a cry for help" suicide attempt in the open in a amusing way.

When I was talking about the skit with a another person, not actually watching it, they were somewhat offended I would make a comedy skit about a subject like that.

However, I think that because people HAVE put this idea forward it takes away from the "ideal" that society has given the act and less people do it. You have to make fun of taboo subjects or they will ALWAYS be taboo and nobody will ever get around them.

I think that most suicides nowadays occur because of genuine mental problems created by a lack of proper medication. It's too bad that since some young people were over-medicated and improperly medicated now parents are afraid to put their kids on ANY medication. And that has led to more suicides because parents are not willing to provide any alternate treatment. They simply refuse to medicate their kids.

I think that if more people would be involved with the kid's life most of these teens would find some reason to keep going.

New Games!

I recently bought the second full priced game I ever purchased.

Persona 3. Which is going for like $75 new on amazon and Ebay. So I don't feel all that bad that I bought it. Plus I can't find it on any of the major retailers sites anymore. They don't even list it on their sites.

I have alot of RPGs for the PS2 but the artwork in this one seems pretty cool. Plus you play high schoolers who unlock their powers by shooting themselves in the head... ...I am not kidding. I suppose this might be why all the major retailers don't carry this anymore. It was an oversized DVD package with an art book included. I have no clue how the gameplay is but considering I could sell an opened copy on ebay for about as much as I paid for it new in store I figure it was a good deal.

I also got Oblivion, Game of the Year Edition which was on sale. Plus I had coupons for Best Buy. I like the Best Buy promotions because you don't have to spend money. You are pretty much guarenteed coupons and store credit just for signing up. They do hassle you a bit sometimes with unwanted credit card offers and stuff but that is easy to ignore.

Cool people with goatees and glasses love the dreamcast.

Muahahaha!



I laughed when I saw this because so many of the people who like the Dreamcast wear glasses and have a goatee. I had to shave mine off for my newer job.

Compare the above video with an older video of mine.



I think the only difference is that I love the Dreamcast controller and I have never cramped up while using it.

Saturn Junkyard Celebration!

The Saturn Junkyard just celebrated it's first birthday!

Go and take a look at some of the cool new graphics and an extra special drawing by the Gagaman(n)!

http://thesaturnjunkyard.blogspot.com/

Beat RE REmake, AGAIN!

Beat the game on hard with Chris, a first for me.

I was already playing Kingdom Hearts, STALKER and FarCry (almost to the end). But I just had one of those moods to play some survival horror and I hadn'y played RE in a long time.

I took my time so I didn't unlock anything which is fine. The game is pretty kick ass even after beating one on hard with Jill. Playing as Jill is easier simply because she has more item slots. She has less health but I am so kick ass with the Gamecube controller I hardly ever take hits in that game. I had like 5 spray cans and like 4 herb combos at the end of the game on hard.

In any case this game is TIMELESS. Killing zombies and learning about Wesker's betrayal is constant.

SPOILERS

*Rebecca Chambers LIVES! That was so cool because for a long time I thought she died! Having to bail her out during the game was actually pretty fun rather than having Barry Burton constantly save Jill.

I am alittle pissed she never showed up in any other game besides RE 0. And why did she suddenly become a wimp in RE after killing all those monsters at the other mansion in 0? Maybe she will be back in RE5.

Why I hate Hollywood - "I am Legend"

"I am Legend" was a book and later a graphic novel ABOUT VAMPIRES!

Bloodthristy vampires straight out of Dracula. Pointy teeth and everything. The whole story revolved around the myth of vampires and science.

Richard Matheson wrote the original science fiction classic.

Vincent Price starred in the first remake.

It was based in a small town in the graphic novel and in the Price movie which really created an awesome atmostsphere. Here was a sleepily overgrown town with picket fences and cute little square houses which at nightfall turned into a vampire invested hell. The main character fought against what were once his friendly neighbors. Still recognizable, but transformed into vampires (which really is one of the bases of the vampire myth, people you know coming back as vampires, but not total monsters).

When they made a remake with Charleton Heston, "The Omega Man", they kept the same mood but for some reason made the vampires "mutants". This really confused me when I watched the movie for the first time. The town was a bit bigger and the lack of vampires seemed to suck all the personality out of the monsters. It seemed like a real last second change. And the "mutants" seemed more concerned about avoiding technology and making Heston's character on an even playing field with them. It was a pretty blatant attack on Communism. While Heston's character, a hard working capitalist, wanted to work hard and create an innovative cure for the problem the mutants, dirty commies, wanted to take the easy route and just infect everyone and keep everyone living in the stone age as mutant equals. This movie was FAR inferior to the Price movie which has much stronger themes of myth, religion, morality and science throughout. The Heston remake was basically good ideas versus bad ideas.

SPOILERS

In the Price movie as well as the original work the main character goes out during the day and kills vampires who are hiding from the sun. This is a problem because later on he finds out he has been killing "innocent" vampires who had not tried to attack him. He just assumed that all vampires were like the evil/insane ones that attacked his house every night. This created a huge morality problem for the main character and results in the tragic ending. In the Heston remake there are no different groups of "mutants". They all pretty much want to kill/infect Heston. A couple of the mutants disagree with the methods but in the end they all try to kill him and his attempts to protect himself are totally justified. How lame is that??? Why would they take away that great theme of morality? Heston's character is basically Jesus-like in this movie and his death helps save all mankind. Lame and not as thought provoking as the original work.

And now in 2007 there is another remake starring Will Smith. He is not a bad actor. But is not a great actor.

So wow. NO VAMPIRES. But instead of making the title "The last man on Earth" which would be appropriate, they named this film "I am Legend"...

What???

THERE ARE NO VAMPIRES. WHAT IS THE FRIGGEN' LEGEND?

Is there some legend about "mutants caused by science" that has been around for hundreds of years and has been shared by every major civilization? Because the myth of vampires IS THAT LEGEND. THAT IS THE LEGEND THAT THE FREAKING ORIGINAL WORK IS BASED ALL AROUND. Not this "science gone wrong" thing. That was a theme in the original work, BUT NOT THE ONLY THEME.

So they took that away.

Also, they set the movie in New York City...???

NYC is a big scary place during the day and night. So goodbye to the lovely difference between the sleeply empty town during the day and the vampire infused dark streets of the night. Plus there is the whole thing that there should be MILLIONS of mutants in an area like that that would completely over-run ANY fortified apartment.

Also Will Smith's character is shown working out during the day.

The original works character, Vincent Price and to a lesser extent Heston's character all pretty much went a little insane due to their situation. They drank a lot and looked haggard. The character in the graphic novel stopped shaving and wore revolvers all the time. At the end he pretty much looked like a modern caveman. And that totally made sense.

I suppose they added in all that "working out" footage to somehow justify Will Smith looking as healthy and bulked up as he does. Ever since he gained all that muscle mass from playing Muhammad Ali he has just looked way to weird in some of his roles.

In "I-Robot" I thought it was strange that he never lost his muscles from the training he did. Nobody else looked as big as he did and it seemed really strange. It would have been better if he had an "everyman" type look to him.

Then in the trailers for this movie I see that he still is carrying all that muscle...

