Why I love the Giant Bombcast

From the News of the World section:

on The Old Republic
Ryan: "We Played as Sith inquisitors."
Jeff: "That sounds like the first 22 minutes of Law and Order."



Seriously, I'm a dork who loves video games, but even if you aren't, the Giant Bombcast is pretty awesome.

Blah de blah (Back from the dead!)

Seeing how the decade is ending, I feel like I need to make something to fully encapsulate everything about the decade in every possible way. So obviously, what needs to be done is a top ten list. Because that wasn’t old when Letterman did it first a decade before I was born.

Also, wasn’t this decade totally like the worst ever? And by worst ever I mean most full of 9/11’s.

Which reminds me-

“Thursday, December 3, 2009

A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number. “

-From the corrections page of The Washington Post

I will seriously do that list. Or something else dumb like that.

Ouch

Dead Space Extraction sells 9,000 in the month of November. I think my community radio show gets more listeners in the 3rd hour.

Mature Wii games are officially not going to happen anymore.

Source- 1up.com

Push those clocks back to a simpler time

The issue of the New York 23rd is so incredibly fascinating too me, but not just for the media attention. Scozzafava's decision to suspend her campaign is to me more of a metaphor than anything else. It is a symbol of the "moderate" republicans throwing their hands up in the air and saying one thing: I quit.

I don't mean they quit the party or they quit politics. There may be as many of them in the party as there are "Teabagger"conservatives, possibly more, but the louder they teabag, the harder it is to think, much less try to run any sort of political strategy. The Teabagger philosophy is one purely of negative action and negative thinking: attack the liberals, attack the Obama administration, attack the republican party if it is not in line with their ideology perfectly. They are a destructive element in the conservative movement.

For all we know, Hoffman will most likely win now, which will cause the teabaggers to cry victory. But I do think the price of this will be greater than someone being slightly more pure ideologically in a solidly conservative district.


Anyways, Happy November assholes.

Brutal Legend Review or The Collective Conventional Wisdom of the Gaming Industry Disappoints Me

Guess what, this isn't really a review, so as they say on Pandorra: pis off.

Brutal Legend and the Temple of the Gaming Culture’s Conventional Wisdom

Brutal Legend is not a good game. I don’t know what the problems are. I’m sure parts of it work, but just parts a game do not make. Maybe I’m a snob, or my lack of love of heavy metal don’t allow me to care as much about the “subject matter,” but I just didn’t care.

And that fucking sucks.

I was talking to a buddy about Brutal Legend and how he found it pleasant, but forgettable. He was already trying to sell it. Which bummed me out. He asked me what I thought about it and I said what has been said: that I found it extremely underwhelming, overly ambitious, but inherently shallow. I asked him if he had played any other Tim Schaefer games. He said no.

This is not a comment on how my buddy is lacking in gaming literacy for not playing Psychonauts or Grim Fandango. This is partially because I don’t think it matters in enjoying Brutal Legend, and because gaming literacy is about as dumb of an idea as I can think, but that’s for a latter day. It’s a comment on how he expected the game to be good because it is from Tim Schaefer. It’s a strange off shot (or maybe the main goal) of the marketing behind Brutal Legend: that this is a Celebrity Game Designer and he doesn’t dissapoint. Too bad the game was almost all premise, no meat on the bones.

The closest game that I can compare this experience of mine with Brutal Legend is Spore, which I played for literally 2 hours.




Man I’m a fucking bummer.

A Stupid Problem in Abundance

"No delay on PC for Modern Warfare 2. You'll also have Prestige Mode in PC as well as lots of Steam support. Hopefully min specs will be soon (via @fourzerotwo)"
-Twitter

Never before has my amount of plenty been a cause of concern for me. Most folks don't have a good gaming pc and a xbox 360 and a ps3. I shouldn't be complaining, I should be enjoying my upper-middle-class place in America. Yet, when it comes to this game the kids are calling "MW2", or as I like to call it just to upset people IW4, I am confused. I really have a problem with buying multiple copies of a game even if its for multiple platforms, so what platform do i get it on?

The Aim-bots are a plenty on the PC side, but the fidelity of gameplay and graphics are far superior. I find the online fairer and more stable on consoles, but shouldn't I play my super intense shooters on pc?

