Guh, it’s almost the end of a brutal Monday. I wish it was still Saturday night.

Because I went to 32-Bit Genocide, a video game music festival held annually in Baltimore! It was a blast! And to think it’s in this blogger’s hometown too! Cover bands like Year 200X stole the show for me personally, with heavy anthems of Journey to Silius, Lifeforce, the NES version of Ducktales (you read that correct, DUCKTALES.) and a Contra medley to finish it off. Cheap Dinosaurs was a one man digital melee, ripping the sound samples from a Gameboy cartridge to mix beats on the fly in a drum-and-bass-y style. Very, very cool performance, and about the most unique.

Other acts like The Megas, Ultraball & This Place Is Haunted brought more of the kind of gamer-meets-indy-rocker vibe that makes these shows so interesting. During those times, I was in the gallery hall to sample works by 2-D artists and craftmakers. The music acts got to graffiti the facing wall, while pretty much everyone with a working shoulder and chunk of chalk did their best. I got in the act too, dropping plenty of signature shooting game fanart. Oh yeah; Ironing bead art to the stars. You too, could have owned your very own Skull Castle.

Gotta say though, while not my cup of tea, The Protomen (one of the headline bands of the evening) impressed the heck out of me. They played hits from Queen, Kenny Loggins, a nice shift from the game-centric sound. Moreover, their stage presence, the way they handled rowdy crowds — by joining in the heady chaos(!), dealing with bum equipment; the Protomen just had a level of class that was really impressive, and one of the real highlights of the night.

In all, I had a great time — it helps that my raiding party consisted of webcomic artists, game industry heads and Mr. Magfest himself. Speaking of which, Magfest strikes at the start of 2009, so I’ll be covering that too! It’s not everyday one can plug into some Mike Tyson’s Punch Out or throw on Lifeforce (Konami Code & all) while the crowd is jumping to to a cover of The Legend of Zelda.

By all means, follow the links, find a show and enjoy!

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Greetings, Wheeled Warriors!

Just like a tagline from one of those classic, B-movie horror trailers of the ‘50s and ‘60s, I Survived Last Weekend’s Parental Invasion!

Dunh dunh duuuuuuuhn!

It was (almost) painless. One of the highlights of the weekend is that I got to finally play (at my dad’s request) Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3, a game I’ve had since I purchased it with my PS3 bundle, but haven’t had the chance to crack open yet.

And when I say I played MGS 4, what I really mean is that I attempted to play a game that continuously handed me my ass.

As you are all aware, the Metal Gear titles stand apart from other classic video game series that have endured since the bygone days of the NES.

What sets it apart? Ah, ever vigilant with the questions. You have an incredible thirst for knowledge. Don’t even pay attention to what the jerk next to you just said about you.

Whoa-hey! No need for fisticuffs, unless there’s money riding on it.

Ahem. Moving on…

What sets the Metal Gear series apart is that the player doesn’t just run through levels, guns blazing, blam-blam-thank-you-ma’am, taking out the bad guys, saving the world, and getting the girl. Okay, there is some of that, but is that the focus?

No.

In this game, you have to sneeeeeak around. And to help you with that, you have a camouflage suit, shadows to hide in, boxes and walls to hide behind, and the ability to mooooooove reeeeeeeal sloooooooow.

It’s more fun that it sounds. It’s also really frustrating. This is because the makers of the Metal Gear up the ante when it comes to the enemy AI. These guys respond to anything your character (Snake) does – footsteps, movement, knocking on walls, etc. If any of these things are spotted by the enemy, an alert goes off and a swarm of reinforcements are called in to test your allergic reaction to lead. This forces the player to run for his life, trying to find a place to hide until the alert gets called off, or to face his attackers and eat oblivion. And it’s even more intense with the newest installment.

When you’re succeeding at pulling off the stealthy, it’s kind of a rush. You’re in the zone! You’re a shadow! A wraith! None of these villainous yahoos have a frikkin’ clue where you are, what you are doing, or even that there could be a guy somewhere doing a thing.

Sadly, the scenario above may happen once in a thousand attempts. What really happens is more like this:

“Oh yeah, I’m moving slooooowly. No one even kno-“

ALERT! ALERT!

“What the hell? How did anyone see me? There wasn’t even anyone around!”

“Aaaaaarrrrggh! Where did they all come from! Jeebus! They’re shooting at me!”

“Gottarungottarungottarun-oh good, a locker to hide in.”

