Whelp.

As I was reading through today's blogs on CAG, I stumbled upon BlueSwim's entry about the 1Up tech room being flooded out. While that may have caught my eye - being very big on 1Up's podcasts, what really socked me in the gut was the fact that Jeff Green is departing 1Up for a gig at EA under the Sims franchise.

As those who follow my blog know, I am a huge, huge fan of GFW radio and its crew in general. Hell, I even gave it awards for Funniest Podcast and Best Podcast (link). The rapartee between Jeff and Shawn Elliot is the stuff of legend.

As a younger lad, I occasionally picked up a copy of Computer Gaming World to check out the new tidbits on games like Daggerfall and the Ultima franchise. It wasn't until two years ago when CGW attempted to abolish the review ratings system when I became a full-fledged fan. This was also around the time when I discovered a little column called "Greenspeak". Here, Jeff Green wrote some...

This review will probably be short, since this is a fairly simple game.

When I first started browsing through the Apple App Store, I thought to myself, "Finally! I can get some deep gaming going without having to lug my DS around!" After some Phonesabr'ing and UrbanSpooning, I looked specifically for some games. I picked up Aurora Feint and Tap Tap Revenge (both of which are good in their own rights), but a couple weeks ago I downloaded a game called Cube Runner.

This is, without a doubt, the first real killer app for the iPhone. Remember when you first bought the Xbox 360 and the only game you played for four months was Geometry Wars? This is the iPhone's GeoWars, and it's free!

The game has simple mechanics: use the built-in accelerometer to steer your triangle-thing forward dodging cubes. Along the way, you build up a score to compete with your own hi-score. However, you end up going into a Zen-like mode that I can only relate...

Reposted from my blog from February 6, 2008.

This is a letter from my attorney Ms. Treehouse Lawyer:

Quote: To Portal: You are hereby subpoenaed to appear in court in the case of Portal v. Gamer. My client, Mr. T. H. Gamer, claims that you have committed an act of perjury involving a cake and the contract killing of a Mr. C. Cube. We also have irrefutable evidence of an attempted murder of my client via proxy by a Ms. G. Dos. My client has filed for a lawsuit for the sum of: 1 cake Failure to appear in court will result in further legal action. Signed, T.H. Lawyer

As you can see, this is a serious matter.

Reposted from my blog from February 6, 2008.

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

It was nice spending some time with you. You know, you're not as bad as most people say.

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

I can only take you in short doses. Any more than that, and I think that our relationship may go downhill.

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

It was so fun just running around with you! You've shown me things that I've never seen before!

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

You're kind've shallow. All you like to do is kill people. That's not nice.

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

You know those informants with the flags? Yeah, those guys were great!

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

I don't think we can see each other any more. It's like all you want to do is kill kill kill.

Hi, Assassin's Creed,

I still love the freedom with you. Just climbing...

Reposted from my blog from February 05, 2008.

Oh, Mass Effect.
You keep me up so late at night that I ignore my day-to-day jobs. You whisper sweet things to me, and you make me feel like I'm in control of my destiny.

Everyone seems to see me as some sort of rebel or renegade, but I know that you see me as a true hero. I'm the hero everyone needs whether they think they do or not. I get the job done by any means.

I know that recently some people have tried to tarnish your name, but I am unfazed. You're still the same delight to take on nightly walks in the Citadel.

And I forgive you for the Mako.

Love,
Mr. Gamer

I listen to a lot of podcasts. A LOT OF THEM. I listen and watch podcasts while I'm at work, while I'm driving and several hours after my wife goes to bed.

Originally, I wanted to individually review each podcast, but that is just way too unreasonable. Instead, I have written mid-year awards for several podcasts in different categories. This write-up is part waving my opinion, but it's mostly to share with you CAGsters a broader choice of podcasts. Please, if you have any shows that you listen to, post them in the comments.

And heeeere we go:

Best Non-Gaming Podcast

Winner:

Wine Library TV (www.winelibrarytv.com)

I enjoy a nice glass of wine. Hell, my job consists of a lot of wine tasting. If you enjoy wine or have ever wondered what the hub-bub is all about, I strongly encourage you to check out Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV aka The Thunder Show - The Internet's Most Passionate Wine Tasting Program....

Just got through listening to the Gamers with Jobs podcast, and they were posed with an interesting question: can you name a game that evoked a strong emotional response?

They of course mentioned the Bioshock climax and FF7 moment, but my answer actually comes from a rather unlikely source. To my recollection, the only game to ever sock me in the gut is a little title called Elite Beat Agents. Once you make it to the "You're My Inspiration" stage, your perspective totally changes of the game.

Was anyone else impacted by this stage?

What other games had powerful emotional moments for you?

Is it just me, or does playing Bionic Commando ReArmed make me want to clean my glasses every twenty seconds?

Remember when N64 games had that Vaseline smudge on their textures? Imagine that, but apply it to the whole screen.

Oh well, so far XBLA's Summer of Arcade is 1/3 for me (Braid is too expensive, but GeoWars 2 rocked my face off).

Last night, I finished the ninth and final volume of the Preacher graphic novel series.

