Monday, July 14, 2008, 12:44 PM: After another long night of useless web browsing, music downloading and PSP tinkering, I rose from my summer slumber and proceeded to my PC to watch Microsoft's E3 press conference live. I press the Power On button, and...nothing.

After weeks and weeks of having to leave my PC on standby/sleep mode because it took 45 minutes to boot if shut down, my Frankenstein's monster of a computer had finally died a sputtering death. The tower itself was at least seven years old (there were two stampings dated Dec. 24, 1999 on the inside), and the guts were a smash-together of obsolete-but-good-enough parts that just couldn't work together well enough for long. I smirked at myself because even hough I knew this moment was coming for some time, it just HAD to happen the Monday before E3. Desperate for some form of news, I turned to a source I'd never bothered checking, but desperate times call for desperate measures:

That's right, I was forced to keep up with E3 via my PSP, and it was not easy. Even standing right next to my router, most pages loaded so slowly that it was like going back to dial-up, and then there's the big problem of pages scaling to fit the screen; even if I changed the settings and text size, most pages either squished everything together into an intangible mess or broke the page in question into numerous vertical sections that were displayed one after another. Surfing on the PSP is frustrating, near-broken and not much fun.

But it wasn't all bad. In my search of acceptable sites I went to Joystiq, and lo-and-behold that site has a text-only "Joystiq Mobile" version that I assume detected my PSP browser and directed me accordingly. It is thanks to JS that I learned of all the comings-out from "teh w0r$t eTHree EVAR," from FF XIII being confirmed for 360 and the PS3's 80GB model getting gimped to the not-ending-anytime-soon battle between Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 and Nintendo just plain sucking. (It was also slightly chuckle-inducing to read about the PSP's "problems" from a PSP itself; as far as I'm concerned, it's a nice handheld with some decent games and more capabilities than 95% of PSP owners realize.) I did mange to grab my sister's laptop briefly on two occasions and saw some LittleBigPlanet and Madden '09 footage, hence my shiny new emblem:

I missed the press conference emblems this year, but considering I missed this one last year, it all evens out for me.

With a functional iPod but no PC to plug it into, I had to get my numerous podcasts some other way, and so I also discovered the wonderful world of RSS feeds. After a few patience-testing loadings, I had feeds from all of 1UP Radio, the Giant Bombcast (http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/T_Prime, btw) and ESPN, and I have to say, lugging my PSP around just so I could listen to the three (3!) hour poolside 1UP Yours wasn't as huge an annoyance as I thought it would be. The PSP doesn't remember a podcast's playback position, though, and nothing could top my two-year-old iPod Nano's comfort, but it wasn't all bad. I won't be going back to it anytime soon, though.

And then there's the browser navigation. The nub acts like a mouse to the cursor, scrolling is made easier by holding down Square and pressing the D-Pad, and Triangle brings up the browser menu, such as "Address Entry" and "Close Page" (which you can also do by pressing O). Text entry works very much like cell phone texting with twelve on-screen "buttons" containing letters like on a phone's keypad, which (while annoying) is much easier than the on-screen QWERTY keyboard I remember seeing in some old mock-ups.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 10:38 PM: Proceeding to the basement to turn on the wireless router and maybe play some Okami, I find my new rig sitting in the POS' place. My mother's friend takes his time, but it's worth it when he's done. And I'm back. You might not care, but I certainly do.

Happy birthday, Canada. I saw plenty of people with flags and fireworks in the last thirty-six hours (thanks to the four day weekend), although I wonder how many of them even know it's been 141 years since "Canada" was established. And how do we celebrate here in the greater Montreal area? With the Habs losing one of their best players because he's an ingrate. I guess our loss is your gain, sonicboom713.

"God of War II delivers on all levels, improves on the first game in many bloody ways and is a creation of genius"

God of War II is an incredible example of improving on the first game while not drastically altering gameplay in any major way. The main gameplay elements of visceral combat and challenging-but-not-difficult puzzle solving are just as present as before, but the fact that they feel so much better than the first game make God of War II a game for the ages.

GoW II picks up from the end of the first game: you are Kratos, the ashen-white, bloodthirsty Spartan warrior who has recently deposed Olympian god Ares to become the God of War. The main story involves Kratos' tactics becoming so brutal that the Olympian gods send him back to earth as a mortal again, trick him into giving up his godly powers and almost send him into Hades. Showing up to save Kratos is the titan Gaia, who then informs Kratos that he must seek out the destiny-controlling Sisters of Fate, a feat no mortal has ever come close to accomplishing. If you played the first God of War, the premise should seem similar in that Kratos must journey further and achieve something more difficult than anyone before him, while along the way encountering many characters and creatures from Greek mythology. And how do you manage to do this? By destroying, maiming and tearing apart everything that moves!