“GAH! How did they know I was in here! No one saw me!”

“Quit shooting at me!”

“StopstopstopstopIT!!!!!!! I can’t get out of here with you all surrounding me!”

“Rations! Rations! Crap, I’m using up my rations and they keep hitting me!”

“Please stop shooting at me!”

“Okay….okay. I’m hidden. They can’t find me hiding under the truck.”

“Alright, the alert has been lifted, I can sneak back out.”

“Look around carefully… no one there…or there. Coast seems clear.”

“Oh! Dude coming. Going camouflaged. Okay, at 90% camo, no one can see—“

ALERT! ALERT!

“What in the seven levels of Cabbage Patch Hell!?! How did he see me!?!”

“Aaaagh! Go away!” Quit shooting!”

“They killed me!!”

“I’m gonna go curl up in a ball on my bed and play Barbie Dream House on my DS.”

The funny thing (or the sad thing, depending on your point of view) is that despite how frustrating the game can be, I can’t stop playing it. I love watching the story unfold, I love all of the little easter eggs scattered throughout the game, as well as the funny tricks you can do during and in between levels (you can call a female psychiatrist on your CODEC and make her boobs jiggle on the CODEC screen by shaking your controller). I love all of the bells and whistles. And the game looks awesome. The graphics are the best I’ve seen so far. I feel like I’m watching a movie that I get to play in. All these things keep me coming back even after I’ve been given a big defeat sandwich.

Or maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment. It would explain how I survived last weekend.

The Surgeon General has determined that The Don is dangerous to your stealth.

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Ever been within inches of a passing semi truck on a busy freeway, whipping past at 70 mph? Even in your car, you get thrown around like a leaf? Yeah, that was SDCC for the remainder of the weekend.

While I’d love to share pics, I’m still on borrowed time — my flight back home departs TODAY, thus I can write to you all, but I have roughly 500 pictures to sort, weed out and organize into a functional blog. In the meantime, let me tell you all — California rolled out the red carpet, and I had THE BEST — excuse me, *ahem* THE BEST time at a convention since the Blizzard of 2003 during Katsucon. That’s no small feat.

This was geek Mecca. Direct your prayers of Dr. Horrible and new episodes of Eureka just south of the setting sun, folks. While no show is perfect, and Murphy’s Laws prevail, I will say that the positives of the experience far, FAR outweigh the negatives. In other words, don’t feel bad. Everyone else is broke too.

So, in the meantime (while I’m 30,000 in the air for several hours) here’s my take on:  FIVE THINGS I LEARNED FROM SDCC.

(1): No one in their right mind should ever move an event or convention from San Diego. It’s PRIME real estate. I’m not the man behind the wheel, so there’s no telling what the future holds — but I will say that San Diego embraced the convention with open arms, and there was PLENTY to do and see beyond the convention walls. Go to lunch at the Tin Fish restaurant. Get around on the trolleys. Check out the best damned reuben ever at The Field.  Speaking of fields, the Padres play at Petco Park right up the street (say what you like about the Padres.)  Even the train station is a photo op waiting to happen!

(2): Your Mileage May Vary.  And oh, did I rack up a few.  Now, you can actually stop and get a breather throughout a good portion of the con, you just have to be… creative about it.  And not have any hangups about sitting on cold floors, corners of huge displays or just around the corner of an artist table.

(3): You have to be extra special, determined or crazy (or maybe a heady combination of the three) to actually get the Rare Collectable Merchandise Given Out Only At The Con Wherein You Must Stand In Line For Several Hours For The CHANCE To Get It.

(4): Besides, there are scores of people hired just to hand out free flyers.  Save the earth, collect them all!  I bet you could fill a phone book with all the mini posters, cards, flyers, and extra bits.

(5): Some personal tips to share with you all:

-Bring a camera, and break a bank book on batteries.

-When you’re done packing, open your bags again, take out half the stuff you packed.  You’re not going to need it.

-Say “yes” to whatever absurd means it takes to get there, short of risk to person or possessions.  This place is worth it.

-Water.

-Plan ahead.  There is for even the regular attendees, four whole days worth of events to attend and people to see, things to buy (or have a conniption over whether TO buy) and while you CAN do it all in a day, if you’re around for the whole thing, space it out.  Get some rest.  Eat hearty.  Because TONIGHT WE DINE IN — *ahem*

I’ll be back with photos, folks!  Sorry for the delay, but right now it’s time for me to say goodbye to perpetually sunny San Diego!

