Retro Double-Dip

So the other day, I get a hankerin' to play some Rastan. Anyone remember that arcade game from back in the '80's? It's pretty much a Conan sort of thing and I've always liked Conan. Back in high school, my friend and I used to hang out at the local convenience store, sip on Slurpees or whatever and play Rastan before going to class. Awesome game. Only problem is that my copy of Rastan is on a compilation disk for the old Xbox.

Undeterred, I dig out the old black beauty itself and the Xbox works great. Better than the Xbox 360, but I digress. When I turn it on, the Xbox's default date and time is set to 12:00am June 3, 2001. As I'm spinning those years forward, I can't help but imagine my Xbox asking, "What day is it? Where have I been?"
"You've been out of it a long time, Xbox. Brace yourself. It's 2012!!"
Cue the opening music from Buck Rogers.....dates flying past....Xbox spinning and toppling through news clippings of big events....then snazzy vehicles from the current futuristic paradise zip by!! Yeah!!!

Wow, this is loopy. What do you expect? I was up until 5am playing freakin' Rastan!!

The Big Game

No, I'm not talking about Arkham City (which I'm still working my way through one glorious side mission at a time). I'm talking Super Bowl here. Ever since I traded in my overpriced cable/DVR combo for Netflix and Hulu on Xbox Live, I haven't been able to watch much in the way of sports. I catch the occasional game here and there, but not enough to keep abreast on what's what. All in all it's a good trade-off for not having  40 hours of stuff in a DVR waiting for me to watch. This way, I actually get some work done. I do still have my favorite teams when I am able to watch a game and let's just say the Giants or Patriots ain't one of  'em.

I don't have a very good reason for this. Maybe, since I'm a Midwestern boy, my loyalties drift more toward teams in those regions. Ok...I actually WAS rooting for the Giants. Mostly because they're NOT the Patriots. My reasoning for this? I could spout some anti-Brady sentiment or various disputed plays, but that would just be my attempt to sound like I know what I'm talking about. In fact, I hate the Patriots because of Madden NFL for the XBox. Not the 360. I'm talking the original XBox. I think Madden NFL '05 was the last one I played and I played the HELL out of it with Webmaster Steve on Live. I would pick a team because of the skulls on their jerseys or their proximity to my house and he would actually pick teams based on skill.

Well, in Madden '05, if you picked the Patriots, you could pretty much put the controller down, walk away from your TV, get something to eat, hit the bathroom and STILL win. Every pass, no matter how well it was covered, was caught. Defensive players bounced off of Brady like bullets off of Superman's eyeball (one of the very few cool moments in Superman Returns). Their defense consisted of Mack trucks and bulldozers with jerseys stretched over their freaking backs. And the other teams just wilted. I guess the makers of the game wrote that one off to "momentum" or "shifts in the game's atmosphere". Lob a 70 yard pass to a receiver who'd already been brought down somehow? No problem he'd make the play anyhow. I threw down my controller, traded the disk in at Game Stop for about 75 cents and ended my Madden career.

Even Steve had to admit the Pats were ridiculously overpowered. It got to the point where he'd pick them just to get under my skin and I never picked them because I hated the sight of their stupid digitized faces!! So thanks, EA Sports. Thanks for making it easy for me to pick a team to root for in this year's Bowl. It actually was a pretty entertaining game to watch and when the Patriots lost...I couldn't help but smile. Video game vendettas NEVER die.

Odds & Ends

These last few weeks have been strange. I've been working on some older projects, some ghostwriting (a guy's gotta pay the bills) as well as some new projects. The new projects include a few steampunk offerings, two of which are with editors in NY and others are going straight to ebook format. The first draft of one series is completed and I'm liking it a lot. It's pure adventure with plenty of retro sci-fi goodness thrown in that was a ton of fun to write. Thank God for ebooks because this series would never make it past the editors wondering "How does THIS tap the marketplace that reads [insert some other currently popular series here]?" Sink or swim, I'll finally be able to write the stuff I've wanted to write. Hopefully you guys will think it's just as fun to read as it was to create. More details as they come along.

Also, I've been into some new video games. Arkham City is a big one, but I'm also well entrenched in Gears of War 3. Both are awesome games that make me wish I could chuck everything else and just play. Some of that time is taken up by reading comic books. I'm still loving most of DC's New 52. At the top of my list are Justice League, Animal Man, Aquaman and Deathstroke. Aquaman???? Yes, I'm loving Aquaman. It does a great job of making him cool while also acknowledging how un-cool he's been for so very long. "So," one reporter asks Aquaman in issue #1, "how does it feel to be NOBODY'S favorite super hero?" Niiiiice.