The combat remains almost identical to that of the first game. You press X and Triangle to use Kratos' chain-blades and other weapons, but when enemies swarm upon you constantly you can mash buttons for only so long before you have to start learning how to avoid attack patterns and use numerous combos. But for all the things that remain the same, much has changed in God of War II. One addition to GoW II is the presence of sub-weapons, either a giant hammer or large spear, that Kratos can use instead of his Blades of Athena, but much like the previous game you'll pretty much only need the blades and nothing else. There are also new spells this time around, with long-range attack Typhon's Bane (renamed from Zeus' Fury) and enemy-freezing Head of Euryale (renamed from Medusa's Gaze) being joined by Cronos' Rage, a multi-targeting electric attack that will likely be your most-used magic attack, and Atlas Quake, a wide-area ground-pounding attack. The Rage of the Gods also returns as Rage of the Titans and works the same by pressing L3 + R3, except that you can manually stop using it before your meter drains.

Kratos can also use a hookshot-type item to swing from certain areas using the R1 button as well as being able to fly (glide, actually) later in the game. The button-mashing-in-correct-sequence quicktime events return, and ripping out a cyclops' eye or a medusa's head feels just that much more satisfying after hitting a four-button, two-stick combo. There is one place they're even more welcome: opening doors. In God of War, you had to mash R1 to open a door, but in GoW II you have to press R1 and then mash O repeatedly, which is much easier on the hands but can still get extremely annoying when there is an army of skeletons trying to kill you as the spiked roof not-so-slowly collapses upon your head. The other little changes that were made were for the better: you can press X to have Kratos move up ladders now in addition to walls, you can jump down walls as well as up, blocking an enemy's attack with L1 can send the attack back at said enemy if timed right (which comes in extremely handy in later boss battles), and in certain areas you can even stop time for a few seconds, with your time left being shown as a yellow bar below your green health meter and blue magic meter, replacing the red "orb count" meter. You still collect a ludicrous amount of red orbs to upgrade your weapons and spells, though; I got so many from enemies and chests that all spells and but one weapon were at max level by the final battle.

One completely new element in GoW II are the two flight sections early in the game in which Kratos pilots a Pegasus in his journey to the Isle of Fates. Neither lasts too long, but long enough for you to have to fight airborne enemies, dodge fire in slow motion and jump onto an enemy gryphon and quicktime-event particular annoying enemies, all while careening through the darkened sky, and also while avoiding stalactites and beams in the cavern level.

For a PS2 game, God of War II looks absolutely insane. Sony's Santa Monica studio completely tapped the well dry with this game: the varying environments from the snowy mountains and titanic caves to decrepit swamps and sweltering volcanoes are mouth-gapingly gorgeous, and the game isn't afraid to zoom in on the architecture, enemies and characters because they can stand up to very close scrutiny and still look remarkable. Even that there are no load screens save for two or three is amazing because even the hallways Kratos has to run down to disguise them look amazing. The art direction and amount of polish in GoW II is second to none.

Overall, GoW II delivers on all levels. It contains all the things people play games for: gruesomely satisfying combat, simple yet ingenious puzzles, an engaging story and the desire to keep going because everything is just so good. And the best part is that there's so much of it: depending on how much exploring and fighting your do, the game could last from nine to twelve hours the first time through, and there are numerous unlockables and extra modes after the game's completion. There's even a bonus DVD that chronicles the making of the game, and contains many things from interviews and behind-the-scenes meetings to looks at lost levels and voice recording sessions, just to name a few. Whether or not you played the first game, or whether or not you even own a Playstation 2, you absolutely owe it to yourself to play God of War II because it truly is a quintessential video game and should not be missed.

Final score: 10.0

After failing to find it at both Future Shop AND Best Buy (despite their most recent fliers stating the contrary), I found a copy of Guitar Hero: On Tour at the "other" EB Games I go to, and while I can't post photos or video of myself talking to an imagined audience like some of you can, I can still give my impressions. After opening the box and discovering the little DS game case and GH stickers, my primary concern was modding the guitar grip so I can play it on my DS Original. Two too-large screwdrivers and a box cutter later, I was ready to go nuts.

First, the grip itself. It feels very nice to hold on its own, and the stylus-pick is also cool (if not a bit tacky). I had to adjust the strap several times before I got it feeling comfortable in my hand, and the buttons feel a bit too small, like the solo buttons on the Rock Band guitar. Even so, it's impressive that they could pull this off so relatively well.