What the hell? His trainer and manger should be slapping him upside the head. He is not a boxer, he is not trying to be an Action star. He is supposed to be a mainstream actor.

In this movie he plays a damned SCIENTIST. A scientist whose situation should have made him and insane drunk just like in the original material. Have you EVER seen a scientist on TV that looked bulked up AT ALL? Have you ever seen a drunk person train and keep that fit???

Yet somehow this scientist looks like someone who is a trained boxer. So they shoot these "working out" scenes to explain it.

If Will Smith looked like he did in the "Men in Black" movies it would be believable. Yet for some reason this mainstream actor has let all that muscle mass weight stay on him.

Why?:

A. Is too vain to stop training/protein loading so he looks normal again.

B. Used Human Growth Hormone/Steroids to gain all that muscle and it is not coming off easily.

C. Both A and B (Most likely)

Like I said his manager/trainer should hit him upside the head. If he wants to be a mainstream actor he need to look normal again.

All in all this sort of movie shows that people have lost what's really important in movies. The STORY AND UNDERLYING THEMES.

This movie seemed to just indulge the whims of the director Francis Lawrence who also ruined the "Constantine" movie with his shitty misinterpretations.

They spent MILLIONS of dollars on CGI and paying to use public areas for filming to make NYC look like it was empty. The reason being is that anyone who has been in NYC knows just how filled with people it is The VAST majority of people who will watch this movie have not been to NYC. They will never go to NYC. Just because a bunch of art-snobs and Hollywood people go to NYC and know how crowded it can be is no reason to SPEND MILLIONS TO MAKE IT LOOK EMPTY. It will be sure to impress anyone who has been there, but most people have NOT...CAN'T YOU SEE THE FUCKING STUPIDITY IN THAT? Can't you just feel the raw waves of smarmy bullshit fumes wafting from decisions like that? And just compare that to the original setting of the suburbs THAT ACTUALLY LENT SOMETHING TO THE THEMES IN THE MOVIE. An empty NYC is just a form of visual masturbation. It's just an empty theme within itself. As empty as the fiction city.

And of course this means that Will Smith is left to try and act by himself. An actor whose ENTIRE MOVIE CAREER has been made by playing off of other actors. Can you try to visualize a scene in a movie, ANY MOVIE, where will Smith is alone onscreeen for more that 10 seconds? I can't.

The choice to pick Will Smith was ENTIRELY a monetary one. The wanted a hot actor who would bring in MONEY. They used NYC as a location to bring in MONEY.

The makers consulted with experts on infectious diseases and solitary confinement. But they apparently never read the original book. Maybe then they could have come up with some ideas that were not self indulgent or based on a monetary bottom line.

Here is the Vincent Price movie "The Last Man on Earth". Is in the public domain so you can also download it off the Prelinger Archive. IT HAS VAMPIRES IN IT. YOU KNOW, THE LEGENDARY VAMPIRE.

http://www.archive.org/details/the-last-man-on-earth

Some random Dreamcast videos.

Dreamcast Indy development team making a Dreamcast game out of Grandma's house.



A couple of reviewers talk about the system that came out in 66-6-6??

When the metal ones come for you...

Amusing video of the Wii rip-off, the "Vii", opened up.

Wow. What a piece of crap.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/16492

I wouldn't want to leave that thing plugged in. With the "bare bones" wiring and shitty parts it would be likely to burn your house down.

This is actually better than the real movie.

Chinese "Vii" commerical

Wow. How Horrible.



It's amazing that they can produce a commercial based on a product whose only draw is that people might confuse it for the "Wii". It doesn't have any other draw. It sucks. Badly.

If it was aimed at Western people I would feel better at this, but this seems to be another in a long line of products aimed at fooling the Chinese people into thinking they are buying Western products. Some of these Chinese consumers don't even realize that these products are just cheap knock-offs.

I suppose as more and more Western people stop buying unsafe and shoddy products from corrupt Chinese corporations there will be more products like this trying to take advantage of Chinese consumers.

If anyone in America thinks that this is a product from Nintendo and get duped into buying it, they deserve to get ripped off. There was a Youtube video where people were asking if it was a Nintendo product...IDIOTS.

Btw. Who was that guy? Vice President of the Singaporean Olympic Atheletes? For shame! How can you say this is good exercise for kids? That's horrible.

Chinese manufacturing should focus on making third party electronics or something decent. Not this crap that is simply designed to make a quick buck.

More of the same Resident Evil Silly.

I can't get enough of these for some reason.

Some quirky Resident Evil Animation

Quirky is the word to describe these:

ABC GMA news story made me sad this morning.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3882520&page=1

A 44 year old woman made a fake myspace account so she could harass a 13 year old. She made up a fake boy's identity to get close to the girl and eventually started saying stuff like the world would be better off without the girl. The girl killed herself.

The 13 year old had "low self-esteem and was on medication at the time of her death".

There is no law on the book to charge the 44 year old woman with anything. It would be tough to do so I suppose but it sucks that some grown person can drive a medicated 13 year old to her death and have no consequences at all.

As the internet gets wider and wider use I wish we would start getting tougher laws on the books.

The reason why we don't have "griefers" in real life constantly insulting EVERYONE and giving everyone shit is because we have laws and police and the right to protect ourselves.

But people harp how the internet is "just on a computer screen" and how it doesn't really matter because everything is anonymous.

My points:

A. In this story we know that's not true.

An asshole who swears and uses racist stuff and posts obscene pictures on the internet can generally be waved off since most of this stuff can be ignored or erased. However, with the web becoming more entwined with out daily lives I think this sort of shit will become harder to ignore and closer to our daily offline lives. For example most people don't know that if somone knows your last name and general area you live in they can use many free reference tools online to tract your physical home address and phone number. It's easy to ignore someone sending you a picture of feces. It's harder when people start to actually mail pieces of it to your home (or a letter bomb, because some people are over achievers when it comes to being a dick).

Of course you can take all that information off the books...but this has never been an issue in the past. I am reminded of the scene in "The Jerk" were Steve Martin's character is excited that he got into the phone book. "Things are gonna start to happen for me now!" The next scene is of a insane person choosing the person his is going to kill by randomly picking that name out of a phone book. Guess who's name is picked?

So because of something that "just happens on a screen" we are all going to have to have our address made unlisted in the next ten years.

(Mark my word, this is one of these things that I think, and I wish I wrote down later when it becomes true. In a leser example when I first saw the original Britney Spears video with her dressed up as a Catholic schoolgirl, I said to myself In two years they are going to have a music video where two girls dressed up in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms are kissing. A few years later we have to Tatu video where *gasp* two girls dressed up in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms kissing. With the world as unoriginal as it is I see this kind of shit before it happens all the time. I gotta start writing it all down.)

B. This sort of behavior bleeds into the real world.

I know most people feel that society in general has alot of assholes and we just see them more clearly online. But I think that if a younger person reads obscene stuff all day and watches videos were everyone swears for hours at a time, how can that NOT be reflected when they stop using the computer and wander into the real world? It's not that people are assholes. It's that people will become as ammoral as society lets them be. We have this myth that people are "nice". The reality is that most people simply do what society tells them they can or can't do. If the internet lets them do anything then they will do anything.

