Free-for-all - Non-comic thoughts

First off, go check out Len's blog, Commanding Thoughts. You'll do it because I told you.

Second, why does Nintendo keep pushing back the release of The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess? First it was to be released in November of 2005, then April of '06, and now it's June. Fantastic. Hopefully it's because they're trying to get all the bugs worked out, and not because they've decided to make it a Revolution launch title. If it's the latter, it'll probably be 2008 before I play it (I'm far too cheap to buy a new game console). Still, when you're console got poned as badly worldwide by the PS2 as the Gamecube did (it's even worse if you look just at the U.S.), I'd think you might not want to piss off your customers by pushing back the most eagerly anticipated game again, and again, and again.

That being said, I am enjoying The Legend of Zelda:The Windwaker. It's even made me stop my rotating game schedule (I was playing about 8 different games for about two hours at a time there for a couple months). I've gotten used to the visual style, even if I still don't love it. Cruising around in the boat is pretty fun, especially once it stops making you go to certain places, and lets you travel as you wish. SPOILER WARNING! I was a little disappointed that Tetra seemed to become so demure when she found out she was Zelda, but I guess that could be chalked up to shock from finding out the truth. She had been so brash up until then, taking crap from no one, kinda Huntress-like, only a good leader.

I played a quick game of Heroclix today, and won. Len gave me a rundown of the rules, and I went up against Jack. I did win, but I was playing with Len's clix, my opposition didn't have his full compliment, and I'm pretty sure he held back. There was a moment early where he was going to do something with Emerald Empress, and Len asked him not to do that to a guy on his first time. Still, pity victory, I'll take it.

SPOILER WARNING! Watching Evangelion last night, it occurred to me that the humans should have lost already. Their Evas are actually Angels, but they've got "armor" on, which actually serves to bind their power. So when they fight, their strength is restrained. How then, are they able to defeat any Angels, whose powers aren't restrained? I suppose in a series as messed up as Evangelion, I shouldn't worry about stuff like that. I further suppose I should just ask Papafred. He is after all, the one who taught me that Evangelion really has three endings, and so you should just pick the ending you like best and treat that one as the "true" ending. Who explained all kinds of things about Rei Ayanami's origin that I would have never gotten on my own, not to mention all the Judeo-Christian symbolism. I'm sure he'd give me some line about how the human soul bonded to the Eva, and that makes it more powerful. Of course, when you've watched the series so many times that you know what the characters are saying when you're watching it in Japanese with no subtitles, and you don't speak Japanese, you damn well ought to know the series inside and out.

A few years back, Papafred takes a film history class. For this, he had to watch a classic film and write a fifteen page paper on it. Papafred was a Computer Science major, so writing astute film analysis is not really his strength. Of course, neither is English in general, just ask Dr. Gathman. There's a reason why he dubbed me his "thesaurus". Anyway, he chose Forbidden Planet (it always amuses me that Leslie Nielsen was once a "serious" actor), and gave it his best shot to describe the undertones of repressed sexuality in the film. Which included our favorite dialogue, "Randy (the Robot), where have you been? I was giving myself a lube job."

Yeah, I'll bet.

Anyway, Papafred got through it, passed the class, and that was that, but we always joked that if he could have written the paper over Evangelion, he could have gotten fifteen pages easily. Hell, in fifteen pages, he probably wouldn't even have gotten past all the stuff about Rei.

Diskutieren Ueber die Videospielen

Hey, if kalinara and diamondrock can give us lessons in everyday Japanese, then I feel it's my duty to get a little German into your lives. So for the record, if you don't know how to put an umlaut (two dots, which can be used with "a", "o", or "u") over a letter, such as the "u" in "uber", you can follow it with an "e" and it's equivalent. Also, with German you can pretty much just jam together as many words as you need to to form a noun. So now you know. Moving on.

This post started because when I was reading New Excaliber #4, I couldn't remember where I'd seen the Warwolves before. I was sure it wasn't a comic, and then it occured to me: they were one of the standard henchman-type villains in X-Men:Mojo World on my Sega Game Gear. Couple this with my finding out Jake was dead on about Ultimate Spider-Man (in my case for the Gamecube), it prompted this question: What are the best games you've played based on comic book characters?

Let's face it, this can be a limited field. Liscensed games can often be hastily put together crap, banking on the mindless fanboys. Look at most anime games, like the Full Metal Alchemist games. So the bar isn't all that high. But surely there are a few?

So here's mine, I'm sticking to games I bought. If I only like it enough to rent it, it clearly wasn't that good.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game (NES). Man I loved this game. It was the first game I played with co-op abilities, and it was so awesome to team up with a buddy, even if my friends usually died fast and ripped off one of my lives to get back in the game. This one gets bonus points for me getting my father to play it with me. . . once.

Batman Returns (Sega Game Gear) - Admist a horde of awful comic games (Spider-Man and the X-Men:Arcade's Revenge) this one offered the ability to choose one of two routes for most levels. Sure the levels ultimately lead to the same place, but I always believed one was more about dexterity, dodging obstacles, and the other was more about beating up thugs. Never did understand the 20-foot tall robot boss at the end of level three, though.

Spider-Man (N64) - Tied in style-wise with the cartoon of that time. It was my first opportunity to webswing in a 3-D environment. Amazingly, there was actual variation in boss battles. Sometimes you had to just slug it out, sometimes it was about taking the openings you could get, while protecting someone. Other times, you had to run for your life, or sucker them into taking themselves out. Gameplay variety, what an astounding concept!

What's been an enjoyable gaming experience for you?

Randomness - Things I Think About #9

Infinite Crisis #4 left me with two major thoughts/questions.

Barry Allen said he would see Wally three times, when Wally needed him most. Did his appearance against Superboy count as the third time? Becuase I kind of figured Barry meant he would time travel and see Wally, which wasn't really what happened.

Second, I feel much better about the Ray's chances of surviving Infinite Crisis. Alexander Luthor seems at least interested in Power Girl, but he still put her in the machine. This, to me suggests that the machine doesn't kill the people being used to power it. Up till now I figured Ray was screwed under my "If I like them, they're doomed" theory.

Other stuff:

Thief: Deadly Shadows for the Xbox is a lot of fun. Basically, it's Splinter Cell in a medieval setting, which allows for magic and the undead. Plus religious factions you have to do things for, or they try to kill you on sight. Of course if you do enough, they'll have your back if you get attacked around them, which can be handy for escapes. I'm playing the game through a second time, and taking more time to explore, and so getting alot more loot. I'm hoping the upcoming level in the abandoned insane asylum/orphanage is still eerie the second time through. The lighting is great, listening to some of these people when they catch a glimpse of you can be amusing (I got a real laugh out of some drunk guard I spooked this evening. Then after he dropped his guard, I busted him over the head). Just a good time if you're a person into games built on being sneaky. Come on, indulge your inner Catwoman. Whip and leather not included.

Odd thoughts: I was looking up at the sky one night. I see stars. I know there are enough stars out there to cover the sky, but many are too dim or too far away for me to see them. So what I'm wondering is whether or not I'm actually seeing all those stars I see up there, or if my mind is filling in the blanks because it knows the stars are there, even if I can't see them. This feels significant to me somehow, like I'm on the verge of staring over the edge of the universe. Or not.

Sorry, I just didn't feel like talking much about comics today.