As for the actual game itself, well...it's Guitar Hero. I made the mistake of jumping to Hard mode right away, because even with no orange button this game is no slouch. Maybe I just suck at strumming so far (which has to be right-on on the touch-screen strings), but the window for hitting notes feels like the first Guitar Hero: there's very little time. Also, because of the angle I have to hold the DS at to keep my hand from cramping, I have to tilt the top screen all the way back to fully see the notes. The visuals are pretty good for DS: lower than on PS2, but I'd still recognize Judy and Axel anywhere. The audio quality is rather superior, as well: put on some headphones and you might think you've got an MP3 player going. The quality is good enough for me to realize that the version of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" is a re-recording and re-affirmed my notion that "All the Small Things" is blink-182's best song.

I hope to have more impressions once I stop sucking at this game so much.

Source

Man Buried by Manga Discovered Dead After Quake
37-year-old company worker had stacked books two meters high in his room

Miyagi Prefectural Police officials in northeastern Japan have announced on Monday that they discovered a man dead in his apartment underneath several hundred manga volumes and magazines. They are investigating the cause of death and whether the 37-year-old male company employee is another casualty of last week's earthquake in Miyagi.

According to the investigation, the man's co-workers visited his apartment in Sendai City's Aoba Ward at around 9:00 p.m. on June 14 after he failed to appear at work. (The magnitude-6.8 earthquake occurred at 8:43 a.m. that day and caused 10 confirmed deaths so far.) The officials say that the man stacked books two meters (about six feet) high throughout his entire room. They consider it possible that the books fell on top of the man's chest and abdomen and thus prevented him from breathing. However, a June 15 autopsy was inconclusive, which left open the possibility that the man's death was unrelated to the earthquake.

I like(d) manga somewhat, but to have so much that it could potentially crush me? That's a fan for you.

In gaming updates, I've completed God of War II and I'm not sure what to do next; maybe I'll start Okami over from the beginning. Also, I really, really, REALLY hope this "neck slide" stuff rumoured about Guitar Hero IV is fake, but if it's true then I hope I don't need the newest peripheral guitar to play it because I'm sick of fake instruments and Activision's almost pathetic need to show up Rock Band in every way they think people want. I do NOT want that in what is supposed to be a simple pick-up-and-play game, so at least make my one of my three PS2 guitars work with your game, Activision.

The time known as
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So with the Red Wings capping the NHL season and with me still PS3-less and therefore not having GTA IV or MGS 4 to distract me, I've taken to slowly whittling through my infuriatingly-large backlog and currently find myself on God of War II, which looks to be my Game of The Year so far. I had to stop playing Tomb Raider Anniversary because: a) Lara is too distracting, b) the area I'm stuck at is too reminiscent of the Water Temple, and c) I want to finish GoW II before finally digging into Chains of Olympus. I also want to at least finish either Okami or Final Fantasy X before the end of August, and considering how often I work and get distracted by Guitar Hero and Rock Band, actually setting aside serious gaming time is not nearly as easy as I'd like it to be. And that's not to mention that too new Guitar Heros and the Rock Band Tack Pack all come out within the next five weeks; if I don't get my game on now, who knows when I'll get some good Zeus-vengeance next?

1. Rent/buy game you're interested in.

2. Play said game for X amount of time.

3. Form your own opinion of game based on said experience.

4. Check reviews online to see if any chuckleheads agree with you, and if they don't, you shouldn't care because you loved/hated it all on your own!

I've had more than one game ruined for myself because I stupidly checked a score before playing a game and tainted the game(s) for myself, which led to me not really caring what any reviewer has to say. We wouldn't have lost so many good people in The Great Post-Jeff Purge of '07 (September_Grey, ZebethOrZebes, str1, GirlUntold) if people didn't look to places like GS for scores so much. Even so, that was the hardest friend list cleaning I've ever done.

"Exception to the FPS rule"

I don't play many first-person shooters, but XIII (thirteen) is an exception to the rule of space marines and alien hunters. I received it as a gift several months ago and let it sit on my shelf until I had the idea to dust it off, and I'm glad I did. Tight controls, a gripping story and an incredibly stylish look make XIII stand out from the pack.

XIII is based on a Belgian comic book that began in the mid-1980s, and Ubisoft took that "comic book" feel and translated it onto the screen in a unique way. The game is cell-shaded and tries to look like a comic-book in motion, with pop-up windows, enemy conversations in speech bubbles and visible sound effects ranging from "Kaboom!" to an enemy's footsteps as "tap tap tap". Despite the real-world locations and enemies, there is always a level of slight ridiculousness to the entire thing even as enemies are shooting you from every which direction and your health is plummeting and you're forced to stop staring at the scenery and pop caps in everyone around you.