If a totally free internet would really provide anything useful (except for those who are on society's fringe of course, I mean look what the internet has done for the furry and japanese snuff porn industry, they are thriving!) I would be for it. But it seems like it just breeds antisocial behavior with no penalities.

Some cool stuff.

Check out the Saturn Junkyard to hear about how I scored some sweet Saturn games at a thrift shop.

Check out the Dreamcast Junkyard to hear about a new Dreamcast contest thats going on.

Ah..

So tired.

Other Stuff:

I still gotta get my medical insurance stuff done by the middle of Dec.

Still trying to get a better full time job.

I want to make some new review videos.

Bioshock and Orange Box on sale at Best Buy...$25 each!

I can't play either of these games because the require internet access to install...

BIOSHOCK IS A SINGLE PLAYER GAME!!!!!

Jerks are gonna find a way to copy the game regardless.

I guess nobody cares about gamers like me who cannot get internet access.

In any case if you are luck enough to have the Internets you might want to brave the crowds and pick these up.

-Caleb

SMS video

Wow. Talk about showing the cool games that were on the Master System.

I can't believe most of the younger gamers I have met think that the NES was better.

Via: Video Blog

November Video game Haul

Nice haul of cheap stuff this november.

First off Thrift Store:

I got a NICE cord switcher setup that allows you to hook up two computers to the same speakers and monitor. I am going to set my Dreamcast up to this so I can switch between my computer and my Dreamcast with the press of a Button. Just an ease of use thing I guess. It's nice not to have to keep unplugging the damn monitor.

Plus I got

Far Cry
Unreal T. 2004
Splinter Cell 2
Soldier of Fortune
Devestation

ALL for $5. When you consider FAR CRY in that lot it might be one of the best deals ever. I have always wanted a copy. All these games are MINT too. Splinter cell still had the 39.99 pricer sticker on it.

Syracuse Flea market was mostly a big bust.

I got really beat up copies of 3 Dreamcast racing games. I have no idea if they work. MSR, Susuki and Speed Devils. Found thrown in with a bunch of music CDs $1.

-Lemmings 3d and a mint ninja/cowboy western game for the PS1 $5

-an original release of Kingdom Hearts 2 for $8.

-Karnof and Ninja Kid for the NES $5

- a Super Game boy player and Spawn for the SNES $5

-Shinobi 3 for the Genesis $2

-Strategy guides for Paper Mario and Perfect Dark. $1

-A manual for Octaria of time. $.50


At the shady games store I got:

Astral, Tomb Raider and Clockwork Knight for the Saturn

A the decent Game Craze local chain I got:

KISS for the Dreamcast $.99

Charge and Blast for the Dreamcast $.99

Tomb Raider for the Saturn (no Case) $.99

Tekken Tag Team for the PS2 $2


Overall not a bad haul. I was glad I was able to get some Dreamcast and Saturn stuff.

I am dissapointed in Syracuse though. I *might* go back to the flea market but it seems like the sellers don't have much stuff and are trying to get too much money for most of it.

A couple of good Dreamcast videos From WatchMojo

GD-R Writer???

Just a hoax I wonder?

xkcd - A GREAT webcomic

Taking a break from the manic webcomics I normally enjoy I read some xkcd. It has alot of art and is very easy going.

Read the first 31 comics. There is a simple, yet heartwarming gag that will make your day.

http://www.xkcd.com/1/

It made me smile and I work 55 hours a week (including drive time 72).

-Note to self. Find a better job where you can work only 40 hours a week.

Syracuse, or as we like to call it "Stab City".

Some guy got beat up for his PSP right outside where I work part time.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/crime/psp-owner-to-assailants-dudes-get-your-own-ow-322875.php

http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2007/11/teens_charged_in_downtown_beat.html

This was INSIDE a huge building with security guards and cameras and stuff.

The petty criminals in Central NY must be trying to compete for the "most violent" and "most ignorant" awards this year.

Though to be fair you don't flash around a $150 gaming device in the middle of downtown.

...at least with my full time job I ain't gotta deal with people at all.

This is the sort of area the Gameboy color is for friends...

UC Berkeley Marching Band does video games.

This is some SICK Marching Band goodness.



I can't believe they did this. I guess there still are band geeks.

I got some serious Sega Retro time in this weekend.

I played a crap copy of "Sol Feace" for the Sega CD that I was sure was not going to work. And it did! It was really beat up.

That was pretty cool.

Then I played some Final Fight CD and some Sonic CD. I think the only good Sega CD game I don't have is Snatcher.

I got my Saturn out and played some "Nights". I got my copy from a thrift charity store. It was still inside a Sega Saturn Version 2. (It pays to check used consoles for games. Chances are someone was playing a good game before they got rid of the system.)

With no manual I had no idea how to play. I do have the right controller since I got like 3 in the bundle of stuff I got in Buffalo 3 years ago. I still had fun playing it even though I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Getting told "Good Job" by the game and having tons of colors is pretty cool.

I gotta check to see if my copy of Virtual On is Netlink compatible.

Whoot!

What makes comedy good?

NPR did a great radio show yesterday were they talked about joke stealing in comedy.
They also hit on alot of the points that I feel are getting important in the entertainment industry.

The gist of one of the conversations was this:

Most "hack" comedians make good money and audiences laugh at them. Other comedians don't really like them and feel their jokes are lame.

It's getting to be the same thing with web videos. The crap one which nobody seems to like and are unprofessional and steal ideas from SNL or other popular comedians seem to do well. They get a ton of hits.

In fact in television and films as well there is very little "new" and innovative stuff out there.

And even when new stuff does come out the producers seems to want to change it so much it isn't funny.

When "Stella" did their comedy show briefly on Comedy Central they have to conform to a weird "sitcom" style style that just didn't work well with their short form skills. I think this was done because Comedy Central wanted something that would appeal to a wider audience.

Has America and the world in general become so full of idiots that "Wider Audience Appeal" means dumbing down everything until there is nothing good on anymore?

I have experienced this first hand. During my college TV days there was a public showcase held so students who were interested in being a part of Student Television could find out how. One of the earlier meetings was how I found most of my cast and crew for my show.

During one of my later shows someone had produced another skit comedy show. They did a "Judge Judy" skit that was alot like the one SNL did before. In fact IT WAS THE SNL Skit. The same parody, the same lines, the same camera shots, everything was the same. However, since it was made for College TV it didn't look as good. It looked and sounded like crap. It was a watered down concept.

Yet most of the college students watching it laughed.

When my show aired it's promo NOBODY LAUGHED until about two minutes in. Then everyone started laughing. It was all original stuff that was "out there" in terms of comedy. People seemed to need to feel that it was "alright" to laugh before they could.

So does the current society feel like that they can only laugh at stuff if it's familiar? Have we all gotten so lazy that we can't challenge ourselves to figure out new comedy? My show wasn't all that great. But it was ALOT better than a watered-down Saturday Night Live skit that was already getting old at that time.

The comics on NPR seems to reach for the idea that this situation is getting better. The comedians who steal jokes and take the easy way out are starting to show it. The audience is VERY slowly becoming fed up with this re-hashed crap and want new stuff.