Tell me...

What should I do?

Maybe I'll jusy play Uncharted 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 instead...

I don't want to make a big deal out of this...

As I sip this effeminate energy drink, I realize how awesome my joke in class was. Thats right motherfuckers, nothing is funnier than comparing the cap and trade system to seminar discussion rules.

I know that I should make some statement about Obama winning the Nobel Prize. Honestly, I think the main thing I am getting out of it is just seeing conservatives' heads explode, but besides that, I'm currently indifferent.

I did notice that Twitter kind of exploded during the announcement. It actually was the first bit of news I ever heard about through Twitter. This is supposed to confound me. It didn't.

The best tweet, at least from what I saw was from the ever awesome Eugene Mirman:

Congratulations Mr. Obama! You won fair and square, even though I’ve been texting Hamas & Isreal requesting peace for weeks.

Also, Jesse Thorn had some pretty good ones too:

Without the new diplomatic tone set by Pres. Obama, my wife and I would never have reached our historic new-apartment closet-sharing accord.


But that's just me.

Yiddishical Utterances

Oy!!!


I have a strange, seemingly genetic disposition to utter these words. Is this a part of the Jewish genome? Perhaps this is true, as I can’t think of anything else to explain this genetic disorder. What is a worry to me is that this means that Judaism is more than just a religion, culture, or even ethnicity.

I call out to the god of Abraham, Issac and Jacob to explain this to me. I know I am not a god fearing, or even believing person, but there must be some explanation. That, or I just wish I was an old Jew in Brooklyn who works during the day as a shoemaker and at night as a Shecky Green impersonator. Stranger things have happened.

I did for a long period of time quote Walter Cronkite for no apparent reason. I just wanted to be trusted as a man. Isn’t that what women want? “And that’s the way it is” right?

Official Anouncements and stuff...

I am a certified man. One with a certificate (in the mail). Its true, no one can ever take this away. Hopefully this certificate will bring me more acclaim and work than my handy "fake MD" and "Bar Passed" certificate. I only got to sue myself for medical malpractice which i thought was very rude...

ANYWAYS...

For anyone who is actually reading this... anyone? anyone? I have become a certified agent of KAOS. Thats right, the god of order and all things good in the world (its very confusing I know). Now he permits me to perform my act of honoring him every friday morning from 6-9 am through the air and web waves. He is a trickster god, but a very predictable one as well, with a schedule and all the goodies.

So yeah, bullshit aside, I have a new show on KAOS

It starts this friday, give it a listen will ya?

I'll start posting show information if interested. Check it out at kaosradio.org. Thats an organization y'all.

Please, Please, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Ridge Crushing Their Heads

First things first, I think this interview proves that Rachel Maddow is the best debater on television. She makes her points known, and challenges others, but doesn't lie, cheat, or intimidate in order to make her point. I think she should be applauded for this. Honestly.

Also, I must say, Tom Ridge, what's your problem? Why are you so scared of just admitting what you have already said? I know he says that the hullabalo about his book is taken out of context (that there was political pressure on him to raise the fabulously color coded terror alert system), but from what has been laid out, it seems hard to believe that.

If there was pressure to raise the terror alert based on politics, then we have an issue. That would be akin to using any other government agency or organization to aid a presidential administration. Hell, at least Nixon had his people do the Watergate break-in on their off hours. Also, this negates the entire purpose of their being such a system in the first place. The fact that he seemingly admitted this, and had strong feelings on it, in his book is a powerful statement, yet his unwillingness to follow along with the common understanding is more fascinating.

Is he blaming this issue on his PR? I understand the need to buy books, but to have on the cover of your book a statement that you don't seem to believe in is quite suspicious. He must not have a good enough ghost writer, or maybe his ghost writer knows more than Tom Ridge is will to let out. Either way, you should watch this interview:

Part 1

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Part 2

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Part 3

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Death Panels!

Jesus Kitty Christ. Is this what Obamacare is promising?

What have I become?

I wish I had more to say, or defend myself from this fact, but it is true:

I am becoming my father.

Its really scary, but its true. I stay at work late, like to go out to eat (as opposed to cook), I like to wake up early, I like eggs, I like bananas, I love coming home, taking a shower, kicking back and watching the news as I drift off asleep as my cat sleep on my lap.