Tuesday, Extinction Agenda is released. Since Borders has closed up, I really don't have anywhere to go to check shelves around here on release day. You guys will have to let me know if you spot them out and about. I know I've said I gave up on checking the shelves on previous release days, but who am I kidding? I go out to have a look and everyone knows it. After some of the editing blunders that made it through the process of putting Book 5 together, I'm a little nervous about that aspect as well. I tried my damndest (as I always do) on Book 6 and even enlisted some extra help, but I'm sure there will be flubs here and there. In my own defense, my books aren't the only ones with crap like that in them. All I can say is oh well. I write to provide a fun experience for the readers and hopefully that's what they are.

This last year or two have been one hell of a roller coaster ride for a great many reasons. Many are personal, including my move out to West Virginia. That's been fun getting used to a whole new part of the country. I've always been a Midwestern boy, but am liking it out here just fine. Also, the entire publishing industry has been tossed on its ear lately. I've already mentioned ebooks, but there's also been the loss of some big name retailers along with the looming arrival of game changers like the new Kindle Fire. A Kindle with some snazzy tablet computer functionality combined?? Sign me up! This thing looks to be huge and even if it flops, ebooks aren't going anywhere anytime soon. These kinds of things have scared the shit out of most everyone in the writing / publishing industry because they represent such humongous changes. My hope is to keep getting my stories out there so they can be enjoyed. Who knows? Maybe I'll even be able to get MORE stuff out there!

Anyway, look for Extinction Agenda on shelves or online starting October 25th!! Let me know what you think and I'll let you know what's next as soon as I have some definite news to share. Trust me, I'll be sending some cool stuff your way.

Bloody Summer

This has been a very patriotic few days. That's par for the course considering the holiday and all, but my last July 4th was a lot less...well...just a lot less. Back then, I spent my holiday weekend working on a manuscript, listening for the occasional pops outside my apartment, poking my nose out to see some distant flashes and then going back to work. This year, I did the whole cookout / fireworks combo and it was a lot of fun! I also indulged in my usual Independence Day movie treat which was...you guessed it...Independence Day!! That film may be flawed in some pretty serious ways, but it's still a lot of fun. Definitely one of the ultimate mindless summer blockbusters. Love it.

I also recently watched Sucker Punch. This one had me intrigued the moment I saw previews with dragons fighting biplanes and demon Samurais weilding chain guns. At the very least, it was a prime piece of eye candy (and I mean beyond the young girls dressed in every fantasy piece of clothing from schoolgirl to warrior woman). VERY cool on Blu Ray. As far as more recent flicks, I'm anxiously awaiting Captian America and Cowboys & Aliens. After that, it's hibernation time again.

Been playing Portal 2 and even dug up a game from a few years ago called Dark Void. The latter has an Indiana Jones meets Rocketeer vibe. I'm liking it, despite the noticable lack of Jennifer Connelly in that amazing white dress. Hubba hubba!! I can still remember the day young Marcus was in a movie theater and "sat up to take notice" of that scene. Too much info? Oh well. Dark Void is cool so far and definitely enjoyable. Portal 2 is simply brilliant, however. Just about every other line of dialogue has me laughing and the game simply rocks. But...no Jennifer Connelly. What the hell is wrong with games these days??

I'm working on my installment of the Dead Man series of ebooks. After that, I'll be dipping my toe further into the ebook pond by writing an original to be released independantly. That should be a fun experiment! I get to just have an idea, write it up and put it out there to see if it flies. Lots of writers are jumping on this train and for good reason. It's very appealing to be able to get something out there without jumping through all the usual hoops. Could be an amazing venture. However it turns out, it should be exciting! I'm working with a few other writers to put together a central website hub for all of our works to be displayed. Something should be coming to fruition within the next few months, so I'll keep you posted. Hopefully, you guys will like what you read!

I'm off to donate blood now. Haven't done this for some time, mainly due to all the tattoos I've been getting. I should probably eat something and have something to drink first. Either that, or I can go in empty and enjoy that delightful swirly feeling of near-unconsciousness followed by total unconsciousness. Ok...maybe I'll have a sandwich.