Maybe audiences are getting better. I hope so.

The sucess of the "Dave Chappelle Show" showed that Americans really enjoyed the simply pleasure of skit comedy with NO SET FORMAT.

Yet Comedy Central goes on to help create a show for Sarah Silverman that's based on the same failed Stella "Sitcom" format. She is playing one character. The concept is already getting boring despite the great efforts of costars like Brian Posehn and the Executive Producer, Rob Schrab. It's getting somewhat good reviews and numbers...But I can't help but think that this could be something better than another "sitcom" based situation comedy clusterfuck.

During the "Mr. Show" days Sarah Silverman and Brian Posehn able to play several types of characters and it was funny. Alot better than this current show.

But do the numbers lie?

Is this new comedy that seems to be doing well really all that better?

Will the general audience ever see it my way? Or are my tastes in skit comedy so wrong?

Maybe one day some TV producer will take another chance and we can see another great skit comedy show come around and push all these sitcoms and reality shows into the garbage heap where they belong.

Maybe one day the general viewing audience will freaking grow a pair and start to appreciate innovative ideas.

Yet another thift store score.

This is from awhile back. I have not bought any games recently since I am trying to save money.

For $17 I got a bag filled with video games.

INCLUDED:

Kung Fu for the NES in box
A Bugs Bunny game for the NES in box
Double Dragon 2 for NES
Operation Wolf for the NES

Zelda for the SNES
Super Punch out for the SNES
Contra 3 for the SNES
DK Country 3 for the SNES

Ren and Stimpy in Box for the Genesis
Sword of the Vermillion for the Genesis in box.

Spiro the Dragon - year of the dragon PS

Rayman for the PS

There was also another Genesis game and two other NES games but I can't remember the names right now.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Buy it and Patch it.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a game that has gotten some really bad flack from some gamers.

However, when I saw it in Target for $15.00 clearance I knew I had to try it out.

Number one, this is a PC game. So download the patch FIRST before paying it.

http://www.stalker-game.com/en/?page=patches

Alot of people complained about the bugs in this game. I suppose that console gamers can't spend TWO MINUTES to download the latest patch of a game before bitching and complaining that the game is broke. I suppose that simply putting a DVD in a tray and playing a game has really made some gamers lazy. And stupid.

It's a PC game.

You have to patch the game to get the best gameplay.

Live with it you mouth breathers!

And it's a kick ass game.

The free roaming gameplay is actually alot like the "Daggerfall" Elder Scrolls game. That means you can completely ignore the main "quest" for awhile and go do whatever the hell you want. Nice.

You can play in several different ways.

In the first scenario there is a vicious group of bandits that are holed up in a small group of buildings. They have heavily guarded the two main entrance points but left a themselves open on the sides.

My style to solve this little problem was this.

I snuck past the two sets of guards to inside one of the building were two bandits sat around a fire. I pulled out my knife and made with the stabby. One of the guards was holding a shotgun which I took.

Then I snuck away making little noise.

The Guards from the entrance all heard the commotion and ran up screaming Russian swear words. Seeing only two bodies they stood around scratching their heads wondering what the hell could have happened.

While they were all standing close together I ran up behind them and blasted away.

Now that situation in the game could have been solved a number of different ways.

I personally found mine to be the best but I like the idea that I could have played it in many different ways.

It's a great game and well worth the $15.

If there is a Target near you see if they have it in stock.

Retail places that put stuff on clearance are great.

That's why I hate Walmart. Compared to Target and Kmart they hardly ever put anything worth buying on clearance.

Burke drops his cellphone and gets the hell out of the ghost house.

ECW Wrestler Elijah Burke was on the Sci-Fi show "Ghost Hunters".

He was just acting to make the show alittle more entertaining.



I hope he gets some good press for this. It was pretty damn funny.

It's lame that "Ghost Hunters" never find any real evidence of ghosts.

Halloween!

I wish I could go out and scare people or run around in a costume and get drunk (last year) but I have work today and early tommorow.

Gonna be some good scary movies on during the weekend though.

Here is the promo for the scary movie I created in college:



Also the skit I wrote for Ralph's web show and skit comedy DVD.

Hammer Films are sweet.

The Angry Video Game Nerd has pissed me off in the past with his poor treatment of Sega products, but his respect of the Saturn and Dreamcast has warmed my heart to him.

Now he is doing a pretty kick ass collection of videos on the horror film genre. It's good. MUCH better than his "Angry Video Game Nerd" stuff. Hopefully James and Cinemassacre will keep on doing cool projects like this...



Mad respect to the Hammer films. Dracula was such a badass in those films. Not like the shitty ass emo self loathing pussies in most of todays vampire genre films.

This was the vampire before Anne Rice turned them all homosexual.

No walks in the fall for me.

Yet another hunter killed a person in a hunting accident yesterday.

It's amazing how many dumbasses with no hunting / gun permits are out in the woods these days shooting anything that moves.

It sucks that I can't go for a walk in the woods without worrying about getting shot.

New games. Yakuza! Yeah!

Wow. When you consider it "Yakuza" the game doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Anyone that would have been watching my character would have saw him go into a Sega arcade and play a crane game for a stuffed bird, then get into a brutal street fight (during the middle of which he stopped and ate a club sandwich) then go into a corner store and look at girly magazines. The amount of random crap you can do seems impressive at first, but quickly becomes stale. What the hell am I gonna do with a stuffed toy???

Overall though it'a a decent game experience. I got caught up in the story and I am enjoying the combat system. (I like how if you try to throw bigger enemies you have to tap 0 or they will squash you). I also like the "hidden" key thing. There is a row of coin operated lockers in a certain building in the city. Finding keys for these lockers means you can pilfer whats in them. I already got a cheap knife and a special armor item.

Speaking of items you have limited space to carry them. So while it might seem like a good idea to load up on junk food from a health store you might want to keep some slots open for extra items that crop up now and again. The game is good at giving you really items during fights (at least during the first few hours).

It was well worth the $6 I paid for it. In fact besides "Beyond Good and Evil" this is the only game I have gotten recently that has grabbed my attention enough to force me to play for hours. I really got to play Shenmue so I can directly compare the two.

I also got PSU and Manhunt. PSU I got mint.

"Online Guerilla Marketer" AKA corporate Shills.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_62/363-I-m-Evil

I wonder how many "people" I know from message boards and blogs are just Corporate OGMs...?

Seamus the Leprechaun...I am looking at you...

...


...Though of course he would be a corporate shill for naughty pictures and not games...


...I could be a corporate shill. If Sega was still supporting the Dreamcast...

Confessions of a Game Store Clerk

Read this and laugh.

http://www.gamesradar.com/us/pc/game/features/article.jsp?releaseId=2006032219817514003&articleId=2007040314469812037&sectionId=1003

-In retrospect I gotta say that some of these clerks must have been "Upper Middle Class" and never worked in retail before. They come across as jerks who never had to work at a REAL shitty job, like being the manager of a gas station like I used to do during the gas price hike.

Then again, everyone should get to whine about their job.

Wow. A ton of posts. Game scrounge update for October. Complaints about Pawn shops.

I have been posting alot lately.

