Reviews

Finding the Funny – Penny-Arcade

For those of you who don’t know what Penny-Arcade is, you’re missing out.  Penny-Arcade is a gaming related comic, touching on topics from Ubisoft’s new (and some would say idiotic) DRM, to Dungeons and Dragons, to social commentary to Star Wars.  They publish comics three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, along with a blog which relates to the comic.  Unfortunately, as is the case with XKCD, sometimes I am just oblivious to the joke.  Fortunately, however, they are not in the same physics and science humor section.

The comic’s creators are represented by characters withing the comic, Jerry Holkins (“Tycho”, and the written genius) and by Mike Krahulik (“Gabe” and the artistic genius).  While I never met either of them, I do know someone who knows someone who said they know them, so I feel like we’ve met.  While I do enjoy their comic, they have really earned my respect through their Child’s Play charity.  According to wikiepedia they’ve raised over 6 MILLION dollars in cash and gifts for children hospital’s.  That’s amazing.

So, on top of being gut-busting hilarious at times, they are also damned serious about helping kids.  What isn’t there to love?

Finding the Funny – SMBC

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (www.smbc-comics.com)  unfortunately not Count Chokula…  It’s another funny webcomic!  Ok, it’s also a delicious breakfast food, at least when combined with milk and hopefully not Captain Crunch, which is basically like eating flavored razor blades (link goes to testimonial).

The comic is really funny, and covers topics such as :

The Bible -(One , Two , Three) ,Teen Pregnancy,College ,Mythology,Fairy Tales,Sex Educatio, Science, and more Science , and Porno Collections (SFW).

It is run by Zach Weiner, someone with significantly more artistic and comedic ability than me.See?  So go get yourself some Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and start your everyday off right.

Finding the Funny – XKCD

XKCD

This week on Finding the Funny : XKCD.  I have no idea what it means.. not even Wikipedia knows what XKCD means.  Well, “the comic’s name has no particular significance and is simply a four-letter word without a phonetic pronunciation”, is the best we get.  I’ve had loads of fun trying to pronounce “xkcd” (ex-kud?.. ex-kac-ed?…).

XKCD has been keeping me amused for a good long while now.  While painfully aware of the scientific humor on the site, or, more accurately, painfully aware at my lack of understanding said scientific humor of many of the panels, overall this comic is great.  In the middle of a science joke he’ll toss in something (like the electric eel and other funny stuff in his electrical diagram, do they really use those?…)

At other times the science is used in a more.. touching.. manner.  I mean, comeon, how sweetis that?  Have YOU ever slowed the rotation of the Earth just to spend more time with someone?  Or, in Superman’s case, to stop someone’s death?  I sure haven’t…

The last thing I’ll bring up is the alt-text associated with the strips.  If you hover over them you’ll get a little bonus text… This usually helps illuminate the joke (if you’re scientifically dis-inclined like myself).  Personally I feel a bit embarassed because I didn’t know about this until a friend mentioned it a good year or two into reading XKCD… after that the strips made a LOT more sense.

So there you go, check out XKCD for some funny, enlightening, sometimes confusing, heartwarming and all around good comics.

Finding the Funny – The Oatmeal

The Internet is a big and scary place.  Zombie’s, viruses, and naked people prowl it’s streets.  Fortunately there are sites like “The Oatmeal” which help to mitigate the otherwise frightening and not-funny wilderness.  Well, maybe not so much a wilderness as an endless series of tubes. 

First up on his hilarity.  “How everything goes to hell during a Zombie Apocolypse”.  It pretty much covers all the bases.  Including crazy scientists “I know, lets mix rabies with this old meatloaf and feed it to this gorilla!”, the right thing to do when confronted with a zombie (shoot the head and not the chest, head shots are the very best). 