Damn My Eyes!!!

Last time I went to Best Buy, I got a chance to try out the new Nintendo 3DS. Very cool, but it was bolted down to a stand, locked up with chains and guarded by three drooling hellbeasts so I couldn't hold it the way I normally would. That resulted in me hunkering down to play some dopey little flying game on a bright pink toy. Not very manly. The 3D effects were cool, but my eyes started to hurt pretty quickly. Was that because of the angle, the 3D technology or the fact that my eyes are worse than someone who's gotten theirs yanked out and scrubbed with a brillo pad after staring at the sun? Who knows? I'm still excited about the 3DS, but that's after a downgrade from "really pumped".

Also, I'm set to watch Skyline. This is one of those movies that looked awesome on the previews, but I never got around to seeing it. So far, the reviews and word of mouth pretty much hover in the vicinity of "awesome effects / horrible plot". Since I like to riff on movies MST3K style anyway, this sounds like a fun time.

I put together a proposal and a few chapters for one of those steampunk projects I mentioned earlier. I'm VERY happy with the whole thing so now it's up to the publishers. Another one of my babies out making the rounds in the big bad world. This part sucks. Of course, as I've also mentioned earlier, I'm excited about the whole ebook thing. That means if New York doesn't want to play my reindeer games, I'll write it anyway and take my chances. Exciting times!

Round 2...FIGHT!!

Ok, so the Valentine's griping is out of the way for another year. Sorry about that everyone. Today I was greeted with the news of Borders declaring bankruptcy and closing about 200 stores nationwide. At first, that seems like a really bad thing. If you're Borders, it is. Then again, a lot of people (including plenty of folks in the publishing / writing biz as well as Borders themselves) saw this one coming from a long ways out. Being in tough financial situations is nothing new to writers. Unlike the publishing houses and big booksellers, we're not used to seeing huge, juicy profits for everything out there. You need to be one of those few big-name authors, a cable semi-celebrity or a Kardashian to get the big literary bucks. Bazinga!!!

Anyway, in true Rocky fashion, these hard times have charged me up. I'm already working on proposals, so I've got renewed steam for that. More importantly, I'm taking steps in some new directions to get other projects going. More details later, but I'm really excited about it and that's a much-needed boost. Whew.

In other news, I picked up Marvel vs. Capcom 3. (Traded in some games and bought at a colossal discount. Hard times, remember?) I love fighting games, but am not very good at them. I used to kick some major league ass at Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. Even won a local tournament back in the day. Now I can't believe I memorized all those moves and multiple fatalities. The new MK is coming out soon which will be awesome, but MvC3 is pretty sweet as well. Amazing graphics. Very cool fighting. Pretty flashing lights (which they warn you about in the opening) and all around nerd-vana. I mean...being able to pit Doctor Doom against Dante from Devil May Cry?? YEAH!!! I tried going online, but was having trouble with the hosts. Probably got it all squared away by now. Most importantly, there are easy difficulty settings on Arcade mode to provide me hours of fun. Hopefully Webmaster Steve picks up a copy and we can throw down. We're at about the same skill level. Ok, he's better than me, but doesn't rub it in too badly when he wins.

So, energized and full of flashing light-induced brain trauma, I soldier on. What's my prediction for this fight? PAIN!!

Good thing I've got plenty of free time. Oh, wait...

Just when I get into the groove with work after coming home from World Fantasy, my video game systems begin beckoning to me. Tuesday, the new Call of Duty comes out. Black Ops looks just as awesome as the other CoDs, but with zombies. Everything's better with zombies, right? Actually, all the zombie stuff can get tiresome, but this is an updated version of the Nazi Zombies levels from World at War. If you've played that game, you know all about Nazi Zombies. It was an extra mode with an arcade feel that I STILL play long after I was through with the WWII campaign. A new CoD campaign as well as more zombie action makes me giddy.



Then there are the new motion controllers that came out for XBox and PS3. I was more excited for the Playstation Move because it looked better suited for "real" games like shooters and anything else in the "killing stuff" genre as opposed to "swinging stuff". Then I saw demos for XBox's Kinect where there's no controller at all. This looks fun for families, but not for some dude sitting in his La-z-boy. Now that they're both out, I realize I'm not excited for either one. There aren't any games out there for me (although there are some promising ones in the future like the Star Wars game for Kinect) and I simply don't want to get up when I play my games. Sure, I stand up when rocking the plastic guitar for Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but I'm well past the "jumping is fun" stage of my life. Also, I barely keep from knocking stuff over when I walk to my chair carrying a drink and a bag of chips. Flailing my arms and jumping in front of my flat screen is a recipe for disaster. So it looks like I'm sticking to the Wii.