In any case here is the October issue of:

GAME SCROUNGE.

October was a GOOD month.

A new pawn store opened/reopened in town.

I got a copy of Powerstone 2 and Gauntlet for the Dreamcast for $4. EXCELLENT. Now I have powerstone 1 and 2.

I got a CRAPLOAD of rare RPGs for the playstation. Lunar Silver 2 (Only the game) Suidoken, Tree of Mana, Final Fantasy Tactics. I over-bid for them though. I paid about $8 a piece. I didn't get the copy of XenoGears because I already had a copy. I am kicking myself now though because that game is RARE and my copy is more beat up than i remembered. I also picked up copies of Parasite Eve 1 and 2 for nothing. Which is cool because they are rarer than I first thought.

I am still kicking myself because now I know that the owner would have sold me them for alot less than that and he probably got them for like .75 each. I suppose I made a positive impression though and I will probably get some better prices in the future because of it. However, the kid he has working there is short a few bricks. Some dude came in and sold him 4 CRAP games for like $20. The kid would have to sell ALL the games and he would only get a profit of $5. What the hell. It's gonna be impossible to unload shit games like that. This pawnshop is gonna go down because of crap like this. But I heard the owner is gonna sell to new people soon anyways.

Another thing that pissed me off is that the kid said that they wouldn't be buying any more Dreamcast stuff to sell... This drove me almost CRAZY. They had 11 Dreamcast games in total there. I bought 6, another person(s) bought 5. IN A WEEK. They sold ALL of the Dreamcast games in stock in less than a week... And now they are not going to buy any more??? WHY? You made profit on them! You sold me in a short period of time. MEANWHILE you are buying up new gen SHITE for WAY too much money for little profit, if you sold any. WHICH YOU HAVEN'T. You have NOT SOLD ANY OF THAT CRAP IT'S STILL SITTING THERE. Meanwhile nearly all the PS1 stuff you had and ALL the Dreamcast stuff has been sold in record time for a pawn shop...Holy Shit you are paying $10 for a shit copy of perfect dark for the 360 that is selling at Gamestop for $15...And yet you won't accept Dreamcast stuff that people ARE GIVING AWAY to the other pawnshop that YOU COULD ACTUALLY SELL AND MAKE A PROFIT.

So yeah. I could complain about this mis-mangement all day. This jackass seems to be more interested in making a quick buck on stolen shit from Crackheads than making actual money. The cops are gonna shut this stupid place down soon because of this. What a freaking waste of storefront space...


From the other pawn shop I got Rygar for the PS2 for $5 and Yakuza in MINT condition for $6. I think the Yakuza purchase was pretty good since I saw it for like $17.99 in Game Craze.

Gamestop has a Buy One get one for %50 off. So I picked up FF Crystal Chronicals and Beyond Good and Evil. Beyond Good and Evil is AWESOME. I can't believe that I saw before for like $5.00 and didn't get it. If you like Zelda GET THIS GAME. This is one of those games that the stinking masses of gamers missed out on.

I also got Zone of the Enders which is kinda cool but pissing me off because my copy is crashing during the save game section...DAMN. I think I might go into the game a bit more and see if I can save in a different spot. In any case the game was worth $5.00.

In addition I ended up purchasing Lunar and The Phantasy Star collection for GBA. Now I officially have enough RPGs for the GBA that if I ended up on a desert island with nothing but a supply of food, batteries and my GBA collection I would still be playing by the time rescuers arrived 3 years later.

"Sorry I haven't finished with these yet. Could you come back in about 4 months?"

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell calls new games trash.

I got a smile out of this one.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/gametap/bushnell-defines-pure-unadulterated-trash-gaming-314795.php

"as much as I applaud the beautiful, fantastic production guys of Halo 3, it's really Doom 1 in different clothing."

I personally never bought a copy of any of the Halo games. I played them at friends houss and even beat the first Halo game (it was short an unstatisfying). I found the multiplayer to be inferior to Half Life mods like Team Fortress and Counterstrike.

But come on Nolan! Doom was a MUCH better single player game experience than Halo is.

Seaman 2 came out today.

01. Seaman 2 (PS2) - 33,000

Wow. The Japanese really love Seaman.

In any case I hope it comes out in North America.

Interesting reading and listening. - Considering the popularity of video games. And a brief ramble about my past online multiplayer experience.

NPR had an really interesting portion on "Talk of the Nation" the other day. I will post a link soon.

A Vet from Iraq just posted this article about gaming:

http://homefires.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/way-beyond-pong/index.html

It was good. However, the real treat was the responses. This was the best one.

"Interesting. Forty years ago, I and my friends would be routinely criticized for playing Avalon Hill boardgames, most of which were wargames. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

— Posted by Geoff "

Nice.

There was also a response that complained about Guitar hero for some reason and that got me thinking on another track. It said it was nothing like playing real guitar and was just about pressing buttons quickly in synch with a program.

I was watching Youtube awhile back before "Guitar Hero" became popular, there was a video of a Japanese video game where the player hit buttons quickly in tune to the music and graphics. There were a ton on comments about how stupid the game was and how it was just another "Japanese Memorization" game. Yet when you get down to it, that EXACTLY what GH is. Just pressing buttons in synch and memorization.

Take away the gimmick controller and change the music and it's pretty much exactly like any other rhythm game.

So how much is the popularity of games based on how popular they are perceived by society in general.

For a very brief time I played MUDs online through telnet and the Internet. In terms of gameplay I believe they were FAR superior to World of Warcraft. Plus back in 1998 they were mostly FREE. It was all text of course, but you were playing with MANY different people in a very complex world.

Now add some pretty graphics to that and add monthly fees and you have Ultima Online and World of Warcraft. And of course the game gets dumbed down. And restricted. There is less freedom. Yet the same sort of people that would turn their noses at the weirdos playing an elf in a text based game eagerly play WoW.

I personally stopped playing MUDs because there seemed to be no point. They were always adding new content and new people were always joining the game. The only way to be really good in the game was to spend ridiculous amounts of hours playing the game and use a shitload of cheap tricks like macros and keystroke programs. There is ALWAYS going to be someone else who has more time on their hands who will ruing these types of games. In any case I never got into them because I couldn't play with other people because of my busy schedule.

Then came brief interlude with Half Life and it's MANY online game modes like Team Fortress. I got so good at online multiplayer "Action Half Life" I would ALWAYS get the number one slot for kills and points scored. Yet I eventually walked away from that too. I had a decent Internet connection in college and I played a lot. Those were the only reasons I was good at the game.

In fact MOST multiplayer games are like that. "Skill" in the game just means you have enough free time to play it alot. That's when I got more into the single player PC and console games. Looking for a good, fun experience in a game is what matters. It's supposed to be a brief BREAK from work. Not work itself.

Now most gamers are coming to the same conclusions as I did about 6 years ago. It's stupid to spend time and money on games that you can ONLY excel in if you happen to have plently of free time.

This all comes back to the original comment on that Iraq Vet story. 40 years ago people were having the same arguement. Everything changes, yet everything stays the same.

You must look toward the future and make sure that EVERYTHING in your life, INCLUDING games have some sort of real value and are not just the result of society telling you what you should or should not experience and enjoy.

