Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Misc: The wife and I just got back from seeing Joel McHale at the Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Joel, he rose to prominence thanks to E’s The Soup, a reincarnation of the original Talk Soup hosted by Greg Kinnear, back before he left to go do a string of mediocre Hollywood B-movies. Anyway, The Soup collects a slew of ridiculous clips from reality TV every week and Joel skewers them with incredibly clever one-liners and jokes that are so venomous, a cobra couldn't compete.
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We were both a little curious as to what kind of show this would be since we've only seen him as a host, but it was a regular stand-up style comedy performance. Although it wasn't quite as gut-busting as it is for thirty minutes on Fridays with a Teleprompter, it was still pretty respectable and kind of a treat since I was not aware that Joel is actually a local… well, as much a local as someone can be when they're from Mercer Island. I always appreciate when performers can name-drop a few things that are in the area, and since he's actually from here, quite a bit of the show was very Seattle-specific. During the performance, McHale also mentioned that fan favorite Mankini is from around these parts, too. Who knew?
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It was an entertaining two hours and the seats in the first balcony were pretty damned respectable. He's playing one more night (tomorrow, 11/30) so if you're in the neighborhood and don't have anything to do, there you go.
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Games: Mad props go to Hargrada for rising to the challenge and coming up with a game that is an undisputed (and quite rare) example of the correct usage of the Silent Protagonist – Valve’s Portal.
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Although I still feel like the Silent Protagonist approach is used inappropriately 99.9% of the time, Mr. H was indeed correct in his choice, and I tip my hat in his direction.
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Games: In what I see as one of the stupidest ways to promote your game, the new demo available on Live for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (or SSFIITHDR for short) features local co-op play as the only way to actually try the game. That's right, if you are a single player or you just happen to not have a buddy around at the time, you can't even try the demo.
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Excuse me? I thought the whole point of demos was to get people to sample your game to convince them it's worth buying… so, if I'm home alone and I'm thinking about getting some SSFIITHDR on, you’re telling me you're not even interested in letting me just try the game? Are we not clear on what the concept of a demo is? Genius move there, brainiacs. Looks like I'll be spending my 1200 MS points elsewhere.
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Games: Just a quick heads up to anyone who's in the Home Beta: if you go to the Bowling Alley and play the Echochrome arcade game, you will be awarded the Echochrome clothing. I don't know if people who collect this will be able to keep it once the final version launches, but it's kind of neat to be able to wear a suit that’s different from what everyone else is wearing, and makes you look like a robot, to boot.
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Film: The wife and I just watched The Hulk (the Edward Norton one) yesterday, and we were both pleasantly surprised.
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Despite all the word of mouth I heard that had pegged it as being solidly mediocre, we both thought it was a great popcorn flick and Norton himself did a great job in the lead role. He always delivers fine performances, IMO, but I have to admit I was a little curious as to how he would handle such a well-known and famously unsuccessful comic book hero. I think he really nailed it.
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A neat bonus was the Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. cameo at the very end, obviously a lead-in to the upcoming Avengers film. The Hulk wasn't a home-run blockbuster the way Iron Man was, but we enjoyed the time we spent with it and truth be told, we were both sort of scratching our heads as to why it received such a lukewarm reception.
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(...And the ending sure beat the hell out of the way the previous Ang Lee Hulk film closed… for that alone, it deserves some respect.)
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Working on a new writing project right now, so I'm actually procrastinating by posting this… but since I'm here, what the hey?
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Games: Started Dead Space tonight and just played for a little bit, maybe a hair over an hour or so. Gotta say, I'm not at all impressed.
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Granted, I'm not very far so I'm not going to get out the gas can and torch just yet, but I have a very strong suspicion that the gameplay I went through in the first hour is going to be washed, rinsed and repeated until the end of the game. Go here, get X item, go back, and kill gross-looking aliens in every hallway on the trip.
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The graphics are beautiful and I really like the way the developers implemented a few things like the holograms taking the place of menu screens, and the way you can instantly get back on the correct path when lost by clicking the R stick, but there's a lot here that's janky.