Speaking of Rock Band, all of my data from Rock Band 3 was wiped out yesterday and I had to start that career over. Actually, that wasn't so bad. I play those songs plenty of times enough to fill four careers anyway.



So, it looks like this week will be chock full of shooting stuff. On top of that, I'm still working on Medal of Honor and Halo Reach. Once Call of Duty: Black Ops gets into my hot little hands, I'll be dreaming of shooting bad guys for a long time. Kind of like the last scene in A Christmas Story, except with head shots and teabagging. Heh.

Anticipation

There are lots of reasons for me to chew my nails lately. Skinners 4 will be hitting store shelves in a few weeks, Skinners 5 is with my editor getting its first once-over, and I'm hard at work on Skinners 6. That's a whole lot of Skinners! Also, I'm putting together a few other projects that I've been excited about for a while now. All this AND the Jonah Hex movie hits DVD this week! Ok, so maybe that last one isn't really a nail-biter, but it looks like a fun flick and I do want to see it.

It's a slow, trudging weekend here. Remember my great mood during the last post when I got a little taste of autumn? Well that lasted for about a day before the temps hit the upper 80's again. According to the weather gadget on my phone, it should be in the 70's this week and those weather predictions are never wrong, right? Yeah. Sure. Oh well. Keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

The new Medal of Honor comes out this week. They're taking the Modern Warfare route and doing...well...modern warfare. Looks really good. There's been a bit of a commotion since multiplayer battles are to be between US and Taliban forces. That means players get to play as the Taliban and shoot US guys. First of all, it's just a game. Secondly, hasn't this already been done in other games? Pretty much any modern military shooter with multiplayer has SOME side shooting at the US. This just seems like one of those little bouts of ruffled feathers that comes along with plenty of games regarding violence, language or any other sort of non-issue that's clearly marked on the package of said game beneath the big "M for Mature" rating on the cover. My view on this topic? See the first point. Just a game. No actual soldiers were harmed in the single or multi-player arenas. Plus it was already mostly solved by calling the Taliban "opposing forces" in multiplayer. Does having those guys shooting US troops make it all better? Who cares. Next.

Gearing up for World Fantasy at the end of the month. My first big con, so I'm excited. The deal is that any guest (apart from the Guests of Honor) get to do one panel or reading and one only. Makes sense, since it's such a big convention. A few months ago, I got an email asking which of the panels I'd like to be on. I responded and waited to get the schedule. Last week, I get another email asking which panel I'd like to be on and did I get the first email? I respond again, saying I'm sure my first email was accidentally spammed or overlooked. No biggie. I'm fully expecting to show up at the convention without being on any panels because they never got my responses. All too often, I get to experience the crappy parts of being invisible without any of the perks. In other words, nobody knows I'm there unless I try to walk into the women's locker room at the gym. Should be a fun convention whether I get to be on a panel or not. Hope to see some of you there!

Halo Flu...seriously

Picked up Halo Reach yesterday. I'm not a Halo fanatic, but they are undeniably awesome games. Also, I've been sick for a while and thought it would be a nice pick-me-up. Anyway, it's an awesome game and I love the multiplayer, but there are some frustrations that accompany pretty much every multiplayer game for me anymore. Saw this comic at Penny Arcade that sums it up nicely....
I may love playing games and I may play them a lot, but I sure don't play them as much as I USED to and I sure as hell aren't as good at them as I used to be. Ugh. Whenever I log on to a Modern Warfare or Halo game, I don't expect to win. I just expect to run around and shoot some crap and blow some stuff up. I don't talk strategy. I don't care about kill / death ratios and I'm not in it for glory. Still, it gets awfully frustrating when you're pitted against Terminators who can take me apart before I get a chance to have any fun. If Halo had bots for the multiplayer aspect, it would be perfect. Oh well. I'll still be online.