...Wow...I always post the best stuff when I have had an 18 hour day working and only get 4.5 hours sleep...

Stewart talks about the Dreamcast

2.04 into the interview.

Gamestop manager, 21 gets killed during robbery.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/crime/gamestop-manager-killed-during-robbery-313396.php

The details are a bit unclear but it seems the most logical scenario is that the robber was a druggie and put too much duct tape on the managers face.

It's a possibility that he meant to kill him it's a possibility that he didn't. However

I worked nights as a manager in a gas station chain store for almost two years. This could have easily been me. If it wasn't for the fact that I gave free soda and coffee to policemen, Forest rangers and sercurity guards (Hell ANYONE with a gun and a uniform) I think my work enviroment would have been alot more dangerous.

I am pissed off at alot of the comments about how "he didn't mean it" and "This kind of thing happens". Having attitudes like that and pretending that this sort of crime is not preventable and looking at stats saying that crime isn't as bad as it once was is BULLSHIT. We need to be doing better than this.

We need to stop this "war on terror" overseas, shore up own borders and deal with some of the the shit that is happening in here. What the HELL happened to the "war on drugs"? And I am NOT talking about marijuana or any other substance that might end up damaging or killing the user. I am talking about Crack and Cocaine. This poison has killed way to many people and has made any urban area in this country a more dangerous place to be. A shitload of criminals are making WAY too much profit off this shit too easily. For the money we are throwing away in Iraq we could be protecting our own country, getting the educational system out of the gutter and taking down the criminal infastructure that results in shit like this. We should bring back the old school mental health centers for people who's brains have been fried by drugs. Instead we let them get high in jail or let them walk the streets.

People think that a crime where a 21 year old manager gets killed is a shame but they can't do anything about it. They shrug and say that it is just how things are and at least they are better than they were according to statisitics. Bullshit. We can be doing something about it. Law and Order in this country works when the public tells the elected leaders TO MAKE IT WORK.

Instead we are just a bunch of scared little children who say that bad things happen and there is nothing we can do about it. Because that's what the rich people who run this country tell us while they relax in their secure gated communities and out- of-country villas far away from any crime. We have been fed these lies about how there is nothing that can be done about these problems for so long we believe them.

A ton of Sega intros.

I think the "Log" intro for Ren and Stimpy was pretty good. Also the dinosaur intros for Jurassic Park were pretty cool.

Good.

Dreamcast Haters....MUahahahahahhaha! Worst movie ever.

So I guess this guy tried to make a video saying that the Wii and PS3 were better than the Dreamcast buy having the two newer consoles shoot the Dreamcast with AK47s.

Wow. What a great idea.

Watch how it turned out...



Wow. So the dude doesn't know how to edit anything and can't even get his own programs to work properly. And he keeps the video up.

Anyone who knows ANYTHING about video games respects the Dreamcast. Only morons who know nothing and do stupid crap like this hate the Dreamcast.

Idiots.

Requiem for a Dreamcast..

The sad story of how the Dreamcast was defeated by a cheap DVD player.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_85/479-Requiem-for-a-Dreamcast

I suppose in those days DVD was a big thing. Now you can buy one for less than $40.

Lame.

Benny Hill + Typing of the Dead.

Benny Hill was cool because it had comedy and attractive women. Plus the old guy got beat up alot.

Andy Punches - Skit from the Lonelt Island Boys on Saturday Night Live.

This is what I love about the Lonely Island Boys.

They take an idea like this, which has been done before, and they add the extra bit of awesomeness to it.



I think this idea goes much further than the regular sight gag. Though Andy's physical comedy is still pretty simple you can tell he is getting better every day. And Zombies for no reason? You can tell the Lonely Island Boys are with the new generation. Though it seemed tacked on it works because the viewer probably thought that the skit was going to end on the "Murder" gag.

These guys need their own skit comedy show on ABC to replace that Cavemen show which predictably isn't going anywhere.

Play this game. Flash Portal.

If you are like me and cannot install Half Life 2 because you do not have internet access at your home you can at least have fun playing flash portal.

http://www.armorgames.com/games/portaltheflashversion_game.html

Quick hint: The first 9 levels are cake (at least in terms of dying). Then your creepy (alien?) captors start to really try and kill you.

Nice flash game.

MORE excellence from Zero P.

I am so glad that that I found this site. This is an excellent review of Bioshock showing how the whole experience has been dumbed down for consoles and that PC gamers have ALREAY PLAYED better games than this. System Shock is great. Bioshock doesn't expand much and is cut down because most console gamers can't handle all the cool shit that PC gamers have gotten used to. Of course I love console games, but for the most part they are not as complex as PC games.

So now we have PC game ideas getting dumbed down for consoles and PC games concentrating TOTALLY on Online Multiplayer shit. I am getting depressed. Lucky for me I have Dosbox.



And the whole "Two endings" thing is pissing me off too. Woot.

Another review from Zero Punctuation

I agree.

Making fun of Richard Garriott with an English accent.

I loved the Ultima series. Except for Ultima Online which I don't play because I hate paying extra money every month.

In any case I guesss Garriott is coming out with another game series and Zero Punctuation made a video about it. It pretty much sums up my feelings about MMORPGs.

Bruce Campbell doesn't back off from a fight.

The original ad for the "Evil Dead, Hail to the King" Dreamcast game.

I played through the game. Meh. It's average.

Bruce Campbell's voice acting made acceptable though. Plus there were undead hillbillies and undead evil boyscouts.



Bruce Campbell never backs down from a fight.

Sonic! Smash Bros Brawl!

It does my heart good to see Sonic beating the vermicelli outta that plumber.

Wow. How cool is that game shaping up to be? I loved the N64 and Gamecube version for multiplayer. Shit...now I might eventaully have to buy a Wii... Ah well I can wait until next-next gen comes out and all the non-gamers sell theirs.

Console games? No time. PC gaming.

I am f'ing still pissed off about the whole "I can't play HL2 because my home cannot get internet access" thing. (You have to register online when you install it, which is a PAIN)

Despite that I have been playing some other PC games. In fact I have a crapload that I haven't installed yet.

And of course work has been rough too.

Oh. And I got a crapload of PS1 RPGs and a copy of Powerstone 2 from a pawn shop.

Rarh!

Pretty cool gaming tat

http://www.thebbps.com/blog/2007/10/03/leave-luck-tat/

It's got Jill from RE1 and RE3. Pretty cool.

This could have been Shenmue 3...

Take a look at this preview.




In a perfect world this would be Shenmue 3. Playing on the Dreamcast 2.

Cavemen on ABC

There is a new TB show being produced based on an ad campaign.

I am conflicted.

First off when I saw the first ads I thought "They are just copying the old Saturday night live skits with Phil Hartman". Yes this idea, straight down to the makeup and the way the cavemen speak is EXACTLY like the Phil Hartman skit "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer", were an unfrozen caveman becomes a lawyer.

Yet the concept is still a winner for a commerical or short skit.

Yet make a WHOLE SHOW based on an idea like this?

They had better pull out some AMAZING writing to make that work.

The fact is that we do not need another sitcom. We need a goddamn SKIT COMEDY SHOW THAT IS ONLY SKIT COMEDY.