Next he illuminates us on the subject of coffee.  He gives us “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee”.  Personally, the only thing I need to know about coffee is that it’s delicious.  Well, that and to stay away from the Pike’s Place roast from Starbucks.  Back to the funny though.  By far the most amusing this about it (and almost all of the other comics on this site) are the illustrations.  I don’t know if it’s the lack of pupils on the characters or what, but I find it highly humorous.  (Closely related to “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee” is “The 5 Phases of Caffiene Intake”.) 

“17 Things Worth Knowing About your Cat” is another informative poster, this time about kitties (cats are not amused by cupcakes… really? comeon.. I’m sure they’ll at least try and bat it around or something… mine would). 

There are also several comics on the proper use of various punctuation marks.  The noble apostrophe, the odd semi-colon are covered.  I don’t know about you, but I have never really learned how to use those things.  I know they’re on my keyboard for some reason, but I’m only 50% sure when I should apply them. 

The layout of the site makes it rather simple to find a comic… either click on one of the rectangles with a tagline in it, or click on “Comic” at the top… can’t get simpler than that.  (If my crappy Clear Internet service were any better I would be able to find more examples).  There are also some amusing quizzes to take, from How many hungry weasels could your body feed? (how did he fact check this?)to How long could you survive won the surface of the sun? (I’m pretty sure the answer is zero… I’m thinkin you’d burn up well before you got anywhere near that ball of fire), to How addicted to Facebook are you? (not very… I only sign on 10 times a day). 

This is definitely a comic site you should check out.  Lots of variety and funny visuals paired with somewhat useful and amusing information.  Plus, it looks like there’s a book deal coming up soon, so you can even read when the intertubes are full of bets and pornography. 

Andy’s Movie Review of the Week (6)

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (movies and movie stuff), 2008 was a pretty good year for filmmaking.  The 2009 Academy Awards was full of strong contenders in several categories, and many competitions for coveted Oscars were close races.  There was so much Oscar buzz, in fact, that for this year’s awards the Academy upped the number of best picture nominees from 5 to 10, something which hasn’t been done in over 60 years.

One of the most talked-about movies up for recognition in last year’s awards ceremony was Doubt, a film by John Patrick Shanley, adapted from a play he wrote in 2004 called Doubt: A Parable.  The story takes place in a Catholic school in the 1960s Bronx, and follows the school’s principal, a nun by the name of Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep in the film), as she investigates whether or not a new parish priest has been molesting a male student.  The subject matter is certainly timely, given the Church’s recent and ongoing molestation cover-up scandal, and this good timing is undoubtedly (no pun intended) one of the main factors in the popularity of both the play and the movie.

The film was nominated five times for four Oscars (twice for Best Supporting Actress), although it didn’t win in any category.  The play on which the movie was based, however, won several awards, including a Tony for best play and a Pulitzer prize for drama.  As a matter of fact, the play won a ton of awards, waaayyy more than its movie adaptation.  Here’s a list (thanks Wikipedia):

• Drama Desk Award for Best New Play
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Play (Brían F. O’Byrne)
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play (Cherry Jones)
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Adriane Lenox)
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play (Doug Hughes)
• Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play
• New York Drama Critics’ Circle Best Play
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Tony Award for Best Play
• Tony Award Best Actress in a Play (Jones)
• Tony Award Best Featured Actress in a Play (Lenox)
• Tony Award Best Direction of a Play (Hughes)
• Theatre World Award (Heather Goldenhersh)

While the film failed to win any of the Academy Awards for which it was nominated, it did win several other, less publicized awards.  However, out of its nine total wins, five went to Meryl Streep (for Best Actress or some variation thereof), and three went to Viola Davis (for supporting actress, although she was only in the movie for about five minutes, it seemed like).  That’s 8/9 awards the movie won going to just two actresses.  This disparity between the outstanding reception of the play and the lukewarm critical recognition of the movie adaptation should have sent my Spider Sense a-tingling, but unfortunately I didn’t do most of this research until after I had already watched the film.