Fly off, little birdie

Is it sappy that I get sentimental about sending a manuscript off? Yes. How about nervous? Eh, maybe a little. Anxious. That's more like it. Today I head out to the post office and mail the manuscript for Skinners #5. Going back to another blog post where I talked about music accompanying each book, I'd have to pick another Disturbed song for this one. Check out Indestructible. Especially this part: "Indestructible. Determination that is incorruptible. From the other side, a terror to behold. Annihilation will be unavoidable. Every broken enemy will know that their opponent had to be invincible. Take a last look around while you're alive. I'm an indestructible master of war!" How can you not think of monsters kicking ass when you hear that? Great stuff. Speaking of Disturbed, the new album is out and I'm lovin' it.

This has been a rough week. Mostly, that's from putting the finishing touches on this book. Now this one isn't exactly finished, but the hardest part is over. There's a few more editing rounds to come. At least now this story is a finished product in my mind. So many times throughout the process, I think I'm ruining my own product, screwing up my career, or am just lost in the world I've made up. At this stage of the game, there's a definite relief. Of COURSE that's how Book 5 ends! So now it feels good to take a few days off and then jump into Book 6. Actually, I'm already primed for that one.

I think I'll play some games and catch up on some DVDs I need to watch. Downloading the demo for the new Guitar Hero as I type this. I'll finally FINALLY be able to dive back into some more Red Dead Redemption. I actually just started in on Borderlands. See how behind I am?? Plenty of new XBox Arcade titles to dig in to as well. Have you played Shank yet?? Pure Awesome! I want to see The Losers and Book of Eli.

Ok, so that's it for now. Just so you know, I've started sending out bookmarks and stuff as rewards for my plea for online reviews of Skinners. Haven't forgotten, so write those reviews, send me the links and I'll send you some free stuff. The Shimmy's passes are almost done and those will be going out soon. Get 'em while you can!

Editing....that's about it

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. I wish I could say I've been kicking back and relaxing after OSFest and finishing a preliminary draft of Skinners 5, but that's about as far from the truth as....well...something that's really far away. I wrapped up this draft of Skinners on August 1, took a whole day off and have been editing like a madman ever since. My days are simple. I wake up, watch Price is Right, have breakfast, shower, maybe step outside for a little while, and launch into editing. I'll edit through some pages, take a break for a minute or two of watching something on my DVR that I can start and stop at will, edit, watch, edit, you get the idea. That goes for about 12 hours a day.

I'm not complaining, mind you. The book is coming along GREAT and I'm gearing up for #6. Yes, there will be a Skinners 6. Sweet! Somewhere during my rare downtime, I've been playing a few games. Went through Limbo, which is downloadable on XBox Live Arcade. What an amazing, brilliant, creepy, artistic, sometimes very WRONG game! Love it! You play as a little kid who can't swim (that's important with all the water in this game) who dodges giant spiders and spikes. You die in so many gruesome ways, it makes me giggle. There's even a part where you jump across a lake using the bodies of other little kids who died before you as platforms. Like I said, wrong but fun. It does me good to see horror representing! Plus, I unlocked a creepy little pet for my Avatar. Nice. Still chopping away at Red Dead Redemption and Fallout 3. Yes, I'm still playing Fallout 3.

In movie news, I finally got to see the new Clash of the Titans and Kick Ass. Clash was pretty cool, although not as cool as the original. The first one KNEW it was shooting for cheesy. This one is cheesy in parts, serious in others, whatever. The scorpions, Medusa and Kraken were awesome and that's what I was after. Kick Ass was just f'ing great! Since I wait for the DVD release of just about every movie anymore, it seems dumb to go into detail. It's been out for a while, most everyone else has seen it so who needs my ultra-late reviews, right?

Speaking of behind the times, I just found out that the new Black Label Society CD is coming out on Tuesday. AWESOME! For those of you piecing together a Skinners soundtrack (are there any of you out there??) play BLS's Fire it Up when reading Book 4 in October and Electric Hellfire when reading the big finale battle in Howling Legion.

That's about it for now. Gotta get to work. And I haven't forgotten about my promise to update the main website. I hope to get to it when I have more than a moment to let my brain cool off.

It IS better than the demo!

I'm a pretty big believer in signs. I know. Signs, signs, everywhere is signs. But seriously, I do tend to pay attention when I'm pointed in one direction over another. Sometimes it's in regards to big things like career choice, relationships or where I should live. Other times, it's smaller things like whether or not I should buy Crackdown 2 when I hated the demo. I decided to wait until it was marked down or on sale for between $20 and $30. So today, as I'm reading the not-so-bad reviews of this same game, I remember having some gift certificates I earned through the Best Buy Reward Zone Club or whatever. A quick check on their website to see if any more coupons are on the way tells me I can print off another certificate that will essentially bring the price of Crackdown 2 to $26 after taxes. Sign!!