The success of the Dave Chappell show and that piece of shit "Mind of Mencia" show clearly display what people want. A SKIT COMEDY SHOW.

Stop putting single actors like Sarah Silverman in their own shows and MAKE THEM collaborate with other people to make them create a true skiot comedy show. Silverman was SO FUNNY when she was on "Mr. Show, with Bob and Dave".

So instead of getting something we all wanted to watch we get "cavemen" Wtf.

We need a decent skit comedy show.

Japanese kids still play the Dreamcast and Saturn.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hard-proof/japanese-kids-like-nes-better-than-psp-305306.php

Wow. So according to that "4.8 percent still play the Dreamcast, and 5.1 still play the Saturn" Wow.

That's actually some pretty big numbers. I suppose quality of games beats out new gen.

Halo 3 was released at the same time as Cabela's Trophy Buck.

I gotta say this made me laugh.



Wow.

Random List O' Stuff I have been doing.

- Looking for jobs. Hopefully the place I am work part time now will hire me full time allowing me to work just ONE job instead of the insane hours I have been filling recently.

- Garage sales. The hot weather late in fall has allowed a late season of yard sales. GOOD stuff. I got.

1. Decent HP P2 40o Mg 1 gig ram laptop with wireless Wi-Fi $25.

2. 75 pound heavy bag cost hundreds of dollars new $20.

3. SNES $1 - This goes to show how different people deal with garage sales. One person was selling a similar SNES for $35. After I talked to him he admitted that the SNES was not working correctly...wow. 35$ for a SNES that doesn't work. Great deal. In the same town a guy was sold me a WORKING SNES for $1. Gotta look out for the good deal people.

4. Lunar 2 Complete PS1 - I always wanted the Sega CD or Saturn versions of Lunar. However I have yet to even see them. So when a person offered this big huge PS1 box set for $5 I bought. It was missing the music CD but everything else was there. Later I looked online and saw that a full version of this same set is selling for around $100!!!!!! Go me. I am still dissapointed that I missed out on the Sega version...ah well. I also got Alone in the Dark 2 and Chocobo Dungeon 2.

- Sluggy Freelance. Holy shit. I had no idea that there was a webcomic this HUGE and cool out there. Vampires, witches, aliens, time travel, evil corporations, hot girl ninja assassins, ghosts, weasels, parodies of popular fiction and movies, Evil dead parodies, Devil Kittens and ONE EVIL BUNNY. This comic has it all. FUN TIMES. It's got good drama and characters I can really get into. Not the main two of course. The supporting characters are the good ones.

http://www.sluggy.com/

Read it. The artwork is crap for awhile but gets better. An excellent time waster.

RE - Code Veronica Spoof animated flash

"I thought you were a zombie. A hot zombie, but a Zombie none the less"

ARGH! Avast yeahj scurvy dogs!

And me face be less fat then it were back then matey.

-It's actually blasted sad that this isn't the only picture I have of meself like this...Argh...I couldn't find the other one though...Damn thee Davy Jones!

I missed national vide games day.

Apparently it was "National Video Games Day" yesterday.

I in fact did not play any video games yesterday or for that fact I din't play any games on Tuesday either.

In fact I have not been plying many video games recently at all.

Ah well.

Whatever.

Gamestop to turn it's back on gamers.

Yeah so they stop carrying retro games, the staff become increasing asshole-ish then they dick around with selling back or trading in of old games.

Now Gamestop has stopped pretending. They are going to stop catering to the real gamers and concentrate on the younger crowd and people who don't play many video games...

...you know because the whole "Casual Game Player" thing is really gonna last and shit. The NES, Genesis and PC games created a whole generation of real players out of casual people. After that the market stopped caring about Casual gamers because there were none left.

Same thing is gonna happen now Gamestop. You are gonna stop catering to the majority as soon as these casual gamers loose interest or become real gamers.

And the thing about casual gamers? You only make a profit ONCE. Then they never come back.

Hardcore gamers made you Gamestop. We allowed you to make INSANSE profits.

But hey, I have hated Gamestop ever since they stopped carrying Dreamcast stuff after the takeover of EB Games. So it's not like my opinions have changed much.

Corn Cat

Honestly I have no reason to post this here.

Sorry

Webcomic Critics. Critics in General.

Someone made a whole blog about web comic reviews.

They recently did a review of Dueling Analogs.

Buried deep within this are some valid criticisms. But they are somewhat difficult to find.

First off, they don't even start talking about DA. For some reason they go into a whole tirade about Penny Arcade and the popular webcomic explosion. That should clue you into the kind of article you are getting yourself into...

It really seems like the author went that extra mile to create some really choice personal insults and disparaging remarks about the author rather than the art.

The "misogynistic shitpile of a comic" comment was by far a high point.

Dueling Analogs is not fine art. It started out crass with boob and sex jokes and might have softened it's tone over time, but to expect something else from a free webcomic that is obviously going after a somewhat narrow audience is foolish. But obviously this is less of a real review and more of an entertaining attack.

But wow, entertaining or not. this review makes the author of Dueling Analogs look like a real woman hating piece of trash with no talent at all.

I have met plenty of losers who took some art classes. In my college art class I took my professor said that my figure drawing was very good. However, I never got into drawing because I think all my crap art looks bad. I would rather work with other media like digital video because I get more pleasure out of it.

But with my limited college art education and some free time I could come up with some truly scathing reviews of ALL the popular webcomics. It would be easy.

But you know what would be more difficult for me? Creating my own webcomic and updating it all the time and improving on my own work as I go.

Creating something that looks OK and has a lot of people checking on it every week to see if a new comic is up...That would actually take some work. Even if you made up some really bad jokes and situations, it would still be a lot harder than making an entertaining "attack review".


In the end this "review" is entertaining, but lacks value due to it's inflammatory remarks. This sort of info-tainment attack used to be amusing. Most people knew that such an over the top reactionary article was just that and was primarily for entertainment. And the whole "Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad" title shows that is what they are going for.

But guess what...most people already are sick of this. They "get" the point of the whole thing and the asshats who waste their time coming up with creative put-downs are the real joke in this whole situation.


There are getting to be too many of these types of reviews.

Would people really be happy if everyone whose art or sense of humor could possible offend some suddenly became more PC?

Would all the critics become placated if every single person who was actually contributing something just stopped because someone thought their work was not good enough?


Of course they wouldn't, because the sad fact is that most of these web critics and the majority of the main stream media critics are more interested in getting people to read or view their own material than informing the public about the flaws of real media makers.


Fine, we get it web critics. You can sit down for a few hours and whip out a few pages or a few mintues of reviews with snarky snappy little insults. You can disparage real media creators to show the world that they suck. All while everyone recognizes how cool you are for creating that review. And while the comments pour in from people that think your material is HILARIOUS and DEAD ON you can rest assured that you can always leach off someone else to get your own cheap material out there.


Well guess what? This gravy train is slowing down. Sure there is alot of crappy shit on the web. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT AT THIS POINT. Eventually nobody is gonna bother reading or looking at your shit anymore. It doesn't matter how much humor or hate you put into it.