Not that the film was terrible.  I liked Philip Seymour Hoffman as the questionable priest, and I enjoyed the story, or at least the idea of the story.  I’m sure if I had seen the theatrical version I would have raved about it.  However, watching the movie I almost felt like I was seeing a play – and what works in one medium doesn’t necessarily work in another.  Meryl Streep’s performance, in particular – yes, the one which garnered her half a dozen awards – was bizarre.  It seemed too quirky, too amateur.  It was over-the-top and theatrical.  I think her style would have worked on the stage, but in a film it was just plain cheesy.  Same with the writing!  The play won a Pulitzer, a fact I could barely believe after seeing the film – like I said, what works in one medium just might not be adaptable to another.  A lot of the lines in the movie seemed silly, especially several delivered by Streep in her melodramatic way.  When she starts to cry at the end of the film and confesses to Amy Adams “I have doubts!  I have such… doubts!” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and search for the remote.

You can do so much in a film that you can’t achieve on the stage – a greater sense of immersion, or realism, if that’s what you’re going for.  I think that for a story like this one, that should have been the direction to take it.  But Shanley kept a very theatrical feel to the film which was strange and off-putting, to me at least.  So much could have been done, but wasn’t.  There were a ton of missed opportunities here, all because the cast and crew failed to think outside the box and make a movie, as an entity separate from its original incarnation on-stage.

All in all, it wasn’t great.  But it wasn’t really bad, either.  It may have left a strange taste in my mouth, so to speak, but there were elements of the story and of several of the performances which I found enjoyable.  If it’s still touring somewhere, I’d say seek out the play.  If not, the movie is worth seeing, as long as your expectations aren’t too high – as I fear mine were at the beginning.  ***/*****

Modern Warfare

Modern Warfare, while maybe not as modern as it’s more recent sibling, Modern Warfare 2, is still a great game.  The single-player campaign is quite challenging (some say too short, but they’re either really good at it or haven’t played it on Veteren…), and the multiplayer offers players the opportunity to customize their character to their play style and gives you hours days of gameplay (albeit with 12 year olds).

Single Player :

The single player campaign is fun, involving and challenging (at least on Hardened and Veteran.  I have yet to try the easy setting, I wonder if it “plays itself” like Halo 3 does.. they’re almost right!  We got through the first several missions just meleeing guys to death, it’s great!).  Several missions left me uttering streams of obscenities for what seemed like hours (I think it actually WAS hours) at how hard they were (seriously, the dogs are a pain in the ass, trust me.. they’re so tricky you get 20 Acheivement Points if you manage to melee one to death).  Even then I only escaped some by the skin of my teeth.  If you get shot more than once, or sometimes less than once, means instant death.  Crouching and going prone can help… or make you even more of a target.  Jumping behind cover helps unless the bullets go through your cover.  They’re great at going through buses, trees, walls, wooden fences, the guy in front of you, windows, cinder blocks.. basically everything.  This does make for some great kills through walls as you fire randomly while running away crying like a little girl.

The plot follows two characters, “Soap” MacTavish (even your buddies think that nickname is odd) with the British SAS, or Paul Jackson with USMC.  Most of the missions take place in the present, although there are a few flashback missions (including the fun, but hellishly difficult, “Ghillies in the Mist”).  Each mission provides you with several objective that you must complete.  Fortunately the HUD has a compass which points you towards the next objective, and your squad-mates will move towards it with you.  In addition to the main objectives of each mission, you can also find up to 30 pieces of “Enemy Intelligence” or some such scattered throughout the levels.  (They all look like the same laptop, which leaves me wondering how it’s “Intelligence”.)  The only things I find objectionable to the single-player campaign more are the lack of a co-op mode and the fact that your NPC squad-mates cannot die.  You can shoot in them in the face and nothing happens (although repeatedly attacking them will cause you to fail the mission “Friendly Fire is not tolerated”.).

The overall gameplay is good, somewhere between a movie and a videogame.  All of the missions serve to build the plot line, with several cinematic cut scenes to give you more background on the plot.  It is easy to get absorbed in the plot, which, when combined with the gameplay, makes this really hard to put down.

