• 00:05 Goofing around, and got another star on Metallica's "One" on Guitar Hero III. #

Posted by LoudTwitter

You'd think that after beating Lou on one level, it'd be easier to go back and get five stars on Raining Blood on the previous level. Phooey.

I'm getting old. I look at "Through the Fire and Flames" even on Medium, and think to myself that I don't even want to bother.

Amazon noticed that I purchased a drum simulating game ages ago.  Today, they helpfully suggested a bass simulating game for me.


Um, guys?  Wrong kind of bass.  Right kind of bass.

I got hustled this weekend.  Severely.  And then we met the very salt of the Earth.

Saturday unexpectedly freed up.  So we went to San Francisco in the hopes of taking the kids on a ferry.  On our way to the pier, we dropped in on a shell game in progress.


I don't really know if my kids can appreciate the different types of people we met this weekend, but I sure hope that they will.

I'm off to Germany for the week, and don't actually expect to be able to stay online.  I'm going dark, friends.  If I were staying in a cheap hotel, the internet access would have been free.  Sheesh.

The only German I know is Einhänder and choice phrases from Castle Wolfenstein.  Wonder if they'll come in handy?

This is my daughter playing Taiko Drum Master. My son yells, "takoyaki" when they jump across the screen in the game. (So I added some to the video, too.)

I just love watching people's faces when they're completely immersed in their activity. That's what this clip is about.

Thanks to zannah, I've rediscovered a couple of long-forgotten game trailers from the '90s. It's a toss up between this one and the one for WipeOut XL as my favorite.

Is it too late for another new year's resolution?

Herb Sutter points out that Arthur C Clark got it right, the temptation to consume media is now overwhelming.

I loves me my comics, TV, books, movies MP3s, radio and video games.  I'm not giving them up.  Entirely.  But I am cutting back.  Enough that I can continue to make the things I enjoy making.

Personal note:  A big culprit for me is NetFlix.  I feel a compulsion to "work through" the queue I made, and to maximize the value of my subscription.  I won't sacrifice creative time to NetFlix so much anymore.

If you set your expectations accordingly, you can have a good time with the movie.  Acknowledge that the source material is a video game, and the transition from game to movie requires a director capable of a shift from non-linear progression to linear narrative, while keeping the elements you loved in there.  Accomodate the nature of the genre.  This movie was a horror movie, and so suspension of disbelief has to be racheted a little higher for horror movies.  You just gotta go with it.  Have a mindset to have fun.

With all this in mind, I rented the movie, and was surprised to find that I had a good time watching it.  I wouldn't be surprised if people who haven't even played the game would enjoy the movie, and that's relatively high praise.

So, go ahead.  If you think you might like it, go ahead and see Silent Hill.  It's not high art, but I wasn't expecting it to be.  I was in a mindset to find the zombie nurses disturbingly hot.  I think that's a good place to be to enjoy the movie.

Oh, you didn't think I was talking about BloodRayne, did you?  Yeah, I saw that.  I'm not proud.  It wasn't good.  But I have seen worse.  I can see where Uwe Boll wanted to go with the movie, and I think he couldn't quite pull it off.  The delivery (and fight choreography) was flat, but the special effects were good.  There.  I said something positive.

At the back of the Wave, there's a little editorial where Sean Baby makes the following observation:

Here's the reason I think E3 died: no more booth babes. This year, E3 instituted a policy on how naked spokesmodels weren't allowed to be.

This rule was harmful not only to everyone, but to the poor hot girls whose natural state is shirtlessness. And now E3 is cancelled? It seems like a strange coincidence that zero years after they make women put clothes on, the whole convention falls apart.

Whenever I see screens of Tales of Legendia, it always strikes me as odd to see Fuu with Major Kusanagi.

Gah! I've solved these two puzzles before, but I happen to be revisiting them. Sokoban level 8, and the Twin Tangle are killing me.

I'm on the verge of cheating.