I picked up the game, played it and decided it's more of the goodness I was after. Nothing blazingly new, but more of the same stuff and since that stuff is Crackdown, it's just fine. I think my problem before was that I'd just finished going all the way through Infamous on the PS3, which is an AMAZING game that has a lot of Crackdown elements like climbing around on buildings and stuff. I've only cracked this one open (HA! Cracked!! Ok sorry about that) but if you liked the first Crackdown, the new one should scratch that itch nicely.

Was all of this a big way to delay my work today? Not really because I got a lot done. Was the whole signs thing a flimsy excuse to buy a game I already said I wanted no matter how crappy the demo was? Yeah. You got me on that one.

I've been slacking

Well, the long weekend is over, so it's back to work for me. Actually, since I'm a free-wheeling writer type person, my work schedule has little or nothing to do with official holidays or weekends. I've been working steadily throughout the 4th, although I did take some time to step out onto my balcony and admire several different fireworks displays on the horizon. With the smoke in the air, the crackle of popping explosions and the flickering of bright colors in the sky, I was reminded of some CNN footage from the Desert Storm days. Apart from that, it was really pretty cool.

Also, I was reminded via scathing email from a reader that I've all but forgotten about updating my main website. Jeez, Joshua! Give me a break! Just kidding about the scathing part. I was reminded about neglecting my duties as far as that goes and he's absolutely right. I've just been figuring that nobody's even noticed the links for MEG Files and Skinner Journals where I promised to put up appendices regarding the Skinners and creatures in the series. I'd like to blame Webmaster Steve for this, but can't do it. The truth is I meant to do an update after the series has been out for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it. Well, the series HAS been around for a little while and seems to be doing pretty well. I'll get off my butt and put something on there by the end of the month.

In gaming news, I played the demo for Crackdown 2. I loved Crackdown. Seriously, I played the living hell out of that game. The demo for this one just seems bland. The graphics seem really dull and the game mechanics are clunky at best. I want SO DESPERATELY to like this game, but the demo hasn't sold me. Should I say "It's just a demo and not the final build, so give the game a chance" or "Most demos are pretty close to the actual games, so steer clear until the price drops"? With so many games coming out, I'm leaning toward the second one. We'll see if my willpower holds out when I see it on the shelves.

That's it for now. Got to wrap up one western project, continue plucking away at Skinners 5 and oh look...there's the final edits for Skinners 4! I can do this, right?

The Big Three

E3 is pretty much wrapped up now. I think it goes through today, but all the big announcements were made by the end of Tuesday. I was able to see the Microsoft briefing on Monday and the Nintendo one late Tuesday, but had a lot of trouble catching the Sony one. I had to watch them online, so there was a lot of crashed sites, buffering, broken links and that sort of thing. I finally caught up when Sony posted the briefing on PSN. So anyway, here goes.

Microsoft - They were all about their "controller-free" motion control system which is now called Kinect. Looks very cool at first until I think about how I'm going to play games where I do something other than swatting or jumping over stuff. The big focus is to get gamers off their butts and interacting with their TV. My problem is that when I have time to game, I WANT to sit on my butt. If I had kids, I'd be much more excited about this but being a guy who's pushing 40, I got winded from watching the Kinect demos put on by all those athletes and "active people". There are some games that look awesome such as a Metal Gear sword-type game where you can run around and slice anything into pieces, including trucks and (of course) people. YES! I'm severely pumped for Gears of War 3 and the new Halo game looks amazing.

Nintendo - There was a lot to like about this one. The new Zelda and Metroid games jump out right away, but their big focus was on the 3DS. It's a DS with 3D that's supposed to work without glasses. They couldn't show it to anyone who wasn't there to see it first-hand, but I have enough faith in Nintendo to figure it's probably pretty cool. The new Zelda looked impressive, even if it wasn't working at 100% for the presentation. Nintendo has a lot of hardcore fans and it's funny to hear them hoot and holler for the slightest things. New Kirby game? YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! He looks like a ball of yarn now??? HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Not that I didn't blow my wad when I saw the new Gears, but it's still funny to hear such unbridled wonderment over so many things in a row. Kind of like dropping a pirated advance copy of Rob-sessed 2 into a middle school cafeteria. Or, my reaction to the Star Wars lightsaber game for XBox's Kinect.