I originally started the series in early June upon recommendation by Shawn Elliot and Jeff Green of 1Up and GFW Radio.

This is the first epic graphic novel series that I've ever completed reading. There will probably be spoilers in this review, so scroll to the next blog on the roll.

When I first opened volume one, I didn't know what to expect. This is compunded with this crazy story that begins en media res featuring hired assassins, a vampire and a reverend. I was enthralled by this volume, and the pace was kept up decently throughout the series.

While reading these novels, I kept myself guessing questions at all angles. How would I use the power of Genesis? Being a relatively "good" person, I still feel as if my morals would be tested.

In the end, I felt the story as an ultimate redemption story for both...

Just got through listening to the OXM podcast, and my mailbag question showed up on the air.

Mine was the one about Dan Americk being in NBA Jam/Hangtime.

Sweet.

So, I've been having some problems with my iPhone 3G. It seems, periodically, running an intensive website on the Safari browser will kick me back to the Home screen. I wouldn't be too worried, but I also have the same problem with many of the iPhone apps that I have.

So far, the only apps that still work properly are Tap Tap Revenge, UrbanSpoon and (sometimes) iPint. However, many of my apps like Shazam, Aurora Feint, PhoneSabr and freaking More Cowbell will boot me back to the Home screen. I've heard of someone else having this problem. I was wondering if this was a common occurence or is my iPhone Shaq-Fu'd?

Today, I got my hands on an import copy of Korg DS-10. Played it for a few hours before my DS crapped out. Here are my thoughts.

Now, I'm not an awesomely musically talented fellow, but this program rocks. There are so many little options, it's almost on the verge of ridiculous. Most of my time was spent on the Kaoss scratchboard and virtual drumset. The drumset isn't very intuitive at all - I fault this in the DS not offering multi-touch capability (iPhone version, please?) - but the scratchboard is totally fun. After laying down a simple drum pattern, freestyling on the scratchboard is almost thrilling. I can't wait to test this out on multiplayer and really jam out.

So far, the only fault in this program is some slight limiting problems. You can seemingly only create a string of sixteen patterns with each pattern contain of two synth tracks and a drum track. You are still able to pull off some killer stuff, but I think having a third synth track would be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_19qySUrzY
Troopers three (Go!)
Virtual reality

My wife decided to remind me about this show. Even as a kid, I knew that shit was whack.

Now, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was the shizzle. Thank you YouTube for keeping my childhood memories awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZjmiTpB5U

I've recently gone crazy over buying some paperback trades. I haven't read comics in over ten years, but, in anticipation for Dark Knight, I went buck wild during June and so far this month. Here's a rundown of what I've picked up:

Batman

Batman: Year One, The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, Dark Knight Returns, Arkham Asylum

Loved, loved, loved all five of these. I've been thinking about picking up Dark Victory and the sequel to DKR, but I've heard they weren't as hot.

Superman

Superman for All Seasons, Kingdom Come

Picked up the first one because I really dug Sale and Loeb's work from Long Halloween - Really quality work. Kingdom Come's artwork is stellar - does anyone know if the Alex Ross Marvel book is any good?

Spider-man

Ultimate Spider-man volumes 1-5

These are fun reads, but they're so freaking short. I think I'm just going to read the rest of them...

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36746.html

It's like being shown absolutely nothing, yet everything that I've ever wanted. 10/10.

Awesome.

A little bored, so I broke apart how I created my Joker image. I'm documenting this process after I created the image, so there's going to be some steps that I've skipped.

Tools used:

Cell phone camera
GIMP 2
Steady hand

GIMP's good, free imaging software - especially if you don't want to pirate PhotoShop.

First, I created my background. I went for a crooked comic panel with a green to purple gradient. I blended the inner edge to give it a more hand-drawn appearance.

Next, I pulled a picture of myself that I did ages ago. I like using black and white photos since finding lines and shading is easier.


...

... At the Apple store, and I forgot to take a picture with my new 3G. Doh. The guy is crazy tall.

I recognize that I may be an anomaly, but, in general, I'm pretty excited about setting up my little virtual apartment in the upcoming PS3 Home. It's a neat little spin on online social networking, and it offers something fresh and different for all console owners. All of this and it's free to boot!

With that said, there are some key concepts that Home needs to knock out of the park to be successful (some of these I know will be featured in the final release, but they are so imperative that Sony needs to absolutely nail them):

1. Open up customization options for avatars. So far, most previews have stated that the current avatar system is very lackluster in terms of options. Too soon you'll find twins, triplets, and entire races built upon the same facial architecture schematics. With a more freeform slider design akin to Tiger Woods or the WWE Smackdown series, more people would play with more reasonable facsimiles of themselves. Heck, the ability to...

I was driving home from work yesterday and thought about this question:

What games do you play that aren't fun?

Now, I'm not asking you what games you think are bad; I'm asking what games do you continually enjoy playing even though they're not fun.

For instance, I'm a fairly avid Sims 2 fan. However, I can't remember a single moment where I made a fist pump after a "Woohoo!" session. Quite simply, the game is WORK. However, I still enjoy playing it and will be picking up Sims 3 upon release.