Multiplayer :

The Multiplayer is fun!  It usually doesn’t take more than a bullet or two to kill you (much like the single player).  The most frustrating thing about it is when you think the person you’re shooting at / throwing grenades at / stabbing doesn’t die and then kills you.  Fortunately this works both ways, and sometimes you go all Matrix on someone for no apparent reason.

The Multiplayer maps are very well designed, there are no perfect sniper nests, almost every room has two or more entrances, making them almost impossible to defend by yourself (if you’re a high enough level you can place claymores, but that won’t stop everyone..).  Also, you can get shot through the floor/wall/ceilings, so nowhere is really safe.  That said, snipers can find loads of places to hide out and pick off their hapless victims.

Each class (Assault, Special Ops, Heavy Weapons, Demolition, Sniper) has an array of weapons it can choose from.  They are all variations on a theme, but each one has slightly different attributes.  Some shoot faster, or further, or have more ammo than others.  This gives the player a lot of customization options depending on playing style.  In addition to various weapons players have a selection of “Perks”, that give them additional grenades, make reloading quicker, or increase their accuracy.  The catch here is they are split into three categories and you can only have one of each (you can’t, for instance, sprint super far AND hold your breath longer for some reason..)

Unfortunately you have to unlock all of the above, with the exception of the basic starting weapons.  Players need to level up by completing objectives (get 15 kills which crouching, blow up 10 cars, with 5 matches etc), or get kills.  It does add a nice reward to all of your hard “work”.

Teamwork is pretty much required to be successful in Multiplayer.  Snipers are semi-useless at close range, while special ops (using sub-machine guns) are equally useless at range.  Given the atmosphere on X-Box Live this can make matches very, very frustrating.  (All of your 12 year old teammates get stuck in a “your mamma” loop while you’re vainly trying to do something).  Fortunately the game mixes up the teams every match so you’re in groups with different people each time.

Overall this is a great game.  While maybe not as… modern… as it’s older cousin, Modern Warfare 2, it is still quite entertaining and provides hours, if not days, of distraction.

If you’re looking for more info on Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare, check out :

Wikipedia’s Entry

Infinity Ward, the creators of the Call of Duty games.

Callofduty.com, the home of Call of Duty

Gamespot’s review of Modern Warfare

IGN’s review of Modern Warfare

Two Games, One (Grand Prix) Cup

This week, two kart racing games enter, but only one can leave. It’s time for a cartridge cage match… A sixty-four bit showdown… A Nintendo… knife fight? That’s enough alliteration for 9:00 on a Saturday morning.

In this corner: Our reigning champion, having sold over nine million copies worldwide, its titular character appearing in over 200 video game titles since 1981… the Red Menace… the King of Kart Racing….

MARIO KART 64

And in this corner: Our challenger, a spin-off of a spin-off, never having achieved quite the popularity of our champion despite selling almost a million copies in two weeks before Christmas 1997…

DIDDY KONG RACING 64

Both games featured cutting edge graphics, both were for the Nintendo 64, and both came out in 1997. Because Mario Kart hit shelves first, however, and because the N64 Mario Kart was a remake of an SNES game with the same name, people had more time to get used to it, and grow accustomed to the cutesy go-kart racing style. When Diddy Kong Racing arrived in November, nearly nine months after Mario Kart 64 dropped in North America, nearly everyone saw it as a cheap knock-off. However… I will attempt to make the case that Diddy Kong Racing is the superior game. If Mario Kart is Cheers, Diddy Kong Racing is a show about Norm’s long lost son Billy who happens to own a bar. And that bar is better than Cheers. I know I won’t convert the die-hard Mario Kart fans, but let’s look at the facts.

