Brave New World
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Books, Links
I need to read Brave New World immediately.
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html
Effing Hail
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Games, Links
I love this game, and it’s great with a mouse. But it would make an even more amazing iPhone game…
http://jiggmin.com/play_game.php?title=Effing+Hail
HOW DID I SURVIVE THIS LONG?
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Music
SERIOUSLY – how did I survive this long without hearing this Queen song? WHY AM I JUST NOW LEARNING ABOUT THIS SONG?!
Tags: grooveshark
Mountain Goats are Amazing (and Grooveshark is pretty cool too…)
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Music
If you haven’t heard of the Mountain Goats, then you are in for a real treat. I’ve been a huge fan since 2005. I actually heard about them from a girl I met during my interview with Microsoft while in Seattle. I picked up a few tracks off of Tallahassee from iTunes, and I’ve been in love ever since. John Darnielle is utterly stunning – the lyrics consistently blow me away. I mean, it’s poetry. The fact that it’s set to music is just icing on an already orgasmic cake. If there is one musician who deserves comparison to Dylan – it’s Darnielle. Anyway, my buddy Vlad recently discovered them, and so I thought it time to share the amazingness with the world at large.
Oh, and if you haven’t tried Grooveshark yet, give it a whirl. The music selection is surprisingly large, and being able to link friends directly to songs and embed them on the web is killer. The UI is a bit weird and awkward – but I assume it’ll evolve over time.
Tags: grooveshark
I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Music
I heard this on the radio the other day. Phenomenally awesome song. Indeed, I do like me so much better when you’re naked.
Tags: grooveshark
In Portland? Get Breakfast!
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Restaurant, Reviews
Seriously, the next time you’re in Portland, go to Sanborn’s [CitySearch] [Map] and get some breakfast. Freaking amazing food. Elizabeth and I went there last weekend during our trip down there. Despite the fact that we got lost (I blame our crummy GPS technology – or maybe it was the navigator? ;-) ), once we found it it lived up to the hype. Definitely get the biscuits – I am drooling right now just thinking about them… The pancakes and omelet’s were also very very good. It was busy, but service was decent.
We also went to Lucy’s Table [Map] for dinner, which I can also highly recommend. Excellent food and service, though it was a bit pricey. I’d liken it to Café Juanita in Kirkland in terms of quality and atmosphere.
Unfortunately, not all of our dining experiences in the City of Roses were good. Despite good reviews on CitySearch, the J&M Café [Map] left a lot to be desired. Not outright bad, but definitely nothing to write home about. Meh.
And also note that the only Sonic within 200 miles of Seattle is in a Portland suburb. Mmmmmm, so worth the drive.
God of War
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Games
Great game. The story was very cinematic. I liked how lots of the story elements were revealed over time, like why Kratos’ skin was white and where he got the blades of chaos. Very cool stuff. The combat was a lot of fun as well. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even use some of the combos and moves I could have.
The annoying gameplay mechanics I was worried about when I first started playing did rear their ugly heads in a couple of spots as I pressed through the game. Most notably, there were parts when I had to jump around and the camera angle would change mid-jump, making it tough to land in the right spot. And at the end of the game there were some super-annoying sections where I had to walk across thin platforms and climb these huge pillars with spinning knives. Frustrating.
There were definitely some innovative gameplay elements though, like the "finishing moves" for certain enemies. If I hadn’t already played Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, I think it would have seemed fresher. God of War definitely introduced this first, as far as I know.
Finally, the graphics were good, especially for a PS2 game. It doesn’t compare to Gears of War by any means, but considering the relative power of the PS2 compared to the 360, it’s incredible what the development team was able to do.
All in all, a great game. I am psyched about God of War II coming out soon. Hopefully within the next couple of months.
Tags: ps2
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Games
If you’ve played X-Men: legends, either the first or the second one, you have played Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The mechanics are basically the same, you just play with different characters from all over the Marvel universe. The story is pretty good, though comic-book-ish (well, what did you expect?), and there are some cool side-missions you can do that give you back-story on each of the characters.
The RPG elements are there, but it’s clear that this is aimed at players that are not hardcore about their RPGs. By default all of your leveling is done automatically, and I mean automatically. It chooses everything for you. You can opt out of this on a character by character basis, which seems annoying if you want to do it for every character, but in reality you settle on a half-dozen or so that you want to be OCD about and let the rest upgrade automatically.
Like X-Men Legends, the combat gets a bit old about halfway through the game. It’s pretty much just button-mashing and using special abilities every once in awhile. There’s some God of War-style cinematic moves every once in awhile, where you have to press buttons as they flash on screen in order to complete objectives, but other than that, it’s pretty straightforward.
