Its been a really weird week at work, and I mean REALLY weird. Unfortunately I can’t go into specifics since certain events are under “investigation” shall we say (plus some of it is so fucking creepy, trust me, you don’t want to know), so I’ll just mention that yesterday morning there was this mysterious vomit smell in my office, which led to the ridiculous “Who the hell puked around here last night?!” line of questioning. I swear to God its like working in a sitcom these days…
Though one definite good highlight was helping out John Ruggeri, one of my illustration instructors from back in the day (and who’s still one of the best reasons to go to SVA, which any former cartooning/illustration who knows their shit can attest to), with a problem with his iBook. I’m known as an Mac expert in my various circles, and the go to guy when a disaster happens, but in this instance I was more than happy help him get his internet back in order.
That evening was also another movie night at Jeff Rovin’s. We started off with a clip reel from Highlander (the best fight scenes and the blooper reel from season 5), the “Who’s on first” routine from Abbott & Costello, an episode of the Office (the original British version of course; its so good that it hurts to watch, at least if you’ve had a boss that’s just like that), a dance scene from an old Fred Astaire movie, a live performance by Beach Boys from Ed Sullivan, plus one from the Doors. The feature presentation was an old Burt Lancaster film called Separate Tables. It basically a tale of lonely people at a hotel: an alcoholic writer who’s trying to forget his past, his ex-wife who returns from out of no where, the hotel manager who’s caught in-between, a scared to death young woman thats controlled by her mother, and an old British military vet who turns out to be a perv. It was good stuff. We also saw a clip from the new Ricky Gervais Extras with Patrick Stewart. Most people don’t realize this (or at least the ones who didn’t see him brilliant appearance on SNL many years back) but the guy is FUCKING HYSTERICAL. Sexy cakes indeed!
Speaking of TV shows, I know this is super old news (like by a week), but I’m still pissed that Arrested Development got cancelled. But instead of explaining why, simply check out this clip of David Cross laying out the whole truth.
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As for the world of games, here’s a report that states diehard gamers show the same exact signs of drug addicts.
- And Masahiro Sakurai, the man behind Kirby and Super Smash Bros who left Nintendo two years ago to go independent (with his latest game being Meteos for the DS) is now coming back to work on the Revolution version of Smash Bros. This is good news, which I will highlight with some bizarre pic of Kirby sucking in Ness that I found on Gaming Age…
- Also, via Insert Credit, is a site that showcases a crazy amount of characters created via Soul Calibur 3. Most of them are “familiar” faces from other games and Anime, so most aren’t going to recognize any of them. Though maybe these two…
- A while ago I showed an AT-AT that could play GameCube games. Well here’s a Jawa sand-crawler that can play GameCube, N64, and Atari 2600 games.
- But the big news this week has to be the release of Mario Kart DS and the launch Nintendo gaming online. Thus far the feedback has been pretty mixed: the game it self is fine, but many are disappointed that there aren’t as many online tracks. Though the real bad news is over, which relies on buddy numbers instead of easy to remember and manage names. I (and many others) just hope all the problems are taken care of in time for Animal Crossing DS. Plus there’s no online voice chat, cuz you know online gamers are so fucking obsessed with trash-talking…
The game itself is apparently a solid block-buster, which Nintendo is quite proud of, and they’re also more than happy to brag about their w-fi partner McDonald’s, leading to a never ending supply of pic of a guy wearing a huge plastic Mario head and the already creepy Ronald McDonals oogling game players…
- So this is it… just a few days till the official release of the Xbox 360. MS finally released a list of all Xbox 1 games that are compatible, and as expected, almost none of my games are on the list. I love how Jet Set Radio Future, a first gen game that was also a pack-in (as well virtually all other Sega games I have… Panzer Dragoon Orta, Shenume 2, Crazy Taxi 3, OutRun 2) is not compatible, but fucking Drake?!?! Catwoman is bad enough, but its from EA so I guess that makes it understandable, but Drake, easily the worst game in the past two years (and that’s not just my opinion)?
The major news outlets are also talking, though its not necessarily what MS might want to hear. CNN thinks its good but not great, while the New York Post has stated flat out “Don’t get it.” I wouldn’t even mention the mainstream press if not for the fact that MS spent so much time and energy to impress them. Most seem to state the same thing: the games look great, but not that great, unless you have a HD television… so are you ready to spring for another $10,000 for a new TV?
Then there’s the micro-transaction bullshit. Here’s a list of all the stuff that will be available via the Xbox Live Marketplace. So you think paying $60 for a single game is bad enough, wait till you have to pay a few dollars more for shit that should have already been included in the game. At one point extra cars for Ridge Racer 6 were listed (with price listed as TBD), but its been quietly removed, no doubt due to the public outcry.
But if there is one thing worth getting and its from the Xbox Live Arcade: Geometry Wars. Hell, its a main reason for me to get the system period. You can read more about it, and check out videos, here. It looks simply beautiful…
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As for this weekend, Harry Potter 4 opens in theaters and MK & I will be checking it out. Truth be told, I totally hate seeing movies opening weekends, but given that all my friends and coworkers are gonna see it, I just want to spare myself of spoilers (even though I’ve read the book, so all the talk is going to be about the differences, which is sorta worse if you think about it). And on Saturday night is the night where Joe will be painting the body of some nude roller derby chick at Live Fast. I will be on-hand as the event’s photographer…
Joe’s also the guy who passed along this pic from the new line of Star Wars Transformers…
I can’t decided if this is better or worse than those Marvel Super Heroes Transformers.
Finally, I want that fucking $100 laptop. The crankshaft (the yellow thing) is too damn cool.