1. Diddy Kong Racing has an Adventure mode.

Sure, it’s a racing game, but in addition to all of the race tracks available in multiplayer mode, Diddy Kong racing also features a single-player Story mode. All the tracks available on multiplayer are also unlockable or discoverable in the Single Player adventure, and the adventure mode also features several extras, such as difficult races against several “Bosses,” quests to find and collect items on the various race tracks, and somewhat non-linear world design which encourages exploration. Granted, the story is geared towards eight year-olds, and the world is fairly limited, due to the fact that most of the game’s memory went into the racing gameplay, but I don’t see Mario Kart having an Adventure option.

2. Diddy Kong’s Power-ups Aren’t Based on Race Position

In both games, there are items strewn about the various race tracks which your racer can pick up and use. Generally speaking, the different types of power-ups in one game serve a very similar purpose to their counterparts in the other, with some being unique to each. There are items you can pick up and shoot at other racers to slow them down, items you can activate to give yourself a speed boost, items you can drop behind you on the track to try and trip up your opponents, etc.

In Mario Kart, all the various power-ups come from little question-mark boxes placed in strategic locations around the courses. You never know quite what kind of item you’re going to get, and the quality of the power-ups you’ll receive depend on your place in the race. If you’re in first place when you drive over a power-up box, be prepared to groan as you consistently get shitty items. If you’re in dead last, get ready for lots of golden mushrooms (extremely powerful speed boosts), stars (speed boost + temporary invulnerability), blue shells (missiles that specifically target the guy in first place) and the like. Why does Mario Kart use this asinine Socialist reward system? My guess is that there are two reasons – (1) To make people who suck at the game feel better about themselves, and (2) Mario is a goddamn commie.

Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed the similarities before. Why do you think Mario wears red? For more proof, just do a Google image search for Stalin Mario, like I did. Goddamn I love the internet.

In Diddy Kong racing, you know what power-ups you’re getting. Red balloons will always give you missiles. Blue balloons will always give you speed boosts. In total, there are 5 categories of useful items, and if you hold on to an item received from one balloon type and drive over that same color of balloon again, it will “power-up” your item. Each type of item can be powered up twice, meaning each category has 3 levels of strength, for a total of 15 items you can use to get ahead of the other racers. Because they’re not randomized like in Mario Kart, you can strategize appropriately, and because the quality of the item doesn’t increase the worse you’re doing, it forces you to actually actively improve your gameplay rather than count on charity-based handouts.

3. Diddy Kong Racing has More Tracks

It’s time for some math. Mario Kart 64 has four “Cups” you can race for, and each “Cup” features a set of race tracks on which to play. In addition, the game has an unlockable “Battle Mode” with its own set of tracks where you and other racers can go head-to-head in a competition to be the last kart standing. Each “Cup” has 4 tracks, for a total of 16 normal race courses, and in addition there are 4 courses specifically for the Battle Mode game type. It is also possible to unlock “mirrored” or “flipped” versions of the original 16 race tracks, giving us a grand total of 16 + 16 + 4 = 36 tracks

Diddy Kong Racing features 25 normal race tracks, available in both Single Player Adventure and Multiplayer modes. As in Mario Kart, you can also unlock mirror-image versions of each of these tracks. There are also 4 “Battle Mode” style tracks. This gives us a total of 25 +25 + 4 = 54 tracks available for Single or Multiplayer. In addition, because Diddy Kong has an Adventure mode which Mario Kart lacks, the game also features 6 Boss tracks + 6 mirrored versions of these Boss tracks, or 66 total Single Player courses. Both of these numbers, you’ll notice, are higher than 36.

4. Diddy Kong Racing has More Vehicles

Although both Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing are essentially similar go-kart racing games, we’ve already seen that the latter has several features not found in the former. Not only is there an entire extra game mode, there are more tracks on which you and your friends can play. One of the biggest disparities between the two games, however, is the fact that Diddy Kong Racing far exceeds our kart-racing expectations by giving us an additional two vehicle types we can race in: A hovercraft and an airplane! Not every track supports all three vehicles, but most tracks allow you to choose between at least two of these, and probably 50% or more give you the option of using any one of the three.