(Oh yeah, and there was an earthquake yesterday.  Most bizarre damned thing I’ve ever experienced.)

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OMGOMGOMG Thunder Force VI for real, no lie! October is the revival of THE synth butt-rock shmup!  “I saw the messenger of the new god there.”

But thinking about that, consider there’s been announcements at the start of summer of TWO Bionic Commando games for the XBOX360, a Castlevania 2-player versus fighting game in the works (what?!), and a classic style 8-bit side scrolling Mega Man 9 for the Wii — and the last 8-bit game of the series (MM6) was fifteen years ago! 

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Waugh!  Yesterday was Wednesday wasn’t it?!  Don’t you hate it when one day transposes itself over another?

Anyways, quite a few things going on worth mention:

 -The Demon Mages, Issue #2 is on the threshold of completion.  Took a little extra time, but significantly less OT than before.  Look for that in and around the time of…

 -SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!  I’ll be happy to give you readers the extended post-con coverage (August 2nd.  Let’s be fair; jet-lag) , but in the meantime, a few lead-up articles will get passed around, starting next week.  There’s not much to say here, except that packing for ten days in two bags will be… interesting.

-Almost directly afterwards is Otakon 2008.  This blogger lives moments away from it, so like the event horizon of a black hole, it seems many individuals may be drawn into it’s vortex.  Convention roundup on that one as well will be posted, come August 13th. 

-Pixiv.net & Nico-Nico Douga are neat!  Even if your Japanese is lackluster, it’s easy navigation & content abounds!  I’m there most every day!  Google searches readily turn up non-native registration instructions, so there’s little chance of getting lost.

-BONESAW IS REA-DY!!!  Tough as heck with a keyboard, a little imprecise, but still an impressive game and I chuckled at most of the humor.  A cool homebrewed time waster.

-In the spirit of our nation, I watched Paul “John Adams” Giamatti in probably my most favorite role I’ve seen him play — as the whip smart, buck-nasty Mr. Hertz in Shoot ‘Em Up.  Funny to me to see commercials for his HBO special, and super-impose Mr. Hertz’s cellphone ringing.  Or maybe an extended gunfight with Ben Franklin. 

And now, some new art!  Both done by hand, with markers & pens — the second from back on June 13-15th for the Anime-Mid-Atlantic weekend.

That’s all for now!  See ya next week!

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Greetings, Centurions!

Today’s installment is going to be a little shorter than you’re used to.  My sincere apologies.  I’m still dealing with things right now in regards to my friend Scot, and it has put me slightly behind on my other obligations.

Be that as it may, I’m still going to give you something, dagnabbit!  Oh man.  Sorry about the harsh language.  Stress can really wreak havoc on a person.  Sometimes a guy – any guy, but maybe one with a beard and long hair who looks a little like Silent Bob – just needs to find him something to help him relax and relieve the tension of the long day.

(Here’s where I use that clunky bit of exposition above to segue into my topic for today’s installment.)

You all know that I have a PS3 now.  I have some good games for it:  Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, The Incredible Hulk.  But there is one game that I can’t seem to get enough of…

To make a long story short (too late), I love me some Lego Star Wars.

I mean, I already bought both the first and second Lego Star Wars games for the PS2 when they first came out.  I’ve beaten both of them.  When I got my PS3, I immediately picked up Lego Indiana Jones, hungry for more Lego misadventures.  But, though I did love Lego Indy, it just wasn’t as expansive and diverse as Lego Star Wars.

So, when my friend Eric decided to pick up The Complete Saga for his PS3, his tempting offer to play the co-op online mode was too sweet to ignore.  I went out and picked it up for myself.

Holy cow.  I haven’t played any of my other games since I popped this in.  I love this game!  It has quite a number of changes to make it worth purchasing even if you already bought the first two.  The game play is extremely fun.  It’s challenging, but not too hard.  You can get through it quickly enough.  Thing is, there is just so much more game to play in The Complete Saga.  I’m swiftly taking this game in whole with a voracious hunger.  There’s just so much to do and so many cool new unlockables to get and use.

If there was one thing that was off about this game, it has to be the online co-op mode.  It’s not easy to just get online and play with a friend.  But, after some research, Eric and I were able to make a few small tweaks that allowed the online mode to work really well.