I finished it just because I like comic books, easy games, and the story was interesting enough. Plus, there are some awesome rendered cut scenes. Specifically, there’s one with Nightcrawler that is incredible. Worth playing if you enjoyed X-Men Legends at all. If you didn’t get into X-Men Legends, it’s probably not interesting to you.
Tags: xbox360
Rizzy on the Wii
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Games
My pledge bro Craig "Rizzy" Rohe also has a Wii, and he sent me some mini-reviews on some games. Since he has no online presence (yet), I thought I’d post them. But before I do that, here’s what he has to say about getting online with the thing:
First, some bitching about Wii:
Up until 10 minutes ago, all I’ve ever done with the Wii is played games. Very easy, very fun. However, trying to use the internet connectivity and adding friends made me want to punch a little Japanese person in the face. Do they actually expect average people to be able to do this? I’m an embedded systems designer, and I was frustrated with it. Other than letting our Mii’s travel back and forth, is there even any benefit to doing it? Shame on you Nintendo.
Second, games only save to the internal Wii memory. If you want them on the SD card, you have to copy it over manually. Of course, you’d have to do that each time you play the game in order to keep the SD card up to date. It pretty much makes the $50 1G memory card I bought completely useless.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Wii online setup is pretty bad. I’m really surprised people are getting it to work without wanting to gouge their own eyes out with a spoon. As for me, I am still using it on my neighbor’s wireless because it won’t work on mine. And yes, I have changed to channels 1/11 on the router. Yes, I have followed all stupid suggestions in the forums and on the support site. Nintendo could take a few pointers from Microsoft in this particular part of the experience.
The SD thing seems strange. I haven’t tried to use an SD card yet, but it does seem odd that you can’t save games directly to it. This does seem like something Nintendo could fix change with a firmware update though.
Wii Sports – It’s ok. Fun little games to showcase the controller abilities. I’ve found tennis to be pretty fun with multiple people, and you can avoid the dreaded Wii tennis elbow once you learn that a skilled flick of the wrist will do just as much as a full blown swing. I brought my Wii home for Christmas, and since I have a zillion siblings we had continuously rotating doubles matches which were a blast.
Super Monkey Ball – I usually only play the mini games. Not as much fun as the versions for GameCube. I think they tried too hard to incorporate the motion control into the games, and many of them are just too touchy, or they should have put more time into making it fun. I guess they were pressed for time trying to get that one out for launch. There are a few that are pretty entertaining though.
Zelda: Twilight Princess – This game rocks. It’s hella fun to play. They used the motion sensors in moderation, which is good. The game itself is really fun – plenty of puzzles and tangent adventures to try out. I haven’t played any Zelda games since the one for 8-bit Nintendo, but I can still blindly say this is probably the best to date.
Excite Truck – So much fun my head almost exploded. It’s a very fast paced, physics defying game. There’s actually a lot of strategy needed for the more advanced tracks, but at the same time you can just pick a level and have fun doing 720’s at 1000 ft in the air and smashing through trees with power-ups. Definitely one of the best games I own.
Red Steel – I haven’t played this game very much. The reason? My damn arm gets tired. Another example of how not to design a game interface. I think it would be much better if I could play for more than 20 mins at a time, so my review may be biased. Basically, you are required to use the Wii-mote pointer continuously to aim and steer in the game. That’s not even too bad because you could rest your arm on your knee; then they thought up the great idea of requiring you to extend your arm towards the TV to zoom in/out. Combine all of that movement and you have to hold your arm straight out for extended periods of time during game play. Very annoying. Maybe I need to hit the gym.
Haven’t gotten into Twilight Princess yet myself. Elebits should be here from Gamefly this week, though in retrospect maybe I should have put Excite Truck at the top of my queue instead. Oh well, way too many awesome games these days to get to. I still work occasionally, you know.
Tags: wii
Now Playing: God of War
Posted by Tyler | Filed under Games
I’ve only played through a couple of hours, but this game is fun. The story is pretty engaging, the combat is rich, and the platform mechanics are pretty good. A minor gripe: no camera control. For the most part, it’s OK, but every once in awhile I’m behind an object and I want to change the camera angle just a bit, and I can’t. The right stick instead causes me to roll. It hasn’t driven me insane yet, and I hope it doesn’t by the end of the game. The other annoying thing is that you sometimes have to cross these really narrow ledges in the game, and because the camera is immobile, it can be tough sometimes. I’ve fallen more than I should have.
But these are minor issues; I definitely plan on finishing the game, which means it’s pretty good. :-)
Tags: ps2
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