Total vehicle types in Mario Kart = 1 (kart)
Total vehicle types in Diddy Kong = 3 (kart, hovercraft, plane)

If you count each track + vehicle combination as a separate race course experience, that brings the total number of playable courses in Diddy Kong to well over 100. I don’t even want to do the math.

5. Diddy Kong Racing has More of… Well, Everything Else

Diddy Kong Racing features more playable characters than Mario Kart. Both start out letting you choose between 8 playable racers, but Diddy Kong has two extra characters which can be unlocked during the course of play. Ten is more than eight.

Diddy Kong Racing has more multiplayer-friendly cheat codes than Mario Kart 64.

Diddy Kong (in my opinion) has better music, better graphics, and smoother gameplay than Mario Kart 64.

What is Mario Kart left with, in the end? Nostalgia? More familiar characters? The fact of the matter is, when all is said and done, it can’t stand up. And I’m not a Mario Kart hater! I love Mario Kart 64 – it’s a great game! However, if you haven’t given Diddy Kong Racing a chance – pick it up. It’s even better.

Mario Kart is down for the count! The title of Champion, and our Grand Prix cup, go to the spin-off of a spin-off.

Heavy Rain

I got to watch Heavy Rain earlier, and it looks like an interesting game.  The name does not allude to nuclear fallout (like heavy water), but rather to the fact that it rains, a LOT in this world.  I got a quick overview of the plot line, then got sucked into the rest of the story.  Basically one of your kids has been killed, and the other has been kidnapped by the Origami Killer, a murderer who leaves pieces of origami after he has killed.  The game is mostly played in third person, you interact with objects and people via action buttons.  Mostly specific tasks only have one option, but for others, such as talking to people, you get several.  Different actions require multiple button presses (opening a heavy door), others just a tap (picking something up), and others require moving the controller (such as cutting off your own finger… yes, it’s rather graphic and bloody).  Unlike many video games your actions have a consequence in the game, main character can die, and the plot line can change.

What surprised me about the game is that it isn’t play so much as a video game, but rather as an interactive movie.  Rather than calling it just a video game the developer, Quantic Dream, bills the game as “an interactive drama video game”.  You only have so long to find your son, as the Origami Killer enjoys drowning his victims by leaving them in a vat and letting it fill with rainwater.  Instead of following one specific character throughout the movie you shift between them, going from the main character, to police officers, to friends, and back.  This gives you a very interesting view of the plot line, in a way similar to the movie Momento, if only because it’s a novel way of telling a story.  The graphics and storytelling also reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within.

Overall I’d say check this game out (at least if you own a PS3), it’s a novel way to look at games and the graphics are beautiful.  The plot seems to be in depth and engaging (if not a bit brutal), so sit down, get your gamer snacks, turn off the lights and enjoy the ride!

Game Review : Darksiders

Darksiders is a recent game (January of 2010) for the XBox360, that fills many voids in my current gaming world.  It offers a mix of  several other games that I love and somehow manages to do it all while not sucking. In addition to drawing from other games, Darksiders offers several other great features that make this a game worth playing.

First I’ll share what games I’ve found that make various appearances in Darksiders:

Zelda - The overall gameplay is very similar to Ocarina of Time.  Mainly you run around with a sword killing bad guys, solving puzzles and jumping.  The bosses hide out in different areas (ala Temples.. yes, there is a water temple), which makes for a varied game play experience as no area is the same.  The plot also loosely follows Zelda, first you need to rediscover yourself, then defeat some minor bosses, then beat down some big boss.  There’s also a Navi type character called the Watcher voiced by Luke Skywalker.. erm, Mark Hamill (yes, he’s still around!).  There’s even a horse… thank god you don’t have to race to win it!

The Diablo Series – I wish this had online content like Diablo, but alas, it is not so.  Instead we get inventory from Diablo.  Different weapon power ups that increase the weapon damage, or how fast the weapon gains experience (gems anyone?), potions (although Darksiders calls them something else)  that give you health or Wrath (basically mana for special abilities).  Many, if not all, of the bad guys are of some demonic origin.  Several of them are recognizable as demons or creatures (giant worms?  More like Dune I guess…) and several others are just plain weird (giant fat guy on fire for instance).