Despite its minor flaw, this game never ceases to be an enjoyable experience for me.  I’m addicted!

Crap.  Now I have another problem to stress me out.

The Don is a Lego brick… house.

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This past Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day (no I am not making this up.) The point, I think, is somewhat dependent on the person who is knitting in public, but for many people it is a way to get others interested in knitting. It’s a way to start a dialog with the public, many of whom stop and ask questions and comment on the work.

I started pondering this as I prepared my projects for Saturday (I decided on my lace shawl, if anyone’s interested,) and I started thinking how impossible this sort of thing would be for video gamers. First off knitting is a bit more portable. Also it doesn’t require electrical outlets.

Sure there are handheld game devices, but they seem to somewhat defeat the point. It would be nigh impossible to drag a big enough screen out into a public square to ensure that the public could see the game in question, thus hopefully sparking conversation. Then there is the insanely wide variety of games to showcase- ranging from Old School Super Mario Brothers to Grand Theft Auto to Dance Dance Revolution. And, naturally, no matter what game one chooses others are sure to have extreme objections to that game.

It’s kinda sad, I think really. There’s a great capability for common ground and community for this sort of thing, if it’s taken out of the scary (and loud, and often dark) arcades and brought into the sunshine and the public, but the very things that make it so powerful and interesting and varied are the very things that make it impossible to ‘take out to the people.’ I guess I’ll have to stick to knitting video game inspired sweaters, and explaining them to anyone who asks.

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Greetings, Browncoats!

Some of you may be aware that Anime Mid-Atlantic is this weekend in my backyard of Virginia Beach. Some of you may be excited to go. Me? I’ll be there on Saturday, but I have a different reason to be excited.

Tomorrow I am finally joining the rest of the Next-Gen Console folk. I’m getting a PS3.

“Why the PS3?” you ask. Excellent! I’m so glad we’re back to our usual conversations! You’ve been quiet for awhile. It’s so nice to be talking again.

But anyway, back to your question.

My reasons for choosing the PS3 are simple. BLUE RAY. Not too long ago (before I moved into my current humble abode), my DVD player decided he didn’t like me anymore and departed for that place that unused Beta recorders and Scott Baio’s career go. And we all know which disc won the most recent movie media format war.

That’s right. Scott Baio.

Wait, what? NO.

So yeah – Blue Ray won. Now, put two and two together, mix with tapioca pudding, and voila! We just made a mess. And I decided that getting a PS3 would not only solve my DVD playing issues, but would also finally give me the ability to play all of the next-gen games I’ve been wanting to play for quite some time.

Not only that, but I have a PSP. So now I can finally download PS1 games to play on my Portable. With that option now open to me, I may actually finish some of those PS1 games that have been sitting on my shelf unfulfilled. What? I said I’d call them. I didn’t say when.

With all that in mind, I’m pretty excited to be picking it up tomorrow, er… I mean my lovely wife will be picking it up for me tomorrow while I’m at work. And the timing couldn’t be better – tomorrow is the day they release the 80GB bundle pack with Metal Gear Solid 4. Between that and the other two games I picked up the other day, I have plenty to be excited about.

Tapioca pudding.

The Don lives in his world, but sleeps on your couch.

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Working on new computer, brb!

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By now, you’ve probably seen the above. Very entertaining. Almost hypnotic with those stripes.

Clearly, the guy is taking video of his girlfriend without her knowing. Now she knows. And while she was apparently fairly pissed off when she first discovered her boyfriend’s indiscretion, she’s now quite comfortable with her fifteen minutes of fame.

Although part of me thankful that he posted the video (now I know Wii fit has a sexy hula hoop game! Maybe my ass will look that hot after hours of Wii), part of me also wonders if maybe our lives in this digital era are a little over exposed. Playing Wii Fit in a t-shirt and undies is something you do in private. It’s certainly not as private as having sex, but it’s not meant for the rest of the world. And yet, even these tiny little moments are exposed to the world.

This is the age of user generated content. We all have opinions. We all do crazy things. And we can all share our ideas in ways never before possible. The crazy thing? There’s an audience! Everyone wants to know what everyone else thinks or says or does. In some ways, it’s a little voyeuristic. But in some way, we all seem to be fascinated with the lives of other people no matter how random or mundane.

In previous generations, posting such a video would have been a one way ticket to single town. These days, hell, even a sex tape might not be enough to break up over.

Anyway, back to gawking at the hula game.

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