Sony - They have a new motion controller too and this is the one I've been most excited about. It's an actual controller that looks much better suited for "real" games. A great deal of their presentation was in pointing this out (heh...get it? Pointing. It's a pointer controller! Moving on) and making fun of Microsoft's lack of buttons. Oddly enough, the coolest presentation they had for their motion control thing (The PS Move) was a game called Sorcery. This was odd, because I thought it was a game that could actually be played pretty well on the Kinect. Oh well. There were tons of games to love including Killzone 3 and a new God of War for the PSP. Sony also spent a lot of time harping their 3D tech. Do I need to buy one of those new TVs for that or does it come through fine with the PS3 alone? I'm not sure. It's one of those things that looks cool, but seems out of my reach. HA! Reach!! Like it's 3D and I'm reaching for....never mind. I'm burned out from looking at too many game trailers.

Almost E3 time!!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) happens next week and I'm looking forward to it. That's when all the big video game announcements for the next year or so are made and it's pretty exciting for gaming geeks like me. Seems like the festivities have kicked off a little early, because this new trailer hit the internet and it looks AWESOME. Seems like the new Mortal Kombat is taking a cue from the newest Street Fighter games by keeping the gameplay 2D while boosting the graphics and everything else to current gen standards. See for yourself...


So far...FLAWLESS VICTORY.

Online Multiplayer -OR- Meeting New Jerks From Across The World

So I've been playing a lot of ModNation Racers on the PS3. Very cool game and ranks high on the Cute-o-Meter, which is a fun change from my normal splatteriffic, headshot-heavy fare. The online component is huge with this game and it really shows the variety you get when you dive in to multiplayer.

First, there's the good side. At times, this game makes me realize why I've got my console hooked into the internet in the first place. Racing with cool people who take a lot of time to put together some awesome tracks and then being able to download those tracks after the game. We comment on how fun it was, go on to the next one and I feel good about dropping the cash for the game.

Then, there's the bad. I join another multiplayer lobby and immediately get to hear everyone swearing at everyone else or singing. Yes...SINGING. Now I realize I was just talking about how bad my language gets when playing Mario Kart, but that's not when I'm playing with other people. Somehow, it just seems like I'm getting hosed so much worse when the computer is the one doing it. Oh sure!! Of COURSE you get the perfect power ups for every situation. You're the freaking COMPUTER!!! Let the human win every now and then. Remember Tron?? The users were GODS there and the programs worshipped them. That's how it SHOULD be!!!

Sorry about that. Back to the singing lobby. I don't have a headset hooked up and don't know how to mute other players (or if I can) so I ignore them and go about my race. Even knowing they're real people that I can't see makes the whole thing less stressful for me. I lose a race, I stick around for the next one. I get hit by a power up and I keep going, even though that power up is accompanied by a scratchy, vaguely anonymous "Take that, bitch!" from some dude's headset. The loading times are a bear on this game, so I stick around because I don't want to take the time to find another lobby. The icing on the cake is when I finally win one race. ONE race goes my way and as soon as I get back to the lobby, I get the boot. I'm out, by myself, wondering why I bother interacting with anyone and expect it to be fun. High school all over again. Doh!

Woo-HOO!!

Picked up Super Mario Galaxy 2 and was not disappointed. So far, it's every bit as well made, easy on the eyes and just plain fun as most of the other Mario games. Maybe it's bad for my "horror dude" image, but I don't mind sitting there, grinning like an idiot while living vicariously through a mustachioed plumber riding a little chubby dinosaur. Let's face it, life sucks sometimes. Sometimes, it sucks a LOT and Mario is like a dose of happy mainlined into your arteries. Who wouldn't want to spend some time in the Mushroom Kingdom when times get hard. Then again, I suppose a lot of people spend time there, but rehab usually follows.

I've heard about nursing homes using the Wii for physical therapy, but they should put Super Mario games into mental hospitals to help relieve depression. Keep it away from the folks with hallucinations, though. Seeing talking mushrooms and floors that fall away into nothingness won't do them any favors.