The Dynasty Warriors Series – General combat and movement is quite similar, enemies sometimes come charging from way off screen, others just pop into existence next to you.  At times this is quite predictable, other times it leads to some quite surprising encounters as enemies land on top of you and star wailing away.  Giant whirling attacks are also similar, which leads into the next game Darksiders share aspects with.

God of War series – When I first started playing Darksiders it felt like a ripoff of God of War.  First, the main character IS War, literally.  I guess this is a leg up on God of War where you’re not actually War, but some poor bastard who is bent on killing the god of war.  Combat sequences are very similar to GoW, with attacks stringing together in beautiful combination’s.  You can also level up your weapons, but through a different mechanic.

The plot to Darksiders is great.  You are War (as in the Four Horsemen).  The thing that surprised me is that it starts in modern day.  People are milling around Times Square (or some equivalent), and then meteors start crashing down and demons are crawling out.  Ok, not exactly modern times, but pretty close.  By this point you learn that Heaven and Hell were in constant conflict until the Charred Council forces a truce between them.  The first part of the game is basically you running around beating the snot out of demons and angels.  The angels show up to fight the demons, and you too for some reason.  Soon you learn that you were framed for the destruction of Humanity.  The rest of the game is you proving your innocence to the Charred Council.

Overall this is a great game, combining many of the things I enjoy from the above games and adding some of it’s own.  The various attack combination’s are great to watch (and execute), and the variety of weapons make those combination’s different with a simple button push.  Each of the main weapons has it’s own series of moves, which makes it all the more fun.  As the various weapons power up you are able to purchase new moves for them (no money in this world, instead you get souls from enemies you kill and chests you find lying around.  Blue souls are money, yellow are Wrath and green are health.  Different enemies give you different kinds and amounts of souls).  Many of the larger enemies have a special execution move (“b” button) that turns on when they’re close to death.  These are just plain fun (and horrifically bloody!) to watch.  These moves fit into your combination’s flawlessly so your combat isn’t broken up (you do get to watch the execution in bullet time).

There are several weapons that War uses, from his trusty sword, Chaosblade, to the Scythe (Grim Reaper style) to the Power Gauntlet.  Each weapon has it’s own series of attacks it uses when mashing various buttons (X for Chaosblade and Y for the other two).  These attacks get strung together into combo attacks that cut enemies to ribbons.  In addition to these three main weapons, War also finds various other “artifacts” throughout the game, from the Crossblade (aka boomerang) to the pistol (basically a revolver with unlimited ammo).  These weapons add functionality (some puzzles are impossible to solve without them) and fun to the game (running around on horseback shooting demons with a pistol is great).  You can also use what the game calls environmental weapons, which basically translates as anything lying around.  Chairs, cars, tables, rocks, whatever you see can generally be picked up and tossed at enemies.

The only downside I’ve found to this game so far is I get lost every so often.  There is a map function you can access (press select) which shows you the general area (you need to find the map in dungeons to get this), but it’s easy to ge turned around at times.  On the up-side Darksiders encourages exploration, and various power-ups and bonuses are scattered in random corners of the world.  It always pays to explore!

Darksiders is definitely a game you should check out if you enjoy tricky puzzles, engaging plot, challenging enemies, viscious weapons and crazy attack combination’s.  Or, if you just like a good time!

2012 – Disaster Porn

Last November’s 2012, the movie inspired by the supposed Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, came out on DVD this week.  Rob and I had a chance to see this film in the theater back  when it first came out, and as soon as we arrived home we turned on a tape recorder and started chatting about the movie.  I had all but forgotten about that conversation, but with the release of the DVD just two days ago, I figured I should finally get the transcript of our musings online.  Here is the full 25-minute conversation between Rob and myself regarding 2012, when it was still fresh in our minds: