(no subject)
Oh my god, livejournal is 10 years old? There's a banner ad here notifying me. Goes to check... OK, I started with LJ in 2001. I thought it may have been earlier, but that's still a long while ago.
I've been wanting to post something here for awhile now, but I've not really felt like taking the time or felt like I had much to contribute. Mostly I come here to read thegeminifactor's entries - he's the only one here who consistently posts.
I somehow got into reading comics back last spring, got into going to the local comic book store every week. I probably buy too many, but they're fun. One thing I've wanted to do is write reviews or summaries or something about the comics, but then I go read semi-professional comics blogs and feel like I "couldn't have said it better myself." Maybe I should just take the approach of singling out one or two books a week to just say something about. Maybe I could keep up with that, too, and have something to say here routinely.
Comics
It all started with a bunch of new Batman-related titles launching in the aftermath of (spoiler) Batman dying (don't worry, he's only comic book dead). Then this big DC event, Blackest Night, started, which has tons of dead DC universe characters rising as un-dead. In a way it's a big nod to the comics fanboys - "Aw yeah, I remember that guy!" - but even though I don't remember that guy, I still find it interesting.
The majority of what I get is DC stuff, with Marvel probably only just edging out the sum-total of all the independent stuff. Which is interesting, because Marvel is the dominant publisher, consistently pulling about a low-to-mid 40% market share, with DC averaging about 10 points behind. There seem to be far more Marvel fanboys. I'm just more interested in a lot of the DC stuff, and I think some of that market share is just that Marvel simply publishes more titles.
Marvel has actually started pissing a good number of people off by moving more and more titles to $3.99 from $2.99 an issue. With DC, the $3.99 titles are pretty much giving you more content, and most of them are double features, where you get a normal-ish length main story, and then an additional 10-page secondary story about someone else. One of my issues with Marvel is they seem perpetually stuck in event mode, meaning crossovers all over the place. They just can't stick to standalone titles. Maybe I just want to read about Wolverine every month, and don't want to have to buy two other titles just to follow the story, or have to be reading 1/3 of the Marvel catalog to generally know what's going on.
Currently I'm about two weeks behind on my comics. That's because of...
Video Games
Summer is generally the lull in video game releases. I have no idea why, seeing as that's when kids are home for the summer and need to be occupied. It makes sense that fall is the big season, for the holidays, but why is spring second? So, since it's been fall...
Borderlands was lots of fun. Nowhere near a deep RPG experience, but neither was Diablo II. It really is like a Diablo shooter. Guns are randomly generated (the claim is something like 3 million permutations), meaning you can find various combinations of magazine size, fire rate, accuracy, reload time, scope magnification, and, of course, damage. Oh, and there's the possibility of elemental damage. By the end, my primary weapon was a sniper rifle that shot pretty fast, had an extra large magazine, a 2.4x scope, and could light guys on fire. Basically, this is a game for shooting lots of dudes in the head without need for much motivation.
I got a good deal on Wolverine Origins the game. It got good reviews, for a movie tie-in, which basically said, "Hot damn, it's a decent movie tie-in." And it is. It's not terribly long (6-8 hours), but that probably keeps the somewhat repetitive gameplay from becoming boringly repetitive. The story feels like it could have once been an early draft of the screenplay (and I think it actually might have been), and in some ways it's more interesting, though as a video game, it's often not even as fleshed out as that movie was. It's actually a decently fleshed out game, for what it is, with minor skill progression and a detailed world. But the real selling point is the sweet, brutal violence. It's a Mature game based on a PG-13 movie? Yeah, this would have been R-rated. Wolverine stabs his claws through dudes' heads. He guts guys. Rips them in half. Decapitations, dismemberments, impalements and more. And Wolverine himself takes a beating, losing big chunks of his torso, which he then regenerates in real-time as you play. Also, it's cool that Wolverine is Hugh Jackman in the game.
Megan rented Dragon Age: Origins last week, to see if she'd like it. Something got her curious about the game just recently, but we wanted to make sure she'd like the mechanics of it, and let it still be something I could get her for Christmas. She enjoyed it a bunch, and I played some and had fun, but it did make me a little nostalgic for the one other BioWare RPG I've played - Knights of the Old Republic. I enjoyed KOTOR's more turn-based combat better, but I also just have fond memories of going all Dark Jedi on my party members. Sigh.
I have the new Ratchet and Clank game, but it's on hold while I play Assassin's Creed 2. I enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed way more than reviewers would make you think I was allowed. But even so, the sequel is an improvement in so many ways. It's a lot more structured, giving you a lot more - and more varied - things to do. But it still gives you an open world, so you can just say screw the main story for an hour and run around assassinating rooftop guards and hunting for treasure chests. It's great fun and well polished. They've also added a little bit more serious, structured platforming in some isolated areas that's satisfying and reminds me a lot of Prince of Persia, another Ubisoft game, like the original AC, that I appreciated a lot more than reviewers. If they could make a sequel to the PoP reboot and give it the AC2 treatment - more depth and varied gameplay - they could have a gem there as well.