I am becoming my father.

I have a strange obsession with William Shatner, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry's possible gayness. I like Apple computer products, am constantly looking at my cell phone, and I actually like studying the civil war.

I am becoming my father:











...
...
...
...
...
...HOLY SHIT ITS TRUE!

Holy shit im stuck in a goddamn elevator

The world is fucking mad. Oh well, it isn’t like it was anything too important. Oh wait, it was! Oh well, Only 30 minutes until they come to pry open the doors. No biggie right? Unless, well, I suffocate. Then that would suck. I wouldn’t want that. No, that would be bad. Hopefully they will be here soon.

Anyways, who cares, these elevators are ventilated right. Shit this kinda sucks though. Im not stuck in here with some hot girl and we have share breath with each other to stay alive. Well, like the indie pixie vixen they don’t really exist anyways, so seeing that would actually be worse than not seeing it. It would mean im hallucinating. Which would be an unfortunate event, leading up to my evaluation with matt. Maybe he’ll go easy on me knowing I was just thrust in a box for 45 minutes without any way out. Or not. Who cares, its just fucking Evergreen.

Do I curse too much? At times I feel like I do. I have to keep the words pure for their use at critical times when it really matters. I want to say when something is fucking good or fucking bad, not when something is fucking alright. Is saying “fucking alright” about the equivalent of saying im an extreme moderate? Im not sure. It feels different than saying fucking normal. That has some meaning. Fuck the status quo, fuck life as we know it, etc. All that anarcist shit. Fuck! I did it again. Oh well, its fucking alright.

Breathe in and out Ben, you aren’t going to die. At least today.

Wow, I really want a cigarette right now. I bet they would even be understanding, but I think that’s in bad form. I try to be a nice guy, and I’m trying to cut down on the cancer sticks. I think going against both would be a pretty bad idea right now. At least that’s how it feels to me. Maybe I should just let it go. But I can’t, so I won’t.

Honestly, Is trying to be a nice guy something you should just let go anyways? That seems like something irrefutably good, worth hanging onto. Alright, Kool Keith’s coming on the final mix of my life. There aren’t many better ways to go out right?

Ben

Post Script: I am alive.

The End of the Beginning

It's 6:40 am as I am writing this.

I only see the sunrise, or what I can see of it on a cloudy day, if i wake earlier than even the most sane man. Anyways, its my birthday. The big 22. Nothing special comes with that number except symetry, but in many ways that may be all I need from the digits. Its a cold day, rainy, dreary. Not surprising for Washington, but it really does feel like a new period of time and I'm glad I got to see the transition. Anyways, as a sip my cheap store brand coffee and absorb the heat of a Target-brand floor, all while listening to Chick Corea it seems right.

I made a new video, with a slightly guided tour of my apartment. Highlights, rearanging my bookshelf and media shelf to better hold everything. Lets just say, its terribly exciting. Also, the cats wrestle at the end, which is always nice. Anyways, I hope everyone's day is a sweet and calm as mine has been. In only 6 hours I will be done with my first summer session and soon headed to Seattle. Hopefully Audrey has the stones for two days of the Capitol Hill Block Party. We shall see.

Anyways, enjoy:

I am not a wuss, but I feel like one.

I have a really conflicted relationship with indie pop, which as I type it I have a problem with defining. Like, that it is the part of an ex that in retrospect I should have noticed in the begin of the relationship before it got all weird. Yeah, its like a nervous tick or a dangerous obsession with Pee Wee Herman to me. Its a part of the musical landscape I pretty much avoid naturally, it just doesn't do much for me.

Maybe I'm an old fogey who feels like most classic pop hooks have been written already, so for me the styling of a Vampire Weekend or even a Belle and Sebastian or their numerous army of twee-poppers feels like a screwdriver being thrust into my skull. I find this really strange. Why is it that this one type of music gets under my skin more than pretty much any other. Is it my inner snob saying "the music is too simple, it doesn't feel like they have listened to enough CAN or Glenn Branca," or maybe I'm just sort of a bro of indie music.

I just don't get it. Maybe I just don't understand whats wrong with me. Maybe I just have a taste in music. And that's that.