Speaking of which, the PS2 controls are exquisitely mapped, almost to the point of being the FPS control scheme by which all others should be measured: left thumbstick to move, right to rotate camera, Square and Circle to cycle through your weapons, left and right to cycle through your non-weapon items (medkit, lockpick, etc.), X to perform actions such as opening doors and grabbing NPCs as well as reloading weapons, L1 to jump, L2 to duck, R1 to fire weapons and R2 to use a weapon's alt. fire mode (such as firing grenades or zooming in with a sniper rifle or cross bow). After five minutes these controls felt like second nature, minus to occasional annoyance when I would cycle through my weapons too quickly and get killed by a sniper before getting my own sniper rifle out.

The story represents something we see often in movies and books but very little these days in games: a good old political conspiracy and the only person who can crack it is an amnesiac. The original comic was heavily influenced by The Bourne Identity novel and the game doesn't really try to distance itself from that idea. The game begins with a man being woken up on a beach by a lifeguard and the man can hardly walk straight, never mind remember who he is or why he has the Roman numeral XIII tattooed on his torso. But within minutes dozens of armed men storm the lifeguard's hut, and even without a name XIII can take them down, all of which serves as the game's tutorial stages.

As it turns out, U.S. President William Sheridan has recently been assassinated and the man wanted for his murder is Steve Rowland. The problem is that YOU are told you are Steve Rowland, only the memories don't fit. After being arrested by the FBI but before being allowed to make any sense of what is happening, XIII gets rescued by Jones, a tough solider who knows XIII is innocent because she knew him before the amnesia and has been working with him to expose the conspiracy behind Sheridan's murder with the aid of one General Carrington. With Jones' help, XIII sets off to piece together his past as well as exposing the network known as The XX. The story is solid and flows very well, but be warned: as was the tendency of many games, movies and TV shows in the early 2000s, XIII doesn't actually end and the discovery you make right before the badly-placed "to be continued" is a huge kick in the privates and will likely leave you steaming, more so because no sequel has ever come out and likely never will come out.

The game is broken down into 30+ levels spread over 13 missions, and covers such expected but not unwelcome areas such as apartment buildings, a snowy military base, a mental hospital and a nuclear missile silo. Given the constant need to restart at previous checkpoints rather often (of which there are plenty, happily enough) I'd say it took me maybe nine or ten hours to get through XIII on the lowest difficulty setting. The actual music evokes mystery and tension masterfully, but if there's anything negative about this game, it's the voice acting. David Duchovny, Eve and Adam West all do fine jobs as XIII, Jones and General Carrington, respectively, but why get known actors at all? Studio voices would have done just fine, even more in this case because Duchovny and West just can't disassociate their voices with Mulder and Batman. Perhaps Ubisoft should have used the money hiring them to polish their AI instead, because even as tight as enemies' smarts can be, every so often there will be a soldier or two who will run past you to check on a fallen comrade as you fire a shotgun into his gut, or the patrolling sentry who doesn't notice that his partner twelve feet to his left just got hit in the head with a crossbow bolt and will continue not noticing because the body isn't on his very strict path.

Overall XIII is a rather superb game. It falls down in a few places, but it is so easy to and so worth the while to help itself pick itself up that if you ever get the chance, give XIII a whirl. If you don't enjoy good controls, a suspenseful story and an oozing sty-le then you just hate good, well-built video games.

Final score - 8.5

The best superhero/comic book movies are the ones that focus on the main characters, not the special effects or the explosions or any such giddy nonsense; you definitely need some of that, but walking that very careful line is something few movies can do, and Iron Man is one of those movies.

To be honest, when I heard that an Iron Man movie was coming out, the first thing I thought to myself was "really? Iron Man? Have they run out of more well-known superheroes to make movies out of?" Even though I found out afterwards how important and long-running Iron Man really is, I declared myself corrected right around the time Tony Stark finished fashioning a crude prototype suit in an Afghani cave. Robert Downey Jr. made Tony Stark a completely believable character, and the audience has to come to love him; unlike Peter Parker, Tony Stark has made a name for himself already, but the horrors he ends up seeing that he turned such a blind eye to earlier were too much to handle. This is an origin story, but that doesn't make Tony's determination to right a few wrongs in the world using a highly-advanced, racecar-paintjob-inspired suit any less cool.

I intend to see this movie again, if only finally see the hidden scene at the very end, but even without that extra ending Iron Man was a movie that exceeded all audience expectations, and by audience, I mean me and the other nine people I saw it with. We couldn't shut up about how good it was for days. You won't either if you haven't seen it yet. Wait, why haven't you seen it yet? STOP READING THIS AND GO SEE IT!!!

STAY THROUGH THE END CREDITS!! I just got back from the late (early?) screening of Iron Man and was ready to give my impressions on the film, but upon reading the movie's Wikipedia page to check a certain actress' filmography, I found out that there is an extra scene involving...lets say, someone important to Iron Man. I plead with you, sit through those credits; your inner geek will thank you for it.

Impressions later.