I'm seriously considering getting ModNation Racers for the PS3. Another dose of cute, but in go-kart form. Creating my own tracks and karts looks just easy enough for me to give it a go. Speaking of karts, I haven't stopped playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I've got to say, despite its Mario-cute factor, I spew more obscenities per second during that game than any other. And that includes games where I get shot, stabbed, or otherwise worked over by an unrelenting and unforgiving AI with superior processing power behind it. Getting tea bagged by some dickhead 11 year-old on XBox Live? It happens. Getting dicked over by a stuck-up blond princess throwing a blue mushroom at me when the finish line is in sight? That's tough. Hearing her honk, yell and wave at me as she drives by to steal my victory for the 5th race in a row?? That mother f*%$ing little bi&$h has gotta PAY!!!!!!

I'm one happy geek

Yesterday was a big day for game releases. Actually, Tuesday is always a mini-event because new games as well as new DVDs are released so it tickles me on a few of my sweet spots. That sounds more than a little nasty, but you get what I'm saying. Nothing hit as far as DVDs that I wanted, but there were games coming out the wazoo!! And by that, I don't mean this guy. He's The Great Gazoo. I don't want anything that comes out of him.

Anyway, I was trying to decide if I should break down and buy a new game and, if so, which one. In the middle of that process, I checked my Facebook page and found a little somethin' that a reader whipped up. It's a Magic: The Gathering card featuring the Blood Blade! How freaking cool is this? Just the sight of it made my geeky heart skip a beat. Even stranger is the fact that I actually have this knife. Bought it at a con because I thought it looked like a Blood Blade. Coincidence? I think not. Actually, probably is a coincidence, but still a cool one. Thanks, Michael!

On the video game front, Alan Wake, Split Second, new Prince of Persia, and Red Dead Redemption were some of the releases that had caught my eye. I intended on getting Red Dead simply because someone FINALLY made a high quality open-world western game. The only thing that stayed my hand was the fact that I'm in the middle of some open-world goodness now (Infamous, Fallout 3, GTA 4 -- I know these have been out for a while, but I'm slow!!) and would like to wrap up at least one of them before diving into another. Alan Wake is about a horror writer who fights monsters, so that was a no-brainer. Plus, I think I can find a way to use that as a tax write-off. Research? While I was in Best Buy, the girl in the blue shirt wandering the aisles told me they had the Split Second demo set up on one of their plasma screens. I checked it out, fell in love with the idea of blowing up buildings while racing and dodging debris, and picked that one up too. Damn you, Best Buy Temptress!!!

Run Silent, Run Co-op

Finally got a chance to play some Splinter Cell: Conviction. And FINALLY real co-op is back in that series!! Webmaster Steve and I played so much of the co-op missions in SC Chaos Theory back on the old XBox (Ebony) that I barely got a chance to dabble in the excellent single player campaign. We had our hopes up for SC Double Agent on the 360 (Ivory), but the co-op was nowhere near the predecessor. Now we're back in business. Not only is the co-op phenomenal, but there's even the Deniable Ops mode which is like Terrorist Hunt on the Rainbow 6 series. Tasty!!

My only gripe now is that I don't have enough time to play as much as I'd like. And when I refer to "as much as I'd like", I mean all day / every day. Oh well. I'd better get crackin', though because I'm seeing previews for the new Ghost Recon, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games that look brain-melt-tastic. If there was only a way to convert my XBox gamer score into currency, I could pay bills AND keep playing.

Times is hard

I always feel a little bad when I trade in a bunch of my old games and get used games with the credit. I know the designers don't see any profits from that, so I try to buy new whenever I can. After all, they did the work and made a great product, so they should see a return. Then again, there are times when I just can't buy new because the purse strings are tight enough to choke the life out of me. Case in point: I wanted Splinter Cell Conviction and had NO money to purchase it. I traded in a bunch of stuff and could only get it for free by getting the used copy. I swallowed my own conviction and took the deal.



Sorry about that, Ubisoft. I know you're a huge company that won't fold without my sale, but I know what it's like to not get your percentage from every purchase. After all, used book stores have been around a lot longer than used video game stores. I don't see profit from those, but it spreads the word about the series, newer books may be bought when they come out and life goes on. I'm not anti-used games, either. It's everyone's choice, but I just feel like I should buy new when I can. When I can't, that's tough. Come to think of it, between all the other Tom Clancy games out there, Ubisoft's already gotten plenty of my cash and will get plenty more.


So I'll stop whining and enjoy the new Splinter Cell. YAY for co-op!!!!