Oh gosh, I think that'll be it for now.
AKA Faffing About Creed 2
I've been wanting to post something here for awhile now, but I've not really felt like taking the time or felt like I had much to contribute. Mostly I come here to read thegeminifactor's entries - he's the only one here who consistently posts.
I somehow got into reading comics back last spring, got into going to the local comic book store every week. I probably buy too many, but they're fun. One thing I've wanted to do is write reviews or summaries or something about the comics, but then I go read semi-professional comics blogs and feel like I "couldn't have said it better myself." Maybe I should just take the approach of singling out one or two books a week to just say something about. Maybe I could keep up with that, too, and have something to say here routinely.
Comics
It all started with a bunch of new Batman-related titles launching in the aftermath of (spoiler) Batman dying (don't worry, he's only comic book dead). Then this big DC event, Blackest Night, started, which has tons of dead DC universe characters rising as un-dead. In a way it's a big nod to the comics fanboys - "Aw yeah, I remember that guy!" - but even though I don't remember that guy, I still find it interesting.
The majority of what I get is DC stuff, with Marvel probably only just edging out the sum-total of all the independent stuff. Which is interesting, because Marvel is the dominant publisher, consistently pulling about a low-to-mid 40% market share, with DC averaging about 10 points behind. There seem to be far more Marvel fanboys. I'm just more interested in a lot of the DC stuff, and I think some of that market share is just that Marvel simply publishes more titles.
Marvel has actually started pissing a good number of people off by moving more and more titles to $3.99 from $2.99 an issue. With DC, the $3.99 titles are pretty much giving you more content, and most of them are double features, where you get a normal-ish length main story, and then an additional 10-page secondary story about someone else. One of my issues with Marvel is they seem perpetually stuck in event mode, meaning crossovers all over the place. They just can't stick to standalone titles. Maybe I just want to read about Wolverine every month, and don't want to have to buy two other titles just to follow the story, or have to be reading 1/3 of the Marvel catalog to generally know what's going on.
Currently I'm about two weeks behind on my comics. That's because of...
Video Games
Summer is generally the lull in video game releases. I have no idea why, seeing as that's when kids are home for the summer and need to be occupied. It makes sense that fall is the big season, for the holidays, but why is spring second? So, since it's been fall...
Borderlands was lots of fun. Nowhere near a deep RPG experience, but neither was Diablo II. It really is like a Diablo shooter. Guns are randomly generated (the claim is something like 3 million permutations), meaning you can find various combinations of magazine size, fire rate, accuracy, reload time, scope magnification, and, of course, damage. Oh, and there's the possibility of elemental damage. By the end, my primary weapon was a sniper rifle that shot pretty fast, had an extra large magazine, a 2.4x scope, and could light guys on fire. Basically, this is a game for shooting lots of dudes in the head without need for much motivation.
I got a good deal on Wolverine Origins the game. It got good reviews, for a movie tie-in, which basically said, "Hot damn, it's a decent movie tie-in." And it is. It's not terribly long (6-8 hours), but that probably keeps the somewhat repetitive gameplay from becoming boringly repetitive. The story feels like it could have once been an early draft of the screenplay (and I think it actually might have been), and in some ways it's more interesting, though as a video game, it's often not even as fleshed out as that movie was. It's actually a decently fleshed out game, for what it is, with minor skill progression and a detailed world. But the real selling point is the sweet, brutal violence. It's a Mature game based on a PG-13 movie? Yeah, this would have been R-rated. Wolverine stabs his claws through dudes' heads. He guts guys. Rips them in half. Decapitations, dismemberments, impalements and more. And Wolverine himself takes a beating, losing big chunks of his torso, which he then regenerates in real-time as you play. Also, it's cool that Wolverine is Hugh Jackman in the game.
Megan rented Dragon Age: Origins last week, to see if she'd like it. Something got her curious about the game just recently, but we wanted to make sure she'd like the mechanics of it, and let it still be something I could get her for Christmas. She enjoyed it a bunch, and I played some and had fun, but it did make me a little nostalgic for the one other BioWare RPG I've played - Knights of the Old Republic. I enjoyed KOTOR's more turn-based combat better, but I also just have fond memories of going all Dark Jedi on my party members. Sigh.
I have the new Ratchet and Clank game, but it's on hold while I play Assassin's Creed 2. I enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed way more than reviewers would make you think I was allowed. But even so, the sequel is an improvement in so many ways. It's a lot more structured, giving you a lot more - and more varied - things to do. But it still gives you an open world, so you can just say screw the main story for an hour and run around assassinating rooftop guards and hunting for treasure chests. It's great fun and well polished. They've also added a little bit more serious, structured platforming in some isolated areas that's satisfying and reminds me a lot of Prince of Persia, another Ubisoft game, like the original AC, that I appreciated a lot more than reviewers. If they could make a sequel to the PoP reboot and give it the AC2 treatment - more depth and varied gameplay - they could have a gem there as well.
Oh gosh, I think that'll be it for now.
AKA Faffing About Creed 2