- This morning on the train, I was standing right next to three crackheads who got into an argument with some thuggish black guy, and it was positively awesome. Whenever crackheads get together, they’re usually loud and obnoxious, either arguing amongts themselves or loudly complaining about someone who owes them money (and the monetary value is usually something insanely low, like 50 cents… after-all, a whole dollar can get them a whole cup of chili at Wendy’s). Anyway, once they got on the train they started yammering away instantly, wand eventually the black guy snapped, and a shouting match ensued. At one point, one of the crackheads actually accused the black guy of doing crack, which got a very vocal: “ME?! You’re the ones doing crack fool, I just sell it!” in response. Yet another fine train ride to work.
- As I mentioned previously, I finally got the chance to test a game for the Wii, sorta. I say sorta because the game was an upcoming Spongebob Squarepants title that is intended for the Wii, and utilizes the controller, but was actually running of a GameCube, which I understand was the case for a number of titles shown at E3. Also, the Wii-mote was attached to the console, and the graphics were obviously Cube-quality, though its supposed to be bumped up (though to what degree has yet to be seen), but still…
So I tried out two game modes. First was racing, which meant holding the controller side ways and turning it to steer the kart, just like a steering wheel. I consider myself fairly decent when it comes to racing games, but I didn’t do so hot due to my tendency to over-steer. Next was a flight game, in which the Wii-mote was used like a flight stick. Both Chris Duffy and I gave it a spin, and we both pretty much did the same, which is not all that well. I guess the biggest problem, which again is rather obvious, is that we both were not used to such a control mechanism. I myself had a tendency to hold the controller with my arms very rigid-like. If I was naturally more relaxed, plus sitting down (most folks, myself included, after watching all the demo videos from before, initially believe that you have to stand while playing Wii games), I’d probably far better. But unfortunately, as playing with the DS for the past couple of months, I’m afraid that as easy to adapt to change in my control methodology as I might have once been able to. I chalk it up to age or just playing too many of the same kinds of games.
Before we gave it a spin, I noticed a large group of kids playing the game. When I asked the demo person if the kids had a harder time adapting to the new controller, or faster when compared to adults, the response was “No question, the kids picked it up in a heartbeat. We didn’t even have to say anything, they just picked up the controller and just learned how to play. Makes total sense of course; who hasn’t seen a kid play a video game yet also move his body around to the action?
We saw a few other THQ games, but truth be told, I was only really interested in the Wii game. Also saw the Cars game for Xbox 360, which is basically (surprise!) a racing game, albeit one that’s simplified for kids. Though thing I was genuinely surprised by was the lack of a rear view button. Since in a racing game, you’re simply looking at the back of your car 99.9% of the time, you’d think there would be a way to look at the front of the car, so see their eyes.
Also, while all the cars on the tracks were polygonal, all the cars in the audience were sprites, which got chunky as they approached the screen. I can imagine the folks at NeoGAF having a field day with that one (haven’t been there in a while. been too busy, so maybe its already happening).
- Yesterday I finally bought tickets to all the movies I’ll be seeing at the New York Asian Film Festival. The grand total? $170.
Yup, I know that’s pretty crazy. But totally worth it; this is one of the few things I do each year to really treat myself. Also, mind you, that’s the cost for tickets for both myself and MK, with the exception of one film, Funky Forest, since she’s hanging out with her dad the night that’s best for me, and I’m teaching on the one night that’s best for her. So intead, she’ll be seeing it with one of the nineteen other Matt’s that she knows.
But yeah, that’s nine films in total over the course of two weeks. And I still have those Korean horror flicks that Ric gave me to watch so he knows if it’ll be good enough to order for the film fest he’s organizing this fall…
- Speaking of Ric, along with the rest of the movie night crew, I had to skip out last night since Farel was still in town, so Steph and myself (along with Steph’s friend Meagan) met up with him at some bar in Willamsburg. It was simply nice to just sit down and chit chat with the guy, without a noisy comic convention getting in way. We talked about the usual stuff: finger-banging, peeing in each other’s asses, and SCTV.
Farel also showed me his piece for Unlucky; since he’s such a busy guy, Farel’s been one of the friends who’ve unfortunately had to pass on doing art for the book. But then he decided to do one while he was in town, so I passed along a short story at MoCCA and was able to whip up an absolutely beautiful one-pager in just about a day. I can’t wait to print that fucker up, which I’ll probably just save for the final collection.
Here’s Steph, myself, and Farel after just a few, but VERY strong drinks. Just shows that it pays to be friends with the bartender…
I was also able to explain Meagan my reasons why television is in such a sad, pathetic state and how I’ll be so so glad when cable providers will be forced to let consumers pick and choose what channels they want, so 95% of all the crap will just wash away. It’s only the fault of virtually every single other channel out there, for not having the guts to be different and stick to the specialize target audiences which many were originally conceived to do in the first place, but have instead have all become desperate for that 18 to 25 demographic by putting on the air nothing but reality shows. In my opinion, the only specialized channel that will exist after the shakedown, since its actually true to its M.O., will be the Food Network. Seriously, who the hell doesn’t like the Food Network? I also went into why sitcoms have been forever ruined by Friends, but for anyone that’s interested in hearing about that, just do a search… I’m positive that I’ve written about it elsewhere.
- I also mentioned to Steph during the ride home about my current internet obsession. I first heard about mysterious messages being posted in Craiglist from Insert Credit a few days ago; basically the messages addresses someone named “Mein Fraulein” and asks the person to call them. The number given plays a pre-recorded message that starts with some, and scratchy, generic music and then goes to a really creepy voice that reads of numbers for about five minutes. It somewhat harkens back to a time when spies would communicate with each other via encrypted numbers that were passed along in the classified ads of papers, and this might be the natural evolution for such covert communication. Or it could be some folks just fucking around. Some feel that it’s just some viral marketing scheme that’s too cryptic for its own good.
Thus far, there’s been three messages, and lots of people, mostly crazy hacker types and conspiracy theorists, are all having a field day trying to crack the code. You can find information, as well as mp3 for the first message here, the second message here, and the third right here. Oh, and I guess it helped to inspire this particular Dinosaur comic.
Trust me when I say that the messages are worth listening to, and I mean carefully. They’re super creepy… maybe not at first, but upon closer examination, especially really late at night.
- Oh, and as God as my witness, I WILL get that piece for GameSetWatch which I keep talking about, done by this weekend.