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For example, why do the aliens always drop money or ammunition? Going further, why do I need to worry about either? If we're so advanced in Dead Space’s reality, can’t we come up with guns that don't run out of ammunition every five minutes? And who in the world thought implementing a money/store system was a good fit for this title? You're supposed to be playing the role of a space engineer in a giant ship taken over by aliens… wouldn’t it make a little more sense to simply find the items or craft them yourself? I mean, a store? Really?!?
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Other things are giving me a warning sign as well, like the fact that the main character is a silent protagonist. To any developer out there who still thinks this is a good idea: IT’S NOT. What it is, is silly, completely unbelievable, and ridiculous. The story doesn't seem to be any great shakes, either, and there are tons of cliché sci-fi elements are on display… and I'm still at the very beginning of the game.
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I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I have to say that the game isn’t getting off to the greatest start.
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Games: In a completely shameless bit of PR, can you guess what upcoming game I'm completely geeked over?
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Shipping 12/9, Persona 4 will come with a soundtrack CD, and people who pre-order will receive an art book by my second favorite artist in the series, Shigenori Soejima. (Sorry Shig… you do indeed rock, but Kaneko’s the man.) If you have even the faintest interest in quality RPGs, this is your wake-up call to not miss out.
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I got an e-mail out of the blue this afternoon inviting me to download the Home Beta and "join in a celebration" between 6pm-8pm, Pacific. After being less than impressed with the New Xbox Experience, I was ready to get an up-close look at what Sony has to counter with, so I did just that.

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After downloading, I was prompted to create an avatar. Evidently, avatars are the new hot thing and with Sony's addition, each of the big three consoles now sports their own version. Initially the creation options seemed like they were going to be deeper than the 360's, but after just a minute or two, I started feeling just as limited. The best I could do was to put together a nondescript-looking dude with a fauxhawk and some earphones that you'd expect to see walking down the sidewalk in Liberty City.

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Listen up, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony: When gamers create avatars, our first inclination is not to re-create an exact likeness of ourselves-- what we want to do is to go friggin' crazy. The more outlandish and bizarre options, the better. Going further, being something that isn't even human would be a huge plus. Big demon horns? Dog heads? Chicks in skimpy bathing suits?Hello??

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But I digress...

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Anyway, I took my Joe Blow into my seaside studio apartment and took in the view. There were many options for various things like furniture and wallpaper, but almost none of the features were active. The only thing I could install was a bubble blower, and it didn't keep me busy for long.

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With a few minutes to go before 6pm, I went for a spin around the central gathering area and checked out the "Mall", "Bowling Alley", and "Theater". Everywhere I went, there were small clusters of people typing out brief messages via their D-Pads and displayed in small balloons over their heads. I assume that headset functionality will be enabled for speech, but I don't have one and no one I encountered seemed to have one, either. Needless to say, conversation was not happenin'.

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The mall was another empty locale, the few storefronts having no goods for sale. Nothing to do there but stand around. The theater was little better, modeled to resemble a movie theater, and there was a short clip of the latest Socom looping on the screen. I could sit my avatar down and watch it, but I don't see why I'd really want to pretend I was in a theater when I'd much rather pick a video of my choice from a menu, save time, and skip the pretense.
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Finally, there was a little action happening in the bowling alley. Several people were tossing some balls, and there were some pool tables up against the back wall. After walking into the play area, I was asked whether or not I wanted to participate in a game, and I did. Very rudimentary and minigame-ish, and there was nothing special about it, save for the fact that there were other live people playing it with me. Going through the motions got old, fast, so I headed back out to the central gathering place to see what this "celebration" Sony mentioned was all about.
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More clusters of other users were gathering, and a few people pecked out some "where's the party?" type messages. With nothing else to do, some players started standing in groups and "dancing" (nothing in the world looks as hopelessly pathetic as this), while others just sat down and waited, virtually. I sat down, too.
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We waited.
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Then we waited.
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After that, we waited some more.
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By 6:40, I had had more than enough, and I decided to get back to Live and start actually playing something, instead of just standing around watching people type text fragments aimlessly as they tell each other they're bored. It's pretty bad form to invite people to an event and then not show up and have no event, Sony... that was, perhaps, not the best way to start things off.
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Long story short, being at Home was like being in any random third-person open-world game except that there was nothing whatsoever going on. I couldn't even jump off the nearest balcony when the tedium became too much.
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Virtual environments are nothing new and although I realize this was just a Beta and that not all of the features and functionality were there, I don't really imagine myself going back often to spend time in a pretend space without anything to occupy my time except looking at Sony advertising and milling around with people I don't know. Maybe Home will hook some people, but I've got better things to do with my time, I think.
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Games: Quick update... I just got my Home beta code and I'll be trying it out for the first time tonight. Impressions to come.
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