I personally didn't like some of the earlier "Dueling Analog" strips. But I keep checking in
because:


1. It's free, quick and easy.
2. Sometimes there is a comic that makes me laugh.
I suppose that if you take that review to heart that would make me a woman hating loser with a poor appreciation of art.

But of course the the point of the review wasn't to be serious, it was to "Piggyback" on the success of a webcomic so people would read the blog.

Well it worked. I read it and in fact I was somewhat entertained.

But honestly Dueling Analogs is better entertainment.

Stuff

Been job hunting because I am gonna need to go further south in order to make a living.

There are no jobs for TV producers or Librarians around here.

Hmm. Got some really good trade in credit which I used to get some decent games. Got seventh Cross evolution, Bust a move 4 and Hidden and Dangerous for the Dreamcast.

Found a nice pawn shop that sells old video games for like nothing...Pretty damn sweet. Got some Saturn games there.

Read "Still life with crows" and "Evil Genius" two very good books. The latter was a young adult book, but I was working in the YA section and it caught my eye. A good read.

Got back into PC video games for a bit. I have been slogging through Quake 4. Not the greatest experience. I mean FEAR and Painkiller made me WANT to finish the whole game in one go and I did. Quake 4 just isn't as good. I mean I played Quake 1 + 2 all the way through. But not 4. I mean it LOOKS good... but damn. I am glad I only payed $4 for it. (I only got it because it came with Quake 2 and the Quake 2 expansion packs.)

I wish I could get a copy of Half Life 2, but with that insane *NEED INTERNET ACCESS TO REGISTER GAME* thing, I can't. I want the game for SINGLE player. Why the freaking hell do I gotta dick around with registering ONLINE... I can't because I ain't got Internet access at home...and try to get someone from valve on the phone...jerkwads. One day...

Anyways the Might and Magic series is kinda pissing me off. I hate the way that game is set up and the story sucks. I got a couple of the games awhile back for cheap and I just can't get into them. I really like the Wizardry gameplay setup and I wish more games were like that. Wizardry 8 is a great game and I really want to finish it up sometime.

Blargh.

*sigh* Still no new media projects

I had some free time on the weekend but after swimming at my families rustic style camp (i.e. in the middle of nowhere on the banks of a Reservoir) I just didn't have time to film anything.

What with working two jobs and all it's been tough to find any free time to do anything.

And when I do have free time I am trying to find a new job...or have no ambition.

Anways I cleaned video game carts for about 2 hours straight on Sunday.

It's one of those activites that I really gotta avoid since it's a real time waster.

So after about a million Q-tips and a quarter bottle of cart cleaner later I have cleaned pretty much every one of my cart based games. All I have left are some N64 games and doubles.

I also found out that one of my orginal NES consoles runs pretty much perfectly with clean games. Damn it's pretty sweet to play Metal Gear and then quickly play some Snake's Revenge right after without dicking around with reinserting the carts. I am glad I got my NES 2 though. It's still a cool little thing to have around.

All this of course is on top of my OTHER project, storing all my video games in plastic tubs. I got some really cheap at a local grocery store. I figure it's alot better protection than the crappy egg boxes I had stored them in.

This whole deal has lead me to the conclusion that I have, scientifically speaking, a "crapload of games".

My NES collection alone can only fit in one and half 54 gallon plastic boxes. My Genesis and Sega CD collection takes up another. And my collection of PS, Saturn, PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast stuff? Legion. 4 boxes at least. Most of my Dreamcast games are in a HUGE 4 foot tall standing case now and the rest are in a padded case logic case and a bin (for those still in shrink wrap). Plus I have most of my consoles out next to the TV now...

The sad part of all of this is that I still have to go through my upstairs stuff whihc includes a ton of PC games, Dreamcast games, and my 2 Dreamcast wheel controllers (which are gonna take up a ton of room).

In all I think that with alittle organization I can pack all these up nicely and make them look alot better.

I will have to put some pics ups soon.

But really enough is enough. I am gonna collect some stuff still but unless I get a REALLY good deal there is no way I have room for any new consoles. I mean i got a Genesis one and bunch of controllers and stuff for $5 yesterday, But I already have like 4 Genesis consoles...I do not need another one...

If I ever get a house of my own I am gonna be able to decorate an entire room in video game stuff...

(And when people realize that the TVs they are still selling in Best Buy aren't digital I am sure to get a few decent TVs to set up in there as well).

Whoot.

Another Dreamcast indy release - Radium.

Looks like a run and gun game.

See FC there ARE games beign produced for the Dreamcast that aren't Shumps...

Horror / Point and Click Dreamcast Homebrew Game

Not exactly survival horror but still, at least FC will have something to look forward to.

Perhaps the best Dreamcast video game opening video?

Not much happenings - This month in game deals.

Well for the month of August I did pretty well so far.

I picked up a Game Gear TV adaptor and a SMS pocket emulator. (see earlier article.)

I also picked up an Atari Flashback 2 for $6. It came with 3 addition original atari controllers.

I got ANOTHER Genesis 2. I have no idea why I got this. I already have too many damn Genesis controllers. But it was only $6.

I got a sweet deal on SF Alpha 2, Sim City 2000 and Virtua Cop 2 for the Saturn. $10 for all 3.

Plus I got a crapload of Sega CD games for $1 each including Rise of the Triad, Ecco, Final Fight, Corpse Killa (Foo-Pah!), Lethal Enforcers, Prize Fighter, and cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

The last one seemed really interesting.

Uwu Boll is awesome.

Uwe Boll is awesome.

Sorry, but I just have to say that.

If you want to hop on the internet bandwagon and call into question his skills and movies than fine.

However, I will always respect the hell outta the guy. In a monopoly where independent stuff like "Troma" is almost impossible to produce he has carved himself out a niche. And look at the CONSTANT CRAP that Hollywood is coming out with. He is a genius in getting the money and actors to create big time films.

Also I think that some people are put off by his self promotion. You know what, if you can independently create some media as big as what he has, then you can complain about that. He has every right to be proud of his accomplishments. In this age everyone is being either a crass ignorant moron who is full of pride in him or herself for no reason or because some aspect of society tell you it's OK to feel good about something you did.

If you have the fucking brains and balls to go and do something on a large scale in the world of sheep we live in then more power to you and you deserve to have pride in your accomplishments.

Even if you don't want to admit it, the future of media lies in the hands of those that are willing and able to reach out and create. If you are really that pissed off by someone elses creations then go out and create something of your own...

If you still can't respect that then please just go support what movies you like. Don't be a fucking sheep and hop on the bandwagon.

-I thought House of the Dead 2 was by far the weakest movie. Yet even that had some really nice looking scenes. Far better looking than some of the crap in the Resident Evil films (which overall I thought were better than HoD2 of course)

-But if you think that many action films created by Hollywood are better than some of Boll's stuff than you are stupid. Bloodrayne > Electra

ZOMG! Dreamcast Swirl in Fanboys webcomic!!!!!

A recent fanboys webcomics has featured the Sega Swirl!!!!

http://fanboys-online.com/

http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?cid=223

Muahahahaha!

The Sony fanboy Paul must have been a Sega fanboy at one point in time.

Oh the Dramaz!