Happy No More Political Ads Day!
Nobody wants to talk politricks this soon after the election so I'll defer that to another post. I will, however, note the insistence of my co-worker that we got the day off Tuesday not for Election Day but for Hunting Day, as apparently some season opens then. I suggested we combine the two into Politician Hunting Day, or better Lobbyist Hunting Day. Ah well, at least the bitterness and hatred will die down for most of us for another two years. Fun fact: the average age of the poll workers nationwide was 72. In Florida, it was "deceased". Yeah, I stole the joke from The Daily Show's coverage, but it's too good not to reuse.
It's good to see some of the new video game ads. I saw the first ad for the next generation console a few days ago. It was Sony's PS3 ad with the evil baby doll; you can find it at your favorite video sharing site, I'm sure. I really wonder what's going on with Sony's marketing department. I think they're trying to play on the Adult Swim style of strange humor but they're bad at it. The PSP ads were overall pretty stupid ("it's like cheese you can listen to outside"???) but this is actually worse. Sony is basically saying "we know you poor saps are going to buy whatever we put out, so we can put any stupid crap on TV and it won't matter". It's pretty stupid to whip up a buying frenzy for something which is preordered until next year or so, but I guess that logic is why I'd be a lousy marketer. Nintendo's marketing plan apparently involves stealth. The Wii ads are thus far nonexistent, but I can deal with that cause they're also preordered for probably the rest of the year. The ad for Microsoft Flight Simulator is pretty funny. It's especially funny in the beginning where they exclaim how great the detail is and completely ignore the fact that the framerate looks to be about 15 fps at that moment. Good job developers, indeed.
I went by Best Buy today to try to get some DS games. They usually have a sale worth (ab)using once or twice a year and this is a good one. You can buy two Touch Generations games and get the third free. The local store only had two of the three games I wanted, though, so it failed. I was very surprised to find import games there. I forget the exact names but one of them was a Shonen Jump crossover fighting game. I moved on to find that they had 2 GB SD cards for $40, which I thought was a good deal, but it turns out is pretty lousy when you look online. There is a reason I used to call them Worst Buy. They got me excited when I went back by the games to see a Wii display set up, but upon closer inspection I found out that it was a shell of a console and a stand-up display with a foamboard cutout of a remote. They were running a video showing off Wii Sports. I think the goal was to appeal to non-gamers with the display as serious gamers have already made up their minds about the system, and if they haven't it'll probably take actually playing it to sway them.
They also had Guitar Hero 2 on display. The demo seemed to only have one song and it was pretty popular so I never got a chance to try it. I have heard many times how good the first one was so when I watched this I was disappointed. I knew it used the Frequency-style display, where the notes comes towards you, but you barely get to see ahead of what you're playing. If it were a Bemani game I would say it had Sudden active. The really bad part was the jumpiness. The game shuddered and skipped a few times, most near the beginning of the song. It wasn't the shaking it does when you miss a note either. It looked like the skipping you get with some games when it's trying to load. The framerate dropped quite a bit when it got most of the way through the song. It may have been related to the background animation of the crowd, but you really don't want any jumpiness in a rhythm game. It can really throw you off. I hope it was just the demo.
I'll leave you with this thought: Chase has been trying to give me a home equity loan for several months now. I guess it's because my credit card with them goes to the parents' house but you'd think they'd notice on my credit report that I don't have a mortgage or any indication that I own the place. I regret to inform that I did not attempt to take out an equity loan on my apartment complex.
It's good to see some of the new video game ads. I saw the first ad for the next generation console a few days ago. It was Sony's PS3 ad with the evil baby doll; you can find it at your favorite video sharing site, I'm sure. I really wonder what's going on with Sony's marketing department. I think they're trying to play on the Adult Swim style of strange humor but they're bad at it. The PSP ads were overall pretty stupid ("it's like cheese you can listen to outside"???) but this is actually worse. Sony is basically saying "we know you poor saps are going to buy whatever we put out, so we can put any stupid crap on TV and it won't matter". It's pretty stupid to whip up a buying frenzy for something which is preordered until next year or so, but I guess that logic is why I'd be a lousy marketer. Nintendo's marketing plan apparently involves stealth. The Wii ads are thus far nonexistent, but I can deal with that cause they're also preordered for probably the rest of the year. The ad for Microsoft Flight Simulator is pretty funny. It's especially funny in the beginning where they exclaim how great the detail is and completely ignore the fact that the framerate looks to be about 15 fps at that moment. Good job developers, indeed.
I went by Best Buy today to try to get some DS games. They usually have a sale worth (ab)using once or twice a year and this is a good one. You can buy two Touch Generations games and get the third free. The local store only had two of the three games I wanted, though, so it failed. I was very surprised to find import games there. I forget the exact names but one of them was a Shonen Jump crossover fighting game. I moved on to find that they had 2 GB SD cards for $40, which I thought was a good deal, but it turns out is pretty lousy when you look online. There is a reason I used to call them Worst Buy. They got me excited when I went back by the games to see a Wii display set up, but upon closer inspection I found out that it was a shell of a console and a stand-up display with a foamboard cutout of a remote. They were running a video showing off Wii Sports. I think the goal was to appeal to non-gamers with the display as serious gamers have already made up their minds about the system, and if they haven't it'll probably take actually playing it to sway them.
They also had Guitar Hero 2 on display. The demo seemed to only have one song and it was pretty popular so I never got a chance to try it. I have heard many times how good the first one was so when I watched this I was disappointed. I knew it used the Frequency-style display, where the notes comes towards you, but you barely get to see ahead of what you're playing. If it were a Bemani game I would say it had Sudden active. The really bad part was the jumpiness. The game shuddered and skipped a few times, most near the beginning of the song. It wasn't the shaking it does when you miss a note either. It looked like the skipping you get with some games when it's trying to load. The framerate dropped quite a bit when it got most of the way through the song. It may have been related to the background animation of the crowd, but you really don't want any jumpiness in a rhythm game. It can really throw you off. I hope it was just the demo.
I'll leave you with this thought: Chase has been trying to give me a home equity loan for several months now. I guess it's because my credit card with them goes to the parents' house but you'd think they'd notice on my credit report that I don't have a mortgage or any indication that I own the place. I regret to inform that I did not attempt to take out an equity loan on my apartment complex.