Kitty Action part 2.

So its been a week since I acquired little Dmetri and Alexei (and yes, that is the way it is spelled). So far they are, for the lack of a better term, a bundle of joy. It is really amazing how quickly animals grow to love and how much I appreciate that love. It could all be some psychopathic plan of theirs to kill me and eat me, but I don't think they are old enough to know that is an option. Anyways, besides strangely schmaltzy and bizarre observation, it is true, animals really do just make coming home after a long (or my case, relatively short) day's work that much calming and relaxing. They are really great. Plus, they are scruffy!

I set up a flicker account with pictures of my cats, if you really care. This way I don't have to feel like i should set up some album with some witty sayings describing whatever pose they take. Thank god.

Quick Review: Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

I know I should just be doing record reviews in twitter. By the way did you know I have a twitter account? Painful shilling over...


The first time I listened to Grizzly Bears follow up to their in my mind seminal Yellow House, I thought it was underwhelming, boring, and in the worst meaning of the word, workmanlike. It felt very familiar, without any of the immediacy I felt when I put Yellow House in the first time. Of course, the funny thing is, after listening through it four, five, six more times, I think it might actually be a better album. Veckatimest's heights are absolutely as much of the revelation as Yellow House was for me.

The band is playing their tightest pop songs ever, but still drenched in the reverb, counter-rhythmic drumming, and, of course, harmonies that has defined the band for me ever since I first heard their single Deep Sea Diver many years ago. They are working like a working-band, pumping out great songs with great inventive production, fantastic song writing, and excellent musicianship in the best way any good moody indie band can: by not bowing to any pressures, just continuing down their creative path. At this moment, I cannot think of a better way for them to follow up a breakthrough like Yellow House.

Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

Score: 4 yummy, if oddly named animal related pastry!

Kitty action...

I have received the cats. Their names are Alexei and Dmitri, and they are adorable.

Here are some videos about them:

Travel to the East Side and Back:


Kitty War:

classic fanboi arguments are still pissing me off.

Why does this happen so often?

It seems that every time I leisure on over to the industry discussion forums at Cheap Ass Gamer, which I guess is the community I'm most active in (I'm not a big forum guy), there is always someone in some thread writing about how "its all about gameplay! Graphics don't matter! The Wii is the only real inovation of this generation! Blah blah blah blah!" I don't know why, but this argument frustrates me more than any other argument you ever hear in the flame bait ridden world of gaming fandom. This bugs me even more than the classic "PC gaming is dying" one,which even as a rabid pc player, is true in some forms (Ill save my explanation of that for another post), because this own is truly built on a really simplistic world view that is brutal with subjective facts and lack of intellectual curiosity, I realize this is just games here, but it still frustrates me.

My issue with this argument, which, let's all admit (we're all adults here), come from your average Nintendo fanboi on an eeirely regular basis. I guess I just don't understand it. It's so neo-ludditic on the graphics front thats it presumes that there is no real difference in gameplay of Doom and say, Halo 3 or Killzone 2 (notice the fanboi fairness... who knew I was this good!).

Maybe I'm crazy, but the sense of weight one gets from the weapons in Call of Duty or the scale of view of the Capital Wasteland are still pretty important to my experience in games. Who knows, maybe my experiece in Fallout 3 would have been exactly the same if I put my draw distance scale to the minimum, but the shrunken magnitude of the world, would, I believe effect my

enjoyment of the game. Hey whatever, I must be nuts to get caught up by the silly distinction that is graphics.

I don't care about graphics engines, physics engines, 8-cell chips, mega textures or anything if it doesn't aid to the enjoy of the product, but don't just discount the ability of images to improve one's game experience for the sake of being negative. Hey, but whatever, maybe im the neo-luddite.

Post #2 done!

-By the way, how awesome is the Justic record Cross. It's prety much like if in stead of cold robots, daft punk were cold robots drenched in really, really good congac. Ok that's absurd, but its true, I swear!-

Welcome

I know I need a better title. I know I need a better layout. I know I need to play more jrpgs from Atlus. I get it. Besides that though, welcome!

Hopefully this blog can serve as some place for me to ruminate on issues around gaming, politics, tech, and food. Lots of food.